Paris’s Moulin Rouge gets new sails in time for Olympics
Paris’s Moulin Rouge gets new sails in time for Olympics/node/2536556/offbeat
Paris’s Moulin Rouge gets new sails in time for Olympics
Workers prepare to install the new windmill sails on the top of the Moulin Rouge cabaret following the collapse of the former ones in Paris on June 24, 2024. (AFP)
Paris’s Moulin Rouge gets new sails in time for Olympics
One of the most visited tourist attractions in the French capital, Moulin Rouge plans to install the four new temporary sails for a special ceremony on July 5
Updated 24 June 2024
AFP
PARIS: Paris’s Moulin Rouge cabaret club, whose landmark windmill sails fell down in April, received new blades on Monday just 10 days before the Paris Olympic torch is due to pass the venue.
One of the most visited tourist attractions in the French capital, Moulin Rouge plans to install the four new temporary sails for a special ceremony on July 5.
The red aluminum and steel blades arrived by lorry early on Monday at the club, located in the touristy Pigalle district.
The first blade or sail was attached with the aid a crane under the gaze of curious and pleased locals.
Over the next four days, the three other sails will be winched up onto the terrace before being bolted into place and the electric cables linked up.
Moulin Rouge officials said it would take a further four days to remove the tarpaulin and scaffolding that has enveloped the windmill since the night of April 25.
The first three letters on the cabaret’s facade — M, O and U — also fell off. No-one was injured in the incident.
“Our little Moulin Rouge is back! We’re so happy,” exclaimed Raymonde Rogojarski, looking at the windmill on the way to take her eight-year-old daughter to school on Monday morning.
“It’s very moving to see the sails back so soon,” added Rogojarski.
She said she lived “just round the corner” from the club, which has put on risque nightime entertainment since it opened in 1889 and been immortalized by French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Mathieu Feltz, another local, got off his bike to take a picture of the first blade being bolted into place.
“I was stunned when the sails fell off,” he said.
“This morning, I came past here on the way to work. It’s interesting to see how they put the blade back up.”
The sails are only provisional and will not rotate but they enable the landmark to look the part in time for the Paris Olympics.
“The Olympic torch is due to pass the Moulin Rouge on July 15, so it’s very important for us to be ready by then,” said Virginie Clerico, the Moulin Rouge brand manager.
In late April, the management confirmed the incident was not a “malicious act.”
The birthplace of the can-can and the location for Baz Luhrmann’s film “Moulin Rouge,” the club has remained open to the public since April 25.
For the ceremony on July 5 to celebrate the arrival of the new sails, the venue has promised an outdoor “sound and light show, with a score of performers dancing the French can-can” on the street.
Women gradually rise in Japanese politics but face deep challenges
Women make up about 30 percent of the Tokyo assembly, and their presence in town assemblies in urban areas is also growing
Updated 09 July 2024
AP
TOKYO: Eight years ago, Yuriko Koike became the first woman to lead Tokyo, beating her male predecessor. She won her third term as governor Sunday, and one of her closest rivals was a woman.
Multiple women competing for a top political office is still rare in Japan, which has a terrible global gender-equality ranking, but Koike’s win highlights a gradual rise in powerful female officials and a society more open to gender balance in politics. That said, even if a woman eventually becomes prime minister, politics here is still overwhelmingly dominated by men, and experts see a huge effort needed for equal representation.
“There are growing expectations for women to play a greater role in politics,” said parliamentarian Chinami Nishimura, a senior official with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. “In politics or parliament, which are still largely considered men’s work, it is extremely meaningful for women to show their presence and have our voices heard.”
Incumbent Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike celebrates after she was elected for Tokyo's gubernatorial election in Tokyo, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP)
Nishimura, who also heads the opposition party’s gender-equality promotion team, hopes to have women make up 30 percent of her party’s candidates in the next national election. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party last year vowed to achieve 30 percent female representation within 10 years, and is working to recruit more female candidates.
Finding aspiring female candidates, however, isn’t easy. Women in Japan are still often expected to be in charge of childrearing, elderly care and other family responsibilities.
National parliamentarians are also expected to regularly travel between Tokyo and their home constituencies, which makes it especially difficult for female lawmakers trying to balance a career and family. Nishimura says former female colleagues have quit national politics and returned to local assemblies because of such demands.
Nishimura began her political career in her hometown Niigata’s prefectural assembly in 1999, the first woman to serve there in decades. The 53-member assembly now has five women.
A growing number of women are now seeking political careers, but they are still in the minority, especially in national politics where electoral decisions are largely determined by closed-door, male-dominated party politics, and outspoken women tend to be targets.
One of Koike’s top rivals was a woman, Renho, a veteran former parliamentarian who goes by one name and who finished third. Renho told reporters last month that she often saw headlines about the Tokyo governor’s race that trumpeted “A battle of dragon women.” “Would you use that kind of expression to describe a competition between male candidates?” she asked.
Koike, a stylish, media-savvy former television newscaster, was first elected to parliament in 1992 at age 40. She served in a number of key Cabinet posts, including as environment minister and defense chief, for the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, before becoming Tokyo governor in 2016.
Renho, known for asking sharp questions in parliament, was born to a Japanese mother and Taiwanese father. A former model and newscaster, she was elected to parliament in 2004 and served as administrative reform minister in the government led by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan.
Attacks on Renho’s aggressive image were a clear example of gender bias in a society that expects female candidates to be “motherly or cute,” said Chiyako Sato, a Mainichi Shimbun editorial writer and a commentator on politics.
Because of a small female presence in politics, powerful women tend to get excessive attention. Their presence in Tokyo governor’s election “conveyed a positive message that women can become political leaders, but a large amount of the noise about them also reflected Japan’s sad reality,” said Mari Miura, a Sophia University professor and expert on gender and politics.
For instance, a survey of national and local lawmakers in 2022 conducted by a civil group showed one-third of about 100 female respondents faced sexual harassment during election campaigns or at work.
Earlier this year, a gaffe-prone former prime minister, Taro Aso, was forced to apologize for describing Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, a woman, as capable but not beautiful.
Women make up about 30 percent of the Tokyo assembly, and their presence in town assemblies in urban areas is also growing. On average, female representation in more than 1,740 Japanese local assemblies doubled to 14.5 percent in 2021 from 20 years ago. There are growing calls for more female voices in politics.
But in rural areas, where more traditional gender roles are more usual, 226, or 13 percent of the total, had “zero women” assemblies last year, according to the Gender Equality Bureau of the Cabinet Office.
In parliament, where conservative Liberal Democrats have been in power almost uninterruptedly since the end of World War II, female representation in the lower house is 10.3 percent, putting Japan 163rd among 190 countries, according to a report by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union in April.
In 1946, the figure wasn’t much different — only 8.4 percent — when a first group of 39 women were elected to parliament, according to the Gender Equality Bureau.
“There have been changes starting from regional politics, but the pace is too slow,” Sato said, proposing a mandatory quota for women.
One woman in a Cabinet of about 20 ministers was standard in the 1990s. Lately, two is usual. Maintaining an increased number of female ministers is a challenge because of a shortage of women with seniority. Women are also given limited leadership chances, which delays gender equality laws and policies.
“Because of the absence of leadership change, the metabolism is bad in Japan. Because of that, politics does not change despite changes in the public view,” Miura said.
Koike became the first female candidate to run in the LDP leadership race in 2008. Two others, Sanae Takaichi and Seiko Noda, ran in 2021 against Kishida.
Most recently, Kamikawa, the foreign minister, is seen as having a chance, because the LDP wants change as it struggles with dwindling support ratings and corruption scandals.
The winner, determined by a vote among LDP lawmakers and party members, automatically becomes prime minister because of the LDP’s dominance in parliament.
Under the Japanese system, however, having a female prime minister doesn’t necessarily mean progress in gender equality because of overwhelming male political influence. But it could be a crucial step forward, even if symbolic, said Sato, the political commentator.
“Having role models is very important ... to show gender equality and that women can also aim for a top job,” Sato said. “Women in politics are no longer expected to be wallflowers.”
‘Ready to come out?’ Scientists reemerge after year ‘on Mars’
A year-long mission simulating life on Mars took place in 2015-2016 in a habitat in Hawaii, and although NASA participated in it, it was not at the helm
Updated 08 July 2024
AFP
WASHINGTON: The NASA astronaut knocks loudly three times on a what appears to be a nondescript door, and calls cheerfully: “You ready to come out?“
The reply is inaudible, but beneath his mask he appears to be grinning as he yanks the door open — and four scientists who have spent a year away from all other human contact, simulating a mission to Mars, spill out to cheers and applause.
Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell, Nathan Jones and team leader Kelly Haston have spent the past 378 days sealed inside the “Martian” habitat in Houston, Texas, part of NASA’s research into what it will take to put humans on the Red Planet.
They have been growing vegetables, conducting “Marswalks,” and operating under what NASA terms “additional stressors” — such as communication delays with “Earth,” including their families; isolation and confinement.
It’s the kind of experience that would make anyone who lived through pandemic lockdowns shudder — but all four were beaming as they reemerged Saturday, their hair slightly more unruly and their emotion apparent.
“Hello. It’s actually so wonderful just to be able to say hello to you,” Haston, a biologist, said with a laugh.
“I really hope I don’t cry standing up here in front of all of you,” Jones, an emergency room doctor, said as he took to the microphone — and nearly doing just that several moments later as he spotted his wife in the crowd.
The habitat, dubbed Mars Dune Alpha, is a 3D printed 1,700 square-foot (160 square-meter) facility, complete with bedrooms, a gym, common areas, and a vertical farm to grow food.
An outdoor area, separated by an airlock, is filled with red sand and is where the team donned suits to conduct their “Marswalks,” though it is still covered rather than being open air.
“They have spent more than a year in this habitat conducting crucial science, most of it nutrition-based and how that impacts their performace ... as we prepare to send people on to the Red Planet,” Steve Koerner, deputy director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, told the crowd.
“I’m very appreciative.”
This mission is the first of a series of three planned by NASA, grouped under the title CHAPEA — Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog.
A year-long mission simulating life on Mars took place in 2015-2016 in a habitat in Hawaii, and although NASA participated in it, it was not at the helm.
Under its Artemis program, America plans to send humans back to the Moon in order to learn how to live there long-term to help prepare a trip to Mars, sometime toward the end of the 2030s.
Cyclist fined after kissing his wife at Tour de France
Celebrations went too far for the International Cycling Union race commissaries, responsible for imposing general rules during races
Julien Bernard stopped to hug and kiss his wife Margot, who had their child Charles in her arms at the time
Updated 06 July 2024
AFP
COLOMBEY-LES-DEUX-EGLISES, France: The friends and family of Julien Bernard gathered on a hillside to greet him as the Tour de France passed by his home during Friday’s stage in Burgundy giving him a welcome that authorities found a little too warm.
Celebrations went too far for the International Cycling Union race commissaries, responsible for imposing general rules during races.
While normally these rules concern answering the call of nature in public or deviating dangerously from one’s line, Friday’s offense was of a more festive nature.
With a huge crowd outside Nuits Saint Georges chanting the local boy’s name, he stopped to hug and kiss his wife Margot, who had their child Charles in her arms at the time.
“I’d been waiting for this moment since the route was announced last October,” he told local newspaper ‘Le Bien Public’.
“This kind of moment comes once in a lifetime and never mind if they fined me (200 Swiss francs).
The fine was explained as for behavior damaging to the image of the sport.
“My wife organized for everyone to come and see me at that point of the race and I wanted to show my gratitude and thank her for that,” explained the 32-year-old.
The authorities were more bothered by the behavior of his friends who whipped up the deep crowds threatening the security barrier and pushing forward with the locals cheering “Lalalala Julien Bernard.”
For the record, he came 61st on the day 3min 11sec down on winner Renco Evenepoel.
Still inhabited termite mounds in South Africa found to be more than 30,000 years old
Study says the mounds existed while arge swathes of Europe and Asia were covered in ice
Calls for more research on termite mounds given the lessons they offer on climate change,
Updated 05 July 2024
AP
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: Scientists in South Africa have been stunned to discover that termite mounds that are still inhabited in an arid region of the country are more than 30,000 years old, meaning they are the oldest known active termite hills.
Some of the mounds near the Buffels River in Namaqualand were estimated by radiocarbon dating to be 34,000 years old, according to the researchers from Stellenbosch University.
“We knew they were old, but not that old,” said Michele Francis, senior lecturer in the university’s department of soil science who led the study. Her paper was published in May.
Francis said the mounds existed while saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths roamed other parts of the Earth and large swathes of Europe and Asia were covered in ice. They predate some of the earliest cave paintings in Europe.
Some fossilized termite mounds have been discovered dating back millions of years. The oldest inhabited mounds before this study were found in Brazil and are around 4,000 years old. They are visible from space.
Francis said the Namaqualand mounds are a termite version of an “apartment complex” and the evidence shows they have been consistently inhabited by termite colonies.
Termite mounds are a famous feature of the Namaqualand landscape, but no one suspected their age until samples of them were taken to experts in Hungary for radiocarbon dating.
“People don’t know that these are special, ancient landscapes that are preserved there,” Francis said.
Some of the biggest mounds — known locally as “heuweltjies,” which means little hills in the Afrikaans language — measure around 100 feet (30 meters) across. The termite nests are as deep as 10 feet underground.
Researchers needed to carefully excavate parts of the mounds to take samples, and the termites went into “emergency mode” and started filling in the holes, Francis said.
The team fully reconstructed the mounds to keep the termites safe from predators like aardvarks.
Francis said the project was more than just a fascinating look at ancient structures. It also offered a peek into a prehistoric climate that showed Namaqualand was a much wetter place when the mounds were formed.
The southern harvester termites are experts at capturing and storing carbon by collecting twigs and other dead wood and putting it back deep into the soil. That has benefits in offsetting climate change by reducing the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.
It’s also good for the soil. Masses of wildflowers bloom on top of the termite mounds in a region that receives little rain.
Francis called for more research on termite mounds given the lessons they offer on climate change, sustaining ecosystems and maybe even for improving agricultural practices.
“We will do well to study what the termites have done in the mounds. They were thought to be very boring,” she said.
Yes, some animals can have babies without a mate. Here’s how
Females of species have the ability to reproduce asexually, without sperm from a male, in a process called parthenogenesis
It can occur is when a female’s egg fuses with another cell, often a cell leftover from a process that allows the female to create the egg
Updated 05 July 2024
AP
A boa constrictor in the UK gave birth to 14 babies — without a mate.
Is it a miracle? The result of a secret rendezvous? Probably not. Females of species have the ability to reproduce asexually, without sperm from a male. The process is called parthenogenesis, from the Greek words for “virgin” and “birth.”
Some plants and insects can do it, as well as some amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish. A stingray named Charlotte that was thought to have become pregnant by this method died this week at an aquarium in North Carolina, though she never delivered and it is unclear if she was ever pregnant.
Some wasps, crustaceans and lizards reproduce only through parthenogenesis. But in other species it’s rare and usually observed in captivity.
It tends to occur in situations where females are separated from males, said Demian Chapman, who directs the Sharks & Rays Conservation Research Program at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida.
The boa in the UK, a 6-foot, 13-year-old Brazilian Rainbow Boa named Ronaldo, gave birth last week after having no contact with any other snakes for at least nine years, according to the City of Portsmouth College, which kept the snake.
One way parthenogenesis can occur is when a female’s egg fuses with another cell, often a cell leftover from a process that allows the female to create the egg. That cell, known as a polar body, gives the egg the genetic information it would normally get from sperm. The cell starts dividing and that leads to the creation of an embryo.
It’s unclear how prevalent parthenogenesis is in the wild, Chapman said. But it has happened outside captivity among smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species in Florida’s coastal waters.
“We think the females reproduce like that on some occasions because they haven’t found a male because there are so few of them,” Chapman said.
Offspring from parthenogenesis have less genetic variation, Chapman said, which can lead to developmental problems.
“A litter produced by sexual reproduction is usually much larger than one produced via parthenogenesis if it’s an animal that gives birth to litters,” Chapman said. “And you will often see individuals in that litter produced by parthenogenesis that don’t develop correctly in some way.”
