The Aurora Borealis on Jupiter
Two descriptions of the relationship between Jupiter and the Aurora:
“Jupiter has Northern Lights just as Earth does, although on Jupiter they are hundreds to thousands of times more powerful,” says West. Auroras happen when electrons and ions rain down on the polar atmosphere and cause the air to glow where they hit. Here on Earth, auroras are usually sparked by solar wind gusts. The solar wind can also trigger auroras on Jupiter, but it’s not necessary: On Jupiter, the planet itself energizes Northern Lights. “Jupiter’s magnetic field is a huge reservoir of charged particles,” explains West. “These particles are accelerated poleward by the 11-hour rotation of Jupiter and its magnetic field. Thus, auroras on Jupiter are almost always active.”
“Memnon was the son of Aurora and Tithonus. He was king of the AEthiopians, and dwelt in the extreme east, on the shore of Ocean. He came with his warriors to assist the kindred of his father in the war of Troy. King Priam received him with great honours, and listened with admiration to his narrative of the wonders of the ocean shore.The very day after his arrival, Memnon, impatient of repose, led his troops to the field. Antilochus, the brave son of Nestor, fell by his hand, and the Greeks were put to flight, when Achilles appeared and restored the battle. A long and doubtful contest ensued between him and the son of Aurora; at length victory declared for Achilles, Memnon fell, and the Trojans fled in dismay.
Aurora, who from her station in the sky had viewed with apprehension the danger of her son, when she saw him fall, directed his brothers, the Winds, to convey his body to the banks of the river Esepus in Paphlagonia. In the evening Aurora came, accompanied by the Hours and the Pleiads, and wept and lamented over her son. Night, in sympathy with her grief, spread the heaven with clouds; all nature mourned for the offspring of the Dawn. The AEthiopians raised his tomb on the banks of the stream in the grove of the Nymphs, and Jupiter caused the sparks and cinders of his funeral pile to be turned into birds, which, dividing into two flocks, fought over the pile till they fell into the flames. Every year at the anniversary of his death they return and celebrate his obsequies in like manner. Aurora remains inconsolable for the loss of her son. Her tears still flow, and may be seen at early morning in the form of dew-drops on the grass.”
“Columbus Chronicles is one print from Carl Beam’s ongoing Columbus Project. This is an enormous undertaking, incorporating prints, paintings, sculptures, performances, installations, and even a scaled-down replica of Columbus’s sailing ship, the Santa Maria. Since 1989, much of Beam’s work has focussed on reassessing the implications of the meeting between the cultures of the First Nations and Europe. In mainstream society, the “discovery” and “conquest” of North America for Spain in 1492 is celebrated as a momentous occasion in world history. These sentiments are not shared by many people of Native ancestry.
In the top left-hand corner of Columbus Chronicles, the word “Hiroshima” is stencilled over splashes of white paint. Below the blank white field hover portraits of Christopher Columbus and a Native American elder. Beam appears to be suggesting that imposing colonial rule on Native North Americans was as devastating as dropping the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945. For the indigenous nations, the arrival of Europeans caused thousands of deaths through disease and warfare, immense losses of land, and the demise of many parts of a vast cultural heritage. The five-dollar bill linking the two figures together symbolizes the motivation behind European expansion, and the costly price paid by the First Nations.
The images of the bee and the traffic light present another dimension of the work – Beam’s exploration of the dynamics between the natural, the technological, and the political environments. The traffic light represents our sign-regulated world, the bee our tendency to bow passively to habit and imposed political structure.”
I don’t agree with Carl’s take on the bee, but the traffic light metaphor I have always found chilling.
The Village Voice: Features: The Case Against Torture by Alisa Solomon
“There is no proof that torture works. Sometimes, according to a 1963 CIA training manual, it backfires: “If an interrogatee is caused to suffer pain rather late in the interrogation process and after other tactics have failed,” the manual says, “he is almost certain to conclude that the interrogator is becoming desperate. Interrogatees who have withstood pain are more difficult to handle by other methods. The effect has been not to repress the subject, but to restore his confidence and maturity.” On the other hand, those who cannot withstand pain will often say anything to make their abusers let up: admit to things they know nothing about, give the names of anyone they ever met, deliberately provide disinformation.”