MasterLiving

Breitling’s platinum tribute to spaceflight’s pioneers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 9 Jun 2025 17:57:00 +0200

Breitling releases the Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute Scott Carpenter Centenary – a platinum-cased, 50-piece limited edition marking what would have been astronaut Scott Carpenter's 100th birthday (born 1 May 1925). Navitimer in honor of John carpenter, Mercury 7 Astronaut. The new Centenary edition revives that legacy.

Carpenter had requested practical modifications: a 24-hour dial – a solution to the confusing cycle of sunrises astronauts experienced every 90 minutes in orbit-, a wider bezel for gloved hands and a stretch-metal bracelet to fit over his suit.

Breitling’s founder, Willy Breitling, delivered the original custom watch to Carpenter just days before launch – a fast-tracked collaboration emblematic of the early space era’s urgency and ingenuity.

Housed in platinum and powered by Breitling's

hand-wound B02 movement, it features a deep blue dial said to evoke Earth's view from space, and a white slide rule bezel reminiscent of cloud formations.

Through the sapphire case back, engravings commemorate Carpenter, his mission and the Mercury 7 program.

Only 50 will be made.

See the article on Esquire here.

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MasterLiving

Cohiba’s BHK 58, a “Behemoth with Good Manners”

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 May 2025 22:57:00 +0200

Is the Cohiba Behike 58 the cigar of the year?

At over One Grand a “stick”, it better be!

Recent coverage from the Financial Times suggests so. The Behike 58, aka BHK 58, a hefty, 7-inch, 58-ring gauge cigar, has been making a splash since its release at Havana’s Habanos Festival, impressing with its creamy, chocolatey notes and balanced finish.

The Behike —the name means a doctor or chieftain of the Tainos, the indigenous tribe of Cuba—, was launched in 2010 and celebrated its 15th anniversary at this year’s Festival del Habano in Havana.

At an auction during the festival in February, a humidor of 400 Behikes raised €4.6mn, setting a new record for a humidor sale: €11,500 a cigar, showing once again the crazy prices people are willing to pay for cigars, and cementing the line’s status as the gold standard in luxury cigars.

The Cohiba Behike BHK 58

“It bursts with notes of chocolate against a nutty background.”

The Behike

The first time the Behike name was used on a cigar was the 40th anniversary of the Cohiba brand in 2006. Habanos made only 100 humidors, each containing 40 cigars, of the original Behike. In London today, those humidors have sold recently at auction for between $65,000 and $73,000, or more than $1,500 per cigar.

The Behike line remains limited, with only 200,000–250,000 units of each size produced annually.

Cohiba Behike: Medio Tiempo
What sets the Behike apart is its use of the rare medio tiempo leaf, found only at the top of select tobacco plants. This leaf, known for its intense flavor, is so scarce that only a fraction of plants yield it. Its inclusion in the Behike blend is a nod to pre-revolutionary Cuban tradition, revived for today’s most discerning smokers.

The Cohiba Behike 58 is more than just a cigar—it’s a celebration of Cuban craftsmanship, exclusivity, and the relentless pursuit of perfection. For aficionados and collectors alike, it’s an experience not to be missed.

See the whole article on the FT here:

Is the Cohiba Behike 58 the cigar of the year?

And Cigar Aficionado’s 2011 article The Man Behind the Behike.

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MasterLiving

Miami’s Design District: from “Dump” to Shopping Mecca

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 2 May 2025 15:20:00 +0200

Miami Luxe

Craig Robins, CEO of Design District co-owner Dacra, began accumulating buildings in the area in the late 1990s, transforming a patch of largely abandoned furniture showrooms that were "unrenovated and a dump," he said. Robins estimates that he paid around $15 million for about half of the Design District… Based on the district's roughly 1 million square feet, that suggests the entire property would have a valuation of around $4 billion.

Miles from South Beach's glitz and Palm Beach's old-money milieu, Miami's Design District is one of the most distinct testaments to the wealth transforming South Florida. More than an outdoor mall, its developers pitch it as a neighborhood dedicated to art and architecture, as well as fashion and food. That's helped vault it to the ranks of the most expensive shopping destinations in the country.

The Design District's retail rents surged 67% to $500 a square foot last year, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. That was the biggest increase among high-end shopping areas in the Americas. The district is now No. 5 on the real estate firm's ranking of the priciest US retail streets, up from No. 11 the prior year.

Read the whole story here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-miami-design-district/?ai=eyJpc1N1YnNjcmliZWQiOnRydWUsImFydGljbGVSZWFkIjpmYWxzZSwiYXJ0aWNsZUNvdW50IjowLCJ3YWxsSGVpZ2h0IjoxfQ&sref=VxHCy32x

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MasterLiving

The Big Lebowski, a Vintage Cult Classic

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 03:25:00 +0100

"The Big Lebowski is, at once, a buddy picture, an L.A. story, a stoner's quest, and a Buddhist parable, all contained within a neo-noir mystery."

There are now more than 600,000 ordained Dudeist priests! 🤣🙏🏼

Numerous books and even scholarly papers have been written about the film, many with a spiritual focus.

There is The Dude De Ching, The Tao of the Dude, The Abide Guide (which has a German edition entitled Der Dude und Du), and The Dude and the Zen Master, written by Bridges and Buddhist Zen master Bernie Glassman. There are now more than 600,000 ordained Dudeist priests and a Lebowski Fest, not to mention Lebowski-themed barbecue aprons and bucket hats, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and Lebowski 2024 campaign merchandise.

The film's most enduring legacy, however, is the Dude, a mythic American hero no less than the private detective or the cowboy.

See the whole article on Air Mail here: https://airmail.news/issues/2024-10-12/a-lotta-ins-a-lotta-outs-a-lotta-what-have-yous

MasterLiving

The Wolf in Cashmere

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:11:00 +0200

How Bernard Arnault took a bankrupt textile company, but with a great brand, and turned it into a Luxury Powerhouse—and Became One of the World's Richest People!

Read the full story on Bloomberg here: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-lvmh-bernard-arnault/?

MasterLiving

bit.ly

#USTVGO is gone!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 19:19:00 +0100

Popular TV Streaming Service USTVGO Shuts Down * TorrentFreak

Popular TV Streaming Service USTVGO Shuts Down

January 23, 2023

Torrent freak.com Home > Piracy >

Popular live TV streaming portal USTVGO appears to have shut down its service. A brief message on the site says "Sorry, we are closed," leaving millions of users with plenty of unanswered questions. While the reason for the sudden decision is unknown, rightsholders and anti-piracy outfits already had USTVGO on their radar.

A few days ago, USTVGO users were presented with a disappointing message.

Out of the blue, the site's clean homepage, which usually carries links to over a hundred channels including ABC, CBS, NBC, and Nickelodeon, was replaced with just four words; Sorry, we are closed.

Mystery Disappearances

When the message first appeared, some had hoped that the downtime would be temporary. But, as time passed, a short hiatus seemed more and more unlikely.

It's not just the main USTVGO.tv domain name that's affected either; many alternative points of access, including ustv247.tv and watchnewslive.tv, display the same "we are closed" message.

To discover more about the shutdown, TorrentFreak reached out to USTVGo's administrators. At the time of writing we're yet to receive a response. The site's email addresses no longer work since USTVGo's mail servers have disappeared. The platform's official Discord channel has also been shut down.

The above suggests that the people behind the site don't want to be reached. That leaves former users and the public with unanswered questions, which will undoubtedly lead to speculation.

On The Anti-Piracy Radar

A statement on USTVGO's website claimed that it was legal 'to watch' its streams. However, the site itself was clearly not seen as a legal streaming service, as the streams were (re)broadcasted without permission from rightsholders.

Despite its popularity, USTVGO never appeared on the U.S. Trade Representative's list of notorious pirate sites, but it was in the crosshairs of copyright holders and anti-piracy groups.

In recent months, the TV streaming website was targeted in DMCA notices sent by ESPN, Major League Baseball, and NBCUniversal, who all had their channels listed on the site.

Anti-piracy outfit Alianza, which represents major TV broadcasters including DirecTV, Discovery, Fox, HBO, and Sky, has also been on to the service for a while. In a 2021 report produced by Nagra, USTVGO was listed as one of the most popular TV streaming sites.

The screenshot above estimates that the service had roughly two million visitors in early 2021, but traffic continued to grow. More recently USTVGO reportedly enjoyed 16 million monthly visits, with almost three quarters coming from the US.

Pressure?

Without official word from the site's operators, we can only speculate about the reasons behind USTVGO's sudden closure. However, in cases like these, some type of legal pressure seems a likely option.

There is no evidence to suggest that a third party has taken control of USTVGO's domains, but perhaps the owners were approached with a cease-and-desist notice.

For the site's former users, whose favorite streaming portal has already gone, the cause of the closure is irrelevant. Some will likely flock to USTVGO alternatives such as 123tvnow, 123tv, tv247, and others.

USTVGO

See the whole article online here: https://torrentfreak.com/popular-tv-streaming-service-ustvgo-shuts-down-230123/

Stewart Copeland takes us through The Police’s Humble Beginnings

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 21:35:00 +0100

THE SET LIST for the Police's first concert consisted of seven songs, and drummer Stewart Copeland estimates they got through all of them in about six minutes. "We were fast," he says. With the exception of "Landlord," which Sting cowrote, and a cover of the Animals' "It's My Life," Copeland tells Rolling Stone, the songs were "all my concoctions."

Read the whole article here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-police-stewart-copeland-clowns-revenge-1234658430/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/RThZotCBUnY

@MasterLiving

#Muchachos: How #Argentina’s Favorite Song Became the #WorldCup’s Soundtrack

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:57:00 +0100

How Argentina's Favorite Song Became the World Cup's Soundtrack - The New York Times

Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

How Argentina's Favorite Song Became the World Cup's Soundtrack

The song, Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos A Ilusionar, has been a constant refrain in Qatar.

Dec. 18, 2022, 9:13 a.m. ET

Lionel Messi apart, arguably nobody has played a more prominent role in Argentina's run to the World Cup final than a 62-year-old musician and a 30-year-old teacher, neither of whom is anywhere near Qatar. Between them, though, they created the song that has become the soundtrack to Argentina's games and an earworm contracted by anyone who has been in Doha over the last month, or watched any of the tournament on television.

The song, Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos A Ilusionar, has been adopted as an unofficial anthem not only by Argentina's vast army of traveling fans — around 40,000 are expected to attend the final at Lusail today — but by the players themselves: Instagram videos of their dressing room celebrations after every victory have invariably featured a joyous rendition of the song.

Its popularity, doubtless, has something to do with the fact that its two verses hit all the major notes of Argentina's campaign: it is a homage not only to Messi but to Diego Maradona; it pays tribute to the Argentine soldiers who died during the Falklands War of 1982; it draws in the country's various disappointments in international tournaments in recent years; and it goes into its key change with a taunt directed at Argentina's major soccer rival, Brazil.

But it is also a familiar tune to most Argentine fans. Various Argentine club teams have their own bespoke versions of Muchachos, Esta Noche Me Emborracho, a 2003 hit for the rock band La Mosca Tsé tsé, led by the 62-year-old singer Guillermo Novellis. A (relatively) cursory attempt to trace its genealogy would suggest that fans of Boca Juniors were the first to adapt the melody for their own purposes, in this case mocking its fierce rival, River Plate. Within a couple of years, Racing Club, a team in Avellaneda, had an interpretation, quickly followed by its rival, Independiente. In the endless round of call and response that marks Argentine fan culture, both were dedicated to denigrating the other. The most famous iteration, though, probably belonged to River Plate.

Sign up for the World Cup Briefing. The world's greatest sporting spectacle returns in November. Get our daily analysis of every match and the stories from Qatar that you won't see on TV.

That it became something approaching a national anthem is down, largely, to a 30-year-old teacher named Fernando Romero. Together with a friend, he changed the lyrics once more in the days after Maradona's death last year, turning it into a tribute to the player widely regarded as either Argentina's first or second greatest. When the two friends were filmed singing it outside River's Monumental stadium, during a game against Bolivia, the footage quickly went viral. Messi became aware of it: he named it, soon after, his favorite soccer chant. So, too, did Novellis, who got in touch with Romero and volunteered to record and release a version with his lyrics in the buildup to the World Cup.

Even Novellis, though, is a little surprised by its success. La Mosca has a curiously fitting relationship with soccer. Maradona was such a fan that he invited the band to play his 40th birthday party in 2000. And seven years later, another devotee asked if they would do a turn at his 20th birthday party. Messi and Novellis have been in occasional contact ever since.

Now, the song has not only reverberated around Lusail, again and again, on Argentina's way to the final, it is currently number one on Spotify in Argentina. It has been streamed 4.4 million times in just a few weeks. (The original is currently at almost 14 million.) Novellis has been interviewed by media outlets across the world; a campaign was launched to fly Romero to Qatar, though he turned it down, suggesting the country had "more important things to address." The story, as Novellis told La Nacion, is "easy to explain, but difficult to understand."

Rory Smith is The Times's chief soccer correspondent, based in Britain. He covers all aspects of European soccer and has reported from three World Cups, the Olympics, and numerous European tournaments. @RorySmith

LIVEUpdated 53m ago

World Cup

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/18/sports/soccer/argentina-song-muchachos.html

How to Cook Like a Proper Jewish Lady

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 3 Jul 2022 09:56:00 +0200

How to Cook Like a Proper Jewish Lady
One of the fist Jewish Cookbooks published in England, believed to be written by Lady Judith #Montefiore—wife of Sir Moses Montefiorehttps://t.co/F8MX1gM7NJ @NLIsrael @simonmontefiore pic.twitter.com/2IpR9zM81b
— MasterLiving (@MasterLiving) June 29, 2022

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___________________________________ MasterLiving

Flying on the #Concorde

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 22:29:00 +0200

Here's What It Was Like Flying on the Concorde, According to Its Crew and Passengers | Condé Nast Traveler

It wasn't just a jet, it was an exclusive club.

Celebrity Passengers and Caviar at 55,000 Feet: What It Was Like to Fly Concorde in the '70s

Blane Bachelor

Nearly 20 years after its final flight, Concorde continues to capture the imagination of many aviation enthusiasts as the most remarkable airplane in history: a brilliant, beautiful marvel of innovation and ingenuity that became the darling of the world's jet-setting elite.

With the tagline "Arrive Before You Leave" for its ability to fly passengers westward across the Atlantic Ocean in about three hours, Concorde still holds the prestige of being the only commercial supersonic aircraft (though that status could soon be disrupted by several emerging players reviving the sector).

Even so, those lucky enough to have traveled on Concorde say the aircraft will always retain a rarified air not just for its engineering feats—flying more than twice the speed of sound and on the fringes of space, at 11 miles above the ground—but also for an unmatchable aura of thrill and luxury.

"The atmosphere in the cabin was one of an exclusive club, and it was because these were the people who controlled the world, controlled the world's finance and the world's trade,"

says Joe Cuddy, who worked for nine years on the Concorde fleet as a flight attendant and senior fleet trainer. "It was such an incredibly unique experience, and you were going faster than rifle bullets, twice the speed of sound. It was just a fabulous time."

Here's what it was like to fly on the iconic aircraft during its heyday—and why it continues to inspire such wonder more than two decades after its retirement.

A first-of-its-kind jet

Gettynone

Concorde, 1976

First things first: Not unlike those A-list celebrities who only go by one name, Concorde, too, stands alone. There's no preliminary "the" required; it's simply Concorde.

The moniker, which is the French word for harmony or union, reflects the collaboration between France and Great Britain to develop the world's first commercial supersonic aircraft, explains Bob van der Linden, the National Air and Space Museum's curator of air transportation and special purpose aircraft. In the early 1960s, as the U.S. aerospace industry shifted into overdrive as the space race was heating up, the French and British focused on the supersonic sector, joining forces to share the multi-billion-dollar costs of developing a first-of-its-kind commercial aircraft from scratch.

"They literally did 50 percent each," van der Linden says. "They fought over every little thing. They fought over the name. Of course, "Concord" in English doesn't have an 'e' on it, and it does in French. The British compromised and said we'll put an 'e' on it, and we'll have the 'e' stand for excellence."

Indeed, Concorde's technological innovations still awe aviation experts today. British and French engineers designed features for the unique challenges of traveling at supersonic speeds: the aircraft's adjustable droop nose, revamped brake systems, delta-shaped wing and expandable fuselage. Four Rolls Royce engines equipped with afterburners on each aircraft propelled it through liftoff and the sound barrier, or Mach 1, a speed of 662 nautical miles per hour at sea level, to a maximum cruising speed of 1,354 miles per hour, at altitudes up to 60,000 feet, right at the edge of space.

"People always ask me what it was like to fly Concorde, and I've always equated it to being a bus driver given a Ferrari to go and play with," says Richard Westray, a Concorde pilot from 1999 until its retirement in 2003. "It really was extremely clever."

A total of 20 aircraft were eventually produced, and 14 entered service with British Airways and Air France. On March 2, 1969, Concorde 001 flew into history with its maiden flight, and the first supersonic transcontinental crossing came in 1976, from Paris to Washington, D.C. Other early routes included Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Caracas, and Bahrain (which all were eventually scrapped, leaving just London and Paris to New York).

Fred Finn, a retired business executive whose 718 flights on Concorde earned him a place in the Guiness Book of World Records, still remembers seeing Concorde for the first time from the passenger lounge before his flight from Washington, D.C., to London in May 1976. "It looked like something out of the next century," Finn says. "It was so futuristic and so gorgeous, and still is. People ask me which was my favorite flight and I say, 'All of them.'"

'Eccentric' passengers

Queen Mother Boarding Concorde, 2006

For an average round-trip, across-the-ocean ticket price of about $12,000, Concorde shuttled its upper-crust passengers over the Atlantic in about three hours: an airborne assemblage of wealth, power, and celebrity hurtling along at breakneck speed.

It was rare to have a flight without at least one famous passenger, from royalty to rock stars to supermodels. Finn counts Sting, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul McCartney, who "would draw happy faces and occasionally would play a tune," among the many music legends he met on Concorde.

Finn, whose flights were covered by his employer, eventually became a celebrity of sorts himself for his constant presence on Concorde. He once made three transatlantic crossings in a single day to finish executing a contract, a feat that he says "was not a publicity stunt" and would be impossible today. "Concorde was a tool for business people like myself," he says.

Concorde also enticed the wealthiest passengers with charters, both domestically and abroad, as well as several around-the-world trips. "They spent fortunes wherever we stopped," says Cuddy, who worked on one. "We flew from Hong Kong to Delhi, and one woman spent $300,000 on carpets, to have them shipped back to the States."

"They were an eccentric and demanding bunch, but great fun to be with," he says.

Wining and dining at 55,000 feet

Gettynone

British Airways Concorde, August 1983

While Concorde's crew relished the chance to mingle with famous passengers, serving them required a unique combination of professionalism and speed. The six cabin crew were in charge of executing multi-course meal service to 100-odd passengers per flight. "When you were traveling at twice the speed of sound, by the time you poured a glass of Champagne you'd gone 26 miles," Cuddy says.

And pour Champagne they did. Dom Perignon was a popular choice onboard, and the Concorde Wine Cellar was curated especially for the fleet, with notable sparkling, red, and white wines, mainly French labels, paired to each course. Caviar was a signature starter, and entrees like lobster and duck à l'orange were served on fine china.

The inevitable hiccups happened, too, like the damage the aircraft's steep rate of ascent could wreak on those exquisite meals. "They tried these new canapés that had a lot of stuff on each individual dish, and on takeoff it all tipped over and we couldn't use them," Cuddy recalls. After that, he explains, special foil trays were used to keep items separate: one of many "service innovations" developed along the way.

Entertainment-wise, there were no cabin movies or back-of-seat screens—just the Mach display showing speed and altitude, and, of course, that astonishing view out the window. "Looking up it would be almost black, because at 55,000 to 60,000 feet, you're almost on the edge of space," Finn recalls.

Many passengers also relished the chance to be unreachable by the outside world for a rare few hours. "It was one of the only times when they couldn't be contacted by fax or telephone, and they felt completely at ease," says Cuddy, who counts the late Princess Diana as the most famous passenger he served on Concorde. "People used to join each other for a glass of wine, and then move on to another person."

Others took advantage of the open-door policy to join pilots in the flight deck (except on takeoff and landing). Access like this helped create a remarkable camaraderie that both crew and passengers say they miss. "It was a big family," Westray says.

The end of an elite era

Gettynone

Concorde Stewardesses, 1960

Of course, all good parties must come to an end. Despite Concorde's popularity among well-heeled jet-setters, its exorbitant operating costs—it required about a ton of fuel per seat, according to van der Linden—and the harsh toll on the environment became too much to justify. In 2000, the aircraft's spotless safety record tragically ended when a French flight crashed on takeoff, killing all 109 passengers on board and four people on the ground. Three years later, both British Airways and Air France retired the aircraft for good.

"In the last few weeks of flying, there were a lot of tears of passengers as well as crew, because we knew we'd never see them again," Westray recalls.

Today, Concorde's successor could be in the works, with upstarts like Boom Supersonic and Aerion Supersonic aiming for a return to commercial supersonic flight, and recently selling 15 jets to United Airlines. In the meantime, Concorde enthusiasts can check out places like Brooklands Museum in Surrey, U.K., which houses "Delta Golf" Concorde and offers several Concorde-centric experiences, including the same simulator pilots trained on.

The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. is home to Air France's F-BVFA, the first Concorde in service with the airline and the one with the most flight time: 17,824 hours. Van der Linden counts himself lucky to be among the passengers on the aircraft's retirement flight.

"I've said this many times: I know why it failed, but it's a real shame that it did," van der Linden says. "We took off from Paris at noon and we arrived at Dulles at 10:10 [a.m.], and that's pretty cool, to arrive before you leave. Across the Atlantic in less than four hours—that's just spectacular. It's a shame they couldn't make it work."

See the article on CN Traveler here:

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/celebrity-passengers-and-caviar-at-55000-feet-what-it-was-like-to-fly-concorde-in-the-70s

bit.ly/MasterLiving

Not One, But Two Ultra-Rare @Rolex #DeepSea Specials Up For Auction in #Geneva in November

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 5 Oct 2021 19:50:00 +0200

There must be something in the water.

The Rolex Deep Sea Special No. 1 being offered by Christie’s on current owner Reza Ali Rashidian's wrist in 2019.

Not One, But Two Ultra-Rare Rolex Deep Sea Specials Are Going Up For Sale

From hodinkee.com

If you’ve ever sat at home, surrounded by mountainous piles of loose undocumented cash, and wondered when you’d next get the chance at an astoundingly rare and museum-level interesting watch from Rolex, then have I got an auction listing for you. Actually, two.

That’s right, over the course of the past couple of weeks, both Phillips and Christie’s have announced that their November auctions will feature something of a holy grail among Rolex collectors – Deep Sea Specials.

...

Like the waters at the bottom of the ocean, the Deep Sea Special backstory is still somewhat murky at depth and it’s important to understand that these watches – No. 1 and No. 35 – are similar, but not the same. For the original prototype Deep Seas Specials, we’re talking about real running watches with record-breaking deep-diving acumen.

Conversely, while still exceedingly special, rare, and eminently collectible, the display models are more like trophies to celebrate the success of the Deep Sea Special program, as such, some are said to have been delivered without movements, and others have surfaced with automatic movements, like the Rolex 1030 or even later movements like the caliber 1570 (which is what we see in No. 35). If you want to go even deeper (sorry) on the Deep Sea Special story, I recommend you start with this fantastic post from The Rolex Passion Report .

Profile view of the Rolex Deep Sea Special No. 1 being offered by Christie’s this fall. Note, this is as thin as Deep Sea Special’s get.

The Rolex Deep Sea No. 35 being offered by Phillips

For context, I would offer this comparison to Omega Speedmasters. Deep Sea Special No. 1 is like Speedmaster with Apollo mission provenance. No. 3 – that’s the one that is in the Smithsonian – is like a Speedmaster that was actually worn on the moon.

No. 35 is loosely more like the solid gold Speedmaster BA145.022, which was a special 1,014-piece edition made for VIPs and NASA astronauts. While certainly much much more rare and important, Deep Sea Special No. 35 is a commemorative model that celebrates the successes of the program that took the Deep Sea Special to the lowest point on Earth.

The Rolex Deep Sea Special N0. 1 being offered by Christie’s

In one of the press releases for the upcoming sale, the auction house compared the Deep Sea Special to a Formula One car, in that it was the development bed for technology that would trickle down to consumer-grade product for years (aka, Rolex Submariners, or really anything with an Oyster case). I suppose that’s close enough to being correct, but in looking at the upcoming sales, the Deep Sea Special may be more like a Formula One car than they expected.

As a pinnacle of engineering and human development, having a Deep Sea Special today is a lot like owning a Formula One car that has aged out of relevance in the sport. It’s an icon of achievement in a time that is no longer of use to the modern zeitgeist. As such, many owners don’t drive the cars as much as they keep them like ultimate memorabilia.

See the whole post online here:
A Tale of Two Rolex Deep Sea Specials
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/not-one-but-two-ultra-rare-rolex-deep-sea-specials-are-going-up-for-sale

______________________________
MasterLiving
@MasterLiving

Fine #Wine rated top Investment in Knight Frank Annual Wealth Report

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 4 Oct 2021 17:25:00 +0200

Investment Wine ranked 1st in luxury asset performance with 13% growth in year to June 30, 2021 in the Knight Frank Annual Wealth Report.

Wine is the most 'liquid' luxury investment: benefiting from well-established secondary market, with price transparency and efficient routes to market.

The average performance of the luxury assets in the period under review was 3% growth, as recorded by the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index (KFLII). Investment wine achieved nearly five times this and returned considerably more than the next best performer, rare watches where value grew by an average 5%.

Fine wine is the most 'liquid' luxury investment, in that it benefits from a well-established secondary market, with price transparency and efficient routes to market. Valuations can be clearly explained due to role of Liv-ex and other platforms. Fine wine investment is not wholly reliant on auctions and private sales which can lead to price inflation in the 'heat of the moment'.

See the whole story on Vin-X here.

bit.ly/MasterLiving

#EV #LandCruisers coming to #South Africa — but not from @Toyota

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 13:15:00 +0200

Electric Land Cruisers are coming to South Africa — but not from Toyota

Electric safari vehicles that are quieter and more environmentally friendly could soon be seen in South Africa's game parks.

Electric Land Cruisers are coming to South Africa — but not from Toyota

Hanno Labuschagne20 August 2021

The safari vehicles are the work of Kenyan-Swedish startup Opibus, which offers electric conversion of popular off-road vehicles like the Toyota Land Cruiser and Land Rover Defender for game reserves.

These vehicles typically use diesel engines, which are loud and emit fumes that may irritate animals and scare them off before tourists can get a good view.

Since its establishment in 2017, Opibus has converted ten vehicles that are now used in Kenyan game reserves.

The company uses a standardised conversion system through which it replaces the combustion engine with an electric powertrain and lithium-ion battery, and removes the 5-speed gearbox.

The high and low-range 4-wheel drive and differential lock are retained, while a PMSM motor is attached to the transfer case.

It also fits the vehicle with a 7-inch infotainment system for monitoring range and other performance metrics.

Electric Land Cruisers at Emboo River camp in the Masaai Mara National Reserve.

The electric powertrain developed by Opibus specifically for off-road vehicles provides 120kW power with 600Nm motor torque.

It can reach speeds of up to 80km/h — more than enough for game drives.

Battery capacities are available in 38kWh or 58kWh, providing respective ranges of 90km or 140km on tar roads, or 65km and 100km off-road.

While this might seem like low numbers when compared to the likes of Tesla, it should be noted that a typical two or three-hour game drive rarely exceeds 100km.

The battery charges at 6.6kW, meaning a full charge takes between 5 to 7 hours.

Prices for converting an off-road vehicle start at $39,900 (R594,900), which also includes a 6.6kW AC charger.

In addition to running cleaner and quieter, Opibus claims conversion cuts the initial investment in an electric car in half and reduces the running cost associated with fuel-based vehicles over the long term.

"Without the dependency on fuel, our electric vehicles can either be charged by a solar system or directly from grid electricity, eliminating the need to transport fuel to your operation and reducing the cost per kilometre.

"The electric powertrain also needs far less servicing, lubrication or maintenance than a traditional combustion engine, ensuring uptime is maximised and cost kept to a minimum."

Opibus also develops solar-powered infrastructure and chargers that are deployed in camps to provide power that may be used to recharge the vehicles.

Although Opibus currently only offers its electric conversions in Kenya, it plans to increase its presence in Africa and worldwide over the next couple of years.

In response to a query from MyBroadband, an agent confirmed that South Africa was in its expansion plans.

However, there was currently no timeline for when this could happen.

The pre-order page states that it will be available in "Selected Countries" aside from Kenya from 2022.

Electric safari vehicles could be a boon to South Africa's wildlife tourism industry.

Many of the open-top safari vehicles used in the country's parks are modified Land Cruisers or Hilux bakkies, which also run on diesel or petrol.

Members of multiple forums of the country's biggest game reserve, the Kruger National Park, have complained about how the noise of cars that remain idling at sightings disrupts the game viewing experience.

The images below provide more details about the electric conversion system that Opibus uses for off-road vehicles.

See the whole article online here: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/410366-electric-land-cruisers-are-coming-to-south-africa-but-not-from-toyota.html

Marie-Antoinette’s Diamonds for Sale in Geneva by Christie's

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 9 Sep 2021 00:16:00 +0200

Queen Marie-Antoinette’s Diamonds for Sale in Geneva

THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN ROYAL FAMILY

Geneva - on 9 November 2021 Christie’s will proudly offer THE MARIE ANTOINETTE DIAMONDS as lot 1 of its live Magnificent Jewels Auction to be held at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues. Presented in their current form, the 112 diamonds, originally belonging to Queen Marie-Antoinette of France (1755-1793), are set as a historic pair of bracelets (estimated $2,000,000-4,000,000).

‘Over the past 255 years Christie’s have offered many Historic Jewels from Royal Houses around the world. It is a privilege to be able to offer these exceptional and unique bracelets for sale at Christie’s where they will attract bidding from collectors globally. As seen in recent Geneva sales, the market for jewels of noble provenance continues to perform extremely well’ commented François Curiel, Chairman Christie’s Luxury.

In 1776 Marie Antoinette had been Queen of France for two years and was already recognised as the queen of elegance and style. She could not resist jewellery – especially diamonds. In the spring of 1776, she bought these two diamond bracelets for 250,000 livres, a huge sum at the time. According to Count Mercy-Argenteau, Austria’s Ambassador to France, they were paid partly in gemstones from the Queen’s collection and partly with funds the Queen received from King Louis XVI. Recent discoveries by jewellery historian Vincent Meylan shows that in February 1777, in the personal papers of King Louis XVI, it is stated: ‘to the Queen: down payment of 29,000 livres for the diamond bracelets she bought from Boehmer’.

ESCAPE FROM FRANCE AND THE LEGACY OF THE DIAMONDS

Count Mercy-Argenteau left his post as Ambassador of the Austrian Empire to France in 1790 and took office in Brussels. On 11 January 1791, he received a letter from Queen Marie-Antoinette, then a prisoner in the Tuileries in Paris. It announced that a wooden chest would be sent to him for safekeeping. Mercy-Argenteau stored it unopened for the next couple of years. On 16 October 1793, Marie Antoinette was guillotined and in February 1794, Emperor Francis II of Austria (1768-1835) ordered the chest to be opened in Brussels and an inventory to be made. It read as ‘Item no. 6 – A pair of bracelets where three diamonds, with the biggest set in the middle, form two barrettes; the two barrettes serve as clasps, each comprising four diamonds and 96 collet-set diamonds’. Madame Royale (1778-1851), surviving daughter of Marie-Antoinette, received these jewels in January 1796 upon her arrival in Austria.

See the information on Christie's website here: https://www.christies.com/about-us/press-archive/details?PressReleaseID=10180&lid=1

___________________________________

___________________________________ MasterLiving

Full #BuckMoon July 2021 #FullMoon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 02:33:00 +0200

Full Buck Moon 2021 | Buck Moon Meaning | July Fullmoon Name | Star Walk

July's Full Buck Moon will occur on July 24, 2021 before "meeting" #Jupiter & #Saturn.

Full Moon in July 2021: Buck Moon

Vito Technology, Inc.

Jul 23, 2021

What is a Full Buck Moon?

Some Full Moons are known under pretty romantic names, such as "Strawberry Moon" or "Pink Moon", but some of them are much more strange. The thing is, the names traditionally come from Native American, Colonial American, and European cultures. The July Full Moon's name is associated with male deer, whose antlers are in full growing phase this month. In English, male deer and some other male horned animals are called bucks — this is why each Full Moon in July is called the Buck Moon.

It still sounds better than the Worm Moon, though. To see how much you know about the Full Moons, their names (and colors!), take our quiz. The Full Buck Moon will occur on July 24, 2021; shortly afterward, our natural satellite will meet Jupiter and Saturn. Today we'll tell you more about these spectacular events.

July Full Moon alternative names

Besides the Buck Moon, there are other names for the July Full Moon among different cultures. Thus, some refer to it as the Thunder Moon due to the summer storm season. From Old English, it's also known as the Hay Moon after the July hay harvest.

The Hungry Ghost Moon is a traditional Chinese name. People in China believe that around this time, spirits of hungry ghosts roam the Earth.

Here are some examples of the July Full Moon names among various cultures and regions:

Native Americans: Buck Moon
Celts: Moon of Claiming
Cherokee: Ripe Corn Moon
Choctaw: Crane Moon
Colonial Americans: Summer Moon
Wiccan: Mead Moon
Neo-Paganism: Rose Moon
Southern Hemisphere: Wolf Moon, Old Moon, Ice Moon

July Full Moon: when to see in 2021?

In 2021, the Full Buck Moon will take place on July 24, at 02:36 GMT. From July 23 to 24, our natural satellite will be best visible for much of the night, rising after sunset and setting shortly before sunrise. However, the Moon will appear "full" for several nights in a row, especially to the naked eye.

To check the Moon's phase and its path across the sky, use Star Walk 2. Open the app, tap the menu icon in the lower right corner and select the Sky Live section. Swipe the picture of the Moon to see how it's changing the phase over time.

August Full Moon: When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will occur on August 22, 2021. Most likely, you'll hear about this event under the name of the "Blue Moon". In short, Blue Moon is the second Full Moon in one calendar month or the third of four Full Moons in one season. The second case happens very rarely, and it's exactly the one that will occur in August 2021. We'll reveal more details closer to the date.

Moon and Gas Giants

These days, look for bright planets shining close to our natural satellite. Saturn will meet the Moon first — on July 24, at 16:38 GMT, both celestial objects will share the same right ascension. The Moon will be passing 3°48' to the south of the ringed planet at the closest approach. The Moon and Saturn will shine at a magnitude of -12.7 and 0.2, respectively; look for them in the constellation Capricornus.

Almost two days later, on July 26, at 01:21 GMT, the 96% illuminated Moon will pass 4°10' to the south of Jupiter that will have a magnitude of -2.8. You'll find the Moon and Jupiter in the constellation Aquarius.

Wishing you clear skies and happy observations!

The easiest way to find out when conjunctions are best visible in your location is to use Star Walk 2. Open the app, type the name of an object in the search field, choose a corresponding result. Then activate the Time Machine by long touching the clock icon in the upper right corner of your screen. Choose any time and date and see an object's position in the sky.

See the whole article on StarWalk here: https://starwalk.space/en/news/full-moon-in-july-2021-buck-moon?

'The alien hunter of Harvard'

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 4 Apr 2021 16:00:00 +0200

The Economist | The alien hunter of Harvard
http://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-alien-hunter-of-harvard-app-edition

Can't Get You Out of My Head — Love, power, money, ghosts of empire, conspiracies, artificial intelligence – and You.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 03:39:00 +0200

Don’t miss this excellent six part documentary series from the BBC.

An emotional history of the modern world by Adam Curtis.

We are living through strange days. Across Britain, Europe and America societies have become split and polarised. There is anger at the inequality and the ever growing corruption - and a widespread distrust of the elites. Into this has come the pandemic that has brutally dramatised those divisions. But despite the chaos, there is a paralysis - a sense that no one knows how to escape from this.

Can’t Get You Out of My Head tells how we got to this place. And why both those in power - and we - find it so difficult to move on. At its heart is the strange story of what happened when people’s inner feelings got mixed up with power in the age of individualism. How the hopes and dreams and uncertainties inside people's minds met the decaying forces of old power in Britain, America, Russia and China. What resulted was a block not just in the society - but also inside our own heads - that stops us imagining anything else than this.

Can't Get You Out of My Head

Can't Get You Out of My Head - Series 1: 1. Part One - Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain:

Yuval Noah #Harari On The Lessons from a year of #Covid #LongRead

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:09:00 +0100

Yuval Noah Harari: Lessons from a year of Covid | Financial Times

2020 has shown that humanity is far from helpless.

Epidemics are no longer uncontrollable forces of nature. Science has turned them into a manageable challenge.

Covid also underlined "the power of information technology", as hundreds of millions of people shifted to an online world in a matter of weeks, notwithstanding all its deleterious effects on society.

Covid has also shown the incredible resiliency we have built into our Food Supply through the Automation of Agriculture. "While in 1349 an average farmhand reaped about 5 bushels per day, in 2014 a combine set a record by harvesting 30,000 bushels in a day.

Consequently Covid-19 had no significant impact on global production of staple crops such as wheat, maize and rice.

In turn, Covid showed global trade could go on functioning more or less smoothly because it involved very few humans.

A largely automated present-day container ship can carry more tons than the merchant fleet of an entire early modern kingdom. In 1582, the English merchant fleet had a total carrying capacity of 68,000 tons and required about 16,000 sailors. The container ship OOCL Hong Kong, christened in 2017, can carry some 200,000 tons while requiring a crew of only 22.

Why, then, has there been so much death and suffering? Because of bad political decisions, says Yuval Noah Harari in the Financial Times.

Yuval Noah Harari: Lessons from a year of Covid

In a year of scientific breakthroughs — and political failures — what can we learn for the future?

7 hours ago

How can we summarise the Covid year from a broad historical perspective?

Many people believe that the terrible toll coronavirus has taken demonstrates humanity's helplessness in the face of nature's might. In fact, 2020 has shown that humanity is far from helpless. Epidemics are no longer uncontrollable forces of nature. Science has turned them into a manageable challenge.

Why, then, has there been so much death and suffering? Because of bad political decisions.

In previous eras, when humans faced a plague such as the Black Death, they had no idea what caused it or how it could be stopped. When the 1918 influenza struck, the best scientists in the world couldn't identify the deadly virus, many of the countermeasures adopted were useless, and attempts to develop an effective vaccine proved futile.

It was very different with Covid-19. The first alarm bells about a potential new epidemic began sounding at the end of December 2019. By January 10 2020, scientists had not only isolated the responsible virus, but also sequenced its genome and published the information online. Within a few more months it became clear which measures could slow and stop the chains of infection. Within less than a year several effective vaccines were in mass production. In the war between humans and pathogens, never have humans been so powerful.

Moving life online

Alongside the unprecedented achievements of biotechnology, the Covid year has also underlined the power of information technology. In previous eras humanity could seldom stop epidemics because humans couldn't monitor the chains of infection in real time, and because the economic cost of extended lockdowns was prohibitive. In 1918 you could quarantine people who came down with the dreaded flu, but you couldn't trace the movements of pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers. And if you ordered the entire population of a country to stay at home for several weeks, it would have resulted in economic ruin, social breakdown and mass starvation.

In contrast, in 2020 digital surveillance made it far easier to monitor and pinpoint the disease vectors, meaning that quarantine could be both more selective and more effective. Even more importantly, automation and the internet made extended lockdowns viable, at least in developed countries. While in some parts of the developing world the human experience was still reminiscent of past plagues, in much of the developed world the digital revolution changed everything.

Consider agriculture. For thousands of years food production relied on human labour, and about 90 per cent of people worked in farming. Today in developed countries this is no longer the case. In the US, only about 1.5 per cent of people work on farms, but that's enough not just to feed everyone at home but also to make the US a leading food exporter. Almost all the farm work is done by machines, which are immune to disease. Lockdowns therefore have only a small impact on farming.

Imagine a wheat field at the height of the Black Death. If you tell the farmhands to stay home at harvest time, you get starvation. If you tell the farmhands to come and harvest, they might infect one another. What to do?

Now imagine the same wheat field in 2020. A single GPS-guided combine can harvest the entire field with far greater efficiency — and with zero chance of infection. While in 1349 an average farmhand reaped about 5 bushels per day, in 2014 a combine set a record by harvesting 30,000 bushels in a day. Consequently Covid-19 had no significant impact on global production of staple crops such as wheat, maize and rice.

To feed people it is not enough to harvest grain. You also need to transport it, sometimes over thousands of kilometres. For most of history, trade was one of the main villains in the story of pandemics. Deadly pathogens moved around the world on merchant ships and long-distance caravans. For example, the Black Death hitchhiked from east Asia to the Middle East along the Silk Road, and it was Genoese merchant ships that then carried it to Europe. Trade posed such a deadly threat because every wagon needed a wagoner, dozens of sailors were required to operate even small seagoing vessels, and crowded ships and inns were hotbeds of disease.

In 2020, global trade could go on functioning more or less smoothly because it involved very few humans. A largely automated present-day container ship can carry more tons than the merchant fleet of an entire early modern kingdom. In 1582, the English merchant fleet had a total carrying capacity of 68,000 tons and required about 16,000 sailors. The container ship OOCL Hong Kong, christened in 2017, can carry some 200,000 tons while requiring a crew of only 22.

True, cruise ships with hundreds of tourists and aeroplanes full of passengers played a major role in the spread of Covid-19. But tourism and travel are not essential for trade. The tourists can stay at home and the business people can Zoom, while automated ghost ships and almost human-less trains keep the global economy moving. Whereas international tourism plummeted in 2020, the volume of global maritime trade declined by only 4 per cent.

Automation and digitalisation have had an even more profound impact on services. In 1918, it was unthinkable that offices, schools, courts or churches could continue functioning in lockdown. If students and teachers hunker down in their homes, how can you hold classes? Today we know the answer. The switch online has many drawbacks, not least the immense mental toll. It has also created previously unimaginable problems, such as lawyers appearing in court as cats. But the fact that it could be done at all is astounding.

In 1918, humanity inhabited only the physical world, and when the deadly flu virus swept through this world, humanity had no place to run. Today many of us inhabit two worlds — the physical and the virtual. When the coronavirus circulated through the physical world, many people shifted much of their lives to the virtual world, where the virus couldn't follow.

Of course, humans are still physical beings, and not everything can be digitalised. The Covid year has highlighted the crucial role that many low-paid professions play in maintaining human civilisation: nurses, sanitation workers, truck drivers, cashiers, delivery people. It is often said that every civilisation is just three meals away from barbarism. In 2020, the delivery people were the thin red line holding civilisation together. They became our all-important lifelines to the physical world.

The internet holds on

As humanity automates, digitalises and shifts activities online, it exposes us to new dangers. One of the most remarkable things about the Covid year is that the internet didn't break. If we suddenly increase the amount of traffic passing on a physical bridge, we can expect traffic jams, and perhaps even the collapse of the bridge. In 2020, schools, offices and churches shifted online almost overnight, but the internet held up.

We hardly stop to think about this, but we should. After 2020 we know that life can go on even when an entire country is in physical lockdown. Now try to imagine what happens if our digital infrastructure crashes.

Information technology has made us more resilient in the face of organic viruses, but it has also made us far more vulnerable to malware and cyber warfare. People often ask: "What's the next Covid?" An attack on our digital infrastructure is a leading candidate. It took several months for coronavirus to spread through the world and infect millions of people. Our digital infrastructure might collapse in a single day. And whereas schools and offices could speedily shift online, how much time do you think it will take you to shift back from email to snail-mail?

What counts?

The Covid year has exposed an even more important limitation of our scientific and technological power. Science cannot replace politics. When we come to decide on policy, we have to take into account many interests and values, and since there is no scientific way to determine which interests and values are more important, there is no scientific way to decide what we should do.

For example, when deciding whether to impose a lockdown, it is not sufficient to ask: "How many people will fall sick with Covid-19 if we don't impose the lockdown?". We should also ask: "How many people will experience depression if we do impose a lockdown? How many people will suffer from bad nutrition? How many will miss school or lose their job? How many will be battered or murdered by their spouses?"

Even if all our data is accurate and reliable, we should always ask: "What do we count? Who decides what to count? How do we evaluate the numbers against each other?" This is a political rather than scientific task. It is politicians who should balance the medical, economic and social considerations and come up with a comprehensive policy.

About the photography

The images accompanying this piece are taken from Coronavirus Rhapsody, a collaboration between photographers Rafael Heygster and Helena Lea Manhartsberger

Similarly, engineers are creating new digital platforms that help us function in lockdown, and new surveillance tools that help us break the chains of infection. But digitalisation and surveillance jeopardise our privacy and open the way for the emergence of unprecedented totalitarian regimes. In 2020, mass surveillance has become both more legitimate and more common. Fighting the epidemic is important, but is it worth destroying our freedom in the process? It is the job of politicians rather than engineers to find the right balance between useful surveillance and dystopian nightmares.

Three basic rules can go a long way in protecting us from digital dictatorships, even in a time of plague. First, whenever you collect data on people — especially on what is happening inside their own bodies — this data should be used to help these people rather than to manipulate, control or harm them. My personal physician knows many extremely private things about me. I am OK with it, because I trust my physician to use this data for my benefit. My physician shouldn't sell this data to any corporation or political party. It should be the same with any kind of "pandemic surveillance authority" we might establish.

Researchers at Munich's Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, a military research facility that diagnosed the first German Covid-19 case © Rafael Heygster/Helena Manhartsberger

Second, surveillance must always go both ways. If surveillance goes only from top to bottom, this is the high road to dictatorship. So whenever you increase surveillance of individuals, you should simultaneously increase surveillance of the government and big corporations too. For example, in the present crisis governments are distributing enormous amounts of money. The process of allocating funds should be made more transparent. As a citizen, I want to easily see who gets what, and who decided where the money goes. I want to make sure that the money goes to businesses that really need it rather than to a big corporation whose owners are friends with a minister. If the government says it is too complicated to establish such a monitoring system in the midst of a pandemic, don't believe it. If it is not too complicated to start monitoring what you do — it is not too complicated to start monitoring what the government does.

Third, never allow too much data to be concentrated in any one place. Not during the epidemic, and not when it is over. A data monopoly is a recipe for dictatorship. So if we collect biometric data on people to stop the pandemic, this should be done by an independent health authority rather than by the police. And the resulting data should be kept separate from other data silos of government ministries and big corporations. Sure, it will create redundancies and inefficiencies. But inefficiency is a feature, not a bug. You want to prevent the rise of digital dictatorship? Keep things at least a bit inefficient.

Over to the politicians

The unprecedented scientific and technological successes of 2020 didn't solve the Covid-19 crisis. They turned the epidemic from a natural calamity into a political dilemma. When the Black Death killed millions, nobody expected much from the kings and emperors. About a third of all English people died during the first wave of the Black Death, but this did not cause King Edward III of England to lose his throne. It was clearly beyond the power of rulers to stop the epidemic, so nobody blamed them for failure.

But today humankind has the scientific tools to stop Covid-19. Several countries, from Vietnam to Australia, proved that even without a vaccine, the available tools can halt the epidemic. These tools, however, have a high economic and social price. We can beat the virus — but we aren't sure we are willing to pay the cost of victory. That's why the scientific achievements have placed an enormous responsibility on the shoulders of politicians.

Unfortunately, too many politicians have failed to live up to this responsibility. For example, the populist presidents of the US and Brazil played down the danger, refused to heed experts and peddled conspiracy theories instead. They didn't come up with a sound federal plan of action and sabotaged attempts by state and municipal authorities to halt the epidemic. The negligence and irresponsibility of the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations have resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.

In the UK, the government seems initially to have been more preoccupied with Brexit than with Covid-19. For all its isolationist policies, the Johnson administration failed to isolate Britain from the one thing that really mattered: the virus. My home country of Israel has also suffered from political mismanagement. As is the case with Taiwan, New Zealand and Cyprus, Israel is in effect an "island country", with closed borders and only one main entry gate — Ben Gurion Airport. However, at the height of the pandemic the Netanyahu government has allowed travellers to pass through the airport without quarantine or even proper screening and has neglected to enforce its own lockdown policies.

Researchers at the Covid-19 drive-in test station at the Saarbrücken exhibition centre © Rafael Heygster/Helena Manhartsberger

Both Israel and the UK have subsequently been in the forefront of rolling out the vaccines, but their early misjudgments cost them dearly. In Britain, the pandemic has claimed the lives of 120,000 people, placing it sixth in the world in average mortality rates. Meanwhile, Israel has the seventh highest average confirmed case rate, and to counter the disaster it resorted to a "vaccines for data" deal with the American corporation Pfizer. Pfizer agreed to provide Israel with enough vaccines for the entire population, in exchange for huge amounts of valuable data, raising concerns about privacy and data monopoly, and demonstrating that citizens' data is now one of the most valuable state assets.

While some countries performed much better, humanity as a whole has so far failed to contain the pandemic, or to devise a global plan to defeat the virus. The early months of 2020 were like watching an accident in slow motion. Modern communication made it possible for people all over the world to see in real time the images first from Wuhan, then from Italy, then from more and more countries — but no global leadership emerged to stop the catastrophe from engulfing the world. The tools have been there, but all too often the political wisdom has been missing.

Foreigners to the rescue

One reason for the gap between scientific success and political failure is that scientists co-operated globally, whereas politicians tended to feud. Working under much stress and uncertainty, scientists throughout the world freely shared information and relied on the findings and insights of one another. Many important research projects were conducted by international teams. For example, one key study that demonstrated the efficacy of lockdown measures was conducted jointly by researchers from nine institutions — one in the UK, three in China, and five in the US.

In contrast, politicians have failed to form an international alliance against the virus and to agree on a global plan. The world's two leading superpowers, the US and China, have accused each other of withholding vital information, of disseminating disinformation and conspiracy theories, and even of deliberately spreading the virus. Numerous other countries have apparently falsified or withheld data about the progress of the pandemic.

The lack of global co-operation manifests itself not just in these information wars, but even more so in conflicts over scarce medical equipment. While there have been many instances of collaboration and generosity, no serious attempt was made to pool all the available resources, streamline global production and ensure equitable distribution of supplies. In particular, "vaccine nationalism" creates a new kind of global inequality between countries that are able to vaccinate their population and countries that aren't.

It is sad to see that many fail to understand a simple fact about this pandemic: as long as the virus continues to spread anywhere, no country can feel truly safe. Suppose Israel or the UK succeeds in eradicating the virus within its own borders, but the virus continues to spread among hundreds of millions of people in India, Brazil or South Africa. A new mutation in some remote Brazilian town might make the vaccine ineffective, and result in a new wave of infection.

In the present emergency, appeals to mere altruism will probably not override national interests. However, in the present emergency, global co-operation isn't altruism. It is essential for ensuring the national interest.

Anti-virus for the world

Arguments about what happened in 2020 will reverberate for many years. But people of all political camps should agree on at least three main lessons.

First, we need to safeguard our digital infrastructure. It has been our salvation during this pandemic, but it could soon be the source of an even worse disaster.

Second, each country should invest more in its public health system. This seems self-evident, but politicians and voters sometimes succeed in ignoring the most obvious lesson.

Third, we should establish a powerful global system to monitor and prevent pandemics. In the age-old war between humans and pathogens, the frontline passes through the body of each and every human being. If this line is breached anywhere on the planet, it puts all of us in danger. Even the richest people in the most developed countries have a personal interest to protect the poorest people in the least developed countries. If a new virus jumps from a bat to a human in a poor village in some remote jungle, within a few days that virus can take a walk down Wall Street.

The skeleton of such a global anti-plague system already exists in the shape of the World Health Organization and several other institutions. But the budgets supporting this system are meagre, and it has almost no political teeth. We need to give this system some political clout and a lot more money, so that it won't be entirely dependent on the whims of self-serving politicians. As noted earlier, I don't believe that unelected experts should be tasked with making crucial policy decisions. That should remain the preserve of politicians. But some kind of independent global health authority would be the ideal platform for compiling medical data, monitoring potential hazards, raising alarms and directing research and development.

Many people fear that Covid-19 marks the beginning of a wave of new pandemics. But if the above lessons are implemented, the shock of Covid-19 might actually result in pandemics becoming less common. Humankind cannot prevent the appearance of new pathogens. This is a natural evolutionary process that has been going on for billions of years, and will continue in the future too. But today humankind does have the knowledge and tools necessary to prevent a new pathogen from spreading and becoming a pandemic.

If Covid-19 nevertheless continues to spread in 2021 and kill millions, or if an even more deadly pandemic hits humankind in 2030, this will be neither an uncontrollable natural calamity nor a punishment from God. It will be a human failure and — more precisely — a political failure.

Yuval Noah Harari is author of 'Sapiens', 'Homo Deus', '21 Lessons for the 21st Century' and 'Sapiens: A Graphic History'.

the world after coronavirus

This storm will pass. But the choices we make now could change our lives for years to come, writes Harari

FT Weekend digital Festival

Harari is in conversation with Alec Russell, editor of FT Weekend, on March 18. For tickets go to ftweekendfestival.com

Follow @FTLifeArts on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first.

https://www.ft.com/content/f1b30f2c-84aa-4595-84f2-7816796d6841

https://bit.ly/MasterLiving

#Tutoring has become a weapon in the global arms race in #Education. There’s no limit to what some parents will pay...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 16:47:00 +0100

If a good school begets a good university, a great job, a suitable spouse, house and all the rest, then it’s never too early to start training.

Ever more parents, particularly those with money to spare, consider their children to be engaged in an academic arms race. Tutoring is a secret weapon.

...

Tutoring has bullied its way into education systems all over the world with remarkable success over the past two decades. In Britain last year, more than a quarter of children in England and Wales aged 11-16 received some kind of private teaching outside school, according to the Sutton Trust, a social-mobility charity; in London that figure rose to over 40% of children. (Less than a fifth were doing so in 2005, the first year for which the charity collected such data.) British parents spend an estimated £2bn on private tuition each year, not including other extra-curricular activities such as sport or music lessons.

That picture is replicated across the world. A recent research paper points to a rise in the prevalence of “shadow education” throughout Europe. In Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain at least 40% of school-age children have had private tutoring; in countries where there is a lack of faith in the state schooling system, such as Greece, that figure can rise to between 80% and 95% of all children.

Read the whole piece on The Economist's 1843 magazine here:

Education - First-class flights, chauffeurs and bribery: the secret life of a private tutor | 1843 magazine | The Economist

Education - First-class flights, chauffeurs and bribery: the secret life of a private tutor | 1843 magazine | The Economist

#Psychedelic #Drugs Are Fueling a #MentalHealth Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 10:06:00 +0100

Psychedelic Drugs Are Fueling a Mental Health Revolution

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-11-23/psychedelic-drugs-are-fueling-a-mental-health-revolution-video

#LaDolceVita: The Ultimate Guide to #Rome

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:41:00 +0200

The FT presents a complete guide to the Italian Capital.

Rome with the FT

https://www.ft.com/globetrotter/rome

________________________

bit.ly/MasterLiving

The best #RealEstate Advertising Ever 1806 Marapata Drive in Corona del Mar, California

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 5 Oct 2020 20:43:00 +0200

#Worky. The Perfect Solution To #WFH & #HomeSchooling

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From Tape Deck to Tidal: 30 Years of U.S. #Music Sales #RIAA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 00:29:00 +0200

This chart shows U.S. music industry revenue since 1980 by format.
You will find more infographics at Statista.

Ad-supported and subscription-based, accounted for 80% of music industry revenues in U.S. last year, up from less than 10% in 2010.

Inflation-adjusted music revenue peaked in 1999 at $22.4 billion at a time when the CD was also in its prime. That year CD sales alone amounted to $20 billion, more than twice the recording industry’s total revenue for 2018.

From Tape Deck to Tidal: 30 Years of U.S. Music Sales

Statista.com

Felix Richter

Over the past few years, streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music have revolutionized the way we listen to music. According to recent figures published by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), streaming, both ad-supported and subscription-based, accounted for 80 percent of music industry revenues in the U.S. last year, up from less than 10 percent in 2010. At $5.9 billion, paid subscriptions accounted for the lion’s share of streaming revenue in 2019, which in total amounted to $8.8 billion. To put that in perspective, all physical music sales combined amounted to just $1.1 billion last year, with downloads adding another $856 million to the music industry’s total haul of $11.1 billion.

Interestingly, the streaming revolution hasn’t been the first complete shift in music consumption over the past 30 years. As the following chart, based on historical RIAA figures, shows, vinyl records, cassettes, CDs and downloads have all been the predominant form of music consumption at some point in the past three decades, with the compact disc’s reign particularly long and lucrative for the music industry. Inflation-adjusted music revenue peaked in 1999 at $22.4 billion at a time when the CD was also in its prime. That year CD sales alone amounted to $20 billion, more than twice the recording industry’s total revenue for 2018. After hitting a low point in 2014, the music industry started recovering: thanks to the steep increase in streaming subscriptions, 2019 marked the fifth consecutive year of growing music revenues.

https://www.statista.com/chart/17244/us-music-revenue-by-format/

Infographic: From Tape Deck to Tidal: 30 Years of U.S. Music Sales:

bit.ly/MasterLiving

#Bayern Match Liverpool With 6th @UEFA #ChampionsLeague Title

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 02:29:00 +0200

You will find more infographics at Statista

Infographic: Bayern Match Liverpool With 6th Champions League Title: This chart shows the clubs with the most UEFA Champions League wins.

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