Armenian Gevorg Margarian, 27, was nearing the end of a prison term in Russia when his family was informed by text message that he had died in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Human rights groups say migrants in Russian jails are deliberately targeted to fight in Ukraine.
Day: 25 April 2023
Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has taken up three new roles at Harvard University, where she will study and speak on leadership, governance and online extremism.
A former top executive at German carmaker Audi on Tuesday pleaded guilty over the “dieselgate” emissions-cheating scandal that rocked parent company Volkswagen, after a lengthy trial.
Wolfgang Hatz and two other colleagues had arranged the installation of banned software to rig emissions in diesel vehicles, his lawyer told the Munich district court.
Hatz is expected to receive a reduced sentence for confessing.
It is not yet clear whether former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler — the main defendant in the case, and the first auto boss in Germany to stand trial over the scandal — will also enter a guilty plea.
German car giant Volkswagen – whose brands include Porsche, Audi, Skoda and Seat – admitted in September 2015 that it had installed software to rig emissions in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.
As the rising prices charged for vacuum tubes manufactured in China and Russia increasingly cramps audiophiles, musicians and others seeking a particular audio quality, the Western Electric factory in Rossville, Georgia is preparing to bring tube-manufacturing back to the US.
Whitener owns Western Electric, the last US manufacturer of vacuum tubes, those glass and metal bulbs that controlled current in electric circuits before the advent of the transistor made them largely obsolete. Tubes are still prized for high-end hi-fi equipment and by music gear companies such as Fender for their distinctive sound. But most of the world’s supply comes from manufacturers in Russia and China, which after the transistor era began in earnest in the 1960s helped sunset the US vacuum tube industry by driving down prices.
Elsewhere » Hackaday
- Norman Lear (100) July 27, 1922
- Jimmy Carter (98) October 1, 1924
- Dick Van Dyke (97) December 13, 1925
- Mel Brooks (96) June 28, 1926
- Sir David Attenborough (96) May 8, 1926
- Tony Bennett (96) August 3, 1926
- Norman Jewison (96) July 21, 1926
- James Hong (94) February 22, 1929
- Rosalyn Carter (95) August 18, 1927
- Bob Newhart (93) September 5, 1929
- John Astin (93) March 30, 1930
- Gene Hackman (93) January 30, 1930
- William Shatner (92) March 22, 1931
- Mamie Van Doren (92) February 6, 1931
- Hal Linden (92) March 20, 1931
- John Williams (91) February 8, 1932
- Willie Mays (91) May 6, 1931
- Petula Clark (90) November 15, 1932
- Carol Burnett (90) 26 April 1933
- Sir Michael Caine (90) 14 March 1933
- Willie Nelson (89) April 29, 1933
- Joan Collins (89) May 23, 1933
- Alan Arkin (89) March 26, 1934
- Julie Newmar (89) August 16, 1933
- Jean Chrétien (89) January 11, 1934
- Judd Hirsch (88) March 15, 1935
- Pat Boone (88) June 1, 1934
- Donald Sutherland (87) July 17, 1935
- George Takei (86) April 20, 1937
- Tommy Smothers (86) February 2, 1937
- Garrett Moris (86) February 1, 1937
- Morgan Freeman (85) June 1, 1937
- Christopher Lloyd (84) October 22, 1938
- Dick Smothers (84) November 20, 1938
- John Cleese (83) 27 October 1939
- Tina Turner (83) November 26, 1939
- Grace Slick (83) October 30, 1939
- Ian McKellen (83) May 25, 1939
- Smokey Robinson (83) February 19, 1940
- Joe Clark (83) June 5, 1939
- Frankie Avalon (82) September 18, 1940
- Terry Gilliam (82) 22 November 1940
- Sam Waterston (82) November 15, 1940
- Richard Dawkins (82) March 26, 1941
- Al Pacino (83) April 25, 1940
- Joe Flaherty (81) June 21, 1941
- Paul Anka (81) July 30, 1941
- Paul Simon (81) October 13, 1941
- Art Garfunkel (81) November 5, 1941
- Chubby Checker (81) October 3, 1941
- Joe Biden (80) November 20, 1942
- Sir Paul McCartney (80) June 18, 1942
- Eric Idle (80) March 29, 1943
- Joe Pesci (80) February 9, 1943
- Jimmy Page (79) January 9, 1944
- Michael Palin (79) May 5, 1943
- Keith Richards (79) December 43, 1943
- Chevy Chase (79) October 8, 1943
- Robert DeNiro (79) August 17, 1943
- Mick Jagger (79) July 26, 1943
- George Lucas (78) May 14, 1944
- Lorne Michaels (78) November 17, 1944
- Michael Douglas (78) September 25, 1944
- Dolly Parton (77) January 19, 1946
- Steve Martin (77) August 14, 1945
- John Waters (77) April 22, 1946
- John Paul Jones (77) January 3, 1946
- Kim Campbell (76) March 10, 1947
- Eugene Levy (76) December 17, 1946
- Andrea Martin (76) January 15, 1947
- Steven Spielberg (76) December 18, 1946
- Elton John (76) March 25, 1947
- Bill Clinton (76) August 19, 1946
- Hillary Clinton (75) October 26, 1947
- Grace Jones (74) May 19, 1948
- Robert Plant (74) August 20, 1948
- Samuel L. Jackson (74) 21 December 1948
- Martin Short (73) March 26, 1950
Wikipedia has a list of List of centenarians (musicians, composers and music patrons)
Last Updated on April 29, 2023
Stephanie Dutchen, Harvard Medicine magazine »
… noise pollution not only drives hearing loss, tinnitus, and hypersensitivity to sound, but can cause or exacerbate cardiovascular disease; type 2 diabetes; sleep disturbances; stress; mental health and cognition problems, including memory impairment and attention deficits; childhood learning delays; and low birth weight. Scientists are investigating other possible links, including to dementia.
Andrew Mitrovica, Al Jazeera »
There is a big, brash and beautiful America brimming with kind and considerate people, many of whom are the unforgettable, eccentric characters you can only find in that country.
Then there is the angry, seething and scarred America where guns, hate and extremism are everywhere – ready, on a hair-trigger, to explode into violence and mayhem.
You can encounter both aspects of the country at any time, in any place, in America.
Last Updated on June 7, 2023
- Peter Abrahams, A Perfect Crime
- Peter Abrahams, Lights Out
- Peter Abrahams, Pressure Drop
- Peter Abrahams, Revolution #9
- James Agee, A Death in the Family
- Kirsten Bakis, Lives of the Monster Dogs
- Pat Barker, Regeneration
- Pat Barker, The Eye in the Door
- Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
- Richard Bausch, In the Night Season
More at Aerogramme Writer’s Studio.
Claire Ballentine, Bloomberg »
It’s a major shift from the pandemic years, when relief measures for consumers meant repos largely dried up, leaving many agents out of a job. Now repossession companies are struggling to find enough workers to meet repo requests. “As the economy curves down, our industry curves up,” says Ben Deese, vice president at North Carolina-based Home Detective Co. and a member of the American Recovery Association, the industry group that hosted the Orlando conference. In March, the percentage of subprime auto borrowers who were at least 60 days late on their bills was 5.3%, up from a seven-year low of 2.58% in May 2021 and higher than in 2009, the peak of the financial crisis, data from Fitch Ratings show. While not all of those borrowers will face repossessions, the risk is high.
Last Updated on June 7, 2023
Moscow is rattling the nuclear saber, NATO just added 830 miles of territory on the Russian border, and tensions are higher than ever. Russia now sees NATO as its enemy and vice versa. But does that mean war is inevitable?
Marty Branagan, University of New England
Many people think Nazi Germany was beaten only through military violence, and mainly by men. As Barack Obama said in 2009: “Nonviolence could not have halted Hitler’s armies”. In fact, non-violent action was widely used in resisting Nazism. Brave women often led it. They later got little recognition, though this is now changing.
Women in nations such as France, Germany and Holland gathered intelligence, founded resistance groups, published underground media and coordinated people-smuggling operations. Some engaged in sabotage. Their networking and people skills were invaluable, and their lack of visibility under a sexist regime was an asset. Some of these brave women sacrificed their lives for the cause.