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Always great comics, but this is not applicable in Europe, since we have replaced most traffic light intersections with roundabouts 😂
Helsingborg, Sweden
The US luxury-lifestyle magazine the Robb Report is highlighting Nicole Kidman's recent stay in Mallorca for filming of the Paramount+ series Lioness.
Under the headline "Nicole Kidman once stayed in this stunning Mallorca villa. Now it can be yours for $69 million", the article says that she chose to stay in the "Beverly Hills of Mallorca" and specifically in the "architecturally impressive Villa Soltaire in the upscale Son Vida neighbourhood of Mallorca". It is explained that Mallorca is a "Balearic island off the coast of Spain". The actress was the guest of developer Jens Liebhauser.
With the property being on the market for $69 million (65 million euros), the report is replete with photos to interest prospective buyers (courtesy of Engel & Völkers), e.g. the gym, the rooftop cinema, the underground garage that turns into a nightclub and the sunken conversation pit. Other features of the property include a Zen garden for meditation.
So, if you happen to have 65 million euros, a piece of Mallorca's Beverly Hills could be yours.
Helsingborg, Sweden
Friday, January 13
Manacor, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 9pm: Rehearsals for the Sant Antoni 'goigs' (songs of praise), barbecue. Plaça Concòrdia.
Palma - 6pm: SimfoVents Palma and Cap Pela (vocal group). Ses Voltes, Passeig Dalt Murada. Free.
Sa Pobla, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8pm: Children's 'nit bruixa'; Batukada d'Albopas. 9.15pm: Welcome to the Sant Antoni 'clamater'. Plaça Major.
Saturday, January 14
Alcudia - 8pm: Oratge de Tramuntana; folk music with lyrics from Mallorcan writers and poets. Alcudia Auditorium, Plaça Porta Mallorca. Five euros. auditorialcudia.net.
Andratx, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 6pm: Lighting of bonfires; 6.45pm: Folk dance, Aires d'Andratx; barbecue (five euros); 10pm: Correfoc, Dimonis Dragomonis Andratx; 11.30pm: Music from Maria'n'Ganxa.
Inca, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8pm: Bonfire, barbecue (two euros donation), folk dance with Revetlers des Puig d'Inca. Plaça Bestiar.
Inca - 7pm: Tomeu Moll-Mas (piano), Messiaen 'Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus'. Teatre Principal, C. Teatre 10. 12 euros. teatreprincipalinca.com.
Palma, Sant Antoni Fiestas - From 6pm, Sant Antoni bonfire; Dimonis Realment Cremats, Dimonis Factoria de So (Sant Maria), Dimonis Foc d'Inca; Dimonis S'Eixam de Consell. Parc de Can Canàves, Secar de la Real.
Palma, Sant Sebastià Fiestas - 11.30am: Batucada from Plaça Porta Pintada to Plaça Cort, followed by dance of giants and bigheads, plus glosadors and appearance of Drac de na Coca (dragon). 7.30pm: Marala (female group). Gathering by the Soller Train station for a secret location.
Palma - 6pm: Gathering of Palma bands of music. Palma Conservatory, C. Alfons el Magnànim 64. Free.
Palma - 9pm: 'El Musical de los 80s 90s'. Trui Theatre, Cami Son Rapinya 29. 25 euros. truiteatre.es.
Pollensa, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8pm: Children's demons correfoc; 8.30pm: Barbecue (ten euros); 10.30pm: Correfoc; Dimonis Ka de Bou (Pollensa), Dimonis Son Ganxó (Costitx).
Porto Cristo, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8.30pm: Rehearsals for 'goigs' of Sant Antoni, barbecue. Plaça Sol i Lluna.
Portocolom, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8pm: Lighting of bonfire; folk music and dance with S'Estol des Gerricó. Plaça Es Corso.
Sa Pobla, Sant Antoni Fiestas - From 3pm: Sant Antoni races. Mostly from Can Cirera Prim Park and back. 12 midnight: Correfoc; Dimonis d'Albopas (Sa Pobla), Dimonis Esclatabutzes (Soller), Dimonis Cau Boc Negre (Palma). Plaça Major.
Son Servera, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 5pm: Sant Antoni fair. 6pm: Botifa-Run. 8pm: Mass. 9pm: First dance of the demon; 10pm: Folk music from Toc de Crida; 11pm: Correfoc, Dimonis Factoria de So (Santa Maria). Plaça Sant Joan.
Sunday, January 15
Algaida, Sant Honorat Fiestas - 6pm: Firing of rockets. 6.30pm: Procession by bigheads and band of music. 7pm: Lighting of bonfires; 8pm: Barbecue; 9.30pm: Folk dance and music with Roada; 11pm: Correfoc, Dimonis Sa Cova des Fossar (Sineu). In the square.
Andratx, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 11.30am: Animal blessings. Gathering from 10.30 on Passeig Son Mas.
Capdepera, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 7pm: 'Picarolada' gathering for Sant Antoni. Plaça Orient.
Inca, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 10am: Pipers and dance of demons. Plaça Santa Maria la Major to Plaça Llibertat. 10.30am: Animal blessings, release of doves. Gran Via de Colom.
Manacor, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 12 noon / 6.30pm: Manacor Band of Music and Sa Torre Folkloric Group; 'Les músiques de Sant Antoni'. Manacor Auditorium, Passeig Ferrocarril. Six euros. teatredemanacor.cat. 8.30pm: Rehearsal for the compline service. Mare de Déu dels Dolors Church.
Palma - 12.30pm: 'El Orígen del Hielo', Tribute to 'Frozen'; musical. Trui Theatre, Camí Son Rapinya 29. 20 euros. truiteatre.es.
Pollensa, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 6pm: Folk dance and music with Ballugall. Plaça Ca les Monnares.
Porto Cristo, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 11am: Demons' gangs from C. Port to Plaça Sol i Lluna; demons' dance at 12.30pm. 4pm: Folk dance with Tramudança. Plaça Sol i Lluna.
Sa Pobla, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 7.30pm: Concert - Sa Pobla Choir. At the church.
Sant Llorenç, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8pm: Botifarron (sausage) contest. Plaça Església.
Son Servera, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 10am: Sant Antoni fair; botifarron, soapy pole contest. 12.30pm: Rehearsal of the compline service.
Monday, January 16
Alaro, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 5.30pm: Procession with bigheads, donkey figures, small dragon and children's gang of demons. Plaça Vila. 6.30pm: Lighting of bonfires. 10.30pm: Correfoc; Dimonis d'Alaro and Na Marranxa (dragon). From Avda. Constitució.
Alcudia, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 4.30pm: Sant Antoni and the demons (plus pipers) leave the town hall. Procession and the occasional 'kidnapping' of a child. 8pm: Bonfire, botifarró, llonganissa, bread and drink (one euro). Plaça Constitució. 10.30pm: Correfoc; Dimonis Arrels de la Vall (Mancor de la Vall). From Porta Sant Sebastià to Plaça Carles V.
Algaida, Sant Honorat Fiestas - 11am: Mass, followed by cossiers dance in front of the town hall.
Arta, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 9am: Wake-up procession. Demons, band of music. 7pm: Compline. 7.30pm: Lighting of bonfires.
Capdepera, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 2.30pm: Ringing of bells. 3pm: Demons and the band of music leave from C. Nou for the church. 7pm: Lighting of bonfires.
Manacor, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 2.15pm: Departure of demons. Cas Baciner. 2.30pm: Bell-ringing and dance. By the town hall. 7pm: Procession from the town hall with demons and band of music. 7.30pm: Singing of the 'goigs' of Sant Antoni during the compline service. Mare de Déu dels Dolors Church. 8pm: Lighting of the first bonfire in front of the Rectory. 10pm: Ball de bot folk dance; Galivança. Plaça Ramon Llull.
Maria de la Salut, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 7pm: Sant Antoni bonfire. Plaça Pou. Later, Correfoc; Dimonis dels Infernets.
Muro, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 5pm: Judging for the bonfires' competition. 7.45pm: Demons, Sant Antoni, Unió Artística Murera band of music. From Plaça Convent to in front of the town hall; dance of demons and Sant Antoni at 8.15pm. 8.30pm: Lighting of bonfires and correfoc; Dimonis Sa Pedrera (Muro), Dimonis Cau Boc Negre (Palma), Dimonis Son Ganxo (Costitx); 11pm: Traditional folk music and dance; Revetlla d'Algebelí, Sedaç. By the town hall and church. 12.30am: Xanguito (Mallorcan pop-rumba group) and DJ. Plaça Sant Martí.
Pollensa, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 6pm: Judging of the bonfires starts. 9pm: Lighting of the bonfires.
Porto Cristo, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 1.30pm: Departure of demons and dance at the municipal offices. 6.30pm: Mass and singing of the 'goigs', then lighting of bonfires.
Puerto Pollensa, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 6pm: Judging of the bonfires starts. 9pm: Lighting of the bonfires.
Sa Pobla, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 2.30pm: Departure of the demons and Sant Antoni; procession and dances. 6.45pm: Ceremony of the historical sanctioning for the start of Sant Antoni Eve. In front of the town hall. 7.45pm: Departure of the paralympic Grif demons, Dimonis d'Albopàs, the Obreria and town hall demons, plus giants, bigheads, junior bigheads and the Sa Pobla band of music. From the town hall to the church. 8pm: Compline and acclamation of Sant Antoni. 9.15pm: Dance of the demons and of the gangs of bigheads and junior bigheads, accompanied by the Sa Pobla band of music. 9.45pm: Pyromusical spectacular. Plaça Major. 10.15pm: Singers and ximbomba players. Plaça Major. 12.30am: Ximbombas and glosadors. Plaça Major and Plaça Alexandre Ballester.
Sant Llorenç, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 5pm: Demons depart from La Rectoria. 7.30pm: Lighting of bonfires, demons' dance, singing of the goigs for Sant Antoni. Plaça Església.
Son Carrió, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8pm: Dance of the grand demon at Ca n'Apol-lonia. Departure of the demons' gang for lighting of bonfire and barbecue. Plaça Església.
Son Servera, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 4pm: Sant Antoni procession, demon and floats. Plaça Sant Joan. 7.30pm: Compline service. 8pm: Lighting of bonfires. Demon, band of music. Plaça Sant Joan.
Tuesday, January 17
Alaro, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 4pm: Animal blessings. By the church.
Alcudia, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 4.30pm: Animal blessings, Sarau Alcudienc folk dance. From Passeig Pere Ventayol.
Arta, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8.30am: Cavalcade. 11am: Animal blessings, floats. 7.30pm: Folk dance and dance of the demons.
Capdepera, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 3pm: Animal blessings; parade to Plaça Orient.
Inca, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 10am: Mass. Santa Maria la Major Church. Followed by blessings of small animals.
Manacor, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 9.30am: Gathering for the processions at various points. 11am: Animal blessings. 4pm: Demons' visit to the Hippodrome. 8pm: Final dance of the demons. Plaça sa Bassa. 20.30: Mass.
Maria de la Salut, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 3.30pm: Animal blessings and floats. Plaça Pou.
Muro, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 10.30am: Firing of rockets and planting of giants. By the town hall. 11am: Mass; Coral Miquel Tortell, Revetlla d'Algebelí, Es Reguinyol pipers. 3pm: Ringing of bells. 3.30pm: Animal blessings and floats.
Palma, Sant Antoni Fiestas - From 10.00am: Animal blessings. Cathedral esplanade.
Pollensa, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 9.30am: Mass. 10.15am: Traditional procession and animal blessings. 11.30am: Setting off from Plaça Almoina to the Ternelles finca. 12.30pm: Lunch at Ternelles. 2pm: Departure of the pine. 7pm (approx.): Raising of the pine. Plaça Vella.
Porto Cristo, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 4pm: Animal blessings and floats. Plaça ses Comes.
Puerto Pollensa, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 9am: Bus leaves from behind the church to go to Formentor. 11.30am: Procession and animal blessings. 12 midday: The pine arrives in the port. 1.30pm: Planting of the pine in Plaça Miquel Capllonch.
Sa Pobla, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 10am: Procession with the pipers Germans Aloy. 11am: Solemn mass plus offering of farm produce and dance with Marjal en Festa. 12.30pm: Dance of the caparrot bigheads and young caparrots. Plaça Major. 4.30pm: Blessing of the animals in the church square with the pipers Germans Aloy and Xerebiols and the giants Antoni and Margalida. Parade of floats, accompanied by the band of cornets of the Sant Antoni brotherhood and the demons of the Obreria de Sant Antoni. Followed by procession from the town hall to the church and then Can Planes Museum.
Sant Llorenç, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 3.30pm: Animal blessings; 6pm: Ball de bot. Plaça Església. 7pm: Mass. 8pm: Barbecue and folk dance with Els Revetlers. Plaça Església.
Son Carrió, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 10.30am: Mass. 11am: Animal blessings and floats. 12.30pm: Demons' dance.
Son Servera, Sant Antoni Fiestas - 8.30am: Demon, Sant Antoni, band of music - procession and 'chase' to Plaça Sant Joan. 12 midday: Mass. 3.30pm: Sant Antoni, demons, pipers, band of music, Plaça Nova. 4pm: Animal blessings. 6pm: Final dance of the demon. Plaça Sant Joan.
Wednesday, January 18
Palma - 7.30pm: RetRockspectiva; 2020 film 'Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan'. Teatre Mar i Terra, C. Sant Magi 89. Free.
Thursday, January 19
Palma, Sant Sebastià Fiestas - 7pm: Giants and bigheads from the town hall to Plaça Major. 7.15pm: Giants' dance and performance by the Mallorca School of Music and Dance. 7.50pm: Drac de na Coca dragon and batucada from the town hall to Plaça Major. 8.10pm: Lighting of the bonfire by the dragon.
Plaça Cort: From 9pm: Mikel Erentxun, The Gramophone All Stars Band.
Plaça Reina: From 8.30pm: Paula Cendejas, Ana Tijoux, Marc Seguí.
Plaça Joan Carles I: From 9pm: Bilo, Amaia, La La Love You.
Plaça Major: From 8.30pm: Sedaç, Ballugall, Cris Juanico.
Plaça Olivar: From 9pm: Jane Yo, Nita, Doctor Prats.
Sa Pobla, Sant Sebastià Fiestas - 8pm: Barbecue, ximbombas, glosadors. Plaça Major.
Helsingborg, Sweden
Researchers have hypothesized that the universe contains "dark matter." They have also posited the existence of "dark energy." These two hypotheses account for the movement of stars in galaxies and for the accelerating expansion of the universe. But according to a researcher at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), these concepts may be no longer valid, as universal phenomena can be demonstrated without them. This research exploits a new theoretical model based on the scale invariance of empty space.
In 1933, the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky claimed there is substantially more matter in the universe than we can actually see. Astronomers called this unknown matter "dark matter," a concept that was to take on yet more importance in the 1970s, when the U.S. astronomer Vera Rubin invoked this enigmatic matter to explain the movements and speed of the stars.
Scientists have subsequently devoted considerable resources to identifying dark matter in space, on the ground and at CERN, but without success. In 1998, a team of Australian and U.S. astrophysicists discovered the acceleration of the expansion of the universe, earning the Nobel Prize for physics in 2011.
However, in spite of enormous science resources, no theory or observation has been able to define this energy that is allegedly stronger than Newton's gravitational attraction. In short, dark matter and dark energy are mysteries that have stumped astronomers for decades.
The way physicists represent the universe and its history are described by Einstein's equations of general relativity, Newton's universal gravitation and quantum mechanics. The consensus at present is that of a Big Bang followed by expansion.
"In this model, there is a starting hypothesis that hasn't been taken into account, in my opinion," says André Maeder, honorary professor in the Department of Astronomy in UNIGE's Faculty of Science. "By that, I mean the scale invariance of empty space; in other words, empty space and its properties do not change following a dilatation or contraction."
Empty space plays a primordial role in Einstein's equations as it operates in a quantity known as a "cosmological constant," and the resulting model depends on it. Based on this hypothesis, Maeder is now re-examining the Standard Model of the universe, pointing out that the scale invariance of empty space is also present in the fundamental theory of electromagnetism.
When Maeder carried out cosmological tests on his new model, he found that it matched observations. He also found that the model predicts the accelerated expansion of the universe without having to factor in dark energy. In short, it appears that dark energy may not actually exist since the acceleration of the expansion is contained in the equations of the physics.
In a second stage, Maeder focused on Newton's law, a specific instance of the equations of general relativity. The law is also slightly modified when the model incorporates Maeder's new hypothesis. Indeed, it contains a very small outward acceleration term, which is particularly significant at low densities. This amended law, when applied to clusters of galaxies, leads to masses of clusters in line with that of visible matter (contrary to what Zwicky argued in 1933).
This means that no dark matter is needed to explain the high speeds of the galaxies in the clusters. A second test demonstrated that this law also predicts the high speeds reached by the stars in the outer regions of galaxies (as Rubin had observed), without having to resort to dark matter to describe them.
Finally, a third test looked at the dispersion of the speeds of the stars oscillating around the plane of the Milky Way. This dispersion, which increases with the age of the relevant stars, can be explained very well using the invariant empty space hypothesis, while there was before no agreement on the origin of this effect.
Maeder's discovery paves the way for a new conception of astronomy that will raise questions and generate controversy. "The announcement of this model, which at last solves two of astronomy's greatest mysteries, remains true to the spirit of science: nothing can ever be taken for granted, not in terms of experience, observation or the reasoning of human beings," concluded André Maeder.
The Daily Galaxy via University of Geneva
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Could this be the end for dark matter and dark energy theories?
Helsingborg, Sweden
Great tips
Helsingborg, Sweden
4 public comments
Life hacks!
Berlin/Germany
A quick and easy way to make an address-book listing all your pals: just take an old phone directory and cross out the people you don't know!
Clothing costs starting to rack up? You can throw your old clothes in the washing machine, and within two hours it'll be ready to go again. No need to keep replacing it every time you wear it.
East Helena, MT
To make your shoes feel more comfortable, smell better, and last longer, try taking them off before you shower.
Researchers have uncovered an entirely new way cosmology that sheds light on the future of particle physics by showing how the largest possible structure – the curvature of the universe as a whole – can be used as a lens onto the smallest objects observable today, elementary particles.
Niayesh Afshordi and postdoctoral fellow Elliot Nelson of Canada's Perimeter Institute began with the knowledge that space is flat. While there are local wrinkles, they are wrinkles in a flat space, not wrinkles in curved space. The universe as a whole is within one percent of flat. The problem is that it shouldn’t be. The vacuum of space is not empty; it is filled with fields that may be weak but cannot be zero – nothing quantum can ever be zero, because quantum things wiggle.According to general relativity, such fluctuations should cause spacetime to curve. In fact, a straightforward calculation of how much the vacuum should curve predicts a universe so tightly wound that the moon would not fit inside it.
Cosmologists have typically worked around this problem – that the universe should be curved, but looks flat – by assuming there is some antigravity that exactly offsets the tendency of the vacuum to curve. This set of off-base predictions and unlikely corrections is known as the cosmological constant problem, and it has been dogging cosmology for more than half a century.
The images above and below are a “visualization showing fields of view” of the entire observable Universe, an illustration created by Pablo Carlos Budassi was based on almost incomprehensible logarithmic maps created by Princeton University. Budassi’s illustrations of celestial bodies were based on images from NASA. Shown in the image are all the bodies of our solar system, with the Sun at the center, the Kuiper Belt, the Oort Cloud, the Perseus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Andromeda Galaxy. The outer rim is said to be comprised of the Cosmic Microwave Background, a byproduct of the Big Bang, and a “ring of plasma” said to have been created by the Big Bang.
In their paper, Nelson and Afshordi make no attempt to solve it, but where other cosmologists invoked an offsetting constant and moved on, Nelson and Afshordi went on to ask one more question: Does adding such a constant to cancel the vacuum’s energy guarantee a flat spacetime? Their answer: not quite.
The vacuum is still filled with quantum fields, and it is the nature of quantum fields to fluctuate. Even if they are perfectly offset such that their average value is zero, they will still fluctuate around that zero point. Those fluctuations should (again) cause space to curve – just not as much.
In this scenario, the amount of curve created by the known fields – the electromagnetic field, for example, or the Higgs field – is too small to be measured, and is therefore allowed. But any unknown field would have to be weak enough that its fluctuations would not cause an observable curve in the universe. This sets a maximum energy for unknown fields.
A theoretical maximum on a theoretical field may not sound groundbreaking – but the work opens a new window in an unexpected place: particle physics.
A particle, quantum mechanics teaches us, is just an excitation of a field. A photon is an excitation of the electric field, for example, and the newly discovered Higgs boson is an excitation of the Higgs field. It’s roughly similar to the way a wave is an excitation of the ocean. And just as the height of a breaking wave can tell us something about the depth of the water, the mass of a particle depends on the strength of its corresponding field.
New kinds of quantum fields are often associated with proposals to extend the Standard Model of particle physics. If Afshordi and Nelson are right, and there can be no such fields whose fluctuations have enough energy to noticeably curve space, there can be no unknown particles with a mass of more than 35 TeV. The authors predict that if there are new fields and particles associated with an extension to the Standard Model, they will be below that range.
For generations, particle physics has made progress from the bottom up: building more and more powerful colliders to create – then spot and study – heavier and heavier particles. It is as if we started from the ground floor and built up, discovering more particles at higher altitudes as we went. What Nelson and Afshordi have done is lower the sky.
There is a great deal of debate in particle physics about whether we should build increasingly powerful accelerators to search for heavier unknown particles. Right now, the most powerful accelerator in the world, the Large Hadron Collider, runs at a top energy of about 14 TeV; a proposed new super accelerator in China would run at about 100 TeV. As this debate unfolds, this new work could be particularly useful in helping experimentalists decide which energy levels – which skyscraper heights – are the most interesting.
The sky does indeed have a limit, this research suggests – and we are about to hit it.
The Daily Galaxy via Perimeter Institute
Image credit: Courtesy of Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikimedia Commons
Interesting about curvature of space and the implications on particle physics
Helsingborg, Sweden
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