The Romanovs’ Last Ball Brought to Life in Color Photographs (1903)

 The Romanovs’ Last Ball Brought to Life in Color Photographs (1903)

In 1903, the Romanovs, Russia’s last and longest-reigning royal family, held a lavish costume ball. It was to be their final blowout, and perhaps also the “last great royal ball” in Europe, writes the Vintage News. The party took place at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, 14 years before Czar Nicholas II’s abdication, on the 290th anniversary of Romanov rule. The Czar invited 390 guests and the ball ranged over two days of festivities, with elaborate 17th-century boyar costumes, including “38 original royal items of the 17th century from the armory in Moscow.”

“The first day featured feasting and dancing,” notes Russia Beyond, “and a masked ball was held on the second. Everything was captured in a photo album that continues to inspire artists to this day.” The entire Romanov family gathered for a photograph on the staircase of the Hermitage theater, the last time they would all be photographed together.

Bretton Woods and the Birth of the World Bank

 Bretton Woods and the Birth of the World Bank

The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

On July 1, 1944, as the battles of the Second World War raged in Europe and the Pacific, delegates from forty-four nations met at the secluded Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to participate in what became known as the Bretton Woods Conference. Their purpose was to agree on a system of economic order and international cooperation that would help countries recover from the devastation of the war and foster long-term global growth. At its conclusion, the conference attendees produced the Articles of Agreement for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Todays Thought

The Hollow Men: Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the shadow. For Thine is the Kingdom

-T.S. Eliot, poet (26 Sep 1888-1965)

Poem Analysis

The next stanza explains that all along, the thing which has kept them from changing their own situation was “the Shadow.” This for is undefined, but it comes “Between the idea / And the reality.” It blocks any intentions for change the men might have. There is no way for their motions to coalesce into actions. 

The line “For Thine is the Kingdom” is separated from the rest of the text. This is part of the Lord’s Prayer but is missing the ending, “and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Eliot includes this fragment of the prayer to show the good intentions of the men but their inability to do anything to completion. 

The Truth About Asians

Todays Thought

No battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools. 

-William Faulkner, novelist (25 Sep 1897-1962)

She got famous on YouTube. Now it helps fund her research in quantum gravity

 She got famous on YouTube. Now it helps fund her research in quantum gravity

The Central Processing Unit (CPU): Crash Course Computer Science #7

Today we’re going to build the ticking heart of every computer - the Central Processing Unit or CPU. The CPU’s job is to execute the programs we know and love - you know like GTA V, Slack... and Power Point. To make our CPU we’ll bring in our ALU and RAM we made in the previous two episodes and then with the help of Carrie Anne’s wonderful dictation (slowly) step through some clock cycles. WARNING: this is probably the most complicated episode in this series, we watched this a few times over ourselves, but don't worry at about .03Hz we think you can keep up.