Author: Robert Richardson

  • Little Richard, Flamboyant Wild Man of Rock ’n’ Roll, Dies at 87 – The New York Times

    Richard Penniman, better known as Little Richard, who combined the sacred shouts of the black church and the profane sounds of the blues to create some of the world’s first and most influential rock ’n’ roll records, died on Saturday morning in Tullahoma, Tenn. He was 87.His lawyer, Bill Sobel, said the cause was bone cancer.Little Richard did not invent rock ’n’ roll. Other musicians had already been mining a similar vein by the time he recorded his first hit, “Tutti Frutti” — a raucous song about sex, its lyrics cleaned up but its meaning hard to miss — in a New Orleans recording studio in September 1955. Chuck Berry and Fats Domino had reached the pop Top 10, Bo Diddley had topped the rhythm-and-blues charts, and Elvis Presley had been making records for a year.

    Source: Little Richard, Flamboyant Wild Man of Rock ’n’ Roll, Dies at 87 – The New York Times

  • Cuban Rum: An interesting history – Espíritu Travel to Cuba

    It is not clear the date in which the settlers of these tropical lands discovered it was possible to distill a nice beverage from the leftovers of the sugar cane, however, by 1672, pirates and corsairs produced and transported the rumballion. Some believe the name derived from the English rural slang where the term rumballion meant clamor or noise. Truth is that the rum started to be very popular among the sailors because it could to endure long trips and also it was useful to treat different conditions and diseases typical from the Caribbean environments.

    Source: Cuban Rum: An interesting history – Espíritu Travel to Cuba

  • What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine | Bill Gates

    One of the questions I get asked the most these days is when the world will be able to go back to the way things were in December before the coronavirus pandemic. My answer is always the same: when we have an almost perfect drug to treat COVID-19, or when almost every person on the planet has been vaccinated against coronavirus.The former is unlikely to happen anytime soon. We’d need a miracle treatment that was at least 95 percent effective to stop the outbreak. Most of the drug candidates right now are nowhere near that powerful. They could save a lot of lives, but they aren’t enough to get us back to normal.Which leaves us with a vaccine.

    Source: What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine | Bill Gates

  • GPS notches up 25 years of telling us where to go

    The Global Position System (GPS) has turned 25 years old. Operated by the US Space Force, the constellation of navigational satellites went fully operational on April 27, 1995, though US Space Command only made the formal announcement three months later in July of that year.

    Source: GPS notches up 25 years of telling us where to go

  • Interactive Finance-Financial Literacy

    Interactive Finance – Multi-language.

    Financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively apply various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. Financial literacy helps individuals become self-sufficient so that they can achieve financial stability.
    This is all about no more typing with over 9900 preset searches for 8 Search Engines! These guides never go out of date due to the power of the internet! Translate in your language through your browser. You can now avoid spelling mistakes and language difficulties making guide simple enough for even for those with learning disabilities to use. Stop using paper!

  • Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant-Moment in time

    MOMENT IN TIME: APRIL 28, 1986

    NW-MIT-CHERNOBYL-ADMIT-0427
    FILE – This April 1986 aerial file photo shows the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, as made two to three days after the explosion in Chernobyl, Ukraine. (AP Photo/File) 
    It was only 41 words but Mikhail Gorbachev, the last general secretary of the Communist Party, later described the events as leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union. At 9:02 p.m., on April 28, 1986, the Soviet Union issued a statement: “There has been an accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the nuclear reactors was damaged. The effects of the accident are being remedied. Assistance has been provided for any affected people. An investigative commission has been set up.” The accident happened two days previous and it was still early in Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, which was meant to leverage the ingenuity of the Soviet citizen to address the problems of their system and seek solutions through openness and transparency in government. The policy had the opposite effect. The attempted cover-up of the world’s worst nuclear disaster showed Soviet citizens the hypocrisy of glasnost and that their government and industry were inferior and incompetent. The outcome was open dissent. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Gorbachev resigned after an attempted coup in 1991, effectively ending 74 years of Communist rule. – Graeme Harris
  • Travellers arriving in UK will be told to self-isolate for two weeks | The Independent

    As airlines start preparing to increase flights across Europe and the world, the government is planning to impose stringent restrictions on anyone arriving in Britain. At present, the UK is one of

    Source: Travellers arriving in UK will be told to self-isolate for two weeks | The Independent

  • At New York’s ‘Museums of Plants,’ the Art Is Blooming Lonely – The New York Times

    Phil Macaluso, a gardener, bikes to work at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden four days a week from his home about a five-minute ride away. The garden is closed, but the trees and everything else in Brooklyn are still growing, even if other aspects of the city’s life have come to a standstill.The garden’s 52 acres of cherry blossoms, azaleas, crab apple trees and daffodils are reaching their peak beauty now, and though there are few around to witness it, the two dozen gardeners still work to keep the plants flourishing, the pests and weeds at bay, the lawn mowed.

    Source: At New York’s ‘Museums of Plants,’ the Art Is Blooming Lonely – The New York Times

  • Stripe raises $600M at $36B valuation in Series G extension, says it has $2B on its balance sheet | TechCrunch

    The economy may be contracting as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but promising startups are still continuing to raise money to shore up their finances for whatever may lie ahead. In the latest development, Stripe, a well-known payments unicorn, today announced that it had raised another $600 million in new capital, money that it plans to […]

    Source: Stripe raises $600M at $36B valuation in Series G extension, says it has $2B on its balance sheet | TechCrunch

  • Can you renew your passport during lockdown? | The Independent

    The Independent has revealed that almost 200,000 children’s passports are running out each month – with no routine renewals happening. A further 300,000-plus adults are affected. These are the key

    Source: Can you renew your passport during lockdown? | The Independent