Current events, history, and classical-music micro-summaries for June 30, 2019

Debating the health of the transatlantic relationship; The French king who became Saint Louis had scurvy; Paying parking tickets with school supply donations; Youtube deleted 130 rap music videos because of gang violence; A Steem performance of @jsbach's ‘Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig’ BWV 644

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Straight from my RSS feed:

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

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1. The Transatlantic Relationship Has Been Irreparably Damaged - In partnership with the German Marshall Fund, IQ² debates the motion, "The transatlantic relationship has been irreparably damaged". Federiga Bindi and Constanze Stelzenmüller argue for the motion. John J. Mearsheimer and Carla Norrlof argue against it. As with all IQ² debates, the debate is formatted as an Oxford style debate in three rounds, with opening statements in round 1, question and answers in round 2, and closing statements in round 3. It lasts for about 1:25. Those on the "for" side worry about rising nationalism, wars, tariffs, and the increasing shift in America's attention from Europe to Asia. Those on the against side argue that western liberal values still dominate over nationalism, the relationship's foundation is strong, the necessity of NATO is widely acknowledged, and all "western" nations share similar interests. In addition to the video, the transcript is also available on the site. If you haven't seen an IQ² debate, I recommend all of them. I think John Donvan is a fantastic moderator.


2. Scientists Find Scurvy in Mouth of Long-Dead, Failed Crusader King - Louis IX was a French king who died in Tunis in the year 1270 during the eighth crusade. He was later canonized as Saint Louis. A jawbone that was buried in Notre Dame was said to belong to him. Now, researchers have published a description of their forensic analysis of the jaw bone. Their analysis confirmed that the jaw bone did belong to King Louis IX, and that he had scurvy, a disease that results from a deficiency in vitamin C. A follow-up study will need to be done on the king's gut (which was also preserved) to see whether he was killed by the scurvy or something else. The identification was done through a combination of carbon dating to verify the age of the jaw, visual comparison with a portrait of the king, and medical inspection to verify that the jaw belonged to a 56 year old man. h/t archaeology.org


3. Las Vegas Is Letting Drivers Pay Their Parking Tickets With Donated School Supplies - This is probably the first time since the 2010 murder of Erik B. Scott made the news that I've had something good to say about Las Vegas. This new program gives people the opportunity to get parking tickets forgiven by donating school supplies between now and July 19.


4. YouTube deleted 130 rap videos to help police fight street gangs responsible for thousands of stabbings - London police argue that the videos are used for recruiting by the gangs, and that there is a direct correlation between the videos and violence on the street.


5. STEEM JS Bach ‘Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig’ BWV 644 - In this post, @tormus1958 includes an embedded youtube video of an organ performance of Bach's Ach wie nichtig, ach we fluchtig, and a written discussion of the work. He points out that Bach's shorter pieces are often the most difficult to play because of the need to be fully expressive in a brief time period. The description draws special attention to simultaneous effects from the soprano voice, the pedal line, and the alto and tenor voices. (@tormus1958 will receive 5% of the rewards from this post)

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In order to help make Steem the go to place for timely information on diverse topics, I invite you to discuss any of these links in the comments and/or your own response post.

For example, feel free to comment on any or all of these discussion topics:

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• What is your position on the motion from the IQ² debate, The transatlantic relationship has been irreparably damaged?
  
  
• What are your thoughts on the idea to let drivers donate school supplies to make good on parking tickets? Should the program be extended or repeated? Would you support it in your own jurisdiction?
  
  
• In America, there is a great deal of debate over youtube censorship for ideological reasons. What do you think about censorship in London for the intended purpose of preventing violence?
  
  

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About this series

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