Nobel Prize for PEACE
Monday, September 26, 2016
Nobel Prize History...
Nobel Prize History
History of the world's most famous prizesby Beth Rowen
The Nobel prizes are awarded under the will of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, who died in 1896. The interest of the fund is divided annually among the persons who have made the most outstanding contributions in the fields of physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine, who have produced the most distinguished literary work of an idealist tendency, and who have contributed most toward world peace.
In 1968, a Nobel Prize of economic sciences was established by Riksbank, the Swedish bank, in celebration of its 300th anniversary. The prize was awarded for the first time in 1969.
The prizes for physics and chemistry are awarded by the Swedish Academy of Science in Stockholm, the one for physiology or medicine by the Caroline Medical Institute in Stockholm, that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm, and that for peace by a committee of five elected by the Norwegian Storting. The distribution of prizes was begun on December 10, 1901, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The amount of each prize varies with the income from the fund and in 2007 is worth ten million Swedish kroners, or more than one and a half million U.S. dollars. No Nobel prizes were awarded for 1940, 1941, and 1942; prizes for literature were not awarded for 1914, 1918, and 1943.
Winning a Nobel Prize is a life-changing honor. Whether the laureate is an internationally known figure (such as Mother Teresa or Barack Obama, winners of the 1979 and 2009 Peace Prize, respectively) or a scientist plucked from obscurity (like Richard R. Ernst, who won the 1991 prize in chemistry for refinements in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy), the award brings with it worldwide recognition that highlights one's life work and provides the funds to continue and further the mission. For academics and institutions, a Nobel Prize is used to attract the best and the brightest minds, whether students or scholars.
2015 Nobel Prizes
Peace
The National Dialogue Quartet (Tunisia) "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011."
Physiology or Medicine
One-half jointly to William C. Campbell (U.S.) and Satoshi Ōmura (Japan) for their discoveries concerning a therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites, and one-half to Youyou Tu (China) for her discovery of a therapy against Malaria.
Physics
Jointly to Takaaki Kajita (Japan) and Arthur B. McDonald (Canada) "for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass."
Chemistry
Jointly to Tomas Lindahl (UK), Paul Modrich (U.S.), and Aziz Sancar (U.S.) "for mechanistic studies of DNA repair."
Literature
Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."
Economics
Angus Deaton (UK/U.S.) "for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare."
Industrialist With a Conscience
Alfred B. Nobel (1833–1896), the Swedish chemist and engineer who invented dynamite, left $9 million in his will to establish the Nobel Prizes, which are awarded annually, without regard to nationality, in six areas (peace, literature, physics,chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economic science) "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
At first glance, it seems odd that the inventor of a powerful explosive would endow a group of awards that includes a peace prize. But Nobel was an industrialist with a conscience. He is credited with creating a controllable combustible that made blasting rock and the construction of canals and tunnels a relatively safe process. Nobel also contributed to the inventions of synthetic rubber, artificial silk, and synthetic leather. He held more than 350 patents. His interests were not limited to science. In fact, he was a lover of English literature and poetry and wrote several novels and poems. At his death, he left a library of more than 1,500 books, from fiction to philosophy.
Family Members Contest Last Wishes
Family members were shocked when they learned that Nobel had dictated that his fortune be used to establish the Nobel Prizes. They contested his will, but his final wishes were executed and the first awards were distributed in 1901, on the fifth anniversary of his death. The prize in economics, however, was established in 1968 by Riksbank, the Swedish bank, in honor of its 300th anniversary. Stockholm's Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences administers the award in physics and chemistry, the Royal Caroline Medical Institute awards the prize in physiology or medicine, and the Swedish Academy oversees the prize in literature. The Norwegian Storting, or parliament, awards the peace
prize.
The Peace Prize
The first female Nobel Peace prize winner, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, in 1905, was perhaps the inspiration for the award itself. Von Suttner, who organized the Austrian Peace Society and wrote the landmark anti-war novel Lay Down Your Arms, was a close friend of Alfred Nobel. When he established the peace prize, he wrote that it should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses"—precisely the work the Baroness had been engaged in.
In 2014, Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani activist who was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for promoting the education of women, shared the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the youngest recipient of a Nobel Prize.
The Prizes
Each winner of a Nobel Prize, which can go to individuals and institutions, takes home a medal, a diploma, and cash, which varies each year and depends on the income earned on the Nobel Foundation fund. In 2008, winners recipients receive 10 million Swedish kroners, or about $1.72 million.
The awards process begins an entire year before the awards are announced, with the administers of the awards inviting nominations from the fall through January 31 of the next year. On February 1, the six committees begin considering nominees and make recommendations to the prize-awarding subcommittees in September and early October. The winners must be announced by November 15. Nobel week begins in early October. The Nobel Prizes are awarded on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
Posthumous nominations for the prizes are not allowed. This has sparked controversy, with critics saying that people who deserved a Nobel Prize did not receive one because they died before being nominated. In two cases the Prize has been awarded posthumously to people who were nominated when they were still alive. This was the case with UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld (1961, Peace Prize) and Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1931, Literature)—both of whom were awarded the prize in the years they died. Since 1974, awards have not been allowed for a deceased person. William Vickrey (1996, Economics) died before he could receive the prize, but after it was announced.
Turning Down the Prize
Prizes are not automatically awarded each year. They can be withheld if there are no worthy candidates or when a world situation makes awarding the prizes impractical. Because of World War II, no awards were given from 1940–1942. Prizes can also be declined. Even if a prize is declined, the winner is entered in the books, but the cash gift reverts back to the fund. In 1937, Hitler issued a decree that forbade Germans from accepting Nobel Prizes. He considered pacifist journalist Carl von Ossietzky's 1935 peace prize a slap in the face. In 1973 Le Duc Tho refused the Nobel Peace Prize as he did not believe peace had been reached in Vietnam.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
6 Things We’ve Learned About Oscars Field 2016
6 Things We’ve Learned About Oscars Field 2016...
Photo: Long Way Home Productions, Black Label Media
Three weeks ago, I plumbed this year's unsettled Oscars race, but now that we have fall film festivals in Toronto, Telluride, and Venice behind us, many of the key pieces of awards season have begun falling into place. Which fortunes have changed since some of the year's biggest contenders have begun to screen? Here are six things we've recently learned about the likely Oscars lineup.
Best Actress will be a war zone
How stacked is this year’s Best Actress lineup? So stacked that even five-time nominee Amy Adams, who delivers two strong performances this year, in the alien drama Arrival and Tom Ford’s revenge thriller Nocturnal Animals, looks like an on-the-bubble pick for the final five. La La Land’s Emma Stone and Jackie’s Natalie Portman came out of the fall-festival circuit with turbocharged momentum and are guaranteed nominations, Florence Foster Jenkins star Meryl Streep has a movie that will play well with older Academy members all season, and we’ve still yet to see highly buzzed-about performances, from 20th Century Women’s Annette Bening and Fences’ Viola Davis, neither of whom have won an Oscar despite multiple nominations. I still think Stone has the makings of a front-runner: La La Land is nearly certain to score Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, and in recent years, whenever an ingenue has fronted a movie that could boast both nods, she has the edge in Best Actress (as winners like Silver Linings Playbook’s Jennifer Lawrence, Room’s Brie Larson, and, well, Black Swan’s Natalie Portman can all attest). A lot will depend on the scope of Bening’s role and which category Davis competes in — if either woman dropped down to Best Supporting, they’d likely swamp the whole field — but this looks to be the most competitive actress race in ages.
The male acting categories are penetrable
Most years, I can give you a set of five snubbed Best Actor contenders that’s just as strong as the five ultimately selected by the Academy, but this year feels different. No male performance at Toronto had the heat of Portman or Stone, and the fest mostly provided another venue for actors who’d generated far more buzz earlier in the year, like Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea, Joel Edgerton in Loving, and Nate Parker in The Birth of a Nation. (Last year, two Best Actor nominees premiered at Toronto, The Martian’s Matt Damon and Trumbo’s Bryan Cranston, but this year’s lineup offered no likely gate-crashers.) The fall-festival gauntlet has added a few more names to the Best Supporting Actor conversation, including Lion’s Dev Patel, Michael Shannon in Nocturnal Animals, and many of the cast members of Moonlight, but both fields still feel ripe for a late-season shakeup.
La La Land is in pole position for Best Picture ...
At this point in the year, we’ve usually seen the eventual Best Picture winner: The last several, including Spotlight, Birdman, 12 Years a Slave, and Argo, debuted on the fall-festival circuit. If history holds, then, Damien Chazelle’s winsome modern musical La La Land is sitting prettiest. Not only did it win the Toronto Film Festival’s Audience Award, which often presages Oscars glory, but it boasts a powerhouse contending performance by Emma Stone and is the most well-liked of the fall films by a far sight. (It’s also about show business, which will register with the Academy members who once flipped for The Artist, Argo, and Birdman.) I’m not ready to call it the likely winner just yet — there are still enough films left to come that boast a comparatively strong profile on paper — but based on the rapturous reception the movie has gotten so far, Chazelle and company must be floating.
... and most of the Best Picture lineup has likely already screened
There are still some major contenders yet to screen this year … hell, there are still some major movies that haven’t even confirmed a 2016 release date, though everyone in town expects Live by Night, Silence, and Hidden Figures to at least muster some sort of December qualifying run. Those films, as well as the Ang Lee–directed Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Denzel Washington’s adaptation of Fences, still have time to transform the field as we know it. That being said, enough of the major movies have screened at this point that we could likely assemble at least half of the eventual Best Picture lineup from some combination of the following titles: The Birth of a Nation, Florence Foster Jenkins, Hell or High Water, La La Land, Lion, Loving, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, and Sully. Which of those talked-about films do you think will survive the season?
The Birth of a Nation’s screenings still pack a punch
The slave-revolt drama The Birth of a Nation came out of Sundance white-hot, and after paying $17.5 million to acquire it, Fox Searchlight intended to let the film lie dormant over the summer before reactivating all that buzz with a splashy Toronto Film Festival bow in the fall. That PR plan failed to proceed as scheduled once a college rape charge against writer-director-actor Nate Parker started making headlines in August, but the studio pressed ahead regardless, and the screenings in Toronto actually went well, earning Parker a standing ovation. It’s true that a later press conference found Parker on shakier ground, but if Searchlight limits his media appearances while continuing to screen the film for invested audiences, it’s possible the studio can mitigate its tricky sell.
The Weinsteins can’t be counted out
It doesn’t feel right to have a Best Picture derby without Harvey Weinstein in it, but after several consecutive years of contending for Oscar’s biggest trophy, the Weinstein Company couldn’t manage a Best Picture nod last year. That rare slip, plus a public downsizing, had led many in the industry to start discounting the Weinsteins’ Oscar chances … but the sensitive, crowd-pleasing adoption drama Lion will almost certainly score some major nods, including nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Dev Patel), and Best Supporting Actress (Nicole Kidman). The question is whether Weinstein will spend his resources on making that Toronto debut a hit, or save some for the flashy-looking Matthew McConaughey drama Gold and Michael Keaton’s biopic of McDonald's Ray Kroc, The Founder, both due out later this year.
Thanks...
News & Events of 1990...
News & Events of 1990...
World Events
Fauvist movement in painting begins, led by Henri Matisse.
Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams.
In China, the anti-foreigner Boxers occupy Beijing. International force ends both the siege and the Boxer Rebellion.
U.S. Events
Hurricane ravages Galveston, Tex.; 6,000 – 8,000 dead. Background: U.S. Hurricanes
Carrie Chapman Catt succeeds Susan B. Anthony as president of National Woman Suffrage Association.
Economics
Unemployment: 5.0%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.02
Sports
Stanley Cup
Montreal Shamrocks
Wimbledon
Women: Blanche Hillyard d. C. Cooper (4-6 6-4 6-4)
Men: Reggie Doherty d. S. Smith (6-8 6-3 6-1 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Lieut. Gibson
NCAA Football Champions
Yale (12-0-0)
1900 Summer Olympics
Entertainment
Events
Floradora opens at Broadway's Casino Theatre. It introduces the Floradora sextet, a predecessor to the chorus line.
Science
German physicist Max Planck formulates an energy theory, postulating the existence of "quanta," which lays the groundwork for the quantum theory of modern physics.
Stephen Hawking Is Still Afraid of Aliens...
Stephen Hawking Is Still Afraid of Aliens...
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking views a CGI alien civilization on the exoplanet Gliese 832c in this still from the new documentary "Stephen Hawking's Favorite Places."
Credit: "Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places"/CuriosityStream
Humanity should be wary of seeking out contact with alien civilizations, Stephen Hawking has warned once again.
In 2010, the famed astrophysicist said that intelligent aliens may be rapacious marauders, roaming the cosmos in search of resources to plunder and planets to conquer and colonize. He reiterates that basic concern in "Stephen Hawking's Favorite Places," a new documentary streaming now on the CuriosityStream video service.
"One day, we might receive a signal from a planet like this," Hawking says in the documentary, referring to a potentially habitable alien world known as Gliese 832c. "But we should be wary of answering back. Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well."
For what it's worth, some other astronomers believe Hawking's caution is unwarranted. Any alien civilization advanced enough to come to Earth would surely already know of humans' existence via the radio and TV signals that humanity has been sending out into space since 1900 or so, this line of thinking goes.
The alien musings are just a small part of "Stephen Hawking's Favorite Places." The 26-minute documentary shows the scientist zooming through the cosmos on a souped-up CGI spaceship called the "S.S. Hawking," making five separate stops.
Hawking observes the Big Bang that created the universe, visits the monster black hole at the center of the Milky Way, journeys to Gliese 832c and tours Saturn in Earth's own solar system. Then, he makes a final stop in Santa Barbara, California, which Hawking calls "my home away from home."
"In 1974, Caltech [the California Institute of Technology] offered me a job in California," the Englishman Hawking says in the documentary. "I jumped at the opportunity. In the sun with my young family, it was a world away from the gray skies of Cambridge, [England]. I've traveled the globe, but I've never found anywhere quite like this."
Friday, September 23, 2016
10 Countries with Strongest Armies in the World...
10 Countries with Strongest Armies in the World...
Armies are considered an important part of a country and its security. Every year, a large fortune is allocated out of the budget for fighting battles. Countries take special initiatives to strengthen themselves militarily. If we try to compare the armies of the different nations to gauge the countries with strongest armies, it would probably not be possible to do so hypothetically. However, without leading to a bloodbath, we can have a fair idea about the military strengths of countries by taking into account the arsenal in their possession, advanced technologies implemented, training, power and number of allies, size of the army, budget allocated, etc. While it is a rather subjective issue, several organizations, such as Business Insider, conduct their own studies to rank the military powers. Let’s take a look at the Top 10 Countries with Strongest Armies.
10. Japan
Japan was the land of Samurais, and Japan was a leading military force in WW-II. Interestingly, its peace treaty at the end of WW-II prohibits it from having an offensive army. In response to its growing disputes with the ever-expanding China, Japan started military expansion, first time in 40 years, placing new base on outer islands. It increased its military spending, first time in 11 years, to $49.1 billion, the world’s 6th highest. It has over 247,000 active personnel and almost 60,000 in reserve. With 1,595 aircraft, it is the 5th largest air force. The army is also equipped with 131 war ships. Besides, through its recent defence initiatives, it maintains a solid military presence in Asia.
9. South Korea
South Korea shares its border with North Korea which has an extremely powerful army at its disposal, and hence, is a constant threat to South Korea. But, its offensive neighbour is not its only problem. To meet the increasing armament of China and Japan, South Korea has been increasing its defence expenditure, which is now $34 billion. It maintains a large army of over 640,000 active personnel and 2,900,000 additional personnel in the reserve, alongside the 6th largest air force with 1,393 aircraft, as well as a small 166 ships. The country has about 15,000 land weapons, including rocket systems, as well as 2,346 tanks. It routinely participates in military training with the US.
8. Turkey
It was perhaps the struggle of the other countries sharing borders with the regions where the Islamic State has a strong presence, the struggle in Syria or the probability of clashes with the Kurdish separatist organization, PKK, which made Turkey realize that it needs to prepare itself to face danger head on, if and when it approaches, and decide to increase its investment in defence in 2015 by 10%. Its defence budget is at $18.18 billion. Its army size, including regular troops and reserves, is just above 660,000. Turkey’s air force has 1000 aircraft. The military also claims to 16,000 land weapons. It has strong diplomatic ties with the US, and partakes in initiatives around the world.
7. Germany
Germany is one of the strongest economic forces in the world, but despite spending around $45 million every year, the army’s condition seems to have deteriorated in the past few years. This is perhaps because, the generation born and growing up in the 1950-60s were against war and its atrocities, and the fear of being beaten by countries with strongest armies, still discourages the people to join the army. In 2011, mandatory military service was eliminated to prevent the country from being a militarized country. It has only 183,000 active frontline personnel and 145,000 reservists, alongside 710 aircraft in total, and on-land armament of nearly 5,000 of various kinds.
6. France
France is another country to follow Germany’s lead because, in 2013, it took the decision to ‘effectively ‘freeze’ its military spending, and cut down on the defence jobs by 10%, to save money for technologically advanced equipment. Its current military budget stands at $43 a year, which is 1.9% of the country’s GDP, much below the spending target as set by NATO. Over 220,000 regular force combines with reservists to form a force of about 500,000. It has just over 1,000 aircraft, along with 9,000 ground vehicles. Even if these do not make France a formidable army, its position in the EU and UN, a total 290 nuclear weapons, and significant deployments strengthen the country.
5. The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom, another member of the EU, also has a plan of reducing the size of the armed forces by 20% between 2010 and 2018, and apply smaller cuts to the Royal Navy and RAF. The defence budget of the UK currently stands at $54 billion. It has a regular force of only about 205,000, along with a small air force of 908 aircraft, and an even smaller navy of 66 ships. However, the army of the UK is still a powerful one, with its superior training, equipment and its 160 nuclear weapons being the main strengths. The Royal Navy is planning to put to service HMS Queen Elizabeth, in 2020. It is an aircraft carrier, planned to carry 40 F-35B joint strike fighters around the world.
4. India
India has put its massive population to use, and built an army of a sizeable 3.5 million, including 1.325 million active military. The huge size of the Indian military is one of the reasons why it has always remained among the countries with best armies in the world. The man force of the army is complemented by almost 16,000 land vehicles which include 3,500 tanks, as well as 1,785 aircraft, alongside nuclear weapons. Its ballistic missiles can hit all of Pakistan or most of China. Its current defence budget stands at $46 billion, but it is expected to rise, in a drive to modernize the military power and become the 4th highest spender by 2020. It is the world’s largest military goods importer.
3. China
China’s defence budget officially stands at $126 billion, and, in a relentless drive to invest massively in defence, there is likely to be an increase of budget by 12.2%. It has a formidable size of army, with 2.285 million active frontline personnel and a further 2.3 million reservists, making it the world’s largest land force, along with nearly 25,000 land vehicles. It has another 2,800 aircraft on its air force. China is in possession of about 300 nuclear weapons, alongside 180 different methods of their deployment. China recently acquired sensitive information about the new F-35, and is noted for successfully stealing sensitive military technology. China is rightly among the top 3 armed forces.
2. Russia
Russia’s defence budget stands at $76.6 billion, and is expected to grow 44% more in the next three years. In fact, the military spending of Kremlin has increased by about a third since 2008, especially since Vladimir Putin took hold of Russia in 2000. The Russian army has shown substantial growth since the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago. It has 766,000 active frontline personnel and almost 2.5 million on the reserve force, though the soldiers receive mediocre training. The man force is backed by 15,500 tanks, making Russia the largest tank force in the world, though it is aging, like the other equipment. The country is the world’s leader, with almost 8,500 active nuclear warheads.
1. The United States
The United States spends a whopping $612.5 billion on the military, more than the other nine countries’ budgets combined. It maintains a remarkably large army composed of over 1.4 million soldiers, and a further 800,000 reservists. To complement the active ground force comprising well-trained men and women in uniforms, its biggest advantage is that it is the world leader in aircraft production, with a fleet of 19 aircraft carriers, while the carriers operated by the world together sum up to 12. The US implements cutting-edge technology like the Navy’s new rail gun, and the country also has 7,500 nuclear warheads at its disposal. No wonder it is no.1 military force since WW-II.
Thus, the defence budget, man power, air force, navy, etc. together help to determine the most powerful military forces in the world. The countries with strongest armies are the nations that are considered the biggest threats to global security, and these are the nations that also become the heavyweights in global affairs. While the US has projected a formidable military force for a long time, Russia has risen well, and China, too a force to reckon with. These countries clinch the top 3 positions, and the strategies of other countries may gradually make them recognizable forces in the world in a not-so-distant future.
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