FOOTPRINTS

  F rancisco Benjamín López Toledo, also known as, Francisco Toledo, and as Francisco “El Maestro” Toledo, was a Mexican artist and activist, widely regarded as, one of the most influential artists in modern Mexican history. An activist, as well as an artist, he promoted the artistic culture and heritage, of his home state of Oaxaca. Toledo, was considered part of the Breakaway Generation, of Mexican art. Francisco Toledo, was born on 17 July, 1940, in Juchitán, Oaxaca, the heartland of the Indigenous Zapotec civilization. His remarkable talent for drawing, was noticed at just 9 years old, and by 19, he hosted his first solo exhibition. Toledo set off to Paris, to pursue, sculpting, painting, and printmaking, in the 1960s.  He returned to Oaxaca in 1965, where his craft and activism played an instrumental role, in the transformation of the, southern Mexican state, into the heart of the international art community.  Toledo first garnered widespread acclaim during this era,...

  E lizeth Moreira Cardoso , (sometimes listed as, Elisete Cardoso), was a singer and actress, of great renown in Brazil.  Her 1958 album, “Canção do Amor Demais” (“Too Much Love Song”) is widely regarded as the first true bossa nova album, a hybrid style of breezy jazz, and traditional Brazilian music, that captured the stylistic evolutions of the era.    On 16 July, 1920, Elizete Moreira Cardoso, was born into a family of musicians, in Rio de Janeiro, and debuted as a singer, at just five years old.  Her first major break, occurred at her 16th birthday party, when an introduction to popular Brazilian musician, Jacob do Bandolim, changed her life.   Jacó took her to Rádio Guanabara, where, in spite of her father's initial opposition, she appeared on the Programa Suburbano, with Vicente Celestino, Araci de Almeida, Moreira da Silva, Noel Rosa and Marília Batista on August 18, 1936.  The week after, she was hired by the station, to appear on a week...

T he Wuhan Institute of Virology, is a research institute on virology, that is administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which reports to the State Council of the People's Republic of China.  The institute is one of nine independent organisations in the Wuhan Branch of the CAS. It is located in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei.  The institute has collaborated with the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States, the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France, and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada.  The institute has been an active research center for the study of coronaviruses.  History of Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Wuhan Institute of Virology(WIV), was founded in 1956, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).  In 1961, it became the South China Institute of Microbiology, and in 1962, was renamed Wuhan Microbiology Institute. In 1970, it became the Microbiology Institute of Hubei Province, when the Hube...

  Here are Ten strange things, that are illegal in some countries. It is illegal to wear yellow clothes in Malaysia.   It is illegal to kiss at train stations in France.  It is prohibited to eat biscuits on Christmas day in The United Kingdom.  It is illegal to chew gum in Singapore.  It is illegal to fart in public places after 6 pm in Florida.  It is illegal to climb a tree in Toronto.  It is illegal to fly a kite in Victoria, Australia.  It is illegal to feed piegons in Venice, Italy.  You cannot touch whales in the United Kingdom.  Kinder surprise is banned in the United States of America.

Ángela Peralta, who is widely considered, as one of the most significant Mexican opera singers of her era, celebrates her 175th birthday today.  Ángela Peralta, was called the "Mexican Nightingale", in Europe. She had sung to acclaim in major European opera houses by the age of 20. Although primarily known for her singing, she was also a composer, as well as an accomplished pianist and harpist.  Ángela Peralta Castera, was born in Mexico City, on 6 July, 1845.  At 15 years old, Peralta made her operatic debut, at the Gran Teatro Nacional, one of 19th-century Mexico’s premier opera houses. This performance received such acclaim, that it prompted Peralta to further refine her talent in Italy, the birthplace of opera.   In Milan, Peralta’s 1862 performance of the romantic opera, “Lucia di Lammermoor”, so impressed the audience, that standing ovations, brought her back to the stage 23 times!  She earned the title, “Mexican Nightingale'', for her mastery of the ...

An explosive jet of fire, believed to be caused by a mud volcano, lit up the Caspian Sea on Sunday(4 July, 2021), according to a report by the APA, an Azerbaijani press agency.  This was initially reported at 9:30 p.m. local time, on the 4th of July, 2021.  The fire occurred about 6 miles (about 10 kilometers), from the Umid gas field, south of Baku, the Azerbaijani capital. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), told the APA, none of its oil platforms were affected by the incident. No injuries have been reported. Azerbaijani seismologist, Gurban Yetirmishli, suggests, the fire is indicative of a mud volcano. This region is home to hundreds of mud volcanoes. This may be the Makarov Bank mud volcano, which did exactly this in 1958. A mud volcano is exactly as the name suggests: a volcano that erupts with muddy fluids, rather than lava. They're not exactly real volcanoes. They are caused by water being heated deep within the Earth, and mixing with rocks and minera...

'Eye of fire' on the Gulf of Mexico after gas leak in underwater pipeline belonging to the Ku-Maloob-Zaap Video sources: twitter.com/MLopezSanMartin twitter.com/MLopezSanMartin Pemex statement www.pemex.com Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company, said on Friday, it suffered a rupture in an undersea gas pipeline, in the Gulf of Mexico, sending flames boiling to the surface in the Gulf waters.  The flames resembled molten lava, and were dubbed, “eye of fire”, on several social media platforms.  According to Pemex, there was a gas leak in the 12-inch submarine pipeline, 150 meters from the KU-C satellite platform,  belonging to the Ku-Maloob-Zaap Production Asset.  It took more than five hours to completely put off the fire, and no injuries were reported. Petróleos Mexicanos stated that, it will carry out a root cause analysis of this incident.

Professor Sir Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann Ever heard of him?  He was a Jewish, German-born British neurologist, and the founder of the Paralympic movement. He had fled Nazi Germany, just before the start of the Second World War, and is considered to be one of the founding fathers of organised physical activities, for people with a disability.  Today (3 July, 2021), is his 122nd birthday. Ludwig Guttmann, was born on 3 July, 1899, to a German-Jewish family in Tost, (now Toszek in Poland). His family moved to Silesian city of Königshütte (today Chorzów, Poland) when he was three years old.  He went on, to receive his M.D., in 1924. He began research on spinal cord injuries and performed several neurosurgical procedures, rising to prominence, as one of Germany’s top neurosurgeons by his early thirties.  However, with the rise of the Nazi party, and the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in 1933, Guttmann was prevented from practising medicine professionally. Following Kristallna...

  Canada Day, previously known as “Dominion Day.”  On 1 July, 1867, the British North American act, joined the three individual territories of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, to form the unified Dominion of Canada. With the Canada Act of 1982, the country gained complete independence from Britain, and the observance was officially renamed Canada Day (Fête du Canada).  On July 1, 1867, Canada became a "kingdom in its own right", within the British Empire, commonly known as, the Dominion of Canada.  Although still a British colony, Canada gained an increased level of political control, and governance, over its own affairs. The British parliament and Cabinet, maintained political control over certain areas, such as foreign affairs, national defence, and constitutional changes. Canada gradually gained increasing independence over the years, notably with the passage of, the Statute of Westminster, in 1931, until finally becoming completely independent, with the pa...