Wide Range of Reading

Unlike our former VP candidate, Sarah Palin, I can name the newspapers I read every day. I also get news updates from multiple sources that I then either pursue or not. Some of these are science lists. Some are arts lists. One of them is the daily update from Foreign Affairs Magazine.

Today's update provided me with this tidbit: The Island of Madagascar is in the midst of a measles epidemic -- 115,000 documented cases, 1200 deaths mostly children under 15, and 58% vaccination coverage. The linked article explains that the citizens of Madagascar want to vaccinate their kids, but they can't afford it.

A 90-95% vaccination rate is needed for measles.

How do we get any parent who wants them, worldwide, access to effective vaccines?

Notre Dame de Paris

Begun in 1163. On fire as I post this.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/15/notre-dame-fire-paris-france-cathedral






Updates:

The Ile de la Cite has just been evacuated (4:30 EDT). Personal note -- The Sainte Chapelle is only 400m away.

The North Tower and Belfry might be saved, but the other tower is now on fire.


From the Guardian:
Margot Fassler, a professor of theology and an expert on Medieval cathedrals who has led tours of the Notre Dame Cathedral, says:

The Cathedral ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ is the cradle of late medieval music. Much of the imagination of those involved in European, religion, culture and music is tied to this place.

Late 12th- and early 13th- century polyphonic repertory created at Notre Dame has provided an understanding of how musicians learned to capture rhythm in their notational systems. The innovative musicians Adam of St. Victor, Leonin, and Perotin were all connected to the cathedral in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Although the building has been constantly reshaped over time, much of the architecture and sculpture dates back to the original building, which was completed in around a century beginning in the 1160s. The thirteenth-century rose windows and the organs are assumed to be among the casualties.