Biography | Jotup

How the Soviets stole nuclear secrets and targeted Oppenheimer, the 'father of the atomic bomb'

Retrieved on:

Monday, July 24, 2023

The issues that Nolan depicts are not relics of a distant past.

Key Points:

The issues that Nolan depicts are not relics of a distant past.
The new world that Oppenheimer helped to create, and the nuclear nightmare he feared, still exists today.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons in his war in Ukraine.
Declassified records reveal that Soviet spying on the U.S. atomic bomb effort advanced Moscow’s bomb program, but Oppenheimer was no spy.

Oppenheimer’s perspective

Oppenheimer joined the Manhattan Project, a nationwide effort to build an atomic bomb before the Nazis developed one, in 1942.
In 1954, at the height of the McCarthy era, Oppenheimer was accused of being a communist and even a Soviet spy.
Oppenheimer saw communism as the best defense against the rise of fascism in Europe, which, being of Jewish heritage, was personal for him.

Russian overtures

But being targeted and cultivated for recruitment is not the same as being a recruited spy.
Oppenheimer rejected the approach, but for reasons that remain unclear, he did not inform authorities for several months.
Archives made available after the Soviet Union’s collapse now establish beyond doubt that Oppenheimer was not a Soviet agent.

All the Kremlin’s men

“Oppenheimer” focuses on Klaus Fuchs, a brilliant theoretical physicist who fled from Nazi Germany to Britain and became a British naturalized subject.
General Leslie Groves, the military commander of the Manhattan Project, later blamed the British for failing to identify Fuchs as a Soviet spy.
Other Soviet spies, like the British scientist Alan Nunn May, worked in other parts of the Manhattan Project.
These men had multiple motives for betraying U.S. atomic secrets.
By the end of World War II, Stalin’s spies had delivered the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Kremlin.

New targets

Today, the world stands at the edge of technological revolutions that will transform societies in the 21st century, much as nuclear weapons did in the 20th century: artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biological engineering.
Watching “Oppenheimer” makes me wonder whether hostile foreign governments may already have stolen keys to unlocking these new technologies, in the same way the Soviets did with the atom bomb.

Hyper-femininity can be subversive and empowering – just ask Barbie

Retrieved on:

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Fantasy, Ice Spice, Workforce, Biography, Male, Hair, Teen Talk Barbie, Noise, RealDoll, Aqua, Clothing, Woman, COVID, History, Phrase, Scream, Man, Enchanted, Mattel, Barbie Girl, Feminism, Femininity, Love, Juicy Couture, Social media, Female, Toy, Cosmetics, Film industry

Indoors, confined to Juicy Couture tracksuits, I was missing excuses to express my hyper-femininity through clothing, as I had done pre-pandemic.

Key Points:

Indoors, confined to Juicy Couture tracksuits, I was missing excuses to express my hyper-femininity through clothing, as I had done pre-pandemic.
Collecting Barbie dolls became a way to display my love of femininity in all it’s fun, ridiculous and pink-saturated possibilities.
My shelf of Barbies – from Western Winking Barbie (1981) to Enchanted Evening Barbie (1995) – is now my favourite part of my home.
But for many, her rediscovery will come through Greta Gerwig’s upcoming movie, Barbie – the doll’s first live action film, starring Margot Robbie.

Barbie’s complicated feminism

Lord describes Barbie as a complicated and contradictory pop-culture figure.
Lord sees Barbie as a “reflection of American popular cultural values and notions about femininity”.
Over its 64-year history, the doll’s evolution has reflected the often contradictory demands and ideals placed on women.
Some feminists argue that Barbie’s hyper-femininity isn’t self aware in the way that, for example, the hyper-femininity of drag queens is.

Rebranding Barbie

The company alleged that the band’s song Barbie Girl, released the same year, infringed upon Mattel’s trademark and imposed an adult image onto Barbie.
Fast forward 20 years and the soundtrack to the Barbie movie features a song by rappers Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj entitled Barbie World, which samples Aqua’s Barbie Girl.
With lyrics such as “I’m a Barbie girl, pink Barbie Dreamhouse/The way Ken be killin’ shit got me yellin’ out like the Scream House”, the pair position Barbie-branded hyper-femininity as a source of sexual empowerment.
In the trailers for the upcoming Barbie movie, Barbie Land is a matriarchal society where hyper-femininity is a sign of power.

Nelson Mandela's legacy is taking a battering because of the dismal state of South Africa

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

He subsequently underpinned it by promoting reconciliation with white people, especially Afrikaners, the former rulers.

Key Points:

He subsequently underpinned it by promoting reconciliation with white people, especially Afrikaners, the former rulers.
The questioning of the 1994 settlement, and therefore Mandela’s legacy, has different dimensions, running through diverse narratives.
This means that those of us who are social scientists and long-term observers of South Africa’s politics and history need to think carefully about how we think critically about Mandela’s legacy.

Questioning Mandela’s legacy

From a historian’s view the questioning of Mandela’s legacy is normal.
Historians are always asking new questions and reassessing the past to gain new insights about the role important political leaders play.
Nonetheless, the six or seven significant biographies of Mandela may be said to revolve around the following arguments.
Narratives at the time often suggested that the period 1990-94 was a “miracle”, a difficult but “peaceful transition to democracy”.
Although the ANC in exile had carefully choreographed the imprisoned Mandela as an icon around which international opposition to apartheid could be mobilised, there remained much questioning within the organisation following his release about his motivations and wisdom.
At the beginning of his autobiography, Mandela presents the struggle in South Africa as a clash between Afrikaner and African nationalisms.

Capturing Mandela’s legacy

There is never going to be a final assessment of Mandela’s legacy.
How it is regarded will continue to change, depending on the destination South Africa travels to.

The politics of 'wide purposes' – how Norman Kirk still speaks to 21st century New Zealand

Retrieved on:

Friday, July 7, 2023

Heart, Biography, Failure, Face, Politics, Varicose veins, Vision, Hope, Thought, Love, Learning, Conventional weapon, Observation, Meditation, Death, Mobile phone, Management, Labour, Aotearoa

But the decade was also a time of resistance to such outward signs of modernity and progress.

Key Points:

But the decade was also a time of resistance to such outward signs of modernity and progress.
And very briefly, it was also the time of Norman Kirk, who as Labour prime minister between 1972 and 1974 managed to straddle those two New Zealands.
Review: We Need To Talk About Norman: New Zealand’s Lost Leader – Denis Welch (Quentin Wilson Publishing) Norman Eric Kirk provides the (capacious) frame through which Welch explores these issues.

To support and enable

And Welch also addresses Kirk’s social conservatism (including his lack of support for homosexual law reform) and the fact the dawn raids began on his watch.
The emphasis, however, is very much on Kirk’s practice of political leadership (compassionate, humane) and views on the purposes of the state (to support and enable, rather than to punish and prevent).
Not for Kirk – or Welch – some arid conception of the human condition as one of self-absorbed utility maximisation.
Read more:
The ‘otherness’ of Jacinda Ardern – by doing politics differently she changed the game and saved her party

From Kirk to Ardern

Throughout, Jacinda Ardern provides a constant counterpoint to Kirk.
Welch doesn’t really linger on Lange, Clark and the other Labour leaders – he positions Ardern as Kirk’s true successor on the left.
Kirk “cuts a swathe” internationally; so did Ardern.

The public good

Through Welch’s book, the “lost leader” speaks to us from across half a century, reminding us that there are other ways of thinking about the public good that governments can do, and that politics can be animated by something higher than narrow self-interest and disdain for others.
Welch is keen to remind us that few things are ever immutable or inevitable, and that politics is not among them.
Welch is asking us to consider whether or not Labour’s lost leader(s) might yet help us find a better future.

Anna Funder rescues George Orwell's wife Eileen from being 'cancelled by the patriarchy' – and reminds us he's a sexual predator

Retrieved on:

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Review: Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s invisible life – Anna Funder (Hamish Hamilton) A few months later, disappointment struck in the form of a derogatory diary entry about his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy.

Key Points:

Review: Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s invisible life – Anna Funder (Hamish Hamilton) A few months later, disappointment struck in the form of a derogatory diary entry about his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy.
The accusations about women’s sexuality are somewhat confounding when they come from a man who, as Funder reveals, was himself a sexual predator.
In her anger, Funder births another project, moving “from the work to the life, and the man to the wife”.

Motherhood and #MeToo

It is composed of two narrative strands: the first, set in the present, is in Funder’s voice as she investigates Eileen’s life while also navigating the pressures of motherhood and the revelations of the #MeToo movement.
The second is written in the third person and reconstructs scenes from Eileen’s life.
Funder reads between the lines of Orwell’s work and the biographies of him to get the measure of Eileen’s contribution to his success.

Patriarchy: then and now

Funder draws productive parallels between her own time and Eileen’s – without sacrificing the historical specificity of either.
This observation captures Eileen’s fate; a talented writer with a masters degree in psychology, she becomes a taken-for-granted helpmeet when she marries Orwell.
She types his manuscripts in between looking after their chickens, unblocking the toilet and preparing all their meals.
Read more:
Friday essay: 'the problem is that my success seems to get in his way' – the fraught terrain of literary marriages

Orwell as predator

She documents his numerous attempted rapes of female acquaintances, as well as his manipulation of Eileen throughout his infidelities.
In 1940, as Eileen was grieving the death of her brother, Orwell penned a letter to an old crush, a teacher named Brenda who had refused his advances on multiple previous occasions.
In Wifedom, Funder mounts a similar argument against Orwell, shedding new light on his work: though he is renowned for his examinations of power, his writing never considers power relations between the sexes.
Read more:
Friday essay: George Orwell is everywhere, but Nineteen Eighty-Four is not a reliable guide to contemporary politics

Interrogating Orwell’s legacy

While this descriptor is often used in inaccurate and contradictory ways, arguably Orwell’s stature as a political commentator has increased with the ascendancy of Trump and his imitators.
Funder is the perfect writer to integrate Orwell’s legacy.
Then, in her Miles Franklin award-winning novel All That I Am, which centred on the strained loyalties of a group of Nazi dissidents.

Life's QR Unleashes the Power of QR Codes to Transform the Memorial Experience: Prepare to Be Amazed!

Retrieved on:

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Biography, Anecdote, Life, Smartphone, Laughter, History, Stainless steel, Snow, Thought, Creativity, QR, Steroid, Weather, Netflix, Memory, Rain, Tourism, Entertainment

Brace yourselves for a tribute experience like no other as we introduce our stainless steel QR Memorial signs.

Key Points:

Brace yourselves for a tribute experience like no other as we introduce our stainless steel QR Memorial signs.
Gone are the days of passing by a memorial and pondering, "Who was this person, and what was their story?"
Life's QR has designed a user-friendly wizard that makes setting up your QR memorial as easy as pie.
Life's QR invites you to step into a world where legacies are honored, lives are celebrated, and QR codes become the gateway to a celebration of epic proportions.

Gwen John: often dismissed as a timid recluse, this unique and uncompromising artist painted relentlessly on her own terms

Retrieved on:

Saturday, June 10, 2023

The quiet Welsh painter Gwen John was not like any other artist, male or female – she was genuinely unique.

Key Points:

The quiet Welsh painter Gwen John was not like any other artist, male or female – she was genuinely unique.
She did not paint loud, macho work that took up a whole wall, nor sexy, objectified nudes, nor abstract forms, like many male modernists.
She was fiercely herself, making small, intimate, idiosyncratic paintings that share a definite style and palette over the course of her career.
They did not have the ascetic, saint-like drive John had to be an artist at all costs.

Romantic life of an artist

Whistler’s teaching, which focused on establishing a full palette before beginning a painting, was something John carried with her all her life.
She was, in many ways, living the romanticised life of a starving artist.
John’s Catholicism in the second half of her life crystalised what was essentially a sacred calling for her to work as an artist.
She was obsessed with recently canonised saints and strove to live her life in a saintlike way.

A quiet but powerful legacy

This show resolutely makes the claim that John’s life is its own work of art, and engages with the nuances of a woman who eschewed the norms of both sexes to make her own way.
It also made me fully recognise for the first time the real ruthlessness with which John lived her life.
The recluse narrative she has been reduced to suggests that she was somehow held back in some way by shyness or poverty.

Harry Oppenheimer biography shows the South African mining magnate’s hand in economic policies

Retrieved on:

Friday, June 2, 2023

Based on a remarkable depth of research, it is written in an elegant style which makes for a delightfully easy read.

Key Points:

Based on a remarkable depth of research, it is written in an elegant style which makes for a delightfully easy read.
It is rendered the more impressive by the author’s deep conversance with the debates over the relationships between mining capital, Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid.
Cardo’s reckoning is that Oppenheimer transcended his country’s parochial political arena to become a significant figure on the world stage.

The man behind the money

Yet Oppenheimer emerges from this study not as a “malevolent monster” (p.1) but as a personally likeable individual, intensely loyal to his friends.
One who was highly cultured and sophisticated, with a deep love of art, literature, old books and antiques for their own sake, rather than for opulent display.
His devotion to his Anglican faith was deep and real, underlying his perhaps too-convenient conviction that wealth and power could be combined with “doing good”.
His father, Ernest, was the founder of the Oppenheimer empire, but Harry would become its consolidator (p.18).

The conservative liberal

He served as the party’s financial spokesman and was touted as a future leader.
Later, when liberals formed the Progressive Party, he lent them his firm support.
Cardo characterises Oppenheimer’s liberalism as “pragmatic”, opposing the idea of a universal franchise.
Regarding himself heir to British colonialist and businessman Cecil Rhodes, he deplored the threat to civilisation represented by “primitive tribesmen”.

The influential magnate

He exercised all the soft power at his disposal, through Anglo and his personal contacts with politicians locally and internationally.
His advice to prime minister and president PW Botha to inaugurate multiracial negotiations was ignored.
But when Botha’s notorious “Rubicon” speech in August 1985 prompted a massive outflow of capital, he urged US companies to resist the disinvestment drive.
All these efforts were capped by Gavin Relly, who had succeeded Oppenheimer as chairman of Anglo, meeting with the ANC in exile.
Oppenheimer and Anglo now reached out to leading figures in the ANC to reshape their ideas on the economy.
This book does not offer a radical re-interpretation of either the Oppenheimers or the Anglo-American empire.

Announcing the Winners of the 2023 "IndieReader Discovery Awards"

Retrieved on:

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Linda, Kindness, White Woman, Biography, A. J. Cook, Come Home, Fiction, Spirituality, Evolution, Human back, Child, True Story, Bourret, Ranch, A True Story, Book, Toy, Auction

MONTCLAIR, N.J., June 1, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today the winners of the 12th annual "IndieReader Discovery Awards" (IRDAs) were announced virtually to consumers and international media.

Key Points:

Best First Book (Non-Fiction) - Liza Laird/ Yoga of Yarn: A Knitter's Handbook for Self-Discovery
Best Book Cover (Non-Fiction) - K. C. Sanford/Storked!
Biography - Anne K Howard/Escape from Mariupol: A Survivor's True Story
Children's (Board books and Pre-reading) - T.I.
Frazier/Lauren The Cow
Children's (Early to intermediate readers) - Amy Flanagan/Mrs.
: The Carryover of Kindness

US Army Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas' journey from enslaver to Union officer to civil rights defender

Retrieved on:

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Are white Southerners condemned to think of themselves as the bad guys, the ones who were willing to destroy the Union to preserve slavery?

Key Points:

Are white Southerners condemned to think of themselves as the bad guys, the ones who were willing to destroy the Union to preserve slavery?
As an adult, I read more widely about the Civil War and became fascinated with Union Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, who grew up in Virginia but joined the Union army.
Hundreds of thousands of African American Southerners supported the Union by escaping slavery and serving in the Union army.
George H. Thomas, known to history as “the Rock of Chickamauga,” is the most prominent of them.
When the Civil War broke out, nearly all the Southern career officers left the U.S. Army to serve in the Confederacy.

Led African American troops

At Nashville, Thomas commanded thousands of African American troops.
His colleagues in the military later recalled that Thomas viewed African American troops as inferior soldiers, not suited to offensive operations, and he relegated them to a part of his line that he thought would see no fighting.
Touring the battlefield after his victory, Thomas saw the African American dead piled in heaps before the Confederate fortifications.
The Negro will fight.” The sacrifices of African American soldiers at Nashville and elsewhere were a heroic and tragic act, with meaning and significance that went far beyond their effect on the opinion of a single person.

Enslaver turned civil rights defender

There he protected newly freed Blacks from racist local officials and the Ku Klux Klan.
Here, my biography traced new ground, drawing upon military records in the National Archives to discover Thomas’ role.
Once a racist enslaver, he distinguished himself after the war in his active protection and promotion of the rights of formerly enslaved persons.
In my view, as the military assesses new names for bases formerly named after Confederate generals, Thomas’ name deserves consideration.