BBC Hard Talk episodes-Podcasts

BBC SERIES HARD TALK

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p050gzz7

Son of Hans Frank, Governor General of Nazi Occupied Poland - Niklas Frank

Hardtalk

Stephen Sackur is in Germany to speak to Niklas Frank. His father was Hans Frank, the Governor General of Nazi Occupied Poland during the World War Two. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and executed in 1946. Niklas Frank tells Stephen Sackur he 'despises' his father and does not want Germany to forget the crimes of his father and the legacy of the Nazi era.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04y3ypf

Former Commissioner of Corrections, Georgia, USA - Allen Ault

Hardtalk

Why is a former head of state-sanctioned executions now an opponent of the death penalty? A host of countries around the world still impose the ultimate punishment on the most serious criminals - death. But what is it like to be in command of the machinery of state-sanctioned execution? In a rare insight, Stephen Sackur speaks to Allen Ault, who spent years running the corrections system in the southern US state of Georgia. He organised the killing of criminals until he could stand it no more. What changed?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04kfxp2

South African Comedian - Trevor Noah

Hardtalk

Zeinab Badawi speaks to the South African comedian Trevor Noah. How did a poor boy who grew up with a black mother and white father under apartheid, become the presenter of one of America’s most influential TV programmes - The Daily Show?

Claude Monet

 Claude Monet and Giverny

Photos by SP

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http://www.biography.com/people/claude-monet-9411771


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmzqCdgY5jY

Contributor in French and English

BIO

Jamal Berber lives and works in Paris, France. Curious, fatalist, humanist and humble is what he would like to be, selfish and having fun is what he has achieved so far. Interested in technology, mathematics, history and myths.

Jamal Berber vit à Paris, France. Il voudrait être curieux, fataliste, humaniste et humble. Pour le moment il profite de la vie en égoiste pratiquant. Il s'intéresse à la technologie, au mathématiques, à l'histoire et aux mythes.

Introduction in English

The Rhind manuscript is a papyrus from the Ptolemaic period, Its author was A'h-Moses,. This ancient scribe copied mathematical recipes from papyrus coming from the forgotten ages of Djozer, the first architect. They needed the calculus of PI to build the pyramids. I tell how the Fourier series was inspired during Napoleon’s Egypt campaign, when he took a party of 40 scholars and artists to discover Egypt.

Introduction in French

Le manuscrit Rhind est un papyrus de la période Ptoléméenne. Son auteur s'appelait A'h-mosé. Cet ancien scribe avait copié des recettes mathématiques depuis des papyrus qui venait du temps de Djozer, le premier architecte. Ils avaient besoin du calcul de PI pour construire les pyramides. Je raconte comment les Séries de Fourrier ont été inspirées lors de la campagne d'Egypte de Napoléon, lorsqu'il emporta avec lui un groupe de quarante savants et artistes pour découvrir l'Egypte.

∏ qui chante

Je me souviens bien des bonbons de la pie qui chante, de monsieur Plus qui poussait du coude le pâtissier confectionnant les confiseries et des esquimaux Gervais, à la publicité avant le film, au grand cinéma de mon quartier l’Elite. Les publicitaires des années quatre vingt on ensuite tout mis à plus, Canal plus entre autres, tout cela venait de la pie qui chante. Pi c'est des mathématiques, depuis très longtemps.

On donnait les dix commandements (le film pas un sermon), et Charlon Heston, à moitié nu, beau comme un dieu tirait d’énormes pierres avec ses compagnons pour construire la pyramide de Pharaon. On connait la suite, un bien beau film avec l’écriture en lettres de feu sur les tables de pierre. On est pris par la beauté des scènes, par la familiarité des phrases, par le conte des mythes fondateurs. Et on oublie l’immense complexité des pyramides. Comment construire quatre faces et les faire parvenir au sommet sans savoir la trigonométrie ?

On ne sait même pas comment ils ont fait pour monter les pyramides, avaient ils des rampes à l’extérieur qui en faisaient le tour, ou bien des plans inclinés de plusieurs centaines de mètres de long. On se perd en conjectures. Toujours est-il qu’on a retrouvé un papyrus de l’époque de Ptolémé, qui était une copie d’un papyrus ancien, des Egyptiens des pyramides. On a constaté qu’ils connaissaient les chiffres rationnels (un tiers par exemple) et qu’ils avaient une méthode bien à eux de représenter les irrationnels. Chaque nombre était une addition de nombre entier puis de fractions ayant un au numérateur et un nombre premier au dénominateur. Ainsi par approximations successives par valeurs inférieures, et uniquement par des rationnels ils pouvait tout faire. Une méthode simple rustique et fiable.

Ils ne faisaient pas des démonstrations comme nous faisons à présent, chaque problème était adressé par une description, une série d’opérations élémentaires à faire, à suivre comme une recette de cuisine. Mais le fait est qu’une fois les règles comprises par les chercheurs contemporains, une fois appliquées on s’est rendu compte qu’ils calculaient PI, notre familier 3,1416, était écrit par le scribe A'h-mosè d’un papyrus il y a cinq mille ans sous la forme 3, 1/7 ce qui donne 3,142 qui est ma foi une belle approximation. Autre côté rigolo de leur méthode, elle assure l’unicité de la représentation des nombres irrationnels. Je les trouve plutôt pas mal les anciens !

Le manuscrit d’A’h-Mosè, été acheté par l'écossais Rhind en 1852 bien après que Napoléon ai quitté l’Egypte et cette terre. Je vous parle de Napoléon car un certain Fourrier, avait fait avec lui la campagne d’Egypte parmi la quarantaine de scientifiques qu'il avait embarqué pour la grandeur de la France. Des merveilles ont été découvertes et rapportée à Paris, des savoirs depuis longtemps perdus, et la source du Dieu unique. Monsieur Fourrier est rentré à Paris et est devenu peu de temps après célèbre avec ses séries de Fourrier, qui permettent de calculer PI au plus près, et qui me font irrésistiblement penser au brave scribe A’h Mosè et sa suite de fractions à dénominateur premier.

Parfois on trouve un trésor oublié, une belle aubaine, mais pas pour n’importe qui. Seul celui qui a la question comprend la réponse, aussi évidente soit elle. C’est la question qui fait naître la réponse et Fourrier à trouvé sur les pas d’A’h Mosè, sur ses chemins oubliés, la graine, la question, qui germera et déploiera ses ailes moirées, la vérité.

The singing mag-Π  ((LA_PIE_QUI_CHANTE a French candy )).

I remember well the sweets of the Singing Magpie, also Monsieur plus who elbowed the confectioner to top sugars and nuts, plus for the ice creams and the candies. It was the advertisements before the movie in the largest movie theater of the neighborhood, the Elite. The advertisers of the eighties then all followed suit appending PLUS to anything for sale, all these PLUSSES came from the Singing Magpie, PI has been mathematics, for a very long time.

The Ten Commandments was on display (the film not a sermon), and Charlton Heston, half-naked, handsome as a god, pulled enormous stones with his companions to build the pyramid for Pharaoh. We know the rest, a very nice film with writing in letters of fire on the stone tablets. One is taken by the beauty of the scenes, by the familiarity of sentences, by the tale of the founding myths. And we forget the immense complexity of the pyramids. How to build four faces and get them to the top without knowing trigonometry?

One does not even know how they mounted the pyramids, had ramps on the outside that made the tour, or even inclined planes several hundred meters long. We are lost in conjectures. The fact remains, that a papyrus of the Ptolemy period was found, and it is a copy of an ancient papyrus: the Egyptians of the pyramids. It was found that they knew the rational figures (one-third for example) and that they had a method to represent the irrational ones themselves. Each number was an integer addition then fractions with one to the numerator and a prime number to the denominator. Thus by successive approximations by inferior values, and only by rationale they could do everything; a simple rustic and reliable method.

They did not have demonstrations as we do now.  Every problem was addressed by a description, a series of basic operations to do, to follow as a recipe for cooking. But the fact is that once the rules were understood by contemporary scholars, once applied it was realized that they were calculating PI, our familiar 3,1416, was written by the scribe A'h-Mosè on a Papyrus five thousand years ago in the form 3, 1/7 which gives 3,142 which is in my faith a good approximation. Another funny side of their method ensures the uniqueness of the representation of irrational numbers. I find them pretty cool; the old ones!

The manuscript of A'h-Mosè was bought by the Scotch Rhind in 1852 well after Napoleon left Egypt and this world. I speak of Napoleon, for a certain Fourier had been with him on the campaign to Egypt and among the forty scientists he had embarked for the grandeur of France. Wonders have been discovered and brought back to Paris, knowledge long lost, and the source of the one God. Mr. Fourrier returned to Paris and soon became famous with his Fourrier series, which allows one to calculate PI as close as possible, and which makes me irresistibly think of the brave scribe A'h Mosè and his sequence of fractions with denominator with prime numbers .

Sometimes we find a forgotten treasure, a good fortune, but not for everyone. Only the one who has the question understands the answer, however obvious it is. It is the question that gives rise to the answer, and Fourrier found in the footsteps of A'h Mosè, on his forgotten paths, the seed, the question, which will germinate and unfold its moiré wings, the truth.

http://www.math.tamu.edu/%7Edallen/masters/egypt_babylon/content3.htm
Egyptian and Babylonian Mathematics.
Egyptian mathematics, despite the hieroglyphic inscribed on hundreds of temples comes from two papyri containing collections of mathematical problems with their solutions. These papyri, the Ahmes and the Moscow, date from a millenium before the earliest glimmers of Greek philosophy and mathematics. They consist mostly of applied problems written for study by the young student. Through them we see the kinds of problems of interest to the Egyptian builders and empire makers. Many are logistic problems of the type needed to feed a large army or work force. What we do not see is any sort of codification of ideas into principles.
Babylonian mathematics, in many ways more sophisticated, was also a technology in the service of the state. Though there is some evidence of deep investigations in astronomy in later, Hellenistic times, the early mathematical evidence is very much applied. However, the Babylonian counting, was positional, and this is regarded by many including Otto Neugebauer as one of the greatest inventions of mankind. It permitted the Babylonians to create indefinitely large numbers with great economy of writing. It permitted a wider band with of numbers for computation. We also see evidence of interpolation of tables to solve nonlinear equations and a rather elegant method for computing the square root of two.
The study of the mathematics of these early civilization will stand in stark contrast to that of the Greeks, who were able to develop the model of abstract mathematics via geometry which was to serve as the model of mathematical achievement until essentially modern times.

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https://books.google.de/books?id=UQqLHyd8K0IC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=A%27h+Mos%C3%A8&source=bl&ots=so1ivKBUi9&sig=AtzWM5BPPkBAKFVGCD6lWLtvVqM&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5y7v668LTAhVJPRQKHYXiDV0Q6AEIRjAJ#v=onepage&q=A%27h%20Mos%C3%A8&f=false

Monet and More

From Time Out:

It takes just an hour to reach Giverny from Paris, but this small village feels a world away. Here in the sleepy Pays d’Eure life moves at a more tranquil pace, much as it did when Monet lived and painted here from 1883 until his death in 1926. It was at his family home that he produced some of his most famous works, including his celebrated water lily series, Les Nymphéas. Today, his magical gardens and the nearby Musée des Impressionnismes are one of the most enjoyable day trips from Paris, drawing around half a million visitors each year.

John Oliver video

John Oliver

http://www.vulture.com/2017/04/john-oliver-explains-jared-kusher-and-ivanka-trumps-appeal.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD8AwgO0AQI

John Oliver Explains How Jared and Ivanka Aren’t the Allies You’re Looking For

By Jackson McHenry

In the face of the sometimes radical, sometimes just baffling decisions made by the Trump administration, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have emerged as supposed moderating influences. But as John Oliver explained on Last Week Tonight last night, there’s pretty much no evidence that either of them has done much to deserve praise. Ivanka, he explains, only pretends to contradict Trump without saying anything substantial. Jared, meanwhile, has accumulated all sorts of responsibilities without any real experience. “If they are the reason you are sleeping at night,” Oliver concludes, “you should probably still be awake.”

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On the streets of: photo series

Discovery in Kansas, USA

A long lost 16th century civilization has been unearthed in rural Kansas — all thanks to a plucky teen who helped archaeologists confirm the incredible discovery.

The metropolis — where up to 20,000 Wichita Indians once lived — was discovered in Arkansas City, in the south-central part of the state, when a high school boy found a cannon ball that tipped off the experts that their long-held suspicions about the existence of Etzanoa were correct, the Kansas City Star reported.

The city, whose name means “The Great Settlement,” is believed to be the second-largest Native American city in the US and was the site of a battle between Spanish explorers and Indian warriors in 1601.

“The Spaniards were amazed by the size of Etzanoa,” according to Donald Blakeslee, a 73-year-old Wichita State University archaeologist, who announced the discovery.

“They counted 2,000 houses that could hold 10 people each. They said it would take two or three days to walk through it all,” said Blakeslee, adding that the patch of land spans thousands of acres.

For years, he and other scientists hunted for the fabled city. They dug up pottery, knives and flint tools and toiled over clues that would link it to records from Spanish explorers — but couldn’t confirm that it was Etzanoa.
Then last year, Adam Ziegler, who attends a nearby high school, discovered a half-inch iron cannon ball — linking it to the 1601 battle, according to Blakeslee.

During the combat, Spaniards fired cannons at Wichita Nation Indian warriors, who eventually fled the city.
Kansas officials now want to turn the long-lost city — which features a still-functional water shrine on the banks of the Walnut and Arkansas rivers — into a tourist attraction.

“We’re looking at creating something that could be great for the region, and for 50 years and more down the road,” said Jay Warren, an Arkansas City Council member. “And we think the site could also be a hands-on field training facility for archaeologists from all over the world.”

He added: “We always knew we once had a whole bunch of Indians living around here. But we had no idea until Dr. Blakeslee came along about how big it was.”

(article in New York Post)