The Ionia Sanction By Gary Corby

This is a detective murder mystery writer in Ancient Greek times.


This is the second one in the series of three (they don't have the first one available as an Ebook in my library, and since I'm traveling I can't get the real one), from this book I gather it just introduces the main characters and tells you there back story. The second on can be a standalone book though in my opinion and there is no need to read the first one (but I'm sure it is just as great as this one).

The author is a semi accurate author as I would put it, the names are proper greek names but pronounced as a person who speaks English would. Every thing is historically accurate except the plot. Effectively he takes the Ancient Greek world and adds in his characters.

 It starts off with the main character ((Nicolaos) who has recently just become the first professional detective ever) investigating a murder of a man (the man was the ambassador for another city), he had recently received a letter and it was missing. So Nicolaos is sent after it, after his suspect escapes he discovers a girl that had been with the suspect, it turns out the girls is an abducted daughter of a very powerful man, he must go to the city the ambassador was from, and return the girl to her father.

It turns out the father is making a battle plan to attack Athenes (the city the main character is from), so Nicolaos must stop him, the only way being to kill him. After staying in the palace for months he decides to take his move and poison him.


That is a short way of telling the plot (the audiobook is 12 hours long, but you will not find yourself getting bored of it, the reader is very good (still below Michael Prichard, who reads the Nero Wolfe books, but the reader is better than most), and the story is like an exciting history book, dropping facts of Ancient Greek life here and there.

I highly suggest getting the audiobook, it is a great read.

Eiffel Tower's History

The Eiffel Tower

We all know the Eiffel tower, but do we know its history? Read here and find some things you don’t know.

It was built for the 100-year celebration of the French Revolution, it was only one of the few things happening at the time. The French were having a massive festival in Paris, and the Eiffel tower would have been one of many attractions.  In fact it was supposed to be destroyed after 20 years (Eiffel had that time so he could make his money back since he funded 80% of the Eiffel tower), but he was able to point out its usefulness as a radio tower.

It was once used as a billboard and it was the largest billboard in the world, yep that’s right. It would light up Paris with thousands of light bulbs spelling the name of the product.

The Eiffel tower was designed by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two engineers working for the Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel. Keochlin made a sketch of it and said it would look like a giant pylon with four legs.

Eiffel originally didn’t like the idea and it wasn’t until Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier consulted Stephen Sauvestre (the head of the engineering section of the company), and that Stephen made some improvements, that Eiffel liked the idea. Improvements mainly consisted of arches to make it look more artistic (and structurally stronger).

Lifts

Ground Floor to First Floor

Constructing lifts to reach the first level was relatively easy, the legs were wide enough at the bottom and so nearly straight that they could make a straight up and down lift. The contract was given to the French company Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape for two lifts to be put in the east and west legs.

First level to second level

It wasn’t until the second floor that they hit problems, because there was no way for them to get a straight up and down elevator, in fact no French company wanted the job.  Except for the European branch of Otis nobody else put in a proposal, they had been turned down the first time, but they got accepted when nobody else showed up. Otis was so confident they would get the job that they had already started making plans for the design.

Second level to third level

The original lifts for the journey between the second and third levels were supplied by Léon Edoux.  Each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and people would have to use a short gangway to change lifts. The 10-ton cars each held 65 passengers.

Opening

The main structure was completed at the end of March 1889 and, on the 31^st  of March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government members, accompanied by the press, to the top of the tower.

Because the lifts were not yet working, they had to walk up by foot, and took over an hour, with Eiffel stopping frequently to explain various features.

Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including the engineer, Émile Nouguier, the head of construction, Jean Compagnon, the President of the City Council, and reporters from Le Figaro and Le Monde Illustré, completed the ascent. 

There was still work to be done (mainly work on the lifts), and the tower was not open until nine days after the opening of the fair, and even when it did open the lifts had not been done. People instantly liked the tour with nearly 30,000 visitors making it to the top before the lifts were finished on 26^th of May.

Tickets would cost you 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second, and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been 1,896,987 visitors.

 There are about 6.5 francs to a euro and 5 to a Canadian dollar.

After dark, the tower was lit by hundreds of gas lamps, and a beacon made three beams: red, white and blue light, to make the French flag.

At the top there was post office where you could send off a post card as a memento, and pieces of paper you could draw on.

Some quite famous people came to the Eiffel tower and got to join Eiffel in his personal rooms, including the Prince of Wales, Sarah Bernhardt, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Thomas Jefferson.

For the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the lifts in the east and west legs were replaced by lifts running as far as the second level constructed by the French firm Fives-Lille. These had a compensating mechanism to keep the floor level as the angle of ascent changed at the first level, and were driven by a similar hydraulic mechanism to the Otis lifts, although this was situated at the base of the tower.  At the same time the lift in the north pillar was removed and replaced by a staircase to the first level. The layout of both first and second levels was modified, with the space available for visitors on the second level.

The original lift in the south pillar was removed 13 years later.

Activities at the Tower

On the 19^th of October 1901, Albert Santos Dumont won a prize for 100,000 francs by flying from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower in less than a half hour. The prize was offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe.

Many inventions took play at the Eiffel tower in the early 20^th century.

In 1910 Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, accidentally discovering what we known as cosmic rays.

Two years later Franz Reichelt (an Austrian tailor) died when he tried to demonstrate his design for a parachute from the first floor of the Eiffel tower (I assume it didn’t work).

In 1914 a radio transmitter was put on the top and it helped slow down the Germans when they were attacking , and help an allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.

In April 1935, the tower was used to make experimental low-resolution television transmissions.

A statue of Gustave Eiffel by Antoine Bourdelle was unveiled at the base of the north leg in 1929.

In 1930, the tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building in New York City was completed.  But the Eiffel tower became taller again when they added an antenna to it.

When the Germans were occupying Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French. And they weren’t repaired until 1946.

In 1940, German soldiers had to climb the tower to hoist a swastika flag, but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one.

When visiting Paris, Hitler was too lazy to walk up to the top of the Eiffel tower, so he stayed on the ground.

When the Allies were nearing Paris in August 1944, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order (luckily for Paris).

On 25^th of June, before the Germans had been driven out of Paris, the German flag was replaced with a Tricolour by two men from the French Naval Museum, who narrowly beat three men led by Lucien Sarniguet, who had lowered the Tricolour on 13^th of June 1940 when Paris fell to the Germans.

A fire started in the television transmitter on 3^rd of January 1956, damaging the top of the tower. Repairs took a year, and in 1957, the present radio aerial was added to the top.

According to interviews, in 1967, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company operating the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored in its original location.

Rooms/restaurants

When originally built, the first level contained three restaurants, French, Russian, Flemish, and an American Bar. After the exposition closed, the Flemish restaurant was converted to a 250 seat theatre.

At the top, there were laboratories for various experiments, and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests, which is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike mannequins of Eiffel and some of his notable guests.

In May 2016, an apartment was created on the first level to accommodate four competition winners during the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament in Paris in June. The apartment has a kitchen, two bedrooms, a lounge, and views of Paris landmarks including the Seine, the Sacre Coeur, and the Arc de Triomphe.

Structural quirks

Depending on the temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.

The Eiffel Tower sways by up to 9 centimetres in the wind.

When it was built, many were shocked by the tower's daring form. Eiffel was accused of trying to create something artistic with no regard to the principles of engineering.

 However, Eiffel and his team, were experienced builders and knew what they were doing.

In an interview with the newspaper Le Temps published on 14 February 1887, Eiffel said:

“Is it not true that the very conditions which give strength also conform to the hidden rules of harmony? … Now to what phenomenon did I have to give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be … will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.”

When it was put together every thing had to be precise to 0.1 of a millimeter, and if a piece was wrong it had to be shipped back to the factory.

Bibliography

http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-eiffel-tower

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower 

Khan Academy

I've been watching some science videos on Khan Academy (they have many more subjects besides science). So here is a very brief description of what I have watched.




Here he (the teacher) takes you through the hearts process step by step. This mainly talks about the way blood flows through the heart, and how it make sure that blood doesn’t go the wrong way. He also talks about the layers of the heart (its outer wall layers), and how when your maturing a balloon slowly starts to wrap around your heart.

Please ignore the captions, that was just me doing bad screenshots.

He teaches you what the lungs look like (like the cardiac notch), and also tells you about how different the two lungs are compared to each other (how the right long has 3 sections and the left lung only has 2, and other things). He also teaches you the bronchial tree and about alveoli and their purpose.

The next section (I’ve only started and haven’t finished the section) talks about whats in blood and what they do when they take your blood. A different teacher tells us what the blood types are and who can accept what (blood type) and who can give to whom.

This is all on Khan Academy and there is a bunch more besides science of the body, there is technology and math and a bunch of other subjects.

103 Orchard Street (History of New York's Immigrants)

This is a summary of (http://103orchard.tenement.org/stories/103-orchard/?_ga=2.95417944.575684299.1510051125-202175268.1510051125) Which I highly suggest going over and reading the web site.

The site is separated into 5 sections. Overview (103 Orchard Street), 1950s (Lower east side), 1960s (Loisaida), 1970s (Chinatown), and Your story (your objects).

 Overview (103 Orchard Street)

The first one gives you a quick summary, so I don't know why you’re reading this, but oh well.

1950s (Lower east side)

The second part talks about the life of Bella and her mom, there are some videos of Bella talking about here mom and how she was a Holocaust survivor, and because they were Jewish and highly prosecuted. But it wasn't all bad. 

She remembers her dad bringing back a portable record player and playing music of to hear Moishe Oysher and Josef “Yossele” Rosenblatt. She also remembers convincing her mother to buy her one record (Paul Anka), and she said after having that she became American.

She also remembers listing in the kitchen to Yiddish, Spanish, Italian, and English.

She also said that her mother would never talk about her time in concentration camps, except one day a lady saw them in a restaurant and talked to her mother and it turned out her mother was in charge of the children before they went to the gas chambers.

1960s (Loisaida)

This part talks about Andy and his family from Puerto Rico, he talks about how she would put beans in a little bit of water before they would leave school at around 6:45 and when they came back him and his brother would put the beans cooking at the lowest heat, and when they're mom came back at 5 the beans would be ready.

He remembers joining the Boy Scouts when he a very young boy, and when he was 15 he was able to get a prominent job in the Boy Scouts, he would also do lots of little jobs for people.

His mom also worked a lot he says, and she was a prominent member of a sewing union and whenever they did parades she would be in the front. When she came to America sewing was one of the few jobs where you didn't need to be skilled, but because she was Puerto Rican she was already highly skilled in sewing.

1970s (Chinatown)

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Hart-Celler immigration act, abolishing the race-based quota system of 1924. For the first time since 1882, significant numbers of Asian immigrants could enter the US.

This one fallows Allison Wong.

She talks about how there was a huge day care problem and how industry owners knew they needed to let the Chinese parents go pick up there children at three and give them a half hour to come back. 

Kattie Quang talks about how they held a news conference (for helping their petition that they were going to get signed to convince their union for child care) at their job, and she says it was very chaotic, every half a sentence the parents were yelling and the children to be calm (as children ran around yelling). She says that she thinks the reporters got the point from that.

Your story (your objects)

The last part is where you can add your parent's (or your/other family member's) story's of immigration.

Making Marshmallows With a Master

For the last five days I've been helping an adult friend who's been very sick for the last two months, and because she's going to a big market I helped her to make marshmallows. 

I'll tell you roughly how you make them but with no details because it took her years to perfect the recipes.

First you need to put a bunch of sugar and a special sugar similar to honey, you cook that for a bit with whatever flavour you want and then you add the gelatine (more gelatine the more acidic you flavour).

You the need to mix it until you have peeks like wiping cream.

Then you lay it out and let them dry for two days and then voila.

Khan Academy

Scale of the universe 

We learn about how small we really are in the universe. 

Examples are…

it would take a bullet 40 hours to go around the world and it would take a bullet half a year to go around the sun.

He also took one video to explain how small some things are, like bacteria and hair.

After that he talk about the Orion Spur which is 10,000 light years long (part of the Milky Way), he then went to talk about how small that is, then he talked about the known universe, which is about 47 billion light years, and mean while we are a tiny little speck in the universe.

Stars, black holes and galaxies 

First thing we learn about is how stars are formed, the get formed by a massive clouds a atoms slowly getting pulled in by each other’s gravitational pull, until the pressure makes the atoms start to fuse together making heavy up to iron 56 and nickel 56.

The life of our sun 

The sun started out as any other (at this stage the only difference between stars is the sizes of gasses they start out with), where it will burn for several dozen billion years with the core getting smaller (more dense with a bigger mass) and the out side is expanding, until the sun cannot do fusion any more without loosing energy, so the core now consists of iron 56 and nickel 56, it now becomes a red giant, when our sun does this it will swallow up the earth. It will burn for a couple hundred thousand years, and then it will become white dwarf then a black dwarf (a black dwarf is when all the energy is out of the white dwarf). Dwarfs are tiny spaces of super condensed mass. Our sun will turn into a white dwarf the size of a city and the white dwarf will be 2.5 more massive (mass) than it is know.

Life of a Supernova

It first starts of with a bigger cloud of atoms, and it burns for a much shorter time, only a couple of dozen million years, it will then explode into a supernova.

Nebulas

The mother of suns, they are massive with some parts spanning a couple of light years.

Belle Île (the well named Island)

My Time On Belle Île

Since the beginning of September I have been adding to my three months on Belle Île, which I did last year.  So far I have been on Belle Île for 5 and a half months and hopefully longer.

I am staying in a small house which is just a couple minute bike ride (my bike is a red bike called Lucifer, like the angel that fell from heaven, I just couldn’t help myself ) away from the biggest town (Palais). The house consist of bathroom, a bedroom, a hallway, and a kitchen. Although that would seem to suggest a dingy little place it is not. It has been completely re-done so that every-thing is bran spanking new, all white and is great for one person (although on the web site it said it could sleep 6 (French standards are slightly different then North America’s)).

I have recently joined an free time group which includes several languages, art, and other things I don’t know. It costs 36 Canadian dollars for the winter and you can go to as many of the classes that are available that you want to. At the moment I’m going to Latin, Spanish, and art.

Belle Île might be one of the best named places on earth because it truly is a beautiful Island.

For internet I go down to the local pub where the owners (Eric and Ghislaine) are very nice and always have smiles on their faces. It’s also the most interesting place for people watching, with it being the place all the locals go to it can get quite busy, but you see the most interesting people and the locals there are very friendly and started to shake my hand when I entered only a few days after I arrived (be warned not all the places have friendly locals like this. At another establishment we heard the locals complaining about us being there which is quite funny since its one of the most busy places in town to stop for a drink).

Nero Wolf Reviews

Recently I went on an audio book binge, specifically Nero Wolf by Rext Stout. Which is a mystery book placed from 1940-1970, there are at least 72 books. So here is a list of the and what there about. Warning there will be some major spoilers so I suggest that you just stop reading this and go listen to them now, because there hilarious, and very creative, and also give you some old time feels.

 First I guess I should tell you about the main characters.

Nero Wolf

He is one of the two main characters that the books revolve around, he is 270 pounds and is an eccentric genius with a perfect bating score when it comes to detecting. He also never leaves his house on business, and rarely ever leaves it at all.  This is where Archie Goodwin comes in, he is the eyes and ears of Nero Wolf.  His favourite is yellow and he also owns 10 thousand orchids and is in the top 80% tax bracket.

Archie Goodwin

Nero Wolf’s left and right hand, and also the writer of all the books, without him Nero Wolf would never have been able to work as he does. He has quick wit and knows his ways around the ladies, an essential and great part of the book.

Lilly Rowan

Archie’s most permanent girlfriend, who is rich from her father’s will and helps Archie and Nero on numerous occasions.

Fritz

Possible the most important member of the household, the chef, he is the best chef in New York, and possibly the best in the world, he and Nero often are found in the kitchen discussing food.

Saul Panzer

The best operative in New York besides Archie Goodwin, and often help in gathering information.

Fred Durkin

A very capable, but not the best, but as long as he is given the right jobs he’ll get it done and he knows his own capabilities.

Orry Cather

A showy guy and thinks he would look better in Archie job that Archie is. But still one of the best.

In the best Families

This is a very important one in the plot of all the books, Nero ends up getting compelled to destroy his enemy, Mister Zek (ruler of a major criminal industry).

Murder By the Book

4 people end up getting murdered all because a lawyer doesn’t want his career ruined.

Might As Well Be Dead

A Father comes to ask Nero to find his son who has disappeared and it ends up that the son has recently been convicted of murder and Nero has to find the real murderer.

Homicide Trinity

A set of three small stories.

Death Time Three

A set of three small stories.

Death of A Dude

Archie went on a holiday to Lilly Rowan’s house in the country side, but one of his friends is convicted of murder and he goes around trying to find facts to clear him, but nobody will tell him anything, but when all looks lost Nero leaves his house to get Archie’s friend out of jail.

A Family Affair

A man comes to Nero Wolf’s house late at night and asks to see him but Archie says it can wait till morning and Archie takes him up to the guest room but before Archie can go to sleep the man dies. And it turns out that one of the three helpers did it.

Champagne For One

A party is held with 4 ladies and 4 gentlemen, and one lady ends up being poisoned but because everybody knew she carried the poison they thought it was suicide, only Archie’s word stop the police from saying it’s suicide.

Black Orchids

Two stories, one how Nero gets the black orchids the only ones in the world, and the second, when a lady dies they show up on her coffin.

And Be A Villain

A man is killed while 10 thousand people are listening and the radio people want it solved.

A Right To Die

A black man quotes a speech Nero made 10 years ago and asks for Nero to look into a background a the girl his son is going to marry. But then that girl is murdered and his son in convicted Nero suddenly has a much harder job.

Some Buried Caesar

Archie is driving Nero to an orchid convention but the car crashes and they end up getting sent head first into a murder case.

And Four to Go

4 seasonal stories

Death Of A Doxy

A woman is killed and Orry is taken to jail but Saul says he’s innocent and Nero has to get him out.

Fer-de-lance

Fred comes with a friend in need of help and then it turns out that there are two murders involved.

Gambit

 A man is murdered at a chess tournament and a man is convicted but his daughter says he’s innocent and is willing to pay 22 thousand.

Black Mountain

Nero Wolf’s oldest and best friend is killed and Nero has to go back to his home country to catch the murderer.

The Doorbell Rang

 A woman come to Nero Wolf and puts down 100 thousand dollars (and that’s just a retainer) and ask Nero to get the FBI off of her back.