The International Space Station generates its electrical power through a set of eight Solar Array Wings. Each wing, when fully extended, is 35 meters long, and 12 meters wide. The wings are affixed to gimbals, which adjust the angles of each wing to track with the Sun’s position as the ISS orbits the Earth. The entire system is capable of generating up to 120 killowatts of power.
Costa Rica means rich coast in English.
Playing off the 2 previous posts:
Ivory Coast is the English name for Côte d’Ivoire; the name has long been translated literally into other languages, including include Elfenbeinküste (German), Costa d’Avorio (Italian) and Norsunluurannikko (Finnish). In 1986, the government declared that République de Côte d’Ivoire would be its formal name for purposes of diplomatic protocol, and since then officially refuses to accept any translation from French to another language in its international dealings.
La Internationale has been translated into many languages; here’s the original French version, a different French version by Pete Seeger, a Spanish version from a movie, a Chinese version from a famous movie, a Filipino version, a Japanese version, and one version among several with a variety of different English lyrics.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera has played in 15 different languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Danish, Polish, Swedish, Castilian, Hungarian, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese, Mexican Spanish, Estonian and Russian.
On SNL, Christopher Guest played ventriloquist Senor Cosa. His puppet would confuse the host by pronouncing it Cotha and Senor Cosa would have to explain that the dummy used the Castilian pronounciation.
Andrew Lloyd Webber settled a lawsuit by the estate of Giacomo Puccini because a climactic phrase from A Quello che tacete (from Puccini’s ‘la Fanciulla del West’ ‘Girl of the Golden West’) is basically identical in melody and harmony to A.L.W.’s ‘Music of the Night’.
Vice President Mike Pence recently gave a speech in Munich before a largely-German audience which did not applaud, as he plainly expected them to, when he mentioned that he brought greetings from President Donald Trump: Speaking in Europe, Pence is received with total silence — repeatedly - Vox
ETA: Puccini was Italian, not German.
“Pence” is the part of the family name of former Colorado Senator Gary Hart, born Gary Warren Hartpence, that the family dropped for simplicity’s sake when he was a young man. Hart is best known for his flameout in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries, involving a woman named Donna Rice and a yacht named “Monkey Business”.
What’s the link to the previous post?
The 2018 film The Front Runner was a dramatization of Senator Gary Hart’s bid for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, and his fall from grace in the wake of the Donna Rice / Monkey Business scandal. Hugh Jackman played Hart in the film, and though his performance was praised, the film overall was not as well-received critically as had been hoped, and it did poorly at the box office.
Simulpost
Yeah, sorry.
Puccini’s last residence was the Tagliata Tower in Tuscany, in the town of Cosa.
The Marx Brothers, who made the move A Night At the Opera, which features the Italian song “Cosi Cosa”, also made the film Monkey Business.
One of Lord John Whorfin/Dr. Emilio Lizardo’s (John Lithgow) many memorable lines in the sf rock-and-roll parody The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) is “Laugh-a while you can, Monkey Boy!” Lithgow was, in a stunning oversight by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the role.
The main character in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, was a polymath – he was a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star.
Buckaroo was played by actor Peter Weller, who, himself, is a bit of a polymath – in addition to his work as an actor, director, and writer, Weller is fluent in five languages, plays the trumpet, and, in 2014, he received a Ph.D in Renaissance Art History from UCLA.
According to most authorities, the word buckaroo derives from vaquero, the Spanish word for cowboy. Some believe that it comes from the Gullah word buckra, meaning white man or boss.
One of the best known “race” Westerns, by black-owned Hollywood Productions, was 1939’s The Bronze Buckaroo, starring black cowboy singer Herb Jeffries. Fair warning: It has a trite plot and bad acting. Jeffries also starred in Harlem on the Prairie (1937), Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938), Rhythm Rodeo (1938), and Harlem Rides the Range (1939).
It’s thought that bronze was originally discovered when copper deposits that contained arsenic were refined. The inclusion of arsenic resulted in a bronze alloy.
Because of the health risks from working with arsenic, other metals were substituted to make different types of bronze alloys. One of the most useful alloys included tin instead of bronze.
The tin trade became extremely important. Devon and Cornwall became a major source of tin, shipped to the Mediterranean, and leading to Britain being known at this time as the “Tin Islands”.
Cornish was a language spoken in western England, where Cornwall is. It went extinct by the beginning of the 19th century but has been revived, and a few thousand people today can speak it.
Cornish is a Brittonic language, related to Welsh.
Cornwall’s traditional “national” dish is the Cornish pasty, a D-shaped bun sealed around a full meal of meat, potatoes, and vegetables. The thick crust edge was reputedly a means for tin miners to hold it with their fingers, and it could be thrown to the rats when the meal in it had been eaten.