Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (born Dec. 11, 1918, Kislovodsk, Russia—died Aug. 3, 2008, Troitse-Lykovo, near Moscow) was a Russian novelist and historian, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 where he became a mathematics teacher and began to write where it inspired a number of other writers to produce accounts of their imprisonment under Stalin’s regime as illegal literature circulated clandestinely—as well as publishing them abroad was a recently released inmate of the camps The novel centred on several characters in the doomed 1st Army of the Russian general A.V Samsonov and indirectly explored the weaknesses of the tsarist regime that eventually led to its downfall by revolution in 1917 and in December he took possession of his Nobel Prize analyzes what he perceived to be the perils of American misconceptions about Russia In 1983 an extensively expanded and revised version of August 1914 appeared in Russian as the first part of a projected series Krasnoe koleso (The Red Wheel); other volumes (or uzly [“knots”]) in the series were Oktyabr 1916 (“October 1916”) Ugodilo zernyshko promezh dvukh zhernovov: ocherki izgnaniia (“The Little Grain Managed to Land Between Two Millstones: Sketches of Exile”) In 2007 Solzhenitsyn was awarded Russia’s prestigious State Prize for his contribution to humanitarian causes Here at PUCRS you can take the course you want Courses that will make a difference in your development There are 20 program options in the best graduate courses in the country Renowned teachers and our quality guarantee Courses with different themes and prices for senior citizens Commitment to scientific and technological advancement.   Seeking solutions to the problems of our society.  Contributing to the training of specialists and researchers.   Be one of our researchers and contribute to scientific advancement We value ethics and integrity in 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Raising funds to finance projects and strategic actions We continue to work alongside the people of Rio Grande do Sul in rebuilding the State We are a community university focused on society A new University for a new society.   We are the best private university in the country and one of the best in the world Pró-Mata Nature Conservation and Research Center stands out among initiatives from 56 countries represented from the School of Health and Life Sciences is part of an international research project on the importance of conserving field research stations / Photo: Matheus Gomes the teacher of School of Health and Life Sciences Júlio César Bicca-Marques was part of the international article Tropical field stations yield high conservation return on investment (Tropical Field Stations Yield High Return on Conservation Investment) alongside 172 other researchers representing 157 field stations in 56 countries Published in the journal Conservation Letters the authors argue that Field research stations have a high return on investment and are essential and highly effective tools for biodiversity conservation.  The study consists of a survey focused on field stations in mainly tropical and subtropical countries to understand the impact of the pandemic on funding and assess the conservation benefits of field stations Findings include: improving the habitat quality of surrounding areas by reducing nearby deforestation and improving enforcement of laws regarding wildlife use and resource extraction supporting the local economy while also generating meaningful scientific results that inform conservation policies.  Trillions of US dollars have been mobilized for economic recovery after the pandemic but the authors raise concerns that resources to address biodiversity loss and climate crises are limited at a time when they are most urgently needed The pandemic caused approximately half of the field stations surveyed to partially close and about 25% remained partially or fully closed with most field stations experiencing a complete reduction in funding.  “A key challenge is that governments and other funding agencies are not considering the true return on investment in conservation and are missing the critical economic role of the ecosystem services that are being protected by these field stations.” Director of Conservation at Wildlife Madagascar and former postdoctoral research fellow at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.  Eppley and co-authors suggest that the work of field research stations is often interdisciplinary some of the direct and indirect benefits of research and public engagement that occur at field stations have long-term goals that current cost-benefit analysis models do not capture.  “In the context of the reality we have identified in field research stations around the world PUCRS’ long-term investment in Pró-Mata stands out and is a source of pride for the scientific and conservation community in Rio Grande do Sul” In addition to containing an important Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) an environmental protection area of ​​the National System of Conservation Units that contributes to the conservation of biodiversity and the mitigation of the climate emergency in its area Pró-Mata is an excellent place for scientific research. “Its recent inclusion in the list of study sites of the Long-Term Ecological Research Program (PELD) of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) illustrates its importance for science and nature conservation” Learn about research projects and our researchers information and follow everything that is happening at the University learn about the Fluir program and have access to the main systems Ernest Hemingway, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 had a great impact on other writers through his deceptively simple which created a myth that imprisoned the author and haunted the World War II generation he was twice hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic he took his life with a shotgun at his house in Ketchum These were experiences he was never to forget he blows up the bridge but is wounded and makes his retreating comrades leave him behind where he prepares a last-minute resistance to his Nationalist pursuers (Read Britannica’s essay “War Stories: 13 Modern Writers Who Served in War.”) He had fathered three sons: John Hadley Nicanor (“Bumby”) a theme clearly established in The Old Man and the Sea but his popularity continues to be validated by serious critical opinion Juan De Paula knows a thing or two or three even about getting traded.The 21-year-old right-hander was dealt for the third time in his baseball career Tuesday as he was sent by the Giants along with infielder Alen Hanson and reliever Derek Law to the Blue Jays for outfielder Kevin Juan De Paula knows a thing or two or three even about getting traded.The 21-year-old right-hander was dealt for the third time in his baseball career Tuesday as he was sent by the Giants along with infielder Alen Hanson and reliever Derek Law to the Blue Jays for outfielder Kevin Pillar. De Paula was San Francisco's No. 19 prospect at the time of the trade The Dominican Republic native is coming off his best statistical Minor League season in 2018 He posted a 1.71 ERA and 1.29 WHIP with 46 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings at Class A Short Season Staten Island during his time in the Yankees system before he was traded to the Giants system on Aug giving up an earned run on two hits and a walk while fanning nine over five innings on Sept and that has been his only career appearance with a full-season affiliate He was slated to open 2019 with Augusta and will likely open with Class A Lansing instead in his new organization.De Paula's arsenal contains a plus fastball that mostly sits in the low-90s but can be tough to pick up coming from his 6-foot-3 frame His curveball and changeup could be average pitches in time and that type of pitch package could keep him in a starting role long term the Blue Jays will be the fourth organization to try to get the righty to that ceiling He was signed by the Mariners in July 2014 dealt to the Yankees for outfielder Ben Gamel in August 2016 moved to the Giants two years later and now will head to the Jays before the Minor League season has even begun.Hanson had been designated for assignment by San Francisco on March 28 He hit .252/.274/.425 with eight homers and seven steals over 110 games with the club last season while playing second base third base and both corner outfield spots.Law who has averaged 94 mph on his fastball in the Majors was going to open 2019 with Triple-A Sacramento but has pitched in the Majors in each of the last three seasons He's put up a 3.83 ERA with 97 strikeouts and 31 walks in 105 2/3 innings over that span he allowed 11 earned runs in 13 1/3 innings with the big club last season.Pillar helps the Giants address their need for a Major League-quality outfielder and should move into the starting center field spot The 30-year-old is considered a gifted fielder up the middle 2016 and 2017 but doesn't stand out much with the bat He hit .252/.282/.426 with 15 homers and 14 steals in 142 games last season and was off to a 1-for-16 start in 2019.Outfielder Michael Reed was designated for assignment as part of Tuesday's moves Sam Dykstra is a reporter for MiLB.com. Follow and interact with him on Twitter, @SamDykstraMiLB. Volume 4 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2023.1099430 This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in Remote Sensing: 2022View all 16 articles Fire has been an intrinsic ecological component of the ecosystems and socio-cultural policies of human-nature interactions Using fire over grassland vegetation is a traditional practice for livestock in the highland grasslands and has economic and environmental consequences that have not yet been understood A better description of the spatio-temporal biomass burning patterns is needed to analyze the effects of creation and application in these areas This study used remote sensing techniques based on Sentinel-2 data and machine learning algorithms to identify burning scars and compare them with a national fire collection database for the highland grasslands in the Atlantic Forest Biome in Brazil The aim is to evaluate public management tools and legislation evolution during the 35 years of the time series analyzed The results indicated that 12,285 ha of grasslands were converted to other uses losing about 24% of their original formation with 10% occurring after banned this practice in 2008 The burned areas classification using the Random Forest algorithm obtained an AUC = 0.9983 Divergences in the burned area’s extent and frequency were found between the municipality’s authorized license and those classified as burned only 43% of the burned area in the Parque Estadual do Tainhas and its buffer zone had an environmental permit in the last 5 years This research’s results provide subsidies for revising and creating public policies and consequently help territorial management Currently, the AFB remnants are highly fragmented and restricted to highland grassland areas in southern Brazil, where there are mosaics of Araucaria (Brazilian pine) forests and grasslands linked to a fire events history (Pillar et al., 2009; Meireles and Shepherd, 2015) In these areas, fire has been an intrinsic ecological component of the ecosystems, affecting the public, economic, social, and even cultural policies of human interactions with nature (Andrade et al., 2015) attributes to the municipal government the power to authorize and supervise the use of fire as a grasslands management practice in areas that cannot be mechanized or as a form of phytosanitary treatment In this study, to minimize these products limitations, such as the spatial resolution, we used Sentinel-2 data developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), which has four bands with 10 m, six with 20 m, and three bands with 60 m (ESA, 2022) this study’s objective is to improve the spatial resolution of burned areas and compare them with the national MapBiomas Fire product to evaluate the fire use legislation over time in the highland grasslands in Atlantic Forest Biome in Brazil This study was conducted in the conservation area denominate Parque Estadual do Tainhas (PET) and its buffer zone (BZ) located at latitude 29°5′15″S and longitude 50°22′4″W (Figure 1) The PET was established in 1975 to protect the grasslands and forests in the Tainhas river valley (D) Location of the municipalities that make up PET (E) Location of the PET and its BZ in relation to the highland grasslands which favors the emergence of the biogeographic conditions that can contribute to the interconnection of these units through ecological corridors helping preserve fauna and flora populations and maintain the ecosystem services balance in the region denominating as “pre-fire” images while the post-fire images were selected from July 15 to September 15 of each year when the “burning window” allowed by municipal legislation was established the function defines two bitmask values for clouds and cirrus (bit 10 and bit 11 respectively) and selects the image’s pixel quality band (QA) the function creates a mask that filters out all the pixels where the cloud and cirrus bits are equal to zero Overview of the burned area classification method We used the GEE to collect spectral signatures of the burned and unburned areas which served as samples for the model classification we used data collected from the field in the year 2020 as a reference for sampling in this year’s post-fire images This effort resulted in 7,133 sampled pixels manually collected as small polygons from burned areas (2,295 sampled pixels) and the unburned regions (4,838 sampled pixels) we used the shortwave infrared (SWIR) and near-infrared (NIR) bands and the result of the Normalized Burn Ratio spectral index (ΔNBR) calculation The NBR is a ratio of the NIR to the SWIR region, developed to identify post-fire burned areas and provide a quantitative measure of burn severity (Key and Benson, 2006). The NBR is calculated by the pre- and post-fire difference (denoted as ΔNBR) using Eqs. 1, 2 The algorithm used for our classification was the Random Forest (RF) (Breiman, 2001; Goehry et al., 2021), which is an ensemble algorithm operated by building multiple decision trees in a training session and assigning the target class by majority vote (PAL, 2005) we used the RandomForest function in the GEE library The parameters used were: number0fTrees (20) we applied a spatial filter to remove noise and fill in gaps where burned areas smaller than or equal to 1 ha (5 × 5 pixels) were removed The spatial filter selected was the Manhattan Kernel which generates a distance kernel based on rectilinear distance (city-block) Reduction is performed by calculating the mode (most common value) of the pixel values in a neighborhood defined by the specified kernel (or window) The filter size was determined considering the difference in the spatial resolution of the Landsat 8 satellite which was used for the MAPBIOMAS product methodology proposed for exclusion the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC curve) was calculated to measure and compare the binary classification model’s performance To evaluate the management tools available in conjunction with the classification data generated, we used data on the annual area burned by MapBiomas Fire—Collection 1.0 (Alencar et al., 2022) and the land use and land cover areas classified as grassland from 1985 to 2020 available in MapBiomas Collection 7.0 (Souza et al., 2020) we also used the extent area authorized for burning by Jaquirana and Cambará do Sul municipalities located within PET and its BZ The annual burned areas stationarity trend covered by grassland was checked using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test The ADF test is an “augmented” version of the Dicker-Fuller test The ADF test expands the test equation to include high-order regression processes in the model Afterward, the trend was verified through time series decomposition to verify the seasonality and the residuals. Results are obtained by first estimating the trend by applying a convolution filter to the data. Therefore, the trend is removed from the series, and the average of this unbiased series for each period is the seasonal component returned (McKinney, Perktold and Seabold, 2011) The burnt areas and the grasslands from 1985 to 2020 in the PET and its BZ are shown in (Figure 3). In this figure is highlighted in vertical dotted lines, the primary legislation, which is also presented in (Table 1) together with the grasslands and the total burned area values This analysis reveals an increasing trend for the burned area while there is a decreasing trend for grassland in the PET (A) Burned area accordingly MapBiomas Fire—Collection 1.0 and (B) Grassland accordingly MapBiomas—Collection 7.0 both in the PET and its BZ from 1985–2020 Relationship of burnt areas (hectares per year) mapped and permissions of environmental permits We can observe that the burnt areas remained low after the fire use prohibition in 1992 this pattern was not established for a long time and the highest values for the time series analyzed occurred in 1995 and 1996 with about ten thousand hectares burnt each year The most significant burned areas reduction occurred in 2002 By observing the trend curves of burnt area and area occupied by grassland formation the curve’s decline in the same years is noticed In 2002, the area corresponding to grassland was 49,359 ha, while in 2005, it was 46,345 ha. Therefore, the PET and its BZ lost more than 3,000 ha in only 3 years. These years precede the AFB Law creation (Brasil, 2006) and its regulation decree (Brasil, 2008) prohibiting new conversions of areas with native vegetation in the biome During the 35 years of the analyzed time series, 12.285 ha of grassland areas were converted to other uses, losing about 24% of their original formation, with 10% occurring after the AFB decree banned this practice in 2008 (Brasil, 2008) Finally, concerning the burned areas only when municipalities begin to legislate about the use of fire, in 2013, a trend definition and a biannual frequency can be observed, as provided by several municipal legislation (Municipio de Cambará do Sul, 2013; Municipio de Jaquirana, 2013; Municipio de São Francisco de Paula, 2013) The burned areas classification with the RF algorithm obtained an AUC = 0.9983 (Figure 4). With a visual inspection, the scar’s demarcation can be identified when comparing the pre-fire and post-fire images (Figure 5) Examples of burned area classification using RF The results show that larger areas were burned for all years than those allowed by the municipalities’ environmental permits. In addition, larger burned areas were found in our classification than those presented by the MapBiomas Fire collection, as can be seen in (Table 2) Comparison of burned areas (ha) authorized by the municipality between mapped by mapbiomas and BACHG The licenses issued correspond to only 48.09% (2018) and 43.54% (2022) of the area identified as burned in our classification For the three available years of the analyzed period from the MapBiomas collection The Mapbiomas burned areas that coincide with our classification represent only 21% of the total classified area on average (Figure 6) The MapBiomas burned omission areas are formed by scars smaller than 10 ha or with sites that present a non-continuous formation with gaps of 1 ha Representation of the comparison of classified areas in both methods for 2020 In addition to the burning extent, the frequency of areas affected by the fire was verified, and about 28% of the PET and its BZ were burned at least once, as shown in (Figure 7) the areas could present a burning frequency of 2–3 times for 5 years the results showed that 353 ha were burned 4 to 5 times exceeding the legal requirements for this period These areas are within the Jaquirana municipality territory inside the PET or near its boundaries No stationary trends were found in the time series even though there is a long history of legislation to regulate fire use and vegetation protection practices During the 20 years (1992–2012) of fire use practice prohibition, producers changed their economic profile, and extensive native grassland areas conversion to monocultures in the region occurred (Boziki, Beroldt, Printes, 2011; Buffon, Printes, Andrades-Filho, 2018) especially where other agricultural practices are not viable we noticed that legislation changes over the time series are related to changes in land use Conservation areas (CAs) in Brazil are managed under the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC), which is designed to protect the country’s diverse ecosystems (BRASIL, 2000) each with specific objectives regarding protection and use which provides full protection and allows only non-consumptive uses of natural resources This means that handling fire is not permitted inside the PET Conservation areas like the PET are essential for preserving Brazil’s rich biodiversity and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the country’s natural resources The fire management practice in the winter period is expected in the region, and it is used to remove dry biomass to provide the vegetation regrowth that will be used to feed the cattle herd in spring and summer (Pillar et al., 2009) Once forbidden, it can be replaced by other activities much more environmentally damaging than the old fire management grasslands practice, such as forestry and monocultures, which have been advancing into the grasslands (Buffon, Printes and Andrades-Filho, 2018) It was observed during the study that municipalities lack data and tools to manage and enforce current environmental legislation. So it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of existing environmental management tools regulated by municipal laws related to the use of fire (Santos and Andrades-Filho, 2021) In addition to the environmental laws presented, it was verified the irregularity in the data availability by the municipalities, which do not meet the legal provisions of free access to information in Brazil, especially regarding publicity, accessibility, and transparency, making technological advancement impossible (Brasil, 2011) The brief characteristics of the fire marks left on satellite imagery complicate the burned area’s detection. There are few fire products available globally, and only one at the national level (Alencar et al., 2022) evaluating its applicability to different regions and vegetation formations in Brazil is extremely important The strategy of using ΔNBR in conjunction with the NIR and SWIR bands for burned areas classification reduced noise and class confusion The areas with the highest commission error were exposed soil from recently cleared forestry areas Due to the rugged relief and mosaics of forest and mountainous grassland vegetation that form the area’s landscape, remote sensing data with higher spatial resolution can be explored as they become available. Therefore, Earth observation can significantly support public fire prescription policies and add to other factors that consider CO2 emissions (Herrmann, Nascimento and Freitas, 2022) This study uses remote sensing techniques to evaluate legislation related to fire use in highland grasslands in Brazil Long-term time series and exploring new enhancement methodologies are essential to identify the main impacts of human-induced changes Divergences in extent and frequency were found between the burned areas authorized by the municipalities and those classified as burned only 43% of the burned area in the PET and its BZ was licensed in the last 5 years The municipal databases had recorded only from the year 2018 and it is possible to improve the time series from the continuity of data collection Our newly burned area methodological classification developed in this article presented results that provide subsidies for reviewing and creating public policies and territorial management The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version This research was funded by Fundação de Amparo á Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) project number (2017/22269-2) The authors thank the Graduate Program in Remote Sensing at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal University of ABC in Brazil The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Development of post-fire vegetation response-ability model in grassland mountainous ecosystem using GIS and remote sensing CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Long-term landsat-based monthly burned area dataset for the Brazilian biomes using deep learning CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Grassland degradation and restoration: A conceptual framework of stages and thresholds illustrated by southern Brazilian grasslands CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Campos do Rio Grande do Sul: Caracterização fisionômica e problemática ocupacional Brazil: Boletim do Instituto de Biociências Google Scholar Biodiversidade dos Campos de Cima da Serra Google Scholar Situação atual da utilização de agrotóxicos e destinação de embalagens na área de Proteção Ambiental Estadual Rota Sol Google Scholar que dispõe sobre a utilização e proteção da vegetação nativa do Bioma Mata Atlântica Google Scholar Dispõe sobre a utilização e proteção da vegetação nativa do Bioma Mata Atlântica Google Scholar Sistema Nacional de Unidades de Conservação LEI No 9.985 DE 18 DE JULHO DE 2000 Google Scholar Regula o acesso a informações previsto no inciso XXXIII do art 5° no inciso II do § 3° do art 37 e no § 2° do art 216 da Constituição Federal Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Licenciamento ambiental do uso do fogo nos Campos de Cima da Serra Brasil: Determinação do período de pousio e sugestões para uma rotina de monitoramento Eletrônica Científica UERGS 4 CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Resilience and restoration of tropical and subtropical grasslands PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Análise Espaço-Temporal do uso e cobertura do solo em São Francisco De Paula Mudanças nos sistemas agrícolas e territórios no Brasil CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Reconstructing long time series of burned areas in arid grasslands of southern Russia by satellite remote sensing CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar ESA, (2022). 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Pamela Boelter Herrmann, cGFtZWxhLmhlcnJtYW5uQHVmcmdzLmJy Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish. But fatal overdoses are still much more common than they were before the pandemic and tackling the crisis will prove a major test of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s leadership The Chronicle is tracking accidental drug overdose deaths in the city and related trends to shed light on the crisis. We gathered data from local and federal agencies, including monthly reports from the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner that reveal how the epidemic has evolved and who is most impacted by it This project is updated monthly to reflect the most recent preliminary figures from the medical examiner’s office. The figures here look different from the overdose death toll tabulated using the federal data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which we use for the national overdose tracker That’s because local agencies have access to more detailed data than the information used by the CDC The Chronicle primarily relies on the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s monthly reports to track the changes in the number of deaths and the share of those that involve fentanyl. Those reports are the most up-to-date and detailed source of information. Read more about the data behind the charts and download them here. Accidental drug overdose deaths began to spike in the mid- to late 2010s as fentanyl infiltrated the local drug market. Fentanyl can be up to 50 times more potent than heroin and lethal even in very small doses. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be deadly A disaster in plain sight: Fentanyl is a public health crisis How seven lives were ‘forever changed’ by the drug overdose crisis Unsheltered and addicted: ‘A demon inside me’ Overdose outreach program focuses on most desperate homeless cases Experts are unsure what caused the spike in 2023 or the decline in 2024 though wider access to overdose reversal supplies and treatment has been proposed as factors Experts have also suggested that social isolation during the initial years of the pandemic meant more people were using drugs alone instead of with others who could help them if they overdosed Some demographic groups in San Francisco are disproportionately affected by the epidemic, data shows. The fatal overdose rate among Black people in San Francisco is several times higher than the rate among the city’s Hispanic and white populations, a trend also seen nationally The vast majority of people who died of an accidental overdose in 2024 were men with the largest share among those between the ages of 35 and 64 Fentanyl was involved in more than 70% percent of accidental overdose deaths in 2024, most often in combination with other drugs. The synthetic opioid, which is manufactured in labs, is “often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive and more dangerous,” according to the CDC However, experts say there’s more to the story than just fentanyl Fentanyl is often combined with stimulant drugs like methamphetamine — sometimes San Francisco’s public health officials say they’ve ramped up access to treatment programs for drug use since 2022 with admissions to substance use disorder treatment reaching record levels in 2024 Federal and local policy changes have also boosted the availability of medication-assisted treatment and Narcan This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Notice spent millions to shelter people in hotels Cuba – “Did you see the war correspondent’s uniform?” a dazzled visitor asks a companion as both peer at a musty closet housing vintage garb alluding to the jaunty footwear invoking Gatsby revelry amid the khaki attire and lace-up boots Such scenes unfold daily at one of Cuba’s most popular tourist destinations – Finca Vigia (Lookout Estate) the 12-acre villa that was the longtime residence of Ernest Hemingway It’s the place that the restless ex-pat author called home longer than any other Finca Vigia now houses the government-run Hemingway Museum drawing “Papa” aficionados from across the globe The conservation project – including the grounds and thousands of Hemingway papers – stands out as a singular example of cooperation between longtime adversaries The museum is also the centerpiece of Cuba’s lucrative Hemingway industry continues to play an outsized role on the communist-run island long at odds with Washington the finca was in disarray – the roof sagging thousands of documents languishing in basement storage – but the place has been painstakingly restored to 1950s period glory Bacardi and other bottles line a tray next to his favorite chair trophies of hunts in Africa and the American West stare down from walls also adorned with bullfight posters and a ceramic plate bearing a glazed bovine likeness courtesy of the writer’s onetime Paris pal Pablo Picasso The novelist’s Royal typewriter rests atop a bedroom bookcase seemingly primed for the imminent touch of an author who famously found inspiration while standing up Then there are the books: some 9,000 – almost one-fifth with Hemingway’s personal scribblings – line shelves found in most every room is the preservation effort’s core: now-safeguarded manuscripts Hemingway – trailblazer of the spare prose style – was a pack rat Hemingway initially moved here in 1939 with Martha Gellhorn an acclaimed war correspondent who would become his third wife bar-hopping lifestyle based in Old Havana hotels She apparently responded to a classified ad for rental of the then-ramshackle estate in the outskirts of San Francisco de Paula Hemingway later bought the place with proceeds from the Hollywood sale of the rights to “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” his signature Spanish Civil War novel Hemingway spent much of the 1940s and 1950s at the estate with Mary Welsh Hemingway a former Time magazine correspondent and his fourth Hemingway would be done with his 500 words or so a day by late morning and already planning a fishing expedition or a jaunt into town “For many of the years that I visited Havana I never thought of my father as a working writer,” observed his youngest son “Papa.” “By the time I made it up to the big house around ten (a.m.) Hemingway put final touches on “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and penned his comeback Pulitzer-winning and Nobel-clinching Cuban fisherman’s saga “The Old Man and the Sea,” among other works Ernest and Mary Hemingway decamped from Cuba in July 1960 in the aftermath of the Fidel Castro-led revolution a distraught but determined Mary went back to retrieve the couple’s possessions securing special permission from the Kennedy administration following Washington’s cutoff of ties with Havana Castro personally came to the finca and vowed to help Mary Hemingway left Cuba for good with as much documentation artwork and ephemera that she could stuff into a Florida-bound shrimp boat which became the property of the Cuban government Preservationists pushed for a binational rescue operation But they faced resistance on two fronts: U.S and Cuban worries about appropriation of a part of the island’s cultural heritage “The Cubans’ fear was that the Americans were going to take things away from them,” recalled Jenny Phillips a cultural anthropologist who helped spearhead the preservation project in 2001-02 She brought impeccable pedigree: Phillips is the granddaughter of Maxwell Perkins the legendary editor who worked closely with Hemingway and contemporaries Phillips is co-president of the Finca Vigia Foundation a Boston-based nonprofit that has used about $2 million in donations for preservation efforts permission to bring in experts and materials from the United States More than 10,000 documents have been preserved along with 4,500 photographs and five Hemingway scrapbooks The now-protected originals remain in Cuba while digital copies are collected at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston available to the public and to researchers the Hemingway enterprise is both a cash cow and a kind of affirmation of the revolution – which played out practically at his doorstep The celebrated chronicler of war maintained his distance but an unofficial campaign has sought to transform him retroactively into a Castro aficionado apart from the sometimes crass commercialization – a gift shop at the finca hawks mugs T-shirts and even snow-globes – many Cubans seem genuinely proud of the author’s undisputed affection for the island He sometimes called himself a “plain” Cuban His gold Nobel medallion remains in the safekeeping of a Cuban Catholic shrine a gift from the writer to the people of Cuba Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below Gifts processed in this system are tax deductible Get the day’s top entertainment headlines delivered to your inbox Thursday afternoons © Copyright 2025, The Spokesman-Review | Community Guidelines | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy Its volumetry is simple: two rectangular boxes of different textures intercepted. The bigger one, covered with metallic wavy tile, shelter the intimate sector with two bedroom suits in opposite sides. The second box, in wood and more transparent, crosses the metallic pavilion configuring the social and service sector. From this crossing, a wood deck overhang over the vegetation, crossing the main body of the house exerting the access function, hall of distribution and terrace. The house was thought from a simple logic structural, with modules of 1.20 x 1.20m arranged by steel frame upon a concrete base. The composition of the walls is proper of the constructive system: a sandwich formed by drywall, rockwool, osb and permeable membrane isolating the structure of the humidity. Only in the wood box the interior cover is the same of the exterior. Complementing the structure, a concrete block box, half-embedded, retreat in relation to the base, conforms the foundations sheltering in the biggest unevenness a small deposit. The project looked for to answer the necessities of the program desiring to delimit the constructed space, without merging or camouflaging themselves, but assuming the landscape without competing with it. The option to construct in steel frame occurred by two main aspects: agility in the construction, falling the working time in situ, and the control over the constructive process therefore executing the metallic structure in a shed in Porto Alegre, 100 km of the house area, made possible a daily supervision of the team technique supported for an equipped structure of the place. At the end of two weeks, all modules of walls and segments in frame were being carried to the final assembly in the area. That stage took more 8 weeks for conclusion of the services. For accomplishment of the project and execution of the shelter the partnership with the supplying companies was essential On the definition of the constructive system we count on the experience of Placo Center and Formac company of Chilean origin that acts in Brazil since 2005 supplied all the steel frame and system of sliding doors beyond calculating and designing the structure You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email is seen at his country home in San Francisco de Paula near Havana A few months after Ernest Hemingway and his wife survived two plane crashes in two days while on safari in Africa, he wrote a letter to his lawyer full of grisly details about his injuries — with the bravado that marked both his novels and his life. Now, that letter has drawn 12 bids at auction and ultimately sold for $237,055 why he'd asked others to "give you the word" on his injuries from the crashes a few months earlier "Couldn't write letters much on acc't of right arm which was burned to the bone 3rd degree and it would cramp up on me (still does a little but all burns ok)," he wrote He says his right kidney ruptured and his liver and spleen were injured Have been a good boy and tried to rest," the letter read "Mary had a big shock and her memory not too hot yet and it will take quite a time to sort things out," he explained The couple had been sightseeing in Uganda when their Cessna "cracked up," as the Associated Press reported at the time Hemingway said the pilot had dived to avoid hitting a flying flock of ibises and The group camped overnight in the remote jungle Then the next day their rescue plane caught fire forcing the passengers and pilot to scramble out When the couple finally emerged after a 170 mile automobile ride, the AP reported that Mary was limping and Hemingway's head and arm were bandaged But Hemingway was "carrying a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin" and "appeared to be in high spirits as he shrugged off the crashes." in the letter to his lawyer Hemingway insisted "everything is fine here." He sprinkles the details of his injuries amid more urgent seeming matters asking his lawyer to pay a bill he never received and said he hoped "the dept or Bureau will understand" that his receipts for the trip had burned in the second crash that I am more valuable to them alive than dead and at present am trying [to] stay alive and get fit to produce," he quipped Hemingway delivered his biting wit in other excerpts such as when he expressed annoyance with the retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for sending his hunting guns to the wrong address in Nairobi had to shoot my first lion with a borrowed .256 Mannlicher which was so old it would come apart in my hands and had to be held together with tape and Scotch tape," he complained wryly "Their carelessness in shipping imperiled both my life and livelihood Become an NPR sponsor Vargas Llosa’s semi-autobiographical novel La tía Julia y el escribidor (1977; Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, filmed 1990 as Tune in Tomorrow) combines two distinct narrative points of view to produce a contrapuntal effect It is based on his relationship with his uncle’s sister-in-law whom Vargas Llosa married in 1955 when he was 19 and Vargas Llosa then married Patricia Llosa They had three children before divorcing in 2015.) “I learned from my political experiences that I am a writer Part of the reasons I have lived the life I have is because I wanted to have an adventurous life But my best adventures are more literary than political.” Vargas Llosa became a citizen of Spain in 1993 and was awarded the Cervantes Prize the following year he continued to write about Peru in such novels as Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto (1997; The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto) His later works include the novels La fiesta del chivo (2000; The Feast of the Goat; film 2005) El paraíso en la otra esquina (2003; The Way to Paradise) Travesuras de la niña mala (2006; The Bad Girl) El sueño del celta (2010; The Dream of the Celt) El héroe discreto (2013; The Discreet Hero) Le dedico mi silencio (“I Dedicate My Silence to You”) The municipality of Rolante suffered the worst of the flooding Over 6,000 people were affected and 2,400 families were evacuated Rio Grande do Sul State Civil Defence say that flooding also affected the neighbouring municipality of Riozinho and several other villages or municipalities in the area No injuries or fatalities have been reported and no evacuations were necessary in these locations flew over the affected area on Monday morning bridges and thousands of homes in Rolante municipality and the local government declared a state of emergency on 06 January In a statement the government said the flooding had been caused by heavy rainfall in river catchment areas and the rupture of the dam in São Francisco de Paula Rio Grande do Sul State Civil Defence reported that 6,604 people were affected by the floods in Rolante The municipality government said that 644 properties in rural areas and 2,312 properties in urban areas had suffered damage State Civil Defence reports that all those evacuated from their homes have since returned State Civil Defence carried out flights to verify affected areas and have distributed humanitarian aid kits mattresses and other relief items in the affected areas Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList and of the precariousness – material and spiritual – that shapes the lives of those who stay behind Built on the banks of Havana Bay in the mid-19th century these old sugar warehouses boast one of the most beautiful views of the piers and are an important part of the island’s history when Cuba was one of the largest sugar producers in the world capitalist technological development and an increase in international production forced companies to compete with lower market prices warehouses and railroads were integrated into a network to save time and labor in the transportation and storage of sugar That was when these impressive buildings were constructed forever transforming the image of the port The Almacenes de San José extend along Desamparados St. the massive complex was reopened in 2009 as an arts and crafts market and now houses some two to three hundred vendor stalls small groups of tourists were wandering about browsing the offerings and buying gifts to bring home Lázaro spke to a woman from Spain as she purchased some souvenirs decorated with little Cuban flags and told her about the history of the warehouses and the major role they came to play in the country’s economy storing sugar directly off the rail lines and coastal shipping vessels eh?” I told Lázaro as I pulled him away by the arm and ushered him to the nearest café The history of sugar production had him all riled up but then poured in a splash of rum to make it a carajillo “In 1894, one year before Cuba’s third war of independence, the island was producing close to a million tons of sugar a year. By 1959, there were 156 sugar mills operating in the country, with a total annual production of 5.6 million tons. In the eighties, Cuba was producing an average of eight million tons per year Lázaro said that last year’s harvest was the worst on record with a total of just 480,000 tons – the lowest in the last century and a half The dismantling of Cuba’s sugar industry began in 2002 under orders from Fidel Castro and was aimed at restructuring the sector to make it more efficient more than half of the 156 mills operating in the country which employed around half a million people and all remaining resources were concentrated in the 70 plants that remained with a focus on achieving smaller but more productive harvests “The experiment was a failure: tens of thousands of people lost their jobs “Last year there were only 36 mills still in operation The forecast for the 2022-2023 harvest was 400,000 tons of processed sugar which is barely enough to satisfy national consumption but at this rate they won’t even manage that much,” Lázaro went on The official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba featured an interview with Ángel Luis Ríos director of the state-owned sugar producer Azcuba Group who admitted that the country currently faces “a 95,000-ton deficit below forecasted numbers.” Among the reasons Ríos identified for the shortage were “financial difficulties” in the guarantee of the necessary inputs and a lack of fuel and spare parts to ensure reliable transportation and cane cutting (wheels and batteries All this in addition to the familiar effects of the US embargo “This is the most interesting part,” said Lázaro who then read me the following statement by Ríos in Granma: “The problems are not only related to financial problems and equipment issues the sugar industry suffers from a shortage of personnel but mainly due to the aging of the labor force and the effects of migration production problems at a sugar mill prevent workers from receiving a decent salary when the normal ration stipulated by the government’s “supplies booklet” is four pounds per person people have to buy it on the black market for 100 or 150 pesos A pension in Cuba is between 1,000 and 1,500 pesos!” Then Lázaro took a turn for the philosophical quoting the famous Criollo landowner who once remarked: “without sugar “we’ve reached the point where in the country of sugar and recommended that users who are “experiencing difficulties accessing the internet or making calls activate and deactivate airplane mode and try to reconnect to the network.” “You know what Etecsa stands for?” Lázaro asked the waiter “It stands for Estamos Tratando de Comunicar Sin Apuro (We’re Not in a Hurry to Communicate).” The joke landed and the waiter nearly dropped his tray from laughing so hard “I’ve put my phone on airplane mode so many times it’s asking for my passport number!” To lighten the mood Cubans didn’t have any mobile data and the only places with Wi-Fi were a few public parks where people had to sit around on curbs to catch a signal Lázaro cracked a smile and finally started to relax. “It’s true,” he said, and started to tell me about the time the Kardashians’ visited the island, in May 2016, after Obama’s historic visit it seemed like the whole world was coming to Cuba: The Rolling Stones played to half a million people in Havana the Kardashian sisters and others – arrived to the island in droves Kourtney and Khloé traveled to the capital to film their reality show They cruised down the malecón in a convertible But most of the time they were in a bad mood “A guy I know was friends with their driver,” Lázaro said “He told me how they were all super upset because they couldn’t send their photos and videos on Snapchat These people live to upload their stories to social media so they got upset and cut their trip short Lázaro admitted things are better now than they were before (“the internet is still total crap though”) the Americans screw up everything they can – just this December the US Department of Justice told the Federal Communications Commission that they should deny a permit for the installation of the first underwater telecommunications cable that would’ve connected Cuba to the US – but it’s still true that when the government feels like it or when there’s a protest like the one that happened on July 11 they shut down the internet across the island.” but you have to let me borrow a pound of sugar until the next rations come in,” he responded Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition ¿Quieres añadir otro usuario a tu suscripción ¿Por qué estás viendo esto? cambia tu suscripción a la modalidad Premium Cada uno accederá con su propia cuenta de email lo que os permitirá personalizar vuestra experiencia en EL PAÍS ¿Tienes una suscripción de empresa? 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Puedes consultar aquí los términos y condiciones de la suscripción digital. landslides and several rivers breaking their banks As many as 7,000 people have been evacuated from their homes A total of 23 towns and cities in the state have been affected by floods and heavy rainfall that began on Friday 23rd August Many areas have seen more than the monthly average of rain fall in just a few days Several major state roads have been blocked by landslides or flood water Brazil’s Defesa Civil reported that the rivers Antas, Paranhana, Caí, Taquari and Sapucaia Arroyo, all burst their banks after heavy rainfall, resulting in flood waters inundating the homes and streets. Some reports claim the River Taquari is 11 metres above normal levels One man is reported missing in San Francisco de Paula after he tried to cross a dam in his car and was swept away by the raging flood waters Local rescue services are still searching for the man Another person has been reported injured in a separate incident as a result of the floods Floods and landslides recently hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul in 2008 and 2011 as many as 40,000 people were affected by flooding and mudslides after torrential rain Hundreds were made homeless and around 12 people died A state of emergency was declared in 7 cities in the state In November 2008 Rio Grande do Sul was hit hard by flooding although the bordering state of Santa Catarina suffered worse where 50 people died and 20,000 were left homeless Sources: Globo.com Heavy rainfalls hit the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul between April 29 and May 4 causing the worst climate catastrophe in its history Over 1,000 millimeters of rainfall was recorded during this period 478 municipalities (out of 496) have been impacted the state government declared a state of calamity throughout Rio Grande do Sul with 46 cities listed under public calamity and 320 under emergency state The rain has affected a total of 2,398,255 people with 806 reported injuries and 175 confirmed deaths of whom 16,128 have been living in temporary shelters for the past month and several areas across the state became accessible for humanitarian support the affected population has been cleaning their houses and streets are full of household items lost due to the floods creating the risk of the spread of vector-borne and water-borne diseases with 363 confirmed cases and 5.501 suspected4 there were 151 official reports of people suffering from acute diarrhea the Brazilian Civil Defense released a new alert for floods and heavy rains in a large portion of the state – between the 16th and 17th of June the Brazilian Civil Defense alerted for new floods in rivers Caí alerting citizens to evacuate their houses This organization has placed most of the state's river basins at risk of water rising above flood levels Meteorologists claim the storms in Rio Grande do Sul result from at least three regional phenomena The situation in Rio Grande do Sul has worsened after the 14th of June with up to 120 mm of rain expected in the regions of Missões the dam of Bugres in São Francisco de Paula was still at risk of failure requiring urgent measures to preserve lives two other dams were reported to be under alert needing urgent measures to prevent failure and six dams were under "attention" status Rio Grande do Sul floods have severe socio-economic impacts the government index from June 11th reported that the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre had twice the inflation rate of the rest of the country with a drastic 250% increase in food prices on the heels of the country’s worst drought in a century Brazil has experienced historic cold weather The effects on agriculture could have negative consequences across the world An intense cold front is sweeping Brazil, causing record-breaking freezing temperatures and snowfall. This extraordinary weather results from one of the most intense polar air masses to ever strike the country, a clear consequence of climate change As the planet warms and causes the jet stream to weaken freezing Arctic air can escape to lower latitudes These anomalous conditions are wreaking havoc in the agricultural areas of central and southern Brazil and they could have negative effects for Brazilians and people across the world who depend on the country’s crops TEMPO | Muita neve em São Francisco de Paula com acumulação. Vídeo de Davis Pinheiro. pic.twitter.com/oLg4cnJ96L But this month’s frigid conditions are not the only devastating weather that Brazil has experienced in 2021. In the first half of the year, the country saw its worst drought in nearly a century increasing the risk for wildfires and harming the production of coffee The combination of drought and frost has been disastrous for Brazilian agriculture Farmers were relying on favorable weather conditions to make up for the depleted stockpiles caused by the drought While the full extent of the frost damage will not be known for months some states have cut their projected corn output by up to 40 percent and their coffee output by over 10 percent This is terrible for Brazilian farmers who rely on these crops for their livelihoods Some are expecting to lose up to two-thirds of their harvests in 2022 You might be interested in: How Bad Will It Get? Climate Catastrophe and Capitalism These extreme weather events result from the climate emergency caused by capitalism a system that requires infinite resource extraction regardless of the havoc it wreaks on the global ecosystem Thus the fight against the climate crisis must be anti-capitalist Otto is a college professor in the New York area. On Wednesday, Alejandro Vilca, an indigenous socialist deputy with the PTS, was tear-gassed during a weekly pensioners protest in Argentina. He offers a powerful example of socialists’ role in electoral politics. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands in Argentina joined a national strike, bringing industry, transit, and other services to a standstill. The country’s working class is showing the way to fight the Far Right. On Tuesday, at the Central American Security Conference, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged that the Trump administration would “take back” the Panama Canal to contest “China’s influence.” With a cabinet full of Latin American hardliners, attacks on immigration, and the threat of a trade war, Trump’s second term has been geared towards reinforcing fraying U.S. hegemony in the region. From Paris to Buenos Aires, Berlin, Manila, Chicago, and New York, workers across the world turned out to organize and demonstrate against the growing global threat posed by Trump and the Far Right. The United States has already killed hundreds of civilians in its imperialist bombing of Yemen. Now, the Trump administration is indicating that it may back a ground invasion, threatening to throw the country into a civil war. Leftists who claim the mantle of internationalism must speak out against the reactionary nationalism that the Russian and Ukrainian regimes are using to crack down on dissent Unions, immigrant rights groups, climate activists, and left organizations rallied across the United States, showing the widespread anger at Trump’s reactionary agenda. To defeat the Far Right workers and students need to organize from below — not rely on the Democratic Party that sabotages labor and capitulates to the right. Natalia Mossmann Koch is testing the heavy metals absorbed by lichen as a low-cost way to measure air pollution. On a cool August morning at Fort Snelling State Park, the bright songs of crickets drifted up from tall grasses. In the background, the din of hundreds of cars vibrated on nearby Hwy. 5 and Hwy. 55, with the occasional airplane adding to the clamor. The urban park, right next to a source of pollution, was the perfect spot for Natalia Mossmann Koch. The University of Minnesota researcher was looking for a tree to place air pollution monitors. But the technology she is using is novel, for Minnesota: Mossmann Koch will rely on measurements taken from chunks of lichen, tied to the outside of two eastern cottonwoods in this park. And by analyzing the specimens over a year, she hopes to glimpse the heavy metals they may have absorbed from the surrounding air. Mossmann Koch said she plans to do the same in urban parks around the state. Her study will focus both on examining which lichens are naturally present — giving an idea of whether the air is clean enough to support more sensitive types — and testing her transplants to see how many heavy metals they absorb. A year of repeated intrusions of wildfire smoke in Minnesota and other parts of the country has heightened public awareness about what's in the air. Mossmann Koch hopes to develop a cheaper and more accessible way for people to measure air pollution by introducing them to the complex world of lichens. Lichens are assemblages of fungi and algae that slowly propagate on tree bark, rocks and railings. With no roots, the plants are entirely reliant on air and the humidity drifting through it for water and nutrients. That means they can suck up toxic substances, too. Scientific literature is full of examples of other researchers who have used lichen as a broad proxy for air quality. One 1997 paper from Italian academics compared a map of lung cancer rates in the Veneto region with areas where there was a low diversity of lichens. In a near-perfect correlation, fewer lichen species meant more cancer cases. In Minnesota, Mossmann Koch wants to know how clean the air is inside city parks, and help park visitors use the lichens they see as their own kind of air monitor. And she got $341,000 for her three-year study on the recommendation of the state's Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. While she's starting the research in ten locations, eventually she plans to start planting lichen all over the state. Mossmann Koch remembers the first lichen to stop her in her tracks. The researcher, 38, started her academic career in her native Brazil and migrated to the United States to work at the U in 2020. As an undergrad, she was walking through a forest near the southern city of São Francisco de Paula with her professor when she spotted something bright red clinging to a tree. The professor, an ecologist who was proficient in fungi, didn't know the name, and it was years later when Mossmann Koch finally learned the English common name for the species — the Christmas lichen. It was her opening into an incredibly complex world. There are about 850 known lichens in Minnesota, with more still being discovered. The ones that thrive here have to survive an arid, arctic winter — so they can stay viable with 5% to 10% water content. Ask whether a lichen can be considered its own organism and you "step right into deep metaphysics," said Daniel Stanton, an assistant professor who runs the lab where Mossmann Koch works as a postdoctoral researcher at the U. By definition, it is a combination of fungi and algae that make a lichen — a combination that fungi have evolved into at least a dozen times through history, Stanton said. The two components work together inextricably, but at best, the combination might be called a quasi-organism. Lichens are "the closest thing we have on land to corals," Stanton said. Corals, after all, are also dependent on a symbiotic relationship with algae — and when they become "bleached" from stress, it means a colorful layer of symbiotic algae has died off. "Or," Stanton said, "we prefer to think of corals as the lichens of the sea." Mossmann Koch is using samples of common green shield lichens, taken from the pristine Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Anoka County, as the air sensors in her study. The specimens, still affixed to the bark they grew on, look like a picture book definition of a lichen — flat, wavy, a silvery blue-green. But hold up a magnifying lens to the surface of a lichen-covered tree — like the Fort Snelling cottonwood Mossmann Koch used to tie up her green shield lichens — and suddenly, a whole community appears. The lens reveals orange waves and soft yellow strings and grayish tubes capped with black discs, like something from an alien planet. Even in an urban park near car and plane exhaust, at least four species are growing. A crucial part of Mossmann Koch's project will be to get people to start looking for these species and others in their own local parks. It may not be as complex as getting participants to learn the Latin names (a green shield lichen is Flavoparmelia caperata), but she plans to create a key of identifying features so that park-goers get an idea of their local lichen diversity. "I'm going to try to find a pattern comparing the heavy metals or pollution, and urbanization around the site," Mossmann Koch said, "and be able to communicate [that pattern] to the people." And if four species sounds like a lot, take the example of a tree branch in Stanton's lab, taken from rural Itasca County — with a quick microscope examination, he and Koch found at least 12 different lichens on the 5-inch sprig. At the six-month and one-year mark, Mossmann Koch will also take down her lichen monitors and test them in the lab for signs of vitality. She'll flash them with light and measure the UV rays the plants emit back after doing photosynthesis, and gust them with carbon dioxide in a special machine to see how much they absorb. And finally, the little lichens will be ground up and tested for heavy metals at a separate lab. The measurements that come back could help further the understanding of the air that we — and the lichens — live in. Chloe Johnson covers climate change and environmental health issues for the Minnesota Star Tribune. No Section Peek inside homes for sale in the Twin Cities area After falling behind 17-0 at halftime and being dominated most of the game the Bulldogs may have locked up a spot in the College Football Playoff Get our news on your inbox! Suscribe x MercoPress, en Español Montevideo, May 5th 2025 - 11:59 UTC At least 13 cities in the Brazilian State of Río Grande do Sul Wednesday recorded snowfalls but one that has come to be due to this year's harsh winter temperatures Snow was recorded in cities such as Pelotas The wave of cold air that passes through southern Brazil brought snow to at least 13 cities in Rio Grande do Sul where children took to the streets to celebrate and build up snowmen Other parts of Rio Grande do Sul were less blessed by nature and instead of snowfalls they recorded hail-like phenomena such as “frozen rain” (when water droplets freeze when fallinf off the cloud Snowflakes descend from clouds in a region that is quite cold and fall in a region of the atmosphere that is warm The phenomenon was registered at least in Júlio de Castilhos which is a small granule of ice created when drops of super-cooled water cover a snowflake soft and can easily fall apart in your hand and it is also generally smaller than hail The weather forecast for Thursday does not rule out further snowing as increasingly cold temperatures mix with humid air from the ocean which favors the formation of heavy clouds Frost is also forecast for several cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul althought not for coastal areas which will nonetheless have a lot of cloudiness throughout the day and slightly higher temperatures Seems the event is not as disruptive as originally feared: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-28/arabica-coffee-declines-on-easing-concerns-of-brazil-frost Commenting for this story is now closed.If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page A dramatic cold snap brought overnight snow to southern Brazil for the first time in a generation yesterday and buildings were blanketed which for many was the first time they had ever seen snow “I am 62 years old and had never seen the snow,” trucker Iodor Goncalves Marques of Cambara do Sul told the countryꞌs TV Globo channel “To see nature’s beauty is something indescribable.” Meteorology company Somar Meteorologia reported that more than 40 cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul had icy conditions and at least 33 municipalities had snow Up to three feet fell at higher elevations and winds in the city of Sao Francisco de Paula reached 49 mph a rare occurrence in an area of Brazil more accustomed to being swathed in the sunshine Mesmo local pic.twitter.com/Hcf6B8drGV — Leo 🐊 (@Lho_nardo) July 29, 2021 the rare sight is not welcomed by everyone Areas hit by the cold snap include states where corn and coffee are grown and farmers are concerned the frost could spoil their crops International prices for coffee and sugar already surged yesterday at the news pic.twitter.com/X620V6KBZg — Leo 🐊 (@Lho_nardo) July 29, 2021 The forecast is calling for Friday to be the coldest day of the year as freezing conditions continue A post shared by Informe Blanco (@informeblanco) 🇧🇷❄️ Brazilian League stadium covered in snow 📷Alfredo Jaconi stadium yesterday, the home of Brasileirão Série A side Juventude (@ECJuventude) This stadium is located in the city of Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul state, the southernmost state in Brazil. https://t.co/NGynxfUmI7 pic.twitter.com/Bw3eEk9jrN — The Campeão (@TheCampeao) July 29, 2021 Intense Antarctic cold is racing through South America right now widespread frost with some snow observed all the way into southern Brazil Coffee prices are surging as the cold threatens production. pic.twitter.com/KcokCx3Gv4 — Scott Duncan (@ScottDuncanWX) July 29, 2021 The ski and snowboard site with intelligence. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Print Ever wonder why Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba for 20 years Find out firsthand on a tour with Valerie Hemingway his daughter-in-law and last personal secretary Hemingway will share stories about living and working with the American writer in Cuba during the tour The eight-day excursion, offered by EmbracingCuba Tours Varadero and Trinidad as well as a visit to Finca Vigía the writer’s home and now the Museo Hemingway International airfare and gratuities not included Info: EmbracingCuba Tours Attend a Russian ball on New Year’s Eve on this tour Wildlife safaris in Zambia and Zimbabwe national parks Take a New Year’s Eve train to see northern lights in Alaska Do Disney outposts in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong hold allure for U.S. visitors? Anne Harnagel was an editor in the Travel section from 2009 to 2021. She has worked at the Los Angeles Times since 1996, with stints in Business and Calendar sections as well as the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Previously, she was managing editor of Home magazine, managing editor/features for the New York Times Syndicate and managing editor for the American Lawyer magazine. She is a native of Los Angeles. Lifestyle Travel & Experiences Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map Cuba - October 2019 : Hemingway’s the “Pilar” boat on display at Finca Vigía - Ernest Hemingway's residence in San Francisco de Paula Ernest Hemingway engraved watercolor portrait a boat that belonged to American Novelist Ernest Hemingway The Pilar has had a dubious history following the death of Ernest Hemingway The boat had many owners during those early years Most of those sales were short lived and never legally registered or documented It seems that the Pilar was smuggled to Miami just before Castro seized Cuba on January 1 I was told this by a man who owned the Pilar at that time He told me that the Pilar was bought and sold many times after it was gifted to Hemingway’s first mate by Hemingway’s fourth and last wife the first mate was sadly faced with numerous financial setbacks and had to sell the boat I don’t recall the exact year I saw the Pilar but it was sometime during the years 1959 or ’60 It was top secret that this man owned the Pilar and I was sworn to secrecy not to tell anyone about the boat or its location I’ve never spoken about this but since it was more then 50 years ago…I will now Back then the Pilar was hidden behind a thick mangrove swamp in a rarely used canal a couple of hundred feet off the 163rd Street Causeway between US Highway 1 The area is now called Oleta River State Park I can still pinpoint exactly where it was docked as I recently did on Google Earth I drove with this man off the busy causeway and onto an indistinguishable narrow and heavily wooded dirt road The road meandered for a couple of hundred feet then ended abruptly We walked the rest of the way through a maze of mosquitoes and mangroves then into a clearing docked to a flimsy and mostly rotted wooden dock Its 38-foot black hull was almost foreboding as it floated in the calm Huge mangrove trees seemed to hang protectively over it The heavily leafed mangrove trees threw shadows onto the boat making it look even more ominous The man said he owned the land and chose this “out of the way place” to hide the boat and to protect it from prying eyes theft and to shield it from the harsh Florida sun He said he was going to restore the boat because he was well aware that the Pilar was a priceless artifact He told me I could board the Pilar because just seeing it was not enough One had to actually board it to feel its full effect on the psyche I gingerly made my way across the rotted wooden dock and stepped down into the boat I’ll never forget the thrill that went through me as my foot touched the deck of the boat I was touching a relic of twentieth century enlightened scripture I could see the boat was in need of repair Some of the wood on the upper deck was missing and paint and shellac were peeling off in areas I looked around below deck but don’t recall seeing anything memorable in the dusty cabin Before I stepped back onto the dock I thought about the “Old Man and The Sea” and I imagined Hemingway himself walking the deck and pulling aboard some great fish he had caught…and maybe he still was There certainly was a phantom presence of the great man aboard his beloved Pilar It was as if his essence had permeated the very structure of the boat making the two entities indistinguishable It has been written that Castro knew Hemingway and loved fishing for Marlin but it has never been firmly established that the two fished together on the Pilar They probably did since Castro revered Hemingway What a thrill of a lifetime that moment in time was I shall never forget spending those few precious minutes aboard Ernest Hemingway’s legendary Pilar The last I heard it was back in Cuba at the Hemingway Museum in Havana Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: and wildlife of Northern Michigan captured Hemingway’s heart and imagination early in life.  “Michigan always represented a great source of freedom for Hemingway Everything that he’s associated with – outdoorsmanship that all came from his time in Northern Michigan,” says Chris Struble president of the Michigan Hemingway Society The sights and scenes of the Petoskey area later inspired stories and characters in Hemingway's series The Nick Adams Stories the couple moved to Paris and in 1926 he published his first novel There is no shortage of books and films about his controversial life – scandalous affairs it was in Cuba where he lived the last 20 years of his life.  a country home 10 miles east of Havana in a small town called San Francisco de Paula his third wife, who insisted he buy the farm house It was there Hemingway wrote many of his finest works including, For Whom the Bell Tolls Islands in the Stream, and numerous short stories and articles.  “The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954 was awarded to Ernest Hemingway 'for his mastery of the art of narrative most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.'” In an interview with Cuban television he declared “I’m the first Cuban mutt to win the Nobel Prize,” says  Ada Rosa Rosales In the same interview he said that The Old Man and the Sea was "based on Cojimar Because Hemingway loved Cuba and its people leaving the medal in the sanctuary of El Cobre his fourth wife gave the house to Fidel Castro which sits on 10 acres of land is also an ecological heritage site and 200 mango trees on the property plus 190 varieties of royal palm trees At the entrance of the property on the left hand side is a baseball field where Hemingway played ball with Cuban children.  kids use the field to play and learn about the sport.  Hemingway was forced to leave Cuba by the U.S Listen to Museum Director Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales talk about the famous writer's home in Cuba was riding his bike around town and found an entire city block of dilapidated greenhouses near a hill in the Portola called University Mound “You step inside them and immediately it’s warmer,” Cancino says You smell the flowers and there’s the crunch of earth under your feet.” “We showed up and kind of fell in love – not with each other but with the greenhouse – and started daydreaming about what this space could be,” says Gabriner So they made their love official, by founding The Greenhouse Project “The Greenhouse Project is a project focused on restoring an old block of greenhouses in the Portola neighborhood,” Cancino says “We’ve been working on it for about six years.” Before they could do anything with the greenhouses they needed to find out who had abandoned them That set them on an investigation into the history of bay area floraculture when the rolling hills of the Portola were home to the city’s flower growing district The warm climate and undeveloped land made this an ideal place for recent immigrants from Italy and Malta to set up business “Essentially this neighborhood was a series of 19 nurseries and it was a huge production house for the city and the state for cut flowers.” and flower growing was shipped out as international markets became competitive The University Mound greenhouses were some of the last in production Cancino says when they did it was “Willy Wonka style -- they just closed the gates and walked away.” Cancino and Gabriner knew a piece of land like this was rare -- a quiet place in a big city They had zero experience with urban agriculture and knew nothing about greenhouses idealistic dreaming that went on,” Gabriner says “with reckless abandon we threw our ideas at the time into the ether and sometimes got laughed at.” What they were trying to do seemed impossible and it didn’t help that they were a couple of outsiders with no real leads on who even owned the property on a scrap of paper hidden among broken glass and dead leaves Then decided to call every person by the name of Garibaldi in the phone book Inside his immaculate home of Holyoke street Gerald Garibaldi rolls out a photograph that covers most of the kitchen table “My father and his four brothers started University Mound Nursery in the 1920s.” Garibaldi says The grainy black and white image shows the pitched white-washed greenhouses and lush fields of the surrounding streets His entire family was raised within a few blocks and his memories of the neighborhood are sharp as tacks “There was Buccleri and Asseretos had Somerset nursery right here Garibaldi worked in the greenhouses on and off as a child “Your fingers would look like pin cushions His family eventually sold their share in the business and that’s where his nostalgia seems to end “All I hear about it every time when somebody says to me: ‘What they going to do with the greenhouses?’ I tell them ‘It doesn’t matter to me I have nothing to do with it anymore,’” Garibaldi says Cancino and Gabriner wanted to know who did they learned the land was put into a trust an elderly relative of the Garibaldi family The rest of the family weren’t willing to talk Cancino and Gabriner felt like the only people left who cared about the greenhouses They thought that if they could get the community on their side Maybe they could find a way to purchase the land maybe someone out there knew who to talk to “We assembled what we say as the leader core of the portola and the four of us sat there and pitched them,” says Gabriner Wallace has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years She runs public greening projects and the Portola garden tour She’s kind of like the Queen of gardens here Her own yard has two six-foot-tall lifeguard chairs that look out over the backyards of the Portola “I have probably seen myself 150 gardens in this neighborhood,” Wallace says I mean we have bigger lots than most places in San Francisco – and we have sun.” Wallace would like to see the greenhouses restored “I think it would be a shame because it's the last remaining – it doesn't matter what it is – the last remaining of anything and to think that it could just be erased,” says Wallace Ruth Wallace helped Gabriner and Cancino make more connections in the community Then the neighborhood association got on board Who Cancino says were “primed to dream with us.” but Cancino and Gabriner finally felt like the project was getting somewhere the greenhouse property was listed for sale – for $12 million At first it looked like the property was going to sell to housing developers The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission the PUC,  was interested in some land nearby They wanted to restore an underground creek that runs under the greenhouses The PUC offered a tour of the proposed creek path to gather community input the proposed creek path ended directly across from the greenhouses and when the leader of the tour asked the group for input Gabriner says: “Without any provocation the neighborhood erupts into this visioning of what this place could be and how this So in a very organic way the neighborhood screams to the PUC that this is a potential that the whole neighborhood sees.” The Greenhouse Project are talking with the PUC about co-purchasing the land and saving the greenhouse land for community use they’ll have to raise several million dollars And the deal’s not final -- the property could sell tomorrow to somebody else their visions could be taking shape as early as 2016 “This has all of a sudden become very real and the timeline is much shorter than we’d ever expected,” says Cancino it’s a really exciting time for The Greenhouse Project,” Gabriner says even if the greenhouses crumble to the ground the energy and passion that's been put into the project The Greenhouse Project became about much more than a secret hideaway or the nostalgia and charm of dilapidated beauty David Gabriner and Juan Carlos Cancino’s love affair with the greenhouses turned into a marriage The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro has reached its 100th anniversary as one of the most productive institutions in Brazil the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) is marking its 100th anniversary with plenty of reasons to celebrate Not only has it grown to become one of the largest and most productive higher education institutions in the country but it has also seen its contingent of black mixed-race and indigenous students steadily increase—from 3 in 1970 to 4,858 in 2019; its total student population of 80,000 in Rio de Janeiro and across the state is second only to the University of São Paulo’s (USP) population of 100,000 which were postponed because of the pandemic included a “Festival of Knowledge” in July featuring 2,000 on-line presentations by students and professors and will be followed by the launch of a documentary about the history of the university on September 7 Originally called the University of Rio de Janeiro UFRJ was created in 1920 through a merger of three education institutions originally located in the city center: the Polytechnic School The School of Medicine and the Polytechnic School were later moved to the better-known main campus at Ilha do Fundão; the School of Law remained in the city center where it was joined by other units: the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences an eighteenth-century building at Largo de São Francisco de Paula; the School of Music near the Municipal Theater; the School of Nursing near one of the university’s nine hospitals; the Valongo Observatory and merged into UFRJ in 1967; the Praia Vermelha campus founded in 1852 and later transferred to the university in 1949 Architecture and Pharmaceutical Engineering; and the National Museum established in 1808 and annexed to the University in 1946 and later destroyed by a fire in September 2018 Archives / Agência O Globo The School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Ilha do Fundão Aníbal Philot / Agência O Globo Biochemist Carlos Chagas Filho, in 1982Aníbal Philot / Agência O Globo “Carlos Chagas Filho was a central figure in the development of scientific research in Brazil,” wrote Darcy Fontoura de Almeida (1930–2014), a professor of medicine at UFRJ, in a 2003 article in the journal Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Over the decades, Chagas arranged for many foreign researchers to work in Rio, and for Brazilian researchers to spend time at institutions in other countries. Following the creation of the National Research Board later renamed the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) research capabilities developed significantly under the leadership of notable scientists Among them was physician João Christovão Cardoso (1903–1980) who helped to found the Institute of Chemistry in 1959; and physician and geographer Josué de Castro (1908–1973) who founded the Institute of Nutrition and served as its first director in 1946 the same year he published his classic book in which he described the stark contrasts in nutrition in Brazil Physics research saw progress under Joaquim da Costa Ribeiro (1906–1960) and Plinio Sussekind Rocha (1911–1972) and anthropological research developed under Gilberto Velho (1945-2012) served for a period as Municipal Secretary of Education during which she led the implementation of full-time schools—known as “Integrated Public Education Centers” (CIEPs)—in Rio de Janeiro during the 1980s and 1990s Jorge Marinho / Agência O Globo Anthropologist Gilberto Velho with its 13 museums and 14 listed heritage buildings “We lack a dedicated budget for maintaining the university’s heritage sites,” says Roque “Our budget covers neither heritage nor museums.” Because of this the reconstruction of the Praia Vermelha Palace including the neoclassical chapel that collapsed in a fire in 2011 although work to rebuild the National Museum is progressing well Another problem is what physicist Luiz Davidovich describes as siloing, which distances professors and students in different centers (see interview). “There’s still limited interaction,” says astronomer Sílvia Lorenz-Martins, of the Valongo Observatory. UFRJ Emílio Diniz da Silva lecturing at the School of Pharmaceutical Engineering Martins is leading two projects to help the observatory reach new audiences: the first in partnership with Instituto Benjamin Constant is a program to teach astronomy to blind or visually impaired students using learning aids such as a low-cost tactile Moon; the other a collaboration with professors and students at the School of Fine Arts is a guide on the roughly 40 bird species found on the observatory property Carlos Chagas Filho: A biographical memoir Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved Editor’s note: Carlton Varney’s continues his columns about his recent trip to Cuba on a “cultural visitor” tour organized by Oberlin College I spent a day visiting the hilltop house of Ernest Hemingway at San Francisco de Paula was home to the celebrated writer from 1940 to 1960 Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea,To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bells Tolls The house has one level and is Plantation Colonial in feeling with handsome classic architectural detail and an openness that permits the breezes to pass through The Hemingways filled the rooms — the long rectangular drawing/living room the study and the two bedrooms — with what one would expect: bookcases The headboard of the Hemingways’ bed is also a bookcase The Hemingways mixed their collection of books with some simple wood furnishings and ornamental high-style gilt hanging mirrors combined with bullfighting posters and trophy heads of Safari animals most likely Hemingway’s own prizes from his famous shooting expeditions he always returned to his finca in Cuba and the plantation house with its tower addition designed especially for the writer a hideaway where he could create undisturbed — which The added tower to the house was the idea of his wife While the plantation comes complete with surrounding terraces for daytime and evening enjoyment the house also has a down-the-hill swimming pool which guests such as actress Ava Gardner would frequent when visiting the Hemingways is worth a visit for all Hemingway enthusiasts especially if you’ve visited the writer’s house in Key West the golds and yellows offer a friendly welcome.’ Hemingway had an exceedingly simple preference: There are no interior treatments whatsoever The windows are uncovered and open to the views of Cuban flora Hemingway’s bedroom was a joy for me to see with walls painted in rich Caribbean aquamarine with white ceiling and trim It’s a rich-and-refreshing color scheme one could easily borrow for a Palm Beach room If you visit the Hemingway home one day and are looking for a special place for a lunch after the visit the fishing village where Hemmingway kept his boat Palm Beacher Carleton Varney is president of Dorothy Draper & Co. an international design firm with offices in New York His latest book is “Decorating in the Grand Manor: A Design Memoir.” Email him at cvarney@dorothydraper.com The passion for American novelist Ernest Hemingway is again bringing together scholars from Cuba and the U.S. who are arriving in Havana to participate this week in a colloquium on the Nobel Prize for Literature despite Washington’s recent travel restrictions “Some people who were coming to the event canceled Hemingway is an important bridge between the two nations and has been joining us for many years,” Grisell Fraga president of the Organizing Committee of the meeting which is also being attended by researchers from Japan the Havana home where the writer spent his last 20 years added that despite President Donald Trump administration’s new prohibitions many Americans “for a long time have had strong ties to Cuba and they always find the way to come.” The eagerness to preserve the legacy of the writer (1899-1961) where he was called “Papa Hemingway,” has kept open a channel of dialogue between Cuba and the United States even in times of great tension between both countries which reestablished links in 2015 after more than half a century of bitter enmity Finca Vigía Foundation has negotiated the obstacles of Washington’s economic embargo to work with Cuban specialists in the restoration and conservation of the 22,000 personal belongings that Hemingway left in his Havana home “Cuba was very important for Hemingway I don’t know if in the United States they realize that He lived here much longer than in any other place… His heart was here,” Professor Sandra Spanier at the head of the ambitious editorial project that collects and publishes all of Hemingway’s known letters a regular at the colloquium since its first editions explains that the shared devotion to the writer serves to build “human bridges,” regardless of the ups and downs of politics to which the author himself “was not very attached.” The researcher said that the “Hemingway Letters Project” hopes to publish in 2020 the fifth of the 17 planned volumes which offer a unique perspective of the inner world of one of the most interesting personalities of the 20th century The 17th edition of the Ernest Hemingway International Colloquium will take place until next Sunday with the presentation of papers as varied as the influence of the chronicler in the American legal language his writing as an act of catharsis in the face of trauma Hemingway’s stay at the Ambos Mundos Hotel (“known in Cuba but relatively unknown in Spain) and his close relationship with its owner will be told by Spanish journalist Pablo López who hopes to shed light on this moment prior to the writer’s establishment in Finca Vigía The passage through Ambos Mundos has “remained clouded by his stay at Finca Vigía,” said López who explains that in this “modest,” “family” and “very Galician” hotel part of the first chapters of For Whom the Bell Tolls The American novelist’s Galician connection has a personal echo in López a relative of Manuel Asper and for whom this chapter in Hemingway’s life is part of his family history He adds that on the island there is “an authentic passion” for the legendary chronicler he said that he was the first Cuban writer to receive it He considered himself a Cuban writer and then Cuba has all the right in the world The conversation here is moderated according to OnCuba News discussion guidelines. Please read the Comment Policy before joining the discussion Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises Conversación en la catedral (1969; Conversation in the Cathedral) deals with Manuel Odría’s regime (1948–56) The novel Pantaleón y las visitadoras (1973; “Pantaleón and the Visitors,” filmed in Spanish filmed 2000) is a satire of the Peruvian military and religious fanaticism.… It includes abundant testimonies of how Josemaria formed many friendships even from a young age The biographies of the founder of Opus Dei show us that he was a sociable person who found it easy to relate to others This quality was assisted partly by his family environment his grandmother Florencia Blanc’s home was known in Barbastro as “the house with all the children.” Moreover his social interaction outside his own family began at an early age: at the school of the Daughters of Charity Childhood friendships formed during these years in Barbastro lasted his whole lifetime despite the fact that he left his home town at the age of thirteen Correspondence with Esperanza and Adriana Corrales (who were sisters) together with the accounts written by some of them The Prelate says in his letter: “Strengthening bonds with our friends requires time and attention, and often means avoiding comfort-seeking and setting aside our own preferences.”[4] In Logroño Saint Josemaría’s ability to make friends grew as he matured What at first was the expression of a natural disposition became a manifestation of the virtues needed to form strong friendships that were consolidated over time we see clear traits of these specific qualities: the ability to listen to put oneself in the other person’s shoes the role of justice in personal relationships the friendships forged in Logroño became more solid as reflected in the memories and letters of José Luis Mena This picture would be incomplete without mentioning that he also formed friendships with older people This fact has its origins in the years spent in Barbastro and in his family’s interest in history The people of Upper Aragon have a deep tie to the deeds and traditions of their land He would have heard at home and in the homes of his cousins and other families stories about the legendary Kingdom of Sobrarbe and the Aragonese epics he had the opportunity to attend gatherings in the home of his grandmother Constanza where the famous Arabist scholar Francisco Codera y Zaydín Some characteristics of his relationship with his classmates and colleagues From the testimonies of those who knew him at the University the following characteristics of Saint Josemaría’s interactions with others can be highlighted: — A fourth quality was the apostolic zeal shown in his relationships with his companions From the moment he began attending classes his classmates (although at first what attracted their attention was his great human stature) soon realized how deeply he loved Christ and was trying to identify himself with Him They felt themselves challenged both humanly and supernaturally Almost all his companions in the seminary and at the university retained a clear memory of Saint Josemaría Those in the seminary realized that he rose above the normal pattern of the seminarian of the time they didn’t grasp his spiritual depth and remained only with the perception that he was somehow different those at the Law School not only noticed that he was a priest far above the average but also often recognized his inner strength and deep spiritual restlessness The Augustinian friar José López Ortiz recalls his first meeting with Saint Josemaría. It was in June 1924. He had gone to the Law School in Saragossa to take his exams. As soon as Josemaría saw him enter the building, he came over and asked if he could assist him. “Josemaría was very well prepared and knew an environment that was unfamiliar to me; generously, and with great naturalness, he gave me valuable guidance on topics related to my studies.”[30] Inocencio Jiménez was professor of Criminal Law there since 1906. His daughter, María Jiménez Salas, remembers her father’s affection and admiration for Josemaría. Despite his precarious health, he made a special effort to be in the tribunal that judged his doctoral thesis in 1939.[40] The above is a brief summary of Saint Josemaría’s friendships during the years prior to the founding of Opus Dei some concluding considerations can be offered Most of those who knew and dealt with him saw his capacity for friendship as the result of his humanly attractive way of being: his simplicity, warmth, etc. However, some were also able to grasp his apostolic concern. Various documented sources testify to the fact that Saint Josemaría began attending classes at the Law School with an apostolic intent.[45] These characteristics of his apostolic way of acting shown already during his years in Saragossa continued and were consolidated in the following years [1] Pastoral Letter [2] Without trying to be exhaustive I will mention here some of these writings: José Miguel Cejas Así le vieron: testimonios sobre Monseñor Escrivá de Balaguer “Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer en los años treinta: los sacerdotes amigos,” Studia et Documenta Rivista dell’Istituto Storico san Josemaría Escrivá “Rasgos de buena amistad,” Scripta Theologica (Jan-Apr 2002 Apuntes sobre la vida del fundador del Opus Dei “Amistad,” in Diccionario de san Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer Monte Carmelo - Istituto Storico san Josemaría Escrivá [3] The existing documentation is made up mainly of eyewitness accounts of Saint Josemaría’s life although some involve memories of people who were unable to write them down before they died As regards letters during this first period until his arrival in Madrid these are quite scarce During the following years the letters preserved are much more abundant [4] Pastoral Letter [5] In no 13 of the 1 November 2019 Pastoral Letter we read: “friendship There is not the same sharing of one’s own intimacy with all of one’s friends the friendship between husband and wife and the friendship between parents and children that was so strongly recommended by Saint Josemaría and the friendship between siblings or that between co-workers are not identical In all of these there is a shared inner space which is specific to that particular relationship.” [6] On his interaction with Daniel Alfaro Gregorio Fernández Anguiano and Xavier de Lauzurica Sacerdotes en el acompañamiento espiritual de san Josemaría Escrivá [7] In Saragossa ecclesiastical studies were carried out at the Pontifical University of San Valero and San Braulio but candidates for the priesthood resided in two seminaries: the seminary of San Valero and San Braulio which was attached to the Pontifical University and the seminary of San Francisco de Paula which occupied two floors of the Royal Priestly Seminary of San Carlos Sometimes the seminary of San Francisco de Paula was called the seminary of San Carlos [8] Florencio Sánchez Bella recalls him saying that Saint Josemaría “had been his most faithful friend and the instrument God used to bring him back to the Church” (Testimony Florencio Sánchez Bella [9] See Testimony of Francisco de Paula Moreno Monforte also Constantino ánchel,Sacerdotes en el acompañamiento espiritual de san Josemaría Escrivá Los años de seminario de Josemaría Escrivá en Zaragoza (1920-1925) [10] Testimony of Agustín Callejas Tello [11] Words of Saint Josemaría quoted by Alvaro del Portillo in Romana et Matriten Beatificationis et Canonizationis Servi Dei Iosephmariae Escrivá de Balaguer [12] See Ramón Herrando Prat de la Riba [13] Testimony of Agustín Callejas Tello [14] Testimony of Arturo Landa Higuera Bishop José López Ortiz met Josemaría Escrivá in June 1924 when he went to take his law school exams in Saragossa He recalls: “In the school I noticed that everyone knew him and also that owing to his communicative and cheerful character he was clearly very well liked” (Testimony of José López Ortiz [15] I am a witness to the following fact One day in 1988 I had the opportunity to talk with David Mainar He was in Rome and had gone to pray before the remains of Saint Josemaría he began to evoke memories of his university years and said forcefully several times: “Josemaría and I were very close friends.” And he added: “What’s more I was his closest friend.” Listening to him I was reminded of similar expressions from other university classmates of his who wanted to assert how strong their friendship with Saint Josemaría had been [16] A colleague recalls: “Josemaría was very cheerful and had a great sense of humor In his dealings with others he was straightforward and simple very open and frank” (Testimony of Juan Antonio Iranzo Torres [17] See Jordi Miralbell [18] It was not very common for clerics to be seen in university classrooms during those years in the same year that Saint Josemaría began to attend university classes a priest and three seminarians also enrolled (cf publication of the seminary of San Valero and San Braulio his university companions only mention their acquaintance with one cleric: Saint Josemaría [19] The testimony of Professor Miguel Sancho Izquierdo is quite interesting when he recalls his first conversation with Saint Josemaría: “Recalling that conversation later on which even then made a deep impression on me more than once it seemed to me that he was already pointing to the secularity the appreciation for human realities that was to be a characteristic of his spirituality and apostolate” (Testimony of Miguel Sancho Izquierdo [20] See Testimony of Luis Palos Yranzo [21] Relations of Juan Antonio Iranzo Torres [22] See Testimony of Juan Antonio Iranzo Torres See also Testimonies of Arturo Landa Higuera 351-3-1; and of Juan Antonio Iranzo Torres [23] Testimony of Luis Palos Yranzo [24] Testimony of Fernando Vivanco Soto [25] Testimony of Arturo Landa Higuera [26] “He was very pious,” Mainar writes It wasn’t a piety that I would call maudlin or somehow sad which was not only compatible with but helped foster his constant sense of humor and positive vision of life” (Testimony of David Mainar Pérez [27] Testimony of David Mainar Pérez [28] Testimony of Fernando Vivanco Soto [29] ???Letter from Josemaría Escrivá to Francisco Villellas Orensanz [30] Testimony of José López Ortiz [31] Testimony of Domingo Fumanal Borruel [32] Testimony of Juan Antonio Iranzo Torres [33] Testimony of Domingo Fumanal Borruel The other classmates were Antonio Redondo and Manuel Marraco as Juan Antonio Iranzo recalled in an interview on August 3 [34] Testimony of Miguel Sancho Izquierdo [35] Testimony of Miguel Sancho Izquierdo He adds: “How often he spoke to me with affection about my ‘Franciscanism’ He knew that my greatest title of honor was to be a Franciscan tertiary [36] Testimony of Carlos Sánchez del Río Peguero [37] Testimony of Carlos Sánchez del Río Peguero [38] In the Testimony of Pilar Moneva y de Oro we read: “I remember that one day (of which I would not even know the precise year if it were not for the prayer card that I keep) my mother told me: ‘Tomorrow we are going to attend the first Mass of one of your father’s pupils whom he loves very much and is very concerned about since his father died recently.’ When he finished the Mass he knelt at the feet of the statue of our Lady and remained there silently for some time My father went to the sacristy and my mother and I left.” [39] Various authors Address “Huellas de Aragón en la Iglesia Universal” [Traces of Aragon in the Universal Church] [40] See Testimony of María Jiménez Salas [41] Constantino Ánchel “Sacerdotes en el acompañamiento espiritual de san Josemaría Escrivá,” SetD 12 (2018) p [42] Letter from José Pou de Foxá to José Escrivá Corzán [43] Constantine Ánchel,“Sacerdotes en el acompañamiento espiritual de san Josemaría Escrivá” [44] Constantine Ánchel The words in quotation marks are from Intimate Notes [45] As we know from other sources Saint Josemaría studied law at the request and on the advice of his father This was the reason he enrolled at the university he wanted to take advantage of the apostolic opportunities this new situation provided [46] We have no written record of how Saint Josemaría approached his apostolic activity during these years he tells us how he always viewed his work as a priest and pastor of souls: “If my own personal experience is of any help I can say that I have always seen my work as a priest and shepherd of souls as being aimed at helping each person to face up to all the demands of his life and to discover what God wants from him in particular—without in any way limiting that holy independence and blessed personal responsibility which are the features of a Christian conscience This way of acting and this spirit are based on respect for the transcendence of revealed truth and on love for the freedom of the human person I might add that they are also based on a realization that history is undetermined and open to a variety of human options—all of which God respects.” https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12270899 Printed | document generated automatically from https://opusdei.org/en/article/saint-josemarias-friends-1902-1927/ (04/30/2025) These very small Insects spend most of their lives as larvae inside stems and leaves entomologist Gilson Moreira returned from an expedition to an area of Atlantic Forest in northern Rio Grande do Sul State his luggage full of leaves and stems from trees and shrubs to analyze in his lab the specialist in taxonomy at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and his team are devoted to identifying as many species as possible of a nearly unknown group of insects: moths that have wingspans of only millimeters (mm) and spend most of their lives as larvae or pupae (transitioning to the adult phase) inside the leaves of plants that provide them with food Each species of micromoth has evolved to consume and develop in a single plant species leaves and stems are useful for studying the insect in its different stages The adult individuals are difficult to find and capture; not only are they tiny but they live only hours or days and are not attracted to light “Some years ago I noticed that the morphology of immature individuals is highly adapted to the environment in which they grow and develop and I began to collect some of the structures of the plants they live in to study the larvae and pupae,” says Moreira The researcher and his colleagues are currently interested in a specific group of micromoths: family Gracillariidae Nearly 1,900 species of these insects have already been identified in the world (only 185 in the Americas) and they have a very peculiar habit: the larvae skillfully create tunnels which is why these moths are called leaf miners While the larvae (caterpillars) of larger moths consume entire leaves of their favorite plants microscopic jaws break the cell walls and consume their content rich in chlorophyll The naked eye can only see the bulging tunnel created by the larva which leaves a zig-zagging trail as it consumes the leaf from within Trained eyes can locate where the larva stops and enters the pupal stage before tearing the leaf and emerging as an adult Gilson Moreira/UFRGS The tiny moth Phyllocnistis tethys found in a preserved area of Atlantic Forest in northern Rio Grande do Sul StateGilson Moreira/UFRGS Complex interactions Phyllocnistis hemera is the fifth species in this genus identified by Moreira’s group; 28 are known in the Americas was found in a wetland region of the São Francisco de Paula reserve It lives in the leaves of Passiflora organensis a climbing vine in the passionfruit family With shimmering blue in the center of its wings and wingtips adorned with white and brown streaks and an orange circle the adult is “a beautiful animal,” in the words of the entomologist Moreira began studying micromoths six years ago through the influence of Héctor Vargas they have already described species that lay their eggs inside leaves or stems and induce the plant to produce a tissue that surrounds the larvae This new tissue usually takes the form of small spheres known as galls the group at UFRGS identified the existence of a complex ecological interaction in galls found in aroeirinha (Schinus weinmannifolius) a common shrub in the pampas grassland region the Portuguese Jesuit Joaquim da Silva Tavares proposed that the galls on aroeirinha formed around the eggs and larvae of tiny wasps Moreira and his team have now found that it is not wasps that cause galls to form: in the aroeirinha the galls are a reaction to eggs deposited by the micromoth Cecidonius pampeanus Tiny wasps lay their eggs in the galls that already exist and their larvae feed on the moth larvae and plant tissues Together with Belgian entomologists Jurate and Willy De Prins Rosangela Brito used the information available about Gracillariidae to evaluate how little is known about the diversity of these insects It is estimated that approximately 4,000 species of micromoths in this family exist in the Americas the number calculated for the region is very low compared to the 40,000 species of micromoths assumed to exist in the world In an article published in 2016 in the Revista Brasileira de Entomologia Brito and her colleagues claim that from an evolutionary point of view there is no reason for the number of micromoths to be only one third of the total number of larger moths and butterflies (lepidoptera) It is estimated that there are 40,000 species of micromoths and 108,000 species of larger moths and butterflies There is a shortage of trained people interested in identifying them an international symposium organized by Moreira and entomologist Vitor Becker a retired EMBRAPA researcher and owner of a collection featuring 350,000 moths and butterflies will gather the world’s leading specialists in Gracillariidae in the state of Bahia—just over a dozen people The goal is to increase cooperation between groups and arouse interest in the area among young researchers © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved. Aleijadinho, if he existed, served many ideologies reproductions from the book, ‘O Aleijadinho e sua oficina’ St. João Evangelistareproductions from the book, ‘O Aleijadinho e sua oficina’ reproductions from the book, ‘O Aleijadinho e sua oficina’ St Manuelreproductions from the book, ‘O Aleijadinho e sua oficina’ reproductions from the book, ‘O Aleijadinho e sua oficina’ St leaving aside the Byzantine question of the existence of an Aleijadinho how can this style that so many art critics make an effort to recognize by valuing some works in the millions and others for a few reais “An integral part of the mystical body of the Church and the Portuguese Empire Aleijadinho’s style is not illuminist an emulation of the artistic authorities that reached Minas via engravings and the artistic practice of learned sculptors like the subtle  Francisco Xavier de Brito” unlike the romantic hypothesis that artists from Minas were directly “influenced” by European engravings which they appropriated anthropophagously with “extreme originality” what we see is a close affiliation with what was being done in Portugal “What we can definitely say about this whole Aleijadinho question is that there was an intense circulation of techniques and proposals suggesting an even greater effervescence than the one we know nowadays Far from being closed by the colonial monopoly the Spanish American colonies reveal an extreme creative vitality brought about by a circulation of knowledge that is just as dynamic or more so than the exchange of material wealth” art served as ostentation and therefore technical and artistic knowledge was one of the most sought after and valued goods In 2006 Pirelli do Brasil discovered the high cost of the risk of being surprised by the suspicion of a falsified donation it made to Masp of a painting by São Francisco de Paula The company had bought it for US$ 350,000 in 1985 an amount it would ask to be offset against income tax using the benefits afforded by the Rouanet Law A valuation by the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) less than half the purchase price and 16 times lower than the value intended with the donation to the museum “He was visiting from London and came by with a mutual friend,” Amy remembers “I was living in New York at the time but home for Easter We spent a lot of our relationship long distance she’s used every excuse she can to return to his native country over the years With friends and family spread across the globe the two knew that no matter where they chose to get married “From the first taxi ride from the airport into town the couple was adamant about creating a wedding experience that didn’t feel put-on or stuffy in any way the laid-back feel of Rio really appealed to them—it was the perfect setting for the three days of events they’d planned that started with a volleyball tournament on Ipanema Beach “Rio has these decadent landscapes and buildings that are so grand but never pretentious,” Amy explains “And the mix of the jungle and the mid-century architecture feels out of a dream.” They chose the Parque Lage for the dinner and reception Built by a tea plantation owner in the 1920s for his Italian opera singer wife the public park features a botanical garden and an atrium inside the mansion—there are monkeys swinging through the trees and every kind of bird and flower you can imagine overhead To achieve the vision they had for their own event the couple worked with Roberto Cohen on logistics and Claudio Gomes on decor “We kept with the time period for decoration,” says Amy We mixed in some Moroccan and Persian rugs I wanted it to feel like being in a private home and used furniture from the ’30s for the lounges so she did everything she could to avoid having a tent erected or covering the beautiful pool in the courtyard “I even had the dance floor printed with images of the same stone surface it was covering so that it would go unnoticed,” she explains and had it sewn over to make it look like it had been part of the existing architecture.” They used flowers native to both Brazil and Beverly Hills “It felt like a wonderful backyard wedding if your backyard is in fact the botanical gardens of Rio de Janeiro and Christ the Redeemer is keeping a watchful eye out!” Longtime friend and designer Tessa Matthias made the bride a short khaki skirt and silk wrap top for the beach day For the rooftop cocktails at Fasano later that evening she chose a colorful sequined and feathered Rodarte dress On May 26, the couple were married in the church of Sao Francisco de Paula in the center of downtown. It was about 30 minutes away from where everyone was staying, but the quick trip there provided the guests with a short tour of the city center, and the bride’s friend and “music supervisor” Grant Shumate created playlists for each of the vans. “I wasn’t nervous until I got to the doors of the church,” Amy remembers. “My brother was saying all of the right things to calm me down, and when the doors opened, and I saw how Basil was smiling and realized I had not fallen down or fainted, I forgot about the nerves. From then on I was relaxed. The ceremony was short and sweet. About 30 minutes.” Understand the market's role in mitigating climate change  PUCRS has maintained the Center for Research and Conservation of Nature (Pró-Mata) The area in São Francisco de Paula has more than 3 thousand hectares and has neutralized more than 160 thousand tons of carbon and the treaty aimed to establish control over the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.   The course coordinator Postgraduate Studies in Carbon Credit: project and market PUCRS serve as a financial instrument of environmental origin their origin is in the development of projects that cease or mitigate greenhouse gases in the atmosphere 1 carbon credit is equivalent to 1 ton of CO₂ stopped from being emitted into the environment.  which benefits companies and services associated with the purchase of carbon credits The proposal reduces the rate of the Tax on Services of Any Nature (ISS) from 5% to 2% for operations with carbon credits” with severe fines for companies that exceed the established limits The practice is already common in countries such as the United States “Brazil is about to approve the regulated carbon market (PL 182) which will force companies to take initiatives to decarbonize their processes and also creates the opportunity for a market to sell carbon credits (for companies that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions which could register and sell carbon credits) This type of market encourages decarbonization on our planet.” Professor Bruno explains that companies can account for GHG emissions through an emissions inventory that indicates and quantifies emissions by sector of the company can offset these emissions by purchasing carbon credits on the voluntary market.   “The new bill will regulate our market and establish national goals and guidelines where a large part of companies will be impacted” “Pro-Mata is a high-quality reserve of elements aimed at research into flora It comprises an important biome in Rio Grande do Sul and serves professionals and researchers in biology The permanence of the carbon stock is achieved precisely through forest and soil preservation thus avoiding deforestation and degradation Professor Bruno de Rosso Ribeiro is the coordinator of the Postgraduate course in Carbon Credit: project and market and professionals interested in entering the carbon certification and credits market The short course starts on September 27th and registration is now open.   Professor Filipe de Medeiros Albano explains what interested people can expect from the course:   “Participants will gain insight into the main practices on the subject regulated and compulsory carbon markets in the world.  We will present the fundamentals of climate change and mitigation solutions based on carbon management (direct/indirect emission reduction Bruno de Rosso Ribeiro, coordinator of the specialization, explains that the course has professionals from various segments such as engineers, agronomists, geologists, lawyers, chemists, land brokers and administrators.   “We are observing a multi-professional movement that requires attention to service contracts, engineering processes, knowledge of biology, soil and land qualification. Mastering the fields required for this market will enhance the professional of the present and future, for an area of ​​activity with global support, which is the environmental field”, concludes the teacher.   Check out information about benefits, academic calendar, access to academic systems and much more. Learn about research projects and our researchers, access systems, notices and much more. Have access to the main systems, information and follow everything that is happening at the University. Access the HR Portal, learn about the Fluir program and have access to the main systems. Hemingway signed a few of his letters “Papa,” but mostly he signed them “Ernest” or “Honest Ernie” or “Huck von Hemingstein” or “Ernest Buck Hemingstein” or “Mountain Boy Huck” or “Huckmanship von Hemingstein” or “Love and good luck, Ernest.” Or, after signing, he would draw three mountain peaks, which I assumed was his own idea of an Indian sign. Occasionally, he would apologize for his “sloppy writing.” And he would ask, “But you don’t want me to write all the time with a hard, gem-like flame do you?” Then he would throw in a Hemingway sentence as only Hemingway could write it. In talking about the “haunted, nocturnal life” he led in Cuba, he once wrote that he had been up since “0230” and it was now “0530”: “It is getting light now before the sun rises and the hills are grey from the dew of last night.” In another letter he said, “I usually introduce myself as Hemingstein when meeting known anti-Semites and their friends. But actually the name is Hemingway, and there is nothing I can do about it.” In addition to being marvellously eclectic, the letters were full of facts. Hemingway told me things. I found skiing difficult, for example, and the proliferation of broken legs among skiers scared me. “Nobody has any real strength in their legs any more, because they don’t climb,” he said. “Skiing is all on a ski-lift basis. . . . They don’t know the mountains.” He didn’t feel that he had to conceal his romantic notions about the military life. He would tell me, “I wish we could go to war (shoot-shoot war) sometime with Buck Lanham and Chink Dorman-Smith.” Lanham, his best friend, was commander of the Twenty-second Infantry Regiment. “You’d have fun. It is supposed to be a terrible sin to have fun in war. But we commit it and the three of us are very light-hearted people when the chips are down.” Sometimes he described how he felt about the Finca. On returning there from a trip, he would say that it was even better than he remembered. It was wonderful, he said, “to have lots of room to work and plenty of big waste baskets.” No one else told me things like that. In our letters, we also discussed some of my enthusiasms. For example, he tutored me on the poker fundamentals. Never call; either raise or throw down. Play your good cards for keeps when you hold them and ride out your bad ones. Also, don’t come in on every pot. As for tennis, he told me that he used to play a lot of singles with his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. “You had to let her almost win for her to be happy,” he said. “If you let her win, she became insufferable.” From time to time, I would ask Hemingway what he thought of this or that piece of writing. When Shirley Jackson’s famous short story “The Lottery” was published in The New Yorker, in 1948, I admired it, and I asked Hemingway to read it. He replied, “That story was a stinker.” He called the ending “faked and phony,” adding, “You have to write so people believe it.” He said it was “the worst story I ever read in The New Yorker.” When Hemingway liked or admired a bullfighter or a boxer or a writer or a cook, he was always generous about sharing the object of his enthusiasm with someone. He was a good friend of Bernard Berenson ("the most intelligent man I know"), and told me, in a letter, “Old Mr. B is 86 plus seven months. He always wants me to be impressed by how old he is and how he might die and I never want to tell him that I don’t impress by being old; only by being intelligent.” In 1954, after Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize, he said that he and Mary didn’t see anybody coming down to Cuba but “bloody bores, ex-rummies and people who want to shake the hand of the man who shook down Alfred Nobel’s legatees.” He would tell me about people who came up to him and said, “I just wanted to tell you, Mr. Hemingway, that I think you are our greatest writer. You and Louis Bromfield.” (That one made me laugh out loud.) The same year, Hemingway shyly reported to me that another unusual visitor had turned up at the Finca—Ava Gardner. “Only for three days,” he said. “She is no strain, and I like to look at beautiful women and will go out in the boat tomorrow with her and Mary and Mayito Menocal. She was pretty good to come down with neither reporters nor cameramen and using the name of Ann Clark.” He seemed to enjoy having visitors, but he often wished they would go away and let him work. At the end of one letter, marked “0215” at the top, he wrote, “I am awake for the night after haveing”—it was his habit to keep the “e” in participles—“sent everybody to bed. But if you want to know how lonely a man can be when his damn book comes out you could bring down your lonely detector and make some accurate readings.” When Hemingway was feeling bleak, he invariably apologized. “I’m sorry daughter,” he wrote, “when I’m not a better example. Nobody ever fielded 1000 if they tried for the hard ones. Nor if they didn’t.” And he added, “Anyway thanks very much for letter and try and have one here for when we get back. It is nice to come back and have a letter. But don’t write if you are working too hard.” Hemingway always cheered me on in my writing projects, and he confided in me about his own battles. In 1951, when he was finishing “The Old Man and the Sea,” he wrote, “By the time I get it all right and as good as I can do they will probably be dropping atomic bombs around like goat shit. But we can make a trip to some comparatively unbombed area and you can read it in Mss if they have stopped publishing books.” When he was depressed or discouraged, he sometimes resorted to his baseball or boxing metaphors, saying he was “pitching double headers to empty stands,” or “fighting twenty round fights with Stanley Ketchel without a paying customer in the house.” Then he added, “Well, Dr., when you are half a hundred years old and know your trade what the hell is the difference under what conditions you practice it?” There were times when Hemingway thought nobody “wished him well.” But he quickly corrected himself and said that was wrong, that a lot of people wished him well but just didn’t, he guessed, tell him about it. Then he might become sadly philosophical and say, “Your legend grows like the barnacles on the bottom of a ship and is about as useful—less useful.” On the same theme, he said, “How people cling to their useless lives I do not understand. Some Africans when they decide to die, just die. I think I understand how they do it, but have always been playing on the other team and engaged in deciding to live when it is actually impossible. Sometimes that is a little rough.” In rereading Hemingway’s letters, written more than four decades ago, I am struck by their modernity. For me, his presence is as alive as his fiction, and I feel blessed to have had his trust and his friendship. My respect for him may be somewhat deeper today, but I feel now, as I felt when I first got to know him, that he represents the very soul of what we call a writer. And I still believe that he may well be the greatest novelist and short-story writer of our day. “When I’m going good, don’t give a damn about anything nor anybody,” he wrote. “People who don’t know work is your truest love, feel the thing come between you, and always get jealous and pick fights. Well, I love my work more than I love any woman or anything else.” ♦ The data also shows that 10 million hectares of forests are lost every year in the world e forms of degradation such as soil erosion, are costing the world more than $6 trillion a year in lost food production and other ecosystem services. As a consequence, By 2040 we could experience a 30% increase in food prices due to a global reduction in productivity.  “Many areas have been significantly altered Native forests and fields have been transformed into agricultural areas and have had their water quality compromised Maritime areas have suffered from oxygen shortages as a result of the release of organic pollutants and fertilizers thissThese ecosystems have not only lost their original biodiversity, as also have become economically unproductive due to nutrient depletion The expansion of industrial production generates a large increase in greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere / Photo: Pixabay The IMA director also emphasizes that the recovery of degraded ecosystems is capable of bringing not only environmental gains but also economic and social gains through ecosystem services (water and climate security improving the health conditions of the population and increased income prospects resulting from a healthy environment.  environmental changes, maineMarketplace the increase in global warming are especially worrying due to the speed em that are occurring. The professor explains that the last glacial peak occurred 22 thousand years ago with o gradual warming of about 6°C over 17 years e peak temperatures there near 5 thousand years. "In this period, the average rate of warming was 0,35°C every mil years in 2020 temperatures were on average 1,2°C above pre-industrial temperatures (1880) representing a rate of temperature increase 24 times greater than at the end of the last glaciation The professor also recalls that devido tothe social distancing caused by pandemic, in April 2020 there was a 17% reduction in global emissions of CO², with an average of 7% for the whole of last year but that the levels are gradually being recovered and today emissions are already similar to the times pre- the pandemic. “Apparently the environmental impact of the pandemic was negative it is clear that there has been a cultural change in work relations and working from home is definitely here to stay This alone is capable of determining future environmental gains resulting from the reduction in daily commuting of people and this is perhaps the most positive aspect,” says the director of IMA.  Aerial view of the headquarters of the RPPN Pró-Mata / Photo: IMA Disclosure PUCRS manages an environmental conservation area of ​​approximately 2.400 hectares: Private Natural Heritage Reserve Pro-Mata THElocated in the Municipality of São Francisco de Paula in the Atlantic Forest Biome, the reserve constitutes as a full protection unit in which it is possible find endangered species such as the puma among a very diverse fauna and flora.  The University is also part of a consortium with 14 European and Latin American universities. which aims to improve the environmental management of institutions. The project é funded by the European Community, through the program Erasmus+.  Read also Climate future demands action today  Fabio ColombiniPlace in the sun: native Brazilian pine tree needs a lot of light to growFabio Colombini The forests populated with candlestick-shaped trees that Auguste de Saint-Hilaire became acquainted with in the south of Brazil 200 years ago have become very rare One century after the French scientist’s trips through the regions of what were then the provinces of Curitiba the cutting down of araucaria trees for lumber and for the extraction of the seeds for human consumption have endangered the survival of one of Brazil’s few native pine trees This has also endangered the survival of the plants and animals that live in the shade of araucaria forests one of the ecosystems that comprise the Mata Atlantica Rainforest It is believed that 20 million hectares of araucaria forests once covered the plateaus and mountain ranges of southern and southeastern Brazil until the early twentieth century according to an extensive survey of the remaining patches of the Mata Atlantica Rainforest published in 2009 in Biological Conservation only 12.6 percent of the araucaria trees resist in isolated places such as mountain slopes and mountaintops that are difficult to get to making it difficult to plant grain or raise cattle The biggest concern voiced by people who care about the future of the araucárias is that it is not easy for these forests to recover and to maintain their ecological function or benefit from their economic potential a native of Rio de Janeiro who is currently working at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos) in the city of São Leopoldo has dedicated five years to the study of the development cycle of these trees and to strategies to regenerate the araucaria the trunk of which can reach a diameter of as much as two meters and provides high-quality wood whose curved branches rise up to 40 or 50 meters above the ground and over other trees in the forest plays an important role in the preservation of native vegetation Souza regularly visited 26 patches of preserved vegetation and natural forests in the state of Rio Grande do Sul; where the trees had been cut down for timber in varying numbers He collected information on the number and size of the araucárias (seedlings and adult trees) and on the characteristics of the places where the trees grew in the forests He added this data to the data collected by the team of forest engineer Solon Jonas Longhi from the Federal University of Santa Maria who spent the last ten years keeping track of the growth and mortality rates of the araucárias in the São Francisco de Paula National Forest When comparing data on the araucárias with that of other trees Souza concluded that the Brazilian pine was indeed a peculiar species Long life The araucaria is what ecologists refer to as a pioneer species It is a fast-growing tree and is one of the first plants to populate open spaces such as clearings or abandoned fields It reaches maturity at a later stage and starts to produce seeds only after 15 years most of the other pioneering species die a few decades after maturity whereas the araucaria lasts for an average of 400 years – some reaching as long as 700 years it creates a favorable environment around it for the growth of more fragile slow-growing species that form the forest’s second generation of trees In an article published in Austral Ecology in 2007 Souza describes the araucaria as one of the rarest long-living pioneer trees in Brazilian forests Souza discovered that once a forest is formed it is difficult for the araucaria to produce new adult individuals He only found samples of young araucárias in open fields and in areas of the forest where the treetops did not entirely block the view of the sky and there was a lot of light as he wrote in an article published in Acta Oecologica in 2008 the young araucárias survive for a very short time in the shade; and second with a diameter of up to 30 centimeters that the tree produces from April to September are eaten by such native birds as the gralha-azul (azure jay) and by the papagaio-charão (red-spectacled Amazon parrot) “Only 1 percent of the seeds that fall on the ground germinate,” says Souza who this year was awarded the Fundação Bunge award in the forest sciences category Whatever seeds are left over from the animals’ forays become part of the local population’s diet are used in many dishes typical of the cuisine in the south of Brazil 4.8 thousand tons of pinhão were extracted from the native forests according to data of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics who analyzed of pinhão sales for the 1977 to 2007 period in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and for the last 14 years on a farm in the state of Santa Catarina noticed that the production of araucaria seeds does not fluctuate as that of the conifer trees – trees that produce bare seeds grouped in cones – of the Northern Hemisphere a pine tree does not necessarily produce an abundant harvest of seeds every year the production of these seeds is more stable “Production increases somewhat in the year that follows a year when the El Niño phenomenon occurred as this phenomenon causes heavy rains in the south while production drops after the droughts provoked by the La Niña phenomenon,” he explains The sale of pinhão can be more profitable than the exploitation of araucaria or pinus wood who wrote a paper on the exploitation and stewardship of araucárias The article was published in 2003 in the book Sustentável Mata Atlântica [Sustainable Atlantic Seaboard Forest] it will be necessary to replant forests for economic exploitation to become sustainable more than 60 years after the end of the exploitation of the araucaria forests the original araucaria population had still not recovered entirely Scientific article SOUZA, A. F. et al. Regeneration patterns of a long-lived dominant conifer and the effects of logging in southern South America Simple and quick daily habits can impact and improve the quality of life of entire cities Simple and quick daily habits can impact and improve the quality of life of entire cities   It is important to separate your waste into recyclable waste which can be turned into fertilizer for plants Alarming indicators have driven people and communities to adopt more sustainable practices The Brazilian Waste and Environment Association (ABREMA) announced in 2023 that approximately 40% of the waste generated in Brazil was improperly disposed of in 2022 This is equivalent to 33,3 million tons of urban solid waste Rejects are waste that cannot be recycled or in any other circularity solution “Recyclable materials take a long time to decompose so that they can be processed and reinserted into the production process This process avoids the extraction of new resources alertis a sustainability analyst at Flávia Ávila University.   Some habits can be adopted to facilitate recycling such as separating waste correctly and following the collection schedule for each type It is also important to rethink the consumption of disposable items and consume products from brands that have reverse logistics initiatives and positive social impact.   Read more: Partnership between PUCRS and UERGS promotes strengthening of rural tourism in São Francisco de Paula  But more than individual action is needed: effective public policies help minimize soil reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with improper waste disposal This contributes to the preservation of ecosystems and the protection of biodiversity Selective waste collection reduces pollution prevents the extraction of new natural resources prevents greater impacts on flooding due to the obstruction of drains and generates employment and income through the sale of these materials.   “Being aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a University reinforces our commitment to our community and the planet generating a positive impact through more sustainable practices we sort and send all of our recyclable waste to cooperatives and industries that can reuse these materials This well-structured chain allows several families to support themselves through this work.” reinforces the sustainability analyst.   The flooding situation in Rio Grande do Sul in May was made worse by the impact of climate change Much of this can be mitigated by adapting cities to become smarter and more circular using tools and methods to help and accelerate the transition to a circular economy The key framework focuses on three sectors: organic waste consumption and sustainable buildings.  Read more: PUCRS Sustainable Week promotes discussions on socio-environmental practices