A phlegmatic is a quiet, kind and peaceful person. They like giving and receiving affection, although they might be shy. They can be content to go along with situations as they are, instead of trying to change them. They may tend to be relaxed, lazy and not have a lot of energy.
Ida Rubinstein
Ida Lvovna Rubinstein 5 October 1885 – 20 September 1960) was a Russian ballerina, actress, personality and patron.
Rubinstein was born in Kharkov, or possibly St. Petersburg, into a wealthy Jewish family. She was orphaned at an early age. She had, by the standard of Russian ballet, little formal training. Tutored by Mikhail Fokine, she made her debut in 1908. This was a single private performance of Oscar Wilde's "Salomé", in which she stripped nude in the course of the "Dance of the Seven Veils".
Sergei Diaghilev took her with the Ballets Russes and she danced the title role of "Cléopâtre" in the Paris season of 1909, and Zobéide in "Scheherazade" in 1910. Both ballets were choreographed by Fokine, and designed by Leon Bakst. Her partner in "Scherazade" was Nijinsky. "Scherezade" was admired at the time for its racy sensuality, costumes and design. Its music is by Rimsky-Korsakov. For a long time the ballet was rarely performed. It is in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Ballet at present, and was performed by them in London 2011. Rubinstein left the Ballets Russes in 1911.
Bisexual, in 1911 Rubinstein began a three-year affair with the painter Romaine Brooks, who created a striking portrait. She used the dancer as a nude model for Venus.
After leaving the Ballets Russes, Rubinstein formed her own dance company. She had inherited money, and she used it to commission several lavish productions. In 1911 she performed in "Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien". The creative team was Fokine (choreography); Bakst (design); and score by Debussy. This was a triumph for its stylized modernism, and a scandal. The Archbishop of Paris prohibited Catholics from attending because St. Sebastian was being played by a woman and a Jew.
In the 1920s and 30s, Rubinstein appeared in a number of plays, and in Staat's "Istar" at the Paris Opera in 1924. Between 1928 and 1929, she directed her own company in Paris with Nijinska as choreographer. She commissioned and performed in Maurice Ravel's "Boléro" in 1928. Other works developed in 1928 were Massine's "David", with music by Sauguet; and "Le Baiser de la fée", with music by Stravinsky, and choreography by Nijinska. The repertoire also included The Firebird ("L'Oiseau de Feu") with music by Stravinsky, and choreography by Fokine; this had been one of the most sensational creations for the Ballets Russes. Her company was revived in 1931 and 1934, with new works. She closed the company in 1935, and gave her last performance in the play "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" in Paris, 1939.
Rubinstein often staged free ballet events and continued to dance until the start of the Second World War.
Rubinstein was not a front-rank ballerina; she began her training too late for that. She did have tremendous 'stage presence' and was able to act. She was also a significant patron, and commissioned works that suited her, works that mixed dance with drama and stagecraft. In 1934 the French government awarded her the Légion d'honneur, and then in 1939 the Grand Cross of the order, their highest honour. In 1935 she was awarded honorary French citizenship, and in 1936 she converted to Roman Catholicism.
In 1940 she left France and made her way to England via Algeria and Morocco. There she helped wounded Free French soldiers until 1944. She returned to France after the war. She lived finally at "Les Olivades" at Vence, where she died in 1960. She is buried nearby.
Richard Tsien
Richard Winyu Tsien (born 3 March 1945) is a noted American neurobiologist (or neuroscientist). Tsien has received many honours and awards.
Richard Tsien was born in Tating, Kweichow, China. He is the eldest of three brothers. Tsien's youngest brother Roger Y. Tsien, a cell biologist, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is a descendant of the King Wuyue Tsien Liu. He is the son of Hsue-Chu Tsien, a famous aeronautical mechanic who became the chief engineer for Boeing.
Soon after his birth, Tsien's family moved to the United States. Tsien received BS in 1965 and MS in 1966 both in electrical engineering and both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tsien then won the Rhodes Scholarship and studied in the United Kingdom at Wadham College, Oxford from 1966 to 1969. Tsien obtained PhD in biophysics from Oxford in 1970.
From 1968 to 1970, Tsien was a Weir Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford. From 1969 to 1970, Tsien was a teaching fellow at Balliol College, Oxford.
In 1970, Tsien went back to the United States, became an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at Yale University School of Medicine from 1970 to 1974. From 1974 to 1979, Tsien was an associate professor in the same department, and promoted to full professor in 1979 until 1988.
In 1988, Tsien went to Stanford and founded the Stanford University Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, where he also served the first chairman. From 1991 to 2001, Tsien was the Director Silvio Conte - National Institutes of Mental Health Center for Neuroscience Research. Since 1988, Tsien has been the George D. Smith Professor of Stanford Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. And since 2000, Tsien has been the Co-Director for the Stanford Brain Research Centre.
Tsien did important work on calcium channels, their mechanisms and roles in cell signaling pathways. Tsien's research also helps us understand the long-term plasticity of synapses.
From 1987 to 1988, Tsien was the President of the Society of General Physiologists. In August 2000, Tsien also served the Section Chair of Neurobiology of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Contemporary R&amp;B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre of R&B. It mixes rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop, electronic and dance. Contemporary R&B is currently a dominant music genre for the Top 40 radios. Artists of this type of music includes, Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, and Whitney Houston. Contemporary R&B became a popular music genre after the disco era in the 1980s. Contemporary R&B is an African American type of music, however, there has been other artists who are not African American that record contemporary R&B.
Guy du Merle
Guy du Merle was a French aerospace engineer, pilot and writer. He was the first head of the French Civil Aviation University.
Du Merle graduated from the "École Polytechnique" (1927) and the "École nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique et de l'espace" (1932). He began his career as a military pilot, from 1933 to 1935, on more than hundred types of aircraft. From 1940 to 1950, he taught aerospace engineering at the "École nationale supérieure de l'aéronautique et de l'espace". In 1948, he became the first director of the French Civil Aviation University, until 1951.
A roundabout of the city of Toulouse bears his name.
Trey Lorenz
Trey Lorenz (born Lloyd Lorenz Smith; January 19, 1969) is an American singer and songwriter. He has been a backing vocalist for Mariah Carey and Selena. His 1992 single "Someone to Hold", reached number 19 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, number five on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs and number 65 on the UK Singles Chart.
Gordian knot
The Gordian Knot is a legend of associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for a problem which has no easy or obvious solution.
In Phrygia (modern Turkey), there was a legendary prophesy about a unique knot which could only be loosened by the man who would rule all of Asia. It was called the "Gordian" knot because it was preserved in Gordium. It supposed to have been created by a man named Gordius.
The knot was complex and tangled. This mythical knot was tied around the part of a wooden cart or wagon.