Gravity and Einstein

The gyroscope case of the Gravity-B spacecraft, before launch / Stanford University

NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. GP-B determined both effects with unprecedented precision by pointing at a single star, IM Pegasi, while in a polar orbit around Earth.
Popular outreach article on Gravity B in Greek.

Battle of Crete - Operation Mercury

German paratroopers landing on Crete

Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 141-0864

70 years ago: The Battle of Crete (German: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta; Greek: Μάχη της Κρήτης) was a battle during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete under the code-name Unternehmen Merkur ("Operation Mercury"). Greek and Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island.

After one day of fighting, the Germans had suffered appalling casualties and none of their objectives had been achieved. The next day, through miscommunication and the failure of Allied commanders to grasp the situation, Maleme airfield in western Crete fell to the Germans, enabling them to fly in reinforcements and overwhelm the defenders. The battle lasted about 10 days.

The Battle of Crete was unprecedented in three respects: it was not only the first battle where the Fallschirmjäger ("parachute rangers") were used on a massive scale, but also the first mainly airborne invasion in military history; the first time the Allies made significant use of intelligence from the deciphered German Enigma code; and the first time invading German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population.

The German forces met fierce resistance on the island of Crete, where the elite Fallschirmjäger suffered almost 7,000 casualties. In light of the heavy casualties suffered by the elite 7th Flieger Division, Adolf Hitler forbade further airborne operations. This decision eliminated the option of a massive airborne invasion of the Soviet Union and further expansion in the Mediterranean saving Malta, Gibraltar, Cyprus, and the Suez Canal from airborne invasion.

General Kurt Student, who directed Operation Mercury and was the commander of the Fallschirmjäger, would dub Crete "the graveyard of the German paratroopers" and a "disastrous victory." Acting as the temporary commander of the island, immediately after the surrender of Crete on 31 May 1941, Student issued an order for a launching of a wave of brutal reprisals against the local population with the Massacre of Kondomari and the Holocaust of Kandanos being typical cases.

Executed Cretan civilians at Kondomari, Crete, 1941

Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 101I-166-0527-04

Helen Keller and Epirus

The Anagnostopoulos School in Konitsa, Epirus (Greece) / © I.A. Daglis

Helen Keller was one of the most famous women in America in the early 20th century. Both deaf and blind, she overcame her disabilities to become a bestselling author and popular lecturer. Keller’s tutor, Anne Sullivan, became rather famous in her own right, for her role in training the young Keller. Less well-known, but just as significant, is the man who put Keller and Sullivan together — Michael Anagnos, an immigrant from Greece, and the longtime head of Boston’s Perkins Institute for the Blind.
Anagnos (shortened from Anagnostopoulos) was born in Papingo, a mountain village in Epirus in 1837. The son of a peasant, he grew up tending his father’s flocks and studying in the village school. He eventually earned a scholarship to a better school, and ultimately was admitted to the University of Athens. There, he was so poor that he couldn’t afford textbooks, and had to copy the required readings by hand. He worked his way through college, graduated, and then studied law.

Below follows a letter of Helen Keller to Michael Anagnos, written 122 years ago.

Tuscumbia, Ala., May 18, 1889.
My Dear Mr. Anagnos:--You cannot imagine how delighted I was to receive a letter from you last evening. I am very sorry that you are going so far away. We shall miss you very, very much. I would love to visit many beautiful cities with you. When I was in Huntsville I saw Dr. Bryson, and he told me that he had been to Rome and Athens and Paris and London. He had climbed the high mountains in Switzerland and visited beautiful churches in Italy and France, and he saw a great many ancient castles. I hope you will please write to me from all the cities you visit. When you go to Holland please give my love to the lovely princess Wilhelmina. She is a dear little girl, and when she is old enough she will be the queen of Holland. If you go to Roumania please ask the good queen Elizabeth about her little invalid brother, and tell her that I am very sorry that her darling little girl died. I should like to send a kiss to Vittorio, the little prince of Naples, but teacher says she is afraid you will not remember so many messages. When I am thirteen years old I shall visit them all myself.
I thank you very much for the beautiful story about Lord Fauntleroy, and so does teacher.
I am so glad that Eva is coming to stay with me this summer. We will have fine times together. Give Howard my love, and tell him to answer my letter. Thursday we had a picnic. It was very pleasant out in the shady woods, and we all enjoyed the picnic very much.
Mildred is out in the yard playing, and mother is picking the delicious strawberries. Father and Uncle Frank are down town. Simpson is coming home soon. Mildred and I had our pictures taken while we were in Huntsville. I will send you one.
The roses have been beautiful. Mother has a great many fine roses. The La France and the Lamarque are the most fragrant; but the Marechal Neil, Solfaterre, Jacqueminot, Nipheots, Etoile de Lyon, Papa Gontier, Gabrielle Drevet and the Perle des Jardines are all lovely roses.
Please give the little boys and girls my love. I think of them every day and I love them dearly in my heart. When you come home from Europe I hope you will be all well and very happy to get home again. Do not forget to give my love to Miss Calliope Kehayia and Mr. Francis Demetrios Kalopothakes.
Lovingly, your little friend,
HELEN ADAMS KELLER.

The Anagnostopoulos School in Konitsa, Epirus (Greece) / © I.A. Daglis

Technology

Akihabara Electric Town, Tokyo / I.A. Daglis

Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.


Max Frisch [Homo Faber, 1957]
100 years from his birth (15 May 1911)

ωραίος σαν το Μάη μήνα

Η Χαλκίδα από ψηλά / © I.A. Daglis

Νάν' σπασμένοι οι δρόμοι, να φυσάει ο νότος
κι εγώ καταμονάχος και να λέω: τί πόλη!
να μην ξέρω αν είμαι –μέσα στην ασβόλη–
ένας λυπημένος πιερότος!
Φύσαε –είπα– ο νότος κι έλεγα: Η Χαλκίδα,
ώ Χαλκίδα –πόλη (έλεγα) και φέτος
ήμουν –στ' όνειρό μου είδα– Περικλέτος,
πάλι Περικλέτος ήμουν –είδα…
Έτσι έλεγα! Ήσαν μάταιοι μου οι κόποι
πάν' σε ξύλο κούφιο, πρόστυχο, ανάρια,
Ως θερία, ως δέντρα –αναγλυμένοι– ως ψάρια
τα όνειρά μου (μούμιες) κι οι ανθρώποι.
Τώρα; Πόλη, τρέμω τα γητέματά σου
κι είμαι ακόμα ωραίος σαν το Μάη μήνα,
κρίμα, λέω, θλιμμένη νάσαι κολομπίνα
και να κλαίω εγώ στα γόνατά σου.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Έτσι νάν' σπασμένοι, να φυσά απ' το νότο
και με πίλο κλόουν να γελάς, Χαλκίδα:
Αχ, νεκρόν στο χώμα – να φωνάζεις – είδα
έναν μου ακόμη πιερότο! . . .

Γιάννης Σκαρίμπας (Χαλκίδα, από τη συλλογή Ουλαλούμ, 1936)