QUESTION: What’s on the quilt of R.E.M.’s Computerized For The Individuals album?
R.E.M.’s 1992 album Computerized For The Individuals is taken into account by many to be their greatest, that includes traditional songs comparable to Nightswimming and All people Hurts. Its cowl includes a black-and-white {photograph} of a star-shaped Neo-Lectra neon signal that after hung above the Sinbad Motel in Miami, Florida, close to Standards Studios the place a lot of the album was recorded.
The Neo-Lectra indicators have been designed and manufactured within the Nineteen Sixties by Jim Henry of Oklahoma Neon, in Tulsa. The steel ‘stars’ featured six spikes and resembled the Sputnik satellite tv for pc; cashing in on the Nineteen Sixties area craze in addition to America’s love of neon signage. The Neo-Lectra have been marketed as having a ‘scintillating’ flashing motion.
The Sinbad Motel turned a widely known landmark after it opened its doorways in 1953. It was designed by famend architect Tony Sherman to resemble a ship.
R.E.M.’s 1992 album Computerized For The Individuals is taken into account by many to be their greatest, that includes traditional songs comparable to All people Hurts
Its cowl includes a black-and-white {photograph} of a star-shaped Neo-Lectra neon signal that after hung above the Sinbad Motel in Miami, Florida, close to Standards Studios the place the album was recorded
The album title ‘automated for the folks’ got here from the motto of a restaurant referred to as Weaver D’s Scrumptious Tremendous Meals
Earlier than R.E.M’s album was even launched in October 1992, the signal had gone. In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew swept by means of Miami. It prompted in depth injury to the motel and destroyed the star.
R.E.M. got here from Athens, Georgia, and the enigmatic album title got here from the motto of a restaurant referred to as Weaver D’s Scrumptious Tremendous Meals. Dexter Weaver’s ‘soul-food’ restaurant continues to be there and he nonetheless makes use of the phrase as a substitute of claiming ‘You’re welcome’.
Tom Greenwood, Cirencester, Glos.
QUESTION: Which pc was the primary hand-held one?
Adam Osborne’s Osborne 1, launched in 1981, is typically given this accolade. It was technically an all-in-one transportable laptop. Customers bought a five-inch display, modem port, 64kb of reminiscence and a battery pack.
Nevertheless, the Osborne 1 weighed a whopping 24lb. Designer Lee Felsenstein later stated that carrying two of them ‘almost pulled my arms out of their sockets’.
Subsequently, a greater wager could be the Seiko Epson HX-20, launched in July 1982. It was the primary notebook-sized transportable laptop, occupying roughly the footprint of an A4 piece of paper. It could possibly be held in a single hand, weighed 3.5lb (1.6kg) and will match inside a briefcase.
The Kyocera/Radio Shack TRS-80 Mannequin 100, a notebook-sized transportable laptop launched in April 1983, was the primary commercially profitable pocket book. It weighed 3.1lb, boasted 32kb of reminiscence and offered greater than six million models. It wasn’t very highly effective; 32kb can be roughly akin to 30-35 pages of typed textual content.
Tim Samuels, Norwich, Norfolk.
QUESTION: What are the origins of apartheid?
Apartheid was the system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa. The phrase comes from an Afrikaans phrase which means ‘separateness’, actually ‘apart-hood’ (from the Afrikaans suffix -heid).
It was coined in a non secular reasonably than political context by an Afrikaner clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), Jan Christoffel du Plessis.
Du Plessis was a missionary who labored intently with black members of the DRC within the Orange Free State province. He was disillusioned with the best way missionaries inspired Africans to surrender their tradition and undertake European life and habits. His ‘apartheid’ was to encourage black folks to embrace faith by means of their very own cultural context.
When the Afrikaner Nationwide Celebration, which co-opted the time period as a political slogan throughout the election, got here to energy in 1948, they started to formalise and increase racial segregation by means of the apartheid legal guidelines of Dr Hendrik Verwoerd.
Anti-apartheid demonstrators protest in Soweto, South Africa in 1989
These legal guidelines categorized South Africans into racial teams, restricted the motion and rights of non-white folks and enforced segregation in all points of life together with training, healthcare and public amenities.
The important thing insurance policies have been the Inhabitants Registration Act (1950) which categorized South Africans into racial teams, the Group Areas Act (1950) which assigned completely different racial teams to completely different residential and enterprise sections in city areas, the Bantu Schooling Act (1953) which created separate and inferior training programs for black South Africans, and varied Cross Legal guidelines, which pressured black South Africans to hold passbooks to limit their motion.
Apartheid continued till the early Nineties when inside resistance, worldwide strain and negotiations led to its dismantling and the institution of a democratic South Africa in 1994.
Dr Okay. E. Simms, London SE12.
