Element of the Month: Chromium!

April's Element of the Month:
Chromium!
Cr
24

Atomic Mass: 51.9961 amu
Melting Point: 1907 °C
Boiling Point: 2671 °C

With a name like Chromium, you just know that Element #24 is going to be all colorful!  But then you are disappointed to find that it is yet another silvery metal-colored metal.  Yet it turns out that various chemical compounds of Chromium actually ARE very colorful.  In the 18th Century, a bunch of pigments based on Chromium were first discovered and then manufactured, leading to something of a revolution in the art paints biz.  (This is something that one of the Reading List books, Bright Earth, discussed at some length.)  The one people noticed first was something called "Siberian red lead", which as the name suggests also contains lead and is, well, red.  There's also a chrome yellow and a chrome green, the latter being apparently the ninth most abundant compound in the Earth's crust.  Who knew?

So, Chromium does a neat trick.  It reacts with Oxygen, which as you may remember is fairly abundant in the Earth's atmosphere, to create an extremely thin but durable and inert surface layer.  You know how people used to be all about the chrome on their cars, before all the bumpers and what-not got encased within the exterior shell?  Well, the chrome stayed shiny because of that surface layer.  That's why the main use for Chromium in the human community, these days, is in an alloy with steel that helps it resist corrosion and discoloration.  It's called -- wait for it -- stainless steel!  Yep!  Stainless steel is steel, but with around 12% Chromium thrown in.

The Centerfold!

In addition to its presence in the cutlery, Chromium is important to you because you can't properly metabolize without it.  However, you don't need much of it, and since there's actually quite a bit of it floating around -- it is the 20th most common element on the planet -- it is generally thought to be impossible to have a medically problematic Chromium deficiency.  So relax.  On the other hand, too much Chromium -- like so much other stuff -- is bad.  Some forms and compounds are toxic or carcinogenic.  Don't roll in the stuff.

Chromium was first isolated by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, a prof at the University of Paris.  (He's also the guy who isolated Beryllium, although I didn't mention it at the time.)  Vanquelin seems to have been a bit of a chemical whizbang, and was a highly prolific writer.  He published many hundreds of articles over the course of his academic career.  Yet he perished all the same, in 1829.

Michael5000 vs. Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing (BBC, 1984)

The Play: Much Ado About Nothing

Directed by: Stuart Burge (1984), for the BBC series

Genre & Setting: A comedy, about three parts ha-ha comedy to two parts nasty-stuff-that-turns-out-OK-in-the-end comedy. The setting is an Italian villa, and in this production you’ve got pretty much exactly the costume and sets you would expect in a traditional Shakespeare staging.

The Gist: This is the first Shakespeare I’m watching in a second production (within this project, anyhoo) so I may be repeating what I gleaned as the gist in the far more boisterous, spectacular, and moneyed Kenneth Branaugh production.

So: you’ve got this pair of smart, funny aristocrats, Beatrice and Benedic(t?), who are nuts about each other but have been bantering so long that they’ve become, as people were saying a few years ago, “frenemies.” Both have sworn they’ll never marry. They need to be cajoled into realizing they love each other, and all of this business is of course quite jolly.

Then there’s this other pair, Claudio and Hero (I may not have the names exactly right, because I’m watching rather than reading, right?), not especially smart or funny but also nuts about each other. Unfortunately, Claudio has (if I understood it right) a villainous illegitimate half-brother who desires to undo his happiness! An initial plot to sabotage Claudio’s wooing-by-proxy (and by the way, wooing-by-proxy? WTF?) fails despite Claudio’s dimness, but a second plot to make him think Hero has been unfaithful succeeds spectacularly. Due to his dimness. This plot line is not only improbable but a little distasteful, and the ickiness of its climax and even its “happy” resolution really drag down the mood.

There’s also a bit with a small posse of dim constables, which is not bad. Unfortunately – this is the part where I tell Shakespeare how to write – these characters are introduced so late in the play that they do more to interrupt the flow than they do to advance the plot.

The Adaptation: I don’t know if I’ve mentioned yet that these BBC productions, which seem to be the standard go-to Shakespeare-on-film, and which make up the bulk of the non-famous plays available in my library’s collection, kind of suck. Having said that, this is easily the best of the ones we’ve watched so far. The funny parts were actually funny, although you miss having an audience to laugh with, and although it does not begin to compete with the big Big BIG Branaugh production, it seemed a pretty solid, workmanlike translation to film.

Clocks In At: around two and a quarter hours. There were a modest number of scenes in this presumably complete or near-complete performance that were not in the Branaugh, but these mostly served to show that ol’ Ken and/or his screenwriting team had pretty solid judgment.

Pros: The only major value-added of the BBC production over the Branaugh is that this one lacks Michael Keaton’s excruciating turn as Dogberry the Constable. The constables in the BBC production are competent, but I still think that these scenes have the potential to be hilarious in the right hands, and we haven’t seen that yet.

Cons: There is a character – I don’t know his name – who is a buddy of Benedic(t?) and Claudio, a major speaking part. In this production, he is more than a little campy, which creates an odd edge and sets up a number of unintentionally funny moments. Otherwise, the usual BBC soap-opera production values are a shame, but not a deal-breaker.

Prognosis: The back half of this play – particularly the humiliation of Hero – is unpleasant enough to discourage repeated viewings. And since the Branaugh is available, and lots of fun, why not use it for your initial watching?

Your Sunday Boring Postcard from Michael5000

Looking towards Isle of Eigg from Aird of Sleat Road, South of Armadale, Isle of Skye.


This dramatic coastal road enjoys magnificent views across the south of Sleat to the east and to the south towards Rhum, Eigg and Muck.

Provenance: Purchased in Multnomah Village, November 2010.

The Bear Chronicles

A Refreshing Mountain Creek
The Colorado Rockies
2009 if memory serves

Flag Friday XXV

Flag Friday is a periodic discussion of the world's national flags; the project is explained and indexed here.

These discussions are about graphic design, and perhaps about nationalism and national symbolism in general. They should not be taken as critical of the countries, ideals, cultures, or people that the flags represent.

Monaco

Parsons: "Yawn..." writes Parsons.  "Nice shape, but nearly as boring as Libya."  Still, it gets a "B", 70/100.

Michael5000: This is pretty much the same flag as that of Indonesia.  Well, Indonesia is in the 2:3 ratio and Monaco is officially 4:5, but in practice Monaco usually gets tweaked to 2:3, so Bob's your uncle. I checked back to make sure I'm giving the two the same grade, and it looks like Parsons did too.

Grade: B-


Mongolia

Parsons: "Too Busy."   A "C+", 60/100.

Michael5000: Oh, I dunno.  The golden business on the inside panel (the "Soyombo") is a little complicated, but it's all in one color, the shapes are pretty big and simple, and it's an important national symbol.  It's no busier than, say, a set of five stars.  I like the coloration, and the red-light blue-red vertical tricolor base is pretty keen.  And it's got good distinctiveness and recognizability.  I'm liking the flag of Mongolia.

Grade: A-

Montenegro

Parsons: Montenegro has been something of an on-again, off-again country for the past eleven centuries.  It was not on the map when Parsons made his sweep, but it's on again as of June 2006.

Michael5000: Whoa, what century is this?  The flag of the newest (I think) country going looks decidedly like one of the flags of the world as depicted on a 1880s cigar box.  Or maybe like the lid of an 1880s cigar box.  Is that really the flag?

Yup, guess it is.  I'm going to give it points for distinctiveness, obviously -- although it's not a radical departure from neighboring Albania -- and, once we get used to Montenegro being on again, recognizability.  Also, the central device uses only a modest three colors, so it is capable of being rendered in applique as opposed to screenprinting -- extremely laboriously, though.  And obviously, there's a real traditional look here.  Let's see...  we'll give it a....

Grade (for the current flag): B


Morocco

Parsons: "Apart from the colours, this is a nice design," writes Parsons.  "Pentagram is a bit adolescent though."  It has "Bad Colours," it's "eye-watering," but it's "simple," and it gets a "B", 72/100.

Michael5000:   In fairness to the flag and peoples of Morocco, I don't believe that the pentagram had acquired its heavy-metal connotations at the time of their flag design, 1915.  This design, although hard on the red/green colorblind, is surprisingly distinctive -- I can't think of another open star out sides of Israel's off the bat, and that one is six-sided.

Grade: B


Mozambique

Parsons: Dr. Parsons is not a fan.  "Automatic weapons on a flag are especially bad," he says.  Appears to have been designed by a committee all of whom had stupid ideas for pictures of extra things to put on the flag. With "weapons" and "graven images" and being "too busy," it gets a "D-", 37/100.

Michael5000: Well, Mozambique has not had an easy road, and if I'd been part of the Portuguese colonial empire until the 1970s I might be inclined to put an automatic weapon on my flag too.  That being said, it true that it doesn't send a really upbeat message.  Parsons is moreover joined by the parliamentary opposition in Mozambique, who object not only to the bad vibes of the machine gun but also to the national flag consisting  of the symbols of the ruling party.  And yes, the stack of AK-47, hoe, book, and star really is a pretty busy business.

I like the white stripelets, though, and it doesn't look half bad on a flagpole:

Let's give it a:

Grade: B

Your Thursday Boring Postcard from Michael5000

Gingerbread Village Restaurant


On your next trip to or from the Oregon Coast, stop in and experience the Gingerbread Village, enjoy a delicious breakfast, lunch or dinner in a pleasant atmosphere....  In the heart of the forest on Highway 126, just 15 miles from the beautiful Oregon Coast.

Provenance: Purchased in situ, December 2009.

Teach Yourself Urdu!

...because frankly, I don't have time to teach you myself.

First published in 1915, this book offers numerous translation exercises for the eager student of Urdu.

...or of colonialism...

...or of brisk management of the servant class...

...or whatever.

from the collection of L&TM5K special Urdu correspondent Vida.