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Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Who was Tom Lehrer, legendary satirist behind ‘Elements' dies at 97?
Tom Lehrer, pianist, songwriter, mathematician, and the man who made black comedy sing, has died at 97. According to Variety, his friends said he was found at his home in Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday. A cult figure long before television caught up with him, Lehrer balanced fame with a day job: teaching math at Harvard and, later, UC Santa Cruz. As he once told a crowd, 'I don't like people to get the idea that I have to do this for a living. I mean, it isn't as though I had to do this. I could be making, oh, $3,000 a year just teaching.' Tom Lehrer achieved national fame with NBC's 'That Was the Week That Was' in 1965. (IMDb) Also read: When Miranda met Andy! Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway spotted shooting together for The Devil Wears Prada sequel From $40 studio time to national TV Born in New York to a Jewish family, he started piano at 7, devoured the American songbook, and could mimic any style on the keys. A prodigy, he entered Harvard at 15, graduated magna cum laude in 1946, collected a master's a year later, and noodled on a doctorate for years. In 1953, for $40, he cut 'Songs of Tom Lehrer' in a Boston studio - cover art: Lehrer as a devil at the piano. Passed hand to hand on campuses, it sold 10,000 copies and made him an underground star, according to Variety. The follow-up, More of Tom Lehrer (1959), arrived after his Army stint and delivered staples like The Elements, The Masochism Tango and Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. Time magazine promptly slotted him with the era's 'sick' comics - Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl - a badge he wore just fine. Live, he packaged the material as 'An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer.' Also read: Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson fuel dating rumours with their cute banter 'TW3,' Reprise, and the long fade back to class Tom achieved national fame with NBC's 'That Was the Week That Was' in 1965. His Reprise LP 'That Was the Year That Was' peaked at No. 18, taking aim at prejudice ('National Brotherhood Week'), nukes ('So Long Mom'), the Church ('The Vatican Rag'), and education ('The New Math'). He later wrote songs for 'The Electric Company,' stumped at McGovern fundraisers in 1972, and then mostly retreated to academia, teaching math and musical theater at UC Santa Cruz, reports Variety. Lehrer never married and had no children. FAQs How old was Tom Lehrer when he died? He was 97. Where did Tom Lehrer teach? He taught mathematics at Harvard and later at UC Santa Cruz. What TV show boosted his national profile? NBC's That Was the Week That Was in 1965. What are some of his most famous songs? 'The Vatican Rag,' 'The Masochism Tango,' 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,' and 'The Elements.' Did Tom Lehrer ever marry? No, he never married and left no children.
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Tom Lehrer, satirical songwriter and Harvard mathematician, dies at 97
Tom Lehrer, the mathematician-turned-musical satirist whose darkly witty songs earned him cult status in the 1950s and '60s, died Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 97. Lehrer, best known for songs like Poisoning Pigeons in the Park and The Vatican Rag, blended sardonic lyrics with cheerful melodies. A Harvard-trained mathematician, he juggled a brief but memorable music career with academia, teaching at Harvard, MIT, and UC Santa Cruz. His songwriting career began in college, where his parody pieces quickly gained attention. His 1953 debut album, Songs by Tom Lehrer, became a mail-order sensation, selling over 500,000 copies. His work was often controversial, tackling taboo subjects like religion, war, and vice with biting humor. Lehrer's output included politically charged songs for NBC's That Was the Week That Was and educational tunes for PBS's The Electric Company. Despite his popularity, he ended his performance career in 1967, saying he preferred writing over public applause. In a surprising move, Lehrer relinquished all rights to his music in 2020, allowing the public free use of his lyrics and melodies. He never married or had children and leaves no immediate survivors. Lehrer's influence lives on through generations of comedians and musicians who followed his unapologetic style of satire. His legacy, though rooted in humor, was one of sharp intellect, cultural critique, and enduring originality.
CNBC
02-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
24-year-old American moved to Belgium to get his Master's degree—it cost just $4,610: 'As a student, there is no better cost of living'
In 2020, Colby Grey was a freshman at the University of California, Santa Cruz when the COVID-19 pandemic halted his college experience. By his second semester, Grey was forced to move home, and it was during this time back in San Luis Obispo, California, that he started thinking about studying abroad. Grey went and studied in Copenhagen for six months. When that time was up, he wasn't ready to head back to Santa Cruz, so he attended a Semester at Sea before finally returning to California. "When I came back to Santa Cruz, it was a real reverse culture shock for me," Grey says. "There was no housing left there. The city is really not built for students." Back in Santa Cruz, Grey lived off campus in a two-bedroom apartment with three other roommates and worked as a study abroad advisor. His share of the rent was $1,340 a month, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. "I was paying more to live in Santa Cruz than I had been paying to live abroad. I said to myself I couldn't do it anymore," Grey says. "I knew that after I was done [with undergrad] I would apply for a master's degree in Belgium." Not only was Grey unhappy being back in California, he was also dissatisfied with the quality of education he received at UC Santa Cruz, especially considering the cost. For the 2024-2025 school year, the average cost for in-state students living on campus is $44,160. Grey's classes were canceled for more than half a semester one year and he still had to pay for the entire thing. "It just didn't seem like I was getting what I paid for even with a ton of federal and state funding," Grey says. "I knew there had to be a better system and a better way to get an education. Through my study abroad job, I realized I could just get a visa and study as an international student for a sixth of the price." Grey considered master's programs at Cambridge University, the University of Oxford, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, but he couldn't justify the cost. That led him to Leuven, Belgium. Leuven was built to be a "15-minute city," an urban planning concept where most daily necessities like shopping, healthcare, and more can be reached within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. The concept is gaining traction in other Belgian cities like Brussels and Mechelen and exists in major cities like Paris, France, Barcelona, Spain and Melbourne, Australia. In Leuven, cars are banned in the city center and it is easy — and encouraged — to get around on bike. "I fell in love with it and loved that Belgium was centrally located, so I could travel, too," he says "There are four different countries around me within a three-hour train ride, and that was very unique." Leuven is home to the KU Leuven university, which offers a program for degree-seeking students called a search permit. This permit allows students or researchers to stay for a year and work unrestricted, provided they obtain a master's degree from a university in the country. It's a one-year program, and the tuition cost is about 3,800 euros a year or $4,481 USD. Most of Grey's classes provided all course material online, so he didn't have to worry about buying textbooks. "As a student, there is no better cost of living. There is nothing better economically than being in Europe. There's no reason to go into debt here, so it just makes sense at this stage in my life," he says. Grey arrived in Belgium in July 2023 with two checked bags and a backpack. He moved into a four-bedroom house with three other people and paid 500 euros, or USD $544, a month in rent at the time: "It was fantastic. I mean, I was paying a third of the price to get my own room." Grey immediately set out to build a life in Leuven. "When I first got here, it was daunting. I was aware of the fact that I had no friends here and I was totally on my own," he says. "I think that was the first time I ever felt like that in my life. I worked really hard to make friends and make a community here." Grey graduated last summer, having paid 4,290 euros, USD $4,610 at the time, for the year-long master's program. Grey then moved about a 10-minute bike ride outside the city where he pays 420 euros a month in rent, including utilities. His current housing also provides some toiletries and some food, too. The 24-year-old has lived in Belgium for almost two years now, and says he loves the work-life balance he's been able to find there. "The community feels so strong here and I have a really great balance between my work life and my home life," he says. "It's such a slower pace of life here and it's really beautiful." Grey loves living in Belgium so much that he's gearing up to start his second master's program at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels, the country's capital, in September. The estimated cost for the year is roughly 4,960 euros — USD $5,848. He'll live on campus and pay around the same amount as he does in rent now. "I'm really committed to living here in Belgium and eventually going for naturalization," Grey says. "After I graduate, the goal would be to work as a journalist in Brussels for either one of the American papers or as a North American correspondent for one of the Belgian papers." The one thing Grey does know for sure is that he isn't ready to return to America just yet, especially after seeing how much his life has changed for the better in Belgium. "I knew that Belgium was an option for creating a life here and it had more pathways for me to live here. I'm grateful to my 22-year-old self that I chose this country and I chose this path because it looks like I'm gonna stay and if I don't stay, it won't be due to a lack of trying," he says. "Living in the U.S., I felt there was a ticking clock inside of me where I had to get into the workforce, get a house, have a family, and I think now I've slowed down a little bit and kind of just smelled the roses a little bit more,."
San Francisco Chronicle
19-06-2025
- Science
- San Francisco Chronicle
How changing ocean colors could impact California
Earth's oceans have been getting greener at the poles and becoming bluer closer to the equator, according to a study published Thursday in Science. The shift reflects changes in marine ecosystems, which experts say could affect fish populations and create problems for fisheries, including in California. 'It has lots of potential implications for the way we use the ocean,' said Raphael Kudela, a professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz, who wasn't part of the new study. The scientists analyzed satellite data from 2003 to 2022 to track ocean concentrations of chlorophyll, a green pigment that phytoplankton use to absorb sunlight and produce sugars. While phytoplankton are often associated with harmful algal blooms, they are also the base of the marine food web, serving as food for fish and other sea creatures. Ocean regions with the highest concentrations of chlorophyll, or the greenest areas, were at higher latitudes, toward the poles. Mid-latitudes had relatively low levels of chlorophyll, or were more blue. The authors tracked global shifts in chlorophyll concentrations, a proxy for phytoplankton populations, over recent decades. The authors associated the poleward 'greening' with increasing sea-surface temperatures. 'This uneven distribution of chlorophyll (has been) intensifying over the past 20 years,' said lead author Haipeng Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Zhao performed the research while at Duke University. The scientists quantified the trend using the Gini index, a measure typically used for studying wealth disparities. Kudela, of UC Santa Cruz, described the approach as 'a very elegant way' to address the question of whether ocean waters have been getting greener toward the poles. The new study analyzed open ocean waters; researchers didn't directly address coastal regions, like the Pacific Ocean waters offshore of California. Sediment in shallow coastal waters complicates satellite data: 'We don't think there's an effective algorithm that can accurately gather the phytoplankton concentrations in those coastal regions,' Zhao said. Coastal waters and the open ocean also experience distinct physical processes, Zhao explained. Kudela expects that the poleward shift in chlorophyll and phytoplankton described by the authors extends to the California coast, though the data could be noisier. Much of California lines up with latitudes associated with ocean waters that have gotten bluer over recent decades. Latitudes north of roughly Humboldt Bay have gotten greener. Scientists have already observed changes in marine environments: 'We're seeing organisms in California and Oregon and Washington moving northward because they're basically trying to follow their preferred temperature,' said Kudela, who authored a perspective accompanying the new study. Kudela noted in the perspective that the new results contrast with those of a 2023 study, which reported that oceans have become greener at low latitudes in recent decades and that the trend wasn't associated with sea-surface temperatures. That analysis, however, used a different type of satellite observation. El Niño conditions, associated with warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures, have provided short glimpses into what California waters could be like if global oceans warm, Kudela said. 'We oftentimes see the peak anchovy abundance shifts from Central California (and) Monterey up into Northern California,' Kudela said. Yellowfin tuna and dorado, normally found off Mexico, are more common off Southern California during El Niño years. The authors write that additional decades of satellite data are needed to determine whether poleward greening is a product of natural variability or driven by climate change.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists warn of critical missing piece in humans' understanding of animals: 'Not quite sophisticated enough'
A new paper argues that researchers must change how they examine animals adapting to the warming planet. Otherwise, they risk misunderstanding key behavioral information. Published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, this paper asserts that most studies look at one piece of the ecological puzzle. But more work needs to be done to fully understand how "species on the move" are changing their behavior. "The picture that we all have in our heads for species on the move, we're arguing, is not quite sophisticated enough," said Alexa Fredston, University of California Santa Cruz marine ecologist and one of the paper's co-authors. Animals use various strategies to adapt. But the paper says scientists usually measure one factor, such as shifting birth rates, over a period of time or space. By considering multiple factors within one study, scientists can create a more holistic understanding of an animal's behavior. This is crucial because of how much we rely on animals for our food supply. We need to understand how our ecosystems function because if they collapse, so do we. We need to protect insects because they pollinate our crops. Animals such as beavers are considered keystone species because when they aren't thriving, the ecosystem falls apart. Holistic study is important because it allows researchers to keep tabs on all these moving parts. This is already happening within the group of scientists who published this paper. A study of birds by Monte Neate-Clegg, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Cruz, examined three adaptation strategies. A few hundred species of birds were adapting in part by shifting their breeding strategies. But the two other strategies — moving northward and to higher elevations — were just as important to the process. "This more holistic approach tells us their overall ability to track climate change and emphasizes which aspects of climate tracking are potentially easier for different species," Neate-Clegg said. While animals are making quick changes to their behavior, scientific research may move at a slower pace. But it's a change that's worth making for the sake of humanity and the environment. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
