Good Whale
Rafael Fernández Caballero is a diver and photographer. He captured this spectacular image of a Bryde’s whale feeding on a shoal of sardines off Baja California. The Spaniard took the shot by chance, on one of his many missions around the globe to record the beauty of the oceans. Bryde’s whales are special because they live in warm waters, don’t roam far and – since they don’t appear in the classic whaling grounds – are not threatened. They have picked the comfortable waters, a clever survival tactic. Almost human: go where it’s warm, where enough food swims past your nose and where no one bothers you. Except, now and then, an underwater photographer. Caballero (@rafafdezjr), who is also an ambassador for the watch brand Alpina, received the «Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024» award for the photo, run by Oceanographic Magazine, London. This and the other competition photos can be seen from 28 November 2024 at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney.
No Words Needed
The vast show of this year’s Olympic Summer Games in Paris set new standards. And, as ever, the Paralympics kindly followed. Here too there were new records, an immense wave of enthusiasm, more spectators, unbelievable feats. Inclusion, however, that is not. The 2024 Cycling World Championships in Zurich were held together with para-athletes for the first time. And there are sporting competitions where inclusion really works, as in most marathons, for example. The Commonwealth Games, too, have been held inclusively at a high level since 2002. Wouldn’t it be time to abolish the separation, everywhere? To use the vibes of a «normal» Olympics and give para-athletes the same stage? A logistical challenge, perhaps. But nothing is impossible; it just takes a little more time and will. And then perhaps the word «inclusion» will finally become obsolete.
On a Collision Course
By now it’s 17,000 people from more than 110 nations working peacefully at CERN towards one goal: building particle accelerators for a wide range of uses. The largest is the heart of CERN, is called ATLAS and is a Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The person standing in this photo at the centre of the end of the accelerator, in the CMS detector (Compact Muon Solenoid), conveys the scale. Sixty million times a second, protons and atoms are sent crashing into one another in a ring 27 kilometres in circumference outside Geneva; half of the underground structure runs beneath France. The lofty goal: to discover the missing elementary particles that could explain the Big Bang. Exactly 70 years ago the CERN project (Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire, European Organization for Nuclear Research) was agreed; ATLAS was installed in 2008. So far one particle has been found, the Higgs boson. But that is only one experiment: in 1990 the World Wide Web was developed at CERN, accelerators are built that are used in cancer therapy, and CERN’s scientists make ever more available as open source. A visit in person is highly recommended.
Cara Signora Loren
Grazie mille. For giving the word «diva» an unshakeable, appreciative meaning, a face and a body. For standing to this day for an image of woman that is always, at all times, authentic, that does not bend, that loves itself as it is, and that holds to its own personality with pride, style and dignity. Thank you for images of women we may adore, love, admire and worship, always strong, always beautiful, whether unattainable dream woman or ageing, former prostitute. We bow before you as a woman, as a mother and grandmother, as a world star, as an ambassador for the poorest, as a character actress and as a style icon. And we are, of course, just a tiny bit proud that you – honorary citizen of Naples, but also of Pozzuoli, Sorrento and Florence – have chosen Switzerland as the centre of your life (in the photo: on Muottas Muragl near Pontresina, 25 January 2002). Auguri per il suo 90° compleanno!
This article appeared in MEN issue 2/24 (November 2024).
