https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles%27_rooftop_concert



The Beatles' rooftop concert was the final public performance of the English rock band the Beatles. On 30 January 1969, the band, with keyboardist Billy Preston, surprised a central London office and fashion district with an impromptu concert from the roof of the headquarters of the band's multimedia corporation Apple Corps at 3 Savile Row. In a 42-minute set, the Beatles played nine takes of five songs before the Metropolitan Police asked them to reduce the volume. Footage from the performance was used in the 1970 documentary film Let It Be.

https://www.interiordesign.net/articles/15950-florence-knoll-bassett-pioneer-of-american-office-design-dies-at-101/



American designer Florence Knoll Bassett passed away on January 25, 2018 in Coral Cables, Florida. She was 101.

David E. Bright, spokesman for Knoll Inc., announced her passing. Knoll Bassett and her husband Hans Knoll ran the company for many years together, beginning in the 1940s. She had a large hand in the creative vision of Knoll, started the Knoll Planning Unit, and directed the design of the company’s iconic furniture, textiles, and graphics.

Knoll Bassett studied under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and collaborated with Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Girard, among others, during a pivotal time in the development of American Modern design.

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In 1961, Knoll Bassett became the first woman recipient of the Gold Medal for Industrial Design from AIA. In 2003, she received the highest award for artistic excellence in America, the National Medal of Arts.

Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett (née Schust; May 24, 1917 – January 25, 2019) was an American architect and furniture designer who studied under Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen. She was born Florence Schust in Saginaw, Michigan, and was known in familiar circles as "Shu".

She graduated from the Kingswood School before studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art (both institutions are located on the same campus in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan). Knoll also received a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1941 and briefly worked with leaders of the Bauhaus movement, including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and the American modernist, Wallace K. Harrison.

Knoll Furniture
In 1938, Hans Knoll founded his furniture company by that name in New York City. In 1943, Florence Schust convinced Knoll she could help bring in business to his company even in America's wartime economy by expanding into interior design by working with architects. With her architectural background and design flair, she succeeded. They married in 1946, she became a full business partner and together they founded Knoll Associates. A new furniture factory was established in East Greenville, Pennsylvania, and dealers of Knoll's furniture were carefully added over the next several years.

Knoll felt architects should contribute their design ability to furniture as well. Some of these furniture designs would become design icons of the 20th century and have remained in the Knoll line for decades due to their timeless design. When Hans Knoll died in a car accident in 1955, Florence Knoll took over operation of the company. She designed chairs, sofas, tables and casegoods during the 1950s, many of which remain in the Knoll line to this day. In 1958 she married Harry Hood Bassett, the son of Harry H. Bassett. In the 1950s her work was often included in The Museum of Modern Art's "Good Design" exhibits. Although Knoll did a great deal of residential work, she worked in the International Style that was especially successful in corporate offices.

As an architect, Knoll's most famous creations are the interior of Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Headquarters building in Bloomfield, Connecticut and again the interior of the CBS Building in New York City. Her vision for the new office was clean and uncluttered, and the corporate boom of the 1960s provided the perfect opportunity for her to change the way people looked at work in their offices. Her open-plan layouts were clean, uncluttered spaces. She retired as Knoll president in 1960 but remained with the company as the director of design until 1965 when she retired completely. In 2002, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She turned 100 in May 2017.

In an interview with the New York Times in 1964, she clarified "I am not a decorator... the only place I decorate is my own house." She took a stance to further differentiate the titles of an interior decorator and an interior designer. Knoll was one of the first to make this differentiation, frustrated at the title of interior decorator especially in its common use towards women. Her expertise in furniture design and architecture exceed the common skill of an 'interior decorator'. This embodies the Goals of the Knoll Planning Unit.

Furniture
Knoll stated that she was not a furniture designer, perhaps because she didn't want her furniture pieces to be viewed on their own but rather as an element of her holistic interior design.[27]

She designed furniture when the existing pieces in the Knoll collection only didn't meet her needs. Almost half of the furniture pieces in the Knoll collection were her designs including tables, desks, chairs, sofas, benches and stools. She designed furniture not only to be functional but also to designate the way she wanted the interior space to function as well as relate to the architecture of the space and the overall composition. This was inevitably part of her concept of "total design" in which she aspired to work in a broad range of design fields including architecture, manufacturing, interior design, textiles, graphics, advertising and presentation.[28]

The distinctive features of Knoll's furniture designs were the sleek silhouettes and geometries. This reflected her architectural training and interests. Her furniture was designed with the notion of transforming architecture into furniture, which she achieved by translating the structure and language of the modern building into a human-scaled object.

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https://news.fsu.edu/news/university-news/2019/01/26/prominent-fsu-supporter-al-dunlap-passes-away/

Prominent FSU supporter Al Dunlap passes away

Albert J. Dunlap, a former corporate executive and one of Florida State University’s most generous supporters, passed away Friday, Jan. 25, at his home in Ocala after a brief illness. He was 81.

Dunlap will be remembered for his boisterous enthusiasm, his grand gestures of generosity and his popularity among Florida State student-athletes.

“Al Dunlap was undeniably passionate about investing in the potential of future leaders,” said FSU President John Thrasher. “We are incredibly fortunate that two decades ago Al and his wife, Judy, chose to share that passion with FSU, fostering the achievements of our students and successes of this university. Their journey of generosity at Florida State is evident, from the Student Success Center in the center of campus to the athletic training facility at the stadium. Al’s legacy will live on to benefit future generations of Seminoles.”

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_J._Dunlap

Albert John Dunlap (July 26, 1937[1] – January 25, 2019) was a American corporate executive. He was known at the peak of his career as a turnaround specialist and professional downsizer. It was later discovered that his reputed turnarounds were elaborate frauds. The ruthless methods he employed to streamline failing companies, most notably Scott Paper, won him the nicknames "Chainsaw Al" and "Rambo in Pinstripes". However, his career was effectively ended after he engineered a massive accounting scandal at Sunbeam Products, now Sunbeam-Oster, that ultimately cost that company its independence. He was barred from serving as an officer of a publicly traded corporation in the United States. His widespread layoffs and accounting frauds have put him on several lists of worst CEOs.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_J._Dunlap#Business_philosophy

Business philosophy
Dunlap believed that the primary goal of any business should be to make money for its shareholders. By all accounts this pursuit of profit was wholly unchecked by any regard for human dignity or compassion. To that end, he believed in making widespread cuts, including massive layoffs, in order to streamline operations. By firing thousands of employees at once and closing plants and factories, he drastically altered the economic status of such corporations as Scott Paper and Crown Zellerbach.

In 2005, the business magazine Fast Company included Dunlap in the article "Is Your Boss a Psychopath", noting he "might score impressively on the Corporate Psychopathy checklist." The magazine's editor. John A. Byrne, noted: "In all my years of reporting, I had never come across an executive as manipulative, ruthless, and destructive as Al Dunlap. Until the Securities and Exchange Commission barred him from ever serving as an officer of a public corporation, Dunlap sucked the very life and soul out of companies and people. He stole dignity, purpose, and sense out of organizations and replaced those ideals with fear and intimidation."

In the book The Psychopath Test, the author, Jon Ronson, recounted an interview he did with Dunlap in which he asked Dunlap if he felt he fit the characteristics of a psychopath, though without initially using the label "psychopath." According to Ronson, Dunlap freely admitted to possessing many of the traits of a psychopath, but that he considered them positive traits such as leadership and decisiveness. In a review of the book, Business Week reported that Dunlap "scores pretty high on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist." Ronson, however, also noted that Dunlap lacked other elements of psychopathy, such as a history of juvenile delinquency or unstable romantic relationships.

In May 2009, Conde Nast Portfolio.com named Dunlap the 6th worst CEO of all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_inauguration_of_Barack_Obama

The first inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States took place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. The inauguration, which set a record attendance for any event held in Washington, D.C., marked the commencement of the first four-year term of Barack Obama as President and Joe Biden as Vice President. Based on the combined attendance numbers, television viewership, and Internet traffic, it was among the most-observed events ever by the global audience.

"A New Birth of Freedom", a phrase from the Gettysburg Address, served as the inaugural theme to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth year of Abraham Lincoln. In his speeches to the crowds, Obama referred to ideals expressed by Lincoln about renewal, continuity and national unity. Obama mentioned these ideals in his speech to stress the need for shared sacrifice and a new sense of responsibility to answer America's challenges at home and abroad.

Obama and others paid homage to Lincoln in the form of tributes and references during several of the events, starting with a commemorative train tour from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C. on January 17, 2009. The inaugural events held in Washington from January 18 to 21, 2009, included concerts, a national day of community service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the swearing-in ceremony, luncheon and parade, inaugural balls, and the interfaith inaugural prayer service. The presidential oath as administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to Obama during his swearing-in ceremony on January 20 strayed slightly from the oath of office prescribed in the United States Constitution, which led to its re‑administration the next day.

In addition to a larger than usual celebrity attendance, the Presidential Inaugural Committee increased its outreach to ordinary citizens to encourage greater participation in inaugural events compared with participation in recent past inaugurations. For the first time, the committee opened the entire length of the National Mall as the public viewing area for the swearing-in ceremony, breaking with the tradition of past inaugurations. Selected American citizens participated in the train tour and other inaugural events, and a philanthropist organized a People's Inaugural Ball for disadvantaged people who otherwise would be unable to afford to attend the inaugural festivities. Among the celebrations for the inauguration, the committee hosted a first-ever Neighborhood Inaugural Ball with free or affordable tickets for ordinary citizens.

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https://people.com/pets/boo-the-pomeranian-dies/

Boo, the 12-year-old Internet sensation with millions of fans, has died.

On Friday, the Pomeranian’s owner announced the death on Facebook, writing, “With deepest sadness I wanted to share that Boo passed away in his sleep early this morning … Our family is heartbroken, but we find comfort knowing that he is no longer in any pain or discomfort.”

Boo became one of the most beloved animals on Facebook, amassing over 16 million followers.

Sadly, Boo suffered from heart issues, according to the statement from his owners, who also had a dog named Buddy.

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https://twitter.com/carlreiner/status/1086375849807335424

carl reiner
?
Verified account

@carlreiner

After not tweeting my feelings about our unelected, impeachable President, I have rallied myself from a half-sick-bed to my computer to log in the promise I made to myself, “You don’t leave this world until Trump leaves the office the Russians stole from Hillary and gave to him.”

4:32 PM - 18 Jan 2019