It’s Ceiling Cat’s Day: Sunday, April 8, 2018; also National Empanada Day. Since empanadas are a foreign food, this is simply cultural appropriation. The weather in Chicago is below freezing this morning: 25° F or -4º C, and it may even snow today. There will be no letup in the cold until the end of the week.
April 8 was a thin day in history. The Venus de Milo was discovered on the Aegean island of Milos on April 8, 1820 by a peasant, supposedly in a cave. Part of an arm and the plinth was also found, but they have disappeared. It was, of course, appropriated by the French, and now reposes in the Louvre, attributed to the sculptor Alexandros of Antioch.
On this day in 1906, the first patient diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Auguste Deter, died. On April 8, 1908, Harvard University established the Harvard Business School. Exactly three years later, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity. On this day in 1924, Turkey, as part of the secularization begun by Kemal Atatürk, abolished sharia courts. On April 8, 1943, two anti-Nazi activists, Otto and Elise Hampel, were beheaded in Berlin. On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in Atlanta, breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 714 that had stood for 39 years. The current record is 762; do you know who holds it? Finally, on this day in 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq, entering the Syrian Civil War, declared a merger with the Al-Nusra Front, establishing the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham. I notice today that the odious government of Bashar al-Assad, protected by the equally odious Russians, have launched another chemical attack on the Syrian people, killing at least 70.
Today’s Google Doodle features the famous Mexican actor Maria Félix (1914-2002), a staple of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. The Doodle and its earlier versions are given here, and I’ve put a brief YouTube video about Félix below (I couldn’t find any scenes from her movies.) She died on her 88th birthday.
Besides Félix, notables born on this day include Mary Pickford (1892), Yip Harburg (1896), Melvin Calvin (1911), Betty Ford (1918), Seymour Hersh (1937), Catfish Hunter (1946), Barbara Kingsolver (1955), and Patricia Arquette (1968). Those who joined the choir invisible on this day include Vaslav Nijinsky (1950), Pablo Picasso (1973), Omar Bradley (1981), Marian Anderson (1993), Laura Nyro (1997), and Annette Funicello and Margaret Thatcher (both 2013).
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is nervous about an unknown “thing”:
Hili: We have to hurry.
Cyrus: Why?
Hili: Some unknown thing is approaching.
Hili: Musimy się spieszyć!
Cyrus: Dlaczego?
Hili: Nadciąga coś nieznanego.
We haven’t heard from Doc Bill down in Texas for a while, but he sent a picture of his beloved Kink, saying that the Kinkster had a bad case of Maru Syndrome:
Apparently Kitten Kink did the same thing:
Here’s a tweet sent by reader Barry:
I finally asked my grandpa why so many of his books were wrapped in duct tape. His response was "I tape the covers so it looks like a bible and I can read it during church." Somebody get him a medal. #lifehacks pic.twitter.com/IR6lAoazKL
— GingerKittyCat (@kittycattwitch) April 3, 2018
Trump as Business Cat, one of my favorite cartoon characters:
From Matthew, who wants the readers to guess how this guy does it. Guesses in the comments, please:
Just. Wow. pic.twitter.com/cRlHwdnnOr
— Mike Inouye (@minouye271) April 7, 2018
Puddle cat!
https://twitter.com/videocats/status/982178908538679307
From Heather Hastie via Ann German: a bear cub seems to purr:
https://twitter.com/LOLBOOKcom/status/981657122365566977
And two Ceiling Cat memes from reader dano1843:
Wiktionary’s word of the day:
enhypostasia n
(Christianity (Christology)) The state of the human nature of Jesus Christ being entirely dependent on, and not existing independently of, the divine nature of God as a whole (which is the hypostasis of the Holy Trinity comprising God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), or individual persons of the Trinity such as the Father and the Holy Spirit.
I needed that word last week! Nah.
Two in one, one in two: flush’em both down the loo.
Leo Weston VFX explains how he did the Rubik’s cube juggle here [complex video editing]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-urGsFu3Fk
That is pretty cool! In the few cases where I learn how a trick is done, the common theme is that a magician does whatever it takes to fool the viewer.
Oh. I assumed it was simple – they’d reversed the film. Learning it’s all CGI is a bit disappointing tbh. But thanks! – MC
I don’t think a convincing reversal is easily possible. I just watched a juggle filmed backwards & it’s obvious. Here is the juggle solve done for real if you have six minutes to spare:
What baffles me about the Rubik’s Cube is how it’s made. Not so much the 3x3x3 as the monsters (up to a 17x17x17). How are they even physically possible? I just can’t get my head around it (and I thought I was mechanically minded)
cr
I just watched a 17 cube being disassembled & I still have no clue re the mechanics
I had a grey cat exactly like that one, and he loved water too.
Apparently, there are lots of animals that ‘purr’, including elephants!
According to Wikipedia:
“Although purring is commonly associated with felids, other animals such as raccoons purr. Other purring animals include viverrids (civet), mongoose, bears, badgers, foxes, hyaenas, rabbits, squirrels, guinea pigs, tapirs, ring-tailed lemurs, and gorillas while eating. “
I’m betting human purring will be available pretty soon via genetic manipulation. Won’t that be something?!
That would freak me out! Putting up with snoring is bad enough. Then again, it could be useful to know when people are content, or ‘purred-off’.
762 = Mr Barry Bonds.
On yesterday 11 years ago:
07 April 2007 … …
IF not fake news.
Blue
IS fake news:
… … Mr Bonds = juiced.
Admittedly.
Blue
I asked one of my PhD students who is a magician and he says its a clever one-handed version of Steve Bundrages The Cube effect. As seen here
A tricked up set of three cubes. Nice idea, but the author of the trick gives a different answer in a video demo. See comment #2 above [first video link].
Poor Venus, no arms, can’t pull her clothes up.
Glen Davidson
Please don’t just automatically believe in the “Syrian chemical attack”, as, apparently, Donald Trump does. Sounds vastly more like another false flag attack. Source of info? Once again, it’s the Islamic “White Helmets” who have a huge vested interest in keeping the U.S. presence in Syria.
Assad has won. The American president wants to get out. So, Assad stages a chemical attack now? Yeah, sure. Just like Putin amateurishly “poisons” an ex-spy in Britain, for no reason that anyone can discern other than perhaps pure eee-vil. (Very likely, shellfish poisoning, btw.)
There is evil in this, all right, but it is coming from Washington Neo-cons and their pals in the military-intelligence apparatus. They want war and given the level of gullibility in the American media, they will probably get it.
What ever happened to anti-war liberals, Democrats and at least some of the mainstream media? Now, it seems almost all of the voices against war come from the Libertarian/Populist Right.
Just to be clear, are you seriously suggesting that the Skripals were the victims of nothing more than shellfish poisoning? Because that is not the case, unless it is your contention that Det Sgt Nick Bailey who attended the incident had the same symptoms purely coincidentally.
Why are there always people denying the crimes of Assad and Putin?
Exactly. Why are some people so obtuse? Assad is obviously guilty of this latest chemical attack. Though he has regained 90% of the Douma area and hundreds of Army of Islam rebels have been relocated, he needed one last clincher to improve his international image. What better than gassing some women and children? It is only logical. Also, the rebels themselves attest to his guilt. Who can possibly gainsay their veracity in such matters? Time to bomb Assad and maybe Russia and Iran as well, right? I am sure Bolton and company would heartily agree. So, some people, take that!
He has won, so he does not need to care about his international image. He can quash any remaining opposition hopes any way he likes. He has all important factors on his side – the backing of Russia and whitewashing by people like you.
My country’s eastern parts are flooded by Russian refugees. Our Prime Minister refused to expel Russian diplomats. Do you know why? Because since 1989, every government that has dared to have anti-Russian policy has been toppled within a year. So any snark praising Russia and her friends is lost on me.
Eish! Now the world is stuck with Mr Trump for at least another year, it seems. 🙂
However, although we know Assad is very capable of carrying out those crimes, I agree it is not really far-fetched to suspect a false flag operation either. It’s Near East politics, after all.
Everything is possible, but I find it unlikely that the gassing was false flag. Assad got away with everything he did to his people before, the Russians managed to present him – the root cause for the civil war in Syria,- as its solution, now he can set up gas chambers if he likes and will get away with this as well. Some say that he has no motivation to kill civilians now, but every dictatorship is based on continuous repressions.
As for Mr. Trump, my bet is 7 years.