Sunday: Hili dialogue

February 24, 2019 • 6:30 am

It’s Sunday, February 24, 2019, and National Tortilla Chip Day. In Mexico it’s also Dia de la Bandera, or Flag Day. Wikipedia explains why it’s on this day:

The date was selected because more than a century earlier (February 24, 1821), the “Plan de Iguala” or “Plan de las tres garantías” was proclaimed by Agustin de Iturbide and General Vicente Guerrero. This plan was based in three principles: “Religion, Independence and Unity”, which were represented on the flag’s colors. On this same date, Jose Magdaleno Ocampo tailored the first three color flag for what would soon be an independent Mexico. This flag, commonly known as the “Pendon Trigarante”, had the colors: white, green and red in that order, arranged diagonally with three eight-point gold stars, one on the center of each color banner.

The modern flag of Mexico, which depicts an eagle, a snake, and a cactus:

On this day in 1582, according to Wikipedia, Pope Gregory XIII proclaimed the Gregorian calendar, which began in October. The change was announced via a Papal Bull, which looks like this:

On February 24, 1803, in the famous case of Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court began the procedure of “judicial review”, meaning that courts could nullify legal statutes that were deemed unconstitutional. On this day in 1854, the first perforated stamp for public distribution was issued, the “Penny Red.” And here it is (some specimens are worth £ 500,000):

On this day in 1868, President Andrew Johnson became the first U.S. President to be impeached by the House of Representatives, but he was acquitted by the Senate. On this day in 1920, the Nazi Party was founded (I was surprised that it started so soon after WWI). It’s no longer in existence thanks to stalwarts like Dan Arel.  On February 24, 1946, Juan Perón was elected to his first term as Argentina’s President. He was elected twice more before he was overthrown.

On February 24, 1980, completing its “Miracle on Ice”, the U.S. hockey team took gold in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, defeating Finland 4-2. And here is that victory:

On this day in 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (complete with a $3 bounty on the author’s head) against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses.  Now the Ayatollah is dead and Rushdie is not. Finally, it was on this day 11 years ago that Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba, though he kept his position as head of the Communist Party for another 3 years.

Those born on this day include Joseph Banks (1743), Winslow Homer (1836), Honus Wagner (1874), Chester Nimitz (1885), Abe Vigoda (1921), and Judith Butler and Eddie Murray (both 1956).

In my view, Homer is an underrated painter. Here’s one of his paintings in Chicago’s Art Institute, “The Herring Net” (1885), description here.

And here’s Vigoda in the first Godfather movie, taken away to be killed for treason to the Family. It’s a poignant scene:

Notables who expired on February 24 include Henry Cavendish (1810), Malcolm Forbes (1990), Claude Shannon (2001), Don Knotts (2006), and Harold Ramis (2014).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is out exploring, but she’s wary:

Hili: What’s there?
A: Partially burned root.
Hili: It looks threatening.
In Polish:
Hili: Co tam jest?
Ja: Nadpalony korzeń.
Hili: Wygląda groźnie.

This tweet from the BBC tells a touching story of death, guilt, and redemption. It’s ineffably sweet, and you can read more about Foulds and his story here.

A tweet from reader Barry, showing a well-trained cat:

Tweets from Grania, who says that this first one is what I’m like when we speak in the morning (my time):

I hope I’ll see something like this come winter, when, if the stars align properly, I’ll be visiting Antarctica:

https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1099171451465216000

Very few cats like to get wet, especially if the water is cold (sound up):

Just a reminder that birds are dinosaurs (though not all biologists agree):

Remember Ultima Thule, a Kuyper belt object about 31 km long? Here it is:

Tweets from Matthew. I organize my books by genre, although alphabetically is in the lead by 2%

Newborn lambs! (Sound up to hear that first bleat.)

This is lovely; note that the antennae are on the adjacent wall:

https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/1098305929785692160

They’re not on their knees: they’re sitting on their ankles. That first bend is the ankle.

39 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  3. My shelf space is not adequate for the accommodation of all my books, so it’s quite annoyingly unorganized. It is roughly by subject and genre, and by author or author affinities, so Dawkins is currently ear Hitchens, Pinker next to Coyne, near Jones, field guides on one shelf, paleontology piled together…messy but functional I guess. My dream is of a wall of fancy floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves so I can see and find everything.

  4. I try to be disciplined in organising my Books, but it doesn’t last long I’m afraid. they generally finish up all over the place.

    1. I start trying to organise books by topic (I do have one whole set of bookshelves with natural history books), but then there is always one or more books that won’t fit! Too tall often only by a centimeter or so. Therefore size is often the determining factor.

      1. My adjustable IKEA bookshelf heights are determined by bottle heights for my beers, lagers, wines & spirits. The bottles are sorted by type of booze & if there’s a conflict I put that bottle handy for consumption.

        The books muddle along quite nicely now I’ve completed a massive cull – keeping only those that aren’t practical as eBooks [those with photos, diagrams & food recipes are best kept in the organic version]. Much less must n dust.

        1. I am working on a cull, but not quite so drastic. I do find that I like to keep lots of ‘organic’ books more as pets than as something to read again! You are right about the dust…

  5. On this day in 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (complete with a $3 bounty on the author’s head) against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses.

    Wikipedia gives the date of the fatwa as February 14, 1989, and the amount of the bounty as #6 million.

    1. Look, this is what it says for February 24 on Wikipedia:

      1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa and offers a USD $3 million bounty for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

      If you think I made a mistake, it’s not my fault, but Wikipedia’s.

      1. Whichever Wikipedia page you take to be correct, there is a typo in your text, I believe. You state the bounty was $3 which is either a million times too small or two million times too small.

        1. Yes, $3 sounds on the low side – even without confounding factors like inflation and sanctions!

      2. I checked Rushdie’s memoir, “Joseph Anton”. Chapter II, “Manuscripts Don’t Burn”, it says on page 135 that it was Valentine’s Day. Actually, I just noticed it says that in the first line of the inner flap of the book jacket, and the first page of the prologue on par 3. Chalk up another fail for Wikipedia and a quite easy one to double check at that! Perhaps a kind reader who knows how to edit Rushdie’s wiki page could do so?

        1. The SATANIC VERSES CONTROVERSY WIKI & all the other Wikis associated that I can think of give the correct date with no recent edits [looking in history for each Wiki]. The correct date for the Fatwa is the 15th February in Tehran [3 & a half hours later than London] & 14th February in London. Here is my outline:

          Ayatollah Khomeni pronounced a fatwa on Salmon Rusdie on Tehran radio on the 15th February [Tehran time] – there was no reward offered by Khomeni for Rusdie’s death. From Rushdie’s POV in London it is still February 14th.

          On the 15th [London time] a loony Iranian cleric, Hojatoleslam Hassani Saneii of the 15 Khodad Foundation offers $2.8M USD reward to any Iranian who kills Rushdie, but only $1M to foreigners.

          In 2012 the same loony cleric boosted the reward by a further $500,000 USD making it $3.3M USD for everyone [the cleric must have learned of the benefits of equal opportunities]

          In 2016 a bunch of Iranian ‘news’ organisations boosted it further by $600,000 USD making $3.9M USD

          I think the rewards were announced in Rials rather than the devil’s currency of USD. The Rial/USD fluctuates a lot & the media are generally incompetent with figures – hence the variations in the amounts reported around the World.

    1. A great film, and a great book.
      In general I prefer to see the film first, since the other way round one is often disappointed. A book gives so much more detail, and hence some passages are bound to be missing in the film.

  7. I can see how the book organizing thread could go viral. I am strangely compelled to explain to everybody that my books were once upon a time organized by subject, but randomization has long been creeping in. These ‘mutations’ are selectively neutral since I know roughly where everything is. I could not precisely tell you the birthdays of my children or even my own age. But if you ask to see my copy of The Growth of Biological Thought by Ernst Mayr, a book I have not touched in 20 years, I would take you right to it.

  8. Perón was elected in 1946, re-elected in 1951. Deposed by a military coup in September 1955 and fled the country. Lived in exile until 1973.
    He was elected for the third time in 1973; assumed office on 12 October 1973 and died on 1 July 1974.

    1. Don’t they? I’m quite surprised by that statement. I thought that BAND (birds are not Dinosaurs) was thoroughly debunked. Did I miss something?

  14. “It’s no longer in existence thanks to stalwarts like Dan Arel.”

    thank darwin I was not drinking my coffee when i read that line !!!

    1. 83% of the Mexican population in Mexico is religious (mostly Catholic). I don’t know what you mean by “insist so much on religion” but they’re a very religious population.

      1. By “insisting”, I meant that at some point, religion was (not overtly) included in the national flag of Mexico.
        To me, 17% open atheists is not bad at all.

  16. That bird/dinosaur item reminded me of my visit to a former dinosaur hatchery in Montana (or was it Alberta?). The area had been used by one variety of duck-billed dinosaur for a long time. There were bits of fossilized egg shell everywhere. You couldn’t walk without crunching egg shells. I was amazed that the surface of the shell looked just like that of chicken eggs in my fridge, just brown from mineralization instead of white. I know that is not a scientific observation but it is one consistent with birds being dinosaurs.

  17. The LTEE, E. coli long-term evolution experiment is 31 today. LTEE was started by Richard Lenski on February 24, ’88 at the University of California, Irvine & moved to Michigan State University around ’91.

    1. I think it’s upwards of 70,000 generations now. A quick google put homo sapiens’ generations (starting 300,000 yeas ago) at 18,750. Mind boggling.

      1. Just you wait E. coli Einstein of the 94,328th generation will figure out how to make ‘fire’ with no free oxygen & we’ll be buggered.

          1. That would be nice – so long as he’s not big into releasing methane. You know what ‘robes are like…

  20. “The change was announced via a Papal Bull, which looks like this:”

    A considerably more accurate view would not have been from the side (or the front).

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