I’m amazed at how quickly the weeks whiz by: soon graduation will take place at most American colleges, and things will become quiet. (The University of Chicago is on the quarter system and so our graduation is late: exams begin June 8, and graduation is a week later. On the other hand, classes usually start in early October.)
The last two days have been chilly and rainy, and while today will also be on the chilly side (high of 47° F or 8° C), we’ll have no rain. Tomorrow a warm spell begins. Here’s a photo I took of downtown Chicago the day before yesterday, with the low clouds hiding much of the skyscrapers:
At any rate, today is Friday, May 3, 2019, and National Chocolate Custard Day. It’s also International Sun Day (a day to advocate for solar energy) and World Press Freedom Day.
On May 3, 1715, there was a total solar eclipse across northern Europe and Asia, and it’s a sign of how advanced astronomy was then that Edmond Halley predicted its onset to within four minutes. On this day in 1848, according to Wikipedia, “The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet [was] discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.” Here’s the description, and I’ve put photographs of the original (on a stand) and a reconstruction below:
The most striking feature of the helmet is the boar at its apex; this pagan symbol faces towards a Christian cross on the nasal in a display of syncretism. This is representative of 7th-century England when Christian missionaries were slowly converting Anglo-Saxons away from traditional Germanic mythology. The helmet seems to exhibit a stronger preference toward paganism, with a large boar and a small cross. The cross may have been added for talismanic effect, the help of any god being welcome on the battlefield. The boar atop the crest was likewise associated with protection and suggests a time when boar-crested helmets may have been common, as do the helmet from Wollaston and the Guilden Morden boar. The contemporary epic Beowulf mentions such helmets five times and speaks of the strength of men “when the hefted sword, its hammered edge and gleaming blade slathered in blood, razes the sturdy boar-ridge off a helmet.”
The original with iron framework and bits of horn plates; the leather has since decayed:
Reconstruction:
On this day in 1913, the first full-length Indian feature film was released: Raja Harishchandra. It marked the beginning of the Indian film industry, and already you can see some signs of Bollywood below, in particular the interpolation of songs, the dancing and the style of singing:
Here’s the full movie if you’re so inclined (the quality is pretty poor):
On May 3, 1921, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 was passed, which recognized the division of Ireland into Northern and Southern parts. In 1948, in the case of Shelley v. Kraemer, the U.S. Supreme court rules that local laws could not ban the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities. In 1957, Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, decided to move the team to Los Angeles.
On May 3, 1960, the musical The Fantasticks opened in Greenwich Village in New York City, and ran for 42 years straight, making it the longest-running musical of all time. (My favorite song from that musical is here.) On this day in 1963, the Birmingham, Alabama police decided to battle civil rights demonstrators with fire hoses and vicious d*gs: a horrible display of violence that, since it was filmed, galvanized the civil rights movement. Here are some scenes from that day:
Finally, according to Wikipedia, it was on this day in 1978 that “The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as “spam“) [was] sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.”
Notables born on this day include Jacob Riis (1849), Vita Volterra (1860), Golda Meir (1898), Bing Crosby (1903), Pete Seeger (1919), Steven Weinberg (1933), and Christina Hendricks (1975).
Those who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on May 3 include Jerzy Kosiński (1991), Wally Schirra (2007), and Gary Becker (2014).
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili once again thinks that she’s the Fulcrum of the World:
A: What are you doing up there?Hili: I’m guarding the world’s order.
Ja: Co robisz pod sufitem?
Hili: Czuwam nad porządkiem świata.
A cartoon from Facebook. I’ll never recover from Gary Larson’s retirement from cartooning. Why can’t he just put out one every few weeks or so? What a loss of talent!
Another from Facebook:
Here’s my bff, the newly shaved Pi in his box:
From reader David:
Reader Barry calls our attention to the claws of this caracal:
https://twitter.com/i_iove_nature/status/1123776646836891655
From reader Nilou. I think this picture is photoshopped, but there are real X-ray very similar to this (see them here).
Kiwis lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world. It can weigh as much as 450 g: if we compare that proportion to humans, it would mean giving birth to a fully grown 4 year old kid https://t.co/XvvKvWR6hk pic.twitter.com/hx23ZH0JpE
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 1, 2019
Tweets from Grania. This one, from astronaut Christina Koch in the ISS, shows our beloved Great Lakes:
Waving to the mitten! Greetings to my friends and family in Michigan. The Great Lakes are as stunning from space as they are in person. pic.twitter.com/NELuPGchid
— Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) May 1, 2019
Can you recognize them? Here’s a key:
Shappi has a cat, but what has it caught?
Oscar. Beloved man of the house. Second one today. I’m proud and disgusted in equal measure. pic.twitter.com/Cbuadz3Q9Q
— Shappi Khorsandi (@ShappiKhorsandi) May 2, 2019
He’ll never get Jerry!
https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1123685288004456449
I bet they love belly rubs too!
https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1082679170910412800
Tweets from Matthew. This woman loves her albino ball python, but it’s not going to be that small forever!
This woman had no plans to get a python — until an extremely adorable one stole her heart 💜 pic.twitter.com/Nc0mcuFGFT
— The Dodo (@dodo) May 2, 2019
Diffident wiener dog!
On this special day, let us once again remember and be grateful for this video of a dog owner pretending to collapse to test his Dachshund's reaction… pic.twitter.com/mJzJ7OpBuW
— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) May 2, 2019
Closely related to the vervet, but not a vervet:
The mystery of the Dryas monkey, a cryptic and #endangered #primate endemic to the #Congo Basin, is one step closer to being solved! Check out our new preprint led by @T_vd_Valk and @CataGonda on the evolutionary history of this curious guenon: https://t.co/4znci0qQHf pic.twitter.com/mEizpKvRot
— Katerina Guschanski (@kguschan) April 23, 2019
And I couldn’t resist a couple of geese tweets from a thread. Look at the responsible adults bringing up the rear of this gaggle!
And more; Clumber Park (babies) pic.twitter.com/bPNHqeCUWb
— Steve Barnett (@barnett_steve) May 2, 2019
Anu Gang of A Word A Day included a quote in his daily email from from another person born on this day in history.
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him. -Niccolo Machiavelli, political philosopher and author (3 May 1469-1527)
You don’t have to look far to see how this still applies today.
Yes. In quite the opposite direction.
I think Shappi’s Oscar has been filching goldfish from a neighbour’s pond.
The Warrior who wore that Helmet must have thought he was the bee’s knees. lol
Having grown up near Lake Michigan, “our beloved Great Lakes” sounds apt. The lakes are enormous basins, scoured out by the continental glaciers which receded just 11,000 years ago (a geological blink of an eye). The lithosphere is still rebounding (isostatic rebound). Around Sault Ste. Marie, the surface is rising about 1 foot (30 cm) every century.
There are some beautiful glacial remnant formations south of Rochester, NY. Fortunately they have been preserved in parks owned by Monroe County. There is also the Genesee River, which flows northward to Lake Ontario from its headwaters in Pennsylvania, providing evidence of the depression in the western NY area.
Ice covered as far south as southern Ohio and Eastward to Manhattan. In Michigan, you can find much evidence of glaciation. Morains, the piles of debris left as the glaciers receded, are common. Rocks sourced in Ontario can be found everywhere. An interesting phenomenon is the directional scratches (striae) in bedrock surfaces.
I don’t think the kiwi and her egg are photoshopped, why would it” But it is necessarily a mounted display.
There is an argument that the size of the kiwi egg remained constant over evolutionary time while the body size of the bird became smaller, rather than that a small bird evolved a really big egg. I wonder if there are kiwi fossils which could support this hypothesis.
Re Schappi’s Oscar, brings to mind that Australia has a program to kill two million feral cats who are predating rare and endangered Aussie mammals
Ball Pythons are great and one of the most docile constrictors around but if she continues to do that cute “boop” trick on the nose odds are she’s gonna get a nasty bite, and it won’t be the snakes fault.
Same goes for her talking face-to-face with the snake without having a firm grasp of their neck so they can’t strike.
The cat drawing on the notebook sheet is clever!