I’s nearly 2 pm in Jerusalem, and I’ve spent half the day having a “strategic tour” of Jerusalem: sites important in the defense of Israel after Independence, and seeing the Palestinian parts of the city and near the city (i.e., “area A”, where it is unsafe safe for me to go and illegal for my Israeli friends to go. And yet it’s only 5:45 a.m. in Chicago, so there’s plenty of time for me to post a truncated Hili dialogue. In a few hours I’ll have a post on our trip yeserday to Masada and the Dead Sea.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, is it Hili or the butterfly who is drunk?
A: What do you see there?Hili: A drunken butterfly.
In Polish:
A: Co ty widzisz?Hili: Pijanego motyla.
Oh, and read this short article from Nature (click on screenshot):
And a reconstruction:
It’s still a theropod dinosaur, and you can read the original article here (but be quick before it’s paywalled).
Wow. What an incredibly educational visit you are having with knowledgeable readers and friends. Yesterday’s pictures were great as was commentary. Thanks!
On this day:
70 – A Roman army under Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem.
1228 – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II lands in Acre, Israel, and starts the Sixth Crusade, which results in a peaceful restoration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts, is founded in North America.
1695 – Henry Every perpetrates one of the most profitable pirate raids in history with the capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatens to end all English trading in India.
1776 – According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world’s first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor (no British records of this attack exist).
1812 – French invasion of Russia: The Battle of Borodino, the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, is fought near Moscow and results in a French victory.
1857 – Mountain Meadows massacre: Mormon settlers slaughter most members of peaceful, emigrant wagon train.
1876 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang attempt to rob the town’s bank but are driven off by armed citizens.
1901 – The Boxer Rebellion in Qing dynasty (modern-day China) officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.
1909 – Eugène Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Juvisy, south of Paris, becoming the first aviator in the world to lose his life piloting a powered heavier-than-air craft.
1911 – French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested and put in jail on suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum.
1923 – The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) is formed.
1927 – The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Farnsworth.
1936 – The last thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial named Benjamin, dies alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
1940 – World War II: The German Luftwaffe begins the Blitz, bombing London and other British cities for over 50 consecutive nights.
1977 – The Torrijos–Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1978 – While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Gullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from a specially-designed umbrella.
1979 – The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for US$1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
2008 – The United States government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
2012 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over nuclear plans and purported human rights abuses.
2021 – Bitcoin becomes legal tender in El Salvador.
Births:
1533 – Elizabeth I of England (d. 1603).
1707 – Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French mathematician, cosmologist, and author (d. 1788).
1795 – John William Polidori, English physician and author (d. 1821).
1860 – Grandma Moses, American painter (d. 1961).
1887 – Edith Sitwell, English poet and critic (d. 1964).
1893 – Leslie Hore-Belisha, English politician, Secretary of State for War (d. 1957). [Proved highly successful in modernizing the British road system in 1934–1937 as Minister for Transport and still associated in the UK with the introduction of flashing amber “Belisha beacons” at pedestrian crossings.]
1897 – Al Sherman, Tin Pan Alley era songwriter (d. 1973).
1909 – Elia Kazan, Greek-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2003).
1912 – David Packard, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Hewlett-Packard (d. 1996).
1913 – Anthony Quayle, English actor (d. 1989).
1914 – James Van Allen, American physicist and philosopher (d. 2006).
1917 – Leonard Cheshire, English captain, pilot, and humanitarian (d. 1992).
1918 – Harold Amos, American microbiologist and academic (d. 2003).
1923 – Louise Suggs, American golfer, co-founded LPGA (d. 2015).
1925 – Laura Ashley, Welsh-English fashion designer, founded Laura Ashley plc (d. 1985).
1925 – Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, Indian actress, singer, director, and producer (d. 2005).
1926 – Samuel Goldwyn Jr., American director and producer (d. 2015).
1927 – Eric Hill, English-American author and illustrator (d. 2014).
1930 – Sonny Rollins, American saxophonist and composer.
1932 – Malcolm Bradbury, English author and academic (d. 2000).
1936 – Buddy Holly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1959).
1943 – Gloria Gaynor, American singer-songwriter.
1951 – Chrissie Hynde, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
1966 – Toby Jones, English actor.
1987 – Evan Rachel Wood, American actress and singer.
Mortality is man’s invention; not in the logic of life.
1833 – Hannah More, English poet, playwright, and philanthropist (b. 1745).
1910 – William Holman Hunt, English painter and soldier (b. 1827).
1962 – Karen Blixen, Danish memoirist and short story writer (b. 1885).
1978 – Keith Moon, English drummer (The Who) (b. 1946). [I remember The Tubes playing “Baba O’Reilly” in his memory a couple of days later at Knebworth, with Todd Rundgren making a guest appearance.]
2003 – Warren Zevon, American singer-songwriter (b. 1947). [Dude wrote some seriously weird songs…!]
Very cool fossil. It could also be something like a roadrunner. Pity there are no gut contents, or a skull.
That is one weird dinosaur. There’s an archived copy of the Nature article here: https://archive.ph/J5UGd
I’m going to assume the feather colors are simply artistic license – because I struggle to recall green feathers on birds … hang on.. well, there’s parrots of course, and this macaws : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaw#/media/File%3ABlue-and-Yellow-Macaw.jpg
… red, orange, I can recall easily…
I love the unrelated fact I learned here that green butterflies are rare. I can see that in museums,… IIUC…
The turaco, is the only bird colored green due to a single unique green pigment called turacoverdin. Many other birds even parakeets can be green, but the color is due to the presence of both yellow and blue pigments. Feather structures that reflect green due to light interference (structural color) also occur.
This is great, I appreciate it!
Some apparently related chemical structures here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psittacofulvin
… though I’m still looking for a structure of turacoverdin.
So much to check out.
Last note :
It’s a copper porphyrin type thing.
Scientifically, uroporphyrin.
I just needed to know if it’s a proteinaceous. Apparently, not…. unless, of course, the porphyrin is bound by a protein – like the blue lobster one… errmmzz
[ looks ]
This: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crustacyanin
ANYway…
Oops! The blues seen in birds like parakeets, which combine with yellow to give green, are also structural colors due to light scattering (as in the blue sky) due to tiny structures in the feathers.
Yes, this is what I mean – it’s very interesting to find out these details, which obviously I am not expert on.
Did it shade the water like a heron to see fish?!
That’s one interesting bird! Even within the bird “bauplan” the birds have lots of room for variation/innovation.
John Steed “The Avengers” used an umbrella in a very stylish way to take on adversaries… Francesco Gullino use of the umbrella was a cunning plan and so English.
Huh. Is Hili a Sonic Youth fan?
Good one…and “Dirty” happens to be my favorite Sonic Youth album.