I’m thinking that it’s part of the Tri-wizard Tournament.
This could have gone into the “creative work … the millionth time” thread. I just found out yesterday that the term hermaphrodite comes from the myth that the child of Hermes and Aphrodite was both sexes - name of Hermaphroditus!
The water-nymph Salmacis, seeing him bathing in a pool, fell in love with him and prayed that they might never be separated. The gods interpreted her request literally and joined the pair into one body. In both his name and his being, therefore, Hermaphroditus combines male and female.
I knew this from the Genesis song “The Fountain of Salmacis”. Sometimes being a prog rock geek pays off. 
Italian art detectives have found stolen pieces in an Australian museum, including one that was smuggled out under pasta. My favorite bit of the article makes the suspected crook sound like he’s made for a TV show: “David Holland Swingler, an American art trafficker and food importer known for a culinary modus operandi.”
YIL the first pencil and eraser combo was patented and sold in1958.
speaking of which - not only housese but also national anthems are being cloned:
The Chilean National Anthem is surprisingly similar to the Bolivian one:
.
here some type of analysis and comparison… between the two
As Phil Collins explained before they played it at Knebworth, “a hermaphrodite is
someone who is male and female at the same time, in the same pair of trousers”
Typo, I’m afraid. That should be 1858. Who Made That Built-In Eraser?
I believe that the metal band attaching the eraser to the pencil is called a ferrule. Not to be confused with an aglet.
The ferrule is also the part of a billiards cue to which the hard leather tip is affixed.
The tip of an umbrella is also called a ferrule. Ferrules get around.
Ugh. I tried to erase it but it just left a smudge on my screen.
There’s also Tiresias, who was changed from male to female by the gods as punishment for something or other, and then changed from female to male as some other random punishment. They’re said to have answered definitively that sex is more pleasurable for women than for men.
They ALSO got blinded as punishment for yet something else, but then given Second Sight by one of that god’s rivals to make up for it.
And, of course, the material used to make the eraser was rubber, from the sap of the rubber tree, which was named for the fact that it was used in condoms found to have the ability to erase (rub out) pencil marks.
Curious thing about that one is he is wearing gloves. You almost never see that. I presume he was working on the Rabbinowitz’s roof beams at the time, got called out do to some divine stuff and did not have time to take them off?
Their true purpose is sinister.
TIL that Elton John and Bob Dylan wrote original songs for the Country Bears movie.
I’m adding another because I just discovered “dwarf dinos” and it’s fascinating: 'Dwarf dinosaur' that lived on prehistoric island unearthed in Transylvania | Live Science
… and there is a Ho Chi Minh memorial in Newhaven, on the South Coast of England, celebrating his links with the town. So far as I can tell, these links consist of him working as a pastry chef on the Newhaven-Dieppe cross-channel ferry.
It looks like the erection of the memorial (this year) follows about a decade of bickering about it.
j
TIL I learned about the longest piano in the world, the Alexander Piano, 18 feet, 9 inches (5.715 meters), built by a young man in New Zealand starting when he was 16 and completed when he was 20.
You can watch some videos of it, played by professionals, at the official site. To get the best idea of its sound, especially the amazing bass, use headphones or a full stereo system.
He also worked in the kitchens during the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919. Other famous non-state attendees included Lawrence of Arabia and John Maynard Keynes.
Today I learned that baseball teams used to consider foul balls their property, and often demanded their return until threat of criminal prosecution.
This changed when an 11 year old boy, Robert Cotter, had to spend a night in jail for refusing to return the foul ball he caught on July 18, 1923 in Philadelphia, in a game between the Phillies and the Cubs.
The judge who addressed the case the next day was not pleased.
The resulting publicity was a public relations disaster for the Phillies, and henceforth all baseballs hit into the stands of Major League Baseball games have been souvenirs for the taking.
(when they aren’t deadly missiles maiming the unprepared)