The early 18th century was a golden age of English poetry, with poets like Pope, Swift and Gay at the height of their abilities. It has been called the Augustan Age of English poetry.
Nonetheless, when it came time to name a new poet laureate in 1730, the government named the improbable Colley Cibber, a hack playwriter and poet, over the luminaries of the poetic world, because Pope, Swift et al. were Tories and Cibber was a good Whig.
One poet commented on the appointment:
“In merry old England
It once was the rule,
The King had his poet,
And also his fool.
But now we’re so frugal,
I’d have you to know it,
That Cibber can serve
Both for Fool and for Poet.”
Pope never forgave the slight, and made Cibber the great Dunce of his mock-heroic poem, The Dunciad.
Abraham Lincoln began his political career as a Whig, like his political hero, Henry Clay. Lincoln’s future wife Mary Todd’s family, prominent in Kentucky politics, knew Clay well, but it is not thought that Lincoln ever met him.
The phrase “namby-pamby”, originally meaning weak, sentimental verse, was a nickname given to poet Ambrose Philips by Henry Carey. Like Colley Cibber, Philips was a Whig; Alexander Pope also satirized him in his Dunciad.
Ambrose Bierce, the well-known American author of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and compiler a satirical lexicon, The Devil’s Dictionary, disappeared in Mexico, while traveling with Pancho Villa’s army as an observer. The mystery of his disappearance in 1913 has never been solved.
Owls can rotate their necks 270 degrees. A blood-pooling system collects blood to power their brains and eyes when neck movement cuts off circulation. And the eyes of an owl are not true “eyeballs.” They have tube-shaped eyes that are completely immobile, providing binocular vision which fully focuses on their prey and boosts depth perception.
Alll birds that are raptors have evolved binocular vision, both eyes facing forward, which gives them the power to estimate the distance to their prey, for efficient capture while in flight. Birds which are not raptors have their eyes on the sides of their heads, which gains wide-angle vision at the expense of depth perception. The wide angle enables them to be wary of and escape from the predators, in a classic example of the balance of nature.
Most open-plains herbivores, especially hoofed grazers, lack binocular vision because they have their eyes on the sides of the head, providing a panoramic, almost 360°, view of the horizon - enabling them to notice the approach of predators from almost any direction. However, most predators have both eyes looking forwards, allowing binocular depth perception and helping them to judge distances when they pounce or swoop down onto their prey. Animals that spend a lot of time in trees take advantage of binocular vision in order to accurately judge distances when rapidly moving from branch to branch.
The Horizon was a starship which visited Sigma Iotia II in the Star Trek episode “A Piece of the Action,” leaving behind a book about Chicago mobs in the 1920s. The Iotians, a very imitative race, build their society around the book’s concepts, as Capt. Kirk found when the Enterprise visited decades later.
The Chicago Cubs last won the World Series in 1908 when they defeated the Detroit Tigers and Ty Cobb. The Cubs won that year with Tinker, Evers and Chance, and pitcher Mordecai Brown, and they own the longest current championship drought in Major League Baseball. Since 1908 the Cubs have lost 7 World Series.
This week, the Cubs play against the Dodgers in the next series, the NLCS, to determine who advances to the World Series to face the champion of the American League.
The second longest championship drought belongs to the Cleveland Indians, who last won the World Series in 1948 with player-coach Lou Boudreau who was the first shortstop to win the league’s MVP award. The Indians defeated the Boston Braves and their pitcher, Warren Spahn. Since 1948 the Indians have lost 3 World Series.
This week, the Indians play against the Blue Jays in the next series, the ALCS, to determine who advances to the World Series to face the champion of the National League.
Studies taken by the BBC in 2014 and 2015 claim racism is on the rise in the UK, with more than one third actually admitting they are racially prejudiced. Another 1/8 of UK residents are racial/cultural minorities themselves.
Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, has just announced plans for a second independence referendum. If approved by the voters, it might lead to Scottish secession from the United Kingdom (UK).
The beluga sturgeon and the beluga whale are both light-colored, long-lived marine creatures around 12-16 feet long. They are unrelated, one being a fish and the other a mammal. The name beluga is derived from the Russian word meaning white.
Fish may have evolved from a creature similar to a coral-like Sea squirt, whose larvae resemble primitive fish in important ways. The first ancestors of fish may have kept the larval form into adulthood (as some sea squirts do today), although perhaps the reverse is the case.
In the decade after WWII, several European carmakers, such as Isetta and Messerschmitt, produced Microcars, made largely from leftover aircraft parts. Most of them had no reverse gear, but they were so light, the driver could easily push them backwards if necessary.
On May 29, 1935, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 had its first flight at an airfield in the southernmost Augsburg neighborhood of Haunstetten. In WWII, it became the backbone of the Luftwaffe’s fighter forces and the most produced fighter aircraft in history.