Posts Tagged ‘dinosaurs’
Re-extinction…
East Berlin’s Kulturpark Plänterwald had been the only amusement park in the German Democratic Republic (GDR)– a kind of Coney Island for socialists. There was no real coordination nor theme – it was a mix of attractions and rides. But when the GDR collapsed in 1989, Kulturpark Plänterwald– suddenly exposed to market forces– quickly followed. It had a brief renaissance (as “Spreepark”) in the early 90s– but promptly fell victim to a lack of available parking.
Since then, the park has been closed… and the dinosaurs that “roamed” its expanse have fallen victim to the German version of “cow tipping.”
See more derelict dinosaurs at Kuriositas. [TotH to Dangerous Minds]
As we keep watch for falling comets and asteroids, we might recall that it was on this date in 1916 that Robert Stroud stabbed and killed a prison guard at Leavenworth Penitentiary– resulting his being moved to “segregated” confinement for the balance of his sentence. While serving his solitary tme, Stroud– who’d been assessed by prison psychologists as “a psychopath with an IQ of 134″– began to work with birds (largely canaries). Ultimately his research, conducted entirely in his cell, resulted in two books, Diseases of Canaries, and a later edition, Stroud’s Digest on the Diseases of Birds, with updated specific information. He made several important contributions to avian pathology, most notably a cure for hemorrhagic septicemia.
In 1942, Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz, where policies against animals in cells meant an end to his research. Still, he is remembered as “The Birdman of Alcatraz.”
The dog 8 my homework…
[TotH to Geaux Keegan]
As we celebrate symmetry, we might send dusty birthday greetings to paleontologist Barnum Brown; he was born on this date in 1873 in Carbondale, Kansas. Brown (who was named after the famous showman) discovered the first documented remains of Tyrannosaurus rex during a 66-year career in which he became the most famous fossil hunter in the world.
Though most of his work was sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History (where most of his finds reside), some was underwritten by the Sinclair Oil Company– which adopted an image of the Apatosaurus (then known as Brontosaurus) in its logo.
Brown often worked on-site in fur coat, tie, and fedora (source)
Talking trash…
From Mintlife, the blog of the online finance manager, Mint, “Trashonomics“:
excerpt; click the image above or here for the full infographic
As we redouble our efforts to find contentment in composting, we might find encouragement in the memory that it was on this date in 1915 that Dinosaur National Monument was established in Colorado and Utah.
Inside the dinosaur quarry (source)
The March of Progress, Dinosaur Edition…
Among the many chastening revelations that come of aging, surely the most disturbing is the discovery that the dinosaurs whose names and characteristics one so lovingly committed to childhood memory didn’t actually exist… at least not in forms that even vaguely resemble the ones one knew and loved.
Consider the pterodactyl, that leathery flying lizard, denizen of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World,
and inspiration for Rodan.
Turns out that no such beast actually existed. Rather, the march of science has revealed, there were a family of creatures, Pterosaurs, with rather different– though not necessarily less cinematic– characteristics. For instance,
Caulkicephalus trimicrodon (illustration: Luis Rey)
Happily, Dave Hone has created Pterosaur.net– a font of remedial information.
As we come to terms with the advance of knowledge, we might give a tip o’ the birthday hat to Susan Sontag, the essayist (“Against Interpretation,” “Illness as Metaphor”), critic (“Notes on Camp,” “On Photography”), novelist (Death Kit, The Volcano Lovers, In America– which won the National Book Award for fiction in 2000), and Berkeley grad; she was born on this date in 1933.
