Once you start looking, you see queer presentism everywhere. It pops up when politicians espouse our “unprecedented” ability to love who we love, and when recent book bans are said to “roll back the clock” on LGBTQ+ rights, implying that clocks tick continually toward progress. It manifests in Oscar Wilde hagiography, which elevates him to the status of singular queer martyr and extrapolates an epochal paradigm from his 1895 trials. It seeps into our everyday speech, in our references to “forbidden love” and our use of the term “Victorian” to imply prudish homophobia. It both stems from and structures the editorial projects that publishers pursue, giving rise to catalogues like the NYRB Classics, where the oldest work tagged LGBTQ+ is Colette’s The Pure and the Impure (1932) — as if nothing queer was written before.

The truth is that there’s a world of queer writing that predates Colette, volumes of manuscript and books that aren’t so much products of historical suppression as they are suppressed by today’s “it’s gotten better” mindset. This is convenient for a culture industry in search of the sui generis and always eager to pat itself on the back for its own enlightenment. But the almost total neglect, outside the academy, of the queer literary archive is a shame, and not only because it propagates factual errors. In limiting our horizons for understanding how our predecessors lived, loved, and wrote, we end up narrowing our own vistas. When we apply the repressive hypothesis, we’re actually repressing ourselves.

Colton Valentine, “Against Queer Presentism​ | How the Book World Neglects the Archive,” The Drift, October 25, 2022.

Fossil Novembirb 2: The Survivors

The End-Cretaceous Extinction was one of the most devastating - and tragic - events on our planet.

In the blink of an eye, the world changed from a thriving biosphere to a decimated one. The asteroid caused worldwide wildfires, tsunamis, and the dramatic release of particles into the air that blocked out the sun.

Nothing over 25 kg could survive, because they had nowhere to hide from the devastation. Anything under that limit had to have somewhere to hide - water or burrowing worked best - and something to eat, which was easier said than done. When the plants can't eat, nothing can.

And yet, life survived - not just life, but dinosaurs themselves!

Conflicto, by @otussketching

In fact, one of the first fossils we have from the Cenozoic is Conflicto, a Presbyornithid - like "Styginetta" and Teviornis yesterday! - from Antarctica

Why these dinosaurs, and no others?

They had beaks, which would have helped them to access available food sources such as seeds and spores (plant material in a protective casing)

They did not live in trees, but usually near or with water - perfect places to hide

They were powerful fliers, allowing them to escape the flames and whatever else they needed to

Other than that? Random chance.

Much of the evolution of life on this planet is down to Sheer Dumb Luck

Tsidiiyazhi by Sean Murtha

What happened next was truly remarkable: an adaptive radiation of dinosaurs the likes of which is rarely seen

With all of those newly opened niches, Neornithines adapted quickly, so quickly we can't actually figure out how different major groups of Neoavians - aka, most birds - actually relate to one another.

After all, there was just *so much* free real estate!

Qianshanornis by @alphynix

In fact, many of these dinosaurs evolved right back into niches that their ancestors had famously lived in - penguins show up so quickly that we're giving marine birds their own day, replacing the now-lost Hesperornithines; Tsidiiyazhi and others quickly replaced the empty tree-bird niches left behind by the lost Enantiornithines; and raptors show up quickly too, already reminiscent of the lost Dromaeosaurs.

Qianshanornis, a mysterious raptor from China, had sickle claws just like its lost bretheren! In fact, it looks like it might be a Cariamiform, a group of dinosaurs including living Seriemas and the extinct Terror Birds, which often have sickle claws like Dromaeosaurs did!

Don't fix what isn't broken, I guess!

Australornis by @thewoodparable

Non-Neoavians diversified too, with fowl doing just fine across the boundary - Presbyornithids like Conflicto, as well as mysterious forms like Australornis.

Palaeognaths remain weirdly absent, but don't worry - the earilest ones will show up before the Paleocene epoch is done!

The Cenozoic begins with the Paleogene Period, which has the first epoch of the Paleocene - this was a climatic quagmire, with frequent fluctuations at the beginning before a dramatic rise in temperatures at the end. This climate confusion would affect bird evolution greatly - and lead to the diversification of many kinds, some of which we still have today!

Sources:

Ksepka, D. T., T. A. Stidham, T. E. Williamson. 2017. Early Paleocene landbird supports rapid phylogenetic and morphological diversification of crown birds after the K-PG mass extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114 (30): 8047 - 8052.

Mayr, 2022. Paleogene Fossil Birds, 2nd Edition. Springer Cham.

Mayr, 2017. Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and its Paleobiological Significance (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology). Wiley Blackwell.

“Scientists have revived a plant from the Pleistocene epoch. This plant is 32,000 years old

The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous recordholder by some 30,000 years A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map). Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.”

Credit: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Siberian Cave Filled with Mammoth, Rhino and Bear Bones is Ancient Hyena Lair

Siberian locals have discovered an incredible prehistoric time capsule in what paleontologists believe is the largest ancient hyena lair ever found in Asia. The cave contained a whole menagerie of animal bones that had been undisturbed for about 42,000 years.

Paleontologists found the bones of both predator and prey animals from the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), including brown bears, foxes, wolves, mammoths, rhinos, yaks, deer, gazelles, bison, horses, rodents, birds, fish and frogs.

The researchers posted a video of the discovery (in Russian) on June 20.

Residents of Khakassia, a republic in southern Siberia, discovered the cave five years ago, according to a translated statement from the V. S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy. However, due to the remoteness of the area, paleontologists weren’t able to fully explore and examine the remains until June 2022.

They collected around 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of bones, including two complete cave hyena skulls. The paleontologists suspect the hyenas lived in the cave because the bones had gnaw marks consistent with hyena teeth.

“In addition, we came across a series of bones in anatomical order. For example, in rhinos, the ulna and radius bones are together," Dmitry Gimranov, senior researcher at the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in the statement. "This suggests that the hyenas dragged parts of the carcasses into the lair."

The researchers also found the bones of hyena pups — which tend not to be preserved as they are so fragile — indicating they were raised in the cave. "We even found a whole skull of a young [hyena], many lower jaws and milk teeth," Gimranov said.

Siberia is rich with the remains of Pleistocene animals. Their remains are not old enough to be fossilized, or replaced with rock through a mineralization process. The bones, and sometimes skin, flesh and even blood of these animals are often not much different than they were the year they died. This is thanks — in large part — to the cold weather preserving the remains.

The bones have been sent to Yekaterinburg for further analysis.“[T]he finds will also tell us about the flora and fauna of that time, what animals ate, what the climate was like in this area,” Dmitry Malikov, senior researcher at the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in the statement.

“We will also get important information from the coprolites,” the fossilized feces of the animals, he added.

By Kristin Hugo.

👋 Here's to the Last post of - The Making of Big Bang Theory! From the Earth-centered 🌎 beliefs of the geocentric model to the sun-centric ☀️wonders of the heliocentric model, let's journey through the celestial ages together. Which cosmic model resonates more with your perspective? 🔭Share your cosmic musings below! 🌌✨ To surf along the waves of more such wonders about Universe's evolution, follow our monthly series - Big Bang Theory. See you next week with Part 2: The Planck Epoch. Stay tuned!

📸Image credits:

Geocentric Universe - Mr.TinMD

Ptolemy - Khan Academy

Copenicus - New Mexico Museum of Space History

Galileo - Scientific American

Heliocentric Model - University of Rochester

Cobwebbed Whispers | A Short Story by Rin T.

Cobwebbed Whispers

In the ethereal silence of twilight, the cobwebbed corridors whispered tales of bygone eras within the towers of an ancient boarding school. The weight of history hung heavy upon the darkened cobblestone halls, each step echoing with the resonance of forgotten scholars.

It was in the hallowed study hall, where the musty scent of aged tomes intermingled with the faint aroma of dried ink, that Eleanor found solace amidst the enigmatic tapestries of the past. Amidst dusty volumes and flickering candlelight, she sought sanctuary from the bustling echoes of the living.

Enthralled by the romanticism of centuries past, Eleanor traced her quill upon parchment, lost in the rhythm of her thoughts. Yet, her solitude was not absolute. In the corner of the room, amidst the creeping shadows, lingered a presence not bound by the constraints of the corporeal world.

A spectral figure, a boy of enigmatic charm, haunted the study hall. His apparition, adorned in garments of a forgotten epoch, watched her with eyes that held the melancholic weight of untold stories. Whispers woven within the very fabric of the academy hinted at his tragic fate, an untimely demise that tethered him to the earthly realm.

Their encounters began as fleeting moments, the phantom's presence felt rather than seen. Yet, as time slipped like sand through an hourglass, Eleanor's heart intertwined with the ghostly boy's plight. With each passing dusk, their connection transcended the veil between the living and the departed.

Through the sepia-tinged pages of history, they forged an unlikely bond. Conversations danced between the mortal and the spectral, their words weaving a tapestry of longing and understanding. His spectral touch, though intangible, left imprints upon her soul.

In the whispers of the study hall's solitude, love blossomed between Eleanor and the boy of yesteryears. His spectral whispers held the charm of forgotten sonnets, and she, enraptured, found herself falling deeper into an affection that defied the boundaries of time and mortality.

Their love, a symphony of two souls entwined, traversed the realms of the living and the ethereal, casting shadows upon the walls that bore witness to their clandestine meetings. For in the heart of the darkness, amidst the hallowed sanctuary of knowledge, their forbidden love story etched its poignant verses into the annals of the boarding school's history.

Jeanna Bauck (Swedish painter) 1840 - 1926

Den danska Konstnärinnan Bertha Wegmann målande ett Porträtt (The Danish Artist Bertha Wegmann Painting a Portrait), 1889

oil on canvas

Jeanna Bauck has depicted her close friend and colleague Bertha Wegmann while working on a portrait of Peter Dethlefsen, a Danish physician. It is an epoch-making painting capturing a woman artist in her professional role during concentrated work in her own studio. Bauck and Wegmann met in Munich in the 1870s. They lived for many years in an intimate private and professional partnership and painted several friendship images of each other.

* * *

Catalogue Note National Museum

This is an epoch-making image from 1889, when women artists and writers had a major influence on the cultural life of the period. They managed to change both the view, of the role of the artist and that of middle-class family life.

Here Jeanna Bauck has chosen to depict a female artist in the middle of the creative process. She portrays Bertha Wegmann fully absorbed in her work at the easel, in their shared studio and home in Munich. Wegmann, who was to become one of Denmark’s foremost portraitists, later painted Jeanna Bauck in their studio in Paris in 1881. In that painting, she managed to combine the free, independent woman of the time, “The New Woman”, with the refinement of middle-class femininity. Around this period, artists painted countless portraits of their friends and colleagues, but it was only the women who portrayed each other in their professional role. The will to create art is acknowledged as being paternal within a patriarchy, and as long as patriarchal societies’ are considered “natural”, it is “unnatural” and “unfeminine” for a woman to be an artist.

In the 19th century a hierarchical division between public and private space was established and which still exists today. In modernist art history, the home is therefore described as a timeless zone; the so-called women’s sphere is regarded as a static stage in relation to the narrative of modernity taking place in the public space of a dynamic city. At the time, since middle-class women were not able to move freely in the streets, women artists had to depict modernity from differing social spaces than their male colleagues. One can therefore in their images see which “spaces” were open for their portrayals. Paintings by Nordic female artists show that they literally did not move beyond the studio: it was both their home and place of work. A social space associated with professional life and thereby with the public realm. In their portraits’, the studio represents at once a space of endless possibilities, but also the absolute limit of their world. They chose not to paint the modern city outside, in contrast to the female artists of the avant-garde, who had to depict modernity from balconies and theatre boxes.

* * *

Jeanna Bauck was a Swedish portrait painter and landscape artist. She moved to Germany in 1863, studying in Dresden and Düsseldorf before settling in Munich. In the 1870s, Bauck made several study and sketching tours to the Tyrol, Switzerland and Venice. In 1880, she travelled to Paris, together with Danish artist Bertha Wegmann, with whom she shared a studio. Bauck succeeded in entering the Paris Salon that same year. In a series of groundbreaking portraits of one another, specifically in their professional role’s, Bauck and Wegmann managed to change the view of women artists in what was then seen as a traditionally male occupation. Bauck soon returned to Munich and founded a school for female artists. She exhibited in Sweden on several occasions, including at the Royal Academy exhibitions of 1866, 1868 and 1877, and the exhibition of Swedish female artists in 1911.

Keir Dullea in 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Douglas Rain (voice). Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, based on a story by Clarke. Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth. Production design: Ernest Archer, Harry Lange, Anthony Masters. Film editing: Ray Lovejoy.

I know that I first saw 2001 on April 13, 1968, because (as a little Googling tells me) that was the date of the lunar eclipse I witnessed on leaving the theater, an appropriately cosmic climax to the cinematic experience I had just had. Kubrick's film was an experience to be savored by those of us who were already hip to the revolution in American filmmaking underway after the sensation of Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) and The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967). I doubt that anyone who wasn't of an age to experience it realizes quite how revolutionary those movies seemed to us. Though it's conventional to say that our experiences were produced in part by controlled substances, anyone who really knows me knows that I wasn't under the influence of any substance stronger than beer. Today, 2001 doesn't seem much like a revolutionary film: We have lived through the actual 2001, which had its own epoch-making event in the September of that year, but in which no one was making trips to the moon on Pan Am. That airline went out of business in 1991, and the last real moon expedition, Apollo 17, took place in December 1972. But the future is never quite what it's cracked up to be. What was revolutionary about 2001 the movie is that it taught us how a movie can make us think without spelling out its ideas for us. Kubrick wisely whittled down the narrative given him by Arthur C. Clarke to a series of images, and ditched the score written by Alex North for an evocative set of snippets from classical works, letting us assemble any meaning to be derived from the film for ourselves. Of course, in 1968 we went back to our homes and dorm rooms and did just that. Seeing it today, I am most struck by how skillful Kubrick was in creating the persona of HAL, the sentient computer. Much credit goes, of course, to the voiceover work of Douglas Rain, but also to Kubrick's choice to make the dialogue of the humans in the movie as banal and jargon-filled as possible. HAL's final pleading and breakdown as Dave pulls his memory chips is haunting. Yes, the movie has its longueurs: Kubrick is deservedly proud of its landmark special effects and spends more time than is necessary showing them off. They won him the film's only Oscar, without honoring the work of Douglas Trumbull and others who executed them. He was also nominated as director and as co-screenwriter with Clarke, and the art direction team received a nod, but the film was passed over for the significant work of cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who was assisted by John Alcott, and for the sound crew headed by Winston Ryder. And it failed to receive a best picture nomination in the year when that award went to Oliver! (Carol Reed, 1968). I happen to like Oliver! and don't think it's necessarily one of the Academy's more shameful choices, but it's certainly not an epochal movie.

Scientists discover new way to extract cosmological information from galaxy surveys

Scientists at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) and their international collaborators have recently developed a new method for efficiently extracting information from galaxy surveys.

Their research results were published online in the latest issue of Communications Physics.

Massive galaxy redshift surveys are powerful tools for probing the Universe in this era of precision cosmology. By observing a great number of spectra from distant galaxies, astronomers are able to create density fields of galaxies at different epochs of the Universe. These density fields carry crucial information about the clustering of galaxies, which is quantified by two-point and N-point (N>2) correlation functions.

The information content in the N-point functions is highly complementary to that in the two-point functions. The N-point functions play an important role in studies of the nature of dark energy, dark matter and gravity. However, it is difficult to make use of the N-point functions in practice due to various complexities, including the measurement and modeling of these quantities.

After working on this challenging task for a few years, WANG Yuting, the first author of this work and a researcher at NAOC, and her collaborators have developed a new method for extracting information in the N-point functions from the two-point functions.

“This new method, which is based on a technology called density reconstruction, makes it possible to extract the primary information in the three-point and four-point functions by a joint analysis of the two-point functions measured from the pre- and post-reconstructed density fields, respectively,” said ZHAO Gongbo, the first corresponding author of this work and a group leader at NAOC.

“This opens a new window for using the high-order information in galaxy surveys in an efficient way,” said ZHAO. “and that’s important for cosmological implications for forthcoming galaxy surveys including Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) and China Space Station Telescope (CSST).”

This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

IMAGE....An illustration of the main idea and results from Wang et al., Commun. Phys. 7, 130 (2024) Credit to NAOC

Indeed. Now Kyoko Kirigiri Former Ultimate Detective, Head of the 14th Future Foundation Branch ‘Necro Lover’ You may proceed with your opening statement that you have prescribed to all Remnants once they have regained consciousness and have been debriefed on all the events they have missed upon avatar deletion and memory loss.

I suppose we can do that now. *Kyoko gets her tape recorder out*

What are your names?

I am Nekomaru Nidai!

I go by many names: The Overlord of Ice, Master of Darkness, Ruler of Hell, Tanaka the Forbidden One.

But it matters not what I am called, all you need to know is I am me and me alone! Ahahahahaha!

.........Okay...

What is the last thing you remember?

I remember waking up upside down in the funhouse, and falling to my death.

The scrolls of my recollection run far and wide throughout the history of the space time continuum...

Gundam: I know how the universe was created and how it will end. I can perceive the very essence of the past, present and future. My tale ends with me attempting to secure the rampaging beasts with my own dark circle with the spell, "Chronosis", and spared my Devas from the onslaught. But they proved to be more formidable than I gave that Monochromatic devil credit for.

And so while my mortal body was battered, I arose to the heavens in a glorious spectacle on the battlefield. And here I stand today like a phoenix rising from the ashes in a glorious and grand inferno!

............

....Can you remember your time at Hope's Peak Academy at all?

Nah! It's all fuzzy there...

Krrrnngghh! I seem to have be hit by another spell, for those days are not are stored in my scroll of recollection...! However, I swear I will do all in my power to-

Okay. You can't. Moving on.

Finally, if given the oppurtunity; will you repent for your misdeeds and work to better the lives of others?

Sure! Sign me up! I'm reeaaaaddddyyy!

Hahahaha! You ask me if I shall cease my conquering of this world so easily?! You must have no idea who you referring to! I am Gundam Tanaka! Soon to be leader of the glorious Tanaka Empirrrreeee! They shall tell tales of the fear soaked epoch of darkness I shall bring about-

It is a "YES" or "NO" question!

Gack...!

A-Ahem...! Y-Yes, I will...

Thank you! *click*

Jesus, fuck, with these people...!

Tendi is trans. I wasn't fucking bluffing.

D'vana Tendi transition timeline 2374-2380

14-17: egg epoch.

17-18: egg crack and immediate repression. full beard tendi has been redacted.

18: went into starfleet.

18 or 19: began receiving gender-affirming care from Starfleet Medical. 

23: guess for her age during Lower Decks season 1.

headcanon: mistress of the winter constellations is the universal translator getting very confused by a deadname. (or idk maybe it used to be "master of the winter constellations") 

Tendi grew up in a society with no representation for trans people. Going to starfleet academy, where one in every five people at a minimum were queer somehow or another, was transformative.

Tendi:

* doesn't like being reminded about her past

* can't make female orion pheremones

* her kind is stereotyped and simultaneously hypersexualized and demonized.

* is uncomfortable with traditional gender roles

* has a deadname

* is the cutest girl on the ship

* is autistic

NEED I FUCKING SAY MORE???

Three panel version and image description:

Begin image ID. A three panel cartoon drawing. D'vana Tendi from Star Trek Lower Decks is a pale green Orion woman with short dark green hair and freckles on her cheeks. This image is a progression of Tendi at 17, 19, and 23 years old. 1st panel she appears to be a teenage boy in a brown wraparound tunic with broad shoulders, flat chest, a strong chin, and stubble. Background is a tan green gradient. She is frowning. 2nd panel she is in a blue and gray Starfleet Medical cadet uniform, but the same strong chin, broad shoulders, and flat chest, as before. She is smiling hopefully. She has visible pale teal lips or lipstick and black eyeliner. Background is an out of focus screenshot of starfleet academy. 3rd panel is an unedited cropped screenshot from the show. She is in a medical blue uniform with black shoulders. Her hair is not as messy, and slightly longer. She has dark green lipstick, and her chin is smaller and more feminine. Her uniform is a form-fitting blue shirt with black shoulders. Her chest is no longer flat, and she has a slimmer, more feminine body. She is smiling calmly. End image ID.

Alternate version where Tendi has already cracked her egg and the art style reflects this. image ID: same as the first panel in the last image, except her pale green lips and eyelashes are illustrated, as is the case for every female character in the lower decks art style even if they are not wearing lipstick or eyeliner. end image ID.

I thought they admitted only the weirdest and strangest people that apply regardless of race. West Pointers were the whackiest and strangest of the officers.

What about a snake?

Met the Sai of Four For the Price of One! His an snake an atheris hispida to be precise.

He is usually always mad or anoyed by something for more little that something is,his temperament is unstable and usually explosive.

The only one that can make this angry and spiky snake calm is eco his lil sister do to her calming atribute.

He is a guard irken at the entry of the quarantine stacion delta checking on every single irken that enters or goes out that is not a worker in the stacion.

Still he has agresive manners of asking thing complimented by his strong and rought accent and his harsh and loud voice.

He has a certain phobia towards felines and birds being the exepcion honey since it is a completly inofensive and docile creature.

Snakes dont have eye lids while irkens do but instead of removing his eye lids they replace a secondarie eye lid that is esential on irkens.

Cause of that making his eyes sensible to bright light or prone to infections for dust going into them or just having dry eyes almost every time adding a reason for him being mad anytime.

He has a decent relation with his brothers while a complete agresivly hateful one towards his father,but a loving one towards their forever young mother.

Still his relation with mis(the oldest of the 5 brothers being sai the middle child) is agresive and conflictive,they are usually always fighting over something.

They both are strong headed stubborn bastards that have a pride as big as the space itself none will ever admid if one is wrong or not(even when mis usually has the reason)

So before saying sorry or talk normaly they fight each other instead,kira usually finds it entretaining,eco worries for them and take feels ashamed by their behaiviour.

Sai's poison is actualy mortal if not treated being a neurotoxical poison that can produce serious issues including internal bleedings.

Mis once was bitten during one of theirs fights,things gone wrong leaving mis in the hospital for 3 days and since then sai made an internal vote of never bitting someone again unless necesary.

The scar in his face happend in the academy in a training sesion that went a little wrong and ended with that scar acros his face and his missing cut antenae tip is a mistery.

He can be cataloged as just an angry an sassy bitch with an explosive personality and the stuborness of a mule.

But at the same time with a big heart an love for his family or those he care about,hiden deep inside his soul but still present.

He usually makes hissing noices or enlongs the "s" when talking as an unconciuos reflect,as he does blep his tounge like an actual snake would.

His poison can be stracted and used for making medicines or antidotes,more likely every irken does he sheds his skin but the proces is more snake stile sheding.

Fun fact:he is a fight maniac and if given the oportunity he will fight even an adult xeltrian bare handed and probably will win since its rare he dosen't win the battle he is in.

During the cold season as well as his brother take and his sister eco,he uses mis as a living heater afther all the three of them hate dislike the cold and as a cold blooded being he is unable to generate self heat so its even worse.

Ironicaly during warm season mis uses him as a cooler since his body is as cold as a freezer at this epoch and refreshes the poor overheated bee during the "summer".

“The above photo shows five teeth and several bone fragments of the huge woolly mammoth (Elephas Primigenius) which roamed North America during the Pleistocene epoch at least 25,000 years agos. The relics, which constitute the largest single find of their kind ever recorded in the eastern United States, were uncovered at a depth of four feet by a steam shovel, excavating for a water hazard on a new golf course near Blackwood, N.J. Edgar B. Howard of the department vertebrate ecology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, to whom the specimen were taken, identified them as belonging to the smallest of three species of elephants that once lived in North America. The young lady in the picture to Emma L. Lore of Philadelphia, Pa.”

- from the Kingston Whig-Standard. October 31, 1932. Page 13.

OTD in Music History: American pianist and composer Edward MacDowell (1860 - 1908) dies in New York City at the age of 47. By far the most famous and celebrated American-born composer of his day, MacDowell wrote a number of large scale works, including orchestral suites and concertos -- but he is best remembered today for his suites of piano solo miniatures, including "Woodland Sketches", "Sea Pieces," and "New England Idylls". ("Woodland Sketches" contains what is by far his single most famous work, "To A Wild Rose".) In 1896, Princeton University awarded MacDowell an honorary degree of Doctor of Music; in 1899, he was elected as the president of the Society of American Musicians and Composers; and in 1904, he was one of the first seven Americans honored by membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. After his death, however, MacDowell's fame began to wane. In the 1960s, noted American historian and music critic Gilbert Chase offered the following critical assessment: "When Edward MacDowell first appeared on the scene, many Americans felt that here at last was 'the great American composer' long awaited by the nation. But MacDowell was not a great composer. At his best, he was a gifted miniaturist with an individual manner. Creatively, he looked toward the past, not toward the future. He does not mark the beginning of a new epoch in American music, but rather the closing of a fading era . . . the decline of the genteel tradition which had dominated American art since the days of Hopkinson and Hewitt." The reemergence of a more "neo-romantic" artistic sensibility in the last few decades has started to usher in some further reassessment, however: In 2000, MacDowell was finally inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, and his two concertos are increasingly considered to be among the most important works in that genre yet written by an American. PICTURED: A c. 1910 real photo postcard, showing the middle-aged MacDowell staring into the camera.

All Quiet on the Western Front has won the Oscar for best international feature film at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

All Quiet On The Western Front (Germany 🇩🇪 2022) wasn’t taking a position or trumpeting its significance. It’s just an amazingly powerful film about an epochal historical event whose consequences we are all still living with today.

Its success at the Oscars follows a string wins at the Baftas. All Quiet on the Western Front, Netflix's German-language World War One epic, finished the night with four awards - best international feature, original score, production design and cinematography.

Felix Kammerer is the 27-year-old Austrian actor who plays Paul Bäumer, a schoolboy who finds himself in the trenches at the height of World War One. Pic: Netflix

We have so much to say and We shall never say it.

• Erich Maria Remarque

#AllQuietOnTheWesternFront #Oscar2023 #EdwardBerger #VolkerBertelmann #WWI #JamesFriend #ChristianM.Goldbeck #ErnestineHipper #PaulBäumer #Netflix #FelixKammerer #ErichMariaRemarque