Starship Asterisk*

bystander wrote:Oh, but I can post more and attribute them to you, like this one!

owlice wrote:Oh, no, you don't!!!

(My talons have been busy!)

owlice wrote:
I was thwarted!

• ______ Romeo and Juliet Act 1, Scene 4
  
  MERCUTIO: O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
  . She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
  . In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
  . On the fore-finger of an alderman,
  . Drawn with a team of little atomies
  . Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
  . Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs,
  . The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
  . The traces of the smallest spider's web,
  . The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
  . Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
  . Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
  . Not so big as a round little worm
  . Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
  . Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
  . Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
  . Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.

orin stepanek wrote:Wow! owlice passed me like I was sitting still.

neufer wrote:thwArt Neuendorffer

orin stepanek wrote:
Wow! owlice passed me like I was sitting still.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl wrote:

Serrations on the leading edge of flight feathers reduce noise.

---

<<Most owls are nocturnal; however, several types of owl, are crepuscular, active during the twilight hours of dawn and dusk. A few owls are even active during the day; examples are the Burrowing Owl and the Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus). Much of the owls' hunting strategy depends on stealth and surprise. Owls have at least two adaptations that aid them in achieving stealth. First, the dull coloration of owls' feathers can render them almost invisible under certain conditions. Secondly, serrated edges on the leading edge owls' remiges muffle an owl's wing beats, allowing its flight to be practically silent. [Note: remiges (from the Latin for "oarsman") are on the posterior side of the wing.]

An owl's sharp beak and powerful talons allow it to kill its prey before swallowing it whole (unless it is too big). Scientists studying the diets of owls are helped by their habit of regurgitating the indigestible parts of their prey (such as bones, scales and fur) in the form of pellets.

The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, based on DNA-DNA hybridization, finds that owls are more closely related to the nightjars/goatsuckers than to the diurnal predators in the order Falconiformes.>>

Ann wrote:Yes, congrats! I see a thousand M45s (Pleiades clusters in glorious blue) dancing across the heavens to celebrate.

But do I really have 976 posts?

Ann

bystander           5123  / 3.31 ppd since Mon Aug 28, 2006  / Most Pathetic Retiree
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BMAONE23            2348  / 1.11 ppd since Wed Feb 23, 2005  / Commentator Model 1.23
owlice              2220  / 0.96 ppd since Wed Aug 02, 2004  / Jabberwren Hooter Girl
orin stepanek       2069  / 1.05 ppd since Wed Jul 27, 2005  / Resident Geezer
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makc                1866  / 0.84 ppd since Tue Oct 12, 2004  / Best Title in the Universe
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Ann                 1000  / 5.55 ppd since Sat May 29, 2010  / Color Commentator
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The Code             824  / 1.38 ppd since Sat Mar 09, 2009  / Cosmic Skeptic
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beyond               773  / 1.73 ppd since Tue Aug 04, 2009  / Milliways Pundit
rstevenson           568  / 0.54 ppd since Fri Mar 28, 2008  / Toroidal Pixelator 	
Qev                  565  / 0.34 ppd since Wed Mar 08, 2006  / Ontological Cartographer
Dr. Skeptic          507  / 0.33 ppd since Thu Jul 27, 2006  / Science Officer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightingale wrote:
<<The Nightingale, also known as Rufous, is a small passerine bird
that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae,
but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher,
Muscicapidae. It belongs to a group of more terrestrial species called chats.

Nightingales are named so because they frequently sing at night. The
name has been used for well over 1,000 years, being highly
recognizable even in its Anglo-Saxon form - 'nihtingale'.
It means 'night songstress'. The song is loud, with
an impressive range of whistles, trills and gurgles.

The nightingale has taken on a number of symbolic connotations.
Homer evokes the Nightingale in the Odyssey, suggesting the myth of
Philomela & Procne (one of whom is turned into a nightingale). This
myth is the focus of Sophocles' tragedy, Tereus. Ovid, too, in his
Metamorphoses, includes the most popular version of this myth,
imitated and altered by later poets, including Chrétien de Troyes,
Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and George Gascoigne.
T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land also evokes the Nightingale's song
(and the myth of Philomela & Procne).

Aristophanes' Birds and Callimachus both evoke the bird's song as a
form of poetry. Virgil compares a mourning Orpheus to the “lament of
the nightingale”. John Milton and others of the 17th century renewed
the symbol. In "L'Allegro" Milton characterizes Shakespeare as a
nightingale warbling “his native woodnotes wilde,” and Andrew
Marvell in his "On Paradise Lost" subsequently described
Milton's Paradise Lost in similar terms:

• "Thou sing'st with so much gravity and ease,
  And above human flight dost soar aloft,
  With plume so strong, so equal, and so soft:
  The bird named from that paradise you sing
  So never flags, but always keeps on wing"

Coleridge and Wordsworth saw the nightingale as a voice of nature.
John Keats' Ode to a Nightingale pictures the nightingale as an
idealized poet who has achieved the poetry that Keats longs to
write. Invoking a similar conception of the nightingale, Shelley
wrote in his “A Defense of Poetry": "A poet is a nightingale who
sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet
sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of
an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened,
yet know not whence or why.”>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Owl_and_the_Nightingale wrote:
<<The Owl and the Nightingale is a 12th- or 13th-century Middle
English poem detailing a debate between an owl and a nightingale
as overheard by the poem's narrator.

The nightingale sitting on a branch covered with blossom sees the
owl perched on a bough overgrown with ivy, and proceeds to abuse her
for her general habits and appearance. The birds decide to refer the
consequent dispute to Master Nicholas de Guildford, who is skilled
in such questions, but they first engage in a débat in the French
fashion. The owl is the better logician, but the nightingale has a
fund of abuse that equalizes matters. Finally, when the argument
threatens to become a fight, the wren interferes, and the two go to
the house of Master Nicholas at Portesham in Dorset. He delivers,
they say, many right judgments, and composes and writes much wisdom.
Unlike most debate poetry of the period, The Owl and the Nightingale
offers no resolution, thus forcing the reader to interpret the
highly ambiguous text for himself. The debate itself covers a very
diverse range, including religion, marriage, toilet manners, and
song. This diverse range has led to scholars interpreting the text
in very different ways. These interpretations have varied from a
medieval answer to the portrayal of the owl in the Book of Isaiah,
to the poem being used as a teaching method for teaching students
the art of debate as part of the trivium. Various historical
satires have also been proposed as possible interpretations;
including a parody of the relationship between
King Henry II and Thomas Becket.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightingale wrote:
<<"The Nightingale" (Danish: "Nattergalen") is a literary fairy tale
by Hans Christian Andersen about an emperor who prefers the tinkling
of a bejeweled mechanical bird to the song of a real nightingale.
When the Emperor is near death, the nightingale's song restores his
health. Heidi Anne Heiner has observed, "The tale's theme of "real"
vs. "mechanical/artificial" has become even more pertinent since
1844 as the Industrial Revolution has led to more and more
artificial intelligences, machines, and other technologies.
Well received upon its publication in Copenhagen in 1843, the tale
is believed to have been inspired by the author's unrequited love
for singer and fellow Scandinavian, Jenny Lind. "The Nightingale"
made Jenny Lind known as The Swedish Nightingale well before she
became an international superstar. Strangely enough, the nightingale
story became a reality for Jenny Lind when she fell in love with the
Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849). His letters reveal that
he felt "better" when she sang for him, and Jenny Lind arranged a
concert in London to raise funds for a tuberculosis hospital. Jenny
Lind attempted unsuccessfully to marry Chopin in Paris in May 1849.
Soon after, she had to flee the cholera epidemic, but returned to
Paris shortly before he died of tuberculosis on 17 October 1849.
Jenny Lind devoted the rest of her life to enshrining Chopin's legacy.
Andersen, whose own father died of tuberculosis, may have been
inspired by "Ode to a Nightingale" (1819), a poem John Keats
wrote in anguish over his brother Tom's death of tuberculosis.

Keats even evokes an emperor:

• "Thou was not born for death, immortal Bird!
  No hungry generations tread thee down
  The Voice I hear this passing night was heard
  In ancient days by emperor and clown".

Keats died of tuberculosis in 1821, and is buried in Rome,
a city that continued to fascinate Andersen
long after his first visit in 1833.>>
.....................................................
One day the Emperor received a large parcel,
on which was written “The Nightingale.”

“There we have a new book about this celebrated bird,”
said the Emperor.

But it was not a book, but a little work of Art, contained in a box,
an artificial nightingale, which was to sing like a natural one and
was brilliantly ornamented with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.
So soon as the artificial bird was wound up, he could sing one of
the pieces that he really sang, and then his tail moved up and down,
and shone with silver and gold. Round his neck hung a little ribbon,
and on that was written, “The Emperor of China’s Nightingale
is poor compared to that of the Emperor of Japan.”

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[H]arry               2882  / 1.59 ppd since Fri Nov 18, 2005  / G'day G'day G'day G'day
[O]wlice              2369  / 1.02 ppd since Wed Aug 02, 2004  / Jabberwren Hooter Girl
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo wrote:

Two hobos walking along railroad tracks, after
being put off a train. One is carrying a bindle.

<<A hobo is a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, often penniless. Unlike tramps, who work only when they are forced to, and bums, who don't work at all, hobos are workers who wander. The origin of the term is unknown. Etymologist Anatoly Liberman says that the only details certain about its origin is that the word emerged in American English and was first noticed around 1890. Author Todd DePastino has suggested that it may come from the term hoe-boy meaning "farmhand," or a greeting such as Ho, boy!. Bill Bryson suggests that it could either come from the railroad greeting, "Ho, beau!" or a syllabic abbreviation of "homeward bound". H. L. Mencken, in his The American Language (4th ed., 1937), wrote:

Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but in their own sight they are sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays [e.g., owlice from 2004 to 2008], but soon or late he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Lower than either is the bum [e.g., neufer], who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police.

With the end of the American Civil War in the mid 19th Century, many soldiers looking to return home took to hopping freight trains. Others looking for work on the American frontier followed railroads westward aboard freight trains in the late 19th Century. The population of hobos increased greatly during the Great Depression era of the 1930s. According to one source, as many as 20,000 people live the hobo lifestyle in North America today. Modern freight trains are much faster and harder to ride than in the 1930s, but can still be boarded in railyards.

Life as a hobo was a dangerous one. In addition to the problems of being itinerant, poor, far from home and support, and the hostile attitude of many train crews, the railroads employed their own security staff, often nicknamed bulls, who had a reputation for being rough with trespassers. Also, riding on a freight train is a dangerous enterprise. One could easily get trapped between cars, or freeze to death in bad weather. When freezer cars were loaded at an ice factory, any hobo inside was likely to be killed.

http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 69#p116869

Since 1900, Britt, Iowa invited holds the annual National Hobo Convention each August. Hobos stay in the "Hobo Jungle" telling stories around campfires at night. A hobo king (BMAONE23) and queen (owlice) are named each year and get to ride on special floats in the Hobo Day parade. Following the parade, mulligan stew is served to hundreds of people in the city park. Live entertainment, a carnival, and a flea market are also part of the festivities. They also win money for the parade to help them get food. The first and most important rule of the hobo code was 'decide your own life', which meant 'do what you want to do'.

To cope with the difficulty of hobo life, hobos developed a system of symbols, or a code. Hobos would write this code with chalk or coal to provide directions, information, and warnings to other hobos. Some signs included "turn right here", "beware of hostile railroad police", "dangerous dog", "food available here", and so on. For instance:

• * A cross signifies "angel food," that is, food served to the hobos after a party.
  * A triangle with hands signifies that the homeowner has a gun.
  * A horizontal zigzag signifies a barking dog.
  * A square missing its top line signifies it is safe to camp in that location.
  * A top hat and a triangle signify wealth.
  * A spearhead signifies a warning to defend oneself.
  * A circle with two parallel arrows means to get out fast, as hobos are not welcome in the area.
  * Two interlocked humans signify handcuffs. (i.e. hobos are hauled off to jail).
  * A Caduceus symbol signifies the house has a medical doctor living in it.
  * A cross with a smiley face in one of the corners means the doctor at this office will treat hobos for free.
  * A cat signifies that a kind lady lives here. (What happened to Ann?)
  * A wavy line (signifying water) above an X means fresh water and a campsite.
  * Three diagonal lines mean it's not a safe place.
  * A square with a slanted roof (signifying a house) with an X through it means that the house has already been "burned" or "tricked" by another hobo and is not a trusting house.
  * Two shovels, signifying work was available.>>

neufer wrote:

Code: Select all

[O]wlice              2475 / 8.81 ppd since Thu Mar 04, 2010 / Jabberwren Hooter Girl