| Sunday, June 28, 2009 |
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| The Eagle Has Landed |
SpotlightWith so many animals being put on the endangered species list it is refreshing to hear when the opposite occurs. The American bald eagle, a predatory bird and iconic national symbol, was officially taken off this notorious list two years ago today, after the US Fish and Wildlife Services reported that nesting populations had sufficiently recovered. This news comes as a happy surprise when you think about all the difficulties the bald eagle had to endure. In the 1800s, the westward expansion of settlements led to deforestation and habitat loss. In the early 1900s, Alaskan fishermen viewed the eagle as a direct threat to salmon populations and hunted them down. To make matters worse, the 1930s welcomed the widespread use of DDT, a pesticide that harmed both adult eagles and the development of their eggs. Here's to the bald eagle, which continues to soar in the face of adversity.
Quote"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud."
Question of the DayHow did the bald eagle get its name?
First of all, bald eagles are not bald.
Some people say this bird was given the name "Bald eagle" because the lighter feathers on its head make the bird appear bald from a distance. In fact, the word "bald" comes from the old English term "balde" which originally meant white, not hairless.
The bald eagle's scientific name, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, stands for:
sea (halo), eagle (aeetos) and white (leukos), as in the feathers on the eagle's head. So there you have it, the bald eagle is a seabird with a white head.
Word of the dayOne quattuorquinquagintaquadringentillion (represented by a 1 with 1365 zeroes after it), is the natural number between a tresquinquagintaquadringentillion (a 1 with 1362 zeroes after it) and preceding a quinquaquinquagintaquadringentillion (a 1 with 1368 zeroes after it).
Quattuorquinquagintaquadringentillion is recognized as the natural number with the longest name (without use of hyphenation), and it contains 37 letters.
Long words have a sesquipedalian charm all their own. Here are a week's worth to consider when you're in the mood to say a mouthful.
Today's History
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| Ned Kelly |
- Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger was captured at Glenrowan; he was later hanged for murder (1880)
- Franz Ferdinand: archduke and heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated, along with his wife, in Sarajevo by a Serbian; the event precipitated WWI (1914)
- Treaty of Versailles: was signed, ending WWI (1919)
- Slobodan Milosevic: former Yugoslavian leader was turned over to the UN war crimes tribunal (2001)
- Iraqi Interim Government: took power after US handover (2004)
Today's Birthdays
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| John Cusack |
- Henry VIII (1491-1547): England's king who had six wives
- Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): Flemish Baroque painter
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): political philosopher and writer
- Richard Rodgers (1902-1979): composer of the Broadway musicals Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music; playwrights Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) and Mel Brooks (83) share this birth date
- John Elway (49): the only quarterback to have started in five Super Bowls
- John Cusack (43): actor appearing most recently in War, Inc., and as the voice of Igor in the eponymous animated film; also, actors Bruce Davison (63), Kathy Bates (61), Alice Krige (55), Mary Stuart Masterson (43), Gil Bellows (42), Tichina Arnold (38) and Alessandro Nivola (37)
