Tengu (Bestiary 1) are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion and are also considered a type of Shinto god (kami) or yōkai (supernatural beings). Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon (Tiangou), the tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics. The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is widely considered the tengu's defining characteristic in the popular imagination.
Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Tengu are associated with the ascetic practice known as Shugendō, and they are usually depicted in the distinctive garb of its followers, the yamabushi.
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James Belushi filed a $4-million lawsuit against neighbor Julie Newmar in 2004. He accused her of using harassment and defamation to force him from the Brentwood, California, street they share. A newspaper article quoted a resident not involved with the dispute as saying "She's weird" and "He's a bully." In January 2006 the two announced they had settled their differences out-of-court, and later that year Newmar guest-starred on an episode of According to Jim (2001) that poked fun at their feud by having Newmar play a neighbor who annoys Belushi's character.
Went to Gettysburg this past weekend, so:
The Gettysburg National Cemetery and Gettysburg National Military Park are maintained by the U.S. National Park Service as two of the nation's most revered historical landmarks. Although Gettysburg is one of the best known of all Civil War battlefields, it too faces threats to its preservation and interpretation. Many historically significant locations on the battlefield lie outside the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park and are vulnerable to residential or commercial development.
On July 20, 2009, a Comfort Inn and Suites opened on Cemetery Hill, adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery, just one of many modern edifices infringing on the historic field. The Baltimore Pike corridor attracts development that concerns preservationists.
Some preservation successes have emerged in recent years. Two proposals to open a casino at Gettysburg were defeated in 2006 and most recently in 2011, when public pressure forced the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to reject the proposed gambling hub at the intersection of Routes 15 and 30, near East Cavalry Field. The Civil War Trust also successfully purchased and transferred 95 acres at the former site of the Gettysburg Country Club to the control of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2011.
Less than half of the over 11,500 acres on the old Gettysburg Battlefield have been preserved for posterity thus far. The Civil War Trust has preserved 815 acres around the site, some of which is now part of the 4,998 acres of Gettysburg National Military Park.
Superfluidity is a state of matter in which the matter behaves like a fluid with zero viscosity; where it appears to exhibit the ability to self-propel and travel in a way that defies the forces of gravity and surface tension. While this characteristic was originally discovered in liquid helium, it is also found in astrophysics, high-energy physics, and theories of quantum gravity. The phenomenon is related to Bose–Einstein condensation, but it is not identical: not all Bose-Einstein condensates can be regarded as superfluids, and not all superfluids are Bose–Einstein condensates.
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The creature described as the gnole first appeared in Lord Dunsany's 1912 story in The Book of Wonder: How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles and subsequently reappeared in Margaret St. Clair's, The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles. In Middle English the word noll could refer to a stupid or very drunk person.
Lord Dunsany's story gives little or nothing in the way of physical description of the gnoles, but they live on the edge of a sinister wood and watch intruders through holes bored in trees. They are said to own emeralds of very large size. In St. Clair's story they also live on the edge of a wood, watch through holes bored in trees and prize emeralds, but a "senior gnole" is described as looking "like a Jerusalem artichoke" and although he has feet, has tentacles rather than arms and no ears. His eyes are small, red and faceted like a gemstone.
The gnoll (Bestiary 1), as introduced in the earliest edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game, is the literary descendant of Lord Dunsany's "gnoles", who were clever, evil, and nonhuman. In the Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set (1974), gnolls are described as a cross between gnomes and trolls, to which Gary Gygax explains: "A cross between gnomes and trolls (...perhaps, Lord Dunsany did not really make it all that clear) with +2 morale. Otherwise they are similar to hobgoblins..."
With the 1977 publication of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual gnolls were described as hyena-men, a characterization that continues to the present.
The character Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (Men who Hate Women) in Swedish, was inspired by Pippi Longstocking.
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Keye Luke was an accomplished artist who specialized in murals. Examples of his work appear in the films The Shanghai Gesture (1941) and Macao (1952). He also painted the garden fairytale setting murals on the interior of Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Chinese Theater massive auditorium ceiling.
Peter Parker's (Spider-Man) eyes are hazel colored.
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On the original Star Trek series, in the hallways of the Enterprise there are tubes marked "GNDN", these initials stand for "goes nowhere does nothing".
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Alfred Molina holds the record for having the most LEGO figures based on a single actor: four different versions of Doctor Octopus from the 'Spider-Man' films, plus Satipo from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' and Sheik Amar from 'Prince of Persia.'
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First of all I need to start off with a mea culpa. Yesterday was Father's day and I should have made this post then. Unfortunately I didn't think about it until after the global warming debate started up in the other thread. But if I were to have made the post there it would have gotten lost in the noise. Here it has a slightly better chance of staying findable. So, prepare to be subjected to <gasp> historical family trivia.
My Father, may he rest in peace, actually accrued a minor amount of fame in his lifetime. During the International Geophysical Year (1957 - 1958) he took part in Operation Deep Freeze. He was on the first wintering over expedition at the geographic South Pole.
Dad was in the Navy. At the time he was a UT2. For those unfamiliar with Naval ratings that means he was a Utilities Technician Second Class (E5). That also means that he was a "Seabee". A member of one of the United States Navy's Mobile Construction Battalions which, with all due respect to similar units in other services, is one of the premier combat engineering units in the world.
Arriving before some of the other members of the expedition Dad played a significant role in building what became the first Amundsen Scott South Pole station. He wintered over tending to various electrical generators, heaters, vehicles, and other assorted odds and ends that needed maintenence. He even ended up getting a mountain pass in Antarctica named after him.
All well and good. Would you like to see the station that my Father built? Sorry but you can't. It is buried so deep in snow and ice that it isn't safe to go there. IIRC they closed off all access to it sometime in the 1970's. The current Amundsen Scott South Pole station rests on jacks so it can be continually raised as needed to keep it above the level of the falling snow.
When writing his novel about William Shakespeare, Nothing Like the Sun, Anthony Burgess only used words that appear in texts written by Shakespeare - and he did it on a typewriter.
When writing his novel about William Shakespeare, Nothing Like the Sun, Anthony Burgess only used words that appear in texts written by Shakespeare - and he did it on a typewriter.
Did Burgess do that on purpose, or was it just that Shakespeare had used so many words that "vocabularic range" wasn't issue? (I assume the typewriter thing is A historical artifact.)
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On purpose - and I mentioned the typewriter because, yes, he couldn't just make a spellcheck file with just Shakespearian words in it.
(Although I think it is late enough in his career that he could've used an early PC if he'd wanted to.)
The cap of the Australian mushroom Cortinarius australiensis can reach 30 centimetres (12 in) across.
Aberzombie just failed a will save :)
This was the first major, high-profile film with music by James Horner. Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score for this film's predecessor, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), and the following quote by Horner likely references this fact: "I'm sure that I was influenced by Goldsmith's large orchestral scores when I started out, and that was because the people who employed me wanted that kind of sound. I wasn't in a position to say, 'Go To Hell!'"
Conscious sedation is a combination of medicines to help a patient relax (a sedative) and to block pain (an anesthetic) during a medical or dental procedure. The patient will probably stay awake but may not be able to speak. Conscious sedation lets a patient recover quickly and return to everyday activities soon after procedure.
Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. Today, the terms Fortean and Forteana are used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold well and are still in print today. His work continues to inspire people, who call themselves Forteans, and has influenced some areas of science fiction.
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Betsy Wetsy was a "drink-and-wet" doll originally issued by the Ideal Toy Company of New York in 1934. It was one of the most popular dolls of its kind in the Post–World War II baby boom era.
Named for the daughter of Abraham Katz, the head of the company, the doll's special feature was simulating urination after a fluid was poured into her open mouth.
Betsy Wetsy was also one of the first major dolls to be produced in African American versions.
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...that this is my 800th post.
The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, was the first zoo in the United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its opening was delayed by the American Civil War until July 1, 1874. It opened with 1,000 animals and an admission price of 25 cents. For a brief time, the zoo also housed animals brought over from safari on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, which had not yet built the National Zoo in the 1850s.
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Dan Aykroyd is very interested in the supernatural and has an extensive collection of books on the subject.
He believes in UFOs, astral projection, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full-trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster, and the theory of Atlantis.
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The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, was the first zoo in the United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its opening was delayed by the American Civil War until July 1, 1874. It opened with 1,000 animals and an admission price of 25 cents. For a brief time, the zoo also housed animals brought over from safari on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, which had not yet built the National Zoo in the 1850s.
Sadly, much like the rest of Philthadelphia, it's a real shit hole.
The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, was the first zoo in the United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its opening was delayed by the American Civil War until July 1, 1874. It opened with 1,000 animals and an admission price of 25 cents. For a brief time, the zoo also housed animals brought over from safari on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, which had not yet built the National Zoo in the 1850s.Sadly, much like the rest of Philthadelphia, it's a real s&$+ hole.
I wouldn't agree with that. That area that its in is, I'll say unpleasant, but the zoo itself is nice. I've lived near and around the city my whole life, and while there are some bad areas, I won't dismiss Philadelphia as whole. Like most cities, there are good parts and bad parts. There are far worse places to live.
The gibbering mouther (Bestiary 1) first appeared in the AD&D module C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (1980), and later appeared in the Monster Manual II (1983).
It has begun...
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I wouldn't agree with that. That area that its in is, I'll say unpleasant, but the zoo itself is nice. I've lived near and around the city my whole life, and while there are some bad areas, I won't dismiss Philadelphia as whole. Like most cities, there are good parts and bad parts. There are far worse places to live.The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, was the first zoo in the United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its opening was delayed by the American Civil War until July 1, 1874. It opened with 1,000 animals and an admission price of 25 cents. For a brief time, the zoo also housed animals brought over from safari on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, which had not yet built the National Zoo in the 1850s.Sadly, much like the rest of Philthadelphia, it's a real s&$+ hole.
We'll have to agree to disagree. I lived there for 12 years, and consider it much like where I grew up (New Orleans) - shit hole, only colder.
A good place for beer lovers though.
Agreed that we'll have to agree to disagree.
In an unrelated topic, every time I see you post, I think of Abercrombie the Zombie from the Milton the Monster cartoon...
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Kurtwood Smith won the role of Red Foreman on That '70s Show (1998) when the original choice, Chuck Norris, was unavailable because of his commitment to filming Walker, Texas Ranger (1993). Set near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was the only cast member to actually be from the state. Wisconsin is a Native American term for "land of red stone".