In line with my usual meanderings this post ranges from England Caps
and Hatzegopteryx via indentures and
baby Porcupines (not forgetting a certain kitten).
A Sport Paragraph – scroll down to ignore…
On 14th November 2012 Steven Gerrard – my hero – earns his
100th cap for the England soccer team in as match against
Sweden. He captained the team, as he has
for a while. He says his greatest buzz
with England came in 2001, against Germany in Munich, a 5-1 win immortalised in
Football Association cuff links.
Gerrard, a Liverpool player throughout his career, becomes the
sixth member of the England 100 club. The others are.
Peter Shilton, 125, 1970 – 1990
David Beckham, 115, 1996 – 2009
Bobby Moore, 108, 1962 –
1973
Bobby Charlton, 106,
1958 –1970
Billy Wright, 105, 28
1946 – 1959
Indenture
I discovered the other day why an indenture is so called. An
indenture is a legal contract between two parties, particularly for indentured
labour or a term of apprenticeship but also for certain land transactions.
The
term comes from the medieval English "indenture of retainer" — a
legal contract written in duplicate on the same sheet, with the copies
separated by cutting along a jagged (toothed, hence the term "indenture") line so that the teeth of
the two parts could later be refitted to confirm authenticity. Each party to
the deed would then retain a part.
The term was also used for a contract by which a person agreed to
work for a set period for a landowner in a British colony in exchange for
passage to the colony.
Stempu
Our local zoo is Chester Zoo and this is Stempu a baby porcupine
being given a health check there by Chris Grindle.
Stempu and Noko were born at
the beginning of September to mum Roxie and dad Nangu at the zoo.
Hatzegopteryx
Hatzegopteryx was a flying dinosaur. It had a wingspan of about 10 metres - making
it one of the largest known flying animals of all time. This can be a little
hard to visualize, so check this image out.
Copyright Mark Witton
Despite its size, Hatzegopteryx’s hollow skeleton meant that the
pterosaur only weighed about 1/6 as much as the giraffe.
markwitton.com is the internet home of palaeontologist and
freelance palaeoartist Dr. Mark Paul Witton, where you can find details about
his services as a palaeontological artist, scientific writer, technical
consultant and other handy bits and bobs.
Self-esteem Quotes
I’m always on the look-out for good self-esteem and positive thinking
quotations for Partner-who-loves-tea’s training and counselling site. Occasionally
a spot of humour creeps in.
That Surprised Look
Love your vocabulary lesson and your surprised cat. lol The joke is just too funny too, but then true ones are.
ReplyDeleteLove the quote and pretty kitty as always.
ReplyDeleteNo one could ever claim that your posts lacked interest CJ. I assume that you will soon have to have your own external hard drive just for the Ivy photos.
ReplyDeleteWas that picture of the H-yx thing what you were showing Ivy to get that look on her face? ("A gigantic bird with four legs? You must be kidding?!") It reminds me of a sort of pretend (computer-animated) documentary I saw on TV once about dragons, which, if memory serves me right, placed them in the same area as that H-yx (I just looked it up) i.e. Transsylvania, Romania... a location which does not really contribute a whole lot to believability...
ReplyDeleteAs you say, Monica, Hatzegopteryx hails from western Romania, and has been dated to the late Cretaceous Period, around 65 million years ago. What I can't fathom is how they can reconstruct a creature from the back of a skull, part of a left humerus and (possibly) the middle section of a femur found nearby. That's all the remains they have found of it!
ReplyDelete(Ivy weas actually looking at me - I really should trim my beard a bit,,,)
Reconstruction is based on physics and educated guesswork. The truth is, of course, they don't know. For instance, Hatzegopteryx might have flown with the aid of a bladder filled with hydrogen (or some such) which would be completely unknown and out of the guesswork ambit. Oh well. I'd like to see one, but only at a safe distance. Hatzegopteryx would not be a strong flyer and probably lived on fish, with side orders of mammals with opposable digits.
ReplyDeleteThe kitty is cute as ever.
Cat comment:
ReplyDelete"Oh my gosh! I can't believe they actually showed that on TV!"
I LOVE this blog....I love the surprise "lucky dip" aspect of not knowing what you will post about in your ramblings....and of course the cherry on top for me...I always learn something new...thanks CJ!!
ReplyDelete