~~     Panama2007-106

Today is International Day of Forests among other things.
As a Californian, I naturally think of the conifer covered Sierras, the giant sequoias, coast redwoods, douglas firs and cedars. Others will of course think of mixed hardwoods, cypress, lodgepole pines and other signature species, while yet others think of the Gums or Kauri. My picture, however, is none of the above. It is a tiny slice of a Rainforest, in particular, one in Panama. Though they do have their slow growing trees, they also have an overall rapid rate of growth. In parts of Panama, guides carry machetes because if they haven't traveled down a trail fairly recently they are likely to find it blocked and in need of clearing in assorted places.

It is also World Poetry Day and while I am far from the best suited to post same I cannot resist the opportunity to toss out a little Stephen Crane:

A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”

and

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”

(NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with the poetry of Gregory Corso, today would be an auspicious day to go and check it out.)

I shall, however, leave World Puppetry Day alone for it is set aside for the politicians, and I am no such thing.

On this day in history:

1556 – Former archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was executed
1788 – A fire in New Orleans left most of the town in ruins.
1804 – Code Napoléon was adopted as French civil law.
1871 – Otto von Bismarck was appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire.
1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his search for the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.
1925 – The Butler Act prohibited the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.
1935 – Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran.
1937 – Nineteen people in Ponce, Puerto Rico were gunned down by police acting on orders of the US-appointed Governor, Blanton C. Winship.
1945 – British troops liberated Mandalay, Burma.
1945 – Royal Air Force planes bombed Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also hit a school, killing 125 civilians.
1952 – Alan Freed presented the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
1960 – Police opened fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
1963 – Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed.
1965 – NASA launched Ranger 9, the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
1965 – Martin Luther King Jr. led 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1970 – The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco.
1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced a US boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
1983 – The first cases of the 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic begin
1990 – Namibia became independent after 75 years of South African rule.
1994 – The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force.
1999 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
2006 – The social media site Twitter was founded.

Born this day in:

“Those wearing Tolerance for a label call other views intolerable.”

~~     Phyllis McGinley

1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, Baroque composer and musician
1716 – Josef Seger, organist, composer, and educator
1752 – Mary Dixon Kies, inventor
1768 – Joseph Fourier, mathematician and physicist
1831 – Dorothea Beale, suffragist, educational reformer and author
1839 – Modest Mussorgsky, pianist and composer
1866 – Antonia Maury, astronomer and astrophysicist
1880 – Hans Hofmann, painter and academic
1884 – George David Birkhoff, mathematician
1896 – Friedrich Waismann, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher from the Vienna Circle
1902 – Son House, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1905 – Phyllis McGinley, author and poet
1906 – André Filho, musician and songwriter  
1910 – Muhammad Siddiq Khan, librarian and educator
1911 – Walter Lincoln Hawkins, scientist and inventor
1913 – Guillermo Haro, astronomer
1914 – Paul Tortelier, cellist and composer
1916 – Bismillah Khan, shehnai player
1918 – Charles Thompson, pianist and composer
1920 – Manolis Chiotis, singer, songwriter, and bouzouki player
1921 – Arthur Grumiaux, violinist and pianist
1921 – Antony Hopkins, pianist, composer, and conductor
1925 – Harold Ashby, saxophonist
1927 – Halton Arp, astronomer and critic
1930 – Otis Spann, blues pianist, singer and composer
1932 – Walter Gilbert, physicist and chemist
1932 – Joseph Silverstein, violinist and conductor
1936 – Mike Westbrook, pianist and composer
1940 – Solomon Burke, singer and songwriter
1942 – Amina Claudine Myers, singer, songwriter, and pianist
1942 – Patcha Ramachandra Rao, metallurgist, educator and administrator
1943 – Vivian Stanshall, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and painter
1944 – Hideki Ishima, guitarist
1944 – David Lindley, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1944 – Gaye Adegbalola, singer and guitarist
1945 – Rose Stone, singer and keyboard player
1946 – Ray Dorset, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1949 – Eddie Money, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1950 – Roger Hodgson, singer, songwriter, and keyboard player
1951 – Conrad Lozano,  bass player
1951 – Russell Thompkins Jr.,  singer
1953 – Steve Furber,  computer scientist and academic
1955 – Bob Bennett, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1956 – Guy Chadwick, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1959 – Sarah Jane Morris,  singer and songwriter
1959 – Nobuo Uematsu,  keyboard player and composer
1960 – Robert Sweet,  drummer and producer
1961 – Slim Jim Phantom,  rock drummer
1963 – Shawn Lane,  guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1963 – Share Pedersen,  bass player
968 – Andrew Copeland,  singer and guitarist
1974 – Edsel Dope,  singer, songwriter, and producer
1974 – Kevin Leahy,  drummer
1976 – Bamboo Mañalac, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1980 – Deryck Whibley,  singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1990 – Mandy Capristo,  singer, songwriter, and dancer

Died this day in:

“If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.”

~~     Robert Southey

1617 - Matoaka (aka Pocahontas), indigenous female kidnapped by English colonists then brainwashed into joining them.

1762 – Nicolas Louis de Lacaille,  priest, astronomer, and academic  
1772 – Jacques-Nicolas Bellin,  geographer and cartographer
1795 – Giovanni Arduino,  miner and geologist
1801 – Andrea Luchesi,  composer and educator
1843 – Robert Southey,  poet, historian, and translator
1920 – Evelina Haverfield,  suffragette and aid worker
1934 – Franz Schreker, composer and conductor 
1970 – Manolis Chiotis,  singer, songwriter, and bouzouki player
1980 – Peter Stoner,  mathematician and astronomer
1991 – Leo Fender,  businessman, founded Fender Musical Instruments Corporation 
1992 – Natalie Sleeth,  pianist and composer
1994 – Lili Damita,  actress and singer
1998 – Galina Ulanova,  ballerina
2005 – Bobby Short,  singer and pianist
2011 – Loleatta Holloway,  singer and songwriter
2011 – Pinetop Perkins,  singer and pianist
2012 – Irving Louis Horowitz, sociologist, author, and academic
2015 – Jørgen Ingmann, singer and guitarist (Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann)

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Birth of Benito Juárez, a Fiestas Patrias (Mexico)
Education Freedom Day
Human Rights Day (South Africa)
International Colour Day (International)
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (International)
International Day of Forests (International), by proclamation of the United Nations General Assembly
Rosie the Riveter Day (United States)
World Down Syndrome Day (International)
World Poetry Day (International)
World Puppetry Day (International)

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies

Johann Sebastian Bach

Modest Mussorgsky

Son House

Harold Ashby

Otis Spann

Vivian Stanshall

>

Hideki Ishima

Ray Dorsett

Eddie Money

Nobuo Uematsu

Manolis Chiotis

Pinetop Perkins

Jørgen Ingmann

Please Note: Please do not post any Covid-19 related commentary in the comments. Thank you. There is a separate OT, aka The Dose, where all such material is welcome. Thanks again.

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?