Still Gravity

Bokari the Kartan Guide, 1825 - Drawing from the book of Major William Grey. This is a book with a long title: Travels in Western Africa, in the years 1818, 19, 20, and 21, from the river Gambia , through Woolli, Bondoo ,  Galam , Kasson, Kaarta , and Foolidoo, to the river Niger .  ( This is the map  with the routes of the expedition.) The text was published in 1825 and the authors were Mayor William Gray and Staff Surgeon Dochard - Dochard died before the publication. The book covers the failed expedition to reach the Niger River and explore its course.  After the death of the expedition commander - Major John Peddie -, Captain William Grey and Staff Surgeon Dochard were appointed in charge. About this, Major Gray wrote in the Preface of the book: Warmed with those feelings, I felt an honourable pride in being entrusted with a command to explore the uncultivated regions of Western Africa. It was a task of peril, but the measure of danger was the measure of honour; and with a strong

A couple of Atlantic horseshoe crabs in the Florida Keys.   These creatures are old. Their forerunners have been around for 400 million years.  The weirdos have ten eyes, blue blood, and at the end, they are not even crabs. They are arthropods! Meaning that they are cousins of spiders and scorpions.  We crossed path with these two kayaking in the shallow waters of Key Largo.  Are they matting? Looks like this is the case because usually they are loners. But happens that the smaller males sometimes go on a ride on the female's back until she lays her eggs - in the picture the rider is smaller.  The scientific name of these "crabs" is Limulus polyphemus . I don't see the reason for the "Polyphemus" because the mythical Cyclops only had one eye according to the old tales. LOL. 

Vincas or periwinkles growing wild in a trail of Cape Florida state park in Key Biscayne - For photo licensing go here .  The common Madagascar periwinkle ( Vinca rosea  or  Catharanthus roseus ) is pretty and also poisonous - all parts of the plant are toxic. So much, that it's said that in its native Madagascar the plant was used to create a poisonous beverage for ordeal trials before they switched to the tangena .  Old books talk of these trials. One of them is,  The story of  Ida Pfeiffer and her travels in many lands .  The government of Madagascar has always been Draconian in its severity, and the penalty exacted for almost every offence is blood. Some of the unfortunates are burned; others are hurled over a high rock; others buried alive; others scalded to death with boiling water; others killed with the spear; others sewn up alive in mats, and left to perish of hunger and corruption; and others beheaded. Recourse is not unfrequently had to poison, which is used as a kind o

Hugh Clapperton painted by Gildon Manton - From Clapperton's journal published in 1828 . This is the journal of the second expedition of  Hugh Clapperton  to the interior of Africa published in 1828 under the name: Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo . The journal covers until the point of Clapperton's death. The aftermath is described by  Richard Lander , who also brough back the Clapperton's journal to England - he was the only survivor.  Clapperton's first expedition was in 1824. The second one began a year later and also reached Sokoto - Sakkwato in the local language -, but this time he entered through the  Bight of Benin  and went through the Yoruba lands.  These were times of expansion for the  Sokoto Caliphate  - or Fulani Empire - and the religion of Islam through West Africa. Sokoto was at war with the  Bornu Empire  and Clapperton was stopped by  Muhammed Bello , the Second Caliph.  Hugh Clapperton 

The anhinga needs to dry its wings after diving for food. This is a common sight of the bird in Florida shores. Photo taken in Biscayne Bay - Check  this page  for  photo licensing.  The anhinga bird has many names:  Snakebird. Darter. American darter. Water turkey.  " Anhinga " comes from the language of an indigenous group from Brazil. The word means "devil bird" or "snake bird" - the neck and head sometimes look like a snake when they are swimming.  The long and flexible neck of the anhinga is confused with a water snake because the body of the bird remains submerged - photo taken in the Everglades.  These birds swim very well underwater. Plenty of them in Florida and its Everglades.  Anhinga nest with hungry babies claiming for food. They show their distinctive long necks - photo taken in the Everglades.  What about some photos of alligators now?

Round celestial bodies and eclipses. Page of "De sphaera mundi" written by Johannes de Sacrobosco circa the year 1230.   Before Copernicus we had De sphaera mundi or Textus de sphaera or De sphaera of  Johannes de Sacrobosco  - aka John of Holywood -, a text of the Middle Ages that carried Cecco d'Ascoli  to his dead by fire after obsessing with spheres.  An excerpt from Sacrobosco's text: THE EARTH A SPHERE. -- That the earth, too, is round is shown thus. The signs and stars do not rise and set the same for all men everywhere but rise and set sooner for those in the east than for those in the west; and of this there is no other cause than the bulge of the earth. Moreover, celestial phenomena evidence that they rise sooner for Orientals than for westerners. For one and the same eclipse of the moon which appears to us in the first hour of the night appears to Orientals about the third hour of the night, which proves that they had night and sunset before we did, of w

Beautiful Mysore raspberries in sunny South Florida - For photo licensing go here .  Raspberries are raspberries. They are good for us. Mysore raspberries ( Rubus niveus ) come from southern Asia. Edible plant with many spines to protect the precious fruits - double check my photo if you missed the spines. A curious thing is the origin of the name raspberry: The earliest recorded form of raspberry in English comes from the early 1500’s, but it wasn’t even called raspberry at that point. The word was raspis. Somewhere around the mid-1500’s, raspis started getting shortened to simply rasp. So our beloved raspberry has this whole secret past life we knew nothing about. Read more in this blog post .