Monday OT: 02/08/21 is National Kite Flying Day

Today is day 39 of the Gregorian Calendar year, Prickle-Prickle, Chaos 39, 3187 YOLD And let us not forget 13.0.8.4.11 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)

It is National Kite Flying Day so I led with a picture of a kite flying, specifically a Swallow Tailed Kite.  It is, of course, possible that they meant "Toy Kite Flying Day", but presumably they would've said that, non? Kites are chordate animals of the class Aves (boids), order Accipitriformes and family Accipitridae.  As might be expected, nomenclature continues to change and evolve and there is also some conflict or confusion as to some specific types, such as the Swallow Tailed Kite pictured above, which is of either the Subfamily Elaninae or the Subfamily Pernina,  Genus Elanoides, species  forficatus.  According to da wiki, current overall status is as follows:

By 2015, genetic research showed that many of the kite genera are related to honey-buzzards, and that the tiny bat hawk (Machaerhamphus or Macheirhamphus) is actually related to the huge harpy eagles. Several of the large kites are related more closely to the Buteo hawks (buzzards) than to the group of "true" kites and sea-eagles. Boyd[6] places the "true" milvine kites (Milvus and Haliastur) with the sea-eagles in tribe Milvini within Buteoninae. This results in the following arrangement (genera in parentheses are not generally called kites): Elaninae: Gampsonyx, Chelictinia, Elanus. Perninae: Chondrohierax, Leptodon, Elanoides, (Pernis), Hamirostra, Lophoictinia, (Henicopernis). Buteoninae Harpagini: Harpagus. Milvini: Haliastur, Milvus, (Haliaeetus, Icthyophaga). Buteonini: many genera, including the kites Ictinia, Rostrhamus, and Helicolestes. Ictinia is near-basal, after the Old-World genus Butastur. Rostrhamus and Helicolestes form a clade with the black-collared hawk (Busarellus) and the crane hawk (Geranospiza).

I haven't checked that with any serious sources, like Cornell, because busy, but assume it is more or less close since birders would be all over it if it weren't.  Like all birds, they play an important role in the environments in which they may be found, which is why I am surprised that the US would assign a day to them, but perhaps it goes back to the Nixon years, like the Clean Air Act

Toy Kites, fwiw haven't always been toys, but have from time to time been ussed in warfare and other commercial endeavors.  The famous French War Kite comes to mind.  I recall seeing references to several instances of their use in conjunction with cameras for both military and commercial surveillance as well as for purely recreational and even scientific purposes during the past few years. On second thought, since this is a US holiday, maybe it is about toy-kites, to honor their history of use in warfare.  Ah well, whatever ...

Seventh Crusade It is the anniversary of the 7th Crusade battle of Mansurah, where the Crusaders got their ass whipped. The remnants of the Crusader forces chose retreat over surrender only to be annihilated at the Battle of Fariskur.  This was the last substantial Crusade into Egypt.  The Crusader's never recaptured and in effect ceded Jerusalem.  At least one of the fallen, an English kniggit named William II Longespée is viewed as smartyr by the English.

Yet Another Crusade, in the US  Today is the anniversary of the passage of the Dawes Act, yet another attack on and continuation of the genocidal war by the US and its colonial predecessors upon the indigenous population of North America.  

The Orangeburg Massacre  At least eight (out of a dozen) South Carolina Highway Patrol officers fired into a crowd of Black student demonstrators on the SCSU campus with carbines, shotguns and handguns killing three and wounding at least 27.

On this day in history:

Born this day in:

Billboards, billboards, drink this, eat that, use all manner of things, everyone, the best, the cheapest, the purest and most satisfying of all their available counterparts. Red lights flicker on every horizon, airplanes beware; cars flash by, more lights. Workers repair the gas main. Signs, signs, lights, lights, streets, streets.

~~ Neal Cassady

120 – Vettius Valens, astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer 412 – Proclus, mathematician and philosopher 1577 – Robert Burton, melancholy priest, physician, and scholar  1807 – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, sculptor and zoologist 1825 – Henry Walter Bates, geographer, biologist, and explorer 1828 – Jules Verne, author, poet, and playwright 1834 – Dmitri Mendeleev, chemist and periodic academic 1850 – Kate Chopin, author 1860 – Adella Brown Bailey, politician and suffragist  1876 – Paula Modersohn-Becker, painter 1878 – Martin Buber, philosopher and academic 1899 – Lonnie Johnson, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1903 – Greta Keller, singer and actress 1906 – Chester Carlson, physicist and lawyer who invented Xerography  1911 – Elizabeth Bishop, poet and author 1914 – Bill Finger, author and screenwriter who co-created Batman  1926 – Neal Cassady,beat, author, merry prankster, and poet 1932 – John Williams, pianist, composer, and conductor 1933 – Elly Ameling, soprano 1937 – Joe Raposo, pianist and composer 1940 – Ted Koppel,  journalist 1941 – Tom Rush, American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1942 – Terry Melcher,  singer, songwriter, and producer 1947 – J. Richard Gott, astronomer and academic 1948 – Dan Seals, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1955 – John Grisham, lawyer and author 1957 – Karine Chemla, historian of mathematics and sinologist 1958 – Marina Silva, environmentalist and politician 1961 – Vince Neil, singer, songwriter, and actor 1964 – Arlie Petters, mathematical physicist and academic 1971 – Mika Karppinen, drummer and songwriter 1981 – Myriam Montemayor Cruz, singer 1985 – Jeremy Davis, bass player and songwriter  

Died this day in:

“variety is life; uniformity is death”

~~ peter kropotkin

1250 – William II Longespée, Crusader revered as a martyr (How sick is that?) 1709 – Giuseppe Torelli, violinist and composer 1749 – Jan van Huysum, Dutch painter 1856 – Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist and academic 1907 – Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom, chemist and academic 1910 – Hans Jæger, philosopher, anarchist, and activist 1921 – Peter Kropotkin,  anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, economist, sociologist, historian, zoologist, political scientist, philosopher, zoologist, geographer, and philologist 1928 – Theodor Curtius, chemist 1957 – Walther Bothe, physicist and academic 1957 – John von Neumann, mathematician and physicist 1960 – J. L. Austin, philosopher and academic 1960 – Giles Gilbert Scott, architect and engineer, designed the Red telephone box  1975 – Robert Robinson, chemist and academic 1979 – Dennis Gabor, physicist and engineer 1990 – Del Shannon, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist 1992 – Denny Wright, British guitarist 1994 – Raymond Scott, pianist, electronic instrument inventor, and composer 1998 – Halldór Laxness, author, poet, and playwright 2004 – Julius Schwartz, comic book editor 2006 – Elton Dean, saxophonist, songwriter, and producer 2008 – Ruby Garrard Woodson, educator and cultural historian 2012 – Wando, singer and songwriter 2012 – Luis Alberto Spinetta, singer and songwriter 2014 – Nancy Holt, sculptor and painter 2017 – Peter Mansfield, physicist

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: International Epilepsy Day

National Kite Flying Day  (Birds)

Opera Day (It must be a pretty good browser to get its own Day, no?, Seriously, it is Subject to EU rules, so it might be worth a try)  

Clean Out Your Computer Day (No, don't take the cover off and remove stuff)

Oatmeal Monday (sadly, not "The Oatmeal" Monday - https://theoatmeal.com/)

National Kite Flying Day  (Toys)

Propose Day (propose what? Peace? Another War? A new Freeway? WTF!)  

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies ;-)