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Monday, January 30, 2012

Wake Island Rail

Adventures In Wikipedia Dredging, Episode II

The flightless bird of the Pacific atoll of Wake, killed to extinction by starving Japanese soldiers in 1945:




Friday, January 27, 2012

Hanno

This is the sort of prize that dredging Wikipedia via the 'random article' button will bring you: the epitaph of Hanno, the great white elephant, penned by Pope Leo X:


"Under this great hill I lie buried

Mighty elephant which the King Manuel
Having conquered the Orient
Sent as captive to Pope Leo X.
At which the Roman people marvelled, --
A beast not seen for a long time,
And in my brutish breast they perceived human feelings.
Fate envied me my residence in the blessed Latium
And had not the patience to let me serve my master a full three years.
But I wish, oh gods, that the time which Nature would have assigned to me,
and Destiny stole away,
You will add to the life of the great Leo.

He lived seven years
He died of angina
He measured twelve palms in height.
Giovanni Battista Branconio dell'Aquila
Privy chamberlain to the pope
And provost of the custody of the elephant,
Has erected this in 1516, the 8th of June,
In the fourth year of the pontificate of Leo X.

That which Nature has stolen away
Raphael of Urbino with his art has restored."