Purple Burrowing Frog of India
From the Axolotl (a Mexican swimming salamander) and the Purple Burrowing Frog of India, through the Egyptian vulture and the Dugong, to the Uakari and the Aye-Aye, and even the Hyena, not all endangered species are beautiful, or even photogenic. Scientific American offers a slideshow of ten of the world’s ugliest endangered species. They need protection, too.
Napoleon as Emperor
(From The War of All the Oceans by Roy and Lesley Adkins)
With Napoleon a captive aboard the Bellerophon at Brixham on Torbay after his final defeat at Waterloo, The Times of London published the following letter on July 26, 1815:
“What is to be done with him? Is he after all his crimes to be suffered to go unpunished; or in what way is he to be brought to justice? . . . What punishment can be just, if the condemning him to death be cruel? He has, for a long succession of years, deluged Europe in blood, to gratify his own mad vanity, his insatiable and furious ambition. It is calculated, that every minute he has reigned, has cost the life of a human being. He has desolated the earth in its fairest portions. He has not only darkened the palace and the crowded mart with terror and dismay, but he has carried unutterable distress into cottage, and the mountain solitude.”
Drexel University’s The Smart Set has a very interesting, but brief article on the evolution of zoo architecture: “The Elephant in the Room”. It should whet your appetite for a visit to the Sedgwick County Zoo.
