How a Mosquito Operates (1912) is a silent animated film by American
cartoonist Winsor McCay. The six-minute short, about a giant mosquito
tormenting a dozing man who tries in vain to shoo it away, is one of the
earliest works of animation. It is considered far ahead of its
contemporaries in its technical quality. McCay had a reputation for his
proficiency as a cartoonist, exemplified in the children's comic strip
Little Nemo in Slumberland. He delved into the infant art of animation
with the 1911 film Little Nemo, and followed its success by adapting an
episode of his comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend into How a
Mosquito Operates. McCay gives the animation naturalistic timing,
motion, and weight, and displays a more coherent story and developed
character than in Little Nemo. The film was enthusiastically received
when McCay first unveiled it during a chalk talk (a vaudeville act with
drawings) and in a theatrical release that soon followed. In 1914 McCay
further developed his character animation style in his best-known
animated work, Gertie the Dinosaur.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_a_Mosquito_Operates>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
28 BC:
The first recorded observation of a sunspot was made by Han
Dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_of_the_Han_dynasty>
1824:
The National Gallery in London opened to the public, in the
former townhouse of the collector John Julius Angerstein.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery>
1869:
The Golden Spike Ceremony was held at Promontory Summit, Utah,
celebrating the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the
United States between the Missouri and Sacramento Rivers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad>
1941:
World War II: Nazi leader Rudolf Hess parachuted into Scotland
in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Hess>
1981:
François Mitterrand was elected to be the first socialist
President of the French Fifth Republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
manspreading:
(informal) The practice of men splaying their legs open wide when
sitting on public transport, thus occupying more than one seat.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/manspreading>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We are magic. It is magic that we're walking around. It's
fantastic magic. Some people would call it miracles; I like to call it
magic. … I'm very aware of this. Yes, the more aware I get, the more I
can understand how big it is, how big it will get. It'll be harder to
comprehend; that's why I have to go along with it, 'cause its so vast.
To say to somebody that God is everything that lives and ever has lived
and ever will live, and you're never going to touch and see, smell and
be everything that is God. Magic is very hard to comprehend.
--Donovan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donovan>