The sea mink (Neovison macrodon) was a mammal from the eastern coast of
North America, in the family of weasels and otters in the order
Carnivora. The largest of the minks, it was hunted to extinction by fur
traders before 1903, when it was first given a species description. Some
biologists classify it as a subspecies of the American mink. Estimates
of its size are speculative, based largely on skull fragments recovered
from Native American shell middens, and on tooth remains. Some
information on its appearance and habits was provided by fur traders and
Native Americans. It may have been similar in behavior to the American
mink: it probably maintained home ranges, was polygynandrous, and had a
similar diet, supplemented by saltwater prey. Sea minks were commonly
trapped along the coast of the Bay of Fundy in the Gulf of Maine.
Remains have been found along the New England coast, and there were
regular reports of unusually large mink furs, probably sea mink, being
collected from Nova Scotia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_mink>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1718:
The pirate Blackbeard was killed in battle by a boarding party
of British sailors off the coast of North Carolina, ending his reign of
terror in the Caribbean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard>
1812:
War of 1812: During a punitive expedition against Native
American villages, a contingent of Indiana Rangers were ambushed by
Kickapoo, Winnebago, and Shawnee warriors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wild_Cat_Creek>
1910:
The crews of the Brazilian warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo,
Bahia—all commissioned only months before—and several smaller
vessels mutinied against what they called the "slavery" being practiced
in the Brazilian Navy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Lash>
1935:
The China Clipper flying boat took off from Alameda,
California, U.S., to become the first service to deliver airmail cargo
across the Pacific Ocean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Clipper>
1967:
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted
Resolution 242 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War between Israel and
Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_242>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
clavicytherium:
(music) A harpsichord in which the soundboard and strings are mounted
vertically facing the player.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clavicytherium>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I wish to use my last hours of ease and strength in telling the
strange story of my experience. I have never fully unbosomed myself to
any human being; I have never been encouraged to trust much in the
sympathy of my fellow-men. But we have all a chance of meeting with some
pity, some tenderness, some charity, when we are dead: it is the living
only who cannot be forgiven — the living only from whom men's
indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east
wind. While the heart beats, bruise it — it is your only opportunity;
while the eye can still turn towards you with moist, timid entreaty,
freeze it with an icy unanswering gaze; while the ear, that delicate
messenger to the inmost sanctuary of the soul, can still take in the
tones of kindness, put it off with hard civility, or sneering
compliment, or envious affectation of indifference; while the creative
brain can still throb with the sense of injustice, with the yearning for
brotherly recognition — make haste — oppress it with your ill-
considered judgements, your trivial comparisons, your careless
misrepresentations. The heart will by and by be still … the eye will
cease to entreat; the ear will be deaf; the brain will have ceased from
all wants as well as from all work. Then your charitable speeches may
find vent; then you may remember and pity the toil and the struggle and
the failure; then you may give due honour to the work achieved; then you
may find extenuation for errors, and may consent to bury them.
--George Eliot
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot>