The Burghers of Calais

The Burghers of Calais, in Calais France,  is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin and was fully completed in 1889. It is one of Rodins' most famous sculptures, and it serves as a dedication to an event during the Hundred Years War.


As far as anyone knows, King Edward III of England brought his men onto Calais and laid siege. Philip VI (France) ordered that the city shall stand no matter the costs. Although Edward had not fully taken the city, starvation from surrounding it led to to King Edward's proposal.


King Edward purposed that if any six of its top leaders walked out almost naked, nooses around their necks, and have keys to the city and the castle he would leave the city. Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first, then five others came and stripped down to their under garments.

So the sculpture symbolizes the moment these six men stand at the gate humiliated. 

After word, however, expecting to be killed the Burghers of Calais where sent free for Queen Philippa of Hainault thought it was a bad omen for her unborn child. She asked King Edward to spare them their lives, and he did.


Go Ahead and check out some related Links. (All following links are "Wiki" links and only cover the broad spectrum of each individual link. They should serve well to the majority)


Learn about Calais
Edward III
Philippa of Hainault
Hundred Years War

List Sea Monsters- The Aspidochelone

The Aspidochelone is a giant sea turtle or whale thats relative size is that of an Island. Its compound word splits as the greek word Aspis (asp) and chelone (turtle). It can be found in the text of the Phsiologus ( Greek text that was written by an unknown author.) The creature gets its monster undertone for it entices sailors onto its shell, where even trees and bushes grow. After the sailors draw their first campfire the Aspidochelone sinks back into the ocean drowning all.

A Source Quote:
"In the moralistic allegory of the Physiologus and bestiary tradition, the aspidochelone represents Satan, who deceives those whom he seeks to devour." (Source)

Other Names:
Fastitocalon- This creature is seen as a whale.


GO BACK TO LIST SEA CREATURES

Related Links:
http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Aspidochelone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspidochelone

Link to understand more about The Physiolgus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiologus

Link to understand more about a Bestiary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestiary

List Sea Monsters

A beginning of a new adventure where I get to delve inside the belly of sea creatures. To make sure each gets the same amount of context I am splitting each up into their own category. I will come back to this post to put links on each creature.

• The Aspidochelone, Article is up
  
• Capricorn,
  
• Cirein-cròin
• Coinchenn
  
• Curruid,
  
• Hydra
  
• Iku-Turso
• Kraken
• Leviathan
• Loch Ness Monster
• Proteus
• The Rainbow Fish
• Tiamat
• Yacumama,

If all are not up please come back to check when another monster will be up.

Bing

As Bing looks: august 2009

I know this is supposed to be Random Knowledge, but I had to write this in Microsoft's defense because I really like how the website Bing is set up. So I decided that all web/websites can be regarded as knowledge. Bing is supposed to be a better rendition of a Google search engine. However, some of the main points that I love about Bing, Google has been talking about putting in or already has. These points include putting in filters for images such as how you wish to view a photograph of someone, or others such as linking to related searches.


http://www.bing.com/
So if you have not tried it I really suggest looking at it.

Underwater Creatures Emiting Laughing Gas

Scientists have found that certain underwater creatures release nitrous oxide (Laughing Gas) when nitrate is present in water. Some known creatures include: Mussels, Snails, and some underwater worms and bugs. The big problem with this comes back to us, humans. The nitrate that is present in the water comes from pollution that we put in there. To further the problem this cause is that nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that blankets our atmosphere. The only good thing so far is that we don't know how much of this "Laughing Gas" is actually getting to the atmosphere.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/life/environment/2009/03/04/198687/Underwater-creatures.htm

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/03/sea-creatures-gas.html