May 24, 2024

Overview for this week.

We're now a month into our summer schedule. Again, I've decided to not skip a week. Why? It's Memorial Day weekend and not a weekend to pass over. So, this special Memorial Day issue is dedicated to all of America's soldiers who did not come home. We don't know them all, but we owe them all. – Anonymous

1. I am dedicating this issue of The Flock to the observance of Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 2024, starting with a short history of the holiday and an excerpt from the speech given by James A. Garfield on the first Memorial Day.

2. I have included a Poetry section this week with a pair of military themed pieces. "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, a poem that has become closely associated with Memorial Day, and an inspirational figurative passage from Theodore Roosevelt.

3. I've also included a short calendar on upcoming military holidays in the next two months.

4. This week's Artist's Corner features Terry Taube, a Hawaii based artist who creates cast paper sculptural works inspired by the natural environment and culture of Hawaii.

5. In Reaching High we have a new women's world record for the fastest ascent of Mt. Everest by a Nepali climber Phunjo Lama with an astonishing time of 14 hours and 31 minutes from base camp to the summit.

6. In Photography I have links to the winners of this year's Capture the Atlas Milky Way Photographer of the Year contest. Be sure to click-through on this one, the photos are breathtaking.

7. I've been in NYC for the last week an wanted to share the city's latest landmark, Little Island, on the Hudson River waterfront.

8. In Museums we pay a visit to the recently opened Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology in the heart of New York's Financial District.

9. In the Kid's Corner we have a truly unique railroad in Hungary that is staffed and operated by children.

10. New York City has a fledgling red-tailed hawk population that is gaining support and acceptance from the city and its residents. I saw a nesting pair from the corner of 59th and 8th Avenue, where I enter the big park here daily.

Now, to this week's Flock.

Tap to view past issues.

From: PBS

During that first national commemoration, former Union Gen. and sitting Ohio Congressman James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried there.

This national event galvanized efforts to honor and remember fallen soldiers that began with local observances at burial grounds in several towns throughout the United States following the end of the Civil War, such as the May 1, 1865 gathering in Charleston, South Carolina organized by freed slaves to pay tribute and give proper burial to Union troops.

In 1873, New York was the first state to designate Memorial Day as a legal holiday. By the late 1800s, many more cities and communities observed Memorial Day, and several states had declared it a legal holiday.

After World War I, it became an occasion for honoring those who died in all of America’s wars and was then more widely established as a national holiday throughout the United States.

The following is an excerpt from the powerful speech former Union General, sitting Ohio Congressman, and future president of the United States, James A. Garfield gave on Memorial Day, May 30, 1868:

"I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung. With words we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be kept; plighted faith may be broken; and vaunted virtue be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens..."

– James A. Garfield, May 30, 1868, Arlington Naional Cemetery

"In Flanders Fields", written by John McCrea during World War I is one of the most quoted poems to come out of the war. And has become closely associated with the symbolism and observance of Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations, and with Memorial Day and Veterans Day in the United States.

From: Poetry Foundation

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

  That mark our place; and in the sky

  The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

  Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

    In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

  The torch; be yours to hold it high.

  If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

    In Flanders fields.

DOD Reads is a veteran run website that promotes literature and develops reading lists for members of the military. The following poem, "Man in The Arena" is from their list of the six top military poems. The poem is an excerpt from a speech, "Citizenship in a Republic" given by former president Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910.

From: DOD Reads

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

The Man in the Arena – Teddy Roosevelt (A Powerful Speech from History)

The following is a list of military holidays and observances coming up in the next two months.

June 6, 2024 – Anniversary of the World War II – Allied invasion in Normandy, France, now known as D-Day.

June 14, 2024 – Flag Day

A day to celebrate the adoption of the U.S. flag.

June 14, 2024 – Army Birthday

June 23, 2024 – Coast Guard Auxiliary Birthday

June 27, 2024 – National PTSD Awareness Day

A day to bring awareness about issues related to PTSD. Find resources for PTSD here.

July 4, 2024 – Independence Day

July 27, 2024 – Korean War Veterans Armistice Day

I was thinking about Hawaii this morning and my friend Elizabeth who collaborated with Hawaiian sculptor Terry Taube. We have some of his special pieces and we all love the Ono who has defied the test of time. So, I thought I'd give Terry a nod this week.

From: terrytaube.com

For 30 years Terry Taube has made Hawaii his home, exploring its natural elements and recreating them to share with others. His innovative paper casting techniques and styles have allowed him to achieve a level of originality that celebrates the renaissance of paper in art.

Papermaking is one of the world's most ancient art forms. Distinct techniques were developed, many independently, in every part of the world, including the Pacific nations. Taube continues this tradition. The originality and vitality of his creations are a reflection of his reverence for nature and culture.

Working with paper, Taube achieves dimension, effects and colors that only exist in nature. He creates texture and design as diverse as lava and butterflies. Illusions of bronze patina and raku flourish with luminous colors, opalescence, fossil-like images and realism.

From: Barron's, By: AFP, May 23, 2024

Nepali climber Phunjo Lama on Thursday reached Everest's summit in 14 hours and 31 minutes, smashing the record for the world's fastest ascent of the mountain by a woman.

Climbers usually take days to reach the top of the 8,849-metre (29,000-foot) mountain, spending nights on its different camps to rest and acclimatise.

But Lama, who is in her thirties, shaved more than 11 hours off the previous best that had stood since 2021. It means she has reclaimed her own record.

"She started (from the base camp) at 15:52 on May 22, summited 6:23 am May 23," Khim Lal Gautam, chief of the tourism's department field office at the base camp, told AFP.

Earlier this month, when Lama was still at Everest's base camp, she said in a post on Facebook that she was "100 percent sure" she would reach the top of "the Mother Goddess".

Lion’s Den’ by Lorenzo Ranieri Tenti

PetaPixel is featuring 15 of their favorite Milky Way photos from this year’s top 25 Capture the Atlas Milky Way Photographer of the Year contest winners. I'm showing one here and featuring another with its backstory below. Be sure to follow the link to PetaPixel to see all 15 amazing photos and the wonderful stories that accompany them.

From: PetaPixel, By: Jeremy Grey, May 20, 2024

Capture the Atlas has revealed the 25 winners of the seventh annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year photo contest have been unveiled, showcasing the best Milky Way images from shooters all around the world.

Of the 25 winners, PetaPixel has selected 15 to feature in this article, alongside a short description of each image. All 25 images are available to view on Capture the Atlas.

‘Lightning Lake’ by Tom Rae

Tom Rae captured this beautiful image in Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand. The mountain, Aoraki/Mount Cook, is coated with winter snow, which Rae says are “rare alpine weather conditions” at the location.

“Upon reaching the lake, the scene that unfolded made me feel like I had landed on another planet,” the photographer explains. “This night, among many spent documenting this incredible part of the world, stands out for me.”

“The image features icebergs in the cyan-blue glacial lake, red airglow painting the sky, and the glow of billions of stars in the Milky Way — a glimpse into the vastness beyond,” Rae continues.

I've been visiting in New York this past week and finally got a chance to get down to Battery Park and see the new project that Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg created and gave to the city of New York, Little Island. It is a fantastic and otherworldly man-made island that seems to float above the Hudson River providing a new green space and performance amphitheater to the city.

From: CBS News, July 25, 2021

It looks like something a child might have imagined: a mirage of an island floating above the Hudson River. Eccentric, over-the-top, fun! "It's leaving the city, going to Oz," said billionaire Barry Diller.

Little Island is Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg's, $260 million present to the City of New York, topped not by a bow, but a man-made magic mountain.

"I kept saying, 'No, make it higher, make it higher,'" Diller told correspondent Martha Teichner. "What I didn't realize is when you get up here and you look around, it's so glorious."

Replacing a derelict pier on the Hudson River, the $260 million Little Island is a new public space and performance venue constructed on top of concrete pilings shaped like tulips.

CBS NEWS

The site of Little Island is the old Pier 54. In its historic heyday, the ship carrying the survivors of the Titanic docked there; a few years later, the Lusitania began its doomed voyage from the very same spot.

Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, did in Pier 54. Like so much of Manhattan's West Side waterfront, it was derelict, and had been deteriorating for decades.

"The waterfront was really decrepit, and the piers were crumbling," said Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times. "The story of the West Side became the story of Manhattan's reinvention, and the West Side here came to be reinvented as a park, essentially."

New York City's Little Island

Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology opened its door in February of this year at 21 Dey Street in New York's Financial District on the corner of Church and Dey St. Mercer Labs was co-created by Michael Cayre and artist Roy Nachum to create an accessible and immersive museum that embraces technology and art in a new way.

From: Mercer Labs

Mercer Labs transforms the museum experience. Through fifteen experimental exhibition spaces, interactive experiences, unique listening encounters and immersive installations, the relationship between art and technology is redefined.

Artist Led

Roy Nachum is the artist behind the design, construction, and creative vision of Mercer Labs. renowned for his experimental srtistic practice, nachum examines human perception by pushing the frontiers of artistic expression.

His work often features Braille poetry in relief, and the subject of a child with a gold crown covering their eyes. the Crown Kid symbolizes "blindness" born from displaced values and desires, while Braille enables tactile interaction.

Mercer Labs Transports Visitors into the Dreamworld of Artist Roy Nachum

From: Boing Boing, By: David Pescovitz, May 23, 2024

All aboard for the The Gyermekvasút, a Communist-era seven-mile railway in Budapest, Hungary that's operated entirely by children except for the train conductor.

"Like any other railway, it has ticket offices, diesel locomotives, signals, switches and a timetable," the railway company explains. "Unlike other railways though, this one is run by children. The line stretches among the Buda hills from Széchenyihegy to Hűvösvölgy, crossing the Cogwheel Railway and serving Normafa as well as the highest point of Budapest: Jánoshegy."

According to Atlas Obscura, the railway dates back to the Communist era when in 1947, Hungary decided to follow the innovative tracks laid down by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, conjuring up the concept of a railway run by children. No, it wasn't some dystopian child labor scheme but rather a prestigious initiative aimed at equipping young boys and girls with essential trade skills and a sense of honor and responsibility. The railway eventually fell into disrepair until 1990 when post-Communist Hungary began to focus on domestic tourism.

Young And Old Take A Ride On Hungary's Communist-Era Railway

Octavia and Pale Male (or a similarly plumaged red-tail, perhaps), March 2020.

Surprisingly, New York City has a fledgling population of red-tailed hawks. I saw two nesting at from the corner of 59th and 8th Avenue, where I enter the big park here daily. I checked with the New York City Audubon and found that this is more common than I would have thought. Some mating pairs have even reached celebrity staus in the recent past.

From: NYC Audubon

For decades, the most famous nest in New York City, on Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, was that of the extraordinary Pale Male, who arrived in the City in 1991. At the time a rare sighting in New York City, Pale Male's surprising appearance in Central Park, and his eventually successful nesting attempts with several partners within view of onlookers, quickly earned him a devoted fan club. Little did his early fans know that they would play an important role in defending him and his new-found home, and that Pale Male would become the talk of the town.

Pale Male was first observed in Central Park during the summer of 1991, with a striped brown, rather than red, tail indicating he was a first-year bird. Local naturalist and author Marie Winn came up with his name in honor of his very light coloring. Over the ensuing decade, Pale Male coupled with several mates, including "First Love," "Chocolate," and "Blue." Their fates, as those of several later mates, exemplified the dangers of urban life for these raptors: First Love was injured, rehabilitated, and then died from eating a poisoned pigeon; Chocolate died from injuries sustained in a collision with a car; Blue disappeared and was presumed dead in 2001.

The attention to these deaths contributed to the successful banning of the bird poison Avitrol in the City in 2000, after cooperative advocacy by NYC Audubon, National Audubon and its state office Audubon New York, and other environmental organizations and local activists including actress Mary Tyler Moore and NYC Audubon chapter award winner Mary Kelly. (Read more about our continuing advocacy concerning rodenticide use).

Please share your photos, stories and thoughts. I'd love to present them in The Flock.

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• Sensitive & Specific: The Testing Newsletter by Mara G. Aspinall and Liz Ruark.

In coming weeks: we'll be sharing more investigative articles from our roving reporter William George, original writing from Flock favorite Dino DeConcini, and an update on the Marolt brothers' coming expedition to Argentina.

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I'm looking forward to sharing more of your personal stories - oral, written, or otherwise, as we enter our third year. I'd so love to present them to The Flock, hit a mailbox below to share your story.

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