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Frog Month feature:
The first frogs, the oldest known frogs
.
Czatkobatrachus
from Poland and...
Triadobatrachus
from Madagascascar
Both are from the early
Triassic era, 250 million years ago.
They could not jump because they did not have the proper
hips and the long back legs, but they were getting there.
Real frogs and toads were coming!
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This
is our always changing list of recently added sites, plus the occasional oldie.
Generally, sites get added on the top and eventually get taken off the bottom.
At six feet tall and two hundred pounds,
Mary
Fields was an intimidating woman.
She drank whiskey, swore often,
and smoked handmade cigars.
She wore pants under her skirt and a gun under
her apron. At six feet tall
and two hundred pounds, Mary Fields was an intimidating
woman.
Mary lived in Montana, in a town called Cascade. She was a special
member
of the community there. All schools would close on her birthday,
and though women were not allowed
entry into saloons, she was
given special permission by the mayor to come in anytime and to any
saloon
she liked.
But Mary wasn’t from Montana. She was born into enslavement
in Tennessee
sometime in the early 1830s, and lived enslaved
for more than thirty years until slavery was abolished.
As a free woman, life led her first to Florida to work for a
family and then Ohio when part of the family
moved.
When Mary was 52, her close friend who lived in
Montana became ill with
pneumonia. Upon hearing
the news, Mary dropped everything and came to nurse
her friend back to health.
Her friend soon
recovered and Mary decided to stay in Montana settling
in Cascade.
Her beginning in Cascade wasn’t smooth. To make ends
meet, she first
tried her hand at the restaurant business.
She opened a restaurant, but she wasn’t much
of a chef.
And she was also too generous, never refusing to serve
a customer who couldn’t pay. So
the restaurant failed
within a year.
But then in 1895, when in her sixties, Mary, or
“Stagecoach Mary”
as she was sometimes
called because she never missed a day of work,
became the second woman and
first African
American to work as a mail carrier in the U.S.
She got the job because
she was the
fastest applicant to hitch six horses.
Eventually she retired to a life of running
a laundry business. And babysitting
all the kids
in town. And going to baseball games. And
being friends with most of the
townsfolk."
- Montana history site
This was Mary Fields. A rebel, a legend.
Going in Black History& Civil Rights
Ancient
Craft - Dr. James Dilley
The pinnacle of prehistoric European flintknapping?
Found on the Danish island of Fænø around 1876 this
stunning flint dagger was owned by Hindsgavl Manor
on Funen until it was purchased by the National
Museum of Denmark.
Known as the "Hindsgavl Dagger", it features on
the 100 krone note.It is believed to date from
2400-1800BC based on similar examples which
are known as fish-tail type IV daggers. They come
from a period at the end of Stone Age when status
was shown by the quality of the dagger you owned
or could be buried with. There are suggestions
these late Neolithic daggers were imitations of the
earliest metal examples already in circulation.
There would have been few metalworkers at this
time so their work was very valuable. However
there would have been just as few (if not fewer)
flintknappers who could have produced work as
fine as the Hindsgavl Dagger.
To create the dagger, a large piece of flint would
have been shaped with hammerstones into a
roughout before it was refined with antler hammers
into a dagger blank. Pressure flaking may have been
started to create the final blade shape before it was
ground smooth. With a smooth surface, rippling
flakes could have been detached. The stitching effect
on the handle would have been achieved by pressure
flaking and indirect punchwork.
Going in Art and Ancient History and Archaeology
Eclipse
Explorer!
and its detailed, interactive graphics.
Going in Astronomy
Going in Art and Ancient History and Archaeology
Please
join us in honouring Section Officer Phyllis Latour Doyle
for a lifetime of dedicated service. Lest We Forget.
WWII uncovered: Women's History
Month:
Honouring Phyllis "Pippa" Latour Doyle Heroine of the SOE
Born in South Africa on 8 April 1921, Phyllis "Pippa" Latour
was an orphan by the age of 3 years old. Adopted by her
French father's cousin, Pippa relocated to England in 1939
to finish her education. In November of 1941 she joined
the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a flight
mechanic for airframes.
"They took a group of about 20 of us away for training.
It was unusual training – not what I expected, and very hard.
It wasn't until after my first round of training that they told
me they wanted me to become a member of the SOE.
They said I could have three days to think about it. I told
them I didn't need three days to make a decision - I'd take
the job now." - Phyllis "Pippa" Latour Doyle - Stuff
New Zealand November 25, 2014 interview
Latour officially joined the Special Operations Executive
on 01 November 1943 and was commissioned as an
Honorary Section Officer.
According to the New Zealand Army News:
"She parachuted into Orne, Normandy on 01 May 1944
to operate as part of the Scientist circuit, using the
codename Genevieve. Pippa worked as a wireless
operator with Resistance member Claude de Baissac,
or “Denis,” who was also a southern-African, and of
Mauritian origin, and his sister Lisé de Baissac
(the courier). Denis had to plug gaps in the SOE’s
northern France operations caused by double agents
and lay the groundwork for an anticipated Allied
landing. For Pippa’s cover story, De Baissac had
forged papers showing she had left Paris to study
painting. Within days of dropping into France,
Latour made contact with London, using a safe
house belonging to a doctor, before shifting to
de Baissac’s farmhouse headquarters."
"Word got back to the network that an informer
was among the resistance group who collected
Pippa and that the Germans had discovered her
parachute. Forced to move, Pippa, who by now
was working closely with de Baissac’s sister Lise,
known as “Odile,” fled on a bicycle and set up in a
barn. Using radio sets hidden round the countryside,
Latour sent a stream of coded reports to London."
- Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott, Mission Improbable:
A salute to the RAF women of SOE in wartime France
"Small of stature, Latour, who was fluent in French,
posed as a teenage girl whose family had moved to the
region to escape the Allied bombing. She rode bicycles
around the area, selling soap and chatting with German
soldiers. When she obtained any military intelligence,
she encoded it for transmitting using one-time codes
that were hidden on a piece of silk that she used to tie
up her hair. At one point, she was brought in for
questioning, but the German authorities did not think
to examine her hair tie, and she was released."
(Beryl E. Escott et. al)
Following the war, Phyllis married Patrick Doyle, an
Australian engineer. The couple relocated to Kenya,
then Fiji, Australia and eventually settling in Auckland
New Zealand. Pippa and Patrick had four children.
A highly decorated veteran of World War II,
Phyllis Latour Doyle was honored with the Member of
the Order of the British Empire, Croix de Guerre
1939–1945, France and Germany Star, Defense Medal
and on 25 November 2014 she was awarded the Legion
of Honor, France’s highest military honor.
Pippa passed away on 07 October 2023 at the age of 102.
Going in Women's
History
Going in Black
History & Civil Rights
Hi, kids! I'm Dakota! I am
one of the Brittanies here at
Good Sites for Kids! I'm a retired hunter and a mama.
My fur-sister Lily and I are American Brittanies, both
rescues, and both South Dakota natives. When we're not
helping out on the site, we patrol the property,
chase rabbits and squirrels, say hi to the kids at the school
playground and the dogs next door, rack out on our doggie
beds, beg for treats, and hang out with our humans!
American Brittany Rescue (Lily) National Brittany Rescue (Kodie)
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