Earth and Space News

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Black Lip Oysters, Black Pearls and Elementary's Further Adventures

Summary: Fake black pearls not from black lip oysters assist in solving murderous acid attacks on Elementary Season 7 premiere The Further Adventures May 23, 2019.

Black pearls from black lip oysters never appear in Elementary procedural drama series episode The Further Adventures May 23, 2019, because the black pearl of the Borgias alludes to albeit expensive glass.

Director Christine Moore and writers Robert Doherty and Jason Tracey break the artificial pearl that boasts Lucrezia Borgia's (April 18, 1480-June 24, 1519) cantarella poison-bearing ring. Season 7's first episode, as the series' 142nd overall, commemorates Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle's (May 22, 1859-July 7, 1930) The Adventure of the Six Napoleons. One of six busts destroyed by Bernardo Pugliesi, depicted by Federico Dordei in the series, in the Doyle description defended the black pearl of the Borgias.

Perhaps Pugliesi killing while erring over artificial black pearls encourages Sherlock Holmes's (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson's (Lucy Liu) exposing acid attacks from expert errors.

Cesare (Sept. 13, 1475-March 12, 1507), Lucrezia and their father Pope Alexander VI (Jan. 1, 1431-Aug. 18, 1503) figure among more famous infamous Borgia family members.

Perhaps central Italy's volcanic aquifers, rocks and soils and Persian Gulf and Red Sea oyster beds respectively gave Borgia family members black arsenic and black pearls. Black lip oysters (Pinctada margaritifera, from Portuguese pintada, spotted, stained and Latin margarīta, pearl and -fer, bearing) have yellow, silver, pink, green, blue or black pearls. Black-lip pearl or black lip oysters, identified by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), impart black pearls near their white- or silver-interiored shell's black band.

Black lip oysters juggle green-white-mottled, round shells with bundled, filamentous byssuses (from Greek βύσσος, fine-woven yellow linen) and two straight, toothless hinges deeper rightward than leftward.

Black lip oysters know male-only genders as temperate annually, tropical biannually broadcast-spawned gametes (from Greek γαμέτης, husband) and female-only genders as physically and sexually mature two-year-olds.

Black lip oysters log 0.00014- to 0.00019-inch (3.7- to 5-micrometer) daily growth rates during 16- to 30-day larval stages in maximally 121.23-foot- (40-meter-) deep sheltered waters. They move after phytoplankton (from Greek φυτόν, plant and πλαγκτόν, wanderer) prey on food-transferring, foot-like ciliated velum (from Latin cilium, hair and velum, sail) swimming mechanisms. Physical and sexual maturity necessitates sessile (from Latin sessus, seated and -ilis, -ile) substrates for larval and postlarval veliger (from Latin vēliger, sail-bearing) black lip oysters.

Byssal filaments organize 7.87- to 9.84-inch (20- to 25-centimeter) diameter, two-plus-year-old, 0.19- to 0.31-ounce (5.5- to 8.8-gram) black lip oysters horizontally and vertically into reef-like communities.

Black lip oysters perform annual temperate, biannual tropical spawning from permanent positions by putting byssal filaments onto Indo-Pacific bay, lagoon and reef substrate species and surfaces.

Black lip oysters quash marine parasites and particles, from 3.28- to 246.06-foot (1- to 75-meter) depths, between orange mantles and silver-white shells and within mantle tissues. Black lip oysters releasing hard, inner-shell, iridescent, layered nacre (from Latin nacchara, mother-of-pearl) renders marine intruders and irritants into yellow, pink, green, gray, blue black pearls. Polynesian; Red Sea; Hawaiian; Mesoamerican; Persian Gulf; Australasian, Melanesian, Micronesian; and East African waters support their respective cumingi, erythraensis, galtsoffi, mazalanica, persica, typica and zanzibarensis subspecies.

Lola Quinn's (Maritza Veer) being acid-attacked after nose-reshaping, not puffy-eye, surgery and getting thrown, not throwing herself, down a shaft tell Holmes and Watson the perpetrator.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) quickly demystifies the black pearl of the Borgias while Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) solves a murder before they track an acid attacker in Elementary tv series' seventh season premiere, The Further Adventures (CBS, season 9, episode 1): Elementary @ElementaryCBS, via Facebook May 21, 2019

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The black lip pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) produces gray or black pearls; Pinctada margaritifera, under synonym Margarita sinensis; drawn by English natural history illustrator and engraver Richard P. Nodder (active 1790-1820); W.E. Leach, The Zoological Miscellany, vol. I (1814), Tab. XLVIII, opposite page 108: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28684700; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/6127029361/

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. 1892. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London, England: George Newnes Ltd.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. 1905. "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons." The Return of Sherlock Holmes. London, England: George Newnes Ltd.

Elementary @ElementaryCBS. 21 May 2019. "Exactly where we are supposed to be. Elementary premieres Thursday 10/9c." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/photos/a.151627898295663/1513395935452179

"The Further Adventures." Elementary: The Seventh Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, May 23, 2019.

Gamez, Albert. 2014. "Pinctada margaritifera." Animal Diversity Web > Browse Animalia. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Available @ https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Pinctada_margaritifera/

Leach, William Elford. 1814. "Tab. XLVIII. Margarita Sinensis." The Zoological Miscellany; Being Descriptions of New, or Interesting Animals. Vol. I: 108. London, England: Printed by B. McMillan for E. Nodder and Son.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28684699

Linnæi, Caroli [Linnaeus, C]. 1758. "280. Mytilus. 209. margaritiferus." Systema Naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Tomus I: 704. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727617

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 September 2018. “Mulberry Silkworms on Elementary's Whatever Remains, However Improbable.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/09/mulberry-silkworms-on-elementarys.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 September 2018. “Elementary's Fit to be Tied: Free of Pink Slime and White Water Molds?” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/09/elementarys-fit-to-be-tied-free-of-pink.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 September 2018. “Lion's Mane Jellyfishes and Elementary's The Geek Interpreter.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/09/lions-mane-jellyfishes-and-elementarys.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 September 2018. “Borrachero Trees in Elementary's The Visions of Norman P. Horowitz.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/09/borrachero-trees-in-elementarys-visions.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 August 2018. “Silk From Darwin's Bark Spiders on Elementary's The Worms Crawl In.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/silk-from-darwins-bark-spiders-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 August 2018. “Chocolate from Cacao Trees on Elementary's Uncanny Valley of the Dolls.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/chocolate-from-cacao-trees-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 August 2018. “Guatemalan Sugarcane, Guatemalan Rum on Elementary's How to Get a Head.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/guatemalan-sugarcane-guatemalan-rum-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 August 2018. “Kukicha Tea from Japan and Elementary Season Six's Through the Fog.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/kukicha-tea-from-japan-and-elementary.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 August 2018. “Northwest Italian Sweet White Wine Sciacchetrà on Elementary's Breathe.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/northwest-italian-sweet-white-wine.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 July 2018. “American Chestnut Trees for Elementary Season Six's Meet Your Maker.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/american-chestnut-trees-for-elementary.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 July 2018. “Bird's-Eye Pipe Tobacco and Trichinopoly Cigars: Elementary's Long Way.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/birds-eye-pipe-tobacco-and-trichinopoly.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 July 2018. “Elementary's Adventure of Ersatz Sobekneferu: West African Crocodiles.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/elementarys-adventure-of-ersatz.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 July 2018. “Blue Wildebeests and Tarragon Tea on Elementary's Nobody Lives Forever.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/blue-wildebeests-and-tarragon-tea-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 June 2018. “Vermont Black Bears and Elementary's Sand Trap Episode June 18, 2018.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/vermont-black-bears-and-elementarys.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 June 2018. “Elementary Sober Companions, Amethysts and Agiorgitiko Red Wine Grapes.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/elementary-sober-companions-amethysts.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 June 2018. “Elementary's Give Me the Finger: Not the Southeast Asian Fruit Durian.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/elementarys-give-me-finger-not.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 June 2018. “Elementary's Give Me the Finger: Floppy Disks Dinosaurs Like Grallator.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/elementarys-give-me-finger-floppy-disks.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 June 2018. “Bird Flu on Elementary's Bits and Pieces and Wild Red Junglefowl.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/bird-flu-on-elementarys-bits-and-pieces.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 May 2018. “Boxing Kangaroos and Elementary Season 6 Episode 4 Our Time Is Up.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/boxing-kangaroos-and-elementary-season.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 May 2018. “American Staffordshire Terrier and Elementary's Pushing Buttons.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/american-staffordshire-terrier-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 May 2018. “Cassowaries and Elementary's Pushing Buttons Episode May 14, 2018.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/cassowaries-and-elementarys-pushing.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 May 2018. “Monoceros Unicorns: Puzzles Once You've Ruled Out God on Elementary.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/monoceros-unicorns-puzzles-once-youve.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 May 2018. “Sumatran Tigers and Elementary's An Infinite Capacity for Taking Pains.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/sumatran-tigers-and-elementarys.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 November 2016. “Green Tree Python Natural History Illustrations and Elementary.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/11/green-tree-python-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 November 2016. “Eastern Poison Ivy Botanical Illustrations and Elementary's Henny Penny.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/11/eastern-poison-ivy-botanical.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 November 2016. “Galápagos Marine Iguana Natural History Illustrations and Elementary.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/11/galapagos-marine-iguana-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 October 2016. "China's Imperial Jade Heirloom Seal Worth Several Cities on Elementary." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/10/chinas-imperial-jade-heirloom-seal.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 May 2016. “Mopane Worm Natural History Illustrations and Elementary's Invisible Hand.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/05/mopane-worm-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 May 2016. “Johannes Vermeer Painting The Astronomer: Elementary's Invisible Hand.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/05/johannes-vermeer-painting-astronomer.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 March 2016. “Shih Tzu Dog Breed and Elementary's Up to Heaven and Down to Hell.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/03/shih-tzu-dog-breed-and-elementarys-up.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 February 2016. “Mushroom Botanical Illustrations and Elementary's A Study in Charlotte.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/02/mushroom-botanical-illustrations-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 November 2015. "Black-Capped Central American Squirrel Monkeys and Elementary Series." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/11/black-capped-central-american-squirrel.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 November 2015. “Tienchi-Flower Tea and Elementary's Evidence of Things Not Seen.” Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/11/tienchi-flower-tea-and-elementarys.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 April 2015. "Smooth Cordgrass Announces Crime Scenes on Elementary's Under My Skin." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/04/smooth-cordgrass-announces-crime-scenes.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 April 2015. “Pablo Picasso Painting Woman Reading on Elementary's A Stitch in Time.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/03/pablo-picasso-painting-woman-reading-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 February 2015. “Extinct Quagga Plains Zebra on Elementary's The Female of the Species.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/02/extinct-quagga-plains-zebra-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 January 2015. “Elementary's Yellow Clivia and Yellow Clivia Botanical Illustrations.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/01/elementarys-yellow-clivia-and-yellow.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 December 2014. “Elementary's Nutmeg Concoction and Nutmeg Botanical Illustrations.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/12/elementarys-nutmeg-concoction-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 November 2014. “Elementary's Bird in Blue-Throated Macaw Natural History Illustrations.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/11/elementarys-bird-in-blue-throated-macaw.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 October 2014. “Bearded Dragon Natural History Illustrations: Not Elementary's Nemesis.” Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/10/bearded-dragon-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 May 2014. “Ficus Benjamina Botanical Illustrations and Elementary's Stunted Tree.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/05/ficus-benjamina-botanical-illustrations.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 February 2014. “Dimetrodon Natural History Illustrations and Elementary's Dimetrodon.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/02/dimetrodon-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 January 2014. “Nanotyrannus Natural History Illustrations and Elementary's Dead Clade Walking.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2014/01/nanotyrannus-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 December 2013. “Fruit in Osage Orange Botanical Illustrations and Elementary Series.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/12/fruit-in-osage-orange-botanical.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 November 2013. “George Stubbs Painting The Godolphin Arabian and Elementary's Nutmeg.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/11/george-stubbs-painting-godolphin.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 November 2013. “John Wootton Painting The Darley Arabian and Elementary's Studhorse.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/11/john-wootton-painting-darley-arabian.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 November 2013. “John Wootton Painting The Byerley Turk and Elementary's Thoroughbreds.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/11/john-wootton-painting-byerley-turk-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 30 August 2013. “Turner Fighting Temeraire Painting in Elementary Series Episode The Woman.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/08/turner-fighting-temeraire-painting-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 June 2013. “Paul Gauguin Painting Tahitian Women on the Beach in Elementary's The Woman.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/06/paul-gauguin-painting-tahitian-women-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 May 2013. “Rubens Painting The Incredulity of St Thomas in Elementary's The Woman.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/05/rubens-painting-incredulity-of-st.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 May 2013. “Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Painting Rousse in Elementary Episode The Woman.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/05/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec-painting.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 May 2013. “The Bruegel Painted Parable in the Elementary Series Episode The Woman.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-bruegel-painted-parable-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 April 2013. "Black-Tailed Bee Flies Are Not Averse to Elementary's Dead Man's Switch." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/04/black-tailed-bee-flies-are-not-averse.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 April 2013. "White Darjeeling Tea Abates Broken Hearts on Elementary's Snow Angels." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/04/white-darjeeling-tea-abates-broken.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 March 2013. "Paganini 24 Caprices Affix Blame on Elementary's Déjà Vu All Over Again." Earth and Space News. Monday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/03/paganini-24-caprices-affix-blame-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 February 2013. “Osmia Avosetta Natural History Illustrations for Elementary's Bee.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/02/osmia-avosetta-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 February 2013. "New England Cottontails Perhaps Adapt to Hats on Elementary's Details." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-england-cottontails-perhaps-adapt.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 February 2013. "Bennu Herons Perhaps Avert Elementary's A Giant Gun Filled with Drugs." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/02/bennu-herons-perhaps-avert-elementarys.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 February 2013. "Frankincense Tree Essential Oils Affirm Elementary's The Deductionist." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/02/frankincense-tree-essential-oils-affirm.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 February 2013. “Russian Tortoise Natural History Illustrations and Elementary's Clyde Jan. 31, 2013.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/02/russian-tortoise-natural-history.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 25 January 2013. “Costliest, World-Most Expensive Chopard Watch: 201 Carats at $25 Million.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/01/costliest-world-most-expensive-chopard.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 January 2013. “Chopard Watch Worth $25 Million on Elementary Episode The Leviathan.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/01/chopard-watch-worth-25-million-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 January 2013. "Are Red-Whiskered Bulbuls Smuggled from Vietnam on Elementary's M?" Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/01/are-red-whiskered-bulbuls-smuggled-from.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 January 2013. “Claude Monet Painting Nympheas 1918 in Elementary Series' Leviathan.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/01/claude-monet-painting-nympheas-1918-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 January 2013. "Are Snowdrop Flowers Why Yogurt Appears on Elementary's Dirty Laundry?" Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/01/are-snowdrop-flowers-why-yogurt-appears.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 January 2013. “Paul Cézanne Still Life Painting Fruit in Elementary Series' Leviathan.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2013/01/paul-cezanne-still-life-painting-fruit.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 December 2012. “Paul Signac Painting Women at the Well in Elementary Series' Leviathan.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/12/paul-signac-painting-women-at-well-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 December 2012. “The Van Gogh Pietà Painting in Elementary Series Episode The Leviathan.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-van-gogh-pieta-painting-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 December 2012. “Edward Hopper Painting Western Motel in Elementary Series' Leviathan.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/12/edward-hopper-painting-western-motel-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 December 2012. "Barako Coffee Allays Ailments on Elementary's You Do It To Yourself." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/12/barako-coffee-allays-ailments-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 December 2012. "Liberian Coffee Perhaps Averts Addiction on Elementary's The Long Fuse." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/12/liberian-coffee-perhaps-averts.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 November 2012. "Are Juices From Trifoliate Oranges on Elementary's One Way to Get Off?" Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/11/are-juices-from-trifoliate-oranges-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 November 2012. "Saltmeadow Cordgrass Adheres to a Body on Elementary's Flight Risk." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/11/saltmeadow-cordgrass-adheres-to-body-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 November 2012. "Anisakis Worms That Adulterate Sushi Are Not Elementary's Lesser Evils." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/11/anisakis-worms-that-adulterate-sushi.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 October 2012. "Elementary's The Rat Race Accesses Vanilla Latte from Vanilla Orchids." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/elementarys-rat-race-accesses-vanilla.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 October 2012. "Why Are Lemon Presses for Lemons on Elementary's Child Predator?" Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-are-lemon-presses-for-lemons-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 October 2012. "Bach Chaconne Absorbs Anguish on Elementary's While You Were Sleeping." Earth and Space News. Monday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/bach-chaconne-absorbs-anguish-on.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 September 2012. "Are Lesser Clovers Sherlock's Lucky Shamrocks on Elementary's Pilot?" Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-lesser-clovers-sherlocks-lucky.html

Melina, Remy. 15 November 2010. "What Makes a Black Pearl Black?" Live Science > Animals.
Available @ https://www.livescience.com/32856-what-makes-a-black-pearl.html

Mikkelsen, Paula M. "Black-Lipped Pearl Oyster Pinctada margaritifera." In: Michael Hutchins, Sean F. Craig, Dennis A. Thoney and Neil Schlager, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 2, Protostomes: 461-462. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Friday, May 24, 2019

Thich Nhat Hanh, Stream Entering Monastery and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings

Summary: Stream Entering Monastery mindful meditations of Thich Nhat Hanh in southeast Australia perhaps actualize those around Ajanta cave wall paintings in India.

entrance to Tu Vlện Nhập Lưu -- Stream Entering Monastery, located at 221 Maria's Lane, Beaufort, west central Victoria, southeastern Australia: Stream Entering -- Nhap Luu Monastery @Nhapluumonastery, via Facebook April 9, 2012

Mindful meditations by Plum Village Tradition founder Thich Nhat Hanh for Stream Entering Monastery in southeast Australia perhaps allow an acquaintance with those anciently around Ajanta cave wall paintings in central-west India.

Tu vlen Nhap Luu (Vietnamese for Stream Entering Monastery) blends with Theravada (from Sanskrit स्थविरवाद, "elders' doctrine"), and some Mahayana (from Sanskrit महायान, "great vehicle"), communities. Five Buddhist nuns, called sisters, conducted the first Stream Entering Monastery monastic rains retreat three months after the meditation center's formal opening ceremony Feb. 1, 2010. Monastic rains retreats describe Siddhartha Gautama's (from Sanskrit सिद्धार्थ, "successful" and गोतम, "light [dispels] darkness") cool- and dry-season mendicant peregrinations and rainy-season downtimes in sheltered comfort.

Resident and seasonal monastics exchanged cool- and dry-season homelessness for rainy-sesaon enjoyment of beds, food, mindful meditations around Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures, and water.

Siddhartha Gautama's monastic rains retreats favored banyan (Ficus benghalensis), bodhi (Ficus religiosa), mango (Mangifera indica), rose-apple (Syzygium jambos), sala (Shorea robusta) and simsapa (Dalbergia sissoo) forests.

Those same trees guide Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures within Sahyadri (from Sanskrit सह्याद्रि, "benevolent") Hill and Waghora (from Sanskrit व्याघ्र, "tiger") River forest caves. Hill and river-bend teak (Tectona grandis) forests hosted 1,300- to 2,300-year-old Ajanta (from Sanskrit अजित, "invincible") caves, just as Australia outback bush harbors Stream Entering Monastery. Siddhartha Gautama's (624?-544 B.C.E.?) edible, ornamental Vassavasa (from Sanskrit वर्षावास, "residence in rains") monastic rains retreat gardens inspired those in Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures.

Stream Entering Monastery nuns daily journey from their on-site White Cloud Hamlet residence with its edible, ornamental gardens past the meditation center orchard and ornamental ponds.

Kalama, Kashi, Koliya, Koshala, Licchavi, Magadha, Malla, Moriya, Shakya, Vajji and Videha peoples knew enlightened Prince Siddhartha's mindful meditations as Gautama Buddha (from Sanskrit बुद्ध, "awakened").

Chaitya (memorial monument, from Sanskrit चैत्य) halls and pradakshina (right-turning, from Sanskrit प्रदक्षिण) aisles launch sitting, walking mindful meditations of Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures. Stream Entering Monastery nuns manage gatha (from Sanskrit गाथा, "verse") mindful mental recitations apart or merged with breathing, chanting, eating, resting, sitting, walking, working mindful meditations. One gatha notes, "I have arrived, I am home. In the here, in the now I am solid, I am free. In the ultimate, I dwell."

Perhaps sangha (from Sanskrit संघ, "multitude") lay and monastic breathing, resting, sitting, walking, working mindful meditations offered Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures similar gatha silences.

Stream Entering Monastery nuns perform breathing, chanting, eating, resting, sitting, walking, working mindful meditations, with or without silent gatha mindful recitations, on 135.91 acres (55 hectares).

The Himalaya Mountains south to the Hazaribagh Hills and the River Jumna east to the Rivers Kosi and Neranjara qualified for Gautama Buddha's 45-year mindful meditations. Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures received South through East Asian artisans', merchants' and monks' mindful meditations 1,300 to 1,600 and 2,000 to 2,300 years ago. African, American, Asian, Australian and European mindful meditations sustain the nine-year-old Stream Entering Monastery meditation center's monastic rains retreats, Sunday Days of Mindfulness and working bees.

Mindful meditations iconically team elephants and tigers in Ajanta cave wall paintings and sculptures with Stream Entering Monastery kangaroos two hours west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Meditation Hall at Tu Vlện Nhập Lưu -- Stream Entering Monastery (also known as Plum Village Australia), established Feb. 1, 2010, by five disciples of Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh: Stream Entering -- Nhap Luu Monastery @Nhapluumonastery, via Facebook Feb. 10, 2019

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

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Marriner, Derdriu. 29 March 2019. "Thich Nhat Hanh, Walking Meditations and Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings." Earth and Space News. Friday.
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Marriner, Derdriu. 22 February 2019. “200th Anniversary Year of Ajanta Cave Wall Paintings: Pithora Wall Art.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Coma Star Cluster Formerly Fluffed Leo the Lion’s Tail

Summary: The Coma Star Cluster formerly fluffed Leo the Lion’s tail as an ivy leaf-shaped hairy asterism of three stars known in ancient Greece as Plokamos.

German Renaissance painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer’s map of the northern sky, published in 1515, distances the Almagest’s trio of Hair stars from Constellation Leo’s tail and portrays Almagest's author, Claudius Ptolemy (upper right corner): “Imagines Coeli Septentrionales cum Duodecim Imaginibus Zodiaci” (1515), Public Domain, via The Athenaeum

The shimmering Coma Star Cluster formerly fluffed Leo the Lion’s tail as an ivy-leaf-shaped, hairy asterism of three stars known as Plokamos (Ancient Greek: πλόκαμος, plókamos, “tufts of hair, braid”) in ancient Greece.

Greco-Roman astronomer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus) associated the asterism (Ancient Greek: ἀστερισμός, asterismós, “group of stars”), or recognizable pattern of stars, with Constellation Leo the Lion in his Mathematical Treatise (Ancient Greek: Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις, Mathēmatikē Syntaxis), now known as the Almagest (Arabic: al, “the,” + Ancient Greek: μεγίστη, megiste, "greatest"). Ptolemy (ca. 100-ca. 170 CE) included the asterism in his grouping of the Lion’s unfigured stars, that is, stars around Leo but external to the constellation.

Ptolemy noted the asterism’s placement in the nebula known as Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). The asterism’s association with Queen Berenice II of Egypt (ca. 267-221 BCE) mythologizes the Queen’s shearing of a lock of her long, amber blond hair as a votive offering for the safe return of her husband, King Ptolemy III Euergetes (284-222 BCE), from the Third Syrian War (246-241 BCE). Greek astronomer and mathematician Conon of Samos (ca. 280-ca. 220 BCE), who served as court astronomer for Ptolemy III Euergetes (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης, Ptolemaĩos Euergétēs "Ptolemy the Benefactor"), is credited with discerning the cloudy shimmer near Constellation Leo as the miraculous transformation of the Queen’s offering into celestial tresses.

By the 16th century, star catalogues and maps began depicting the fan-shaped, starry cascade as a separate constellation. English constellation history biographer Ian Ridpath (born May 1, 1947) and Dutch celestial cartography historian Elly Dekker (born 1943) credit German celestial and geographic cartographer Caspar Vopel (1511-1561) with the first iconographic presentation of Coma Berenices as an individual constellation. Vopel labeled the image as Berenices Crinis (“Berenice’s lock of hair”) in the printed globe that he published in 1536 in Cologne, Germany. Ridpath notes that the inclusion of Coma Berenices in the posthumously published (1602) star catalogue of influential Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (Dec. 14, 1546-Oct. 24, 1601) assured recognition of the new constellation’s status. Brahe itemized 14 stars in the new constellation.

At the International Astronomical Union’s inaugural General Assembly, held in Rome, Italy, in May 1922, Coma Berenices numbered among the 88 constellations officially recognized by recently founded international association. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded July 28, 1919, as an internationally recognized authority for astronomical designations and nomenclature.

The Coma Star Cluster supplies the celestial iconography for Queen Berenice’s hair. The grouping of not-so-densely populated, not-so-tightly gravitationally bound, generally young stars qualifies as an open star cluster.

Ptolemy’s Almagest identified the cluster’s three starry representatives by their longitude and latitude. Ptolemy’s brief description configured each star within the nebulous asterism. Ptolemy’s three Coma Star Cluster stars are now known by designations that indicate their membership in Constellation Coma Berenices.

Gamma Comae Berenices (γ Comae Berenices; Gamma Com, γ Com) appeared first in the Almagest’s itemization of the hairy asterism’s three stars. Ptolemy’s description placed the orange-hued single star in the nebula’s northernmost part (borealissimum convolutionis), toward Leo’s border with Ursa Major the Greater Bear. Gamma Com is also known by as 15 Comae Berenices, its designation according to the system devised by John Flamsteed (Aug. 19, 1646-Dec. 31, 1719), the Royal Households of the United Kingdom’s first Astronomer Royal. Gamma Com shines as the third brightest star in Coma Berenices.

The Almagest located the Hair’s second and third stars in the nebula’s southern region. The star described by Ptolemy as the area’s preceding star (praecedens) is 7 Comae Berenices (7 Com), an orange-reddish single star. The following star in the ivy leaf-shaped figure (sequens de ipsis in figura folii edere) is 23 Comae Berenices (23 Com), a bluish binary star system of two orbiting stars.

Ian Ridpath’s website notes that German Renaissance painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471-April 6, 1528) depicted the Almagest’s triangle of stars on his colored woodcut map of the northern sky, Imagines Coeli Septentrionales cum Duodecim Imaginibus Zodiaci, published in 1515. The trio hovers above Leo’s curled tail and below the Greater Bear’s rear legs as a reminder that Leo’s lion formerly stretched upward. Dürer’s portrait of Claudius Ptolemy, captioned as Ptolemaeus Aegyptus, adorns the sky map’s upper right corner.

The Coma Star Cluster is noticeable to the naked eye. Appreciation of the cluster increases through use of viewing aids, such as binoculars and telescopes. American amateur astronomy popularizer Walter Scott Houston (May 30, 1912-Dec. 23, 1993), who authored Sky and Telescope magazine’s Deep-Sky Wonders column from 1946 until his death, noted the “sprawling” cluster as “one of binocular astronomy’s loveliest sights.” American astronomy lecturer and writer Garrett Putnam Serviss (March 24, 1851-May 25, 1929) found in Round the Year With the Stars (1910) that the “constellation with a romantic history . . . . forms an attraction for an opera-glass” (page 38). In Astronomy With an Opera-Glass (1890), Serviss perceived the romantic cluster as “a curious twinkling, as if gossamers spangled with dew drops were entangled there” (page 24).

The takeaway for the Coma Star Cluster’s former fluffing of Leo the Lion’s tail is that the transformation of the Almagest’s three Hair stars in Constellation Leo into a new constellation in the 16th century, with official acceptance of Constellation Coma Berenices in the early 20th century, traces back to Hellenistic period (323-31 BCE) astronomers’ irresistible reimagining of the shimmering, sprawling open cluster as a contemporary queen’s romantic votive offering.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Coma Star Cluster, photographed from the International Space Station (ISS) by astronaut Donald R. Pettit, Expedition Six NASA ISS science officer; March 2003: Public Domain, via NASA Human Spaceflight @ https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-6/html/iss006e40537.html

For further information:

Barentine, John C. The Lost Constellations: A History of Obsolete, Extinct, or Forgotten Star Lore. Springer Praxis Books in Popular Astronomy. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016.

Barentine, John C. Uncharted Constellations: Asterisms, Single-Source and Rebrands. Springer Praxis Books in Popular Astronomy. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2016.

Brahe, Tychonis. “Coma Berenices.” In: Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata: Quorum Haec Prima Pars de Restitutione Motuum Solis et Lunae Stellarumque Inerrantium Tractat, et Praetereá de Admirandâ Nova Stella Anno 1572 Exortâ Luculenter Agit: 168. Typis inchoate Uraniburgi, Daniae [Uraniborg, Denmark]; absoluta Pragae Bohemiae [Prague, Bohemia], M.DC.II (1602).
Available via Library of Congress @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2013gen94777/?sp=320

Byrd, Deborah. “A Tangle of Stars in Berenices’ Hair.” EarthSky > Tonight. March 13, 2018.
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Dekker, Elly. “Caspar Vopel’s Ventures in Sixteenth-Century Celestial Cartography.” Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography, vol. 62, issue 2 (2010): 161-190.
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Dürer, Albrecht. “Imagines Coeli Septentrionales cum Duodecim Imaginibus Zodiaci” (1515). The Athenaeum > Art By Artist.
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Houston, Walter Scott. “Open Clusters by the Season.” Sky & Telescope > Observing > Celestial Objects to Observe. July 27, 2006.
Available @ https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/celestial-objects-to-watch/open-clusters-by-the-season/8/

Juste, David. “George of Trebizond, Commentary on the Almagest.” Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus > Works. Updated 11.08.2017.
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Juste, David. “Ptolemy, Almagesti (tr. George of Trebizons).” Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus > Works. Updated 09.11.2018.
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Kunitzsch, Paul. “Albumasariana.” Annali dell’Università Degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” (AION): Rivista del Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici e del Dipartimento di Studi e Ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi, vol. 62 (2002): 19-28.
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Marriner, Derdriu. “Star Hopping From the Big Dipper Asterism Leads to Coma Berenices.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, May 1, 2019.
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Serviss, Garrett P. (Putnam). Round the Year With the Stars: The Chief Beauties of the Starry Heavens as Seen With the Naked Eye. New York, NY; London, England: Harper & Brothers, MCMC (1910).
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Whitworth, N. John. “23 Comae Berenices, HD109485, HIP61394, HR4789.” Universe Guide > Aliens, Earth and Space Facts > Star > What Is Star Luminosity.
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