Opus – Page 37 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Harry Harlow

Harry Harlow was one of the first psychologists to scientifically investigate the nature of human love and affection. Through a series of controversial monkey mother experiments, Harlow was able to demonstrate the importance of early attachments, affection, and emotional bonds in the course of healthy development. His most famous experiment involved giving young rhesus monkeys a choice between two different "mothers." One was made of soft terrycloth but provided no food. The other was made of wire but provided nourishment from an attached baby bottle. Harlow removed young monkeys from their natural mothers a few hours after birth and left them to be "raised" by these mother surrogates. The experiment demonstrated that the baby monkeys spent significantly more time with their cloth mother than with their wire mother.

Frédéric Bourdin

Frédéric Bourdin is a French serial impostor the press has nicknamed "The Chameleon". He began his impersonations as a child and claims to have assumed at least 500 false identities; three being teenage missing people.

Punxsutawney Phil

Punxsutawney Phil is a legendary groundhog and the focal point of the annual Groundhog Day celebration held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, United States. This beloved rodent, whose origins date back to the 19th century, has become an enduring symbol of weather prediction and folklore in American culture. Each year on February 2nd, thousands gather in Punxsutawney to witness Phil's emergence from his burrow. According to tradition, if Phil sees his shadow upon emerging, it is believed that there will be six more weeks of winter weather. Conversely, if he does not see his shadow, it is interpreted as a prediction of an early spring.

Cobra maneuver

In aerobatics, Pugachev's Cobra is a dramatic and demanding maneuver in which an airplane flying at a moderate speed suddenly raises the nose momentarily to the vertical position and slightly beyond, before dropping it back to normal flight. It uses potent engine thrust to maintain approximately constant altitude through the entire move. Some have speculated that the maneuver may have use in close range combat, although it has never been used in combat. It is an impressive trick to demonstrate an aircraft's pitch control authority, high angle of attack stability and engine-versus-inlet compatibility, as well as the pilot's skill. The maneuver is named after the Soviet test pilot Viktor Pugachyov, who performed it in 1989 at the Paris Le Bourget air show.

Beauty of Loulan

The Beauty of Loulan is the preserved dead body of a woman who lived about 4000 years ago, during the Bronze Age. Unlike Egyptian mummies, which were preserved on purpose, the Loulan Beauty was preserved almost by accident. She was buried near a salt lake in the desert, where the arid and dry conditions preserved even the finer details of her face, such as her eyelashes.

Poitou donkey

The Poitou is known as the Baudet du Poitou in the Poitou-Charentes region of its native country of France. Mules, the result of crossing a male donkey with a female horse, are a greatly valued resource for draft and farm work. For more than a thousand years, mule production has been documented in France, and, around 1717, the Poitou become the standardized breed we know today, for the purpose of breeding mules. The most desirable mule was produced by breeding a Poitou jack to a Trait Poitevin Mulassier mare. This cross created the finest working mule in all of Europe, and fetched great prices for those who could afford them.

Pale Male

Pale Male was a red-tailed hawk that resided in and near New York City's Central Park from the 1990s until 2023. Birdwatcher and author Marie Winn gave him his name because of the unusually light coloring of his head. He was one of the first red-tailed hawks known to have nested on a building rather than in a tree and is known for establishing a dynasty of urban-dwelling red-tailed hawks. Each spring, bird watchers would set up telescopes alongside Central Park's Model Boat Pond to observe his nest and chicks at 927 Fifth Avenue.

Leopold and Loeb

Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Albert Loeb were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks (a relative of Loeb) in Chicago, Illinois, United States, on May 21, 1924. They committed the murder – characterized at the time as "the crime of the century" – hoping to demonstrate superior intellect, which they believed enabled and entitled them to carry out a "perfect crime" without consequences. After the two men were arrested, Loeb's family retained Clarence Darrow as lead counsel for their defense. Darrow's twelve-hour summation at their sentencing hearing is noted for its influential criticism of capital punishment as retributive rather than transformative justice. Both young men were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years. Loeb was murdered by a fellow prisoner in 1936. Leopold was released on parole in 1958.

Kola Superdeep Borehole

The Kola Superdeep Borehole, located in Russia, is the world's deepest man-made hole, reaching a depth of 40,230 feet (12,262 meters) or 7.6 miles (12.2 kilometers), surpassing the depth of the Mariana Trench and the height of Mount Everest. The drilling project, initiated by the Soviets in 1970, revealed unexpected findings such as the absence of the "Conrad discontinuity" transition from granite to basalt, the presence of liquid water at unexpected depths, and microscopic fossils from single-celled marine organisms dating back 2 billion years. Despite the significant depth achieved, the drilling faced challenges like increasing temperatures and rock densities, leading to the project's discontinuation in 1992, with the hole being sealed in 2005.

Blue Hole

The Blue Hole is a diving location on the southeast Sinai, a few kilometres north of Dahab, Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea. The dive site is reputed to have the most diver fatalities in the world with estimates of between 130 and 200 fatalities in recent years.