Mary Toft (1701–1763) was an English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who
in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she hoaxed
doctors into believing that she had given birth to rabbits. Toft became
pregnant in 1726, but later miscarried. Apparently fascinated by a
rabbit she had seen while working, she claimed to have given birth to
parts of animals. Local surgeon John Howard was called to investigate,
and upon delivering several animal parts he notified other prominent
physicians. The matter came to the attention of Nathaniel St. André,
surgeon to the Royal Household of King George I of Great Britain.
St. André investigated and concluded that Toft was telling the truth.
The king also sent surgeon Cyriacus Ahlers to see Toft, but Ahlers
remained sceptical. By now quite famous, Toft was brought to London and
was studied at length. Under intense scrutiny, and producing no more
rabbits, she eventually confessed to the hoax and was subsequently
imprisoned. The public mockery which followed created panic within the
medical profession. Several prominent surgeons' careers were ruined,
and many satirical works were produced, each scathingly critical of the
affair. The pictorial satirist and social critic William Hogarth was
notably critical of the gullibility of the medical profession. Toft was
eventually released without charge and returned to her home.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1854:
Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to Turkey to
help treat wounded British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale>
1858:
French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld,
featuring the can-can, was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes
Parisiens in Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_in_the_Underworld>
1867:
The first of the Medicine Lodge Treaties was signed between the United
States and several Native American tribes in the Great Plains,
requiring them to relocate to areas in present-day western Oklahoma.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Lodge_Treaty>
1944:
World War II: German forces surrendered to Americans troops, ending the
Battle of Aachen.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aachen>
1983:
At the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures, the
length of a metre was redefined as the distance light travels in vacuum
in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/metre>
1987:
Sri Lankan Civil War: Indian Army soldiers, belonging to the Indian
Peace Keeping Force, entered the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in Jaffna,
Sri Lanka, and began killing about 68–70 patients, nurses, doctors and
other staff members.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffna_hospital_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dumbfound (v):
To confuse and bewilder; to leave speechless
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dumbfound>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you
know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in
balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can
shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most
perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle
is to cast a shadow.
--Ursula K. Le Guin
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin>
Synthetic diamond is diamond produced in a technological process, as
opposed to natural diamond which is created in geological processes.
Numerous claims of diamond synthesis were documented between 1879 and
1928; every attempt has been carefully analyzed and none has been
confirmed. In the 1940s, systematic research began in the United
States, Sweden and the Soviet Union to grow diamond using chemical
vapor deposition (CVD) and high-pressure high-temperature synthesis
(HPHT) processes. The first reproducible synthesis was reported around
1953. Those two processes still dominate the production of synthetic
diamond. The properties of synthetic diamond depend on the details of
the manufacturing processes, and can be inferior or superior to those
of natural diamond; the hardness, thermal conductivity and electron
mobility are superior in some synthetic diamonds. Consequently,
synthetic diamond is widely used in abrasives, cutting and polishing
tools and in heat sinks. Electronic applications of synthetic diamond
are being developed, including high-power switches at power stations,
high-frequency field-effect transistors and light-emitting diodes. Both
CVD and HPHT diamonds can be cut into gems and various colors can be
produced: clear white, yellow, brown, blue, green and orange.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1708:
Having burned down in the 1666 Great Fire of London, the rebuilt St
Paul's Cathedral was completed on the 76th birthday of its architect,
Christopher Wren.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Cathedral>
1740:
Per the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Maria Theresa assumed
the throne of the Habsburg Monarchy in Austria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa_of_Austria>
1818:
The United Kingdom and the United States signed the Treaty of 1818,
which settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel
for most of its length.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_1818>
1827:
An allied British, French, and Russian naval force destroyed a combined
Turkish and Egyptian fleet at the Battle of Navarino, a decisive moment
in the Greek War of Independence.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Navarino>
1967:
Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin filmed an unidentified subject at Six
Rivers National Forest in California who they claimed was a bigfoot.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson-Gimlin_film>
1973:
Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, formally opened
the Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Opera_House>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stage whisper (n):
(theater) A line that is performed on stage as if it were whispered,
but is spoken loud enough that the audience can hear
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stage_whisper>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We're overdue for a dream come true.
Long time nothing new.
We're overdue for a dream come true.
--Tom Petty
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Petty>
James Bowie (1796–1836) was a nineteenth-century American pioneer and
soldier who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution,
culminating in his death at the Battle of the Alamo. Countless stories
of him as a fighter and frontiersman, both real and fictitious, have
made him a legendary figure in Texas history. Born in Kentucky, Bowie
spent most of his life in Louisiana, where he was raised and later
worked as a land speculator. His rise to fame began in 1827 on reports
of the Sandbar Fight. What began as a duel between two other men
deteriorated into a melee in which Bowie, having been shot and stabbed,
killed the sheriff of Rapides Parish with a large knife. This and other
stories of Bowie's prowess with the knife led to the widespread
popularity of the Bowie knife. Bowie's reputation was cemented by his
role in the Texas Revolution. After moving to Texas in 1830, Bowie
became a Mexican citizen and married the daughter of the vice governor
of the province. His fame in Texas grew following his failed expedition
to find the lost San Saba mine, where his small party repelled an
attack by a large Indian raiding party. At the outbreak of the Texas
Revolution, Bowie joined the Texas militia, leading forces at the
Battle of Concepcion and the Grass Fight. In January 1836, he arrived
at the Alamo, where he commanded the volunteer forces until an illness
left him bedridden. Bowie died with the other Alamo defenders on March
6. Despite conflicting accounts of the manner of his death, the "most
popular, and probably the most accurate" accounts maintain that he died
in his bed after emptying his pistols into several Mexican soldiers.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bowie>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1469:
Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile , a marriage that
paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single
country, Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon>
1781:
American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis
officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George
Washington, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown>
1943:
Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first
isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptomycin>
1986:
President of Mozambique Samora Machel and 43 others were killed when
his presidential aircraft crashed in the Lebombo Mountains just inside
the border of South Africa.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samora_Machel>
2001:
SIEV X, an Indonesian fishing boat en route to Christmas Island
carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sank in international waters, killing
353 of them.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIEV_X>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jury-rig (v):
1. To make an improvised rigging or assembly from whatever is
available.
2. To create a makeshift, ad hoc solution from resources at hand
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jury-rig>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history.
--Thomas Browne
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne>
The Ruff is a medium-sized wader that breeds on marshes and wet meadows
across northern Eurasia. This highly gregarious sandpiper is migratory,
and sometimes forms huge flocks in its winter grounds, which include
southern and western Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australia. It is
usually considered to be the only member of its genus, and the
Broad-billed and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers are its closest relatives. The
Ruff is a long-necked, pot-bellied bird. This species shows marked
sexual dimorphism; the male is much larger than the female, and has a
breeding plumage that includes brightly coloured head tufts, bare
orange facial skin, extensive black on the breast, and the large collar
of ornamental feathers that that inspired this bird's English name. The
female has one brood per year and lays four eggs in a well-hidden
ground nest, incubating the eggs and rearing the chicks, which are
mobile soon after hatching, on her own. The Ruff forages in wet
grassland and soft mud, probing or searching by sight for edible items.
It primarily feeds on insects, especially in the breeding season, but
it will consume plant material, including rice and maize, on migration
and in winter. Classified as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List
criteria, the global conservation concerns are relatively low because
of the large numbers that breed in Scandinavia and the Arctic.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruff>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1009:
Under orders from Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church now within the walled Old City
of Jerusalem, was destroyed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre>
1081:
Byzantine–Norman Wars: The Normans under Robert Guiscard, Duke of
Apulia and Calabria, defeated the Byzantines outside the city of
Dyrrhachium, the Byzantine capital of Illyria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dyrrhachium_%281081%29>
1356:
The most significant earthquake to have occurred in Central Europe in
recorded history destroyed Basel, Switzerland, and caused much
destruction in a vast region extending into France and Germany.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1356_Basel_earthquake>
1851:
Moby-Dick, a novel by American writer Herman Melville , was first
published as The Whale.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>
1968:
At the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, American Bob Beamon set a world
record of 8.90m in the long jump, a mark that eventually became the
longest unbroken track and field record in history, standing for 23
years.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Beamon>
2007:
A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Prime Minister of
Pakistan Benazir Bhutto in Karachi resulted in at least 139 deaths and
450 injuries.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Karachi_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
entourage (n):
A retinue of attendants, associates or followers
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/entourage>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The essential ingredient of politics is timing.
--Pierre Trudeau
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Trudeau>
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was a Russian composer of the
Romantic era. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical
music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan
Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his
First Piano Concerto, seven symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.
Against the wishes of his family he chose to pursue a musical career,
and in 1862 entered the St Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1865.
This formal, Western-oriented training set him apart, musically, from
the contemporary nationalistic movement embodied by the group of young
Russian composers known as "The Five", with whom Tchaikovsky sustained
a mixed professional relationship throughout his career. As his style
developed, Tchaikovsky wrote music across a range of genres, including
symphony, opera, ballet, instrumental, chamber and song. Amid private
turmoil Tchaikovsky's public reputation grew; he was honored by the
Tsar, awarded a lifetime pension and lauded in the concert halls of the
world. His sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to
cholera, but some attribute it to suicide. Although enduringly popular
with concert audiences across the world, Tchaikovsky has at times been
judged harshly by critics, musicians and composers. However, his
reputation as a significant composer is now generally regarded as
secure.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1346:
King David II of Scotland was captured in the Battle of Neville's
Cross.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Neville%27s_Cross>
1604:
Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed an
exceptionally bright star which had suddenly appeared in the
constellation Ophiuchus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1604>
1860:
The Open Championship, the oldest of the four major championships in
men's golf, was first played at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, South
Ayrshire, Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Championship>
1961:
In Paris, the French police under the Prefect of Police Maurice Papon
attacked a peaceful but illegal demonstration of some 30,000 who were
protesting the Algerian War, killing anywhere between 40 and 200
people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_massacre_of_1961>
1989:
A 6.9 Mw earthquake struck California's San Francisco Bay Area, killing
63 people, injuring 3,757, leaving at least 8,000 homeless, and forcing
the postponement of Game 3 of Major League Baseball's World Series.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loma_Prieta_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tranquil (adj):
1. Free from emotional or mental disturbance.
2. Calm; without motion or sound
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tranquil>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There's too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of
controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than
letting him go. It's part of the whole ideology of this age, which is
power-mad.
--Arthur Miller
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller>
The Swimming Hole is an 1884–85 painting by the American artist Thomas
Eakins, Goodrich catalog #190, in the collection of the Amon Carter
Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Executed in oil on canvas, it depicts six
men swimming naked in a pristine lake. The Swimming Hole is regarded as
a masterpiece of American painting. According to art historian Doreen
Bolger it is "perhaps Eakins's most accomplished rendition of the nude
figure", and has been called "the most finely designed of all his
outdoor pictures". Since the Renaissance, the human body has been
considered both the basis of artists' training and the most challenging
subject to depict in art, and the nude was the centerpiece of Eakins'
teaching program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In this
work, Eakins took advantage of an exception to the generally prudish
Victorian attitude to nudity: swimming naked was widely accepted, and
for males was seen as normal, even in public spaces. Eakins was the
first American artist to portray one of the few occasions in 19th
century life when nudity was on display. The Swimming Hole develops
themes raised in his earlier work, in particular his treatment of
buttocks and his ambiguous treatment of the human form. Such themes had
earlier been examined in his The Gross Clinic and William Rush, and
would continue to be explored in his paintings of boxers (Taking the
Count, Salutat, and Between Rounds) and wrestlers (Wrestlers). The
Swimming Hole has been "widely cited as a prime example of
homoeroticism in American art".
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swimming_Hole>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
456:
Magister militum Ricimer defeated Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and became
master of the Western Roman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricimer>
1813:
The Sixth Coalition attacked Napoleon and the First French Empire in
the Battle of Leipzig, the largest conflict in the Napoleonic Wars with
over 500,000 troops involved.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leipzig>
1843:
William Rowan Hamilton first wrote down the fundamental formula for
quaternions, carving the equation into the side of Broom Bridge in
Cabra, Dublin, Ireland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/quaternion>
1978:
Karol Józef Wojtyła, a cardinal from Kraków, Poland, became Pope John
Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century and the
first ever from a Slavic country.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II>
1995:
Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam convened the Million Man March
in Washington, D.C. in an effort to unite in self-help and self-defense
against economic and social ills plaguing the African American
community.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Man_March>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
catechumen (n):
A convert to Christianity under instruction before baptism; a young
Christian preparing for confirmation
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/catechumen>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat
falsehoods is with truth.
--William O. Douglas
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas>
Fight Club is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher, based on
Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel of the same name. The film stars Edward
Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays a nameless
white-collar employee who is disillusioned with his way of life. He
meets soap salesman Tyler Durden, played by Pitt, and they start a
fight club that other disillusioned men also join. Fincher described
the film as a coming of age film for people in their 30s. The fight
clubs were intended to represent men resisting their marginalized lives
in 1990s American society; they fight to overcome their numbness and
experience feeling. The clubs become an anti-materialist organization
that commits acts of vandalism. Fight Club's violence upset studio
executives at the film's screenings, and they debated marketing
strategies to find the best audience for the film. When Fight Club
debuted in theaters on October 15, 1999, critics were divided about the
purpose of the film's violence. While the film did not perform well at
the box office, its DVD release was more successful, establishing it as
a cult film.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club_%28film%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1582:
Spain, Portugal, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and most of the
Italian states became the first countries to replace the Julian
calendar with the Gregorian calendar.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar>
1864:
American Civil War: The Confederates captured Glasgow, Missouri.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Glasgow>
1951:
Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes synthesized the first oral
contraceptive.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_E._Miramontes>
1970:
Thirty-five construction workers were killed when a section of the West
Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed due to structural failure.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Gate_Bridge>
2003:
Chinese space program: Shenzhou 5, China's first manned space mission,
was launched, carrying astronaut Yang Liwei .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_5>
2007:
New Zealand Police conducted several anti-terrorism raids in relation
to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp in the
Urewera mountain ranges, arresting 17 people and seizing four guns and
230 rounds of ammunition.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_Zealand_anti-terror_raids>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
verandah (n):
A gallery, platform, or balcony, usually roofed and often partly
enclosed, extending along the outside of a building
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verandah>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A nuclear war does not defend a country and it does not defend a
system. I've put it the same way many times; not even the most
accomplished ideologue will be able to tell the difference between the
ashes of capitalism and the ashes of communism.
--John Kenneth Galbraith
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith>
The War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 pitted a coalition of the
Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire
and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main
participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July,
producing horrific casualty rates. Britain, already involved on the
European continent in the ongoing Peninsular War, sent another
expedition to the Netherlands to take pressure off the Austrians,
although this had little impact on the outcome of the conflict. After
much campaigning in Bavaria and across the Danube valley, the war ended
favorably for the French after the bloody struggle at the Battle of
Wagram. The resulting Treaty of Schönbrunn imposed harsh terms upon
Austria, forcing her to concede territory accounting for over three
million subjects, about one-fifth of her total population. France
received Carinthia, Carniola, and the Adriatic ports, while Galicia was
given to the Poles and the Salzburg area of the Tyrol went to the
Bavarians. While fighting in the Iberian Peninsula would continue, the
War of the Fifth Coalition was the last major conflict on the European
continent until the French invasion of Russia in 1812 sparked the rise
of the Sixth Coalition.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Fifth_Coalition>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1773:
The first recorded ministry of education, the Commission of National
Education, was formed in Poland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_of_National_Education>
1888:
French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed Roundhay Garden Scene, the
earliest surviving motion picture, in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire,
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundhay_Garden_Scene>
1926:
The first book featuring English author A. A. Milne's fictional bear
Winnie-the-Pooh was first published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh>
1939:
World War II: The German submarine U-47 torpedoed and sunk the British
Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak while the latter was anchored at
Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Oak_%2808%29>
1947:
Flying at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13.7 km) in an experimental Bell
X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, American test pilot Chuck Yeager became
the first person to break the sound barrier.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager>
1953:
Israeli military commander Ariel Sharon and his Unit 101 special forces
attacked the village of Qibya on the West Bank, destroying 45
buildings, killing 42 villagers, and wounding 15 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibya_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gratuitously (adv):
1. Freely; in the manner of a gift, without being earned.
2. In a manner not demanded by the circumstances, without reason,
justification, cause, or proof
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gratuitously>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses
both.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower>
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the third installment in the Super Smash
Bros. series of crossover fighting games, developed by Sora and
published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. Game development
began in October 2005 with a creative team that included collaborations
with various second- and third-party Nintendo developers. The number of
playable characters that players can control in Brawl has grown from
that of Super Smash Bros. Melee; Brawl is the first game in the series
to expand past Nintendo characters and allow players to control
third-party characters. Like its predecessors, the object of Brawl is
to knock an opponent off the screen. It is a departure from traditional
fighting games, notably in its simplified move commands and emphasis on
ring outs over knockouts. It includes a more extensive single-player
mode than its predecessors, known as The Subspace Emissary. Brawl also
supports multiplayer battles with up to four combatants, and is the
first game of its franchise to feature online battles via the Nintendo
Wi-Fi Connection. The game received positive reviews, with critics
praising the game's entertainment value, despite issues relating to
Brawl's loading times. It has sold a total of 8.43 million copies
worldwide as of March 2009, and it is the fifth best-selling Wii game.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Smash_Bros._Brawl>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
54:
Claudius was fatally poisoned by his wife Agrippina the Younger, making
her 16-year-old son Nero the next Roman Emperor.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero>
1307:
Agents of King Philip IV of France launched a dawn raid, simultaneously
arresting many members of the Knights Templar , and subsequently
torturing them into "admitting" heresy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar>
1773:
French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy, an
interacting, grand-design spiral galaxy located at a distance of
approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes
Venatici.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy>
1843:
The B'nai B'rith, the oldest continually operating Jewish service
organization in the world, was founded in New York City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith>
1917:
An estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima,
Portugal witnessed "The Miracle of the Sun".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_the_Sun>
1972:
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed into a remote area in the Andes
mountains near the border of Chile and Argentina; the last of 16
survivors were not rescued until December 23.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
foist (v):
1. To introduce or insert surreptitiously or without warrant.
2. To force another to accept, especially by stealth or deceit
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foist>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I think it's a disgrace for the international community that we have
allowed so many conflicts to become frozen, and we are not making a
serious effort to solve them.
--Martti Ahtisaari
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martti_Ahtisaari>
Water fluoridation is the controlled addition of fluoride to a public
water supply to reduce tooth decay. Fluoridated water has fluoride at a
level that is effective for preventing cavities; this can occur
naturally or by adding fluoride. Fluoridated water operates on tooth
surfaces: in the mouth it creates low levels of fluoride in saliva,
which reduces the rate at which tooth enamel demineralizes and
increases the rate at which it remineralizes in the early stages of
cavities. Typically a fluoridated compound is added to drinking water,
a process that in the U.S. costs an average of about $0.92 per
person-year. Defluoridation is needed when the naturally occurring
fluoride level exceeds recommended limits. A 1994 World Health
Organization expert committee suggested a level of fluoride from 0.5 to
1.0 mg/L (milligrams per liter), depending on climate. Dental cavities
remain a major public health concern in most industrialized countries,
affecting 60–90% of schoolchildren and the vast majority of adults, and
costing society more to treat than any other disease. Water
fluoridation prevents cavities in both children and adults, with
studies estimating an 18–40% reduction in cavities when water
fluoridation is used by children who already have access to toothpaste
and other sources of fluoride. There is no clear evidence of other
adverse effects. It is controversial, and opposition to it has been
based on ethical, legal, safety, and efficacy grounds.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1398:
The Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Grand Master of
the Teutonic Knights Konrad von Jungingen signed the Treaty of Salynas,
the third attempt after the 1384 Treaty of Königsberg and the 1390
Treaty of Lyck to cede Samogitia to the Knights.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Salynas>
1871:
The Criminal Tribes Act entered into force in British India, giving law
enforcement sweeping powers to arrest, control, and monitor the
movements of the members of 160 specific ethnic or social communities
that were defined as "habitually criminal".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Tribes_Act>
1915:
A German firing squad executed British nurse Edith Cavell for helping
Allied soldiers to escape occupied Belgium.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell>
1928:
An iron lung medical ventilator, designed by Philip Drinker and
colleagues at Children's Hospital, Boston, was used for the first time
in the treatment of polio victims.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iron_lung>
2000:
Two suicide bombers attacked the destroyer USS Cole while it was at
anchor in Aden, Yemen, killing 17 of its crew members and injuring 39
others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cole>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
belligerent (adj):
1. Of or pertaining to war.
2. Engaged in war, warring.
3. Aggressively hostile, eager to fight
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/belligerent>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The concept which assumes that everything in the Church is irrevocably
set for all times appears to me to be a false one. It would be naive to
disregard that the Church has a history; the Church is a human
institution and like all things human, was destined to change and
evolve; likewise, its development takes place often in the form of
struggles.
--Edith Stein
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edith_Stein>