Philitas of Cos (<abbr title="circa">c.</abbr> 340 – c. 285 BC) was a
scholar and poet during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece.
A Greek associated with Alexandria, he flourished in the second half of
the 4th century BC and was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of
Ptolemaic Egypt. He was thin and frail; Athenaeus later caricatured him
as an academic so consumed by his studies that he wasted away and died.
Philitas was the first major writer who was both a scholar and a poet.
His reputation continued for centuries, based on both his pioneering
study of words and his verse in elegiac meter. His vocabulary
Disorderly Words described the meanings of rare literary words,
including those used by Homer. His poetry, notably his elegiac poem
Demeter, was highly respected by later ancient poets. However, almost
all his work has since been lost.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philitas_of_Cos>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy
unsuccessfully attempted to capture the HMS Glasgow near Block Island.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Block_Island>
1793:
French Revolution: The Committee of Public Safety was established, and
would become the de facto executive government during the forthcoming
Reign of Terror.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Public_Safety>
1886:
Vancouver, one of British Columbia's youngest cities, was incorporated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver>
1941:
World War II: The Axis Powers began both Operation Marita and Directive
n. 25, invading Greece and Yugoslavia, respectively.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Greece>
2009:
A 6.3 Mw earthquake struck the region of Abruzzo in central Italy ,
killing 308 people in injuring more than 1,500 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_L%27Aquila_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
spallation (n):
1. Fragmentation due to stress or impact.
2. (physics) A nuclear reaction in which a nucleus fragments into many
nucleons
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spallation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant
land.
Thus the little minutes,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty
ages
Of eternity.
--Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julia_Abigail_Fletcher_Carney>
Polyozellus is a fungal genus in the family Thelephoraceae, a grouping
of mushrooms known collectively as the leathery earthfans. A monotypic
genus, it contains the single species Polyozellus multiplex, first
described in 1899. The distinctive fruit body of this species comprises
blue- to purple-colored clusters of vase- or spoon-shaped caps with
veiny wrinkles on the undersurface that run down the length of the
stem. Polyozellus has had a varied taxonomic history and has been
reclassified several times at both the family and genus level. The
range of Polyozellus includes North America and eastern Asia, where
P. multiplex may be found growing on the ground in coniferous forests,
usually under spruce and fir trees. It is an edible species, and has
been harvested for commercial purposes. Polyozellus multiplex contains
the bioactive compound polyozellin, shown to have various physiological
properties, including suppressive effects on stomach cancer.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyozellus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1566:
A convenant of nobles in the Habsburg Netherlands presented Governor
Margaret of Parma a petition to suspend the Spanish Inquisition in the
Netherlands.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_Nobles>
1722:
Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen became the first European to land on
Easter Island.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island>
1847:
Britain's first civic public park, Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead,
Merseyside, England, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenhead_Park>
1998:
Japan's Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, linking Awaji Island and Kobe, opened to
traffic, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world to date
with a main span length of 1,991 metres (6,532 ft).
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashi_Kaiky%C5%8D_Bridge>
2009:
The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from the
Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking
concerns by other nations that it may have been a trial run of
technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic
missiles.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwangmy%C5%8Fngs%C5%8Fng-2>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Paschal Lamb (n):
1. (historical) The lamb eaten at Passover.
2. (figuratively) Jesus Christ, symbolized as a sacrifice.
3.
(heraldry) A lamb depicted with nimbus and bearing a flag
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Paschal_Lamb>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of
management says is possible.
--Colin Powell
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Colin_Powell>
Umbriel is a moon of Uranus discovered together with Ariel on October
24, 1851, by William Lassell. It was named after a character in
Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock. Umbriel consists mainly of
ice with a substantial fraction of rock, and may be differentiated into
a rocky core and an icy mantle. The surface is the darkest among
Uranian moons, and appears to have been shaped primarily by impacts.
However, the presence of canyons suggests early endogenic processes,
and the moon may have undergone an early endogenically driven
resurfacing event that obliterated its older surface. Covered by
numerous impact craters reaching 210 km (130 mi) in diameter, Umbriel
is the second most heavily cratered satellite of Uranus after Oberon.
The most prominent surface feature on it is a ring of bright material
on the floor of Wunda crater. This moon, like all moons of Uranus,
probably formed from an accretion disk that surrounded the planet just
after its formation. The Uranian system has been studied up close only
once: by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in January 1986. It took several
images of Umbriel, which allowed mapping of about 40% of the moon’s
surface.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbriel_%28moon%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1860:
The Pony Express, a mail service that became the most direct means of
long distance communication to the American West, began operation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express>
1888:
The first of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or
near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London,
occurred.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_murders>
1922:
Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin>
1948:
An uprising began on Jeju Island, eventually leading to the deaths of
between 14,000 and 30,000 individuals due to fighting between its
various factions, and the violent suppression of the rebellion by the
South Korean army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_Uprising>
1973:
On a New York City street, Motorola researcher Martin Cooper made the
first public call on a handheld mobile phone.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Cooper_%28inventor%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
potentate (n):
A powerful leader; a monarch, ruler
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/potentate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do
something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the
something that I can do.
--Edward Everett Hale
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Everett_Hale>
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas is the third book
of Maya Angelou's six-volume autobiography series. Set between 1949 and
1955, the book largely spans Angelou's twenties. In this volume,
Angelou describes her struggles to support her young son, form
meaningful relationships and forge a successful career in the
entertainment world. The work's 1976 publication was the first time an
African American woman had expanded her life story into a third volume.
Scholar Dolly McPherson called the book "a graphic portrait of the
adult self in bloom", while critic Lyman B. Hagen called it "a journey
of discovery and rebirth". In Swingin' and Singin, Angelou examines
many of the same subjects and themes in her previous autobiographies,
including travel, music, race, conflict, and motherhood. Angelou
depicts the conflict she felt as a single mother, despite her success
as a performer as she travels Europe with the musical Porgy and Bess.
Her depictions of her travels, which take up 40 percent of the book,
have roots in the African American slave narrative.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singin%27_and_Swingin%27_and_Gettin%27_Merry_L…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1513:
Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León set foot on Florida, becoming
the first European known to do so, purportedly while searching for the
Fountain of Youth in the New World.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n>
1801:
War of the Second Coalition: British forces led by Vice Admiral Horatio
Nelson defeated the Dano-Norwegian fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen
off the coast of Copenhagen.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Copenhagen>
1956:
As the World Turns premiered on American television as the first
half-hour soap opera .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_the_World_Turns>
1973:
The Liberal Movement broke away from the Liberal and Country League in
South Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Movement_%28Australia%29>
2002:
Operation Defensive Shield: Approximately 200 Palestinian militants
fled the advancing Israel Defense Forces into the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem, starting a month-long standoff.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_the_Church_of_the_Nativity_in_Bethleh…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
antsy (adj):
Restless, apprehensive and fidgety
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antsy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
My spirit to yours dear brother,
Do not mind because many sounding your name do not understand you,
I do not sound your name, but I understand you,
I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute
those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also,
That we all labor together transmitting the same charge and
succession,
We few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times,
We,
enclosers of all continents, all castes, allowers of all theologies,
Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men,
We walk silent among
disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers nor any thing
that is asserted,
We hear the bawling and din, we are reach'd at by divisions,
jealousies, recriminations on every side,
They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my comrade,
Yet we
walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journeying up and down till we
make our ineffaceable mark upon time and the diverse eras,
Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races, ages
to come, may prove brethren and lovers as we are.
--Walt Whitman
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman>
Fanny scratching in 18th-century London's Cock Lane was so notorious
that interested bystanders often blocked the street. It became the
focus of a religious controversy between Methodists and orthodox
Anglicans, and was reported on by celebrities of the period such as
Samuel Johnson. Charles Dickens referred to the phenomenon in several
of his books, including Nicholas Nickleby and A Tale of Two Cities, and
other Victorian authors also alluded to it in their work. One
enterprising resident diverted the crowds that gathered in Cock Lane by
allowing them to converse with a ghost he claimed was haunting his
home, to which he charged an entrance fee. Fanny scratching eventually
resulted in several prosecutions, and the pillorying of a father for
encouraging his 11-year-old daughter to take part.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_Lane_ghost>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1234:
An Englishman lost the Battle of the Curragh in Ireland, at the same
place where an Australian would lose the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge
in Scotland more than 700 years later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Curragh>
1933:
Wally was found in Eden Park having run 336 times, more than anyone
else in recorded history at the time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Hammond>
1969:
The British-born model Hawker Siddeley Harrier was introduced at a
Royal Air Force event, becoming the only one in the 1960s to
successfully perform on a short runway.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Siddeley_Harrier>
1979:
The people of Iran overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to
renovate their government buildings.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution>
2002:
The Netherlands became the first country to approve medical treatments
that provide permanent pain relief from all known human diseases and
disorders.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_in_the_Netherlands>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
foolscap (n):
1. (strictly) Writing paper sheets measuring 13.25 x 16.5 inches
2. (more usually) Such a sheet folded or cut in half, thus
approximately 8 x 13.25 inches
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foolscap>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To joke in the face of danger is the supreme politeness, a delicate
refusal to cast oneself as a tragic hero.
--Edmond Rostand
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmond_Rostand>