The Great North of Scotland Railway was one of the smaller Scottish
railways operating in the far north-east of the country. Formed in 1845,
it carried its first passengers from Kittybrewster, in Aberdeen, to
Huntly on 20 September 1854. An early expansion was followed by a period
of forced economy, but in the 1880s the railway was refurbished, express
services began to run, and a suburban service in Aberdeen started. The
railway operated its main line between Aberdeen and Keith and two routes
west to Elgin; connections could be made at Keith and Elgin for services
to Inverness. Its eventual area encompassed the counties of
Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Moray, with short lengths of line in
Inverness-shire and Kincardineshire. Fish from the North Sea ports and
whisky from Speyside became important goods traffic. The Royal Family
used the Deeside Line for travel to and from Balmoral Castle. The
railway became the Northern Scottish area of the London and North
Eastern Railway in 1923, passing on 333 1⁄2 miles (536.7 km) of line
and 122 steam locomotives (including No. 49 Gordon Highlander,
pictured). Only its main line remains, as part of the Aberdeen to
Inverness Line.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_North_of_Scotland_Railway>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1066:
King Harald III of Norway and Tostig Godwinson, his English
ally, fought and defeated the Northern Earls Edwin and Morcar in the
Battle of Fulford near York, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fulford>
1498:
A tsunami caused by the Meiō Nankaidō earthquake washed away
the building housing the statue of the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in in
Kamakura, Japan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dtoku-in>
1971:
Hurricane Irene (satellite image pictured) departed Nicaragua
to become the first known tropical cyclone to successfully cross from
the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irene%E2%80%93Olivia>
1984 - The Cosby Show, which became one of three U.S. shows to have the
highest ratings five years in a row, aired its its pilot episode.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_(The_Cosby_Show)>
2011:
The United States ended its "don't ask, don't tell" policy,
allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_ask,_don%27t_tell>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
anthelmintic:
A drug for the treatment of intestinal worm infestation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anthelmintic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite
charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and
everything akin to mathematics, and the charm of humble awe, which is
engendered by meditation on the human soul and its experiences.
Philosophy is characterized by the gentle, if firm, refusal to succumb
to either charm. It is the highest form of the mating of courage and
moderation.
--Leo Strauss
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss>
History of a Six Weeks' Tour is a travel narrative by the British
Romantic authors Mary Shelley (pictured) and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Published in 1817, it describes two trips taken by Mary, Percy, and
Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont: one across Europe in 1814, and one
to Lake Geneva in 1816. It consists of a journal, four letters, and
Percy Shelley's poem "Mont Blanc". Apart from the poem, the text was
primarily written and organised by Mary Shelley. In 1840 she revised the
journal and the letters, republishing them in a collection of Percy
Shelley's writings. Part of the new genre of the Romantic travel
narrative, History of a Six Weeks' Tour exudes spontaneity and
enthusiasm; the authors demonstrate their desire to develop a sense of
taste and distinguish themselves from those around them. The romantic
elements of the work would have hinted at the text's radical politics to
19th-century readers. The text's frank discussion of politics, including
positive references to the French Revolution and praise of Enlightenment
philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was unusual for a travel narrative at
the time. History of a Six Weeks' Tour sold poorly but received
favourable reviews.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_a_Six_Weeks%27_Tour>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1676:
During Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel
Bacon burned the colonial capital of Jamestown to the ground.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion>
1846:
Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin
Giraud, reported experiencing a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near
La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette (statue
picture).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_La_Salette>
1893:
New Zealand became the first country to introduce universal
suffrage, following the women's suffrage movement led by Kate Sheppard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_New_Zealand>
1944:
Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice to end
the Continuation War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War>
1970:
Greek student Kostas Georgakis set himself on fire in Genoa,
Italy, as a protest against the Greek military junta of Georgios
Papadopoulos.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostas_Georgakis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jump down someone's throat:
To criticise with excessive and unexpected harshness.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jump_down_someone%27s_throat>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I think the unique thing about music and graphic art is as
opposed to, say, acting and directing, that if you are good you can
always create a place for yourself.
--Cass Elliot
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cass_Elliot>
Joanna Yeates (1985–2010) was a 25-year-old landscape architect from
Hampshire, England, who went missing on 17 December 2010 in Bristol
after an evening out with colleagues. Following a highly publicised
appeal for information on her whereabouts and intensive police
enquiries, her body was discovered on 25 December 2010; a post-mortem
examination determined that she had been strangled. The murder inquiry
was one of the largest police investigations ever undertaken in the
Bristol area. The case dominated UK news coverage around Christmas. The
police initially arrested Christopher Jefferies, Yeates' landlord; he
was subsequently released and later obtained substantial libel damages
from eight newspapers over their coverage of his arrest. Vincent Tabak,
a 32-year-old Dutch engineer and neighbour of Yeates, was arrested on 20
January 2011. He was convicted at trial of her murder and sentenced to
life imprisonment. A memorial service was held for Yeates at the parish
church in the Bristol suburb where she lived; her funeral took place
near the family home in Hampshire. Several memorials were planned,
including one in a garden she had been designing for a new hospital in
Bristol.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Joanna_Yeates>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1851:
The New York Times, the largest metropolitan newspaper in the
United States, was founded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times>
1889:
Hull House (pictured), the United States' most influential
settlement house, opened in Chicago.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_House>
1939:
The Nazi propaganda radio programme Germany Calling, with a
host nicknamed "Lord Haw-Haw", began broadcasting to audiences in the
United Kingdom and the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw>
1974:
Hurricane Fifi struck Honduras, destroying 182 towns and
villages in the first 24 hours, and ultimately causing over 8,000
deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Fifi%E2%80%93Orlene>
1998:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), a nonprofit organization that manages the assignment of domain
names and IP addresses in the Internet, was established.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chirality:
The phenomenon, in chemistry, physics and mathematics, of objects being
unidentical mirror images of each other, like a person's left and right
hands.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chirality>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
--Samuel Johnson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson>
George Formby (1904–1961) was an English actor, singer-songwriter and
comedian. On stage, screen and record he sang light, comical songs,
usually playing the ukulele or banjolele, and became the UK's highest-
paid entertainer. After an early career as a stable boy and jockey,
Formby took to the music hall stage after the early death of his father
in 1921. In 1923 he purchased a ukulele, and married Beryl Ingham, a
fellow-performer who became his manager. She insisted that he appear on
stage formally dressed, and introduced the ukulele to his performance.
He started his recording career in 1926 and, from 1934, he increasingly
worked in film to develop into a major star. During the Second World
War, Formby entertained civilians and troops (pictured in France), and
by 1946 it was estimated that he had performed in front of three million
service personnel. After the war his career declined, although he toured
the Commonwealth, and continued to appear in variety and pantomime.
Formby was considered Britain's first properly home-grown screen
comedian. He was an influence on future comedians—particularly Charlie
Drake and Norman Wisdom—and, culturally, on entertainers such as the
Beatles.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Formby>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1176:
Byzantine–Seljuk wars: The Seljuk Turks prevented the
Byzantines from taking the interior of Anatolia at the Battle of
Myriokephalon in Phrygia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myriokephalon>
1716:
French soldier Jean Thurel enlisted in the Régiment de
Touraine at the age of 17, beginning a career of military service that
would span 90 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Thurel>
1849:
American slave Harriet Tubman escaped; she would become famous
for orchestrating the rescues of more than 70 other slaves via the
"Underground Railroad".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman>
1914:
Andrew Fisher, whose previous term as Prime Minister of
Australia oversaw a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until
the 1940s, became Prime Minister for the third time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Fisher>
1939:
World War II: The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east,
sixteen days after Nazi Germany's attack on that country from the west.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
rapine:
The seizure of someone's property by force; plunder.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rapine>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that
there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came
through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you
lose your footing.
--Ken Kesey
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey>
The 2011 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final was a soccer match between
Seattle Sounders FC and the Chicago Fire played on October 4, 2011 at
CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. Seattle Sounders FC won by
defeating the Chicago Fire 2–0 with goals scored by Fredy Montero and
Osvaldo Alonso. The match was the culmination of the 2011 tournament,
which was open to amateur and professional soccer teams affiliated with
the United States Soccer Federation. The tournament was the 98th edition
of the U.S. Open Cup, the oldest ongoing competition in American soccer.
The attendance of 36,615 at the final set a tournament record. Seattle
had previously won the 2009 and 2010 tournaments, making them the first
team since 1968 to win three consecutive championships (trophies
pictured) and the fourth team to do so in the tournament's history.
Seattle won a berth in the 2012–13 CONCACAF Champions League and a
$100,000 cash prize. Following the final, criticism arose regarding
Seattle hosting each round of the tournament they played. In response,
changes to the rules for determining hosting rights were announced.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Lamar_Hunt_U.S._Open_Cup_Final>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1400:
Owain Glyndŵr was proclaimed Prince of Wales and instigated a
revolt against the rule of Henry IV of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glynd%C5%B5r_Rising>
1810:
Miguel Hidalgo, the parish priest in Dolores, Guanajuato,
delivered the Grito de Dolores to his congregation, instigating the
Mexican War of Independence against Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grito_de_Dolores>
1920:
A bomb in a horse wagon exploded (aftermath pictured) in front
of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City, killing 38 people and
injuring 400 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_bombing>
1961:
The United States' National Hurricane Research Project sought
to weaken Hurricane Esther by seeding it with silver iodide, leading to
the establishment of Project Stormfury.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Stormfury>
1990:
Construction of the Northern Xinjiang Railway was completed
between Ürümqi and Alashankou, linking the railway lines of China and
Kazakhstan, and adding a sizable portion to the Eurasian Land Bridge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Land_Bridge>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
munificence:
The quality of being munificent; generosity.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/munificence>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Mystery: Time and Tide shall pass, I am the Wisdom Looking-
Glass. This is the Ruby none can touch: Many have loved it overmuch; Its
fathomless fires flutter and sigh, Being as images of the flame That
shall make earth and heaven the same When the fire of the end reddens
the sky, And the world consumes like a burning pall, Till where there is
nothing, there is all.
--Alfred Noyes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Noyes>
The Battle of Morotai, part of the Pacific War, began on 15 September
1944, and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. The
fighting started when United States and Australian forces landed on the
south-west corner of Morotai, a small island in the Netherlands East
Indies (NEI), which the Allies needed as a base to support the
liberation of the Philippines later that year. The invading forces
greatly outnumbered the island's Japanese defenders, and secured their
objectives in two weeks. Japanese reinforcements were landed on the
island between September and November, but lacked the supplies needed to
effectively attack the Allied defensive perimeter. Intermittent fighting
continued until the end of the war, with the Japanese troops suffering
heavy loss of life from disease and starvation. South-western Morotai
was subsequently developed into a major Allied base, with facilities on
the island being used to support landings in the Philippines and Borneo.
Torpedo boats and aircraft based at Morotai also harassed Japanese
positions in the NEI. Morotai remained an important logistical hub and
command center until the Dutch reestablished their colonial rule in the
NEI.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Morotai>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1830:
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened (train pictured) as
the first locomotive-hauled railway to connect two major cities.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_of_the_Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railw…>
1862:
American Civil War: Confederate forces captured the Union
garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, taking more than 12,000 prisoners.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harpers_Ferry>
1916:
Tanks, the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the
First World War, were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme in
Somme, Picardy, France, leading to strategic Allied victory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme>
1935:
Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived German
Jews of citizenship, and adopted a new national flag emblazoned with a
swastika.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Germany#Nazi_Germany>
1963:
A bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded in the
16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist church in
Birmingham, Alabama, US, killing four children and injuring at least 22
others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
rally cap:
(US, baseball) A baseball cap worn inside-out and backwards, or in
another unconventional manner, by players or fans, as a talisman in
order to will a team into a come-from-behind rally late in the game.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rally_cap>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If I have seen further than others, it is because I am
surrounded by dwarfs.
--Murray Gell-Mann
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann>
SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II was the second of the Kaiser Friedrich III class
of pre-dreadnought battleships, built at the Imperial Dockyard in
Wilhelmshaven. She was launched on 14 September 1897 and commissioned
into the fleet in 1902. She was armed with four 24-centimeter (9.4 in)
guns in two twin turrets and powered by triple expansion engines that
delivered a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). Kaiser
Wilhelm II served as the flagship of the German fleet until 1906,
participating in fleet training exercises and visits to foreign ports.
After the new dreadnought battleships began entering service in 1908,
she was decommissioned, then reactivated between 1910 and 1912 for
training ship duties in the Baltic. With the outbreak of World War I in
August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II and her sister ships were brought back
into duty as coastal defense ships in the V Battle Squadron. Her age,
coupled with shortages of ship crews, led to her withdrawal from this
role in February 1915; after which she served as a command ship for the
High Seas Fleet, based in Wilhelmshaven. She was sold for scrap in the
early 1920s.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Kaiser_Wilhelm_II>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
81:
Domitian became the last Flavian emperor of Rome, succeeding his
brother Titus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domitian>
1752:
In adopting the Gregorian calendar under the terms of the
Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the British Empire skipped eleven days:
(September 2 was followed directly by September 14).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(New_Style)_Act_1750>
1901:
Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States at age
42, the youngest person ever to do so, eight days after William McKinley
was fatally wounded in Buffalo, New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt>
1911:
Prime Minister of Russia Pyotr Stolypin was mortally shot at
the Kiev Opera House.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Stolypin>
2003:
Kumba Ialá, the President of Guinea-Bissau, was deposed in a
bloodless coup.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumba_Ial%C3%A1>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
torrefy:
To subject to intense heat.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/torrefy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Freud's prescription for personal happiness as consisting of
work and love must be taken with the proviso that the work has to be
loved, and the love has to be worked at.
--Sydney J. Harris
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_J._Harris>
An attempted coup took place in South Vietnam before dawn on September
13, 1964. Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức sent
dissident units into the capital Saigon to overthrow the ruling military
junta led by General Nguyễn Khánh. They captured key points and
announced the overthrow of the regime on national radio. In the previous
month, Khánh's leadership had became increasingly troubled. He had
tried to augment his powers by declaring a state of emergency; this
provoked large-scale protests calling for an end to military rule.
Fearful of losing power, Khánh began making concessions and promised
democracy in the near future. He also removed military officials linked
to the discriminatory Catholic rule of the former President Ngô Đình
Diệm, including Phát (Interior Minister) and Đức (IV Corps
commander), who responded with a coup. With American help, Khánh
rallied support and the coup collapsed the next morning without
casualties. Despite Khánh's survival, the historian George McTurnan
Kahin has described the coup as the start of Khánh's ultimate political
decline. His relations with America became increasingly strained and he
was deposed in February 1965 with US connivance.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1964_South_Vietnamese_coup_attempt>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
509 BC:
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill, the
most important temple in Ancient Rome, was dedicated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Jupiter_Optimus_Maximus>
1541:
After three years of exile, John Calvin returned to Geneva to
reform the church under a body of doctrine that came to be known as
Calvinism.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism>
1848:
An explosion drove an iron rod through the head of railroad
foreman Phineas Gage (pictured), making him an important early case of
personality change after brain injury.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage>
1971:
Following a failed coup attempt, Mao Zedong's second-in-command
Lin Biao died in a plane crash while attempting to flee the People's
Republic of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Biao>
2006:
Kimveer Gill shot 19 people for unknown reasons, killing one,
at Dawson College in Montreal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson_College_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gooseberry:
1. A fruit closely related to the currant.
2. Any of several other unrelated fruits, such as the Chinese gooseberry
(kiwifruit) or the Indian gooseberry (amla).
3. (British, informal) An unwanted additional person: Robert and Susan were
so in love that nobody could go near them without feeling like a
gooseberry.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gooseberry>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars —
mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere". I too can see the stars on a
desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of
the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my
little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of
which I am a part... What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It
does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far
more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it.
Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who
can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning
sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?
--Richard Feynman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman>
The problem of religious language considers whether it is possible to
talk about God meaningfully if the traditional conceptions of God as
being incorporeal, infinite, and timeless, are accepted. Various
theories of religious language either attempt to show that such language
is meaningless, or that it can still be meaningful. The via negativa is
a way of referring to God according to what he is not. Analogy uses
human qualities as standards against which to compare divine qualities.
Symbolism is used non-literally to describe otherwise ineffable
experiences. A mythological interpretation of religion attempts to
reveal fundamental truths behind religious stories. Alternative
explanations of religious language cast it as having political,
performative, or imperative functions. Logical positivists argue that
religious language is meaningless because its propositions are
impossible to verify. Religion has also been classified as a language
game that is meaningful within its own context. Others have used
parables to approach the problem, such as R. M. Hare's parable of a
lunatic, and John Hick's parable of the Celestial City to propose his
theory of eschatological verification.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_religious_language>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1609:
While sailing aboard the Halve Maen, Englishman Henry Hudson
began his exploration of the Hudson River, laying the foundation for
Dutch colonization of present-day New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hudson>
1814:
War of 1812: Although the Maryland Militia lost the Battle of
North Point, they delayed the British advance against Baltimore, buying
time for the defense of the city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_North_Point>
1910:
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale choral
works in the classical concert repertoire, was first performed in
Munich.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_(Mahler)>
1942:
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army began the Battle of
Edson's Ridge in an effort to retake Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edson%27s_Ridge>
1974:
Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was deposed by the Derg,
a military junta.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vocable:
1. A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than
its meaning.
2. A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in
place of actual words in a song.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vocable>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Each civilization may choose one of two roads to travel, that
is, either fret itself to death, or pet itself to death. And in the
course of doing one or the other, it eats its way into the Universe,
turning cinders and flinders of stars into toilet seats, pegs, gears,
cigarette holders and pillowcases, and it does this because, unable to
fathom the Universe, it seeks to change that Fathomlessness into
Something Fathomable.
--Stanisław Lem
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem>
Verbascum thapsus is a species of mullein native to Europe, northern
Africa and Asia, and introduced in the Americas and Australia. It is a
hairy biennial plant that can grow to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) tall or
more. Its small yellow flowers are densely grouped on a tall stem, which
bolts from a large rosette of leaves. It grows in a wide variety of
habitats, but prefers well-lit disturbed soils, where it can appear soon
after the ground receives light, from long-lived seeds that persist in
the soil seed bank. It is a common weedy plant that spreads by
prolifically producing seeds, but rarely becomes aggressively invasive,
since its seed require open ground to germinate. It is a very minor
problem for most agricultural crops, since it is intolerant of shade
from other plants and unable to survive tilling. It is widely used for
herbal remedies with emollient and astringent properties. It is known to
possess anti-inflammatory, anti-tumour, antiviral, antifungal,
antibacterial, expectorant, and analgesic properties. It is recommended
for coughs and related problems, but also used in topical applications
against a variety of skin problems. The plant was also used to make dyes
and torches.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbascum_thapsus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1649:
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland: Oliver Cromwell's New Model
Army ended the Siege of Drogheda, took over the town and massacred its
garrison.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Drogheda>
1814:
The Battle of Plattsburgh ended Britain's final invasion of the
northern states during the War of 1812.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plattsburgh>
1893:
On the opening day of the first Parliament of the World's
Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda introduced Hinduism to the
United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekananda>
1914:
During the First World War, the Australian Naval and Military
Expeditionary Force invaded German New Guinea, winning the Battle of
Bita Paka.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bita_Paka>
2012:
Garment factories in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore
caught fire, leaving 315 dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Pakistan_garment_factory_fires>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
in memoriam:
In memory (of); as a memorial.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_memoriam>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Do not flinch from experiences that might destroy your
beliefs. The thought you cannot think controls you more than thoughts
you speak aloud. Submit yourself to ordeals and test yourself in fire.
Relinquish the emotion which rests upon a mistaken belief, and seek to
feel fully that emotion which fits the facts. If the iron approaches
your face, and you believe it is hot, and it is cool, the Way opposes
your fear. If the iron approaches your face, and you believe it is cool,
and it is hot, the Way opposes your calm. Evaluate your beliefs first
and then arrive at your emotions. Let yourself say: “If the iron is
hot, I desire to believe it is hot, and if it is cool, I desire to
believe it is cool.”
--Eliezer Yudkowsky
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eliezer_Yudkowsky>