"The Post-Modern Prometheus" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of
the American science fiction television series The X-Files, originally
airing on the Fox network on November 30, 1997. It was written and
directed by series creator Chris Carter. The story follows FBI agents
Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they
investigate a creature called "The Great Mutato" that has impregnated a
middle-aged woman; it turns out to be the genetic creation of a
Frankenstein-like doctor. The creature is first ostracized and then
accepted by his community. Carter's story draws heavily on Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein (subtitled The Modern Prometheus) and
particularly on James Whale's 1931 film version of the story. The
episode was filmed in black and white, with a sky backdrop imitating the
style of old Frankenstein films. Talk-show host Jerry Springer appeared
as himself, and Chris Owens played The Great Mutato. Many critics
praised the episode; some even called it a "classic". It was nominated
for seven awards at the 1998 Emmys, winning one.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post-Modern_Prometheus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1700:
Great Northern War: Swedish forces led by King Charles XII
defeated the Russian army of Tsar Peter the Great at the Battle of
Narva.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_(1700)>
1864:
American Civil War: The Confederate States Army suffered its
worst disaster of the war as the Army of Tennessee conducted numerous
unsuccessful frontal assaults against fortified positions at Franklin,
Tennessee.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Franklin_(1864)>
1934:
The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman became the first to
officially exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A3_4472_Flying_Scotsman>
1942:
World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy warships defeated United
States Navy forces during a nighttime naval battle near the Tassafaronga
area on Guadalcanal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tassafaronga>
1982:
Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album of all time,
was released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(Michael_Jackson_album)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gardyloo:
(Scotland, obsolete) Used by servants in medieval Scotland to warn
passers-by of waste about to be thrown from a window into the street
below. The term was still in use as late the 1930s and 1940s, when many
people had no indoor toilets.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gardyloo>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win
without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure
and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to
fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of
survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when
there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live
as slaves.
--Winston Churchill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill>
Israel the Grammarian (c. 895 – c. 965) was one of the leading
European scholars of the mid-tenth century. Most likely a Breton, he
wrote theological and grammatical tracts, and commentaries on the works
of other philosophers and theologians. When Alfred the Great became King
of Wessex in 871, learning was at a low level in southern England, and
there were no Latin scholars. The king embarked on a programme of
revival, bringing in scholars from Continental Europe, Wales and Mercia.
His grandson Æthelstan, king from 924 to 939, carried on the work,
inviting foreign scholars such as Israel to his court, and appointing
Continental clerics as bishops. After Æthelstan's death, Israel
successfully sought the patronage of Archbishop Rotbert of Trier and
became tutor to Bruno, later the Archbishop of Cologne. In the late 940s
Israel is recorded as a bishop, and at the end of his life he was a monk
at the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Maximin in Trier. He was an
accomplished poet, a disciple of the ninth-century Irish philosopher
John Scottus Eriugena, and one of the few scholars of his time who
understood Greek.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_the_Grammarian>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1729:
Natchez Indians suddenly revolted against French colonists near
modern-day Natchez, Mississippi, US, killing over 240 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchez_revolt>
1847:
Oregon missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman along with
about a dozen others were killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Native American
tribes, sparking the Cayuse War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitman_massacre>
1854:
The Eureka Flag was flown for the first time, during the Eureka
Stockade rebellion in Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Flag>
1947:
The United Nations General Assembly voted to approve the
Partition Plan for Palestine, a plan to resolve the Arab–Israeli
conflict in the British Mandate of Palestine by separating the territory
into Jewish and Arab states.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine>
1987:
Korean Air Flight 858 exploded over the Andaman Sea after two
North Korean agents left a time bomb in an overhead compartment, killing
all 115 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_858>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hectad:
(biology, cartography) A unit of land area, ten by ten (that is, a
hundred) square kilometres, often used for assessing how widely
distributed particular animals or plants are.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hectad>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Very few children have any problem with the world of the
imagination; it's their own world, the world of their daily life, and
it's our loss that so many of us grow out of it.
--Madeleine L'Engle
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Madeleine_L%27Engle>
The banded sugar ant (Camponotus consobrinus) is a species of ant
endemic to Australia. A member of the genus Camponotus in the subfamily
Formicinae, it was described by German entomologist Wilhelm Ferdinand
Erichson in 1842. Its common name refers to the ant's preference for
sweet food, as well as the distinctive orange-brown band around its
gaster. The ant is polymorphic and relatively large, with castes called
major workers (soldiers) and minor workers. Ants in these groups measure
around 5 to 15 millimetres (0.20 to 0.59 inches) in length. Mainly
nocturnal, banded sugar ants prefer a mesic habitat, and are commonly
found in forests and woodlands; they are also found in urban areas,
where they are considered a household pest. The ant's diet includes
sweet secretions they obtain from aphids and other insects. Workers prey
on some insects, killing them with a spray of formic acid. Banded sugar
ants are prey for other ants, echidnas, and birds. The eggs of this
species were consumed by Australian Aborigines.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_sugar_ant>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
936:
Shi Jingtang was enthroned as the first emperor of the Later Jin
by Emperor Taizong of Liao, following a revolt against Emperor Fei of
Later Tang.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Jingtang>
1660:
At London's Gresham College, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins,
Christopher Wren and other leading scientists founded a learned society
now known as the Royal Society.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society>
1905:
Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith first presented his Sinn
Féin policy, declaring that the 1800 Act of Union of Great Britain and
Ireland was illegal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_F%C3%A9in>
1925:
The country music radio program Grand Ole Opry was first
broadcast on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ole_Opry>
1990:
After being elected as leader of the British Conservative Party
one day earlier, John Major officially succeeded Margaret Thatcher as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
coterie:
1. A circle of people who associate with one another.
2. An exclusive group of people, who associate closely for a common
purpose; a clique.
3. A communal burrow of prairie dogs.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coterie>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that
stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness
that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all
delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but
remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
--James Allen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Allen>
The Almirante Latorre class consisted of two super-dreadnought
battleships designed by the British company Armstrong Whitworth for the
Chilean Navy, named for Admirals Juan José Latorre and Thomas Cochrane.
Construction began on 27 November 1911, but both were purchased and
renamed by the Royal Navy prior to completion for use in the First World
War. Almirante Latorre (pictured) was commissioned into British service
as HMS Canada in October 1915 and spent its wartime service with the
Grand Fleet, seeing action in the Battle of Jutland. The ship was sold
back to Chile in 1920, assuming its former name. Almirante
Latorre 's crew instigated a naval mutiny in 1931. After a major
refit in 1937, she patrolled Chile's coast during the Second World War.
Almirante Cochrane was converted to an aircraft carrier and commissioned
into the Royal Navy as HMS Eagle in 1924. It served in the Mediterranean
Fleet and on the China Station in the inter-war period and operated in
the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the Second World War before being
sunk in August 1942 during Operation Pedestal.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almirante_Latorre-class_battleship>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1703:
The Great Storm of 1703, one of the most severe storms to
strike southern Great Britain, destroyed the first Eddystone Lighthouse
off Plymouth, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1703>
1815:
As specified by the Congress of Vienna, the Constitution of the
Kingdom of Poland was signed for the newly recreated Polish state that
was under Russian control.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Kingdom_of_Poland>
1940:
The Iron Guard killed over 60 political detainees at a
penitentiary near Bucharest and followed up with several high-profile
assassinations, including that of former Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae
Iorga.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Iorga>
1975:
Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army assassinated
Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, a few weeks
after he offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to a
conviction for several recent high-profile bombings that were publicly
claimed by the IRA.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_McWhirter>
2001:
The Hubble Space Telescope detected sodium in the atmosphere of
the extrasolar planet HD 209458 b, the first planetary atmosphere
outside our solar system to be measured.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_209458_b>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bodge:
1. (Britain) To do a clumsy or inelegant job, usually as a temporary
repair; mend, patch up, repair.
2. To work green wood using traditional country methods; to perform the
craft of a bodger.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bodge>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be
traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.
--Bruce Lee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee>
Children of Mana is a 2006 action role-playing game for the Nintendo DS
handheld console. It was developed by Square Enix and Nex Entertainment,
and published by Square Enix and Nintendo. It is the sixth game of the
Mana series and the first entry in the World of Mana subseries. Set in a
high fantasy universe, Children of Mana follows one of four young heroes
as they combat an invasion of monsters and learn about the cataclysmic
event that killed their families. Both the main plot and side-quests
require the player to fight through dungeons and defeat boss monsters
before returning to the central Mana Village. Like many of its
predecessors, the game features a local cooperative multiplayer
component. Children of Mana was designed by series creator Koichi Ishii,
directed by Yoshiki Ito, and produced by Takashi Orikata and Katsuji
Aoyama. The game was a moderate commercial success: it sold 100,000
copies in its first week of release, and over 280,000 copies in Japan by
the end of 2006. While critics praised the graphics and music as
beautiful and unique, they found the combat simplistic and repetitive,
and the story insubstantial.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Mana>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1161:
A Song dynasty fleet defeated Jin dynasty ships in a naval
engagement on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Caishi>
1805:
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the longest and highest aqueduct in
Great Britain, opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct>
1922:
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first people to
enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3,000 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KV62>
1942:
The film Casablanca (poster pictured), starring Humphrey Bogart
and Ingrid Bergman, premiered at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City
to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of
Casablanca.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)>
2011:
NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory mission from Cape
Canaveral, with the Curiosity rover aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dzud:
A summer drought followed by a severe winter, generally causing serious
loss of livestock.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dzud>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that
has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the
country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor,
is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of
freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked
out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High
God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless
remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be
solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and
one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow
citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at
sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and
observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and
Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
--Abraham Lincoln
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln>
Ron Hamence played for the Australian cricket team in 1948, dubbed the
"Invincibles", when they went undefeated for an unprecedented
34 matches on a tour of England. He was not instrumental in the team's
success, and his selection was a subject of controversy because many
batsmen who had scored more runs in the preceding Australian season had
been overlooked. Hamence played in only non-Test tour matches to allow
the leading batsmen to conserve energy for the Tests, as play was
scheduled for six days a week. Because the team captain Donald Bradman
was reluctant to risk the team's unbeaten record, Hamence did not
receive many opportunities to bat high in the order, and scored only
582 runs at a batting average of 32.33, with a top-score of 99. He was
the only frontline Australian batsman not to score a century. The
remaining eight frontline batsmen each scored at least 973 runs and all
averaged no less than 47.30.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Hamence_with_the_Australian_cricket_team_…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1491:
Reconquista: The Granada War was effectively brought to an end
with the signing of the Treaty of Granada between Castile-Aragon and the
Emirate of Granada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada_War>
1863:
American Civil War: Confederate forces were defeated at the
Battle of Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, opening the door
to the Union's invasion of the Deep South.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Missionary_Ridge>
1915:
Albert Einstein presented to the Prussian Academy of Science
his field equations of general relativity.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_general_relativity>
1975:
Upon Suriname's independence from the Netherlands, Johan
Ferrier became its first president.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Ferrier>
1984:
Band Aid, a supergroup consisting of over 30 leading British
and Irish pop musicians, recorded the song "Do They Know It's
Christmas?" to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_They_Know_It%27s_Christmas%3F>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
whirlpool:
1. A swirling body of water.
2. Turmoil, or agitated excitement.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/whirlpool>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In the past several years, my hard work, my books which I wrote
through blood and tears, and the purpose of my life all has been focused
on: helping everyone to have a spring, so that everyone's heart will be
bright, everyone will have a happy life, and everyone will have the
freedom to develop in any way they want. I aroused people to have thirst
for, thirst for brightness; I put a cause in front of people, a cause
which is worthy of people's devotion.
--Ba Jin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ba_Jin>
Rhythm Killers is the second studio album by Jamaican musical duo Sly
and Robbie (pictured), released in May 1987 on Island Records. First
known as a reggae band, the duo experimented in the 1980s with
electronic sounds and contemporary recording technology, while branching
out into international, cross-genre music. A funk and dance album,
Rhythm Killers has a dense sound that incorporates reggae, hip hop, hard
rock, worldbeat, and downtown music. Along with their live instruments,
Sly and Robbie used electronic recording equipment such as the Fairlight
CMI synthesizer and electronic drums. The album has been cited by music
writers for its electronic rhythms, its treatment of African-American
music elements, and Laswell's densely layered production. It peaked at
number 35 on the British Albums Chart, and also charted in the
Netherlands, Sweden, and New Zealand. The critic Robert Christgau named
it the seventh-best album of 1987. Two promotional singles were issued,
including the UK hit "Boops (Here to Go)". Sly and Robbie continued
their digital direction on subsequent albums. The album has since been
out of print.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_Killers>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1227:
High Duke of Poland Leszek the White was assassinated during a
diet of the Piast dukes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_the_White>
1642:
A Dutch expedition led by Abel Tasman reached present-day
Tasmania, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Tasman>
1877:
Anna Sewell's influential animal welfare novel Black Beauty,
one of the best-selling books of all time, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Beauty>
1922:
Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Robert Erskine
Childers was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a
semi-automatic pistol.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers>
1963:
Businessman Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey
Oswald, the alleged assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, during a
live television broadcast, fueling conspiracy theories on the matter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby>
2012:
A fire at a clothing factory in the Ashulia district on the
outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killed at least 117 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Dhaka_fire>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
debacchate:
(rare) To rant as if drunk.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/debacchate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hatred can never be good. … Here, and in what follows, I mean
by hatred only hatred towards men. … Envy, derision, contempt, anger,
revenge, and other emotions attributable to hatred, or arising
therefrom, are bad … Whatsoever we desire from motives of hatred is
base, and in a State unjust.
--Baruch Spinoza
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza>
Burger's Daughter is a political and historical novel by the South
African Nobel recipient Nadine Gordimer (pictured), first published in
the United Kingdom in 1979 by Jonathan Cape. Banned in South Africa for
three months by the Publications Control Board, the book follows a group
of white anti-apartheid activists who seek to overthrow the South
African government. Rosa, the title character, comes to terms with her
father's legacy as an activist in the South African Communist Party.
Gordimer was involved in the anti-apartheid movement and knew many of
the activists, including Bram Fischer, the defence lawyer at Nelson
Mandela's treason trial; she has described the book as a "coded homage"
to him. The novel was generally well received by critics; a review in
The New York Review of Books described the style of writing as "elegant"
and "fastidious", belonging to a "cultivated upper class". In 1980 it
won the Central News Agency Literary Award. When Gordimer won the 1991
Nobel Prize in Literature, Burger's Daughter was one of the books cited
during the awards ceremony.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger%27s_Daughter>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1733:
African slaves from Akwamu in the Danish West Indies revolted
against their owners, one of the earliest and longest slave revolts in
the Americas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1733_slave_insurrection_on_St._John>
1867:
The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for
killing a police officer while helping two Irish nationalists escape
from police custody.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Martyrs>
1963:
The first episode of Doctor Who, the world's longest-running
science fiction television show, was broadcast on BBC television,
starring William Hartnell as the first incarnation of the title role.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who>
1955:
The Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean were transferred from
British to Australian control.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos_(Keeling)_Islands>
2005:
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the Liberian general election, making
her the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson_Sirleaf>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vive:
(obsolete) Lively, animated; forcible.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vive>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely
according to conscience, above all liberties.
--Areopagitica
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Areopagitica>
Very little is known for certain of the ancestry of the Godwins, the
family of the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, Harold II. When King
Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 the legitimate heir was his
great-nephew, Edgar Ætheling, but he was young and lacked powerful
supporters. Harold was the head of the most powerful family in England
and Edward's brother-in-law, and he became king. In September 1066
Harold defeated and killed King Harald Hardrada of Norway at the Battle
of Stamford Bridge, and Harold was himself defeated and killed the
following month by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. The
family is named after Harold's father, Earl Godwin, who had risen to a
position of wealth and influence under King Cnut in the 1020s. In 1045
Godwin's daughter, Edith, married King Edward the Confessor, and by the
mid-1050s Harold and his brothers had become dominant, almost
monopolising the English earldoms. Godwin was probably the son of
Wulfnoth Cild, a South Saxon thegn, but Wulfnoth's ancestry is disputed.
A few genealogists argue that he was descended from Alfred the Great's
elder brother, King Æthelred I, but almost all historians of Anglo-
Saxon England reject this theory.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestry_of_the_Godwins>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1635:
Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launched a three-month
pacification campaign against Taiwanese aborigines.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_pacification_campaign_on_Formosa>
1831:
After a bloody battle with the military causing 600 casualties,
rebellious silkworkers seized Lyon, France, beginning the First Canut
Revolt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canut_revolts>
1975:
Two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I was
declared King of Spain according to the law of succession promulgated by
Franco.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Carlos_I_of_Spain>
1995:
Toy Story, the first feature film created using only computer-
generated imagery, was released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story>
2005:
Angela Merkel assumed office as chancellor of Germany, the
first woman to do so.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dory:
1. (nautical) A small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed
ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers.
2. Any of several different families of large-eyed, silvery, deep-bodied,
laterally compressed, and roughly discoid marine fish. […]
3. A wooden pike or spear about three metres (ten feet) in length with a
flat, leaf-shaped iron spearhead and a bronze butt-spike (called a
sauroter), which was the main weapon of hoplites in Ancient Greece. It
was usually not thrown but rather thrust at opponents with one hand.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dory>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first;
nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
--Charles de Gaulle
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle>
The Trout Creek Mountains are a Great Basin range in Oregon and Nevada
in the United States. Oriented generally north–south, the mountains
consist mostly of fault blocks of basalt, while the southern end has
granitic outcrops. Overall, the faulted terrain is dominated by rolling
hills cut by canyons. Most of the range is federal land, and there is
little human development, apart from cattle ranching. The public land,
dominated by big sagebrush and desert grasses, is open to recreation but
is rarely visited. Sage grouse and mountain chickadee are two native
bird species, and pronghorn and jackrabbit are common mammals. Despite a
dry climate, rare Lahontan cutthroat trout persist in a few streams
after declining for much of the 20th century. In the 1980s, the effects
of grazing on riparian zones and fish led to land-use conflict. The
Trout Creek Mountain Working Group was formed in 1988 to resolve
disagreements among ranchers, environmentalists, government agencies,
and other parties. Stakeholders agreed on changes to land-use practices,
and since the early 1990s, riparian zones have begun to recover.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trout_Creek_Mountains>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1386:
Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur captured and sacked the Georgian
capital of Tbilisi, forcing King Bagrat V to convert to Islam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur%27s_invasions_of_Georgia>
1894:
First Sino-Japanese War: After capturing the city of
Lüshunkou, the Japanese Second Army killed more than 1,000 Chinese
servicemen and civilians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_(China)>
1920:
Irish War of Independence: On Bloody Sunday in Dublin, the
Irish Republican Army killed more than a dozen members of the "Cairo
Gang", and the Royal Irish Constabulary opened fire during a Gaelic
football match in Croke Park.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1920)>
1977:
"God Defend New Zealand" (audio featured) became New Zealand's
second national anthem, on equal standing with "God Save the Queen",
which had been the traditional one since 1840.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Defend_New_Zealand>
2009:
An explosion in a coal mine in Heilongjiang, China, killed 108
miners.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Heilongjiang_mine_explosion>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
three-fisted:
1. Having three components or parts.
2. Aggressive, energetic, enthusiastic, exuberant; two-fisted.
3. In three-fisted drinker: able to consume large quantities of liquor
without ill effects; heavy (drinker); compare two-fisted drinker.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/three-fisted>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Morality is everywhere the same for all men, therefore it comes
from God; sects differ, therefore they are the work of men.
--Voltaire
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire>