Miniopterus griveaudi is a bat found in northern and western Madagascar
and on nearby islands, including Grande Comore and Anjouan. With a
forearm length of 35 to 38 mm (1.4 to 1.5 in), M. griveaudi is a
small Miniopterus. It is usually dark brown, but sometimes reddish, with
a virtually hairless tail membrane. The species occurs up to 480 m
(1570 ft) above sea level on Madagascar, often in karstic areas. In the
Comoros, it reaches 890 m (2920 ft) and roosts in lava tubes as well
as shallower caves. Data on reproduction is limited and suggests
individual and inter-island variation. Species of Miniopterus generally
feed on insects. Although it was first described in 1959 as a subspecies
of the mainland African M. minor and later placed with the Malagasy
M. manavi, it was given its own species name after morphological and
molecular studies from 2008 and 2009 indicated that M. manavi actually
represented five unrelated species.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniopterus_griveaudi>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1305:
Raymond Bertrand de Got became Pope Clement V, succeeding Pope
Benedict XI who died one year earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_V>
1832:
The June Rebellion, an anti-monarchist uprising of students,
broke out in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Rebellion>
1883:
The Orient Express, a train line that became synonymous with
intrigue and luxury travel, began operations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient_Express>
1963:
The British Secretary of State for War John Profumo admitted he
lied to the House of Commons during enquiries about his involvement in a
sex scandal and resigned.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profumo_affair>
1989:
An anonymous demonstrator, later dubbed "Tank Man", single-
handedly stopped a column of Chinese tanks during the Tiananmen Square
protests before being dragged aside.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vulgarian:
A vulgar individual, especially one who emphasizes or is oblivious to
their vulgar qualities.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulgarian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Pure democracy or sheer equalitarianism in religious matters is
not to be expected of our human nature. Some distinction between leaders
or founders and followers or disciples seems to be our destiny. But
there is a question of degree, or of qualification. To what extent, or
under what conditions, are some individuals, or perhaps is some unique
individual, worthy of trust in religious matters? It is in the answer to
this question that mistakes can be made.
--Charles Hartshorne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Hartshorne>
Sōryū was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy
during the mid-1930s. The ship's aircraft were employed during the
Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s and supported the Japanese
invasion of French Indochina in mid-1940. During the first months of the
Pacific War, she took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of
Wake Island, the conquest of the Dutch East Indies, and the bombing of
Darwin, Australia. In the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Sōryū and
three other carriers of the First Air Fleet bombarded American forces on
Midway Atoll, and were attacked by aircraft from the island and the
carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. Dive bombers from Yorktown
crippled Sōryū and set her afire. Japanese destroyers rescued the
survivors, but she could not be salvaged and was ordered to be scuttled
to allow her attendant destroyers to be released for further operations.
She sank along with the bodies of 711 out of 1,103 officers and enlisted
men. The loss of Sōryū and three other carriers at Midway was a
crucial strategic defeat for Japan, leading to the Allies' ultimate
victory in the Pacific.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_S%C5%8Dry%C5%AB>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1913:
Emily Davison, an activist for women's suffrage in the United
Kingdom, was fatally injured when she was trampled by King George V's
horse at the Epsom Derby.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison>
1920:
The Kingdom of Hungary lost 72% of its territory and 64% of its
population with the signing of the Treaty of Trianon in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon>
1961:
U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev unsuccessfully met in Vienna to discuss numerous issues in
the relationship between their countries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_summit>
1975:
Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Agricultural Labor
Relations Act, the first law in the United States guaranteeing
collective bargaining rights to farmworkers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Agricultural_Labor_Relations_Act>
1989:
Following the death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the
Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei to be the Supreme Leader of
Iran.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Khamenei>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sexton:
A church official who looks after a church and its graveyard and may act
as a gravedigger and bell-ringer.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sexton>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of
the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest
where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and
tend the grass wherever you may be.
--Robert Fulghum
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Fulghum>
Psilocybe semilanceata is a fungus whose mushrooms, known as liberty
caps, are also called magic mushrooms for their psychedelic properties.
They are the most common of the psilocybin mushrooms, and among the most
potent. They have a distinctive conical or bell-shaped cap, up to
2.5 cm (1.0 in) wide, with a small nipple-like protrusion on the top.
Yellow to brown in color and fading to a lighter color as they mature,
they feed off decaying grass roots in fields, grassy meadows, and
similar habitats, particularly in wet fields that are well-fertilized by
sheep and cattle manure. The mushroom is widely distributed in the cool
temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly
in Europe, and has been reported occasionally in India, South America,
and Australasia. The earliest reliable history of P. semilanceata
intoxication dates back to 1799 in London. In the 1960s the mushroom was
the first European species confirmed to contain psilocybin; it was later
found to contain the psychoactive compounds phenylethylamine and
baeocystin as well. The possession or sale of psilocybin mushrooms is
illegal in many countries.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_semilanceata>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1781:
American Revolutionary War: Jack Jouett made a "midnight ride"
to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of coming British
cavalry who had been sent to capture them.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Jouett>
1839:
Qing government official Lin Zexu precipitated the First Opium
War by ordering the destruction of nearly 1.2 million kg (2.6 million
lbs) of opium in Humen, China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Zexu>
1940:
Franz Rademacher, a Nazi government official, proposed that
Madagascar should be made available for the resettlement of the Jews of
Europe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan>
1963:
Buddhist crisis: South Vietnamese Army soldiers attacked
protesting Buddhists in Huế, with liquid chemicals from tear gas
grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu%E1%BA%BF_chemical_attacks>
1982:
An assassination attempt on Shlomo Argov, the Israeli
ambassador to the United Kingdom, failed; this was later used as
justification for the 1982 Lebanon War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlomo_Argov>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
guardian angel:
A spirit believed to protect and to guide a particular person.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/guardian_angel>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There's nothing much I can tell you about this war. It's like
all wars, I suppose. The undertakers are winning it. Oh, the politicians
will talk a lot about the "glory" of it, and the old men'll talk about
the "need" of it — the soldiers, they just want to go home.
--Shenandoah
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shenandoah_(film)>
1
0
June 2: Tucana
by English Wikipedia Article of the Day
02 Jun '15
02 Jun '15
Tucana is a constellation of stars in the southern sky, named after the
toucan, a South American bird. It is one of twelve constellations
conceived in the late sixteenth century by Petrus Plancius from the
observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. It
first appeared on a 1598 celestial globe by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius
in Amsterdam and was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria
of 1603. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille gave
its stars Bayer designations in 1756. Tucana is not a prominent
constellation as all of its stars are third magnitude or fainter; the
brightest is Alpha Tucanae with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.87.
Beta Tucanae is a star system with six member stars, while Kappa is a
quadruple system. Five star systems have been found to have exoplanets
to date. The constellation contains most of the Small Magellanic Cloud,
along with 47 Tucanae (pictured), one of the brightest globular clusters
in the sky. The constellations Tucana, Grus, Phoenix and Pavo are
collectively known as the "Southern Birds".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucana>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1098:
First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ended as Crusader
forces captured the city, but the Seljuk Turks would later start a
second siege of Antioch a few days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Antioch>
1848:
As part of the Pan-Slavism movement, the Prague Slavic Congress
began in Prague, the first of several times that voices from all Slav
populations of Europe were heard in one place.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Slavic_Congress,_1848>
1886:
Grover Cleveland became the only U.S. President to marry in the
White House when he wed Frances Folsom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Folsom_Cleveland_Preston>
1910:
Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, became the first man
to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rolls>
1995:
United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady was shot down by
a Bosnian Serb Army SA-6 surface-to-air missile while patrolling the
NATO no-fly zone over Bosnia in an F-16, but he was able to eject safely
and was then rescued six days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_O%27Grady>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
superannuate:
1. (transitive) To retire or put out of use due to age.
2. (intransitive) To become obsolete or antiquated.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/superannuate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet.
--Thomas Hardy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy>
Mind Meld is a 2001 American documentary film in which actors William
Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (pictured) discuss the Star Trek science-
fiction franchise and its effects on their lives. They talk about
differences they had with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek,
and about the strained relationships between Shatner and some of the
other cast members. It was in this film that Nimoy first publicly
revealed that he had struggled with alcoholism while he was acting in
the 1960s Star Trek television series. Mind Meld attracted some
notoriety because of an unintended sound in one scene that became a
popular subject of flatulence humor among Star Trek fans and on morning
zoo radio programs. Shatner denied being the source of this sound in
interviews. Scott Brown of Entertainment Weekly said that the only
people likely to watch the film were extreme Star Trek fans and people
interested in hearing Shatner's supposed flatulence, while Laurence
Lerman of Video Business praised the film for avoiding familiar
territory and for dealing with alcoholism, career difficulties, and
conflicts on the set of Star Trek.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Meld>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1794:
The Glorious First of June, the first and largest fleet action
of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First
French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars, was fought.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_First_of_June>
1879:
Louis Napoleon was killed in action during the Anglo-Zulu War,
sending shock waves throughout Europe, as he was the last serious hope
for the restoration of the Bonapartes to the French throne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napol%C3%A9on,_Prince_Imperial>
1942:
Second World War: The crews of three Japanese Ko-hyoteki class
submarines scuttled and committed suicide after entering Sydney Harbour
and launching a failed attack.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Sydney_Harbour>
1974:
An explosion at a chemical plant close to the village of
Flixborough, England, killed 28 people and seriously injured 36 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flixborough_disaster>
2009:
En route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, Air France Flight 447
crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
progeny:
1. (uncountable) Offspring or descendants.
2. (countable) Result of a creative effort.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/progeny>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I want to decide between survival and bliss And though I know
who I'm not I still don't know who I am But I know I won't keep on
playing the victim.
--Alanis Morissette
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alanis_Morissette>