Seorsumuscardinus, a genus of European dormice identified by fossils,
lived around 17 million years ago during the early Miocene. Fossils from
one species, S. alpinus, have been taken from rock strata in Oberdorf
am Hochegg in Austria, Karydia in Greece, and Tägernaustrasse in
Switzerland. A second species, S. bolligeri, was found at a single site
in Affalterbach, Germany. Identified from many isolated teeth, both
species were medium-sized dormice, with flat teeth characterized by long
transverse crests coupled with shorter ones. Seorsumuscardinus may be
related to Muscardinus, the genus of the living hazel dormouse, which
appears in the fossil record at about the same time, and the older
Glirudinus. Because the two known species lived at different times, the
paleontologist Jerome Prieto has suggested that the genus may be useful
for biostratigraphy, the use of fossils to determine the age of
deposits.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seorsumuscardinus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1689:
Jacobite risings: Jacobite clans supporting the deposed king
James VII of Scotland clashed with a government regiment of Covenanters
supporting William of Orange, in the streets around Dunkeld Cathedral,
Dunkeld, Scotland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunkeld>
1858:
The first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen
A. Douglas (both pictured), candidates for an Illinois seat in the
United States Senate, was held in Ottawa, Illinois.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%E2%80%93Douglas_debates>
1945:
American physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. accidentally dropped
a tungsten carbide brick onto a delta phase plutonium bomb core and
exposed himself to a lethal dose of neutron radiation, becoming the
first known fatality due to a criticality accident 25 days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_K._Daghlian,_Jr.>
1986:
A limnic eruption of a cloud of carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos
in Cameroon killed up to 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby
villages.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos>
2013:
Syrian Civil War: Rockets containing sarin struck the
opposition-controlled portions of the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus,
resulting in at least 281 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouta_chemical_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
water of crystallization:
(chemistry) The water present in the crystals of the salts of certain
metals; it is weakly bound by electrostatic forces and may normally be
removed by heating.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/water_of_crystallization>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All we can do is live every single day and do our best to be
present with the ones that we love and with everybody that we come in
contact with … The timing of everything seems too divine sometimes to
ignore.
--Alicia Witt
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alicia_Witt>
The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between frigates from the
French Navy and the British Royal Navy, fought in August 1810 to control
the harbour of Grand Port on Isle de France (now Mauritius) during the
Napoleonic Wars. The British squadron of four frigates sought to
blockade the port, but four of the five French ships managed to break
past the blockade. They took shelter in a protected anchorage that was
only accessible through a series of complicated reefs and sandbanks,
requiring an experienced harbour pilot. When the British commander,
Samuel Pym, ordered his frigates to attack, they became trapped in the
narrow channels of the bay: two were irretrievably grounded, a third was
outnumbered and defeated, and a fourth, unable to close within effective
gun range, was later seized as it left the harbour. Although the French
ships were also badly damaged, the defeat was the worst the Royal Navy
suffered during the entire war, and it left the Indian Ocean and its
vital trade convoys exposed to attack from Commodore Jacques Hamelin's
frigates. In December a strong British battle squadron under Admiral
Albemarle Bertie rapidly invaded and subdued Isle de France.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grand_Port>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
636:
Rashidun forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid took control of Syria
and Palestine in the Battle of Yarmouk, marking the first great wave of
Muslim conquests after the death of Muhammad.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yarmouk>
1707:
The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British
abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Pensacola_(1707)>
1882:
The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
was first performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture>
1940:
In the midst of the Battle of Britain, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill delivered a speech thanking the Royal Air Force,
declaring, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_was_so_much_owed_by_so_many_to_so_few>
1989:
The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South
Australia, was completed, becoming the world's longest and fastest
guided busway with buses travelling a total of 12 km (7.5 mi) at
maximum speeds up to 100 km/h (62 mph) (example pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Bahn_Busway>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
kitchen-sinky:
1. (informal) Inclusive of too wide a variety of features or items,
typically with a resulting trade-off in efficiency or usefulness.
2. Of or pertaining to the kitchen sink drama; depicting social realities
in an unstylized and direct manner.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kitchen-sinky>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability
of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should voyage far.
--H. P. Lovecraft
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft>
The hermeneutic style of Latin, a style with many unusual and arcane
words, especially from Greek, became the nearly universal preference in
tenth-century England. It was first found in the work of Apuleius in the
second century and then in Europe in the later Roman period. In the
early medieval period some leading Continental scholars were exponents,
including Johannes Scotus Eriugena and Odo of Cluny; the most
influential hermeneutic writer was the English seventh-century bishop
Aldhelm. In England the hermeneutic style became increasingly
influential in the tenth century when Latin scholarship was reviving; in
continental Europe, the style was only ever used by a minority of
writers. It was the house style of the English Benedictine Reform, the
most important intellectual movement in later Anglo-Saxon England. The
style fell out of favour after the Norman Conquest, and the twelfth-
century chronicler William of Malmesbury described it as disgusting and
bombastic. Historians were equally dismissive until the late twentieth
century, when scholars such as Michael Lapidge argued that it should be
taken seriously as an important aspect of late Anglo-Saxon culture.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutic_style>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
295 BC:
The oldest known temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love,
beauty and fertility, was dedicated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(mythology)>
1895:
American outlaw and folk hero John Wesley Hardin was shot dead
by an off-duty lawman in El Paso, Texas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hardin>
1945:
During the August Revolution against French colonial rule, the
Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh took control of Hanoi in northern Vietnam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Revolution>
1989:
Hungary opened its border with Austria as part of the Pan-
European Picnic, allowing several hundred East Germans to defect to the
West.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-European_Picnic>
2005:
Thunderstorms in southern Ontario, Canada, spawned at least
three tornadoes that caused over C$500 million in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ontario_Tornado_Outbreak_of_2005>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
strumpet:
1. A female prostitute; a woman who is very sexually active.
2. A female adulterer.
3. A mistress.
4. (derogatory) A trollop; a whore.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/strumpet>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope
which, seized upon with faith, can work out salvation … Let us not
deceive ourselves: we must elect world peace or world destruction.
--Bernard Baruch
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch>
Ruby Laffoon (1869–1941) was an American politician and the 43rd
governor of Kentucky, from 1931 to 1935. At age 17, Laffoon moved to
Washington, D.C. to live with his uncle, U.S. Representative Polk
Laffoon. In 1931, he defeated Republican William B. Harrison by what was
then the largest margin of victory ever in a Kentucky gubernatorial
election. To make up for a revenue shortfall during the Great
Depression, Laffoon advocated the enactment of the state's first sales
tax. This issue dominated most of his term in office and split the state
Democratic Party and his own administration; the tax was defeated three
times before he forged a bipartisan alliance to get it passed in a
special legislative session in 1934. Term-limited by the state
constitution, Laffoon supported political boss Tom Rhea to succeed him
as governor, but Rhea was beaten by Lieutenant Governor Happy Chandler
in the primary. Laffoon appointed a record number of Kentucky colonels,
including Harland Sanders, who used the title "Colonel" when he opened
his chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Laffoon>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1590:
On the third birthday of his granddaughter Virginia Dare, the
first English child born in the Americas, John White, governor of the
Roanoke Colony in present-day North Carolina, US, returned from England
only to find the settlement deserted.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony>
1612:
The trials of the Pendle and Samlesbury witches, among the most
famous of England's witch trials, began at the assizes in Lancaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samlesbury_witches>
1868:
Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium while analyzing the
chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium>
1920:
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
(authors Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony pictured) was
ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage in America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Con…>
1976:
North Korean soldiers killed two American soldiers in the Joint
Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, heightening tensions
over a 100-foot (30 m) poplar tree that blocked the line of sight
between a United Nations Command checkpoint and an observation post.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Beowulf cluster:
(computing) A cluster of standard personal computers linked by a local
area network, usually on the order of 10 nodes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Life was a pleasure; he looked back at its moments, many of them
as shrouded in mist as the opposite bank of the Thames. Objectively,
many of them held only misery, fear, confusion; but afterward, and even
at the time, he had known an exhilaration stronger than the misery,
fear, or confusion. A fragment of belief came to him from another epoch:
Cogito ergo sum. For him that had not been true; his truth had been:
Sentio ergo sum. I feel, so I exist. He enjoyed this fearful, miserable,
confused life, and not only because it made more sense than nonlife. He
could never explain that to anyone.
--Brian Aldiss
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss>
Supernature is the third studio album by English electronic music duo
Goldfrapp, released on 17 August 2005 by Mute Records. It was their
first to incorporate pop and electronic dance music, a blend that was
complimented by most critics. Supernature debuted at number two on the
UK Albums Chart, selling 52,976 copies in its first week. It was
certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in January
2006, and had sold one million copies worldwide as of February 2008. The
album spawned four singles: "Number 1", "Ride a White Horse", "Fly Me
Away", and its lead single, "Ooh La La", which reached number four on
the UK Singles Chart, becoming the duo's highest-peaking single to date.
In North America, where "Number 1" was promoted as the first single, the
album was released in 2006 and did not perform well on the charts.
Supernature received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Electronic/Dance
Album in 2007.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernature_(Goldfrapp_album)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1560:
The Scottish Parliament adopted a Protestant confession of
faith to initiate the Scottish Reformation and disestablishing
Catholicism as the national religion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Reformation>
1676:
The Battle of Halmstad was fought at Fyllebro and was the last
battle in Halland between Denmark and Sweden.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halmstad>
1915:
American Jew Leo Frank was lynched by a mob of prominent
citizens in Marietta, Georgia, for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old
girl.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank>
1945:
Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed the independence of
Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch
Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_National_Revolution>
1998:
U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he
had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
quiddity:
1. (philosophy) The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing.
2. (law) A trifle; a nicety or quibble.
3. An eccentricity; an odd feature.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quiddity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Maybe all poetry, insofar as it moves us and connects with us,
is a revealing of something that the writer doesn’t actually want to
say but desperately needs to communicate, to be delivered of. Perhaps
it’s the need to keep it hidden that makes it poetic — makes it
poetry.
--Ted Hughes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Hughes>
Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, and Corona Australis, the Southern
Crown, are two small constellations among the 48 listed by the 2nd-
century astronomer Ptolemy. Corona Borealis, which generally represented
the crown given by the god Dionysus to the Cretan princess Ariadne, is
in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, while Corona Australis, associated
with Sagittarius or Centaurus, is in the Southern. Corona Borealis
boasts the highly variable stars R and T Coronae Borealis and the huge
Corona Borealis Supercluster. Corona Australis, lying alongside the
plane of the Milky Way, hosts Epsilon Coronae Australis, the brightest
example of a W Ursae Majoris variable in the southern sky. It also
contains one of the closest star-forming regions to our Solar System,
about 430 light years away—a dusty dark nebula known as the Corona
Australis Molecular Cloud, with stars at the earliest stages of their
lifespan.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_Borealis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1819:
Fifteen people were killed and 400–700 others were injured
when cavalry charged into a crowd gathered at St Peter's Field,
Manchester, England, to demand the reform of parliamentary
representation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre>
1863:
After Spain had annexed the Dominican Republic, rebels raised
the Dominican flag in Santiago de los Caballeros to begin the War of
Restoration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Restoration_War>
1927:
The Dole Air Race began; eight fixed-wing aircraft competed to
fly from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, but only two
successfully completed the flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dole_Air_Race>
1960:
Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a balloon over New Mexico at
102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting records for high-altitude jump, free-
fall height, and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger>
2009:
Y. E. Yang won the 2009 PGA Championship to become the first
Asian-born golfer to win a men's major golf championship.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Yong-eun>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tormentress:
A female tormentor.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tormentress>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
True greatness is free, kind, familiar and popular; it lets
itself be touched and handled, it loses nothing by being seen at close
quarters; the better one knows it, the more one admires it.
--Jean de La Bruyère
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Bruy%C3%A8re>
Departures is a Japanese drama film directed by Yōjirō Takita and
starring Masahiro Motoki, Ryōko Hirosue, and Tsutomu Yamazaki. Loosely
based on Shinmon Aoki's memoir Coffinman, the film follows a young man
who becomes a nōkanshi—a traditional Japanese ritual mortician—and
overcomes the prejudices of those around him. The story was conceived
after Motoki, affected by a funeral ceremony he had seen along the
Ganges, read Coffinman and felt that the story would adapt well to film.
Departures took a decade to complete, and distributors only released it
after the film won the grand prize at the Montreal World Film Festival
in August 2008. It became Japan's highest-grossing domestic film that
year and won numerous awards, including the first Academy Award for Best
Foreign Language Film for Japan. It was praised for its humour and the
beauty of the encoffining ceremony (set pictured), but critics took
issue with the film's predictability and overt sentimentality. The
film's success spurred the development of tourist attractions at its
shooting sites, increased interest in encoffining ceremonies, and the
adaptation of the story for various media.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departures_(film)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
718:
Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned their year-long siege
of Constantinople, causing the caliphate to give up its goal of
conquering the Byzantine Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Constantinople_(717%E2%80%93718)>
1511:
Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city of Malacca, giving
Portugal control over the Strait of Malacca, through which all sea-going
trade between China and India was concentrated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Malacca_(1511)>
1812:
War of 1812: Potawatomi warriors destroyed the United States
Army's Fort Dearborn in what is now Chicago, Illinois, and captured the
survivors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Dearborn>
1915:
The New York World revealed that Germany had purchased excess
phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the
war effort and diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Phenol_Plot>
1945:
The Gyokuon-hōsō was broadcast in Japan, announcing the
unconditional surrender of the Japanese army and naval forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
beeline:
1. A very direct or quick path or trip.
2. (mining, chiefly historical) A dynamite fuse made with a small quantity
of dynamite powder along its length, so that the spark travels quickly
and at a specific known rate.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beeline>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
This Sanatana Dharma has many scriptures: The Veda, the Vedanta,
the Gita, the Upanishads, the Darshanas, the Puranas, the Tantras, nor
could it reject the Bible or the Koran, but its real, the most
authoritative scripture is in the heart in which the Eternal has his
dwelling.
--Sri Aurobindo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo>
Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae that are found worldwide,
generally near the sea, rivers or wetlands. They are slender, lightly
built birds with long forked tails, narrow wings, long bills and
relatively short legs. Most species are pale grey above and white below,
with a contrasting black cap, but the marsh terns, the Inca tern and
some noddies have dark plumage for at least part of the year. The sexes
are identical in appearance. They are birds of open habitats that
typically breed in noisy colonies and lay their eggs on bare ground with
little or no nest material. Many terns are long-distance migrants, and
the Arctic tern, migrating each year between the Arctic and Antarctic,
may see more daylight in a year than any other animal. They are long-
lived birds and are relatively free from natural predators and
parasites, but most species are declining in numbers through habitat
loss, polluted waters, human encroachment and predation by introduced
mammals. Three tern species are classed as endangered, and the Chinese
crested tern is critically endangered. International agreements provide
a measure of protection, but adults and eggs of some species are still
used for food in the tropics.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tern>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha
archipelago, ruling it from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha>
1888:
A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's The Lost
Chord (audio featured), one of the first recordings of music ever made,
was played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's
phonograph in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Chord>
1941:
After a secret meeting off the Canadian coast, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued
the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post-World War II
world despite the fact that the United States had yet to enter the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter>
1975:
The film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is still in
limited release today, making it the longest-running theatrical release
in film history, premiered in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show>
2005:
Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountain north of
Marathon and Varnava, Greece, killing all 121 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
atend:
1. (transitive, obsolete) To set on fire; kindle.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To take or catch fire.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atend>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time
comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure,
but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the
world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes,
which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the
new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed,
finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment, we take the
pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the
still larger cause of humanity.
--Jawaharlal Nehru
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru>
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the
village of Tongwynlais in South Wales. The first castle on the site was
built by the Normans after 1081 to protect the newly conquered town of
Cardiff. The castle's earth motte was reused by Gilbert de Clare as the
basis for a new stone fortification, built between 1267 and 1277. John
Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, inherited the castle ruins in
1848. One of Britain's wealthiest men, he employed the architect William
Burges to reconstruct the castle as a summer residence. Burges rebuilt
the outside before his death in 1881, and the interior work was finished
by his team in 1891; it featured elaborate decorations including
extensive use of symbolism drawing on classical mythology and legendary
themes. Crichton-Stuart planted a vineyard just below the castle, where
wine production continued until the First World War. In 1950 his
grandson, the 5th Marquess of Bute, placed the property into the care of
the state. Castell Coch is considered to be one of the best surviving
examples of Victorian architecture.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castell_Coch>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1624:
Cardinal Richelieu became the chief minister to King
Louis XIII, and under his supervision, France's feudal political
structure transformed into one with a powerful central government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu>
1704:
War of the Spanish Succession: The Duke of Marlborough led
Allied forces to a crucial victory in the Battle of Blenheim.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blenheim>
1898:
Spanish–American War: After a mock battle for Manila, the
Spanish commander surrendered to the U.S. in order to keep the city out
of Filipino rebel hands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_(1898)>
1942:
Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers authorized the construction of facilities that would house the
Manhattan Project.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project>
1996:
Belgian man Marc Dutroux was arrested for the kidnapping of 14
-year-old Laetitia Delhez, revealing a number of other victims and one
of Belgium's biggest child molestation cases.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Dutroux>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
oobleck:
A mixture of cornstarch and water with unusual physical properties.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oobleck>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The divine in man is our sole ground for believing that there is
anything divine in the universe outside of man. Man is the revealer of
the divine. At bottom, the world is to be interpreted in terms of joy,
but of a joy that includes all the pain, includes it and transforms it
and transcends it. The Light of the World is a light that is saturated
with the darkness which it has overcome and transfigured.
--Felix Adler
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Felix_Adler>
The Smyth Report is the common name of an administrative history written
by physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth about the Manhattan Project, the Allied
effort to develop atomic bombs during World War II. It was released to
the public on August 12, 1945, just days after the atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Smyth was commissioned to write the report by
Major General Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project. The
Smyth Report was the first official account of the development of the
atomic bombs and the basic physical processes behind them. Since
anything in the declassified Smyth Report could be discussed openly, it
focused heavily on basic nuclear physics and other information which was
either already widely known in the scientific community or easily
deducible by a competent scientist. It omitted details about chemistry,
metallurgy, and ordnance, ultimately giving a false impression that the
Manhattan Project was all about physics. The Smyth Report sold almost
127,000 copies in its first eight printings, and was on the New York
Times best-seller list from mid-October 1945 until late January 1946. It
has been translated into over 40 languages.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyth_Report>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
30 BC:
Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian
Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra>
1676:
Puritans and their Native American allies killed Wampanoag
sachem Metacomet (known as "King Philip"), essentially ending King
Philip's War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip%27s_War>
1883:
The last known quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, died
at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga>
1985:
Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed into the ridge of Mount
Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520 of 524 on board in
the world's worst single-aircraft aviation disaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123>
1990:
American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete
skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus ever discovered near Faith, South Dakota,
US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_(dinosaur)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cicada:
Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes
wide apart on the head and transparent, well-veined wings.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cicada>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
No self is of itself alone. It has a long chain of intellectual
ancestors. The "I" is chained to ancestry by many factors ... This is
not mere allegory, but an eternal memory.
--Erwin Schrödinger
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger>