Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978),
was a landmark Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action. It
found diversity in the classroom to be a compelling state interest and
allowed race to be one of several factors in college admission policy,
but rejected specific quotas, such as the 16 out of 100 seats set aside
for minority students by the UC Davis School of Medicine. Although the
court had outlawed segregation in schools, it had not resolved the
legality of voluntary affirmative action programs initiated by
universities. Proponents deemed such programs necessary to make up for
past discrimination, while opponents believed they violated the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case fractured the
court: the nine justices issued a total of six opinions. The judgment of
the court was written by Justice Lewis Powell, and two different blocs
of four justices joined various parts of Powell's opinion. The decision
had little practical effect on most affirmative action programs. In 2003
the court upheld Powell's position in a majority opinion in Grutter v.
Bollinger.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Ba…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1752:
Alaungpaya, a village chief in Upper Burma, founded the
Konbaung Dynasty; by the time of his death, he had unified all of
Myanmar, and driven out the French and the British.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaungpaya>
1768:
A group of Polish nobles established the Bar Confederation to
defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth against Russian influence and against King Stanisław II
Augustus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Confederation>
1944:
The Admiralty Islands campaign during the Pacific War of World
War II began when American forces assaulted Los Negros Island, the
third largest of the Admiralty Islands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Islands_campaign>
1960:
Morocco's deadliest earthquake struck the city of Agadir,
killing at least 12,000 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Agadir_earthquake>
2012:
Construction of Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest tower and
second-tallest structure, was completed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Skytree>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
leap day:
The extra day in a leap year, currently February 29th in countries that
use the Gregorian calendar and February 24th in the few communities
using the Julian calendar.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leap_day>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Church is indeed, in its real Intent, An Assembly where
Nothing but Friendship is meant; And the utter Extinction of Foeship and
Wrath By the Working of Love in the Strength of its Faith. This gives it
its holy and catholic Name, And truly confirms its apostolic Claim;
Showing what the One Saviour's One Mission had been: "Go and teach all
the World," — every Creature therein. In the Praise ever due to the
Gospel of Grace Its Universality holds the first Place.
--John Byrom
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Byrom>
Pictor (Latin for "painter") is a small faint constellation between the
brilliant star Canopus and the Large Magellanic Cloud in the Southern
Celestial Hemisphere. Normally represented as an easel, Pictor was
invented and named by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century. The
constellation's brightest star is Alpha Pictoris, a white main sequence
star of apparent magnitude 3.3. Pictor also hosts RR Pictoris, a
cataclysmic variable star system that flared up as a nova in 1925,
reaching magnitude 1.2. Pictor's second-brightest star, Beta Pictoris,
is surrounded by an unusual dust disk rich in carbon. HD 40307, an
orange dwarf, has six planets orbiting it, one of which—HD 40307
g—is a potential super-Earth in the circumstellar habitable zone.
Kapteyn's Star, the nearest star in Pictor to Earth, is a red dwarf
12.76 light-years away that was found to have two super-Earths in orbit
in 2014. Pictor A is a radio galaxy that is shooting a jet of plasma
800,000 light-years long from a supermassive black hole at its centre.
In 2006, a gamma ray burst—GRB 060729—was observed in Pictor; its
X-ray afterglow was detectable for nearly two years afterwards.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictor>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1874:
In one of the longest cases ever heard in an English court, the
defendant was convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity
of the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichborne_case>
1893:
USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first
battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships
of the time, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indiana_(BB-1)>
1914:
In the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, Greeks living in southern
Albania proclaimed the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Republic_of_Northern_Epirus>
1986:
Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated by a lone
gunman in Stockholm while walking home from a movie theatre with his
wife Lisbet Palme.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olof_Palme>
2002:
During the 2002 Gujarat violence in India, mobs of Hindus
attacked Muslims in Naroda Patiya and Chamanpura, resulting in 166
deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulbarg_Society_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
unbirthday:
A day that is not one's birthday but is celebrated as though it were
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unbirthday>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The advantage of living
is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and
lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will,
not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.
--Michel de Montaigne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne>
Arthur W. Radford (1896–1973) was a U.S. Navy admiral and naval
aviator. In over 40 years of military service, he held a variety of
posts including Vice Chief of Naval Operations, commander of the Pacific
Fleet and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Radford's first sea
duty was aboard the battleship USS South Carolina during World War I.
In the first years of World War II, he was the architect of the navy's
aviator training programs. In its final years he commanded aircraft
carrier divisions through several campaigns of the Pacific War. Noted as
a strong-willed and aggressive leader, Radford was a central figure in
the post-war debates on U.S. military policy, and was a staunch
proponent of naval aviation. He defended the Navy's interests in an era
of shrinking defense budgets during the 1949 "Revolt of the Admirals", a
contentious public fight over policy. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
he advocated a strong nuclear deterrent in support of the New Look
policy of President Dwight Eisenhower. He retired from the military in
1957. He was the namesake of the Spruance-class destroyer USS Arthur W.
Radford.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_W._Radford>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1560:
The Treaty of Berwick was signed, setting the terms under which
an English fleet and army could enter Scotland to expel French troops
defending the Regency of Mary of Guise (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berwick_(1560)>
1870:
The current flag of Japan was first adopted as the national
flag for Japanese merchant ships.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Japan>
1940:
American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered the
radioactive isotope carbon-14, which today is used extensively as the
basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological,
geological, and hydrogeological samples.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14>
1996:
The media franchise Pokémon was launched with the release of
the first version of the video game Pocket Monsters Aka and Midori.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon>
2015:
Russian statesman and politician Boris Nemtsov was assassinated
in central Moscow while returning from a meal out.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Boris_Nemtsov>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vituperation:
1. The act of vituperating; severely blaming or censuring.
2. Criticism or invective which is sustained and considered to be overly
harsh; abuse, severe blame or censure.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vituperation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers
of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of
their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die,
no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved
his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems
to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or
action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death
brings no pleasure to the world. We have only one story. All novels, all
poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and
evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good,
while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while
virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.
--East of Eden
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/East_of_Eden_(novel)>
Halo Wars (released 2009) is a real-time strategy video game developed
by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox
360 video game console. The game is set in the science fiction universe
of the Halo series in the year 2531, 21 years before the events of Halo:
Combat Evolved. The player leads human soldiers aboard the warship
Spirit of Fire in an effort to stop an ancient fleet of ships from
falling into the hands of the genocidal alien Covenant. Halo Wars was
unveiled at the 2006 X06 Xbox show. Ensemble was closed by Microsoft
before the game's release, but Robot Entertainment was founded soon
after by many of Ensemble's former employees; this new company continued
to support Halo Wars with updates and downloadable content. The game
received generally positive reviews. Reviewers lauded the game's pre-
rendered cinematics, attention to detail in replicating the Halo
universe, and intuitive control scheme. Complaints against the game
included the lack of an option to play as the Covenant faction in
campaign mode as well as the lack of strategic options during play. The
game sold one million units worldwide through March 2009.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_Wars>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
747 BC:
According to Ptolemy, the reign of the Babylonian king
Nabonassar began and with it, a new era characterized by the systematic
maintenance of chronologically precise historical records.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabonassar>
1233:
Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols captured Kaifeng, the capital of
the Jin dynasty, after besieging it for months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_siege_of_Kaifeng>
1936:
Over 1400 troops of the Imperial Japanese Army staged a coup
d'etat in Japan, occupying Tokyo, and killing Finance Minister Takahashi
Korekiyo and several other leading politicians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_26_Incident>
1991:
British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee introduced
WorldWideWeb, the world's first web browser and WYSIWYG HTML editor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb>
2008:
In the first significant cultural visit from the United States
to North Korea since the Korean War, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
performed in East Pyongyang Grand Theatre.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_New_York_Philharmonic_visit_to_North_Kor…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
piquant:
1. Engaging; charming.
2. Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; stimulating.
3. (archaic) Causing hurt feelings; scathing.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/piquant>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Would you realize what Revolution is, call it Progress; and would
you realize what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.
--Les Misérables
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables>
The African river martin (Pseudochelidon eurystomina) is a perching
bird, one of two members of the river martin subfamily of the swallow
family, Hirundinidae. First described by German zoologist Gustav
Hartlaub in 1861, the African river martin was not at first recognised
as a swallow, but was later placed in a separate subfamily shared with
the Asian white-eyed river martin. A large swallow with a variety of
unmusical calls, it is mainly black with a blue-green gloss to the head
and a greener tint to the back and wings, and has red eyes, a broad
orange-red bill and a square black tail. Young birds are similar in
appearance, but with browner plumage. It displays both in flight and on
the ground. The main breeding areas are in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo along the Congo River and its tributary, the Ubangi, in
habitats characterised by a mixture of tropical forest types including
swampy or seasonally flooded woodland. The African river martin is
migratory, wintering in coastal savanna in southern Gabon and the
Republic of the Congo. It nests in burrows in sand banks, and in winter
digs tunnels for night-time shelter.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_river_martin>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
628:
Khosrow II, the last great king of the Sasanian Empire, was
overthrown by his son Kavadh II.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khosrow_II>
1570:
Pope Pius V issued the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis to
excommunicate Queen Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of
England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnans_in_Excelsis>
1870:
Representing Mississippi in the Senate, Hiram Rhodes Revels
became the first African American to serve in the United States
Congress.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Rhodes_Revels>
1956:
In his speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences"
to the 20th Party Congress, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced
the personality cult and dictatorship of his predecessor Joseph Stalin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Cult_of_Personality_and_Its_Consequenc…>
1986:
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda were
ousted from power by the non-violent People Power Revolution, with
Corazon Aquino taking over the government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Power_Revolution>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
satisfice:
(social sciences, intransitive) Of human behavior: to make a choice that
suffices to fulfill the minimum requirements to achieve an objective,
without special regard for utility maximization or optimization of one's
preferences.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/satisfice>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I look at you all — see the love there that's sleeping While my
guitar gently weeps.
--George Harrison
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Harrison>
Æthelberht was King of Kent from about 589 until his death on 24
February 616. Bede lists him in the Ecclesiastical History of the
English People as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms, and he is called a bretwalda or "Britain-ruler" in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle. Æthelberht's law, the earliest written code in any
Germanic language, instituted a complex system of fines. Coins may have
begun to circulate in Kent during his reign for the first time since the
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. His marriage to Bertha, the Christian
daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks, built an alliance with the
most powerful Western European state. Æthelberht became the first
English king to convert to Christianity, shortly after the arrival of
Pope Gregory I's missionary Augustine in 597. Churches were established,
and wider-scale conversion to the religion began in the kingdom.
Æthelberht provided the new church with land in Canterbury, thus
establishing one of the foundation stones of what ultimately became the
Anglican church. He later came to be regarded as a saint; his feast day
is 25 February.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelberht_of_Kent>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1525:
A Spanish-Imperial army defeated a French force in the Battle
of Pavia, the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–26.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pavia>
1711:
George Frideric Handel's Rinaldo, the first Italian language
opera written specifically for the London stage, premiered.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinaldo_(opera)>
1822:
The first Swaminarayan temple, Swaminarayan Mandir in present-
day Ahmedabad, India, was inaugurated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalupur_Swaminarayan_Mandir>
1946:
Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that
became known as Peronism, was elected to his first term as President of
Argentina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n>
2006:
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a state
of emergency in an attempt to subdue a possible military coup.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_state_of_emergency_in_the_Philippines>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
riven:
1. Torn apart.
2. Broken into pieces; split asunder.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/riven>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The United States was made by men of all races and colors, not for
white men, but for the refuge and defense of man. If it does not rest
upon the natural rights of man, it rests nowhere. If it does not exist
by the consent of governed then any exclusion is possible, and it is a
shorter step from an exclusive white man's government to an exclusively
rich white man's government, than it is from a system for mankind to one
for white men. The spirit which excludes some men today because they are
of a certain color, may exclude others tomorrow because they are of a
certain poverty or a certain church or a certain birthplace. There is no
safety, no guarantee, no security in a prejudice. If we build strong and
long, we must build upon moral principle.
--George William Curtis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_William_Curtis>
The military career of John McCain included attack aircraft missions as
a naval aviator in the Vietnam War followed by internment for more than
five years as a prisoner of war. His father and grandfather were
admirals in the United States Navy. Born in 1936 in the Panama Canal
Zone, McCain graduated in 1958 from the U.S. Naval Academy, where his
rebellious attitude resulted in a low standing. Off the coast of
Vietnam, he narrowly escaped death in the 1967 Forrestal fire. On a
bombing mission in October 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi and badly
injured in the crash before enduring periods of torture as a prisoner of
war. In 1968, he refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release,
because it would have meant leaving before other prisoners who had been
held longer. He was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords. Upon
his return, McCain studied at the National War College and commanded a
large training squadron in Florida. In 1979 he was promoted to captain
and became the director of the navy's Senate Liaison Office. McCain has
been a U.S. Senator from Arizona since 1987, and was the Republican
nominee in the 2008 presidential election.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_and_military_career_of_John_McCain>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1885:
Sino-French War: France gained an important victory in the
Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of what is now Vietnam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_%C4%90%E1%BB%93ng_%C4%90%C4%83ng>
1927:
German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg wrote a letter
to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli in which he described his uncertainty
principle for the first time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg>
1941:
Plutonium was first chemically identified by chemist Glenn T.
Seaborg and his team at the University of California, Berkeley.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium>
1987:
Light from the supernova SN 1987A (remnant pictured) in the
Large Magellanic Cloud reached the Earth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A>
2007:
A Virgin Trains Pendolino express train from London Euston to
Glasgow Central derailed near Grayrigg, Cumbria, UK, killing one person
and injuring 22.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayrigg_derailment>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
apace:
Quickly, rapidly, with speed.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apace>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor,— all
men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked — who is good?
not that men are ignorant, — what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so
little of men.
--W. E. B. Du Bois
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois>
Banksia aemula, commonly known as the wallum banksia, is a shrub of the
family Proteaceae. Found from Bundaberg south to Sydney on the
Australian east coast, it is encountered as a shrub or a tree up to 8 m
(26 ft) tall in coastal heath on deep sandy soil known as Wallum. It
has wrinkled orange bark and shiny green serrated leaves, with green-
yellow flower spikes, called inflorescences, appearing in autumn. The
flower spikes turn grey as they age and large grey follicles appear. B.
aemula resprouts from its woody lignotuber after bushfires. Aemula,
Latin for "similar", comes from its resemblance to the closely related
Banksia serrata. First described by the botanist Robert Brown in the
early 19th century, it was known for many years in New South Wales as
Banksia serratifolia. This name, originally coined by Richard Anthony
Salisbury, proved invalid, and since 1981 Banksia aemula has been
accepted as the scientific name. A wide array of mammals, invertebrates,
and birds, particularly honeyeaters, visit the inflorescences and are
instrumental in pollination. It is grown as a garden plant, but less
commonly than B. serrata.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_aemula>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1316:
The forces of the infante Ferdinand of Majorca fought against
those loyal to Princess Matilda of Hainaut in the Battle of Picotin on
the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Picotin>
1744:
War of the Austrian Succession: British ships began attacking
the Spanish rear of a Franco-Spanish combined fleet in the Mediterranean
Sea off the coast near Toulon, France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Toulon_(1744)>
1899:
Philippine–American War: Filipino forces launched their first
counterattack in a failed attempt aimed at recapturing Manila from the
Americans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Caloocan>
1958:
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Syrian President
Shukri al-Quwatli signed a union pact to form the United Arab Republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Republic>
2006:
At least six men staged Britain's biggest cash robbery ever at
a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitas_depot_robbery>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
usurious:
1. Of or pertaining to usury.
2. Exorbitant.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/usurious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and
respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations
And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our
rights and previleges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they
appear to merit the enjoyment.
--George Washington
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Washington>
Anarky is a fictional character in comic books published by DC Comics.
Co-created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, he first appeared in
Detective Comics No. 608 (November 1989), as an adversary of Batman. A
former child prodigy driven to overthrow governments to improve social
conditions, he has espoused environmentalism, antimilitarism, economic
equality, and especially anti-statism. Anarky was used as a sporadically
recurring character throughout the early 1990s, following a positive
reception by readers, and experienced a brief surge in media exposure
during the late 1990s. The 1997 spin-off series Anarky generated
positive reviews. In 2008, he reappeared in an issue of Robin, and then
became a recurring character in issues of Red Robin, authored by Fabian
Nicieza, until the series was cancelled in 2011. Since 2013 Anarky has
been featured more heavily in media adaptations of DC Comics properties,
across multiple platforms. He made his live action debut in 2015 in
Arrow, a television series based on the Green Arrow character, where he
was portrayed by Alexander Calvert, once again as a villain.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarky>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1543:
Led by the Ethiopian Emperor Galawdewos, the combined army of
Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Imam Ahmad
ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wayna_Daga>
1804:
Built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, the first self-
propelled steam locomotive first ran in Wales.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotive>
1919:
Bavarian socialist Kurt Eisner, who had organized the German
Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy and established
Bavaria as a republic, was assassinated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Eisner>
1958:
British artist Gerald Holtom designed a logo for the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament that became internationally recognised as the
peace sign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbols>
1973:
After accidentally having strayed into Israeli airspace, Libyan
Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two Israeli fighter aircraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Arab_Airlines_Flight_114>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
unicameral:
1. Of, or having, a single legislative chamber.
2. (linguistics, of a script) Making no distinction between upper and lower
case, but rather having only one case.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unicameral>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Loving other people starts with loving ourselves and accepting
ourselves. I know many of you have struggled with this. I draw upon your
strength and your support, and have, in ways you will never know. I’m
here today because I am gay. And because… maybe I can make a
difference. To help others have an easier and more hopeful time.
Regardless, for me, I feel a personal obligation and a social
responsibility. I also do it selfishly, because I am tired of hiding
and I am tired of lying by omission. I suffered for years because I was
scared to be out. My spirit suffered, my mental health suffered and my
relationships suffered. And I’m standing here today, with all of you,
on the other side of all that pain.
--Ellen Page
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ellen_Page>
"Rehab" is a song recorded by Barbadian singer Rihanna (pictured) for
her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). Def Jam Recordings
serviced the song to contemporary hit radio in the United States on
October 6, 2008, as the eighth and final single from the album, and
released it in Britain as a CD single on December 8. Development of
"Rehab" began while Rihanna was accompanying Timbaland on Justin
Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveShow tour in 2007. Timberlake wrote the song
in collaboration with its producers, Hannon Lane and Timbaland, and
provided additional vocals. It is a mid-paced R&B; song with an
emotional, melancholy chorus; the lyrics are about the protagonist's
painful memories of her former lover, who is portrayed metaphorically as
a disease. Critics were divided on the song's production and
composition, some comparing the structure to that of Timberlake's 2007
single "What Goes Around... Comes Around". The accompanying music video,
directed by Anthony Mandler, was shot in Vasquez Rocks Park near Los
Angeles, and won the Urban Music Award for Best Music Video.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehab_(Rihanna_song)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
Italian composer Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa The Barber of
Seville was hissed by the audience during its debut at the Teatro
Argentina in Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barber_of_Seville>
1872:
New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, today the largest
art museum in the United States with a collection of over two million
works of art, opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art>
1959:
The Canadian government under Prime Minister John Diefenbaker
cancelled the Avro CF-105 Arrow interceptor aircraft program amid much
political debate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow>
1988:
The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast voted to secede from
Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_War>
2009:
The Tamil Tigers attempted to crash two aircraft packed with
C-4 in suicide attacks on Colombo, Sri Lanka, but the planes were shot
down before they reached their targets.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_suicide_air_raid_on_Colombo>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
venire:
1. (law) A writ of venire facias.
2. (law, chiefly US) A group of persons summoned by a writ of venire
facias to appear in court for jury selection.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/venire>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Nature has two voices, the one high, the other low; one is in
sweet accord with reason and justice, and the other apparently at war
with both. The more men know of the essential nature of things, and of
the true relation of mankind, the freer they are from prejudice of every
kind. The child is afraid of the giant form of his own shadow. This is
natural, but he will part with his fears when he is older and wiser. So
ignorance is full of prejudice, but it will disappear with
enlightenment.
--Frederick Douglass
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass>