Tank Girl is a 1995 American science-fiction action-comedy film directed
by Rachel Talalay. Based on the British post-apocalyptic comic series of
the same name by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett that was originally
published in Deadline magazine, the film stars Lori Petty, Naomi Watts,
Ice-T and Malcolm McDowell. Set in a drought-ravaged Australia after a
catastrophic impact event, the story follows the antihero Tank Girl
(Petty) as she, Jet Girl (Watts), and genetically modified supersoldiers
called the Rippers fight "Water & Power", an oppressive corporation led
by Kesslee (McDowell). Tank Girl was filmed primarily in White Sands,
New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona. The critically praised soundtrack was
assembled by Courtney Love, and the Rippers' makeup and prosthetics team
was headed by Stan Winston. The film recouped only about $6 million of
its $25 million budget at the box office. Talalay blamed some of the
film's negative reception on studio edits over which she had no control.
Despite mixed to negative reviews, it has drawn a cult following, in
part for its feminist themes.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Girl_(film)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
627:
Muslim–Quraish Wars: A confederation of tribes began an
ultimately unsuccessful siege of Yathrib (now Medina) against Muhammad
and his army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Trench>
1146:
French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux preached a sermon to a crowd
at Vézelay, with King Louis VII in attendance, urging the necessity of
a Second Crusade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Clairvaux>
1822:
Greek War of Independence: Ottoman troops began the massacre of
over 20,000 Greeks on the island of Chios.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios_massacre>
1942:
Second World War: Because of a mutiny by Indian soldiers
against their British officers, Japanese troops captured Christmas
Island without any resistance.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Christmas_Island>
1964:
Brazilian Armed Forces led an overthrow of Brazilian President
João Goulart and established a military government that lasted for 21
years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
teenage:
(chiefly Kent dialect) Brushwood for fences and hedges.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/teenage>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I don't want to talk about the texts or the class. We can do that
another time. I just want to know the last time you saw a unicorn and do
you still believe in primeval forests.
--Leo Buscaglia
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Buscaglia>
Jumping Flash! is a platform video game co-developed by Exact and Ultra
and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The first instalment in
the Jumping Flash! series, it was released in April 1995 for the
PlayStation in Japan and later the same year in Europe and North
America; it was re-released through the PlayStation Network store on
PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable in 2007. Presented in a first-
person perspective, the game follows a robotic rabbit named Robbit as he
searches for missing jet pods that have been scattered by the game's
antagonist character, the astrophysicist Baron Aloha. The game has been
described as an early showcase for 3D graphics in console gaming.
Generally well received by critics, who praised its graphics and unique
gameplay, it was later overshadowed by 3D platformers of the fifth
console generation. It was described as the third-most underrated video
game of all time by Matt Casamassina of IGN in 2007, and holds the
Guinness World Record as the "First platform video game in true 3D".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_Flash!>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1282:
Sicilians began to rebel against the rule of the Angevin King
Charles I of Naples, starting the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Vespers>
1842:
American physician Crawford Long became the first person to use
diethyl ether as an anesthetic in a surgical procedure.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_Long>
1899:
A committee of the German Society of Chemistry invited other
national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to form the
International Committee on Atomic Weights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Isotopic_Abundances_and_Atomic_…>
1950:
Usmar Ismail began filming Darah dan Doa, formally recognised
as the first Indonesian film.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darah_dan_Doa>
1972:
Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces began the Easter Offensive
in an attempt to gain as much territory and destroy as many units of the
South Vietnamese Army as possible.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Offensive>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sewer:
1. (now historical) A servant attending at a meal who is responsible for
seating arrangements, serving dishes, etc. […]
2. One who sews.
3. A small tortricid moth, the larva of which sews together the edges of a
leaf using silk.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sewer>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas,
not so easy as looking at it.
--Vincent van Gogh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh>
Benjamin Franklin Tilley (March 29, 1848 – March 18, 1907) was an
officer in the United States Navy and the first acting governor of what
is now American Samoa. He entered the Naval Academy at age 15 during the
Civil War and graduated in 1866. In the wake of the Great Railroad
Strike of 1877, he participated as a lieutenant in the military's
crackdown against workers. During the 1891 Chilean Civil War, Tilley and
a small contingent of sailors and marines defended the American
consulate in Santiago, Chile. Commanding the gunship USS Newport in the
Spanish–American War, he captured two Spanish Navy ships. After the
war Tilley was promoted to captain and became the acting governor of
Tutuila and Manua, present-day American Samoa, where he set legal and
administrative precedents for the new territory. Tilley's successor,
Captain Uriel Sebree, praised his "great ability, kindness, tact and
sound common sense". He was promoted to rear admiral after almost
41 years of naval service, but died within a month from pneumonia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Tilley>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
845:
Viking raiders possibly led by the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok
captured Paris and held the city for a huge ransom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(845)>
1638:
Swedish settlers founded New Sweden near Delaware Bay, the
first Swedish colony in America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden>
1871:
The Royal Albert Hall in Albertopolis, London, was officially
opened by Queen Victoria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albert_Hall>
1941:
Second World War: British Royal Navy and Australian Navy ships
intercepted and sank or severely damaged the ships of the Italian Regia
Marina near Crete.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_Matapan>
1974:
NASA's Mariner 10, launched in November 1973, became the first
spaceprobe to fly by the planet Mercury.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_10>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
primate:
1. (ecclesiastical) In the Catholic Church, a rare title conferred to or
claimed by the sees of certain archbishops, or the highest-ranking
bishop of a present or historical, usually political circumscription.
2. (ecclesiastical) In the Anglican Church, an archbishop, or the highest-
ranking bishop of an ecclesiastic province.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/primate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Imaginative truth is the most immediate way of presenting ultimate
reality to a human being … ultimate reality is what we call God.
--R. S. Thomas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._S._Thomas>
The 139th Boat Race took place on 27 March 1993. Held annually, the Boat
Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames. Cambridge, using
"cleaver blades" for the first time in the history of the race, won by
three-and-a-half lengths in a victory that was described in The Times as
"crushingly conclusive". The winning time of 17 minutes exactly was the
fourth fastest time in the event. Cambridge's victory prevented what
would have been Oxford's seventeenth win out of the last eighteen races,
which would have levelled the overall score for the first time since the
1929 race. Oxford's crew featured two Olympic gold medallists and saw
changes in their rowers and cox in the lead-up to the event. The race
was umpired by the former Oxford Blue Mark Evans, who controversially
instigated changes to the start procedure of the race. In the reserve
race, Cambridge's Goldie defeated Oxford's Isis, while Cambridge won the
Women's Boat Race.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boat_Race_1993>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
193:
Praetorian Guards assassinated Roman emperor Pertinax and sold
the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didius_Julianus>
1802:
German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered 2
Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Pallas>
1920:
An outbreak of 37 tornadoes across the Midwestern and Southern
United States left more than 380 people dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Palm_Sunday_tornado_outbreak>
1930:
Turkey changed the name of its largest city Constantinople to
Istanbul.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Istanbul>
1999:
Serbian police and special forces killed at least 89 Kosovo
Albanians in the village of Izbica, in the Drenica region of central
Kosovo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izbica_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
beer:
One who is or exists.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beer>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Always think of yourself as everyone's servant; look for Christ
Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for
them all.
--Teresa of Ávila
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Teresa_of_%C3%81vila>
Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, is an Easter chorale cantata by
Johann Sebastian Bach. Translated to "Christ lay in death's bonds"
(pictured in an 18th-century Luther Bible), it is one of his earliest
church cantatas, a genre to which Bach later contributed complete
cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. The composition
was probably intended for a performance in 1707, supporting his
application for a post at a church in Mühlhausen. Both text and music
are based on Martin Luther's Easter hymn of the same name. An opening
sinfonia is followed by seven chorale variations per omnes versus: Bach
used in each vocal movement the unchanged words and tune of a stanza of
the chorale. The variations are arranged symmetrically:
chorus–duet–solo–chorus–solo–duet–chorus, with the focus on
the central fourth stanza about the battle between Life and Death. For
his first Easter as Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1724, Bach used the
cantata again, and also for the following year as part of his cycle of
chorale cantatas. In the extant score of the Leipzig performances, the
four vocal parts are sometimes reinforced by a choir of trombones.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_lag_in_Todes_Banden,_BWV_4>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1329:
Pope John XXII issued a papal bull declaring that some of the
works of German theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart were heretical.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart>
1794:
To protect American merchant ships from Barbary pirates, the
United States Congress passed the Naval Act to establish a naval force,
consisting of the USS Constitution and five other frigates, which
eventually became the United States Navy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_six_frigates_of_the_United_States_Na…>
1941:
Encouraged by the British Special Operations Executive, a group
of pro-Western Serb-nationalist Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers
planned and conducted a coup d'état after Yugoslavia joined the Axis
powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1976:
The Washington Metro, the second-busiest rapid transit system
in the US, opened to commuters.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metro>
2009:
The dam holding Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Tangerang
District, Indonesia, failed, resulting in floods killing at least 100
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situ_Gintung>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
paternoster:
1. (Christianity) The Lord's prayer, especially in a Roman Catholic
context.
2. A slow, continuously moving lift or elevator consisting of a loop of
open-fronted cabins running the height of a building, the arrangement
resembling a rosary. The moving compartment is entered at one level and
left when the desired level is reached.
3. (architecture) A bead-like ornament in mouldings. […]
4. (archaic) A string of beads used in counting prayers that are said; a
rosary.
5. (archaic) A patent medicine, so named because salesmen would pray the
Lord's prayer over it before selling it.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paternoster>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to
my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your
Father; and to my God, and your God.
--Jesus
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesus>
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of
Manitoba. The name comes from Western Cree words for muddy or brackish
water, referring to Lake Winnipeg, which is just north of the city along
the Red River. The region was a trading centre for aboriginal peoples
long before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first
fort on the site in 1738. A settlement was founded in 1812 by the
Selkirk settlers of the Red River Colony, the nucleus of which was
incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873. The census of 2011 lists
Winnipeg as the seventh most populous municipality in Canada. Known as
the "Gateway to the West", it is a transportation hub with a diversified
economy. Its annual festivals include the Festival du Voyageur, the
Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe
Theatre Festival, and Folklorama. Winnipeg was the first Canadian host
of the Pan American Games. It is home to several professional sports
franchises, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Canadian football),
Winnipeg Jets (ice hockey), Manitoba Moose (ice hockey) and Winnipeg
Goldeyes (baseball).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1344:
Reconquista: The Muslim city of Algeciras surrendered after a
21-month siege and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Algeciras_(1342%E2%80%9344)>
1484:
William Caxton printed the first English translation of Aesop's
Fables (page pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables>
1830:
The Book of Mormon, the defining sacred text of the Latter Day
Saint movement, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Mormon>
1978:
Four days before the scheduled opening of Japan's Narita
International Airport, a group of protesters destroyed much of the
equipment in the control tower with Molotov cocktails.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_International_Airport>
1999:
Jack Kevorkian, an American advocate for and practitioner of
physician-assisted suicide, was found guilty of murder in the death of a
terminally ill patient.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
swear on a stack of Bibles:
(idiomatic) To make a promise or give an assurance with great
conviction.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swear_on_a_stack_of_Bibles>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie
caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is
sealed.
--Sterling Hayden
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sterling_Hayden>
Uncle David is a 2010 British black comedy film directed by David Hoyle,
Gary Reich, and Mike Nichols. It was produced by Reich and stars Hoyle,
an English performance artist, in the titular role alongside Ashley
Ryder, best known as a pornographic actor. Developed collectively under
the banner of the Avant-Garde Alliance, it was filmed in October 2009.
Created without a script, every scene was improvised and filmed in a
single take. The film is set in a caravan park on the Isle of Sheppey in
Kent, South East England, and follows a young man with a childlike mind
named Ashley (Ryder), who asks to stay with his delusional Uncle David
(Hoyle). Escaping from his abusive mother, Ashley enters into a sexual
relationship with his uncle, who offers his insights into the world and
the nature of reality. Eventually Ashley tells David that he wants to
die, and David agrees to carry out the killing. The film premiered on 25
March 2010 at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival held in the BFI
Southbank in central London. It won the Grand Prize at the Paris Gay and
Lesbian Film Festival Awards 2010, but reviews were mixed. It was
released on DVD by Peccadillo Pictures in 2011.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_David>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1410:
The Yongle Emperor launched the first of his military campaigns
against the Mongols, resulting in the fall of the Mongol khan
Bunyashiri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Emperor%27s_campaigns_against_the_Mong…>
1807:
The Slave Trade Act became law, abolishing the slave trade in
the British Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1807>
1917:
Following the overthrow of the Russian tsar Nicholas II,
Georgia's bishops unilaterally restored the autocephaly of the Georgian
Orthodox Church.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_Orthodox_Church>
1949:
The Soviet Union began mass deportations of more than 90,000
people from the Baltic states to Siberia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Priboi>
2006:
A gunman in Seattle, Washington, US, entered a rave afterparty
and opened fire, killing six and wounding two, before committing
suicide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
all Sir Garnet:
(Britain, slang, dated) in order; perfect.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/all_Sir_Garnet>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this
cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
--Jesus
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesus>
The Oppenheimer security hearing (1954) of the US Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) explored the background, actions and associations of J.
Robert Oppenheimer (pictured). He had headed the Los Alamos Laboratory
during World War II, where he played a key part in the Manhattan Project
that developed the atomic bomb. Doubts about Oppenheimer's loyalty dated
back to the 1930s, when he was associated with Communist Party USA
members, including his wife and his brother. At Los Alamos and in the
AEC, he was involved in bureaucratic conflict between the Army and Air
Force over the types of nuclear weapons the country required, technical
conflict between the scientists over the feasibility of the hydrogen
bomb, and personal conflict with AEC commissioner Lewis Strauss. The
panel found that he was loyal and discreet with atomic secrets, but did
not recommend that his security clearance be reinstated. This ended his
role in government and policymaking. He became an academic exile, cut
off from his former career and the world he had helped to create. The
findings were seen as fair by some and as an expression of anti-
Communist McCarthyism by others.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_security_hearing>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1603:
King James VI of Scotland acceded to the thrones of England and
Ireland, becoming James I of England and unifying the crowns of the
kingdoms for the first time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I>
1869:
The last of Māori leader Titokowaru's forces surrendered to
the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titokowaru%27s_War>
1934:
The Tydings–McDuffie Act came into effect, which provided for
self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from
the United States after a period of ten years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tydings%E2%80%93McDuffie_Act>
1989:
The tanker Exxon Valdez spilled more than 10 million US gallons
of oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, causing one of the most
devastating man-made environmental disasters at sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill>
2015:
The co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately crashed
the aircraft in a mass murder–suicide in the French Alps, killing all
150 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
escapology:
The study or art of escaping from a constriction, such as a rope,
handcuffs, etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/escapology>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When we estrange ourselves from history we do not enlarge, we
diminish ourselves, even as individuals. We subtract from our lives one
meaning which they do in fact possess, whether we recognize it or not.
We cannot help living in history. We can only fail to be aware of it. If
we are to meet, endure, and transcend the trials and defeats of the
future — for trials and defeats there are certain to be — it can
only be from a point of view which, seeing the future as part of the
sweep of history, enables us to establish our place in that immense
procession in which is incorporated whatever hope humankind may have.
--Robert Heilbroner
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Heilbroner>
The nuckelavee is a horse-like demon from Orcadian mythology that
combines equine and human elements. The name of this most horrible of
all the demons of the Scottish islands may be a progenitor of that by
which the Devil is sometimes known, Old Nick. Though accounts describing
the creature's appearance are inconsistent, its abilities are well-
documented. The nuckelavee's breath can wilt crops and sicken livestock,
and the creature has been held responsible for droughts and epidemics on
land despite its being predominantly a sea-dweller. In common with many
other sea monsters, it is unable to tolerate fresh water; therefore,
those it is pursuing have only to cross a river or stream to be rid of
it. The nuckelavee is kept in confinement during the summer months by
the Mither o' the Sea, an ancient Orcadian divine and the only one able
to control it. This mythological creature may have originated as a
composite of a water horse from Celtic mythology and a creature imported
by Norsemen.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuckelavee>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1775:
American Revolution: Patrick Henry made his "Give me liberty,
or give me death!" speech to the House of Burgesses of Virginia, urging
military action against the British Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_me_liberty,_or_give_me_death!>
1848:
Scottish settlers on the John Wickliffe, captained by William
Cargill, arrived at what is now Port Chalmers in the Otago Region of New
Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cargill>
1888:
Led by William McGregor, ten football clubs met in London for
the purpose of founding The Football League, the oldest league
competition in world football.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGregor_(football)>
1931:
Bhagat Singh, one of the most influential revolutionaries of
the Indian independence movement, and two others were executed by
British authorities.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh>
1991:
The Sierra Leone Civil War began when the Revolutionary United
Front, with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor's National
Patriotic Front of Liberia, invaded Sierra Leone in an attempt to
overthrow Joseph Saidu Momoh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone_Civil_War>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
selah:
(biblical) A word occurring between verses or paragraphs in parts of the
Hebrew Bible, namely in Habakkuk and the Psalms, perhaps indicating a
pause for contemplation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/selah>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You could never teach other people anything that mattered. The
important things they had to learn for themselves, almost always by
making mistakes, so that the lessons arrived too late to help.
Experience was in that sense useless. It was precisely what could not be
passed along in a lesson or an equation.
--Kim Stanley Robinson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson>
Plateosaurus (probably meaning "broad lizard"), a genus of plateosaurid
dinosaur, lived around 214 to 204 million years ago during the Late
Triassic period in what is now Central and Northern Europe. It was an
early sauropodomorph dinosaur, a so-called "prosauropod". It is now
among the dinosaurs best known to science: over 100 skeletons have been
found, some of them nearly complete. The abundance of its fossils in
Swabia, Germany, has led to the nickname Schwäbischer Lindwurm (Swabian
lindworm). Plateosaurus was a bipedal herbivore with a small skull on a
long, mobile neck, sharp but plump plant-crushing teeth, powerful hind
limbs, short but muscular arms and grasping hands with large claws on
three fingers, possibly used for defence and feeding. Plateosaurus
showed strong developmental plasticity: instead of having a fairly
uniform adult size, fully grown individuals were between 4.8 and 10
metres (16 and 33 ft) long and weighed between 600 and 4,000 kilograms
(1,300 and 8,800 lb). The animals lived for at least 12 to 20 years,
but the maximum life span is not known.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plateosaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1508:
Ferdinand II of Aragon appointed Amerigo Vespucci to the post
of Chief Navigator of Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci>
1638:
The Massachusetts Bay Colony expelled Anne Hutchinson from its
ranks for dissenting from Puritan orthodoxy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson>
1913:
Phan Xích Long, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Vietnam, was
arrested for organising a revolt against the colonial rule of French
Indochina, which was nevertheless carried out by his supporters the
following day.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_X%C3%ADch_Long>
1963:
Please Please Me, the first album recorded by The Beatles, was
released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Please_Me>
2006:
The remaining three Christian Peacemaker Teams hostages were
rescued from their Iraqi captors by a multinational force.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Peacemaker_hostage_crisis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pseudometeorite:
A rock that is initially believed to be a meteorite, but is in fact
terrestrial in origin.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pseudometeorite>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished;
that will be the beginning.
--Louis L'Amour
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_L%27Amour>