The Ninety-five Theses are a list of propositions written by Martin
Luther that started the Protestant Reformation, a schism in the Catholic
Church. Luther, a professor of moral theology at the University of
Wittenberg, Germany, enclosed them in a letter to the Archbishop of
Mainz on 31 October 1517, a date now commemorated annually as
Reformation Day. They advance Luther's positions against the selling of
plenary indulgences, certificates that were said to reduce the
punishment for sins in purgatory. Luther claimed that his positions
accorded with those of the pope, but the Theses contradict a 14th-
century papal bull. Luther's ecclesiastical superiors had him tried for
heresy, which culminated in his excommunication in 1521. Though the
Theses mark the start of the Reformation, Luther did not consider
indulgences to be as important as other theological matters which would
divide the church, such as justification by faith and the bondage of the
will. His breakthrough on these issues would come later, and he did not
see the writing of the Theses as the point at which his beliefs diverged
from those of Rome.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1913:
Public transportation workers in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.,
went on strike, shutting down mass transit in the city and sparking
riots when strikebreakers attempted to restart services.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_streetcar_strike_of_1913>
1917:
World War I: Allied forces defeated Turkish troops in Beersheba
in Southern Palestine at the Battle of Beersheba, often reported as "the
last successful cavalry charge in history".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beersheba_(1917)>
1973:
Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from
Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter which landed in
the prison's exercise yard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountjoy_Prison_helicopter_escape>
1984:
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of
her own Sikh bodyguards, sparking anti-Sikh riots throughout the
country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Indira_Gandhi>
1999:
All 217 people on board EgyptAir Flight 990 were killed when
the aircraft suddenly plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Lutheran:
(Christianity) Of or pertaining to the theology of Martin Luther
(1483–1546) or his followers, or the Lutheran church.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lutheran>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the
pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy.
Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something
entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any
rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and
great.
--Willa Cather
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather>
Dave Gallaher (30 October 1873 – 4 October 1917) was a New Zealand
rugby union footballer and the captain of the 1905–06 Original All
Blacks. They were the first representative New Zealand team to tour the
British Isles, winning 34 out of 35 matches on their world tour. With
his vice-captain Billy Stead, Gallaher co-wrote the classic rugby text
The Complete Rugby Footballer. Retiring as a player after the tour, he
took up coaching, and was a selector for both Auckland and New Zealand
for most of the following decade. The Originals helped to cement rugby
as New Zealand's national sport, but Gallaher's role as wing-forward
contributed to decades of strain between the rugby authorities of New
Zealand and the Home Nations, and the International Rugby Football Board
effectively outlawed the position in 1931. During the First World War,
Gallaher was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium. He has
been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame and New Zealand Sports
Hall of Fame. The Gallaher Shield is awarded annually to the winner of
Auckland's club championship, and the Dave Gallaher Trophy is contested
between the national teams of France and New Zealand.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Gallaher>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1806:
War of the Fourth Coalition: Believing they were massively
outnumbered, the 5,300-man German garrison at Stettin, Prussia (now
Szczecin, Poland), surrendered to a much smaller French force without a
fight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitulation_of_Stettin>
1888:
King Lobengula of Matabeleland granted the Rudd Concession to
agents of Cecil Rhodes, setting in motion the creation of the British
South Africa Company.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudd_Concession>
1918:
The Armistice of Mudros was signed in Moudros in the Lesbos
Prefecture, Greece, ending the hostilities in the Middle-Eastern theatre
of World War I, and paving the way for the occupation of Constantinople
and the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_of_Mudros>
1961:
The Soviet hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon
ever detonated, was set off over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic
Ocean as a test.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba>
1983:
As the military dictatorship came to an end, Argentina's first
democratic election in a decade resulted in Raúl Alfonsín being
elected President of Argentina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_general_election,_1983>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
horripilate:
(transitive, intransitive) To bristle in fear or horror; to have goose
bumps or goose pimples.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/horripilate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the
republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and
concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble
apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our
Constitution.
--John Adams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams>
Paul Palaiologos Tagaris (c. 1330 – after 1394) was a Byzantine Greek
monk, a swindler, and an impostor. A scion of the Tagaris family, Paul
also claimed a—somewhat dubious—connection with the Palaiologos
dynasty that ruled the Byzantine Empire at the time. Married as a
teenager, he left his wife and became a monk, but soon his fraudulent
practices embroiled him in scandal. Fleeing Constantinople, he travelled
widely, from Palestine to Persia and Georgia and eventually, via Ukraine
and Hungary, to Italy, Latin Greece, Cyprus and France. During his long
and tumultuous career, Paul was appointed an Orthodox bishop, sold
ordinations to ecclesiastical offices, pretended to be the Orthodox
Patriarch of Jerusalem, switched from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman
Catholicism and back again, supported both the See of Rome and the
Avignon anti-popes in the Western Schism, and managed to be named Latin
Patriarch of Constantinople. In the end, his deceptions unmasked, he
returned to Constantinople, where he confessed his sins before a synod
in 1394.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Palaiologos_Tagaris>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
539 BC:
Cyrus the Great captured Babylon, incorporating the Neo-
Babylonian Empire and making the Achaemenid Empire the largest in the
history of the world to that time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great>
1792:
Lt. William Broughton, a member of George Vancouver's
expedition, observed a peak in what is now Oregon, U.S., and named it
Mount Hood after British admiral Samuel Hood.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hood>
1917:
The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet,
in charge of preparing for and carrying out the Russian Revolution, was
established.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrograd_Military_Revolutionary_Committee>
1960:
The C-46 airliner carrying the Cal Poly Mustangs football team
crashed during takeoff from Toledo Express Airport in Ohio, U.S.,
resulting in 22 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Poly_football_team_C-46_crash>
1999:
About 10,000 people died when a supercyclone hit the Indian
state of Odisha near the city of Bhubaneswar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Odisha_cyclone>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fust:
1. A strong musty smell; mustiness.
2. (architecture) The shaft (main body) of a column.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fust>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're
great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a
real sense of humor. Not satire anyway. … When we realize finally that
we aren't God's given children, we'll understand satire. Humor is really
laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.
--Bill Mauldin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Mauldin>
O. G. S. Crawford (28 October 1886 – 28 November 1957) was a British
archaeologist who specialised in the study of prehistoric Britain and
the archaeology of Sudan. After overseeing the excavation of Abu Geili
in Sudan, he served during the First World War in the London Scottish
Regiment and the Royal Flying Corps, performing ground and aerial
reconnaissance along the Western Front. After the war, he obtained
aerial photographs produced by the Royal Air Force and identified the
extent of the Stonehenge Avenue, excavating it in 1923. With the
archaeologist Alexander Keiller he conducted an aerial survey of many
counties in southern England and raised the finances to secure land
around Stonehenge for The National Trust. In 1927 he established the
scholarly journal Antiquity, which drew contributions from many of
Britain's most prominent archaeologists, and in 1939 he served as
president of The Prehistoric Society. His contributions to British
archaeology, including in Antiquity and the field of aerial archaeology,
have been widely acclaimed, and his photographic archive has remained
useful to archaeologists into the 21st century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.G.S._Crawford>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
312:
Civil wars of the Tetrarchy: Constantine the Great defeated
Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Milvian_Bridge>
1453:
Ladislaus the Posthumous was crowned King of Bohemia, although
George of Poděbrady remained in control of the government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladislaus_the_Posthumous>
1919:
The U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act over President
Woodrow Wilson's veto, reinforcing Prohibition in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volstead_Act>
1925:
The funerary mask of Tutankhamun, possibly made for Queen
Nefertiti, was uncovered for the first time in 3,250 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun%27s_mask>
2013:
The first terrorist attack in Beijing's recent history took
place when three members of the Turkistan Islamic Party drove a vehicle
into a crowd.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Tiananmen_Square_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Attic salt:
(idiomatic) Pointed and delicate wit.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Attic_salt>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You made me cry, when you said goodbye Ain't that a shame My tears
fell like rain Ain't that a shame You're the one to blame
--Fats Domino
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fats_Domino>
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands (25–27 October 1942) was the
fourth aircraft carrier battle fought between the navies of the United
States and Japan during World War II. It was part of the Guadalcanal
Campaign, through which the Allies sought to parry and reverse Japanese
advances in the southwest Pacific. The Japanese Army, in an attempt to
drive Allied forces from Guadalcanal and nearby islands and end the
stalemate there, planned a ground offensive for 20–25 October. In
support, carriers and other large warships were moved into position near
the southern Solomon Islands, where they hoped to engage and defeat any
Allied naval forces responding to the offensive. As in the battles of
the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons, almost all attacks by
both sides were mounted by or against carrier- or land-based aircraft.
Allied surface ships were forced to retreat after one carrier was sunk
and another heavily damaged, but the veteran pilots lost by the Japanese
proved to be irreplaceable.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Islands>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1682:
William Penn landed at New Castle, Delaware Colony, on his way
to founding the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Philadelphia>
1914:
World War I: The Royal Navy dreadnought HMS Audacious was sunk
by a mine, but its loss was kept secret for four more years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Audacious_(1912)>
1958:
General Ayub Khan deposed Iskander Mirza to become the second
President of Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayub_Khan_(President_of_Pakistan)>
1992:
U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen R. Schindler Jr. was killed in
Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan, a victim of a hate crime for being gay, which
led to the U.S. Armed Forces' "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_R._Schindler_Jr.>
2011:
Michael D. Higgins was elected President of Ireland with far
more votes than any Irish politician in the history of the republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_presidential_election,_2011>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hummel:
1. (Northern England, Scotland, also attributive) A stag that has failed
to grow antlers; a cow that has not developed horns.
2. (also attributive) Especially in hummel corn: grain that lacks awns
(beards or bristles), or has had its awns removed (barley, oats, etc.).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hummel>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We stand equally against government by a plutocracy and government
by a mob. There is something to be said for government by a great
aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war
for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there
is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for
government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with "the
money touch," but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of
so many glorified pawnbrokers.
--Theodore Roosevelt
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt>
"Don't Say You Love Me" is the debut single by M2M, the Norwegian pop
duo of Marion Raven and Marit Larsen (pictured). The song first appeared
on Radio Disney before its official US radio and single release on 26
October 1999. It was included the following month on the soundtrack to
Pokémon: The First Movie, and appears in the film's closing credits.
The song was featured on M2M's debut album, Shades of Purple (2000), and
also appeared on their compilation album The Day You Went Away: The Best
of M2M (2003). Among the song's many positive reviews, Chuck Taylor from
Billboard said it was "absolutely enchanting" and would appeal to both
young and mature listeners. It reached number 2 in Norway, number 4 in
both Australia and New Zealand, number 16 in the UK and number 21 on the
US Billboard Hot 100. It was certified gold in the US and Australia and
remains M2M's biggest hit. They performed the song on episodes of the TV
series One World, Top of the Pops and Disney Channel in Concert. Two
similar music videos were released for the song, with one showing clips
from Pokémon: The First Movie.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Say_You_Love_Me_(M2M_song)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1341:
The Byzantine army proclaimed chief minister John VI
Kantakouzenos emperor, triggering a civil war between his supporters and
those of John V Palaiologos, the heir to the throne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_civil_war_of_1341%E2%80%931347>
1881:
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, one of the most famous
gunfights of the American Old West, took place in Tombstone, Arizona,
between Ike Clanton's gang and lawmen led by Wyatt Earp.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corral>
1955:
Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed himself president of the newly created
Republic of Vietnam after defeating former Emperor Bao Dai in a
fraudulent referendum supervised by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Vietnam_referendum,_1955>
1977:
Somalian hospital cook Ali Maow Maalin began displaying
symptoms in the last known case of naturally occurring smallpox.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Maow_Maalin>
2000:
Laurent Gbagbo became the first President of Ivory Coast since
Robert Guéï was thrown out of power during the 1999 Ivorian coup
d'état.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Gbagbo>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
glossology:
1. The science of language; linguistics.
2. (botany) The naming of parts of plants.
3. (chiefly lexicography) The definition and explanation of terms in
constructing a glossary.
4. (medicine) The diagnosis of disease by examination of the tongue.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/glossology>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Ophelia was a cyclone, tempest a god damned hurricane your common
sense your best defense lay wasted and in vain.
--Natalie Merchant
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Natalie_Merchant>
Nancy Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress and
comedian. On the animated television series The Simpsons, she is the
voice of Bart Simpson, as well as Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, and Todd
Flanders. Her first professional role was voicing Gloria in the animated
series Richie Rich, followed by a starring role in the television movie
Marian Rose White (1982). In 1987, intending to audition for the role of
Lisa Simpson in a series of animated shorts, she found Bart more
interesting, and was offered the role on the spot by Matt Groening, the
series' creator. She held the role for three seasons on The Tracey
Ullman Show, and has voiced Bart for 29 seasons on The Simpsons, winning
an Emmy and an Annie Award for her work. Cartwright has also voiced
Daffney Gillfin in The Snorks, Rufus in Kim Possible, Mindy in
Animaniacs, Margo Sherman in The Critic, and Chuckie in Rugrats and All
Grown Up! She has adapted her autobiography, My Life as a 10-Year-Old
Boy (2000), into a one-woman play.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Cartwright>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1147:
Reconquista: Forces under Afonso I of Portugal captured Lisbon
from the Moors after a four-month siege in one of the few Christian
victories during the Second Crusade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Lisbon>
1760:
George III became King of Great Britain and Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_the_United_Kingdom>
1927:
A propeller shaft on the Italian cruise liner SS Principessa
Mafalda broke and fractured the hull, sinking it and resulting in 314
deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Principessa_Mafalda>
1950:
Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army ambushed the
South Korean II Corps, marking China's entry into the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Onjong>
2010:
Mount Merapi in Central Java, Indonesia, began an increasingly
violent series of eruptions that lasted over a month.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Mount_Merapi>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
genizah:
(Jewish law) A depository where sacred Hebrew books or other sacred
items that by Jewish law cannot be disposed of are kept before they can
be properly buried in a cemetery.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/genizah>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from
trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional
means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted.
--Henry Steele Commager
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Steele_Commager>
Astraeus hygrometricus, the false earthstar, is a fungus common in
temperate and tropical regions around the world. When young, it
resembles a puffball; in maturity, the outer layer of fruit body tissue
splits open in a star shape, similar in appearance to the earthstars.
The fungus grows in mutual symbiosis with roots of various trees,
especially in sandy soils. It can open up its rays to expose the spore
sac in response to increased humidity, and close them up again in drier
conditions. The rays have an irregularly cracked surface, while the
spore case is pale brown and smooth with an irregular slit or tear at
the top. The gleba is white initially, but turns brown and powdery when
the reddish-brown spores mature. The species was first described by
Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1801. Several bioactive chemical compounds
have been found in the fruit bodies. North American field guides
typically rate the fungus as inedible.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astraeus_hygrometricus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1789:
The Brabant Revolution, sometimes considered as the first
expression of Belgian nationalism, began with the invasion of the
Austrian Netherlands by an émigré army from the Dutch Republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabant_Revolution>
1857:
Sheffield F.C., the world's oldest association football club
still in operation, was founded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_F.C.>
1871:
The largest mass lynching in United States history took place
when around 500 white rioters entered Chinatown in Los Angeles to
attack, rob, and murder its residents.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871>
1944:
World War II: The Imperial Japanese battleship Musashi, one of
the heaviest and most powerfully armed ever constructed, was sunk in the
Battle of Leyte Gulf.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Musashi>
1964:
The military court of South Vietnamese junta chief Nguyễn
Khánh acquitted Generals Dương Văn Đức and Lâm Văn Phát of
leading a coup attempt against Khanh, despite the pair's proclamation of
his overthrow during their military action.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A2m_V%C4%83n_Ph%C3%A1t>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
illeism:
(often linguistics) The practice of (excessively) referring to oneself
in the third person.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/illeism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Perform anonymous service. Whenever we do good for others
anonymously, our sense of intrinsic worth and self-respect increases.
… Selfless service has always been one of the most powerful methods of
influence.
--Stephen Covey
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey>
Blackbeard (Edward Teach, c. 1680 – 1718) was an English pirate who
operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American
colonies. He was probably born in Bristol, but little is known about his
early life. He may have served on privateer ships during Queen Anne's
War before he joined the crew of Benjamin Hornigold, a pirate who
operated from the Caribbean island of New Providence. In the Queen
Anne's Revenge, a renamed merchant vessel, Teach blockaded the port of
Charles Town, South Carolina, with an alliance of pirates. After
successfully ransoming its inhabitants, he settled in Bath Town, but
soon returned to piracy. He was attacked and killed near Ocracoke Island
by a crew seeking the reward for his capture. A shrewd and calculating
leader, he avoided the use of force, and there are no accounts that he
ever harmed his captives. Following his death, his image was
romanticised, becoming the inspiration for a variety of pirate-themed
works of fiction.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1850:
The first National Women's Rights Convention, presided over by
Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis, was held in Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Women%27s_Rights_Convention>
1942:
World War II: Japanese forces began their ill-fated attempt to
recapture Henderson Field from the Americans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Henderson_Field>
1956:
The Hungarian Revolution began as a peaceful student
demonstration which attracted thousands as it marched through central
Budapest to the Parliament building.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956>
2002:
Chechen separatists seized a crowded theater in Moscow, taking
approximately 700 patrons and performers hostage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nocebo:
(pharmacology, also attributive) A substance which a patient
experiences as harmful due to a previous negative perception, but which
is in fact pharmacologically (medicinally) inactive.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nocebo>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must daily decide whether the threats we face are real, whether
the solutions we are offered will do any good, whether the problems
we're told exist are in fact real problems, or non-problems. Every one
of us has a sense of the world, and we all know that this sense is in
part given to us by what other people and society tell us; in part
generated by our emotional state, which we project outward; and in part
by our genuine perceptions of reality. In short, our struggle to
determine what is true is the struggle to decide which of our
perceptions are genuine, and which are false because they are handed
down, or sold to us, or generated by our own hopes and fears.
--Michael Crichton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton>
Amargasaurus was a sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina
from roughly 129 to 122 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous
epoch. The only known skeleton was discovered in 1984 and is virtually
complete. Amargasaurus cazaui, the only species in the genus, was a
large animal reaching 9 to 10 meters (30 to 33 feet) in length, with two
parallel rows of tall spines down its neck and back. The spines, taller
than in any other known sauropod, probably protruded as solitary
structures supporting a keratinous sheath, and may have been used for
display, combat, or defense. Alternatively, they might have formed a
scaffold supporting a skin sail. A herbivore, Amargasaurus probably fed
at mid-height. Discovered in sedimentary rocks of the La Amarga
Formation, it is most closely related to the Late Jurassic genera
Dicraeosaurus, Brachytrachelopan and Suuwassea. Together, these genera
form the family Dicraeosauridae, with shorter necks and smaller body
sizes than other sauropods.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amargasaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1797:
Dropping from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet (980 m) above
Paris, André-Jacques Garnerin carried out the first descent using a
frameless parachute (schematic pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9-Jacques_Garnerin>
1877:
The Blantyre mining disaster, Scotland's worst mining accident,
occurred when an explosion at a colliery in Blantyre killed 207 miners.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blantyre_mining_disaster>
1907:
A bank run forced New York's Knickerbocker Trust Company to
suspend operations, which triggered the Panic of 1907.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907>
1966:
With their album The Supremes A' Go-Go, The Supremes became the
first all-female group to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard 200.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Supremes>
2001:
The controversial video game Grand Theft Auto III was first
released to critical acclaim, and went on to popularise open world and
mature-content games.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_III>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
rhubarb:
1. Any plant of the genus Rheum, especially Rheum rharbarbarum, having
large leaves and long green or reddish acidic leafstalks that are
edible, in particular when cooked (although the leaves are mildly
poisonous).
2. (often attributive) The leafstalks of common rhubarb or garden rhubarb
(usually known as Rheum × hybridum), which are long, fleshy, often pale
red, and with a tart taste, used as a food ingredient; they are
frequently stewed with sugar and made into jam or used in crumbles,
pies, etc. […]
3. (Britain, military, historical) A Royal Air Force World War II code name
for operations by aircraft (fighters and fighter-bombers) involving low-
level flight to seek opportunistic targets. […]
4. (originally theater, uncountable) General background noise caused by
several simultaneous indecipherable conversations, which is created in
films, stage plays, etc., by actors repeating the word rhubarb; hence,
such noise in other settings; rhubarb rhubarb, rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb.
5. (US, originally baseball, countable) An excited, angry exchange of
words, especially at a sporting event.
6. (US, originally baseball, by extension, countable) A brawl.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rhubarb>
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What matters most is that we learn from living.
--Doris Lessing
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