Tropical Storm Bonnie was the second storm of the 2004 Atlantic
hurricane season, making landfall in Florida in August. It developed
from a tropical wave to the east of the Lesser Antilles. After moving
through the islands, its forward motion caused the wave to dissipate,
but it later regenerated into a tropical storm near the Yucatán
Peninsula. It attained peak winds of 65 mph (100 km/h) over the Gulf
of Mexico, turned to the northeast, and hit Florida with sustained
45 mph (75 km) winds. The storm accelerated to the northeast and
became an extratropical cyclone to the east of New Jersey. Bonnie was
the first of five tropical systems to make landfall on Florida that
year, and the second of a record eight disturbances to reach tropical
storm strength during the month of August. Bonnie caused a tornado
outbreak across the Southeastern United States that killed three people
and inflicted damage costs of over $1 million. Other impacts were
minimal, including flooding and minor damage in Florida. The day after
Bonnie made landfall, Hurricane Charley struck Florida.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Bonnie_(2004)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1202:
The first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first
attack against a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders, the Siege of Zara,
began in Zadar, Croatia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Zara>
1865:
Henry Wirz, the superintendent of the Confederacy's
Andersonville Prison, was hanged after a controversial conviction,
becoming the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wirz>
1945:
Indonesian National Revolution: Following the killing of the
British officer Brigadier A. W. S. Mallaby a few weeks prior, British
forces began their retaliation by attacking Surabaya, Indonesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Surabaya>
1989:
Longtime Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov resigned and was
replaced by Petar Mladenov (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petar_Mladenov>
2007:
At the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, King Juan
Carlos I of Spain asked President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez "Why don't
you shut up?" after Chávez repeatedly interrupted a speech by Spanish
Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%BFPor_qu%C3%A9_no_te_callas%3F>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
omnibus:
Containing multiple items.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/omnibus>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by
terrorists. … I would prefer to have invented a machine that people
could use and that would help farmers with their work — for example a
lawnmower.
--Mikhail Kalashnikov
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mikhail_Kalashnikov>
Joaquim José Inácio, Viscount of Inhaúma, (1808–1869) was a naval
officer, politician and monarchist of the Empire of Brazil. After
Brazilian independence in 1822, he enlisted in the armada (navy) and
participated in the subduing of secessionist rebellions, including the
Confederation of the Equator. He helped quell a military mutiny in 1831
and saw action in the Sabinada rebellion (1837–1838) and the
Ragamuffin War (1840–1844). In 1849 he was given command of the fleet
that was instrumental in subduing the Praieira revolt, the last
rebellion in imperial Brazil. Inhaúma entered politics in 1861 as a
member of the Conservative Party, serving first as navy minister and
then as agriculture minister; the first professional firefighter corps
in Brazil was formed during his tenure. In late 1866 he was appointed
commander-in-chief of the fleet engaged in the Paraguayan War, and
achieved the rank of admiral. Although historical works have not given
much coverage to Inhaúma, some historians regard him among the greatest
of the Brazilian navy officers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquim_Jos%C3%A9_In%C3%A1cio,_Viscount_of_In…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1822:
USS Alligator engaged three piratical schooners off the coast
of Cuba in one of the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United
States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_9_November_1822>
1914:
World War I: In the Cocos Islands, the Australian light cruiser
HMAS Sydney sank SMS Emden, the last active Central Powers warship in
the Indian Ocean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cocos>
1938:
Kristallnacht began as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed
and ransacked Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in Germany and
Austria, resulting in at least 90 deaths and the deportation of over
30,000 others to concentration camps.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht>
1989:
Günter Schabowski mistakenly announced the immediate opening
of the inner German border, causing the fall of Berlin Wall that night.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_German_border>
2016:
A tram derailed in Croydon, United Kingdom, killing seven
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Croydon_tram_derailment>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
whatchamacallit:
(slang) A metasyntactic term used for any object the actual name of
which the speaker does not know or cannot remember; a doodad, gizmo,
thingamajig, thingy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/whatchamacallit>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and
time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years
of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to
know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year
heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first
second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with
our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.
--Carl Sagan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan>
St Helen's Church is the Anglican parish church of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in
the deanery of North West Leicestershire and the Diocese of Leicester. A
previous church on the site was rebuilt beginning in 1474 by William
Hastings, while he was converting his neighbouring manor house into a
castle. The church was refurbished in about 1670 and again in 1829 to
create more space, and a major rebuild in 1878–80 added two outer
aisles, making the nave wider than it is long. The sandstone church has
a tower at the west end. Other fixtures include ancient stained glass at
the east end, some important funereal monuments, and a font, pulpit and
carved heads by Thomas Earp. The finger pillory is a rare item, once
seen as a humane form of punishment. The church has a long association
with the Hastings family, its patrons for four centuries, and became a
centre for Puritanism under Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. The
church's architecture has earned it a Grade I listing, denoting a
building of "exceptional interest".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Helen%27s_Church,_Ashby-de-la-Zouch>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
960:
Arab–Byzantine wars: Having been the target of many raids by
the Emirate of Aleppo, Byzantine forces led by Leo Phokas the Younger
ambushed the Hamdanids and annihilated their army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Andrassos>
1644:
The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, was
enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first
Qing emperor to rule over China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunzhi_Emperor>
1939:
Johann Georg Elser unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate
Adolf Hitler with a time bomb, but killed eight people and injured more
than sixty-two others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Georg_Elser>
1972:
HBO, the oldest and longest continuously operating pay
television service in the United States, began broadcasting to 325
subscribers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBO>
1987:
A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded during a
Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing
twelve people and injuring sixty-three others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Montezuma's revenge:
(humorous) Diarrhea experienced by tourists after drinking water or
eating food in Mexico as a result of a bacteria strain to which native
Mexicans are immune.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Montezuma%27s_revenge>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The fulness of joy is to behold God in all: for by the same
blessed Might, Wisdom, and Love, that He made all-thing, to the same end
our good Lord leadeth it continually, and thereto Himself shall bring
it; and when it is time we shall see it.
--Julian of Norwich
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich>
Vladimir Lenin (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, 1870–1924) was a Russian
communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the
first head of government of the Soviet Union, which under his
administration became a one-party state governed by the Communist Party.
Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as
Leninism. After the 1917 February Revolution ousted the Tsar, he played
a leading role in the 7 November 1917 insurrection commonly known as the
October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the new regime.
Lenin's administration redistributed land among the peasantry and
nationalised banks and large-scale industry. It withdrew from the First
World War by signing a treaty with the Central Powers, and promoted
world revolution through the Communist International. Widely considered
one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Lenin is viewed
by supporters as a champion of socialism and the working class, while
critics on both the left and right emphasize his role as founder and
leader of an authoritarian regime responsible for political repression
and mass killings.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
680:
The Sixth Ecumenical Council convened in Constantinople to take
a position on the theological positions of monoenergism and
monothelitism.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Council_of_Constantinople>
1775:
Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the British Colony of
Virginia, signed a proclamation promising freedom for slaves of Patriots
if they joined the British Armed Forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunmore%27s_Proclamation>
1861:
American Civil War: Future U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant
engaged in his first combat leadership role in the Battle of Belmont in
Mississippi County, Missouri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Belmont>
1917:
World War I: British forces captured Gaza when the Ottoman
garrison abandoned the area.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Gaza>
1987:
Singapore's first Mass Rapid Transit line was opened (train
pictured), starting with train services between Yio Chu Kang and Toa
Payoh stations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_(Singapore)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Vukovian:
(historical) Chiefly in the plural form Vukovians: a member of a group
of Croatian linguists active at the end of the 19th and the beginning of
the 20th century who supported the ideas of Serbian philologist and
linguist Vuk Karadžić (1787–1864) concerning the standardization of
the Croatian variety of the Serbo-Croatian language.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Vukovian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All the final answers were given in the beginning. They stand
shining, above and beyond us, but they are always there to be seen. They
may be too bright for us, they may be too clear for us. Well then, we
must clarify our own eyes. Our task is to grow out until we reach them.
--R. A. Lafferty
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._A._Lafferty>
Rotating locomotion in living systems – the use of wheels and
propellers by organisms – has long been pondered among biologists and
writers of speculative fiction. Rolling and wheeled creatures have
appeared in the legends of many cultures. While other human
technologies, like wings and lenses, have common analogues in the
natural world, and several species are able to roll, structures that
propel by rotating relative to a fixed body are represented only by the
corkscrew-like bacterial flagella. Macroscopic organisms have apparently
never evolved wheels, and this is attributed to two main factors:
limitations of evolutionary and developmental biology, and disadvantages
of wheels, when compared with limbs, in many natural environments.
Wheels, beyond the molecular scale, may not be within the reach of
natural evolution, and may be infeasible to grow and maintain with
biological processes. Compared with limbs, they are often less energy-
efficient, less versatile, and less capable of traversing or avoiding
obstacles. These environment-specific disadvantages of wheels also
explain why some historical civilizations abandoned them.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_locomotion_in_living_systems>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
447:
A powerful earthquake destroyed large portions of the Walls of
Constantinople, including 57 towers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walls_of_Constantinople>
1856:
Scenes of Clerical Life, the first work by English author
George Eliot, was submitted for publication.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Clerical_Life>
1935:
The Hawker Hurricane, the aircraft responsible for 60% of the
Royal Air Force's air victories in the Battle of Britain, made its first
flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hurricane>
1977:
The Kelly Barnes Dam in Stephens County, Georgia, U.S.,
collapsed, and the resulting flood killed 39 people and caused $2.8
million in damages.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Barnes_Dam>
1995:
Madagascar's Rova of Antananarivo, which served as the royal
palace from the 17th to 19th centuries, was destroyed by fire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rova_of_Antananarivo>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Bolshevism:
1. The strategy used by the Bolsheviks in attempting to gain power in
Russia.
2. The Communist totalitarian political ideology adopted by the Russian
Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics; Marxism-Leninism.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bolshevism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Where words prevail not, violence prevails; But gold doth more
than either of them both.
--Thomas Kyd
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Kyd>
Guy Fawkes Night is an annual commemoration of the events of 5 November
1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested
while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of
Lords. To celebrate the arrest, which put an end to the plot on King
James I's life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the
introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual
public day of thanksgiving. Within a few decades Gunpowder Treason Day,
as it was known, became the predominant English state commemoration. As
it carried strong Protestant religious overtones, it also became a focus
for anti-Catholic sentiment; increasingly raucous celebrations featured
the burning of effigies of popular hate-figures, such as the pope.
Towards the end of the 18th century, children were seen begging for
money with effigies of Guy Fawkes. In the 1850s much of the day's anti-
Catholic rhetoric was toned down, and by the 20th century Guy Fawkes Day
had become an enjoyable social commemoration. Today it is usually
celebrated with bonfires and extravagant firework displays.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1138:
Lý Anh Tông was enthroned as emperor of Đại Việt at the
age of two, starting a 37-year reign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BD_Anh_T%C3%B4ng>
1828:
Greek War of Independence: The French Morea expedition to
recapture Morea (now the Peloponnese) ended when the last Ottoman forces
departed the peninsula.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition>
1943:
World War II: An unknown aircraft dropped four bombs on Vatican
City, which maintained neutrality during the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_the_Vatican>
1967:
A train derailed near Hither Green maintenance depot in London,
killing 49 people and injuring 78 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hither_Green_rail_crash>
2007:
Led by Google, 34 companies established the Open Handset
Alliance to develop open standards for mobile devices, leading to the
development of the Android operating system (logo pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
loss leader:
(marketing) An item that is sold at or below cost in an effort to
stimulate other profitable sales.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loss_leader>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If the average man had had his way there would probably never have
been any state. Even today he resents it, classes death with taxes, and
yearns for that government which governs least. If he asks for many laws
it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he
is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case
superfluous. In the simplest societies there is hardly any government.
--Will Durant
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Durant>
Leek Town Football Club is an English football club based in Leek,
Staffordshire, currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division
One South. The team, nicknamed "The Blues", play their home games at
Harrison Park (pictured). The club was founded in 1946 and played in a
variety of local leagues, including the Staffordshire County,
Manchester, Mid-Cheshire and Cheshire County leagues, before becoming
founder members of the North West Counties League in 1982 and from there
progressing to the Northern Premier League in 1987. In 1997 they were
Northern Premier League champions and gained promotion to the Football
Conference, the highest level of English non-league football, spending
two seasons at that level before being relegated. Leek Town reached the
final of the FA Trophy in 1990, having progressed all the way from the
first qualifying round, but lost in the final at Wembley Stadium 3-0 to
Barrow.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leek_Town_F.C.>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1847:
Scottish physician James Young Simpson discovered the
anaesthetic qualities of chloroform.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroform>
1890:
London's City and South London Railway (locomotive pictured),
the first deep-level underground railway in the world, opened, running a
distance of 3.2 mi (5.1 km) between the City of London and Stockwell.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_and_South_London_Railway>
1960:
At the Kasakela Chimpanzee Community in Tanzania, Dr. Jane
Goodall observed a chimpanzee using a grass stalk to extract termites
from a termite hill, the first recorded case of tool use by animals.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasakela_Chimpanzee_Community>
1970:
Authorities in Temple City, California, discovered a 13-year-
old feral child known as "Genie", who had spent almost her entire life
in social isolation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)>
1995:
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal
Amir while at a peace rally at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Yitzhak_Rabin>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
froth at the mouth:
1. To spew saliva as froth.
2. (figuratively) To rage, to vent one's anger.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/froth_at_the_mouth>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If you ever injected truth into politics you'd have no politics
… Humanity is not yet ready for either real truth or real harmony.
--Will Rogers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Rogers>
Pru is the debut studio album by American singer Pru, released in
November 2000 through Capitol Records. The album was managed by Capitol
Records executive Roy Lott, who had signed Pru to Warner/Chappell Music
Publishing after being impressed by her songwriting and voice on a demo
tape. Pru collaborated with Ben Garrison, the Characters, and Rick
Williams on the album. According to Lott, Pru was part of Capitol
Records' attempts to attract a wider audience through her crossover
appeal. Music critics have identified several genres on the album, with
some commentators noting influences from neo soul. Pru also used poetry
as an inspiration for writing music. Reviews of the album were generally
positive, noting its composition and Pru's voice, and comparing her
favorably to contemporary artists. The album peaked at number 176 on the
Billboard 200 chart, an achievement made possible in part by an
intensive marketing strategy devised by Capitol Records executives. Two
singles – "Candles" and "Aaroma (of a Man)" – were released to
positive reviews. "Candles" peaked at number 68 on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop
Songs Billboard chart.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pru_(album)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1838:
The Times of India, the world's largest-circulated English-
language daily broadsheet newspaper, was founded as the The Bombay Times
and Journal of Commerce.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India>
1881:
Indigenous Mapuches rebelled against Chile's occupation of
Araucanía.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche_uprising_of_1881>
1942:
World War II: U.S. Marines and U.S. Army forces began an
attempt to encircle and destroy a regiment of Imperial Japanese Army
troops on Guadalcanal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koli_Point_action>
1957:
The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, carrying
Laika (pictured on stamp) the Russian space dog as the first living
creature from Earth to enter orbit.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika>
1969:
U.S. President Richard Nixon made a plea to the "silent
majority", referring to those Americans who did not join in the large
demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_majority>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bokeh:
(photography) A subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an
image projected by a camera lens.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bokeh>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
At Ragnarok the world as we know it will be destroyed. But that is
not the end. After a long time, a time of healing, a new universe will
be created, one better and cleaner and free from the evils of this
world. It too will last for countless millennia... until again the
forces of evil and cold contend against the forces of goodness and
light... and again there is a time of rest, followed by a new creation
and another chance for men. Nothing is ever finished, nothing is ever
perfect, but over and over again the race of men gets another chance to
do better than last time, ever and again without end.
--Job: A Comedy of Justice
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice>
The Balfour Declaration (2 November 1917) was a public statement issued
by the British government during World War I announcing support for the
establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine,
then an Ottoman region with a minority Jewish population. It represented
the first expression of public support for Zionism by a major political
power. The term "national home" had no precedent in international law,
and was intentionally vague as to whether a Jewish state was
contemplated. The second half of the declaration was added to satisfy
opponents, who had claimed that it would otherwise prejudice the
position of the local population of Palestine and encourage antisemitism
against Jews worldwide. While the declaration called for political
rights in Palestine for Jews, rights for the vast majority of the local
population, the Palestinian Arabs, were limited to the civil and
religious spheres. The declaration greatly increased popular support for
Zionism, and led to the creation of Mandatory Palestine, which later
became Israel and the Palestinian territories. Historians consider it
one of the causes of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
619:
Emperor Gaozu allowed the assassination of a khagan of the
Western Turkic Khaganate by Eastern Turkic rivals, one of the earliest
events in the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_campaigns_against_the_Western_Turks>
1932:
The Australian military began a "war against emus", a
flightless native bird (specimen pictured) blamed for widespread damage
to crops in Western Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War>
1949:
The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ended with the
Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to
the United States of Indonesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch%E2%80%93Indonesian_Round_Table_Conferen…>
1957:
A large number of people witnessed a fiery object in the sky
near Levelland, Texas, which the United States Air Force said was ball
lightning.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelland_UFO_Case>
2007:
In Tbilisi, Georgia, up to 100,000 people demonstrated against
the allegedly corrupt government of president Mikheil Saakashvili.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Georgian_demonstrations>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
forlorn:
1. Abandoned, deserted, left behind.
2. Miserable, as when lonely after being abandoned.
3. Unlikely to succeed.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forlorn>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The general laws of Nature are not, for the most part, immediate
objects of perception. They are either inductive inferences from a large
body of facts, the common truth in which they express, or, in their
origin at least, physical hypotheses of a causal nature serving to
explain phenomena with undeviating precision, and to enable us to
predict new combinations of them. They are in all cases, and in the
strictest sense of the term, probable conclusions, approaching, indeed,
ever and ever nearer to certainty, as they receive more and more of the
confirmation of experience. But of the character of probability, in the
strict and proper sense of that term, they are never wholly divested. On
the other hand, the knowledge of the laws of the mind does not require
as its basis any extensive collection of observations. The general truth
is seen in the particular instance, and it is not confirmed by the
repetition of instances.
--George Boole
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Boole>
Super Mario Galaxy is a platform video game developed and published by
Nintendo for the Wii console, first released on 1 November 2007. In this
third 3D-graphics game in the Super Mario series, Mario is on a quest to
rescue Princess Peach while saving the universe from Bowser. A central
element of gameplay is the way gravitational forces change as Mario
navigates galaxies filled with minor planets and worlds. The spherical
platforms used in the game first appeared in Super Mario 128, a
technology demonstration shown at Nintendo Space World in 2000.
Development of Super Mario Galaxy began after the release of Donkey Kong
Jungle Beat in late 2004, when Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that Nintendo
should commission a large-scale Mario game. The game was a critical and
commercial success, hailed as one of the greatest video games of all
time. It won multiple Game of the Year titles, and became the first
Nintendo title to win a British Academy Games Award for Best Game. It is
the highest-rated game of all time on review aggregator GameRankings.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Galaxy>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1214:
Byzantine–Seljuq wars: Seljuq Turks captured the important
port city of Sinope.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sinope>
1914:
World War I: The first contingent of the First Australian
Imperial Force departed Albany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Australian_Imperial_Force>
1941:
American photographer Ansel Adams shot Moonrise, Hernandez, New
Mexico, one of his most famous photographs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrise,_Hernandez,_New_Mexico>
1959:
After being struck in the face with a hockey puck, Jacques
Plante played the rest of the game wearing a face mask, now mandatory
equipment for goaltenders in ice hockey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Plante>
1998:
The European Court of Human Rights was instituted as a
permanent court with full-time judges to monitor compliance by the
signatory parties of the European Convention on Human Rights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Court_of_Human_Rights>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
listicle:
(informal) An article based around a list.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/listicle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
They say that the world rests on the backs of 36 living saints —
36 unselfish men and women. Because of them the world continues to
exist. They are the secret kings and queens of this world.
--The Sandman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Sandman>