T2 was a torpedo boat of the Royal Yugoslav Navy. Originally a 250t-
class torpedo boat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, commissioned on
11 August 1914 as 77T, she saw active service during World War I,
performing convoy, patrol, escort, minesweeping and minelaying tasks,
anti-submarine operations, and shore bombardment missions. Present in
the Bocche di Cattaro during the short-lived mutiny by Austro-Hungarian
sailors in early February 1918, members of her crew raised the red flag
but took no other mutinous actions. The boat was part of the escort
force for the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought Szent István when that ship
was sunk by Italian torpedo boats in June 1918. Following Austria-
Hungary's defeat in 1918, the boat was allocated to the Navy of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which became the Royal Yugoslav
Navy in 1921, and was renamed T2. During the interwar period, Yugoslav
naval activity was limited by reduced budgets. Worn out after twenty-
five years of service, T2 was scrapped in 1939. (This article is part
of a featured topic: Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Ships_of_the_Royal_…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1786:
Francis Light founded George Town (city hall pictured), the
first British settlement in Southeast Asia and the present-day capital
of the Malaysian state of Penang.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Town,_Penang>
1979:
Two Aeroflot passenger jets collided in mid-air near
Dniprodzerzhynsk in the Ukrainian SSR, killing all 178 people on both
aircraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Dniprodzerzhynsk_mid-air_collision>
1999:
Ken Levine's System Shock 2 was released to mediocre sales,
but later received critical acclaim and influenced subsequent first-
person shooter game design.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock_2>
2012:
At least 306 people were killed and 3,000 others injured in a
pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_East_Azerbaijan_earthquakes>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
final whistle:
(sports) The blow of the whistle by the referee or other adjudicator
signifying the end of a match.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/final_whistle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and
praise it.
--Alex Haley
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alex_Haley>
St Melangell's Church is a Grade I listed medieval building in the
former village of Pennant Melangell, in the Tanat Valley, Powys, Wales.
Built over a Bronze Age burial ground, the church was founded around the
8th century to commemorate the reputed grave of Melangell, a hermit and
abbess who founded a convent and sanctuary in the area. The current
church was built in the 12th century and has been renovated several
times, including major restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Archaeological excavation in the 20th century uncovered prehistoric and
early medieval activity. The church contains the reconstructed shrine to
Melangell, considered the oldest surviving Romanesque shrine in northern
Europe and which was a major pilgrimage site in medieval Wales. The
interior of the church holds a 15th-century rood screen depicting
Melangell's legend, two 14th-century effigies, paintings, and liturgical
fittings.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Melangell%27s_Church>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1934:
The Blue Lotus, the fifth volume of The Adventures of Tintin by
the Belgian cartoonist Hergé and noted for its emphasis on countering
negative misconceptions of Chinese people, began serialisation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Lotus>
1944:
The United States Forest Service authorized the use of Smokey
Bear as its mascot to replace Bambi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Bear>
1974:
On the verge of an impeachment and removal from office amid the
Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first president of the
United States to resign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon>
2014:
Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American man, was killed
by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, resulting in widespread
protests and unrest.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Michael_Brown>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
one:
1. Used at the end of a sentence to highlight the characteristics of
someone or something.
2. Used at the end of a sentence to highlight the originator of
something.
3. A nominalizer used to form a noun phrase without a head noun.
4. (Singapore, Singlish, rare) Used as a relative pronoun at the end of
a relative clause.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/one>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The relations between parents and children are certainly not only
those of constraint. There is spontaneous mutual affection, which from
the first prompts the child to acts of generosity and even of self-
sacrifice, to very touching demonstrations which are in no way
prescribed. And here no doubt is the starting point for that morality of
good which we shall see developing alongside of the morality of right or
duty, and which in some persons completely replaces it.
--Jean Piaget
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget>
Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield (8 August 1874 – 4 November
1948), was the managing director and chairman of the Underground
Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) from 1910 to 1933, and the
chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) from 1933 to
1947. At a young age, he held senior positions in the tramway systems of
Detroit and New Jersey. In 1907 he was recruited by the UERL, where he
integrated the company's management and used advertising and public
relations to improve profits. As managing director of the UERL from
1910, he led the take-over of competing companies and operations to form
Combine, an integrated transport operation. He was Member of Parliament
for Ashton-under-Lyne from 1916 to 1920 and President of the Board of
Trade between 1916 and 1919. He returned to the UERL and then chaired it
and its successor the LPTB during the organisation's greatest period of
expansion between the two world wars, making it an exemplar of the best
form of public administration.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stanley,_1st_Baron_Ashfield>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1919:
The Third Anglo-Afghan War ended with the United Kingdom
signing a treaty to recognise the independence of the Emirate of
Afghanistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Anglo-Afghan_War>
1929:
The German airship Graf Zeppelin departed Lakehurst, New
Jersey, on a flight to circumnavigate the world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin>
2009:
Nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private
airplane collided over the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Hudson_River_mid-air_collision>
2014:
The World Health Organization declared the Western African
Ebola epidemic, which began in December 2013, to be a public health
emergency of international concern.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_African_Ebola_epidemic>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
libertarian:
1. One who advocates liberty, either generally or in relation to a
specific issue.
2. (philosophy) A believer in the freedom of thinking beings to choose
their own destiny (the doctrine of free will) as opposed to those who
believe the future is predetermined (the doctrine of necessity).
3. (politics) One who advocates libertarianism (“a political philosophy
maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives,
and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or
property, provided they allow others that same liberty”); also, a member
of a political party supporting libertarianism.
4. (chiefly Ireland, UK) An antiauthoritarian believer in left-
libertarianism, a political doctrine that stresses both individual
freedom and social equality, and advocates shared ownership of natural
resources.
5. (chiefly US) A believer in right-libertarianism, a political doctrine
that emphasizes individual liberty and a lack of governmental
intervention, oversight, and regulation, both in economic matters (that
is, a belief in the free market) and in personal behaviour provided that
no one's rights are threatened or violated.
6. Advocating liberty; also, having a relative tendency towards liberty.
7. (philosophy) Relating to the doctrine of free will as opposed to the
doctrine of necessity.
8. (originally US, politics) Relating to, or advocating, libertarianism;
also, relating to a political party supporting libertarianism.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/libertarian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The ultimate notion of right is that which tends to the universal
good; and when one's acting in a certain manner has this tendency, he
has a right thus to act.
--Francis Hutcheson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francis_Hutcheson_%28philosopher%29>
Blackrocks Brewery is a craft brewery in Marquette, Michigan. Taking the
name from a local landmark, former pharmaceutical salesmen David Manson
and Andy Langlois opened Blackrocks in 2010. They originally brewed
their products in the basement of a Victorian-style house (pictured),
and the building's two other floors were used as a taproom. By 2013,
persistent high demand for Blackrocks' beer led Manson and Langlois to
expand their brewing capacity, including the purchase and conversion of
a former Coca-Cola bottling plant. In the early 2020s, they expanded
Blackrocks' taproom into an adjacent property, which doubled its
available indoor area. Blackrocks produced 12,687 barrels of beer in
2023, up about 11 percent from the year prior, and they are the largest
craft brewery in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Their most popular beer is
51K, an American IPA named for a local ski marathon.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackrocks_Brewery>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1909:
Fifty-nine days after leaving New York City with three
passengers, Alice Huyler Ramsey arrived in San Francisco to become the
first woman to drive an automobile across the contiguous United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Huyler_Ramsey>
1944:
IBM presented the first program-controlled calculator to
Harvard University, after which it became known as the Mark I
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Mark_I>
1998:
Car bombs exploded simultaneously at the American embassies in
the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi,
Kenya, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 4,000 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_United_States_embassy_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mend:
1. (transitive)
2. To physically repair (something that is broken, defaced, decayed,
torn, or otherwise damaged).
3. (figurative)
4. To add fuel to (a fire).
5. To correct or put right (an error, a fault, etc.); to rectify, to
remedy.
6. To put (something) in a better state; to ameliorate, to improve, to
reform, to set right.
7. To remove fault or sin from (someone, or their behaviour or
character); to improve morally, to reform.
8. In mend one's pace: to adjust (a pace or speed), especially to match
that of someone or something else; also, to quicken or speed up (a
pace).
9. (archaic) To correct or put right the defects, errors, or faults of
(something); to amend, to emend, to fix.
10. (archaic) To increase the quality of (someone or something); to
better, to improve on; also, to produce something better than (something
else).
11. (archaic) To make amends or reparation for (a wrong done); to atone.
12. (archaic except UK, regional) To restore (someone or something) to a
healthy state; to cure, to heal. [...]
13. (intransitive)
14. (figurative)
15. Of an illness: to become less severe; also, of an injury or wound,
or an injured body part: to get better, to heal.
16. Of a person: to become healthy again; to recover from illness.
17. (archaic) Now only in least said, soonest mended: to make amends or
reparation.
18. (chiefly Scotland) To become morally improved or reformed. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mend>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Thank you, Madam Vice-President, for the trust we have put in me
— but maybe more so, thank you for bringing back the joy.
--Tim Walz
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Walz>
Existence is the state of having being or reality. It is often
contrasted with essence, since one can understand the essential features
of something without knowing whether it exists. Ontology studies
existence and differentiates between singular existence of individual
entities and general existence of concepts or universals. Entities
present in space and time have concrete existence, in contrast to
abstract entities, like numbers and sets. Other distinctions are between
possible, contingent, and necessary existence and between physical and
mental existence. Some philosophers talk of degrees of existence but the
more common view is that an entity either exists or not, with no
intermediary states. It is controversial whether existence can be
understood as a property of individual objects and, if so, whether there
are nonexistent objects. The concept of existence has a long history and
played a role in the ancient period in pre-Socratic, Hindu, Buddhist,
and Daoist philosophy.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1623:
After the death of Gregory XV, a papal conclave in Rome
elected Maffeo Barberini as Pope Urban VIII.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1623_papal_conclave>
1944:
World War II: Allied forces attacked German fortifications at
Saint-Malo, France, beginning the Battle of Saint-Malo (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saint-Malo>
1979:
An earthquake struck along the Calaveras Fault near Coyote
Lake, California, injuring sixteen people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Coyote_Lake_earthquake>
1997:
Korean Air Flight 801 crashed into a hill on approach to
Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam, killing 228 of the 254
people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_801>
2011:
A series of riots broke out in several London boroughs and in
cities and towns across England in response to the shooting of Mark
Duggan by Metropolitan Police officers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Mark_Duggan>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nothingburger:
1. An unimportant person; a nobody, a nonentity.
2. Something of less importance than its treatment suggests; also,
something which is bland or unremarkable in appearance or impact.
3. (originally and chiefly US, informal) Of less importance than its
treatment suggests; insignificant, unimportant; also, bland or
unremarkable in appearance or impact.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nothingburger>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range.
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
--Locksley Hall
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Locksley_Hall>
Alice of Champagne (c. 1193 – 1246) was the eldest daughter of
Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem and Count Henry II of Champagne. In
1210, Alice married her stepbrother King Hugh I of Cyprus, receiving
the County of Jaffa as dowry. After her husband's death in 1218, she
assumed the regency for their infant son, King Henry I. Her attempts to
bolster her claim to Champagne and Brie in France failed. Due to a
debate with her uncle Philip of Ibelin, she left Cyprus in 1223. In
exile, she married Bohemond, the heir apparent to the Principality of
Antioch and the County of Tripoli, but their marriage was annulled. In
1229, she unsuccessfully laid claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem against
the absent Conrad II. In 1240, she married Raoul of Nesle and the High
Court of Jerusalem proclaimed them regents for Conrad in 1243, although
their power was nominal. Raoul left the kingdom, and Alice, before the
end of the year. Alice retained the regency until her death in 1246.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_of_Champagne>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1716:
Austro-Turkish War: The Ottoman army were defeated in their
attempt to capture the Habsburgs-controlled Petrovaradin Fortress
despite having double the number of soldiers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Petrovaradin>
1816:
Sir John Barrow, secretary at the Admiralty, rejected a
proposal to use Francis Ronalds's electrical telegraph, deeming it
"wholly unnecessary".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ronalds>
1888:
Bertha Benz made the first long-distance automobile trip,
driving 106 km (66 mi) from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, in a Benz
Patent-Motorwagen.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Benz>
1949:
An earthquake registering 6.4 Ms struck near Ambato, Ecuador,
killing 5,050 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_Ambato_earthquake>
1984:
A Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircraft crashed while attempting
to land in Dhaka, killing 49 people in the deadliest aviation accident
in Bangladeshi history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Biman_Bangladesh_Airlines_Fokker_F27_cra…>
2012:
An American white supremacist carried out a mass shooting at a
Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people and wounding
four others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Sikh_temple_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sub rosa:
1. Covertly or in secret; confidentially, privately, secretly.
2. Carried out confidentially or secretly.
3. Not formally stated; implicit, tacit, unspoken.
4. (US, law, slang) Covert surveillance video used as evidence against
applicants for workers' compensation to show they are not in fact
(seriously) injured.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sub_rosa>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A century hence, 2000 may be viewed as quite a primitive period
in human history. It's something to hope for. ... I am, and ever will
be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer — born under the
second law of thermodynamics, steeped in the steam tables, in love with
free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace, and propelled by
compressible flow. As an engineer, I take a substantial amount of pride
in the accomplishments of my profession.
--Neil Armstrong
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong>
The Aston Martin Rapide is an executive sports saloon car that was
produced by the British carmaker Aston Martin between 2010 and 2020.
Development of the car commenced in 2005, and after about two months, a
concept car, called the Rapide, was completed and displayed at the North
American International Auto Show in 2006. In 2009, three years after the
concept's unveiling, the production version debuted at the International
Motor Show Germany. Official manufacture of the car began on 7 May
2010, at Magna Steyr's facility in Graz, Austria, but production was
shifted to Gaydon, Warwickshire, in 2012 after Aston Martin received
funding from the British government. Over its production run, the Rapide
received two major updates, with the introduction of the Rapide S
(pictured) in 2013 and the Rapide AMR in 2018. A battery electric
version of the Rapide, called the Rapide E, was introduced in 2018 but
Aston Martin announced in 2020 that it would not be series produced.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_Rapide>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1914:
World War I: Adhering to the terms of the Treaty of London,
the United Kingdom declared war on Germany in response to the latter's
invasion of Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_invasion_of_Belgium_%281914%29>
1953:
Alfred C. Glassell Jr. caught a black marlin weighing
1,560 lb (710 kg) off the coast of Peru, setting the record for the
largest bony fish caught by hand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_C._Glassell_Jr.>
1997:
French supercentenarian Jeanne Calment died at the age of 122
years, 164 days, with the longest confirmed human lifespan in history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment>
2014:
Julieka Ivanna Dhu, an Aboriginal Australian woman, died in
police custody after her deteriorating condition was mocked and ignored.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ms_Dhu>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
antipathy:
1. (uncountable) Often followed by against, between, for, or to: a
(deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance, normally towards a person and
less often towards a thing, often without any conscious reasoning;
aversion, distaste, hostility; (countable) an instance of this.
2. (uncountable) Natural contrariety or incompatibility between things,
as a result of which they negatively affect or oppose each other;
(countable) an instance of this.
3. (countable) A person or thing that one has a (deep) feeling of
dislike or repugnance towards; an anathema, a bête noire, a bugbear.
4. (countable, obsolete) A person or thing that has a (deep) feeling of
dislike or repugnance towards another person or thing; a hater.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antipathy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We've been warned against offering the people of this nation
false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never
been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible
odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't
try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a
simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.
--Barack Obama
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barack_Obama>
Free and Candid Disquisitions is an anonymously published 1749 pamphlet
written and compiled by John Jones, a Welsh clergyman of the Church of
England. The work promoted a series of reforms to the church and the
Book of Common Prayer that Jones hoped would allow the more Protestant
and independent Dissenters to be reintegrated into the church. Jones's
proposals included shortening the Sunday liturgies, removing Catholic
ritual influences, and providing improved hymns and psalms. Several
responding texts were written, both lauding and criticizing Jones's
work. While the proposals were not accepted by the Church of England,
Jones's suggested alterations to the prayer book and advocacy of
privately published liturgies influenced several Dissenter liturgical
texts and early editions of the American Episcopal Church's prayer book.
The pamphlet remained a major influence on proposed liturgical changes
in the Church of England until the 19th-century Tractarian movement.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_Candid_Disquisitions>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1903:
Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaimed a republic, which
existed for ten days before Ottoman forces destroyed the town.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kru%C5%A1evo_Republic>
1936:
African-American athlete Jesse Owens won the first of his four
gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, dashing Nazi leaders' hopes of Aryan
domination at the games.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens>
1971:
Fighting Dinosaurs, a fossil specimen featuring a Velociraptor
and a Protoceratops in combat, was unearthed in the Djadochta Formation
of Mongolia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protoceratops>
1997:
The Sky Tower, then the tallest free-standing structure in the
Southern Hemisphere at 328 m (1,076 ft), opened in Auckland, New
Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Tower_%28Auckland%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
get in the boat and row:
(intransitive, idiomatic) To make a substantial effort, especially in
cooperation with others in a group; also, to perform one's share of
work.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_in_the_boat_and_row>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by
a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain
evidence that any one has gone.
--Christopher Columbus
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus>
Charles Edward (1884–1954) was at various times a British prince, the
last ruling duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany, and a Nazi
politician. Brought up in the United Kingdom, he was selected to succeed
to the throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1899 because he was deemed
young enough to be re-educated as a German. He married Princess Victoria
Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein and the couple had five children. Charles
Edward was a conservative ruler with an interest in art and technology.
During the First World War, he supported the German Empire but was
deposed during the German Revolution. During the 1920s, Charles Edward
became a moral and financial supporter of violent far-right paramilitary
groups, joining the Nazi Party in 1933. He was given multiple positions,
including leader of the German Red Cross, and acted as an unofficial
diplomat. After the war, he was interned for a period and given a minor
conviction by a denazification court, dying of cancer in 1954.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward,_Duke_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1100:
While on a hunting trip in the New Forest, King William II of
England was killed by an arrow through the lung loosed by one of his own
men.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_II_of_England>
1790:
The first United States census was officially completed, with
the nation's residential population enumerated to be 3,929,214.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_United_States_census>
1920:
Nepalese author Krishna Lal Adhikari was sentenced to nine
years in prison for publishing a book about the cultivation of corn.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makaiko_Kheti>
1973:
A flash fire killed 50 people at a leisure centre in Douglas,
Isle of Man.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerland_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
there must be something in the water:
(idiomatic, humorous) There are so many instances of something unusual,
such as in people's behaviour, that there must be a common cause.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there_must_be_something_in_the_water>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends
in this world — friends you can trust, work with, and depend upon,
especially on matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this.
Our alliances make our people safer, and we began to see that again
today. Let me say this. It says a lot about the United States that we
work relentlessly to free Americans who are unjustly held around the
world. It also says a lot about us that this deal includes the release
of Russian political prisoners. They stood up for democracy and human
rights. Their own leaders threw them in prison. The United States helped
secure their release as well. That’s who we are in the United States.
We stand for freedom, for liberty, for justice — not only for our own
people but for others as well. And that’s why all Americans can take
pride in what we’ve achieved today.
--Joe Biden
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joe_Biden>
The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns
and one epigram. They praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell
mythological stories, such as the abduction of Persephone and the
seduction of Anchises by Aphrodite. In antiquity, the hymns were
generally attributed to the poet Homer: modern scholarship has
established that they vary widely in date. Performances of the hymns may
have taken place at sympotic banquets, religious festivals and royal
courts. They may originally have been performed by singers accompanying
themselves on a lyre. The hymns influenced Alexandrian and Roman poets,
and both pagan and early Christian literature. They were first published
in print by Demetrios Chalkokondyles in 1488–1489, while George
Chapman made the first English translation of them in 1624. They have
since influenced, among others, Handel, Goethe, Shelley, Tennyson and
Cavafy. Their influence has also been traced in the novels of James
Joyce and Neil Gaiman, and in the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeric_Hymns>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
902:
Arab–Byzantine wars: Led by Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, Aghlabid
forces captured the Byzantine stronghold of Taormina, concluding the
Muslim conquest of Sicily.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Sicily>
1774:
British scientist Joseph Priestley liberated oxygen gas,
corroborating the discovery of the element by the German-Swedish chemist
Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen>
1892:
Jef Denyn hosted the world's first carillon concert at
St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon>
1911:
Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn an Aero Club of
America aviator certificate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
round robin:
1. (also attributive) Senses relating to something with a round shape,
or which goes around.
2. (originally nautical) A document (usually containing a complaint or
petition) originally with the signatures arranged in a circle, and later
often alphabetically, to disguise the order of signing and to indicate
that the signatories are collectively responsible for it.
3. A letter which is reproduced and sent to several people;
specifically, one containing personal news sent at a particular time of
year, often Christmas; a circular letter.
4. A letter or piece of writing which is circulated among members of a
group, to which each person makes a contribution before sending it to
another person; also, a packet of letters circulated regularly in a
fixed order among a group (often family members), whereby each person
replaces their previous contribution with a new letter, and then sends
the packet to the next recipient.
5. A form of trading involving a packet of items which is circulated
among members of a group, whereby each person take the items they want
and replaces them with items of similar value, and then sends the packet
to the next recipient.
6. (figurative) A long, often tedious, list or piece of writing; a
laundry list, a litany.
7. (computing) A method of making use of several similar subsystems,
assigning tasks to each of them in turn (for example, sending data to a
destination down several communication links in turn to achieve greater
combined speed).
8. (gambling) A form of bet on the full set of possible combinations
from a group of events, racehorses, teams, etc., such as the outcomes A
and B, B and C, and A and C from a group consisting of A, B, and C.
9. (music) The MIDI technique of using different sampled versions of the
same sound for successive notes, to avoid an unnaturally repetitive
effect.
10. (online gaming) A method of dividing loot among a party of players
by having the game assign loot, or an enemy corpse to loot, to each
player in turn.
11. (Devon, archaic) A small pancake.
12. (originally US) A group activity in which the members take turns to
perform an action.
13. (originally US, sports, often attributive) The part of a tournament
in which every player or team competes against each of the others in
turn.
14. (obsolete except historical)
15. (Christianity, derogatory) The consecrated host used in the
Eucharist.
16. (clothing) A small ruff worn around the neck.
17. (obsolete, road transport) A rim attached to the end of an axle of a
horse carriage to prevent dirt from obstructing the axle's rotation;
also, a loop from which a component of a horse carriage (such as a pole
or spring) is suspended. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/round_robin>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
O Nature, and O soul of man! how far beyond all utterance are
your linked analogies; not the smallest atom stirs or lives on matter,
but has its cunning duplicate in mind.
--Moby-Dick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>