Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations
of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political
institutions, such as states. It investigates different forms of
government, ranging from democracy to authoritarianism, and the values
guiding political action, like justice, equality, and liberty. Political
philosophy focuses on desirable norms and values, in contrast to
political science, which emphasizes empirical description. Political
philosophy has its roots in antiquity, such as the theories of Plato and
Aristotle (both pictured) in ancient Greek philosophy, with discussions
on the nature of justice and ideal states. Confucianism, Taoism, and
legalism emerged in ancient Chinese philosophy, while Hindu and Buddhist
political thought developed in ancient India. The modern period marked a
shift towards secularism as diverse schools of thought developed, such
as social contract theory, liberalism, conservatism, utilitarianism,
Marxism, and anarchism. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1972:
Seawise University, formerly RMS Queen Elizabeth, an ocean
liner that sailed the Atlantic for Cunard Line, caught fire in Victoria
Harbour, Hong Kong.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Elizabeth>
1981:
U.S. representative Raymond Lederer was convicted of bribery
and conspiracy for his role in the Abscam scandal, but continued to
serve his term for three more months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Lederer>
1996:
First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launched raids in the
city of Kizlyar, Dagestan, which turned into a massive hostage crisis
involving thousands of civilians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizlyar%E2%80%93Pervomayskoye_hostage_crisis>
2015:
A hostage situation, related to the Charlie Hebdo shooting,
occurred at a Jewish market in Vincennes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercacher_kosher_supermarket_siege>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
adamantine:
1. Synonym of adamant.
2. Made of adamant (“an unspecified mineral or rock of virtually
impenetrable hardness”).
3. (figurative)
4. Incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; impenetrable,
unbreakable.
5. Difficult to defeat or prevail over; unshakable, unyielding.
6. Of a person: refusing to change one's mind; obstinate, stubborn.
7. (obsolete) Having the quality of attracting or drawing; attractive,
magnetic.
8. (chiefly mineralogy) Like diamond in lustre; bright, lustrous, shiny;
also, of a lustre: like that of a mineral with a high refractive index
such as diamond. [...]
9. About Word of the Day
10. Nominate a word
11. Leave feedback
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adamantine>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In the age of nuclear warfare to continue our political
differences by means of war would be to discontinue civilization as we
know it. War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only
option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land
between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might
has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political
differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them.
--Richard Nixon
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon>
The Yamato-class battleships were two battleships of the Imperial
Japanese Navy, Yamato (pictured) and Musashi, laid down leading up to
the Second World War and completed as designed. A third hull was
converted to the aircraft carrier Shinano during construction.
Displacing nearly 72,000 long tons (73,000 t), the completed
battleships were the heaviest ever constructed. The class carried the
largest naval artillery ever fitted to a warship, nine 460 mm
(18.1 in) naval guns, capable of firing 1,460 kg (3,220 lb) shells
over 42 km (26 mi). Because of the threat of U.S. submarines and
aircraft carriers, Yamato and Musashi spent the majority of their
careers in naval bases. All three ships were sunk by the U.S. Navy:
Musashi by air strikes while participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf
in October 1944, Shinano after being torpedoed by the submarine
USS Archerfish in November 1944, and Yamato by air strikes while en
route to Okinawa in April 1945. (This article is part of a featured
topic: Yamato-class battleships.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Yamato-class_battle…>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1790:
George Washington delivered the first State of the Union
address in New York City, then the provisional capital of the United
States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union>
1939:
The New Deal for Aborigines was formally announced by the
Australian government, providing for full civil rights for Indigenous
Australians in exchange for cultural assimilation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal_for_Aborigines>
1991:
Jeremy Wade Delle committed suicide in his high-school class in
Richardson, Texas, an event that inspired the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_%28song%29>
2010:
Gunmen from an offshoot of the Front for the Liberation of the
Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus transporting the Togo national
football team to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, killing three
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo_national_football_team_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
squeegee:
1. (transitive) Sometimes followed by down, out, together, etc.: to
press or spread (a substance) using a squeegee (noun sense); also, to
use a squeegee on (something, such as a surface).
2. (intransitive) To use a squeegee.
3. A tool for scraping consisting of a blade of rubber or some other
material attached at a right angle to a handle.
4. A long-handled tool with a blade used for cleaning and/or drying
surfaces, or for levelling paths, roadways, etc.
5. A short-handled tool with a blade for drying car windshields,
windows, etc.
6. (nautical) A long-handled tool with a blade used on ships for
swabbing decks and spreading protective coatings.
7. A tool consisting of a roller attached to a handle, used for applying
pressure, removing liquid, etc.
8. (historical) A street-cleaning machine consisting of a roller with
blades pulled by a horse.
9. (photography) A tool used to press film into a mount, remove excess
moisture from a print, etc.; a squeezer.
10. (printing) A tool with a roller or blade used to force ink through a
stencil in silk-screen printing.
11. (slang) A person who uses a squeegee (noun sense 1.2); specifically,
one who makes an unsolicited attempt to clean the windshield of a car
stopped at a traffic light and then requests payment; a squeegee bandit.
12. About Word of the Day
13. Nominate a word
14. Leave feedback
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/squeegee>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We've been warning for weeks that the Trump administration's
dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety,
that someone was going to get hurt. Just yesterday, I said exactly that.
What we're seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate
fear, headlines, and conflict. It's governing by reality TV, and today
that recklessness cost someone their life.
--Tim Walz
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Walz>
New England Revolution has taken part in several international
competitions. New England Revolution is an American soccer club based in
Foxborough, Massachusetts, which has competed in Major League Soccer
(MLS) since the league's first season in 1996. The club has taken part
five times in the CONCACAF Champions Cup; they have reached the
quarterfinals on three occasions. In 2008, they lost to Joe Public F.C.,
marking the first time an MLS side had lost to a Caribbean one. In 2022,
they lost to Pumas UNAM in a penalty shootout after winning the first
leg 3–0. From 2008 to 2010, the club participated in the SuperLiga, an
annual competition between MLS and Liga MX (the first-division Mexican
league). They won the 2008 edition of the tournament, winning the final
against the Houston Dynamo. The club also reached the final of the 2010
SuperLiga, which they lost to Atlético Morelia. Since 2023, they have
participated in the Leagues Cup, another annual tournament between the
two leagues. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Revolution_in_international_compe…>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1536:
The oldest European school of higher learning in the Americas,
the Colegio de Santa Cruz, was founded in Tlatelolco, Mexico City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colegio_de_Santa_Cruz_de_Tlatelolco>
1907:
Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and
day-care centre for working-class children in Rome, employing a
philosophy of education that now bears her name.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori>
1941:
During his State of the Union address, U.S. president Franklin
D. Roosevelt presented his Four Freedoms (composite poster depicted) as
fundamental freedoms that all people ought to enjoy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms>
1972:
A brawl broke out between players, fans, and police officers
during an ice hockey game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the St.
Louis Blues in Philadelphia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Blues%E2%80%93Philadelphia_Flyers_b…>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Free City of Tri-Insula:
1. (historical) A proposed city-state comprising Long Island, Manhattan,
and Staten Island, put forward on January 6th, 1861, by the mayor of New
York City, Fernando Wood, shortly before the beginning of the American
Civil War.
2. About Word of the Day
3. Nominate a word
4. Leave feedback
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Free_City_of_Tri-Insula>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The biblical view is not just apolitical but antipolitical in the
sense that it refuses to confer any value on political power, or in the
sense that it regards political power as idolatrous, inevitably
entailing idolatry. Christianity offers no justification for political
power; on the contrary, it radically questions it.
--Jacques Ellul
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul>
The remains of Richard III, the last English king killed in battle and
last king of the House of York, were discovered within the site of the
former Greyfriars Friary in Leicester, England, in September 2012.
Richard III, the final ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty, was killed on
22 August 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field. His body was taken to
Greyfriars, where it was buried in a crude grave in the friary church.
Following the friary's dissolution in 1538 and subsequent demolition,
Richard's tomb was lost. A search for Richard's body began in
August 2012 and that September an archaeological excavation took place
at the site of the friary. A skeleton (pictured) was discovered of a man
with a spinal deformity and severe head injuries. Following extensive
anthropological and genetic testing, the remains were identified as
those of Richard. Leicester Cathedral was chosen as the site of
Richard's reburial. His reinterment took place on 26 March 2015, during
a televised memorial service. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhumation_and_reburial_of_Richard_III_of_Eng…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1909:
British explorer Aeneas Mackintosh, a member of the Nimrod
Expedition, escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneas_Mackintosh>
1951:
Korean War: Chinese and North Korean troops captured Seoul from
United Nations forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Seoul>
1972:
Rose Heilbron became the first female judge to sit at the
Central Criminal Court of England and Wales.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Heilbron>
2019:
A fire in an escape room in Koszalin, Poland, killed five
teenagers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koszalin_escape_room_fire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gravity:
1. Senses relating to seriousness.
2. (uncountable) Of an activity such as a ceremony, a person's conduct,
etc.: the quality of being deeply serious and solemn, especially in a
dignified manner; seriousness, solemnity; (countable, archaic or
obsolete) a serious or solemn thing, such as a matter, a comment, etc.
3. (uncountable) Of an activity, situation, words, etc.: the quality of
having important or serious consequences; importance, seriousness.
4. (uncountable, obsolete) Authority, influence, weight; also, used as a
title for a person with authority or influence.
5. Senses relating to physical qualities.
6. (uncountable, chiefly music) The lowness in pitch of a note, a sound,
etc.
7. (physics)
8.
9. (uncountable) Synonym of gravitation (“the fundamental force of
attraction which exists between all matter in the universe that tends to
draw bodies towards each other, due to matter causing the curvature of
spacetime”); also, a physical law attempting to account for the
phenomena of this force.
10. (dated)
11. (countable) Synonym of g-force (“the acceleration of a body relative
to the freefall acceleration due to any local gravitational field,
expressed in multiples of g0 (the mean acceleration due to gravity
(sense 2.2.1) at the Earth's surface)”).
12. (uncountable) Dated except in centre of gravity: specific gravity or
relative density (“a dimensionless measure which is the ratio of the
mass of a substance to that of some reference substance (chiefly an
equal volume of water at 4°C)”); also, heaviness, weight.
13. (uncountable, obsolete) The tendency to have weight and thus move
downwards, formerly believed to be an inherent quality of some objects.
14. (uncountable, obsolete, rare) The quality of being unable or
unwilling to move quickly; heaviness, sluggishness.
15. About Word of the Day
16. Nominate a word
17. Leave feedback
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gravity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We cannot take a chance of somebody else taking over Venezuela
that does not have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We have
had decades of that. We are not going to let that happen. We are there
now and what people do not understand — but they understand as I say
this — we are there now and we are going to stay until such time as
the proper transition can take place. … As everyone knows, the oil
business in Venezuela has been a total bust for a long period of time.
They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have
been pumping and what could have taken place. We are going to have our
very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the
world, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure,
the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.
--Donald Trump
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump>
Tseax Cone is a small volcano in the Nass Ranges of the Hazelton
Mountains in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. It has an elevation
of 609 metres (1,998 feet) and lies within an east–west valley through
which a tributary of the Tseax River flows. The volcano consists of two
nested structures and was the source of four lava flows that descended
into neighbouring valleys. A secondary eruptive centre lies just north
of Tseax Cone on the opposite side of Melita Lake. It probably formed
simultaneously with Tseax Cone; both were formed by volcanic activity
sometime in the last 800 years. The exact timing of volcanism at Tseax
Cone has been a subject of controversy due to there being no direct
written accounts. There is also controversy over whether the volcano was
formed during one or more distinct episodes of eruptive activity. The
single eruptive episode hypothesis has been proposed by researchers as
early as 1923 whereas a multi-eruption hypothesis was proposed in 1978.
(Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tseax_Cone>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1911:
A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and
sparked a political row over the operational involvement of Winston
Churchill, then Home Secretary.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sidney_Street>
1941:
Second World War: As part of Operation Compass, Australian and
United Kingdom forces attacked Italian forces at the Battle of Bardia in
Egypt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bardia>
1961:
All 25 people on board Aero Flight 311 died in Finland's worst
civilian air accident when the aircraft crashed near Kvevlax.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Flight_311>
1973:
CBS announced the sale of the New York Yankees professional
baseball team to a group of investors headed by American businessman
George Steinbrenner.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Yankees>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
threeven:
1. (mathematics, informal) Divisible by three.
2. About Word of the Day
3. Nominate a word
4. Leave feedback
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/threeven>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Time destroys the figments of the imagination, while confirming
the judgments of nature.
--Cicero
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cicero>
Ann Cook (fl. c. 1725 – c. 1760) was an English cookery book
writer and innkeeper. In 1754 she published Professed Cookery
(pictured), which went on to two further editions in her lifetime. In
1739–1740 Cook and her husband John became embroiled in a feud with a
well-connected local landowner, Sir Lancelot Allgood, following an
argument over an invoice the Cooks had issued. Although they were later
exonerated, Allgood continued his attack on them, forcing them to leave
their inn. To earn money, Cook wrote The New System of Cookery in 1753,
which was reissued as Professed Cookery in 1754. In the work, in
addition to a range of recipes, she included a poem and an "Essay upon
the Lady's Art of Cookery". This was an attack on Allgood's half-sister
Hannah Glasse, who had published a best-selling cookery book, The Art of
Cookery Made Plain and Easy, in 1747. The second and third editions of
Professed Cookery include a critical analysis of Glasse's work,
traditional English recipes and an essay on household management.
(Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Cook_%28cookery_book_writer%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1680:
Trunajaya rebellion: Amangkurat II of Mataram of Java and his
courtiers stabbed Trunajaya to death a week after the rebel leader
surrendered to VOC forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunajaya_rebellion>
1941:
Second World War: Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales, was
severely damaged by German bombing during the Cardiff Blitz.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llandaff_Cathedral>
1976:
An extratropical cyclone began affecting parts of western
Europe, resulting in coastal flooding around the southern portions of
the North Sea and leading to at least 82 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gale_of_January_1976>
2024:
While landing at Haneda Airport, Japan Airlines Flight 516
collided with a De Havilland Canada Dash 8 which killed five people in
total.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Haneda_Airport_runway_collision>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Manhattan distance:
1. (geometry) Synonym of taxicab distance (“the distance between two
points on a grid, where the only path allowed is along horizontal and
vertical lines”).
2. About Word of the Day
3. Nominate a word
4. Leave feedback
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Manhattan_distance>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an
opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people
themselves whose hands are the ones upon the levers of change. And yet
we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have
been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition. …
In writing this address, I have been told that this is the occasion to
reset expectations, that I should use this opportunity to encourage the
people of New York to ask for little and expect even less. I will do no
such thing. The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small
expectations. Beginning today, we will govern expansively and
audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of
lacking the courage to try.
--Zohran Mamdani
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zohran_Mamdani>
Al-Muti' was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 946 to 974, ruling under
the tutelage of the Buyid emirs. Al-Muti's reign represented the nadir
of the Abbasid Caliphate's power and authority. In previous decades, the
secular authority of the caliphs had shrunk to Iraq, and even there had
been curtailed by powerful warlords; with the Buyid conquest of Baghdad,
it was now abolished entirely. Al-Muti' was raised to the throne by the
Buyids and was effectively reduced to a rubber-stamp figurehead, albeit
with some vestiges of authority over judicial and religious appointments
in Iraq. The very fact of his subordination and powerlessness helped
restore some stability to the caliphal institution: in stark contrast to
his short-lived and violently deposed predecessors, al-Muti' enjoyed a
long and relatively unchallenged tenure, and was able to hand over the
throne to his son al-Ta'i'. Al-Muti's prestige as the nominal leader of
the Muslim world sharply declined during his tenure. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Muti%27>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
American Revolutionary War: The town of Norfolk, Virginia, was
burned and destroyed by the combined actions of British and Whig forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Norfolk>
1785:
The Times began publication in London as The Daily Universal
Register.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times>
1926:
Ireland's first broadcaster, 2RN, began broadcasting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2RN>
2011:
A suicide bombing took place outside a Coptic Orthodox Church
in Alexandria, Egypt, following a New Year service, killing 23 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Alexandria_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
new year, new me:
1. (informal) Used to indicate a person's intention to adopt significant
personal changes or improvements at the start of a new calendar year.
2. About Word of the Day
3. Nominate a word
4. Leave feedback
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/new_year%2C_new_me>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I don't really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason
for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it's always nice,
I'll grant you, if he has one.
--J. D. Salinger
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger>