For timekeeping, Finland follows Eastern European Time (EET) during its
winter as standard time and Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) in the
summer as daylight saving time. EET is two hours ahead of Coordinated
Universal Time and EEST is three hours ahead. Finland adopted EET in
1921, and daylight saving time in its current form from 1981. Up to the
19th century, each locality used its own solar time, which could vary in
Finland by up to 31 minutes. In 1862, a mean time was adopted as a
single time zone for railway scheduling. Daylight saving time was first
attempted in 1942, abandoned as not useful, and introduced again in 1981
to align with neighbouring countries. In 2017, the Finnish parliament
voted to call on the European Union to abolish daylight saving time.
Finland's time zone is maintained by the VTT Technical Research Centre
of Finland and the Centre for Metrology and Accreditation, using an
atomic clock and hydrogen monitors. The 24-hour clock notation is used
in Finland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Finland>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1798:
Outraged by the XYZ Affair, the United States rescinded its
treaties with France, resulting in the undeclared Quasi-War, fought
entirely at sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-War>
1954:
After the culmination of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état,
Carlos Castillo Armas was sworn in as president of Guatemala.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castillo_Armas>
1963:
The secret police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief
political adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm,
attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest
during the Buddhist crisis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Seven_Day_scuffle>
1983:
After writing a letter to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov,
American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visited the Soviet Union as
Andropov's personal guest, becoming known as "America's Youngest
Ambassador".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
extenuate:
1. Of a person: emaciated, wasted, weakened; of the body or part of it:
atrophied, shrunken, withered.
2. Of a quality or thing: lessened, weakened.
3. Reduced to poverty; impoverished.
4. To make (something) less dense, or thinner; also, to lower the
viscosity of (something).
5. (archaic)
6. To make (someone or something) slender or thin; to emaciate, to
waste.
7. To underestimate or understate the importance of (something); to
underrate.
8. (specifically) To diminish or seek to diminish the extent or severity
of (a crime, guilt, a mistake, or something else negative) by making
apologies or excuses; to palliate.
9. (obsolete)
10. To beat or draw (a metal object, etc.) out so as to lessen the
thickness.
11. To reduce the quality or quantity of (something); to lessen or
weaken the force of (something).
12. To degrade (someone); to detract from (someone's qualities,
reputation, etc.); to depreciate, to disparage.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/extenuate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
--Robert A. Heinlein
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein>
The Jubilee coinage are British coins with an obverse depicting Queen
Victoria (pictured) by Joseph Edgar Boehm, and were struck between 1887
and 1893. In 1879, Boehm was selected to create a new depiction of
Victoria—some British coins still showed her as she had appeared forty
years previously. Boehm was slow to complete the project, and it took
years before it came to fruition. The new coins were released in June
1887, at the time of the queen's Golden Jubilee. The crown on Victoria's
head was seen as too small, was widely mocked, and helped bring about
the design's replacement. The series saw the entire issuance of the
double florin, from 1887 to 1890, and the last circulating British
fourpence piece, intended for use in British Guiana, in 1888. Bronze
coins (the penny and its fractions) were not part of the Jubilee
coinage, due to a surplus of them in commerce. The Jubilee coinage's
replacement, the Old Head coinage, with an obverse created by Thomas
Brock, began to be struck in 1893.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_coinage>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1483:
The last monarch of the House of York and the Plantagenet
dynasty, Richard III, was crowned King of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England>
1801:
French Revolutionary Wars: A Royal Navy squadron failed to
eliminate a smaller French Navy squadron at Algeciras before they could
join their Spanish allies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Algeciras>
1962:
The United States conducted the Sedan nuclear test as part of
Project Plowshare, a program to investigate the use of nuclear
explosions for civilian purposes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_%28nuclear_test%29>
1997:
The Troubles: In response to the Drumcree conflict, five days
of unrest began in nationalist districts of Northern Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Northern_Ireland_riots>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bidon:
1. A bottle or flask for holding a beverage such as water or wine;
(specifically, sports) a water bottle which can be squeezed to squirt
the beverage out of the nozzle, especially (cycling) one designed for
mounting on a bicycle.
2. (archaic) A container for holding a liquid.
3. A cup made of wood.
4. An oil drum; a petrol can.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bidon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As to war, I am and always was a great enemy, at the same time a
warrior the greater part of my life, and were I young again, should
still be a warrior while ever this country should be invaded and I lived
— a Defensive war I think a righteous war to Defend my life & property
& that of my family, in my own opinion, is right & justifiable in the
sight of God. An offensive war, I believe to be wrong and would
therefore have nothing to do with it, having no right to meddle with
another man's property, his ox or his ass, his man servant or his maid
servant or anything that is his. Neither does he have a right to meddle
with anything that is mine, if he does I have a right to defend it by
force.
--Daniel Morgan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Morgan>
Hannah Montana is an American teen sitcom created by Michael Poryes,
Rich Correll, and Barry O'Brien that aired on Disney Channel for four
seasons between March 2006 and January 2011. The series centers on
Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus), a teenage girl living a double life as the
famous pop singer Hannah Montana (pictured), an alter ego she adopted so
she could maintain her anonymity and live a normal life as a typical
teenager. The Walt Disney Company commissioned the series to continue
its successful line of music-based franchises. Hannah Montana is one of
Disney Channel's most commercially successful franchises; the program
influenced the development of merchandise, soundtrack albums, and
concert tours. It also helped launch Cyrus's musical career and
established her as a teen idol. Hannah Montana was nominated for four
Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Program from 2007 to
2010. However, television critics disliked the writing and depiction of
gender roles and stereotypes.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Montana>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1852:
Frederick Douglass gave his speech known as "What to the Slave
Is the Fourth of July?", arguing that positive statements about liberty,
citizenship, and freedom, were an offense to the enslaved population of
the United States because of their lack of those things.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F>
1937:
The Hormel Foods Corporation introduced Spam, the canned
precooked meat product that would eventually enter into pop culture,
folklore, and urban legend.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28food%29>
1950:
Korean War: In the first encounter between North Korean and
American forces, an unprepared and undisciplined U.S. Army task force
was routed at the Battle of Osan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Osan>
2012:
The Shard in London was inaugurated as the tallest building in
Europe, with a height of 310 m (1,020 ft), but was surpassed by
Moscow's Mercury City Tower four months later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
insufferable:
Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure; intolerable,
unbearable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/insufferable>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am a showman by profession … and all the gilding shall make
nothing else of me.
--P. T. Barnum
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum>
In 1948, Harry S. Truman contested the presidency of the United States.
Truman (pictured), a Democrat, ascended to the presidency upon the death
of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His pro–civil rights views were opposed by
most of the Southern Democrats; when the Democratic National Convention
adopted his civil rights plank, a large group of Southerners walked out.
Truman selected Alben W. Barkley as his running mate. Campaigning
against Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican candidate, Truman called the
Republican-controlled 80th Congress a "do-nothing Congress". He
conducted a whistle-stop tour giving speeches in different states. With
the split of the Democratic Party, most of the polls predicted Truman to
lose the election. On the election day, before the declaration of final
results, an early edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune printed the
headline "Dewey Defeats Truman", boldly anticipating Dewey's victory.
Truman won the election in one of the greatest upset victories,
receiving 303 electoral votes.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman_1948_presidential_campaign>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
In a boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author
Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that later
formed the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland>
1892:
Western Samoa changed the International Date Line, causing
Monday (July 4) to occur twice, resulting in a year with 367 days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line>
1918:
World War I: Allied forces led by the Australian general John
Monash won the Battle of Hamel, demonstrating the effectiveness of
combined-arms techniques in trench warfare.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hamel>
1982:
Four Iranian diplomats were kidnapped after they were stopped
at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon by Lebanese Phalange forces; their
fates remain unknown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_kidnapping_of_Iranian_diplomats>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Fourth of July:
1. (chiefly US) The national holiday of Independence Day in the United
States, celebrated on the fourth day in July to mark the anniversary of
the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in
1776.
2. (chiefly US) A cocktail containing one part grenadine syrup, one part
vodka, and one part blue curaçao, reminiscent of the red, white, and
blue colours of the United States flag, often poured in layers so that
the colours do not mix when the drink is served.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fourth_of_July>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It is not
denial of the divine right of kings; it supplements that same with the
assertion of the divine right of all men. It does not destroy; it
fulfills. It is the consummation of all theories of government, the
spirit of which all the nations of the earth must yield. It is the great
constructive course of the ages. It is the alpha and omega of man's
relation to man, the beginning and the end. There is, and can be, no
more doubt of the triumphs of democracy in human affairs than there is
of the triumph of gravitation in the physical world. The only question
is how and when. Its foundation lays hold upon eternity.
--Calvin Coolidge
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge>
The common tern (Sterna hirundo) is a seabird with four subspecies
breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North
America. This tern is migratory, wintering in warmer coastal regions.
Adults have light grey upperparts, whiter underparts, a black cap,
orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed black-tipped red or all-black
bill. The bird nests on any flat bare surface close to water, including
rafts. The nest is a scrape lined with whatever is available. It lays up
to three blotchy camouflaged eggs, incubated by both sexes, that hatch
in around 21 to 22 days. The downy chicks fledge in 22 to 28 days. This
tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish in the sea or freshwater. Eggs and
young are vulnerable to predation by mammals and large birds. The
common tern's large population and huge breeding range mean that it is
classed as being of least concern. Despite international protection, in
some areas populations are threatened by habitat loss or the disturbance
of breeding colonies.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_tern>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1754:
French and Indian War: George Washington surrendered Fort
Necessity in Pennsylvania, the only military surrender in his career.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Necessity>
1952:
SS United States departed New York Harbor on her maiden
voyage, on which completion she became the fastest ocean liner to cross
the Atlantic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_United_States>
1970:
Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashed into the slopes of the Montseny
Massif in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan-Air_Flight_1903>
2005:
Same-sex marriage became legal in Spain with the coming into
effect of a law passed by the Cortes Generales.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Spain>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mali:
1. (India, South Asia) A member of a caste in South Asia whose
traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener.
2. (South Africa) Money, cash.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mali>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We cross our bridges when we come to them, and burn them behind
us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell
of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
--Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rosencrantz_%26_Guildenstern_Are_Dead_%28film…>
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a 1792 book of feminist
philosophy by Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft argues that women
ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society,
claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its
children and could be "companions" to their husbands. Instead of viewing
women as ornaments or property, she maintains that they are human beings
deserving of the same fundamental rights as men. Wollstonecraft was
prompted to write the Rights of Woman by Charles-Maurice de
Talleyrand-Périgord's 1791 report to the French National Assembly which
stated that women should only receive a domestic education; she
commented to launch a broad attack against sexual double standards and
to indict men for encouraging women to be excessively emotional. She
wrote the Rights of Woman hurriedly in order to respond quickly; she
died before completing a more thoughtful second volume. (This article
is part of a featured topic: Mary Wollstonecraft.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Mary_Wollstonecraft>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of
present-day Mauritania, with the survivors escaping on a makeshift raft,
depicted in Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa>
1890:
The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first
United States government action to limit monopolies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act_of_1890>
1917:
Amidst weeks of race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, white
residents burned sections of the city and shot black inhabitants as they
escaped the flames.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis_riots>
2013:
A Mw 6.1 strike-slip earthquake killed at least 35 people and
injured 276 others in the Indonesian province of Aceh on the northern
end of Sumatra.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Aceh_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fray:
1. (transitive)
2. To rub or wear away (something); to cause (something made of strands
twisted or woven together, such as cloth or rope) to unravel through
friction; also, to irritate (something) through chafing or rubbing; to
chafe.
3. (specifically) Of a deer: to rub (its antlers or head) against a
tree, etc., to remove the velvet from antlers or to mark territory;
also, to rub its antlers against (a tree, etc.) for that purpose.
4. To force or make (a path, way, etc.) through.
5. (obsolete) To bruise (someone or something); also, to take the
virginity of (someone, usually a female person); to deflower.
6. (intransitive)
7. To become unravelled or worn; to unravel.
8. To rub.
9. (specifically) Of a deer: to rub its antlers against a tree, etc., to
remove the velvet or to mark territory.
10. (figuratively) Of a person's mental strength, nerves, temper, etc.:
to become exhausted or worn out.
11. (archaic or obsolete) A consequence of rubbing, unravelling, or
wearing away; a fraying; also, a place where fraying has occurred.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fray>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All the tasks are in themselves small, but each one has to be
carried out at its proper hour, and the day has far more tasks than
hours. That is well; one would not want it to be different. But if we
ever think, between classroom, archives, secretariat, consulting room,
meetings, and official journeys — if we ever think of the freedom we
possessed and have lost, the freedom for self-chosen tasks, for
unlimited, far-flung studies, we may well feel the greatest yearning for
those days, and imagine that if we ever had such freedom again we would
fully enjoy its pleasures and potentialities.
--Hermann Hesse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse>
SMS Kaiser Friedrich III was the lead ship of the Kaiser Friedrich III
class of five pre-dreadnought battleships. Laid down in Wilhelmshaven in
March 1895, the ship was launched in July 1896, entered service in
October 1899, and became the flagship of I Squadron of the German Home
Fleet in 1900. The battleship was armed with a main battery of four
24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns, supported by a secondary battery of
eighteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns. In 1901, the vessel was severely damaged
striking submerged rocks; this led to design changes in later German
battleships. Kaiser Friedrich III was extensively modernized in 1908
and placed in the Reserve Formation in 1910. Though obsolete, the aging
battleship served as a coastal defence ship in the early months of World
War I. The vessel was withdrawn from service by February 1915, and was
later employed as a prison ship and a barracks ship, before being broken
up in 1920. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of
Germany.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Battleships_of_Germ…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1922:
Seven of the sixteen American railroad labor organizations
staged a nationwide strike (striking workers pictured) that lasted two
months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1922>
1979:
Sony introduced the Walkman, a portable audio player that
changed listening habits by offering users the ability to play one's own
choice of music.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman>
2002:
Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and DHL Flight 611 collided
in mid-air over Überlingen, Germany, killing all 71 people aboard both
aircraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_%C3%9Cberlingen_mid-air_collision>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dossard:
(cycle racing) A bib attached to the back of a cyclist's shirt that
carries the cyclist's race number.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dossard>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have dedicated my career to public service because I love this
country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free. … It
has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be
selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States — but
we've made it. … So as I take on this new role, I strongly believe
that this is a moment in which all Americans can take great pride. We
have come a long way toward perfecting our union. In my family, it took
just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the
United States. And it is an honor — the honor of a lifetime — for
me to have this chance to join the Court, to promote the rule of law at
the highest level, and to do my part to carry our shared project of
democracy and equal justice under law forward, into the future.
--Ketanji Brown Jackson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ketanji_Brown_Jackson>
Carsten Borchgrevink (1864–1934) was an Anglo-Norwegian polar explorer
and a pioneer of modern Antarctic travel. He was a precursor of Robert
Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen and others associated
with the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He began his exploring
career in 1894 by joining a Norwegian whaling expedition, from which he
brought back a collection of the first specimens of vegetable life
within the Antarctic Circle. From 1898 to 1900 Borchgrevink led the
British-financed Southern Cross Expedition, which in 1899 became the
first to overwinter on the Antarctic mainland and the first to visit the
Great Ice Barrier in nearly 60 years. There he set a Farthest South
record at 78° 50′ S. He was one of three scientists sent to the
Caribbean in 1902 by the National Geographic Society to report on the
aftermath of the Mount Pelée disaster. Recognised and honoured by
several countries, he received a handsome tribute in 1912 from Amundsen,
conqueror of the South Pole.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carsten_Borchgrevink>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1894:
London's Tower Bridge, a combined bascule and suspension bridge
over the River Thames, was inaugurated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Bridge>
1922:
An agreement was signed to end the United States occupation of
the Dominican Republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_the_Dominican_Rep…>
1960:
The Belgian Congo gained independence from colonial rule,
beginning a period of instability that would lead to the dictatorship of
Joseph-Désiré Mobutu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Crisis>
2015:
An Indonesian Air Force military transport aircraft crashed
near a residential neighborhood in Medan, killing 139 people total.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Sumatra_Indonesian_Air_Force_C-130_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
at the best of times:
(idiomatic) Even under the most favourable conditions.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/at_the_best_of_times>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We, the Heads of State and Government of the North Atlantic
Alliance, have gathered in Madrid as war has returned to the European
continent. We face a critical time for our security and international
peace and stability. We stand together in unity and solidarity and
reaffirm the enduring transatlantic bond between our nations. NATO is a
defensive Alliance and poses no threat to any country. … We are united
in our commitment to democracy, individual liberty, human rights, and
the rule of law. We adhere to international law and to the purposes and
principles of the Charter of the United Nations. … We condemn
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in the strongest possible
terms. Russia bears full responsibility for this humanitarian
catastrophe. … We will continue and further step up political and
practical support to our close partner Ukraine as it continues to defend
its sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russian aggression.
… Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to become
members of NATO, and agreed to sign the Accession Protocols. In any
accession to the Alliance, it is of vital importance that the legitimate
security concerns of all Allies are properly addressed. … The
accession of Finland and Sweden will make them safer, NATO stronger, and
the Euro-Atlantic area more secure.
--NATO
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/NATO>
Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828–1901) was a Canadian-born New England
oil painter of the American Barbizon school. He and his wife Christiana
were active in the African-American abolitionist community in Boston.
Bannister won first prize for his art at the 1876 Philadelphia
Centennial Exhibition and was a founding member of the Providence Art
Club and the Rhode Island School of Design. His style and pastoral
subjects were influenced by Jean-François Millet and the French
Barbizon school. He also looked to the seaside for inspiration for his
often experimental and Idealistic use of color and atmosphere. He worked
as a photographer and portraitist before progressing to landscapes. His
style fell out of favor later in his life; he and Christiana moved out
of College Hill in Providence to Boston and then a smaller house in
Providence. He was overlooked after his death in 1901, until the
National Museum of African Art and others returned him to national
attention in the 1960s and 1970s.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mitchell_Bannister>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
A passenger train fell through an open swing bridge into the
Richelieu River near present-day Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, killing as
many as 99 people and injuring 100 others in Canada's worst railway
accident (wreckage pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Hilaire_train_disaster>
1967:
Actress Jayne Mansfield, her boyfriend Sam Brody, and their
driver were killed in a car accident outside of New Orleans, while her
children Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska Hargitay escaped with only minor
injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield>
1995:
Atlantis became the first U.S. Space Shuttle to dock with the
Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle–Mir program.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle%E2%80%93Mir_program>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jaggery:
1. A traditional dark-brown unrefined sugar made from palm tree sap
which is used throughout South and Southeast Asia; (by extension) other
types of unrefined sugar.
2. (by extension) A small-scale production plant that processes sugar
cane to make sugar.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jaggery>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Our nation is preserved by those who abide by their oaths to our
Constitution. Our nation is preserved by those who know the fundamental
difference between right and wrong.
--Liz Cheney
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Liz_Cheney>
The red panda is a mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and
southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly
and legs, and a ringed tail. It has a head-to-body length of
51–63.5 cm (20–25 in) and a 28–48.5 cm (11–19 in) tail, and
it weighs between 3.2 and 15 kg (7 and 33 lb). It is genetically close
to raccoons, weasels and skunks. Solitary, largely arboreal and well
adapted to climbing, it inhabits coniferous, temperate broadleaf and
mixed forests, favouring steep slopes with dense bamboo cover close to
water sources. It uses elongated wrist bones ("false thumbs") to grasp
bamboo. It feeds mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves. Red pandas mate in
early spring, giving birth to up to four cubs in summer. On the IUCN
Red List as endangered since 2015, the species is threatened by poaching
and deforestation-based habitat destruction and fragmentation. It is
featured in animated movies, video games and comic books, and is also
the namesake of companies and music bands.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1841:
Giselle (title role pictured), a ballet by the French composer
Adolphe Adam, was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale
de Musique in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giselle>
1904:
In the worst maritime disaster involving a Danish merchant
ship, SS Norge ran aground on Hasselwood Rock and sank in the North
Atlantic, resulting in more than 635 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Norge>
1942:
World War II: The Wehrmacht launched Case Blue, a strategic
German offensive to capture oil fields in the south of the Soviet Union.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Blue>
1978:
In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the U.S.
Supreme Court barred quota systems in college admissions but held that
affirmative-action programs advantaging minorities were constitutional.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Ba…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tau:
1. The letter Τ/τ in the Greek, Hebrew, and ancient Semitic alphabets;
being the nineteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, and the
twenty-first letter of the Old and Ancient Greek alphabets.
2. A Τ-shaped object or sign; a Saint Anthony's cross, sometimes
regarded as a sacred symbol.
3. (Christianity) A crosier with a Τ-shaped head.
4. The ankh symbol (☥).
5. (astronomy) Chiefly written τ: used to designate the nineteenth star
(usually according to brightness) in a constellation.
6. (finance) A measurement of the sensitivity of the value of an option
to changes in the implied volatility of the price of the underlying
asset.
7. (mathematics, neologism) Chiefly written τ: an irrational and
transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a
Euclidean circle to its radius, equal to twice the value of pi (2π;
approximately 6.2831853071).
8. (neurology) Short for tau protein (“a protein abundant especially in
the neurons of the human central nervous system that stabilizes
microtubules, and when misfolded is associated with forms of dementia
such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases”).
9. (physics) Chiefly written τ.
10. Short for tau lepton or tau particle (“an unstable elementary
particle which is a type of lepton, having a mass almost twice that of a
proton, a negative charge, and a spin of ½; it decays into hadrons
(usually pions) or other leptons, and neutrinos; a tauon”).
11. (historical) Short for tau meson, now known as a kaon.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tau>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hope for the best. Expect the worst. The world's a stage. We're
unrehearsed. No way of knowing which way it's going. Take your
chances, there are no answers. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
--Mel Brooks
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mel_Brooks>