Suillus spraguei, the painted suillus, is a species of fungus in the
family Suillaceae. Its readily identifiable fruit bodies have caps that
are dark red when fresh, dry to the touch, and covered with mats of
hairs and scales that are separated by yellow cracks. On the underside
of the cap are small, yellow, angular pores that become brownish as the
mushroom ages. The stalk bears a grayish cottony ring, and is typically
covered with soft hairs or scales. S. spraguei grows in symbiosis with
roots of several pine species, particularly the eastern white pine. The
fruit body grows on the ground, appearing from early summer to autumn.
It is found in eastern Asia, northeastern North America, and Mexico
throughout the range of the host tree. The mushroom is edible, although
opinions about its quality vary. It bears a resemblance to several other
Suillus species, including the closely related S. decipiens, although
the species can be differentiated by variations in color and size.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suillus_spraguei>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1860:
The trial in the Eastbourne manslaughter began, which became an
important legal precedent in the United Kingdom for discussions of
corporal punishment in schools.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastbourne_manslaughter>
1921:
The Communist Party of China was founded at the inaugural
National Congress in Shanghai.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China>
1968:
In Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., a two-day gun battle between police
and a Black Power group began, which in turn sparked three days of
rioting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenville_shootout>
2001:
Megawati Sukarnoputri became the first female president of
Indonesia after the People's Consultative Assembly removed Abdurrahman
Wahid.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megawati_Sukarnoputri>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
maverick:
1. An unbranded range animal.
2. (by extension) Anything dishonestly obtained.
3. (by extension) One who is unconventional or does not abide by rules.
4. (by extension) One who creates or uses controversial or
unconventional ideas or practices.
5. (military) A person in the military who became an officer by going to
college while on active duty as an enlisted person.
6. (poker slang) A queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold
'em.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/maverick>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
 The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind
which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can
produce the artistic job of writing. Â
--Raymond Chandler
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler>
Megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon), an extinct species of shark, lived
around 23 to 2.6 million years ago, from the Early Miocene to the Late
Pliocene. Once thought to be closely related to the great white shark
(C. carcharias), it may be a member of the extinct family Otodontidae.
It may have looked like a stocky great white, measuring at most 18
meters (59Â ft), and averaging 10.5 metres (34Â ft). Its large jaws
exerted an estimated bite force of 108,500 to 182,200 newtons (24,400 to
41,000Â lbf), coupled with thick teeth to grab large, struggling prey,
crushing the heart and lungs of the marine mammals – mainly baleen
whales – that it fed on in oceans around the world. It is thought
that its decline was due to competition from other large predators (such
as Livyatan), the ice ages, and the shift in whale populations. The
shark has made appearances in media such as the Discovery Channel's
docufiction Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie inscribed his name on a
rock near Dean Channel after becoming the first recorded person to
complete a transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_%28explorer%29>
1975:
Stanley Forman took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo Fire
Escape Collapse, which spurred action to improve the safety of fire
escapes across the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Escape_Collapse>
2005:
London metropolitan police killed Jean Charles de Menezes, a
Brazilian immigrant, after misidentifying him as being involved in the
previous day's failed bombing attempts on the city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
forex:
Short for foreign exchange.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forex>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
 It is so amusing the way that mortals misunderstand the shape, or
shapes, of time. … In the realms of the ultimate, each person must
figure out things for themselves. … Teachers who offer you the
ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did,
they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only
be received. Â
--Tom Robbins
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins>
In Iowa, Interstate 80 (I-80) enters at the Missouri River in Council
Bluffs, extends east through the southern Iowa drift plain, passes
around Des Moines and through Iowa City, and crosses into Illinois at
the Mississippi River near Le Claire. I-80 is an American
transcontinental Interstate Highway stretching from San Francisco,
California, to Teaneck, New Jersey. Before the Interstate was built, US
Route 6 was the busiest highway in Iowa. In the early 1950s, a turnpike
along the US 6 corridor was slated to be the first modern four-lane
highway in the state, but those plans were shelved when the Interstate
Highway System was created in 1956. The first section of I-80 opened in
1958 in the western suburbs of Des Moines, and new sections of the
Interstate opened up regularly over the next twelve years. The final
segment in Iowa, the Missouri River bridge to Omaha, Nebraska, opened in
1972. About one-third of Iowa's population lives along the I-80
corridor, most of which runs through farmland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80_in_Iowa>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
905:
Louis III, Holy Roman Emperor, was captured during his attempt
to restore Carolingian power over Italy by King Berengar I and blinded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_the_Blind>
1925:
American high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found
guilty (trial pictured) of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching
evolution in class.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial>
1973:
Mossad agents mistakenly assassinated a Moroccan waiter in
Lillehammer, Norway, whom they believed had been involved in the 1972
Munich Olympics massacre.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillehammer_affair>
2012:
Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç became the first person in
history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erden_Eru%C3%A7>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
bluff out:
(transitive) To deceive (someone) in order to convince them to give up.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bluff_out>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 It's the people and the cause that matter and right now there's
an important need, which is bridge-building. I wanted to support the
cause of humanity, because that's what I always sang about. Music can
be healing, and with my history and my knowledge of both sides of what
looks like a gigantic divide in the world, I feel I can point a way
forward to our common humanity again. It's a big step for me but it's a
natural step. I don't feel at all irked by the responsibility — I feel
inspired. Â
--Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens>
The Battle of Verrières Ridge was part of the Battle of Normandy, in
northwestern France, during the Second World War. Two Canadian infantry
divisions—with additional support from the 2nd Canadian Armoured
Brigade—fought elements of three German SS Panzer divisions. The
battle began on 19 July 1944 as part of the British and Canadian
attempts to break out of Caen. The immediate Allied objective was
Verrières Ridge, a belt of high ground dominating the route from Caen
to Falaise, which was invested by battle-hardened German veterans. Over
six days, Canadian and British forces made repeated attempts to capture
the ridge, with heavy Allied casualties for little strategic gain. The
battle is remembered for its tactical and strategic miscalculations,
including a controversial attack by The Black Watch (Royal Highland
Regiment) of Canada on 25 July, the costliest single day for a Canadian
battalion since the 1942 Dieppe Raid.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verri%C3%A8res_Ridge>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1843:
SS Great Britain, the first ocean-going ship that had both an
iron hull and a screw propeller, was launched in Bristol, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain>
1903:
French cyclist Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1903_Tour_de_France>
1989:
After suffering an uncontained failure of an engine which
destroyed all of its hydraulic systems, United Airlines Flight 232 broke
up during an emergency landing in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S., killing 111
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232>
2014:
Unidentified gunmen perpetrated an armed assault against an
Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert, killing at least 22
border guards.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2014_Al-Wadi_Al-Gedid_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
crowd in on:
(transitive, idiomatic) To join when not wanted; to force one's way into
a situation where one is unwelcome.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crowd_in_on>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Hell is that state where one has ceased to hope. Â
--A. J. Cronin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._J._Cronin>
Nigel Williams (15 July 1944 – 21 April 1992) was a British
conservator. From 1961 until his death he worked at the British Museum,
where he became the Chief Conservator of Ceramics and Glass in 1983. He
was one of the first people to study conservation, before it was
recognised as a profession. In the 1960s he assisted with the re-
excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, and in his twenties he
conserved many of the objects found therein, including a shield,
drinking horns, and maplewood bottles. Restoration of the Sutton Hoo
helmet alone occupied a year of his time. After nearly 31,000 fragments
of shattered Greek vases were found in 1974 amidst the wreck of
HMSÂ Colossus, Williams set to work piecing them together, and the
process was televised for a BBC programme. His crowning achievement, the
reassembly of the Portland Vase (pictured) in 1988 and 1989, took nearly
a year to complete, and was also televised. The Ceramics & Glass group
of the Institute of Conservation awards a biennial prize in his honour.
(Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Williams_(conservator)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1815:
Aboard HMSÂ Bellerophon, Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy
Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland to finally end the Napoleonic Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bellerophon_(1786)>
1916:
William Boeing incorporated the Pacific Aero Products Co.,
which was later renamed Boeing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing>
1983:
Armenian extremist organization ASALA bombed the Turkish
Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport, killing 8 and injuring 55, as
part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the
Armenian Genocide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Orly_Airport_attack>
2006:
The online social networking and news service Twitter was
launched (early sketch pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
man-mark:
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/man-mark>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize "how it
really was." It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a
moment of danger. For historical materialism it is a question of holding
fast to a picture of the past, just as if it had unexpectedly thrust
itself, in a moment of danger, on the historical subject. The danger
threatens the stock of tradition as much as its recipients. For both it
is one and the same: handing itself over as the tool of the ruling
classes. In every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition
anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it. For
the Messiah arrives not merely as the Redeemer; he also arrives as the
vanquisher of the Anti-christ. The only writer of history with the gift
of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is
convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy,
if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.
Â
--Walter Benjamin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin>