"No Rest for the Wicked" is the third-season finale of The CW television
series Supernatural. Written by series creator Eric Kripke and directed
by Kim Manners, the episode was first broadcast in the U.S. on May 15,
2008. The narrative follows Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester
(Jensen Ackles), brothers who hunt supernatural creatures, as they
attempt to save Dean's soul from damnation. The episode marks the final
appearance of Katie Cassidy as the demon Ruby. The writers initially
intended that Sam would save Dean, but the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of
America strike prevented the development of that storyline throughout
the season. Dean is instead killed, and sent to Hell. The episode
received high ratings for the season, and garnered generally positive
reviews from critics. The decision to follow through with Dean's Hell-
bound contract was praised, as were the performances of Padalecki and
Ackles. Sierra McCormick was noted for her "creepy" demon character
Lilith.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Rest_for_the_Wicked_(Supernatural)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1602:
English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold led the first recorded
European expedition to visit Cape Cod in present-day Massachusetts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_Gosnold>
1864:
American Civil War: A small Confederate force, which included
cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, forced the Union Army out
of the Shenandoah Valley.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Market>
1911:
Mexican Revolution: A force of Maderistas captured Torreón and
proceeded to massacre 303 of the city's Chinese residents.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre%C3%B3n_massacre>
1948:
The Australian cricket team, on tour in England, set a first-
class world record that still stands by scoring 721 runs in a day
against Essex.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_cricket_team_in_England_in_1948>
1966:
Disapproving of his handling of the Buddhist Uprising, South
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ ordered an attack on the
forces of General Tôn Thất Đính and ousted him from the position.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B4n_Th%E1%BA%A5t_%C4%90%C3%ADnh>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
familial:
1. Of or pertaining to a human family.
2. Of or pertaining to any grouping of things referred to as a family.
3. (pathology) Inherited.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/familial>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is a callous age; we have seen so many marvels that we are
ashamed to marvel more; the seven wonders of the world have become seven
thousand wonders.
--L. Frank Baum
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum>
The school that became Texas A&M; University, the first public
institution of higher education in Texas, was founded in 1871 as the
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. Established under the
Morrill Act of 1862, it was originally proposed as a branch of the yet-
to-be-created University of Texas, but the Texas legislature never gave
that university any authority over Texas A&M.; For much of its first
century, enrollment was restricted to white men who were willing to
participate in the Corps of Cadets and receive military training.
Shortly after World War II, the legislature redefined Texas A&M; as a
university and the flagship school of the Texas A&M; University System,
cementing the school's status as an institution separate from the
University of Texas. In the 1960s, the state legislature renamed the
school Texas A&M; University, with the "A&M;" becoming purely symbolic.
Membership in the Corps of Cadets became voluntary, and the school
became racially integrated and coeducational.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Texas_A%26M_University>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1264:
Second Barons' War: King Henry III was defeated at the Battle
of Lewes and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort
the de facto ruler of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_of_Lewes>
1868:
Boshin War: Troops of the Tokugawa shogunate withdrew from the
Battle of Utsunomiya Castle and retreated north towards Nikkō and Aizu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Utsunomiya_Castle>
1943:
Second World War: Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was attacked
and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, killing
268 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AHS_Centaur>
1948:
David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of
Independence at the present-day Independence Hall in Tel Aviv,
officially establishing the state of Israel in parts of the former
British Mandate of Palestine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Declaration_of_Independence>
1973:
The NASA space station Skylab was launched from Cape Canaveral.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
reseda:
1. (botany) Any of various plants of the genus Reseda, having small, pale
grayish green flowers such as dyer's rocket (Reseda luteola) and
mignonette (Reseda odorata).
2. (botany, horticulture, specifically) Mignonette (Reseda odorata).
3. A pale greyish-green colour like the flowers of a reseda plant;
mignonette.
4. Having a pale greyish-green colour like the flowers of a reseda plant;
mignonette.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reseda>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Pleasure's fun. It's great, but you can't keep it going forever;
just accept the fact that it's here and it's gone, and maybe then again,
it will come back, and you'll get to do it again. Joy lasts forever.
Pleasure is purely self-centered. It's all about your pleasure: it's
about you. It's a selfish, self-centered emotion, that is created by a
self-centered motive of greed. Joy is compassion. Joy is giving yourself
to somebody else, or something else. And it's a kind of thing that is,
in its subtlety and lowness, much more powerful than pleasure. You get
hung up on pleasure; you're doomed. If you pursue joy; you will find
everlasting happiness.
--George Lucas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Lucas>
Banksia aculeata, the prickly banksia, is a plant of the family
Proteaceae native to the Stirling Range in the southwest of Western
Australia. A bushy shrub up to 2 m (7 ft) tall, it has fissured grey
bark on its trunk and branches, and dense foliage and leaves with very
prickly serrated margins. Its unusual pinkish, pendent (hanging) flower
spikes, known as inflorescences, are generally hidden in the foliage and
appear during the early summer. Unlike many other banksia species, it
does not have a woody base, or lignotuber. Although it was collected in
the 1840s by the naturalist James Drummond, it was not formally
described until 1981, in Alex George's monograph of the genus. A rare
plant, B. aculeata is found in gravelly soils in elevated areas. Native
to a habitat burnt by periodic bushfires, it is killed by fire and
regenerates from seed afterwards. In contrast to other Western
Australian banksias, it appears to have some resistance to Phytophthora
cinnamomi, a soil-borne water mould.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_aculeata>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
Robert Smalls escaped from slavery in Charleston, South
Carolina, by commandeering the CSS Planter and sailing it from
Confederate-controlled waters to the U.S. blockade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smalls>
1888:
Princess Isabel of the Empire of Brazil signed the Lei Áurea
into law, formally abolishing slavery in Brazil.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil>
1913:
Russian-American Igor Sikorsky flew the world's first four-
engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz, which he designed
himself.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sikorsky>
1958:
Australian Ben Carlin became the only person to circumnavigate
the world in an amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 80,000 km
(50,000 mi) by land and sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carlin>
2008:
Nine bombs placed by the previously unknown terrorist group
Indian Mujahideen exploded in 15 minutes in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India,
killing 80 and injuring more than 200 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipur_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sultry:
1. (weather) Hot and humid.
2. (weather) Very hot and dry; torrid.
3. (figuratively) Sexually enthralling.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sultry>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The higher order edition of the Pattern I encountered in the
Jewel … There were aspects of it I simply could not understand. This
led to considerations of chaos theory, then to Menninger and all the
others for its manifestations in consciousness. … Either it possesses
a certain element of irrationality itself, like living things, or it is
an intelligence of such an order that some of its processes only seem
irrational to lesser beings. Either explanation amounts to the same
thing from a practical standpoint.
--Prince of Chaos
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Amber#Prince_of_Chaos_(1991)>
Heterodontosaurus was a dinosaur of the Early Jurassic, 200–190
million years ago. It was named in 1962 after a skull fossil was
discovered in South Africa. The genus name means "different toothed
lizard", in reference to its unusual heterodont dentition, including
small, incisor-like teeth in the upper jaw, followed by long, canine-
like tusks. Additional specimens have been found, including an almost
complete skeleton in 1966. Though it was a small dinosaur,
Heterodontosaurus was one of the largest members of its family, reaching
between 1.18 m (3.9 ft) and possibly 1.75 m (5.7 ft) in length, and
weighing between 2 and 10 kg (4.4 and 22.0 lb). The body was short
with a long tail. The five-fingered forelimbs were long and relatively
robust; the hind-limbs were long, slender, and had four toes. The skull
was elongated, narrow, and triangular when viewed from the side. The
front of the jaws were covered in a keratinous beak.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterodontosaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1588:
Day of the Barricades: Under the leadership of Henry I, Duke of
Guise, Catholic Parisians arose in protest against the moderate policies
of Henry III.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Barricades>
1888:
North Borneo was established as a British protectorate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Borneo>
1968:
The 1st Australian Task Force began the defence of Fire Support
Base Coral in the largest unit-level action of the Vietnam War for the
Australian Army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Coral%E2%80%93Balmoral>
1998:
Four students were shot and killed at Trisakti University in
Indonesia, leading to widespread riots and eventually the fall of
Suharto.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisakti_shootings>
2008:
In Postville, Iowa, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
conducted the largest-ever raid of a workplace and arrested nearly 400
immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postville_raid>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
runcible:
(humorous) A nonce word used for humorous effect, and perhaps originally
to maintain the number of syllables in lines of poems.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/runcible>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Perhaps it is not true to speak of God as a judge at all, or of
his judgements. There does not seem to be really any evidence that His
worlds are places of trial but rather schools, places of training, or
that He is a judge but rather a Teacher, a Trainer, not in the imperfect
sense in which men are teachers, but in the sense of His contriving and
adapting His whole universe for one purpose of training every
intelligent being to be perfect. … I think God would not be the
Almighty, the All-Wise, the All-Good, if he were the judge, in the sense
that the evangelical and Roman Catholic Christians impute judgement to
him. … Our business is, I think, to understand, not to judge. What He
does is, as far as we know, to rule by law down to the most
infinitesimally small portion of His universe, not to judge.
--Florence Nightingale
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale>
Richard Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American
theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965
for his contributions to quantum electrodynamics, jointly with Julian
Schwinger and Sin'ichirō Tomonaga. He developed the path integral
formulation of quantum mechanics, and studied superfluidity in
supercooled liquid helium. During World War II he assisted in the
development of the atomic bomb, and in the 1980s he was a member of the
Rogers Commission that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger
disaster. He was a pioneer in the field of quantum computing, and
introduced the concept of nanotechnology. Through his lectures and
books, including the semi-autobiographical Surely You're Joking, Mr.
Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, he was an avid
popularizer of physics. In a 1999 poll of leading physicists, he was
ranked as one of the ten greatest physicists of all time.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1792:
Merchant sea captain Robert Gray became the first recorded
European to navigate the Columbia River in what is now the Pacific
Northwest United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gray%27s_Columbia_River_expedition>
1813:
William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth departed
westward from Sydney on an expedition to become the first Europeans
confirmed to cross the Blue Mountains.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1813_crossing_of_the_Blue_Mountains>
1910:
Glacier National Park, located in the U.S. state of Montana,
was designated a national park.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_National_Park_(U.S.)>
1998:
India began conducting the Pokhran-II nuclear weapons test, its
first since the Smiling Buddha test 24 years earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokhran-II>
2010:
David Cameron took office as the Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed the country's
first coalition government since the Second World War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cameron>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Feynman diagram:
(physics) A pictorial representation of the interactions of subatomic
particles, showing their paths in space and time as lines, and their
interactions as points where lines meet.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As we are — the world is. That is, if we are greedy, envious,
competitive, our society will be competitive, envious, greedy, which
brings misery and war. The State is what we are. To bring about order
and peace, we must begin with ourselves and not with society, not with
the State, for the world is ourselves … If we would bring about a sane
and happy society we must begin with ourselves and not with another, not
outside of ourselves, but with ourselves.
--Jiddu Krishnamurti
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti>
Pobeda was the last of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought
battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the
nineteenth century. Launched on 10 May 1900, the ship was assigned to
the Pacific Squadron upon completion, and in 1903 was based at Port
Arthur. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, she participated
in the battles of Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea. Having escaped serious
damage in these engagements, Pobeda was sunk by gunfire during the Siege
of Port Arthur, and then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into
service under the name Suwo. Rearmed and re-boilered by the Japanese,
Suwo was classified by the Imperial Japanese Navy as a coastal defense
ship in 1908 and served as a training ship for several years. She was
the flagship of the Japanese squadron at the Battle of Tsingtao at the
beginning of World War I and continued in that role until she became a
gunnery training ship in 1917. The ship was disarmed in 1922 to comply
with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty and probably scrapped
around that time.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Pobeda>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
28 BC:
The first precisely dated observation of a sunspot was made by
Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_of_the_Han_dynasty>
1775:
American Revolutionary War: A small force of American Patriots
led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captured, without
significant injury or incident, the small British garrison at Fort
Ticonderoga in New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Fort_Ticonderoga>
1916:
Ernest Shackleton and five companions completed one of
history's greatest small-boat journeys (launch pictured) when they
arrived at South Georgia after sailing 800 nautical miles (1,500 km) in
a lifeboat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird>
1941:
World War II: Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess parachuted into
Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Hess>
1997:
A 7.3 Mw earthquake struck Iran's Khorasan Province, killing at
least 1,567, injuring around 2,300, and damaging or destroying more than
15,000 homes, to leave 50,000 homeless.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Qayen_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
comminution:
1. (often mining, waste management) The breaking or grinding up of a
material to form smaller particles.
2. (traumatology) The fracture of a bone site in multiple pieces
(technically, at least three); crumbling.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/comminution>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I know idealism is not playing on the radio right now, you don't
see it on TV, irony is on heavy rotation, the knowingness, the smirk,
the tired joke. I've tried them all out but I'll tell you this, outside
this campus — and even inside it — idealism is under siege — beset
by materialism, narcissism and all the other isms of indifference.
Baggism, Shaggism. Raggism. Notism, graduationism, chismism, I don't
know. Where's John Lennon when you need him?
--Bono
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bono>
Siward was an earl of 11th-century northern England. The Old Norse
nickname Digri and its Latin translation Grossus ("the stout") are given
to him by near-contemporary texts. Siward was probably of Scandinavian
origin, perhaps a relative of Earl Ulf, and emerged as a powerful
regional strongman in England during the reign of Cnut the Great
(1016–1035). Cnut was a Scandinavian ruler who conquered England in
the 1010s, and Siward was one of the many Scandinavians who came to
England in the aftermath of that conquest. Siward rose to become a sub-
ruler of most of northern England. In the early 1050s he turned against
the Scottish ruler Mac Bethad mac Findlaích. Despite the death of his
son Osbjorn, Siward defeated Mac Bethad in battle in 1054. More than
half a millennium later the Scotland adventure earned him a place in
William Shakespeare's Macbeth. St Olave's church in York and nearby
Heslington Hill are associated with Siward.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siward,_Earl_of_Northumbria>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
328:
Athanasius became the Patriarch of Alexandria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_of_Alexandria>
1877:
Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Mihail Kogălniceanu made a
speech in Parliament that declared Romania was discarding Ottoman
suzerainty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Kog%C4%83lniceanu>
1901:
The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal
Exhibition Building in Melbourne, exactly 26 years before it moved to
Canberra's Provisional Parliament House, and exactly 87 years before it
moved into the Parliament House in Canberra.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_Australia>
1918:
First World War: Germany repelled Britain's second attempt to
blockade the Belgian port of Ostend.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Ostend_Raid>
2012:
Pilots of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 ignored alerts from the terrain
warning system and crashed into Mount Salak in Indonesia, resulting in
the deaths of all 45 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Mount_Salak_Sukhoi_Superjet_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
acrimonious:
1. (archaic) Harsh and sharp, or bitter and not to the taste; acrid,
pungent.
2. (figuratively) Angry, acid, and sharp in delivering argumentative
replies: bitter, mean-spirited, sharp in language or tone.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acrimonious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Nationalism is always an effort in a direction opposite to that
of the principle which creates nations. The former is exclusive in
tendency, the latter inclusive. In periods of consolidation, nationalism
has a positive value, and is a lofty standard. But in Europe everything
is more than consolidated, and nationalism is nothing but a mania, a
pretext to escape from the necessity of inventing something new, some
great enterprise.
--José Ortega y Gasset
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ortega_y_Gasset>
The Battle of the Cedars (May 1776) was a series of skirmishes early in
the American Revolutionary War in and around the Cedars, 45 km (28 mi)
west of Montreal, British North America. Continental Army units were
opposed by a small number of British troops leading militia, together
with indigenous forces (primarily Iroquois). Brigadier General Benedict
Arnold, commanding the American military garrison at Montreal, had
placed troops at the Cedars in April on rumors of British military
preparations. The garrison surrendered to a force led by Captain George
Forster, and reinforcements were captured the next day. All of the
American captives were eventually released in a prisoner swap agreement,
but the deal was repudiated by Congress, and no British prisoners were
freed. News of the affair included greatly inflated reports of
casualties, and often included graphic but false accounts of atrocities
committed by the Iroquois, who made up the majority of the British
forces.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Cedars>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1842:
A train derailed and caught fire in Paris, killing between 52
and 200 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles_rail_accident>
1924:
Lithuania signed the Klaipėda Convention with the nations of
the Conference of Ambassadors, formally taking the Klaipėda Region
(German: Memelland) from East Prussia and making it into an autonomous
region under unconditional sovereignty of Lithuania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaip%C4%97da_Convention>
1945:
A parade to celebrate the end of World War II turned into a
riot, followed by widespread disturbances and killings in and around
Sétif, French Algeria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9tif_and_Guelma_massacre>
1963:
In Huế, South Vietnam, soldiers of the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam opened fire into a crowd of Buddhist protestors against a
government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesākha, killing
nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu%E1%BA%BF_Ph%E1%BA%ADt_%C4%90%E1%BA%A3n_sho…>
1987:
A British Army Special Air Service unit ambushed a Provisional
Irish Republican Army unit in Loughgall, Northern Ireland, killing eight
IRA members and a civilian.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loughgall_ambush>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ululation:
The act of ululating; a long, loud, wavering cry or howl.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ululation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society,
is not a social program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic and power
adoring tendencies it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism;
and with its traditionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical
propensities it will never, except in short periods of disillusionment,
appeal to the young and all those others who believe that some changes
are desirable if this world is to become a better place.
--Friedrich Hayek
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek>
The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author Ayn Rand.
The protagonist, Howard Roark, is an individualistic young architect who
designs modernist buildings and refuses to compromise with an
architectural establishment unwilling to accept innovation. Roark
embodies what Rand believed to be the ideal man, and his struggle
reflects Rand's belief that individualism is superior to collectivism.
Twelve publishers rejected the manuscript before an editor at the Bobbs-
Merrill Company risked his job to get it published. Contemporary
reviewers' opinions were mixed. Some praised the novel as a powerful
paean to individualism, while others thought it overlong and lacking
sympathetic characters. Initial sales were slow, but the book gained a
following by word of mouth. It became a bestseller, and more than
6.5 million copies have been sold worldwide. The novel was Rand's first
major literary success and has had a lasting influence, especially among
architects and right-libertarians.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1697:
Stockholm's royal castle, dating back to the 13th century, was
destroyed in a huge fire; the blueprint for the current royal palace was
presented within a year.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Palace>
1895:
Alexander Stepanovich Popov presented his radio receiver,
refined as a lightning detector, to the Russian Physical and Chemical
Society.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stepanovich_Popov>
1931:
New York City Police engaged in a two-hour-long shootout with
Francis Crowley that was witnessed by 15,000 bystanders before he
finally surrendered.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crowley>
1960:
Cold War: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that his
country was holding American pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose spy plane
was shot down over the Soviet Union six days earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident>
2010:
A team of researchers presented a complete draft sequence of
the Neanderthal genome, demonstrating that today's modern humans have
Neanderthal ancestors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_human_admixture_with_modern_humans>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
scrofulous:
1. (pathology, dated) Of, related to, or suffering from scrofula (form of
tuberculosis tending to cause enlarged lymph nodes and skin
inflammation).
2. (figuratively) Having an unkempt, unhealthy appearance.
3. (figuratively) Morally degenerate; corrupt.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scrofulous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There's a tremendous popular fallacy which holds that significant
research can be carried out by trying things. Actually it is easy to
show that in general no significant problem can be solved empirically,
except for accidents so rare as to be statistically unimportant. One of
my jests is to say that we work empirically — we use bull's eye
empiricism. We try everything, but we try the right thing first!
--Edwin H. Land
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edwin_H._Land>
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and
published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller
as he solves puzzles and attempts to rescue his girlfriend from a mad
scientist. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, Maniac
Mansion was Lucasfilm Games' first self-published product. Conceived by
Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, it tells a comedic story that draws on
horror film and B-movie clichés. Gilbert developed Maniac Mansion's
innovative point-and-click interface, which became a standard feature in
the genre. To speed up production, he created a game engine called
SCUMM, which was used in many later LucasArts titles. Maniac Mansion was
critically acclaimed for its graphics, cutscenes, animation and humor.
Writer Orson Scott Card praised it as a step toward "computer games
[becoming] a valid storytelling art". The game's success solidified
Lucasfilm as a serious rival to adventure game studios such as Sierra
On-Line.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniac_Mansion>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1782:
Construction began on the Grand Palace of Bangkok, the official
residence of the King of Thailand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace>
1882:
The Irish civil servants Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick
Cavendish were stabbed to death by members of the radical Irish National
Invincibles as they walked through Phoenix Park in Dublin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Park_Murders>
1941:
American entertainer Bob Hope performed the first of his many
shows for the United Service Organizations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hope>
1954:
At Oxford's Iffley Road Track, English runner Roger Bannister
became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile>
2010:
Major stock indexes in the United States dropped nearly 9% and
rebounded very quickly, exacerbated by high-frequency traders using
algorithms which have since been outlawed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Flash_Crash>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
titfer:
(Cockney rhyming slang) A hat.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/titfer>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There's an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night till I come
through the darkness to the ocean of light, for the light is forever and
the light it is free, "And I walk in the glory of the light," said he.
--Sydney Carter
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_Carter>