The fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) is a tropical and
subtropical bird in the family of ducks, geese and swans. It breeds in
much of Mexico and South America, the West Indies, the southern US, sub-
Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent. It has mainly reddish brown
plumage, long legs and a long grey bill, and shows a distinctive white
band across its black tail in flight. Like other members of its ancient
lineage, it has a whistling call. The preferred habitat is shallow
lakes, paddy fields or other wetlands with plentiful vegetation. The
nest, placed among dense vegetation or in a tree hole, typically holds
around ten whitish eggs, which hatch in 24–29 days. The downy grey
ducklings leave the nest within a day or so of hatching, but the parents
continue to protect them until they fledge around nine weeks later. The
fulvous whistling duck feeds in wetlands by day or night on seeds and
other parts of plants. It has a huge range and is not threatened,
despite hunting, poisoning by pesticides and natural predation by
mammals, birds and reptiles.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulvous_whistling_duck>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
590:
Byzantine emperor Maurice proclaimed his son Theodosius as his
co-emperor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_(son_of_Maurice)>
1351:
War of the Breton Succession: Thirty knights each from France
and England fought to determine who would rule the Duchy of Brittany,
which later was celebrated as a noble display of the ideals of chivalry.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_of_the_Thirty>
1885:
Feeling that Canada had failed to address the protection of
their rights, the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, began the North-West
Rebellion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Rebellion>
1953:
Jonas Salk announced the successful test of his polio vaccine
on a small group of adults and children (vaccination pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_vaccine>
1971:
East Pakistan declared its independence from Pakistan to become
Bangladesh, starting the Bangladesh Liberation War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sarpanch:
The elected head of a panchayat (village government) in Bangladesh,
India, or Pakistan.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sarpanch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I may have wept that any should have died Or missed their chance,
or not have been their best, Or been their riches, fame, or love denied;
On me as much as any is the jest. I take my incompleteness with the
rest. God bless himself can no one else be blessed. I hold your
doctrine of Memento Mori. And were an epitaph to be my story I’d have
a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I
had a lover’s quarrel with the world.
--Robert Frost
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Frost>
The Walt Disney World Railroad is a 3-foot (914 mm) narrow-gauge
American heritage railroad and attraction that encircles most of the
Magic Kingdom theme park of Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida.
Constructed by WED Enterprises, it has three train stations along 1.5
miles (2.4 km) of track, and four historic steam locomotives,
originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. On a typical day, two or
three locomotives will complete round trips in 20 minutes on the main
line. The railroad's development was led by Roger E. Broggie. The
attraction's locomotives were acquired from the Ferrocarriles Unidos de
Yucatán, a narrow-gauge railroad system in Mexico, and altered to
resemble locomotives built in the 1880s. The passenger cars were built
from scratch. The railroad opened to the public for the first time on
the theme park's opening day, October 1, 1971. Since then, it has become
one of the world's most popular steam-powered railroads, with about 3.7
million passengers each year.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_World_Railroad>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1410:
The Yongle Emperor launched the first of his military campaigns
against the Mongols, resulting in the fall of the Mongol khan
Bunyashiri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Emperor%27s_campaigns_against_the_Mong…>
1807:
The Slave Trade Act became law, abolishing the slave trade in
the British Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1807>
1917:
Following the overthrow of the Russian tsar Nicholas II,
Georgia's bishops unilaterally restored the autocephaly of the Georgian
Orthodox Church.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_Orthodox_Church>
1948:
Meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City,
United States, issued the world's first tornado forecast after noticing
conditions similar to another tornado that had struck five days earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Tinker_Air_Force_Base_tornadoes>
1975:
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot and killed by his nephew
Faisal bin Musaid.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_of_Saudi_Arabia>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Homeric:
1. Resembling or relating to the epic poetry of Homer.
2. Of or pertaining to Greece during the Bronze Age, as described in
Homer's works.
3. Fit to be immortalized in poetry by Homer; epic, heroic.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Homeric>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every process which arises from our physical being and is related
to it, is an event which lies outside of our volition. Every social
process, however, arises from human intentions and human goal setting
and occurs within the limits of our volition. Consequently, it is not
subject to the concept of natural necessity. … We are here stating no
prejudiced opinion, but merely an established fact. Every result of
human purposiveness is of indisputable importance for man's social
existence, but we should stop regarding social processes as
deterministic manifestations of a necessary course of events. Such a
view can only lead to the most erroneous conclusions and contribute to a
fatal confusion in our understanding of historical events.
--Rudolf Rocker
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudolf_Rocker>
Jessica Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and film
producer. She has earned critical praise for her portrayals of strong-
willed women in films with feminist themes. Born and raised in
Sacramento County, California, Chastain studied acting at Juilliard. She
made her film debut in the drama Jolene (2008), and gained wide
recognition in 2011 for starring roles in half a dozen films, including
The Help, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress. In 2012, she won a Golden Globe Award for playing a
CIA agent in the thriller Zero Dark Thirty. Her highest-grossing
releases were the science fiction films Interstellar (2014) and The
Martian (2015). She continued to draw praise for her performances in the
dramas A Most Violent Year (2014), Miss Sloane (2016), and Molly's Game
(2017). Chastain is the founder of the production company Freckle Films,
which promotes diversity in film. She is vocal about mental health
issues, and gender and racial equality.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Chastain>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1603:
King James VI of Scotland acceded to the thrones of England and
Ireland, becoming James I of England and unifying the crowns of the
kingdoms for the first time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I>
1860:
Rōnin samurai of the Mito Domain assassinated Japanese Chief
Minister Ii Naosuke, upset with his role in the opening of Japan to
foreign powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakuradamon_Incident_(1860)>
1921:
The 1921 Women's Olympiad, the first international women's
sports event, opened at the International Sporting Club of Monaco in
Monte Carlo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_Women%27s_Olympiad>
1934:
The Tydings–McDuffie Act came into effect, which provided for
self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from
the United States after a period of ten years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tydings%E2%80%93McDuffie_Act>
2008:
The Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party, led by Jigme Thinley,
won 45 out of 47 seats in the National Assembly of Bhutan in the
country's first-ever general election.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutanese_National_Assembly_election,_2008>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
kersey:
A type of rough woollen cloth.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kersey>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We
must make it our top priority to save these lives. March For Our Lives
is created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who
will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action
to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too
familiar. In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short
in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk
about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now.
--March For Our Lives
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/March_For_Our_Lives>
The Age of Reason is a work by English and American political activist
Thomas Paine (pictured), arguing for the philosophical position of
deism. Following in the tradition of eighteenth-century British deism,
it challenges institutionalized religion and the legitimacy of the
Bible. It was published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807, and
became a best-seller in the United States, where it caused a short-lived
deistic revival. Fearing its revolutionary ideas, the British government
prosecuted printers and book-sellers who tried to publish and distribute
it. The Age of Reason highlights what Paine saw as corruption among
Christian churches and criticizes their efforts to acquire political
power. Paine advocates reason over revelation, leading him to reject
miracles and to view the Bible as "an ordinary piece of literature
rather than as a divinely inspired text". He promotes natural religion
and argues for the existence of a creator-God. Most of Paine's arguments
had long been available to educated people, but his engaging, irreverent
and inexpensive pamphlets made deism appealing and accessible to a mass
audience.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Reason>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1848:
Scottish settlers on the John Wickliffe, captained by William
Cargill, arrived at what is now Port Chalmers in the Otago Region of New
Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cargill>
1888:
Led by William McGregor, ten football clubs met in London for
the purpose of founding the English Football League, the oldest league
competition in world football.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGregor_(football)>
1908:
American diplomat Durham Stevens, an employee of Japan's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was assassinated in San Francisco by two
Korean American immigrants unhappy with his recent support of the
increasing Japanese presence in Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Stevens>
1994:
Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into a hillside in Kemerovo Oblast,
Russia, after the pilot's 16-year-old son, while seated at the controls,
had unknowingly disabled the autopilot, killing all 75 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593>
2001:
The Russian Federal Space Agency deorbited the 15-year-old
space station Mir, causing it to reenter the Earth's atmosphere and
break up over the Pacific Ocean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deorbit_of_Mir>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
thole:
1. (intransitive, dated) To suffer.
2. (transitive, now Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland) To
endure, to put up with, to tolerate.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thole>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Science does not have a moral dimension. It is like a knife. If
you give it to a surgeon or a murderer, each will use it differently.
--Wernher von Braun
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun>
The Thaddeus McCotter presidential campaign of 2012 began when he filed
papers on July 1, 2011, to run for the Republican Party's 2012
nomination for President of the United States. He officially announced
his candidacy the next day at a rock festival near Detroit. McCotter,
who had been a congressman from Michigan since 2003, was first mentioned
as a potential presidential candidate on an April 2011 episode of the
Fox News show Red Eye. During the campaign, he focused on reform of
government and Wall Street. Commentators noted that McCotter's lack of
name recognition hindered his chances for nomination. When included in
Republican presidential preference polls, he regularly received less
than one percent support. Following a last place finish in the Ames
Straw Poll and the lack of any invitation to presidential debates, he
dropped his candidacy on September 22, 2011, and endorsed Mitt Romney.
He resigned from Congress in July 2012 amid a fraud investigation
surrounding his congressional re-election campaign.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_McCotter_presidential_campaign,_2012>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
238:
Because of his father's advanced age, Gordian II was proclaimed
joint Roman emperor with Gordian I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_I>
1765:
The Parliament of Great Britain passed the Stamp Act, requiring
that many printed materials in the Thirteen Colonies in British America
carry a tax stamp.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_Act_1765>
1943:
World War II: Almost the entire population of the village of
Khatyn in Belarus was massacred by Nazi forces, with participation from
their Ukrainian and Belarusian collaborators.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatyn_massacre>
1995:
Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov of the Soyuz programme
returned from the Mir space station after 437 days in space, setting a
record for the longest spaceflight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeri_Polyakov>
2004:
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian imam who was a founder and
the spiritual leader of Hamas, was killed by a missile from an Israeli
helicopter gunship as he left early morning prayers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Yassin>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
long drink of water:
(Scotland, US, slang) A tall person.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/long_drink_of_water>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Most Americans, in their sweet innocence, think that class has to
do with money. But a glance at Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley will
indicate that it has very little to do with money. It has to do with
taste and style, and it has to do with the development of those features
by acts of character.
--Paul Fussell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Fussell>
Capella is a star system of four stars in the constellation of Auriga,
appearing as a single star to the naked eye. It is the third-brightest
star or star system in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus
and Vega. Always above the horizon for observers north of 44°N, the
Capella system is only 42.9 light-years from the Sun. Its two largest
stars are Capella Aa and Capella Ab, bright yellow giant stars in a
binary pair, both around 2.5 times as massive as the Sun. They are in a
very tight circular 104-day orbit, some 0.76 astronomical units (au)
apart. Capella Aa is the cooler and more luminous of the two, with
around 79 times the Sun's luminosity. An ageing red clump star, it is
fusing helium to carbon and oxygen in its core. Ab is slightly less
massive, smaller and hotter, about 73 times as luminous as the Sun. The
Capella system is one of the brightest sources of X-rays in the sky,
thought to come primarily from the corona of the more massive giant. The
other two stars, a binary pair around 10,000 au from the first two, are
faint, small and relatively cool red dwarfs.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capella>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1556:
Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of
Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake in Oxford, England, for heresy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cranmer>
1918:
First World War: The German Army opened the Spring Offensive
with Operation Michael, attempting to break through the Allied lines and
to seize ports on the English Channel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Michael>
1952:
The first major rock and roll concert, the Moondog Coronation
Ball, was held at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moondog_Coronation_Ball>
1968:
War of Attrition: The Israel Defense Forces clashed with the
Palestine Liberation Organization and the Jordanian Armed Forces during
the Battle of Karameh (aftermath pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karameh>
2006:
A man using a hammer smashed the statue of Phra Phrom in the
Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, and was subsequently beaten to death
by bystanders.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erawan_Shrine>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sylvan:
1. Pertaining to the forest, or woodlands.
2. Residing in a forest or wood.
3. Wooded, or covered in forest.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sylvan>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When the full-grown poet came, Out spake pleased Nature (the round
impassive globe, with all its shows of day and night,) saying, He is
mine; But out spake too the Soul of man, proud, jealous and
unreconciled, Nay he is mine alone; — Then the full-grown poet stood
between the two, and took each by the hand; And to-day and ever so
stands, as blender, uniter, tightly holding hands, Which he will never
release until he reconciles the two, And wholly and joyously blends
them.
--Leaves of Grass
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass>
Barry Voight (born 1937) is an American geologist, volcanologist,
author, and engineer. He was a professor of geology at Pennsylvania
State University from 1964 until his retirement in 2005. He still
conducts research on rock mechanics, plate tectonics, disaster
prevention, and geotechnical engineering. In April 1980, Voight's
publications on landslides, avalanches and other mass movements
convinced Rocky Crandell of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to ask him
to look at a growing bulge on the Mount St. Helens volcano in the state
of Washington. Voight predicted the collapse of the mountain's north
flank as well as a powerful eruption. After his predictions were
realized in May 1980, he was hired by the USGS to investigate the debris
avalanche that initiated the eruption. His work at St. Helens brought
him international recognition, and he continued researching and guiding
monitoring efforts at several active volcanoes, including Nevado del
Ruiz in Colombia, Mount Merapi in Indonesia, and Soufrière Hills, a
volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Voight>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
235:
Maximinus Thrax succeeded to the throne of the Roman Empire, a
so-called barracks emperor who gained power by virtue of his command of
the army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximinus_Thrax>
1852:
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was first published,
profoundly affecting attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in
the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin>
1922:
The United States Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier,
USS Langley.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Langley_(CV-1)>
1987:
The antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) became the first
antiviral drug approved for use against HIV and AIDS.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zidovudine>
1993:
The Troubles: The second of two bomb attacks by the Provisional
IRA in Warrington, England, killed two children.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrington_bomb_attacks>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
carious:
Having caries (bone or tooth decay); decayed, rotten.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/carious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I've always assumed that every time a child is born, the Divine
reenters the world. Okay? That's the meaning of the Christmas story. And
every time that child's purity is corrupted by society, that's the
meaning of the Crucifixion story. Your man Jesus stands for that child,
that pure spirit, and as its surrogate, he's being born and put to death
again and again, over and over, every time we inhale and exhale, not
just at the vernal equinox and on the twenty-fifth of December.
--Tom Robbins
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins>
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a 2004 science fiction action horror film
filmed in Toronto, Canada, directed by Alexander Witt and written by
Paul W. S. Anderson. It is the second installment in the Resident Evil
film series, which is based on the video game series of the same name.
Milla Jovovich (pictured) reprises her role as Alice, and is joined by
Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine and Oded Fehr as Carlos Oliveira.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is set directly after the events of the first
film, where Alice escaped from an underground facility overrun by
zombies. She now bands together with other survivors to escape the
zombie outbreak which has spread to the fictional Raccoon City. The film
borrows elements from several games in the Resident Evil series,
including the characters Valentine and Oliveira and the villain Nemesis.
While it received mostly negative reviews from critics for its plot, the
film was praised for its action sequences. Of the six films in the
series, it has the lowest approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Earning
$129 million worldwide on a $45 million budget, it surpassed the box
office gross of the original film.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil:_Apocalypse>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
American Civil War: The last battle of the Carolinas Campaign,
the Battle of Bentonville, began, which contributed to the ultimate
Union victory in the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bentonville>
1915:
Pluto was photographed for the first time, 15 years before it
was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto>
1979:
The American cable television network C-SPAN, dedicated to
airing non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs
programming, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-SPAN>
1987:
American televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as the head of The
PTL Club in the midst of a sex scandal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bakker>
2008:
The gamma-ray burst GRB 080319B (artist's impression pictured),
the farthest object that could be seen by the naked eye, was observed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB_080319B>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pingo:
1. (geomorphology) A conical mound of earth with an ice core caused by
permafrost uplift, particularly if lasting more than a year. […]
2. (Sri Lanka, dated) A flexible pole supported on one shoulder, with a
load suspended from each end; a carrying pole or carrying yoke.
3. (Sri Lanka, dated) A weight equivalent to that which can be carried
using a pingo.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pingo>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In war, science has proven itself an evil genius; it has made war
more terrible than it ever was before. Man used to be content to
slaughter his fellowmen on a single plane — the earth's surface.
Science has taught him to go down into the water and shoot up from below
and to go up into the clouds and shoot down from above, thus making the
battlefield three times a bloody as it was before; but science does not
teach brotherly love. Science has made war so hellish that civilization
was about to commit suicide; and now we are told that newly discovered
instruments of destruction will make the cruelties of the late war seem
trivial in comparison with the cruelties of wars that may come in the
future.
--William Jennings Bryan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan>
Elcor is a ghost town in the U.S. state of Minnesota that was inhabited
between 1897 and 1956. It was built on the Mesabi Iron Range near the
city of Gilbert in St. Louis County. At its peak around 1920, Elcor had
two churches, a post office, a general store, a primary school, a
railroad station and its own law enforcement, and housed a population of
nearly 1,000. Elcor was a mining town, built by the mining company to
house its workers. People were allowed to own their homes, but the land
on which the houses stood belonged to the company. In the early days,
houses were made of wooden boards and surrounded by a four-board-high
fence fronted with a boardwalk. Most of the streets were dirt roads. The
townspeople were pioneers and immigrants, largely Croatian, Slovenian,
Finnish, Italian, German, Scandinavian and English (especially Cornish).
After the last mine closed in 1954, the residents were ordered to vacate
the property; by 1956, Elcor was completely abandoned.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcor,_Minnesota>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1241:
First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelmed the Polish
armies of Sandomierz and Kraków provinces in the Battle of Chmielnik
and plundered the abandoned city of Kraków.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chmielnik>
1834:
The Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to transportation to
Australia for swearing an illegal oath to join their friendly society in
Dorset, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs>
1921:
The Polish–Soviet War, which determined the borders between
the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia, formally concluded with the
signing of the Peace of Riga.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Riga>
1938:
Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas created Pemex, the national
petroleum company, by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and
facilities.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemex>
1990:
Thieves stole 13 works of art valued at $500 million from the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the largest-value theft of
private property in history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum_theft>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
less-than-stellar:
(slang, sarcastic) Mediocre; not satisfactory; not very good, poor; not
meeting standards or expectations.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/less-than-stellar>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Fate and freedom alike play a part in history; and there are
times, as in wars and revolutions, when fate is the stronger of the two.
Freedom — the freedom of man and of nations — could never have been
the origin of two world wars. These latter were brought about by fate,
which exercises its power owing to the weakness and decline of freedom
and of the creative spirit of man. Almost all contemporary political
ideologies, with their characteristic tendency to state-idolatry, are
likewise largely a product of two world wars, begotten as they are of
the inexorability's of fate.
--Nikolai Berdyaev
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikolai_Berdyaev>
Freedom Planet is a two-dimensional platform video game developed and
published by independent developer GalaxyTrail, a studio set up for the
project by designer Stephen DiDuro. The player controls one of three
anthropomorphic animal protagonists: the dragon Lilac, the wildcat
Carol, or the basset hound Milla. Aided by the duck-like Torque (concept
art shown), the player attempts to defeat Lord Brevon, who plans to
conquer the galaxy. While the game focuses on fast-paced platforming,
its levels are interspersed with slower action scenes. Freedom Planet
began development as a Sonic the Hedgehog fangame, but DiDuro lost
interest in creating a derivative work and reconceived the project as
his own intellectual property. Developed in Denmark and the United
States, the game and its art have East Asian influences: its background
visuals were inspired by medieval Chinese art, and its title is written
in katakana. Critics praised its gameplay, aesthetics, and balance of
Sonic elements with original content, but were mixed on its pacing and
length.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Planet>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1452:
Reconquista: The combined forces of Castile and Murcia defeated
the Emirate of Granada at the Battle of Los Alporchones around the city
of Lorca.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Alporchones>
1891:
The transatlantic steamship Utopia accidentally collided with
the battleship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar, sinking in less than
twenty minutes and killing 562 (wreckage pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Utopia>
1955:
Ice hockey fans in Montreal rioted to protest the suspension of
Montreal Canadiens star Maurice Richard for hitting an official.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Riot>
1968:
Six thousand sheep were killed on ranches near Dugway Proving
Ground in Utah as a result of the U.S. Army spraying a nerve agent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugway_sheep_incident>
2000:
Over 700 followers of the Ugandan sect Movement for the
Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God were killed or died in a fire
in a mass murder committed by its leaders.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_the_Restoration_of_the_Ten_Comma…>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
poteen:
1. (Ireland, countable, uncountable) Illegally produced Irish whiskey;
moonshine.
2. (Ireland, countable, by extension) An unlicensed drinking establishment
selling illegally produced Irish whiskey.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poteen>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
When the law can stop the blades of grass From growing as they
grow, And when the leaves in summer time Their verdure dare not show,
Then I will change the colour I wear in my caubeen, But till that day
I'll stick for aye To wearing of the green.
--Dion Boucicault
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dion_Boucicault>