In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band
Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital
download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price
they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during
the last week of 2007. The album was released in North America on 1
January 2008 on TBD Records. In Rainbows was Radiohead's first release
after the end of their contract with EMI and the end of the longest gap
between studio albums in their career. Recording with producer Nigel
Godrich, Radiohead worked on In Rainbows for more than two years,
beginning in early 2005. In between recording, the band toured Europe
and North America for three months in mid-2006. The songwriting on In
Rainbows was more personal than that on Radiohead's other albums, with
singer Thom Yorke describing most tracks as his versions of "seduction
songs". Radiohead incorporated a wide variety of musical styles and
instruments on the album, using not only electronic music and string
arrangements, but also pianos, celestes, and the ondes Martenot. The
album earned widespread critical acclaim, and was ranked as one of the
best albums of 2007 by several publications. In 2012, Rolling Stone
magazine ranked the album no. 336 on their updated version of The 500
Greatest Albums of All Time.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Rainbows>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1807:
Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, the world's first
commercially successful paddle steamer, went into service.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_River_Steamboat>
1945:
Animal Farm, British author George Orwell's satirical allegory
of Soviet totalitarianism, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm>
1950:
Korean War: A North Korean Army unit massacred 42 American
prisoners of war so that they would not slow the North Koreans down
(memorial pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_303_massacre>
1959:
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, one of the best selling and most
critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time, was released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_of_Blue>
1998:
U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he
had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal>
2009:
A turbine at Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia,
broke apart violently, flooding the power station, causing widespread
power failures, and killing 75 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Sayano-Shushenskaya_hydro_accident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
remuneration:
1. Something given in exchange for goods or services rendered.
2. A payment for work done; wages, salary, emolument.
3. A recompense for a loss; compensation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/remuneration>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody
knows. Where did he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody
knows. Taller than a house the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff,
at the very brink, in the darkness.
--Ted Hughes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Hughes>
Manhunter is a 1986 film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon.
Written and directed by Michael Mann (pictured), it stars William
Petersen as offender profiler Will Graham, Tom Noonan as serial killer
Francis Dollarhyde—"The Tooth Fairy"—and features Brian Cox as
Hannibal Lecktor. Manhunter focuses on the forensic work carried out by
the FBI to track down the killer and shows the long-term effects that
cases like this have on Graham, highlighting the similarities between
him and his quarry. The film features heavily stylized use of color to
convey this sense of duality, and the nature of the characters'
similarity has been explored in academic readings of the film. Opening
to mixed reviews, Manhunter fared poorly at the box office at the time
of its release, making only $8.6 million in the United States. However,
it has been reappraised in more recent reviews and now enjoys a more
favorable reception, as both the acting and the stylized visuals have
been appreciated better in later years. Its resurgent popularity has
seen it labelled as a cult film.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunter_(film)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
718:
Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned their year-long siege
of Constantinople, causing the caliphate to give up its goal of
conquering the Byzantine Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Constantinople_(717%E2%80%93718)>
1511:
Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city of Malacca, giving
Portugal control over the Strait of Malacca, through which all sea-going
trade between China and India was concentrated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Malacca_(1511)>
1812:
War of 1812: Potawatomi warriors destroyed the United States
Army's Fort Dearborn in what is now Chicago, Illinois, and captured the
survivors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Dearborn>
1942:
World War II: The tanker SSÂ Ohio reached Malta, as part of an
operation to deliver much needed supplies during the Siege of Malta.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pedestal>
1963:
President Fulbert Youlou was overthrown in the Republic of
Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trois_Glorieuses_(1963)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
avail:
1. (transitive, often reflexive) To turn to the advantage of.
2. (transitive) To be of service to.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/avail>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The supreme truths are neither the rigid conclusions of logical
reasoning nor the affirmations of credal statement, but fruits of the
soul's inner experience. Intellectual truth is only one of the doors to
the outer precincts of the temple. And since intellectual truth turned
towards the Infinite must be in its very nature many-sided and not
narrowly one, the most varying intellectual beliefs can be equally true
because they mirror different facets of the Infinite. However separated
by intellectual distance, they still form so many side-entrances which
admit the mind to some faint ray from a supreme Light. There are no true
and false religions, but rather all religions are true in their own way
and degree. Each is one of the thousand paths to the One Eternal.
--Sri Aurobindo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo>
DNA nanotechnology is the design and manufacture of artificial nucleic
acid structures for technological uses. In this field, nucleic acids
such as DNA are used as non-biological engineering materials for
nanotechnology rather than as the carriers of genetic information in
living cells. Researchers in the field have created static structures
such as crystal lattices, nanotubes, polyhedra, and arbitrarily shaped
DNA origami; as well as functional structures including molecular
machines and DNA computers. The conceptual foundation for DNA
nanotechnology was first laid out in the early 1980s, and the field
began to attract widespread interest in the mid-2000s. The field is
beginning to be used as a tool to solve basic science problems in
structural biology and biophysics, such as protein structure
determination, and potential real-world applications in nanomedicine and
molecular scale electronics are under development.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_nanotechnology>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1842:
American Indian Wars: American general William J. Worth
declared the Second Seminole War to be over.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Seminole_War>
1888:
A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's The Lost
Chord (audio clip right), one of the first recordings of music ever
made, was played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's
phonograph in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Chord>
1994:
International fugitive Carlos the Jackal, wanted for a number
of terrorist attacks in Europe, was handed over to French agents by
Sudanese officials.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_the_Jackal>
2005:
Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountain north of
Marathon and Varnava, Greece, killing all 121 on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522>
2010:
The inaugural Youth Olympic Games opened in Singapore for
athletes between 14 and 18 years old.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Olympic_Games>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
teenybopper:
A person, especially a female, in her early teens who follows popular
clothing fashions, music trends, and the like.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/teenybopper>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Come! Let us lay a lance in rest, And tilt at windmills under a wild
sky! For who would live so petty and unblest That dare not tilt at
something ere he die; Rather than, screened by safe majority, Preserve
his little life to little end, And never raise a rebel cry!
--John Galsworthy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Galsworthy>
The Olympic Games are considered to be the world's foremost sports
competition and more than 200 nations participate. The Games are held
biennially, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating, so that
each of these is held every four years. Originally, the ancient Olympic
Games were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th
century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) in 1894, which is still the governing body of the games.
The 20th and 21st centuries have seen several changes to the games, such
as the creation of the Winter Games for ice and winter sports, the
Paralympic Games for athletes with a physical disability, and the Youth
Olympic Games. The Olympics have shifted away from the pure amateurism
envisioned by Coubertin to allow participation of professional athletes.
The growing importance of the mass media has created issues around
corporate sponsorship and commercialization of the Games. World Wars led
to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts
during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
30 BC:
Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian
Ptolemaic dynasty, committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_VII>
1121:
Forces led by David the Builder decisively won the Battle of
Didgori, driving Ilghazi and the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Didgori>
1877:
American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller
of the two moons of Mars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)>
1944:
After a week of indiscriminate killing of civilians in Wola,
Warsaw, Poland, SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski ordered that any
remaining Poles be sent to labour or concentration camps.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wola_massacre>
1950:
Korean War: Members of the North Korean People's Army executed
75 captured U.S. Army prisoners of war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Gulch_massacre>
1990:
American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson found the most complete
skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus ever discovered near Faith, South Dakota,
US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_(dinosaur)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
repechage:
(sports) A heat (as in rowing or fencing) in which the best competitors
who have lost in a previous round compete for a place or places yet left
in the next round.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/repechage>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take
part; the important thing in Life is not triumph, but the struggle; the
essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. To
spread these principles is to build up a strong and more valiant and,
above all, more scrupulous and more generous humanity.
--Pierre de Coubertin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin>
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago. Regions of the
city, referred to as sides, are divided by the Chicago River and its
branches. The South Side of Chicago was originally defined as all of the
city south of the main branch of the Chicago River, but it now excludes
the Loop. The South Side has a varied ethnic composition, and it has
great disparity in income and other demographic measures. The South Side
covers 60% of the city's land area, with a higher ratio of single-family
homes and larger sections zoned for industry than the rest of the city.
Neighborhoods such as Armour Square, Back of the Yards, Bridgeport, and
Pullman tend to be composed of more blue collar residents, while Hyde
Park, the Jackson Park Highlands District, Kenwood, and Beverly tend to
have middle, upper-middle class, and affluent residents. The South Side
boasts a broad array of cultural and social offerings, such as
professional sports teams, landmark buildings, nationally renowned
museums, elite educational institutions, world class medical
institutions, and major parts of the city's elaborate parks system.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Side,_Chicago>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
3114 BC:
The epoch of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, a non-
repeating, vigesimal calendar used by the Maya civilization and several
other Mesoamerican cultures, occurred.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar>
106:
The region of Dacia, comprising regions of modern Romania,
became a province of the Roman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Dacia>
1492:
The first papal conclave held in the Sistine Chapel elected
Roderic Borja as Pope Alexander VI to succeed Pope Innocent VIII.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_conclave,_1492>
1952:
King Talal of Jordan abdicated due to health reasons and was
succeeded by his eldest son Hussein (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_of_Jordan>
1965:
Violent race riots began in Watts, Los Angeles, California,
lasting for six days and leaving 34 people dead and 1,032 others
injured.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Riots>
1973:
At a party in the recreation room of a New York City apartment
building, DJ Kool Herc began rapping during an extended break, laying
the foundation for hip-hop music.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Kool_Herc>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
bevy:
1. A group of animals, in particular quails.
2. A large group or collection.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bevy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful Lo! We revealed it on
the Night of Predestination. Ah, what will convey unto thee what the
Night of Power is! The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the permission of their
Lord, with all decrees. (The night is) Peace until the rising of the
dawn. as translated by
--M. M. Pickthall
<https://en.wikiquote.org//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmaduke_Pickthall>
The Gregorian mission was the missionary endeavour sent by Pope Gregory
I (1620s portrait pictured) to the Anglo-Saxons in 596 AD. Headed by
Augustine of Canterbury, its goal was to convert the Anglo-Saxons to
Christianity. Along with Irish and Frankish missionaries, they converted
Britain and helped influence the Hiberno-Scottish missionaries on the
continent. In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory sent a group of
missionaries to Kent to convert Æthelberht, King of Kent, whose wife,
Bertha, was a Frankish princess and practising Christian. Augustine was
the prior of Gregory's own monastery in Rome, and Gregory prepared the
way for the mission by soliciting aid from the Frankish rulers along
Augustine's route. In 597, the forty missionaries arrived in Kent and
were permitted by Æthelberht to preach freely in his capital of
Canterbury. Soon the missionaries wrote to Gregory, telling him of their
success and that conversions were taking place. A second group of monks
and clergy was dispatched in 601, bearing books and other items for the
new foundation. The exact date of Æthelberht's conversion is unknown,
but it occurred before 601. Before Æthelberht's death in 616, a number
of other bishoprics had been established. Although the missionaries
could not remain in all of the places they had evangelised, by the time
the last of them died in 653, they had established Christianity in Kent
and the surrounding countryside and contributed a Roman tradition to the
practice of Christianity in Britain.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_mission>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1512:
War of the League of Cambrai: England and a combined Franco-
Breton fleet engaged in the Battle of Saint-Mathieu, during which an
explosion destroyed each navy's most powerful ship (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saint-Mathieu>
1755:
The first wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians from the
present-day Canadian Maritime provinces by the British began with the
Bay of Fundy Campaign at Chignecto.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Fundy_Campaign_(1755)>
1793:
The Louvre, the most visited art museum in the world,
officially opened with an exhibition of 537 paintings.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre>
1904:
Russo-Japanese War: The first major confrontation between
modern steel battleship fleets took place in the Battle of the Yellow
Sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Yellow_Sea>
1944:
The German Army Detachment "Narwa" prevented the Soviet
Leningrad Front from capturing the strategically important Narva Isthmus
in Estonia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tannenberg_Line>
1981:
The severed head of kidnapped six-year-old Adam Walsh was found
in a canal in Vero Beach, Florida, prompting his father John to become
an advocate for victims' rights, helping to spur the formation of the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh>
1990:
NASA's Magellan space probe reached Venus, fifteen months after
its launch.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellan_(spacecraft)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
leeward:
Away from the direction from which the wind is blowing. Downwind.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leeward>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a
noble one.
--Herbert Hoover
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover>
The Western Ganga Dynasty was an important ruling dynasty of ancient
Karnataka in India which lasted from about 350 to 1000Â CE. They are
known as Western Gangas to distinguish them from the Eastern Gangas who
in later centuries ruled over modern Orissa. Though territorially a
small kingdom, the Western Ganga contribution to polity, culture and
literature of the modern south Karnataka region is considered important.
The Western Ganga kings showed benevolent tolerance to all faiths but
are most famous for their patronage towards Jainism resulting in the
construction of monuments in places such as Shravanabelagola and
Kambadahalli. The kings of this dynasty encouraged the fine arts due to
which literature in Kannada and Sanskrit flourished. Chavundaraya's
writing, Chavundaraya Purana of 978Â CE, is an important work in Kannada
prose. Many classics were written on various subjects ranging from
religion to elephant management.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Ganga_Dynasty>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1173:
The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become
the Leaning Tower of Pisa, began.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa>
1862:
American Civil War: After nearly being driven from the field in
the early part of the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Confederate troops
counterattacked and achieved a victory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cedar_Mountain>
1945:
World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb
named "Fat Man", devastating Nagasaki, Japan (mushroom cloud pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man>
1965:
Malaysia expelled the state of Singapore from its federation
due to heated ideological conflict between their respective ruling
parties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore>
1988:
Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los
Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions in
ice hockey history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretzky>
2006:
British police arrested 24 people for conspiring to detonate
liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from
the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_transatlantic_aircraft_plot>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pankration:
An Ancient Greek martial art combining aspects of boxing and wrestling,
introduced in the Greek Olympic games in 648 BC.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pankration>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
This darkness will not last forever. There will some day come a Fifth of
November — or another date, it doesn't matter — when fires will burn
in a chain of brightness from Land's End to John O' Groats. The children
will dance and leap about them as they did in the times before. They
will take each other by the hand and watch the rockets breaking, and
afterwards they will go home singing to the houses full of light...
--P. L. Travers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._L._Travers>