Hurricane Grace was a short-lived Category 2 hurricane that contributed
to the formation of the powerful 1991 "Perfect Storm". Forming on
October 26, Grace initially had subtropical origins, meaning it was
partially tropical and partially extratropical in nature. It became a
tropical cyclone on October 27, and ultimately peaked with winds of
100Â mph (155Â km/h). The storm had minor effects on the island of
Bermuda as it passed to the south. A developing extratropical storm to
the north turned Grace eastward; the hurricane was eventually absorbed
into the large circulation of the larger low pressure system. Fed by
the contrast between cold air to the northwest and warm air from the
remnants of Hurricane Grace, this storm became a large and powerful
nor'easter that caused extremely high waves and resulted in severe
coastal damage along the U.S. East Coast.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Grace_%281991%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1703:
English writer Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for seditious libel
after publishing a pamphlet politically satirising the High Church
Tories.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe>
1777:
The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution allowing French
nobleman Marquis de Lafayette to enter the American revolutionary
forces as a Major General.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier%2C_marquis_de_La_Fayette>
1941:
The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring
orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to settle "the final solution of
the Jewish question".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution>
1999:
NASA's Lunar Prospector was deliberately crashed into the Shoemaker
crater near the moon's south pole in an unsuccessful attempt to detect
the presence of water.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Prospector>
2006:
Following intestinal surgery, Fidel Castro provisionally transferred
the duties of the Cuban presidency to his brother Raúl.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006%E2%80%932008_Cuban_transfer_of_presidenti…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
trimester (n):
1. A period of three months or about three months.
2. One term of an academic year in those learning institutions that
divide their teaching into three roughly equal terms
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trimester>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I beg the reader not to go in search of messages. It is a term that I
detest because it distresses me greatly, for it forces on me clothes
that are not mine, which in fact belong to a human type that I
distrust; the prophet, the soothsayer, the seer. I am none of these;
I'm a normal man with a good memory who fell into a maelstrom and got
out of it more by luck than by virtue, and who from that time on has
preserved a certain curiosity about maelstroms large and small,
metaphorical and actual.
--Primo Levi
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Primo_Levi>
The Central London Railway was a railway company established in 1889 to
construct a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. Funding
for construction was obtained in 1895 through a syndicate of financiers
and construction work took place from 1896 to 1900. When opened in
1900, the railway served 13 stations and ran completely underground in
a pair of tunnels between its western terminus at Shepherd's Bush and
its eastern terminus at the Bank of England. After a rejected proposal
to turn the line into a loop, it was extended at the western end to
Wood Lane in 1908 and at the eastern end to Liverpool Street station in
1912. In 1920, it was extended along a Great Western Railway line to
Ealing. After initially making good returns for investors, the railway
suffered a decline in passenger numbers due to increased competition
from other underground railway lines and new motorised buses. In 1913,
it was taken over by the Underground Electric Railways Company of
London, operator of the majority of London's underground railways. In
1933 the two companies were taken into public ownership and, today, the
railway's tunnels and stations form the central section of the London
Underground's Central line.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_London_Railway>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
762:
The caliph al-Mansur founded Baghdad along the River Tigris as the new
capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad>
1825:
Malden Island , now one of Kiribati's Line Islands, was discovered.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malden_Island>
1864:
American Civil War: Union forces failed to break Confederate lines by
exploding a large mine under their trenches at the Battle of the Crater
in Petersburg, Virginia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater>
1975:
American labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa mysteriously disappeared after
last being seen outside a restaurant near Detroit.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hoffa>
2006:
Lebanon War: The Israeli Air Force attacked a three-story building near
the South Lebanese village of Qana, killing at least 28 civilians,
including 16 children.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qana_airstrike>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nief (n):
1. A serf or bondsman born into servitude.
2. A fist
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nief>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Moving stranger,
Does it really matter,
As long as you're not afraid to feel?
Touch me, hold me.
How my open arms ache!
Try to fall for me.
--Kate Bush
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Bush>
No Line on the Horizon is the twelfth studio album by the rock band U2.
Released on 27 February 2009, it was the group's first album since How
to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), marking the longest gap between
studio albums of U2's career. Work on the record began in 2006 with
producer Rick Rubin, but most of the material from those sessions was
shelved. From June 2007 to December 2008, the band collaborated with
Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who produced and co-wrote many of the
songs. Writing and recording took place in the United States, United
Kingdom, Ireland and Morocco. Prior to the album's release, U2
indicated that Eno's and Lanois's involvement, as well as the band's
time in Fez, Morocco, had resulted in a more experimental record than
their previous two albums. No Line on the Horizon received generally
favourable reviews, although it was not as commercially successful as
anticipated and many critics noted that it was not as experimental as
previously suggested. U2 are supporting the album with the U2 360°
Tour.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Line_on_the_Horizon>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1014:
Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars: Forces of the Byzantine Empire defeated
troops of the Bulgarian Empire at the Battle of Kleidion in the
Belasica Mountains near present-day Klyuch, Bulgaria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kleidion>
1858:
Japan reluctantly signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, an Unequal
Treaty giving the United States various commercial and diplomatic
privileges.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amity_and_Commerce_%28United_States_…>
1947:
ENIAC , the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computer,
was turned on in its new home at the Ballistic Research Laboratory at
Aberdeen Proving Grounds, remaining in continuous operation until
October 2 1955.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC>
1958:
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and
Space Act into law, establishing a new federal non-military space
agency known as NASA.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA>
1981:
A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watched
Charles, Prince of Wales, marry Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in
London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles%2C_Prince_of_Wales>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bistro (n):
1. A small European-style restaurant.
2. A small bar
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bistro>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
For all that has been —
Thanks.
For all that shall be —
Yes.
--Dag Hammarskjöld
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dag_Hammarskj%C3%B6ld>
Edward Drinker Cope (1840–1897) was an American paleontologist and
comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and
ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished
himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his
first scientific paper at the age of nineteen. Cope had little formal
scientific training, and eschewed a teaching position for field work.
He made regular trips to the American West prospecting in the 1870s and
1880s, often as part of United States Geological Survey teams. A
personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led
to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone
Wars. Cope's scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, but his
contributions helped define the field of American paleontology. He was
a prodigious writer, with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime,
although his rivals would debate the accuracy of his rapidly published
works. Cope discovered, described, and named more than 1,000Â vertebrate
species, including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His
theories on the origin of mammalian molars and "Cope's Law", on the
gradual enlargement of mammalian species, are among his theoretical
contributions.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Drinker_Cope>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
Peninsular War: French forces under Joseph Bonaparte suffered 7,270
casualties while Sir Arthur Wellesley's Anglo-Spanish army had 6,700 at
an inconclusive battle in Talavera, Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talavera>
1896:
Miami, today the principal city and the center of the South Florida
metropolitan area, the seventh largest metro area in the United States,
was incorporated with a population of just over 300.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Miami>
1976:
An earthquake measuring at least 8.2 on the Richter magnitude scale,
one of the deadliest in history, flattened Tangshan, China, killing at
least 240,000 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake>
2001:
At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Australian Ian
Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single
World Championships.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Thorpe>
2005:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced an end to its armed
campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland to create a
United Ireland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bait and switch (n):
1. An unscrupulous and sometimes illegal sales technique, in which an
inexpensive product is advertised to attract prospective customers who
are then told by sales personnel that the inexpensive product is
unavailable or of poor quality and are instead urged to buy a more
expensive product.
2. (by extension) Any similar deceptive behavior, especially in
politics or in romantic relationships
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bait_and_switch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that.
We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human
coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for
ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of
things — and above all on ourselves.
--Karl Popper
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper>
Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. Its capital is
Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno (Hrodna), Gomel
(Homiel), Mogilev (Mahilyow) and Vitebsk (Viciebsk). Forty percent of
its 207,600 km2 (80,200 sq mi) is forested, and its strongest economic
sectors are agriculture and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, the
lands of modern day Belarus belonged to several countries.
The parliament of the republic declared the sovereignty of Belarus on
27 July 1990, and following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus
declared independence on 25 August 1991. Alexander Lukashenko has been
the country's president since 1994. Under his lead and despite
objections from Western governments, Soviet-era policies, such as state
ownership of the economy, have been implemented. Most of Belarus's
population of 9.85Â million reside in the urban areas surrounding Minsk
and other oblast (regional) capitals. More than 80% of the population
are native Belarusians, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and
Ukrainians. Since a referendum in 1995, the country has had two
official languages: Belarusian and Russian.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
A group of Welsh settlers arrived at Chubut Valley in Argentina's
Patagonia region.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Argentine>
1880:
Second Anglo-Afghan War: In a pyrrhic victory, Afghan forces led by
Ayub Khan defeated the British Army near Maiwand, Afghanistan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maiwand>
1919:
Red Summer: Race riots erupted in Chicago after a racial incident
occurred on a South Side beach, leading to 38 fatalities and 537
injuries over a five-day period.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Race_Riot_of_1919>
1953:
An armistice was signed to end hostilities in the Korean War,
officially making the Division of Korea indefinite by creating an
approximately 4Â km (2.5Â mi) wide demilitarized zone running across the
Korean Peninsula .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone>
2002:
A Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 aircraft crashed during an
aerobatics presentation at an airshow near Lviv, Ukraine, killing 84
people and injuring over 100 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sknyliv_airshow_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
yellow-bellied (adj):
1. Pertaining to an animal or reptile that has a yellow underside or
belly.
2. (figuratively) Uncourageous, cowardly
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yellow-bellied>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however
improbable, must be the truth.
--Sherlock Holmes
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes>
Douglas Jardine (1900–1958) was an English cricketer and captain of the
England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34. A right-handed batsman, he
played 22 Test matches for England, captaining the side in 15 of those
matches, winning nine, losing one and drawing five. Jardine is best
known for captaining the English team during the 1932–33 Ashes tour of
Australia, in which his team employed Bodyline tactics against Donald
Bradman and other opposing Australian batsmen. A controversial figure
among cricketers, Jardine was well known for his dislike of Australian
players and crowds and was unpopular in Australia, particularly for his
manner and especially so after the Bodyline tour. He retired from all
first-class cricket in 1934 following a tour to India. Jardine was a
qualified solicitor but did not work much in law, working in banking
and, later on, journalism. He joined the Territorial Army in the Second
World War, most of which he spent in India. After the war, he worked as
a secretary to a paper manufacturer and returned to journalism. While
on a business trip in 1957, he became ill with what proved to be lung
cancer and died aged 57 in 1958.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Jardine>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
811:
Bulgarian forces led by Khan Krum defeated the Byzantines at the Battle
of Pliska, annihilating almost the whole army and killing Byzantine
Emperor Nikephoros I.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pliska>
1882:
Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal, loosely based on Wolfram von
Eschenbach's epic poem Parzival about Arthurian knight Percival and his
quest for the Holy Grail, officially premiered at the Festspielhaus in
Bayreuth, present-day Germany.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal>
1936:
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial , a memorial site near Vimy,
Pas-de-Calais, France, dedicated to the memory of Canadian
Expeditionary Force members killed during World War I, was unveiled.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_National_Vimy_Memorial>
1990:
U.S. President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with
Disabilities Act, a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under
certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990>
1999:
Fighting in the Kargil War ended after Indian troops cleared the Drass
in Kashmir of Pakistani forces.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kargil_War>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
irrefutable (adj):
Undeniable; unable to be disproved or refuted
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/irrefutable>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I hear you say "Why?" Always "Why?" You see things; and you say "Why?"
But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
--George Bernard Shaw
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw>
Crackdown is an open world, third-person shooter video game for the
Xbox 360. Released in 2007, Crackdown was developed by Realtime Worlds,
and distributed by Microsoft Game Studios. It was conceived by Realtime
Worlds' founder, David Jones (pictured), who also created Grand Theft
Auto and Lemmings. Set in the fictional Pacific City, the player
controls a cybernetically enhanced Agent, whose abilities improve by
defeating the crime lords and their organized crime syndicates, as well
as by completing optional activities, such as street races and
scavenger hunts. The gameplay is nonlinear: instead of following a
rigid mission sequence, players are free to select the approach to
completing their missions and activities. The game features a
two-player cooperative play mode via Xbox Live. Crackdown, initially
planned for release on the original Xbox console, was envisioned as a
vast world in which players could experiment and explore freely.
Microsoft Game Studios bundled Crackdown with an access code to the
multiplayer test version of the much-anticipated Halo 3 Beta. The game
sold 1.5Â million copies in its first six months of release. Crackdown
received positive reviews and has garnered several awards for its
innovative gameplay.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crackdown>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
306:
Constantine I was proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops after the
death of Constantius Chlorus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I>
1567:
Caracas, today the capital and largest city of Venezuela, was founded
as Santiago de Leon de Caracas by Spanish explorer Diego de Losada.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracas>
1948:
In Test cricket, Australia set a world record for the highest
successful run-chase in history during the Fourth Test of The Ashes
series against England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Test%2C_1948_Ashes_series>
1957:
More than a year after obtaining independence from France, Tunisia
abolished its monarchy, the Husainid Dynasty, and became a republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia>
1978:
Two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists were killed by police at
Cerro Maravilla in Villalba, Puerto Rico, sparking a series of
political controversies where the officers were eventually convicted of
murder, and several high-ranking local government officials were
accused of planning or covering up the incident.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Maravilla_Incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dilettante (n):
An amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest
rather than as a profession or serious interest
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dilettante>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Good and evil grow up together and are bound in an equilibrium that
cannot be sundered. The most we can do is try to tilt the equilibrium
toward the good.
--Eric Hoffer
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer>
Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that
confirms their preconceptions, independently of whether they are true.
As a result, people gather new evidence and recall information from
memory selectively, and interpret it in a biased way. The biases appear
in particular for emotionally significant issues and for established
beliefs. Biased search, interpretation and/or recall have been invoked
to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more
extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same
evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence
for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a
stronger weighting for data encountered early in an arbitrary series)
and illusory correlation (in which people falsely perceive an
association between two events or situations). Explanations for the
observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity
to process information. Confirmation biases contribute to
overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen
beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Hence they can lead to
disastrous decisions, especially in organizational, military and
political contexts.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
After a siege of 18 weeks, French troops in Mainz surrendered to
Prussian forces, effectively ending the Republic of Mainz, the first
democratic state on the current German territory.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Mainz>
1881:
The International Federation of Gymnastics, the world's oldest
international sport federation, was founded in Liège, Belgium.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_Internationale_de_Gymnast…>
1983:
Air Canada Flight 143 crash-landed in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, without
loss of life after the crew was forced to glide the aircraft when it
completely ran out of fuel.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider>
1995:
Hale-Bopp , one of the most widely observed comets of the twentieth
century, was discovered by two independent observers, Alan Hale and
Thomas Bopp, at a great distance from the Sun.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale-Bopp>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cwm (n):
A valley head created through glacial erosion and with a shape similar
to an amphitheatre
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cwm>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms
and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and
act — and if necessary, to suffer and die — for truth and justice;
eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international
morality shall not go undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be
learned anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is
fortunate indeed which learns from other than its own bitter
experience.
--Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie_I_of_Ethiopia>