Luc Bourdon (1987–2008) was a Canadian professional ice hockey
defenceman who played for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey
League and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Manitoba Moose,
from 2006 until 2008. After overcoming childhood arthritis, he was
selected third overall in the 2003 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
draft and played for the Val-d'Or Foreurs, Moncton Wildcats, and Cape
Breton Screaming Eagles, spending four seasons in the QMJHL. The
Canucks drafted Bourdon with their first selection, tenth overall, in
the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. Noted as a strong defenceman who could
contribute on offence, Bourdon represented Canada in three
international tournaments, winning two gold medals at the IIHF World
U20 Championship and a silver medal at the IIHF World U18 Championship.
Bourdon died at the age of 21 near his hometown of Shippagan, New
Brunswick, when his motorcycle collided with a tractor trailer.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Bourdon>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
161:
Following the death of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius
and Lucius Verus agreed to become co-Emperors in an unprecedented
arrangement in the Roman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius>
1799:
Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt: Forces of Napoleon I of France captured
Jaffa, present-day Israel, and then proceeded to kill more than two
thousand Albanian captives.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jaffa>
1862:
American Civil War: Union forces engaged Confederate troops in Pea
Ridge, Arkansas, fighting to a victory one day later that essentially
cemented their control in Missouri.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pea_Ridge>
1936:
Nazi German forces re-occupied the demilitarized Rhineland, violating
both the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties that were signed
after World War I.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remilitarization_of_the_Rhineland>
1950:
The Soviet Union issued a statement denying that German nuclear
physicist Klaus Fuchs had served as a Soviet spy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ecchymosis (n):
1. A skin discoloration caused by bleeding underneath the skin; a
bruise.
2. The leaking of blood into the tissues of the body as a result of a
bruise
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ecchymosis>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Games give you a chance to excel, and if you're playing in good company
you don't even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the
company during the course of the game.
--Gary Gygax
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax>
Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a third-person shooter video game with
real-time strategy elements for Microsoft Windows. It was the first
project for Planet Moon Studios comprising former Shiny Entertainment
employees who had worked on the game MDK. The game went through
four years of development before Interplay Entertainment published it
on December 6, 2000, and followed up with a PlayStation 2 port in 2001.
MacPlay published the Mac OS X port earlier in the same year. The
subtitle "Citizen Kabuto" refers to the thundering behemoth who is one
of the playable characters in the game. Players can also take on the
roles of jet pack-equipped and heavily armed Meccaryns, and amphibious
spellcasting Sea Reapers; and challenge each other in multiplayer
games. The single-player mode is framed as a sequential story, and puts
the player through missions, several of which test the player's
reflexes in action game-like puzzles, to teach the abilities of each
playable race. Game critics praised the game for its state of the art
graphics, humorous story, and success in blending in one genre with
another. Criticisms of the game centered on crippling software bugs and
lack of an in-game save feature. The critics also rated its console
version as technically inferior to its PC versions. The game sold
poorly for both Windows and PlayStation 2, although it enjoyed a
successful launch for its small Mac OSÂ X market.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants%3A_Citizen_Kabuto>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1770:
The pelting of British soldiers with snowballs soon escalated into a
riot in Boston, Massachusetts, leaving at least five civilians dead.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre>
1824:
Britain officially declared war on Burma, beginning the First
Anglo–Burmese War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Anglo%E2%80%93Burmese_War>
1850:
The Britannia Bridge (pictured), a tubular bridge of wrought iron
rectangular box-section spans crossing the Menai Strait between the
island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_Bridge>
1872:
American entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse patented the air
brake for trains to stop more reliably.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/air_brake_%28rail%29>
1946:
The term "Iron Curtain", describing the symbolic, ideological, and
physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas during the
Cold War, was popularized by former British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill during a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri,
USA.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Curtain>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mosey (v):
1. (mainly US, dialectal) To amble; to walk or proceed in a leisurely
manner.
2. (mainly US, dialectal) To set off, get going; to start a journey
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mosey>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell
you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask,
Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of
course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being
entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision.
--Penn Jillette
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Penn_Jillette>
Hurricane Linda was the strongest Pacific hurricane on record. Forming
from a tropical wave on September 9, 1997, Linda steadily intensified
and reached hurricane status within 36Â hours of developing.
Subsequently, it rapidly intensified, reaching winds of 185Â mph
(295Â km/h) and an estimated central pressure of 902Â millibars
(26.65Â inches of mercury). The hurricane was briefly forecast to move
toward southern California, but instead, it turned out to sea and
dissipated on September 17. It was the fifteenth tropical cyclone,
thirteenth named storm, seventh hurricane, and fifth major hurricane of
the 1997 Pacific hurricane season. While near peak intensity, Hurricane
Linda passed near Socorro Island, where it damaged meteorological
instruments. The hurricane produced high waves along the southwestern
Mexican coastline, forcing the closure of five ports. When Linda was
predicted to make landfall on California, it would have been the first
to do so since a storm in 1939. Although it did not hit the state, the
hurricane produced light to moderate rainfall across the region,
causing mudslides and flooding in the San Gorgonio Wilderness; two
houses were destroyed and 77Â others were damaged, and damage totaled
$3.2Â million (1997Â USD, $4.3Â million 2008Â USD). Despite the intensity,
the name was not retired.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Linda_%281997%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1461:
Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by
his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_of_England>
1681:
King Charles II of England granted Quaker William Penn a charter for
the Pennsylvania Colony.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Pennsylvania>
1769:
French astronomer Charles Messier first noted the Orion Nebula
(pictured), a bright nebula visible to the naked eye in the night sky
situated south of Orion's Belt, later cataloguing it as Messier 42 in
his list of Messier objects.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula>
1837:
After its population increased to over 4,000 in seven years, Chicago
was granted a city charter by the U.S. state of Illinois.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chicago%3C%21--Main_%5B%5BChicago%5…>
1860:
The Forth Railway Bridge, a railway bridge connecting Edinburgh to Fife
over the Firth of Forth, opened, becoming an internationally recognised
Scottish landmark.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Railway_Bridge>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
partisan (adj):
1. Adherent to a party or faction; especially, having the character of
blind, passionate, or unreasonable adherence.
2. Devoted to or biased in support of a party, group, or cause.
3.
Serving as commander of a body of detached light troops
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/partisan>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Philosophy is based on speculation, on logic, on thought, on the
synthesis of what we know and on the analysis of what we do not know.
Philosophy must include within its confines the whole content of
science, religion and art.
--P. D. Ouspensky
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._D._Ouspensky>
Vithoba is a Hindu god, worshipped predominantly in the Indian states
of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. While generally
considered a manifestation of the Hindu god Vishnu or his avatar
Krishna, he is sometimes associated with the god Shiva, the Buddha or
both. Vithoba is often depicted as a dark young boy, standing
arms-akimbo on a brick, sometimes accompanied by his main consort
Rakhumai (Rukmini). Vithoba is the focus of the monotheistic,
non-brahminical Varkari sect of Maharashtra and the Haridasa sect of
Karnataka. Vithoba's main temple stands at Pandharpur in Maharashtra,
close to the Karnataka border. Vithoba legends revolve around his
devotee Pundalik, who is credited with bringing the deity to
Pandharpur, and around Vithoba's role as a saviour to the poet-saints
of the Varkari faith. The Varkari poet-saints are known for their
unique genre of devotional lyric, the abhanga, dedicated to Vithoba and
composed in Marathi. Other devotional literature dedicated to Vithoba
includes the Kannada hymns of the Haridasa, and Marathi versions of the
generic Hindu arati songs, associated with rituals of offering light to
the deity. Though the origins of both his cult and his main temple
remain subjects of debate, there is clear evidence that they already
existed by the 13th century.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vithoba>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
American Revolutionary War: Samuel Nicholas and the Continental Marines
successfully landed on New Providence and captured Nassau in the
Bahamas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Nicholas>
1875:
The first recorded organized indoor ice hockey game was played at the
Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal by James George Aylwin Creighton and
McGill University students.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ice_hockey>
1878:
The signing of the Treaty of San Stefano, ending the Russo-Turkish War,
established Bulgaria as an autonomous principality in the Ottoman
Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Stefano>
1997:
The Sky Tower in Auckland, the tallest free-standing structure in the
Southern Hemisphere at 328Â metres (1,080Â ft), opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Tower>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
esprit de corps (n):
A shared spirit of comradeship, enthusiasm, and devotion to a cause
among the members of a group
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/esprit_de_corps>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Consent in virtue knit your hearts so fast,
That still the knot, in spite of death, does last;
For as your
tears, and sorrow-wounded soul,
Prove well that on your part this bond is whole,
So all we know of
what they do above,
Is that they happy are, and that they love.
Let dark oblivion, and
the hollow grave,
Content themselves our frailer thoughts to have;
Well-chosen love
is never taught to die,
But with our nobler part invades the sky.
--Edmund Waller
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Waller>
The King Vulture is a large Central and South American bird in the New
World vulture family Cathartidae. This vulture lives predominantly in
tropical lowland forests stretching from southern Mexico to northern
Argentina, though some believe that William Bartram's Painted Vulture
of Florida may be of this species. It is the only surviving member of
the genus Sarcoramphus, though fossil members are known. It is large
and predominantly white, with gray to black ruff, flight, and tail
feathers. Its head and neck are bald, with the skin color varying,
including yellow, orange, blue, purple, and red. The King Vulture has a
very noticeable yellow fleshy caruncle on its beak. This vulture is a
scavenger and it often makes the initial cut into a fresh carcass. It
also displaces smaller New World Vulture species from a carcass. King
Vultures have been known to live for up to 30 years in captivity. King
Vultures were popular figures in the Mayan codices as well as in local
folklore and medicine. Though currently listed as Least Concern by the
IUCN, they are declining in number, due primarily to habitat loss.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Vulture>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1791:
French inventor Claude Chappe and his brothers first demonstrated the
semaphore line, a signaling system of conveying information by means of
visual signals, using towers with pivoting shutters, also known as
blades or paddles.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/semaphore_line>
1836:
Texas Revolution: At a convention in Washington-on-the-Brazos, the
Mexican state of Texas adopted a declaration of independence from
Mexico, establishing the Republic of Texas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Declaration_of_Independence>
1865:
Second Taranaki War: Protestant missionary Carl Sylvius Völkner died at
the hands of Hauhau militants in Opotiki for working as an agent for
George Grey, Governor-General of New Zealand.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkner_Incident>
1943:
World War II: Australian and American air forces attacked and destroyed
a large convoy of the Japanese Navy at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea
in the Bismarck Sea north of the island of Papua New Guinea.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bismarck_Sea>
1962:
American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (pictured), then playing
for the Philadelphia Warriors, scored 100 points in a game against the
New York Knicks at Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, still a
record in the National Basketball Association today.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlain%27s_100-point_game>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hirsute (adj):
Covered in hair or bristles; hairy
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hirsute>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends.
My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!
... So, on beyond Z!
It's high time you were shown
That you really don't know
All there is to be known.
--Dr. Seuss
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss>
Yes Minister is a multi-award winning satirical British sitcom written
by Sir Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn that was first transmitted by BBC
television and radio between 1980 and 1984, split over three
seven-episode series. The sequel, Yes, Prime Minister, ran from 1986 to
1988. In total this made 38 episodes, all but one of which lasts for
half an hour. Set principally in the private office of a British
government cabinet minister in the Department for Administrative
Affairs in Whitehall (and, in the sequel, in 10 Downing Street), the
series follows the senior ministerial career of The Rt Hon. Jim Hacker
MP, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and
enact legislation or effect departmental changes are opposed by the
will of the British Civil Service, in particular his Permanent
Secretary (head of each government department's bureaucrats), Sir
Humphrey Appleby, played by Nigel Hawthorne. His Principal Private
Secretary Bernard Woolley, played by Derek Fowlds, is usually caught
between the two. Almost every programme ends with the line "Yes,
Minister" (or "Yes, Prime Minister"), uttered (usually) by Sir Humphrey
as he relishes his victory over his "political master" (or, sometimes,
acknowledges defeat). A huge critical and popular success, the series
received a number of awards, including several BAFTAs and in 2004 came
sixth in the Britain's Best Sitcom poll. It was the favourite
television programme of the then British Prime Minister, Baroness
Thatcher.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1570:
Pope Pius V issued the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis to excommunicate
Queen Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnans_in_Excelsis>
1836:
American inventor and industrialist Samuel Colt received a patent for a
"revolving gun", later known as a revolver.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/revolver>
1921:
The Soviet Red Army took over the Georgian capital Tbilisi after heavy
fighting and declared the new Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_invasion_of_Georgia>
1986:
Corazon Aquino was inaugurated as the first female President of the
Philippines after Ferdinand Marcos fled the nation after twenty years
of rule because of the People Power Revolution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino>
1994:
Israeli physician Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslim Arabs praying
at the mosque in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 people and
wounding 125 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
plenary (adj):
1. Fully attended; for everyone's attendance.
2. (theology or law) Complete, entire
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plenary>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing
such a child notices is that adults don't make sense.
--John Leonard
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Leonard>
Meshuggah is a Swedish five-piece experimental metal band formed in
1987. Meshuggah's line-up has primarily consisted of founding members
vocalist Jens Kidman and guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, drummer Tomas
Haake, who joined in 1990, and rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, who
joined in 1994. Having gone through a number of bassists, the spot has
been held by Dick Lövgren since 2004. Meshuggah first attracted
international attention with the 1995 release Destroy Erase Improve for
its fusion of fast-tempo death metal, thrash metal and progressive
metal. Since their 2002 album Nothing, Meshuggah uses eight-string
guitars and downtuned, groovy riffs. Meshuggah has become known for its
complex, innovative and precise songwriting and musicianship, and
polyrhythmic song structures. It has been labeled as one of the ten
most important hard and heavy bands by Rolling Stone and as the most
important band in metal by Alternative Press. Meshuggah has found
little mainstream success but is a significant act in extreme
underground music. Nothing and the albums that followed all charted on
the Billboard 200. In 2006, the band was nominated for a Swedish Grammy
Award. Meshuggah's commercially most successful album, 2008's obZen,
peaked at No. 59 and sold 11,400 copies in the first week and 50,000
copies six months after its release.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshuggah>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1582:
Pope Gregory XIII issued the papal bull Inter gravissimas to promulgate
the Gregorian calendar, a modification of the Julian calendar in use
since 45 BC.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_gravissimas>
1803:
In their ruling in Marbury v. Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court
established judicial review in the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison>
1848:
Amid a revolt, French King Louis-Philippe abdicated and escaped to
England, leading to the creation of the French Second Republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Philippe_of_France>
1875:
The steamship SS Gothenburg hit a section of the Great Barrier Reef at
low tide and sank about 50Â kilometres (31Â mi) northwest of Holbourne
Island, Queensland, Australia, with the loss of over 100 lives.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Gothenburg>
303:
Roman Emperor Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was
published, beginning the Diocletianic Persecution, the last and most
severe episode of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lope (v):
To travel an easy pace with long strides
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lope>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When you're young, you look at television and think, "There's a
conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down." But when you
get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in
business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more
depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the
bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in
business to give people what they want. It's the truth.
--Steve Jobs
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs>
USS Connecticut was the lead ship of the six Connecticut-class
battleships. Due to the Royal Navy's commissioning of HMSÂ Dreadnought
seven months earlier, Connecticut was obsolete before she was
commissioned; thus, she was the last lead ship of any class of
pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned by the United States Navy.
Connecticut served as a flagship for the Jamestown Exposition, which
commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown
colony. She later sailed with the Great White Fleet on a
circumnavigation of the Earth to showcase the United States Navy's
growing fleet of blue-water-capable ships. After completing her service
with the Great White Fleet, Connecticut participated in several
flag-waving exercises intended to protect American citizens abroad
until she was pressed into service as a troop transport at the end of
World War I to expedite the return of American Expeditionary Forces
from France. For the remainder of her career, Connecticut sailed to
various places in both the Atlantic and Pacific while training newer
recruits to the Navy. However, the provisions of the 1922 Washington
Naval Treaty stipulated that many of the older battleships, Connecticut
among them, would have to be disposed of, so she was decommissioned on
1 March 1922 and sold for scrap on 1 November 1923.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Connecticut_%28BB-18%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1744:
War of the Austrian Succession: British ships began attacking the
Spanish rear of a France–Spanish combined fleet in the Mediterranean
Sea off the coast near Toulon, France.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Toulon_%281744%29>
1819:
Under the terms of the Adams-OnÃs Treaty, Spain sold Florida and other
North American territory to the United States for about US$5 million.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams-On%C3%ADs_Treaty>
1943:
Members of the White Rose, a nonviolent resistance movement in Nazi
Germany that became known for a leaflet campaign that called for active
opposition to Adolf Hitler's regime, were found guilty of treason and
guillotined.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose>
1959:
Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500 NASCAR auto race at the Daytona
International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytona_500>
2006:
At least six men staged Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing
£53,116,760 in bank notes from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitas_depot_robbery>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
moniker (n):
A personal name or nickname
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moniker>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the
truth.
--Arthur Schopenhauer
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer>