The Komodo dragon is a species of lizard that inhabits the islands of
Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang, and Gili Dasami, in central Indonesia. A
member of the monitor lizard family (Varanidae), it is the largest living
species of lizard, growing to an average length of 2–3 meters (approximately
6.5–10 ft) and weighing around 70 kilograms (154 lb). Their unusual size is
attributed to island gigantism, since there are no other carnivorous animals
to fill the niche on the islands where they live, and also to the Komodo
dragon's low metabolic rate. As a result of their size, these lizards are
apex predators, dominating the ecosystems in which they live. Although
Komodo dragons eat mostly carrion, they will also hunt and ambush prey
including invertebrates, birds, and mammals. Mating begins between May and
August, and the eggs are laid in September. About twenty eggs are deposited
in abandoned megapode nests and incubated for seven to eight months,
hatching in April, when insects are most plentiful. Young Komodo dragons are
vulnerable and therefore dwell in trees, safe from predators and
cannibalistic adults. They take around three to five years to mature, and
may live as long as fifty years. In the wild their range has contracted due
to human activities and they are listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. They are
protected under Indonesian law, and a national park, Komodo National Park,
was founded to aid protection efforts.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1665:
The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English newspaper, was first
published as the Oxford Gazette.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Gazette)
1811:
American forces led by Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison
defeated the forces of Shawnee leader Tecumseh's growing American Indian
confederation at the Battle of Tippecanoe near present-day Battle Ground,
Indiana.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tippecanoe)
1885:
Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first transcontinental
railroad across Canada, concluded with financier and politician Sir Donald
Smith driving in the "last spike" in Craigellachie, British Columbia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_Railway)
1917:
Vladimir Lenin led a Bolshevik insurrection against the Provisional
Government of Alexander Kerensky, starting the Bolshevik Revolution, the
second phase of the overall Russian Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_(1917)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_%281917%29>
)
1987:
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali deposed and replaced Habib Bourguiba as President of
Tunisia, declaring him medically unfit for the duties of the office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
grandiloquent (adj) Of a person, their language or writing: overly
wordy, pompous, flowery, or elaborate.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grandiloquent)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts
there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be told in simple
chronological order, since the latest science replaces what went before. But
the arts are another story — a story of infinite addition. We must find
order in the random flexings of the imagination.
--Daniel J. Boorstin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Boorstin)
Mario Vargas Llosa (born 1936) is a Peruvian writer, politician, journalist,
and essayist. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant
novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation.
Some critics consider him to have had a larger international impact and
world-wide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom. Vargas
Llosa rose to fame in the 1960s with novels such as The Time of the Hero,
The Green House, and the monumental Conversation in the Cathedral. He
continues to write prolifically across an array of literary genres,
including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies,
murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. Many of Vargas
Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's perception of Peruvian society
and his own experiences as a native Peruvian. Increasingly, however, he has
expanded his range, and tackled themes that arise from other parts of the
world. Like many Latin American authors, Vargas Llosa has been politically
active throughout his career; over the course of his life, he has gradually
moved from the political left towards the right. He ran for the Peruvian
presidency in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático coalition,
advocating neoliberal reforms. He has subsequently supported moderate
conservative candidates.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Vargas_Llosa
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1632:
King Gustavus Adolphus the Great of Sweden is killed in the Battle of Lützen
during the Thirty Years' War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_L%C3%BCtzen_(1632)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_L%C3%BCtzen_%281632%29>
)
1860:
Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican Party candidate to win the U.S.
presidential election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860)
1935:
Before the Institute of Radio Engineers in New York, American electrical
engineer and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong presented his study on using
frequency modulation for radio broadcasting.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation)
1962:
The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 1761, condemning
South Africa's apartheid policies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa_in_the_apartheid_era)
1999:
Although opinion polls had clearly suggested that the majority of the
electorate favoured republicanism, the Australian republic referendum was
defeated, keeping the British monarch as the country's head of state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_republic_referendum,_1999)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sentience (n) The state or quality of being sentient; possessing
consciousness, perception, and thought.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sentience)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Love and music and happiness and family, that's what it's all about. I
believe in these things. It would be awful not to, wouldn't it?
--Julie Andrews
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julie_Andrews)
A group is a mathematical set of elements together with an operation that
combines any two of its elements to form a third element. To qualify as a
group, the set and operation must satisfy a few conditions called group
axioms, namely associativity, identity and invertibility. The ubiquity of
groups in numerous areas—both within and outside mathematics—makes them a
central organizing principle of contemporary mathematics. The concept of a
group arose from the study of polynomial equations, starting with Évariste
Galois in the 1830s. After contributions from other fields such as number
theory and geometry, the group notion was generalized and firmly established
around 1870. Modern group theory—a very active mathematical
discipline—studies groups in their own right. To explore groups,
mathematicians have devised various notions to break groups into smaller,
better-understandable pieces, such as subgroups, quotient groups and simple
groups.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_%28mathematics%29>
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1605:
The Gunpowder Plot: Thomas Knyvet arrested explosives expert Guy Fawkes and
foiled Robert Catesby's plot to destroy the Houses of Parliament in London
during the State Opening.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot)
1688:
Glorious Revolution: Protestant Prince William of Orange landed at Brixham
in Devon, on his way to depose his father-in-law King James II, the last
Catholic monarch of England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution)
1838:
The collapse of the Federal Republic of Central America began with Nicaragua
seceding from the union.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Republic_of_Central_America)
1872:
American Suffragette Susan B. Anthony voted in the U.S. presidential
election for the first time in Rochester, New York. She was later fined
US$100 for her participation, which she never paid, and the government never
pursued her for nonpayment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony)
1917:
St. Tikhon of Moscow was elected Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian
Orthodox Church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikhon_of_Moscow)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
autochthonous (adj) 1. Native to the place where found; indigenous.
2. (geology) Buried in place, especially of a fossil preserved in its
life position without disturbance or disarticulation.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/autochthonous)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is
always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in
peace by killing each other's children.
--Jimmy Carter
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter)
John McCain (born 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and
presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential
election. During the Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS
Forrestal fire. In October 1967, he was shot down and held as a prisoner of
war until 1973, experiencing episodes of torture; his war wounds left him
with lifelong physical limitations. Elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the
U.S. Senate in 1986.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain
Barack Obama (born 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois
and presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential
election. Obama is the first African American to be nominated by a major
political party for president. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard
Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review, he
worked as a community organizer, served three terms in the Illinois Senate,
and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. Obama
delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and
was elected to the Senate in November 2004.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1737:
The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, currently the oldest active opera
house in Europe, was inaugurated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_di_San_Carlo)
1852:
Count Cavour became prime minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia,
which soon expanded to become the Kingdom of Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Benso,_conte_di_Cavour)
1890:
London's City and South London Railway, the first deep-level underground
railway in the world, opened, running a distance of 5.1 km (3.2 mi) between
the City of London and Stockwell.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_and_South_London_Railway)
1979:
Hundreds of Iranian students supporting Iran's post-revolutionary regime
seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, beginning a 444-day hostage crisis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis)
1995:
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was mortally wounded by Yigal Amir
while at a peace rally at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Yitzhak_Rabin)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vituperative: (adj) Marked by harsh spoken or written abuse; invective;
scolding; abusive.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vituperative)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When you get to a fork in the road, take it.
--Yogi Berra
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra)
Delhi is the second largest metropolis of India, and the fifth largest city
in the world by population, with a population greater than 18 million, and a
federally-administered union territory. Located on the banks of river Yamuna
in northern India, archaeological evidence suggest that Delhi has been
continuously inhabited since at least 6th century BC. In 1639, Mughal
emperor Shahjahan built a new walled city in Delhi which served as the
capital of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. A new capital city, New
Delhi, was built during the 1920s. When India gained independence from
British rule in 1947, New Delhi was declared its capital and seat of
government. As such, New Delhi houses important offices of the federal
government, including the Parliament of India. Owing to the immigration of
people from across the country, Delhi has grown to be a cosmopolitan city.
Its rapid development and urbanisation, coupled with the relatively high
average income of its population, has transformed the city. Today, Delhi is
a major cultural, political, and commercial center of India.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
French playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges was
guillotined for her revolutionary ideas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges)
1838:
The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily
broadsheet newspaper, was founded as the The Bombay Times and Journal of
Commerce.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India)
1848:
A new constitution drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke was proclaimed,
severely limiting the powers of the monarchy of the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rudolf_Thorbecke)
1948:
The Chicago Tribune newspaper published the erroneous headline "Dewey
Defeats Truman" shortly after incumbent U.S. President Harry S. Truman upset
heavily favored Governor of New York Thomas Dewey in the U.S. presidential
election.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1948)
1957:
The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, carrying Laika the
Russian space dog as the first living creature from Earth to enter orbit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
connote: (v) 1. To signify beyond a literal or principal meaning.
2. To possess an inseparable related condition; to imply as a logical
consequence.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/connote)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
--Aleister Crowley
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley)
The Attack on Sydney Harbour was raid during World War II by submarines of
the Imperial Japanese Navy on the cities of Sydney and Newcastle in New
South Wales, Australia. On the night of 31 May–1 June, three Ko-hyoteki
class midget submarines, each with a two-member crew, entered Sydney Harbour
to sink Allied warships. After being detected and attacked, the crews of two
of the midget submarines scuttled their boats and committed suicide without
engaging Allied vessels. The third attempted to torpedo the heavy cruiser
USS Chicago but instead sank the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21
sailors. This midget submarine then disappeared, its fate remaining a
mystery until 2006, when amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck off
Sydney's northern beaches. Immediately following the raid the five Japanese
fleet submarines that carried the midgets to Australia embarked on a
campaign to disrupt merchant shipping in eastern Australian waters. The
midget submarine attacks are among the best-known examples of Axis naval
activity in Australian waters during World War II. The main impact was
psychological and popular fear of an impending invasion forced the
Australian military to upgrade defences.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Sydney_Harbour
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1795:
French Revolution: Under the terms of a new constitution that was ratified
during the aftermath of the Reign of Terror and the subsequent Thermidorian
Reaction, the Directory succeeded the National Convention as the executive
government of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Directory)
1917:
British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration,
proclaiming British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in
Palestine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917)
1936:
BBC Television Service launched the world's first regular, public
all-electronic television service with a high level of image resolution
which became known as high-definition television.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_One)
1947:
American industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes flew Spruce Goose, the
largest flying boat ever built, on its maiden flight from the coast of Long
Beach, California, USA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules)
2000:
Expedition 1: American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts
Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko became the first resident crew to arrive
at the International Space Station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tmesis: (n) (prosody) The insertion of one or more words between the
components of a compound word.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tmesis)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could
go straight upwards.
--Fred Hoyle
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle)
Metallica is an American heavy metal band that formed in 1981 in Los
Angeles, California. Metallica's line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich,
rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, and lead guitarist Kirk
Hammett, while going through a number of bassists. Currently, the spot is
held by Robert Trujillo. Metallica's early releases included fast tempos,
instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship. The band earned a growing fan
base in the underground music community and critical acclaim, with the 1986
release Master of Puppets described as one of the most influential and
"heavy" thrash metal albums. The band achieved substantial commercial
success with its self-titled 1991 album, which debuted at #1 on the
Billboard 200. In 2000, Metallica was among several artists who filed a
lawsuit against Napster for sharing the band's copyright-protected material
for free without the band members' consent. Despite reaching #1 on the
Billboard 200, the release of St. Anger alienated many fans with the
exclusion of guitar solos and the "steel-sounding" snare drum. The band has
won seven Grammy Awards, and has had five consecutive albums peak at #1 on
the Billboard 200, making Metallica the only band to top the chart five
consecutive times. Metallica is the fifth highest-selling music artist since
the SoundScan era began tracking sales in 1991.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallica
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1512:
Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo finished repainting the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel in fresco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel)
1520:
Portuguese maritime explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European
expedition to navigate the Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south
of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Magellan)
1755:
A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed Lisbon, and killed at
least 60,000 people in Portugal and Morocco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake)
1928:
As part of the reforms implemented under the leadership of Turkish President
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the current 29-letter Turkish alphabet, used for the
Turkish language, was established, replacing the Ottoman Turkish alphabet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alphabet)
1963:
The Arecibo Observatory, with the world's largest single-dish radio
telescope, officially opened in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
incipient: (adj) Beginning, starting, coming into existence.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/incipient)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth.
--Natalie Clifford Barney
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Natalie_Clifford_Barney)
The Treehouse of Horror are a series of episodes in the animated series The
Simpsons. They are Halloween specials, each consisting of three separate,
self-contained segments. These segments usually involve the Simpson family
in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting. Considered
non-canon, they always take place outside the normal continuity of the show
and completely abandon any pretense of being realistic. The first Treehouse
of Horror episode aired on October 25, 1990 as part of the second season and
was inspired by EC Comics horror tales. The episodes are known for being far
more violent and much darker than an average Simpsons episode. As of 2008,
there are 18 Treehouse of Horror episodes, with one airing every year, and
the newest episode, "Treehouse of Horror XIX", is scheduled to air on
November 2. Episodes contain several trademarks, including the alien
characters Kang and Kodos, "scary names" in the credits, a special version
of the opening sequence, and parodies of horror and science fiction films.
The show's staff regard the Treehouse of Horror as being particularly
difficult to produce as the scripts often go through many rewrites, and the
animators typically have to design new characters and backgrounds.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treehouse_of_Horror_(series)
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1517:
According to traditional accounts, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five
Theses onto the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, marking the
beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther)
1587:
Leiden University Library in Leiden in the Netherlands, one of the cultural
centres that gave direction to the development and spread of knowledge
during the Age of Enlightenment, opened its doors after its founding in
1575.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden_University_Library)
1941:
The 60-foot (18 m) colossal busts of U.S. Presidents George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln at Mount Rushmore,
created by artist and sculptor Gutzon Borglum, were completed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore)
1984:
Indira Gandhi, India's first and to date only female prime minister, was
assassinated by two of her own bodyguards, sparking riots in New Delhi and
several other cities throughout the country.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi)
2000:
Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collided with construction equipment while
attempting to take off from Taiwan's Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport
during heavy rain, killing 79 passengers and 4 crew members.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Airlines_Flight_006)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Ragnarok: (n) (Norse mythology) The final battle between gods and giants,
involving all creation which denotes the end of the world as it is known and
almost all life.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ragnarok)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
--James Boswell
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Boswell)
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was a British novelist, short story writer,
dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her
Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. She also edited and
promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy
Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and
her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1814,
Mary Godwin fell in love with one of her father's political followers, the
married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Together with Mary's stepsister, Claire
Clairmont, they left for France and travelled through Europe; upon their
return to England, Mary was pregnant. Over the next two years, she and Percy
faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born
daughter. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a
storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to
England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a
career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by
illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age
of 53.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley
_________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1470:
Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, restored Henry VI as the King of
England during the Wars of the Roses.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick)
1938:
The radio drama The War of the Worlds, based on the science fiction novella
by English writer H. G. Wells, frightened many listeners in the United
States into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_%28radio%29>
)
1960:
Surgeon and scientist Michael Woodruff performed the first successful kidney
transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Woodruff)
1961:
The Soviet hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba was detonated over Novaya Zemlya Island
in the Arctic Sea as a test. With a yield of around 50 megatons, it was the
largest nuclear weapon ever detonated to date.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba)
1975:
Prince Juan Carlos became Spain's acting head of state, taking over for the
country's ailing dictator General Francisco Franco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco)
_______________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
saucy: (adj) 1. Impertinent or disrespectful, often in a way that is
regarded as entertaining or amusing; smart.
2. Impudently bold; pert; piquant.
3. Mildly erotic.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/saucy)
______________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations,
or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and
evidence.
--John Adams
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams)