The horned sungem (Heliactin bilophus) is a species of hummingbird
native to Brazil, Bolivia and Suriname. It prefers open habitats such as
savanna, grassland and garden, and expanded its range into southern
Amazonas and Espírito Santo, probably due to deforestation. It is a
small hummingbird with a long tail and a short, black bill. The sexes
differ in appearance, with males having two shiny red, golden, and green
feather "horns" above the eyes, a shiny blue head crest and a black
throat with a pointed "beard". The female is plainer, with a brown or
yellow–buff throat. It is a nomadic species, responding to the
seasonal flowering of its food plants. If a flower's shape is unsuited
to the bird's short bill, it may rob nectar through a hole at its base.
It also eats small insects. Only the female builds the small cup nest,
incubates the two white eggs, and rears the chicks. The species is
currently classified as least concern, and its population is thought to
be increasing.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_sungem>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1944:
World War II: The Japanese Take Ichi convoy arrived at
Halmahera in the Dutch East Indies after losing many ships and thousands
of troops to Allied attacks while attempting to carry two divisions of
troops from China to New Guinea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy>
1977:
The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire, leaving 33
people dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Polen_fire>
1980:
Part of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida collapsed after a
pier was struck by the MV Summit Venture, killing 35 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge>
2001:
Police at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, fired tear
gas to quell unrest at a football match, leading to a stampede that
killed 126 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accra_Sports_Stadium_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
derelict:
1. (uncountable) Property abandoned by its former guardian or owner;
(countable) an item of such property.
2. (uncountable, specifically, law) Property abandoned at sea with no
hope of recovery and no expectation of being returned to its owner;
(countable) an item of such property, especially a ship.
3. (countable, dated) An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast, a
waif.
4. (countable, by extension, derogatory) A homeless and/or jobless
person; a vagrant; also, a person who is (perceived as) negligent in
their hygiene and personal affairs.
5. (countable, chiefly US) A person who is negligent in performing a
duty.
6. Given up by the guardian or owner; abandoned, forsaken.
7. (specifically) Of a ship: abandoned at sea; dilapidated, neglected;
of a spacecraft: abandoned in outer space.
8. (figurative) Adrift, lost.
9. (chiefly US) Negligent in performing a duty; careless, deficient,
neglectful, unfaithful. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/derelict>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The best moments in reading are when you come across something
— a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things — that you'd
thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone
else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's
as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.
--The History Boys
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_History_Boys_%28film%29>
Anna Blackburne (1726–1793) was an English botanist and collector. She
was born at Orford Hall in Lancashire into a family of landowners and
after her mother's death she remained there with her father, John
Blackburne, who had hothouses for exotic plants and an extensive
library. Blackburne taught herself Latin so she could read the Systema
Naturae of Carl Linnaeus, and created a natural history museum where she
collected insects, shells, minerals and birds. She knew the naturalist
Johann Reinhold Forster, who instructed her in entomology, and
corresponded with other naturalists including Linnaeus. Her brother
Ashton, who lived in New York, sent her specimens of North American
birds, which were described by the naturalist Thomas Pennant in his
Arctic Zoology. After her father's death, Blackburne and her museum
moved to nearby Fairfield Hall. After her death, her nephew John
Blackburne inherited her collection. Several species are named for her,
including the Blackburnian warbler.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Blackburne>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1842:
A train derailed and caught fire near Versailles, France,
killing at least 52 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles_rail_accident>
1927:
French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli aboard the
biplane L'Oiseau Blanc took off from Paris, attempting to make the first
non-stop flight to New York, only to disappear before arrival.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Oiseau_Blanc>
1963:
In Huế, South Vietnam, soldiers opened fire into a crowd of
Buddhists protesting against a government ban on the flying of the
Buddhist flag on Phật Đản, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist
crisis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu%E1%BA%BF_Ph%E1%BA%ADt_%C4%90%E1%BA%A3n_sho…>
1972:
Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to
demand the release of 315 Palestinians convicted on terrorism charges.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena_Flight_571>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
whither:
1. Interrogative senses.
2. To what place; where.
3. (figurative, also humorous) To what (future) cause, condition or
state, reason, etc.; where, where next; also (obsolete) to what extent;
how far.
4. Relative senses.
5. To which place; also (after a noun denoting a place) to which.
6. To the place in or to which.
7. (generally) In or to any place to which; to whatever place; wherever.
8. (formal, archaic except literary or poetic) A place to which someone
or something goes; also, a condition to which someone or something
moves. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/whither>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It used to be said, that in places like this, nature eventually
failed to support man, the truth is exactly the reverse, here man failed
to support nature. Ten thousand years ago man regarded the natural world
as divine, but as he domesticated animals and plants so nature lost some
of its mystery and appeared to be little more than a larder that could
be raided with impunity.
--David Attenborough
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Attenborough>
The Structure of Literature is a 1954 book of literary criticism by Paul
Goodman, the published version of his doctoral dissertation. It proposes
a mode of formal literary analysis in which Goodman defines a formal
structure within an isolated literary work, finds how parts of the work
interact with each other to form a whole, and uses those definitions to
study other works. He analyzes multiple literary works as examples with
close reading and genre discussion. Goodman finished his dissertation in
1940, but took 14 years to publish it. In mixed reviews, critics
described the book as falling short of its aims; engaging psychological
insight and incisive asides were mired in glaring style issues and
jargon that made passages impenetrable or obscured his argument. Though
Goodman contributed to the development of the Chicago School of
Aristotelian formal literary criticism, he neither received wide
academic recognition for his dissertation nor was his method accepted by
his field.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Literature>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1794:
French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre established the Cult
of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First
Republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Supreme_Being>
1798:
War of the First Coalition: A British garrison repelled a
French attack on the Îles Saint-Marcouf off the Normandy coast,
inflicting heavy losses.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_%C3%8Eles_Saint-Marcouf>
1937:
Employees at Fleischer Studios in New York City went on strike
in the animation industry's first major labor strike.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Fleischer_Studios_strike>
1946:
Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita founded the telecommunications
corporation Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, later renamed Sony.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
kugel:
1. A traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish consisting of a baked
pudding of pasta, potatoes, or rice, with vegetables, or raisins and
spices.
2. A traditional hanging ornament of German origin made of coloured
glass, usually spherical but also produced in other shapes such as
bunches of grapes and drops.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kugel>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hear the verbal protestations of all men: Nothing so certain as
their religious tenets. Examine their lives: You will scarcely think
that they repose the smallest confidence in them.
--David Hume
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hume>
The Take Ichi convoy was an Imperial Japanese Navy convoy of World
War II. Under the command of Rear Admiral Sadamichi Kajioka (pictured),
the convoy left Shanghai on 17 April 1944, carrying two infantry
divisions to reinforce Japan's defensive positions in the Philippines
and western New Guinea. United States Navy submarines attacked the
convoy on 26 April and 6 May, sinking four transports and killing more
than 4,000 soldiers. These losses caused the convoy to be diverted to
Halmahera, where the surviving soldiers and their equipment were
unloaded. The failure to bring the two divisions to their destination
without loss contributed to the Imperial General Headquarters' decision
to move Japan's defensive perimeter back by 1,000 km (600 mi). The
divisions' combat power was also blunted by their losses, and while they
both saw action against United States Army forces, they contributed
little to Japan's attempt to defend its empire.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1782:
Construction began on the Grand Palace in Bangkok, the official
residence of the king of Thailand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace>
1915:
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Aurora, anchored in
McMurdo Sound, broke loose during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal in
the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean for her 18-man crew.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SY_Aurora%27s_drift>
2004:
The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends>
2013:
Amanda Berry escaped from the Cleveland, Ohio, home of her
captor, Ariel Castro, having been held there with two other women for
ten years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Castro_kidnappings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
descend:
1. Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position.
2. (transitive) To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something,
such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon.
3. (transitive) Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a
hill, a slope, etc.).
4. (transitive, archaic) To move (someone or something) from a higher to
a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down.
5. (intransitive) To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower
place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing,
falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink.
6. (astrology) Of a zodiac sign: to move away from the zenith towards
the horizon; to sink; also, of a planet: to move to a place where it has
less astrological significance.
7. (astronomy) Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards
the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.
8. (biology, physiology) Of a body part: to move downwards, especially
during development of the embryo; specifically, of the testes of a
mammal: to move downwards from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum.
9. (chemistry, obsolete) Of a liquid substance: to distil out from
another substance and gather at the bottom of a container; also, to
distil a substance to obtain another liquid substance in this manner.
10. (intransitive) To slope or stretch downwards.
11. (intransitive, chiefly historical) To alight from a carriage, a
horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land.
12. (intransitive, figurative)
13. To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality.
14. Of a physical thing (such as a a cloud or storm) or a (generally
negative) immaterial thing (such as darkness, gloom, or silence): to
settle upon and start to affect a person or place.
15. In speech or writing: to proceed from one matter to another;
especially, to pass from more general or important to specific or less
important matters to be considered.
16. Chiefly followed by into or to: of a situation: to become worse; to
decline, to deteriorate.
17. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to make an attack or incursion, from
or as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
18. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to arrive suddenly or unexpectedly,
especially in a manner that causes disruption or inconvenience.
19. (reflexive) To come down to a humbler or less fortunate, or a worse
or less virtuous, rank or state; to abase or lower oneself; to
condescend or stoop to something.
20. (reflexive, chiefly poetic or religion) Chiefly in the form descend
into (or within) oneself: to mentally enter a state of (deep) meditation
or thought; to retire.
21. (mathematics) Of a sequence or series: to proceed from higher to
lower values.
22. (music) To pass from a higher to a lower note or tone; to fall in
pitch.
23. Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing.
24. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To trace (a lineage) from earlier to
later generations.
25. (intransitive) Of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a parent
to a child.
26. (intransitive, often passive voice) Chiefly followed by from or
(obsolete) of: to come down or derive from an ancestor or ancestral
stock, or a source; to originate, to stem.
27. (intransitive, chiefly law) Of property, a right, etc.: to pass down
to a generation, a person, etc., by inheritance. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/descend>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a
political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter,
weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and
constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson
of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.
--Maximilien Robespierre
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre>
"Can I Get It" is a song by English singer Adele from her fourth studio
album, 30 (2021). Adele wrote the song with its producers, Max Martin
and Shellback. It was released by Columbia Records as the album's sixth
track on 19 November 2021. A pop song with pop rock and country pop
influences, "Can I Get It" has acoustic guitar, drum, and horn
instrumentation and a whistled hook. The song is about moving on from a
breakup and desiring a committed relationship, exploring Adele's search
for true love and a new relationship. Music critics were generally
positive about its acoustic portion and lyrics but highly criticised its
whistled hook. They thought the brazen pop production of "Can I Get It"
catered to the tastes of mainstream radio, which made it an outlier on
30, and compared it to Flo Rida's single "Whistle" (2012). The song
reached the top 20 in Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Finland,
and Norway and entered the top 40 in some other countries.
(This article is part of a featured topic: 30 (album).).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/30_%28album%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
American Civil War: Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland
Campaign in Virginia began with the inconclusive Battle of the
Wilderness in Spotsylvania County.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Wilderness>
1891:
Carnegie Hall (interior pictured) in New York City, built by
the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, officially opened with a concert
conducted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Hall>
1980:
The British Special Air Service recaptured the Iranian embassy
in London after a six-day siege by Iranian Arab separatists.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Embassy_siege>
2007:
Kenya Airways Flight 507 crashed immediately after takeoff from
Douala International Airport in Cameroon, resulting in the deaths of all
114 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_Airways_Flight_507>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dawn chorus:
1. Birdsong by a large number of birds occurring in the early morning.
2. (electromagnetism, radio) Radio interference sometimes experienced at
sunrise.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dawn_chorus>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Faith is believing what you know ain't so.
--Following the Equator
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Following_the_Equator>
Dorothy Olsen (1916–2019) was an American aircraft pilot and member of
the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II. She
developed an interest in aviation at a young age and earned her private
pilot's license in 1939, when it was unusual for women to be pilots. In
1943, Olsen joined the newly formed WASPs as a civil service employee.
After training in Texas, she was assigned to the Sixth Ferrying Group in
Long Beach, California, where she worked ferrying new aircraft from the
factories where they were built to U.S. airbases. She flew more than 20
types of military airplanes, including high-performance fighters –
such as the P-51 and the twin-engine P-38 – which she favored over
larger aircraft such as bombers. After the war, Olsen retired from
flying and moved to the state of Washington, where she married, raised a
family, and lived for the rest of her life. In 2009, she was awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal honoring her service during the war.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Olsen>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
American Revolution: The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its
allegiance to the British Crown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Rhode_Island_and_Providence_Plantat…>
1942:
World War II: Aircraft from Imperial Japanese Navy vessels
attacked Allied naval forces, beginning the Battle of the Coral Sea, the
first naval action in which the participating ships never sighted or
fired directly at each other.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea>
1974:
An all-female Japanese team reached the summit of Manaslu in
the Himalayas, becoming the first women to climb a peak higher than
8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manaslu>
1979:
Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of the
United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Yoda condition:
(programming, informal) A logical condition with the usual order of
operands reversed for various reasons, such as avoiding accidental
misuse of = (assignment) instead of == (equality), a mistake that is
harder to spot when using the normal order of operands.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Yoda_condition>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,While proudly
riding o’er the azure realmIn gallant trim the gilded vessel
goes; Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;Regardless of the
sweeping whirlwind’s sway,That, hush’d in grim repose, expects his
evening prey.
--Thomas Gray
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Gray>
Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption was a legally recognized church in the
United States established by the comedian and satirist John Oliver
(pictured). Announced on August 16, 2015, in an episode of the
television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the church's
purpose was to highlight and criticize televangelists, such as Kenneth
Copeland and Robert Tilton, who Oliver argued used television broadcasts
of Christian church services for private gain. Oliver also established
Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption to draw attention to the tax-exempt
status given to churches. During his show on September 13, 2015, Oliver
announced that the church had received "thousands of dollars" and a
variety of other items from viewers, and stated that the Church would be
shutting down. All monetary donations were given to Doctors Without
Borders. Oliver set up spinoffs of the Church in 2018 and 2021. The
segments and later spinoff segments featured the comedian Rachel Dratch
as Oliver's fictional wife, Wanda Jo.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Perpetual_Exemption>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1848:
The Benty Grange helmet, a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet
similar to those mentioned in the contemporary epic poem Beowulf, was
discovered in Derbyshire, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benty_Grange_helmet>
1939:
Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc, a
faction within the Indian National Congress, in opposition to Gandhi's
tactics of nonviolence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Forward_Bloc>
1999:
A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on
Earth, at 301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h), in a tornado near Bridge
Creek, Oklahoma.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Bridge_Creek%E2%80%93Moore_tornado>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pen picture:
1. A written description, often biographical.
2. (art, archaic) A picture drawn with a pen.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pen_picture>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To be my royal bodyguard, go youStraightway into the leafy
places, whereGreenwoods have grown in nature's way and notFrom a man's
sowing.
--Gnaeus Naevius
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Naevius>
The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the western Deccan, South
India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannadiga dynasty is
sometimes called the Kalyani Chalukya after its regal capital at
Kalyani, today's Basavakalyan in the modern Bidar District of Karnataka
state, and alternatively the Later Chalukya from its theoretical
relationship to the sixth-century Chalukya dynasty of Badami. Prior to
the rise of the Western and Eastern Chalukyas, the Rashtrakuta Empire of
Manyakheta controlled most of the Deccan and Central India for over two
centuries. In 973, seeing confusion in the Rashtrakuta Empire after a
successful invasion of their capital by the ruler of the Paramara
dynasty of Malwa, Tailapa II, a feudatory of the Rashtrakuta dynasty
ruling from Bijapur region, defeated his overlords and made Manyakheta
his capital. The dynasty quickly rose to power and grew into an empire
under Someshvara I who moved the capital to Kalyani.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Chalukya_Empire>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
The Treaty of Wuchale was signed, ending the Italo-Ethiopian
War, but differences in translation later led to another war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo-Ethiopian_War_of_1887%E2%80%931889>
1964:
Vietnam War: An explosion caused by Viet Cong commandos led
USNS Card to sink in the port of Saigon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_USNS_Card>
1999:
Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President
of Panama.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireya_Moscoso>
2014:
Two mudslides in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, killed at
least 350 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Badakhshan_mudslides>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
smell the barn:
(intransitive, chiefly US, idiomatic) To act with renewed energy or
speed or to experience heightened anticipation as one approaches a
destination, goal, or other desired outcome.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smell_the_barn>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The true philosophical Act is annihilation of self
(Selbsttodtung); this is the real beginning of all Philosophy; all
requisites for being a Disciple of Philosophy point hither. This Act
alone corresponds to all the conditions and characteristics of
transcendental conduct.
--Novalis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Novalis>
La Salute è in voi! ("Health/Salvation is in you!") was an early 1900s
bomb-making handbook associated with the Galleanisti, followers of
anarchist Luigi Galleani, particularly in the United States. The
anonymously written, Italian-language handbook repackaged technical
content from encyclopedias and applied chemistry books into plain
directions for non-technical amateurs to build explosives. It wrapped
this content in a political manifesto advocating for impoverished
workers to overcome their despair and commit to individual,
revolutionary acts. American police and historians used the handbook to
profile anarchists and imply guilt by possession. It figured prominently
in the prosecution of the Bresci Circle, a case that revolved around the
anarchists' right to read. Successful political bombers of this era
ultimately had career backgrounds in explosives and were not the self-
taught amateurs the handbook sought to create.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Salute_%C3%A8_in_voi>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1794:
War of the Pyrenees: France regained nearly all the land it
lost to Spain the previous year with its victory in the Second Battle of
Boulou.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Boulou>
1931:
New York City's Empire State Building, at the time the tallest
building in the world, opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building>
1974:
Argentine president Juan Perón expelled Montoneros from a
demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, forcing the group to
become a clandestine organization.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Montoneros_from_Plaza_de_Mayo>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
worky:
1. Characterized by or pertaining to work.
2. Especially of attire: appropriate for work; businesslike.
3. Requiring much work; laborious.
4. Tending to be very serious about work; diligent, industrious.
5. (obsolete) Showing the effect of much effort and work; intricate,
involved. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/worky>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The man who will live above his present circumstances is in
great danger of living in a little time much beneath them; or as the
Italian proverb runs, "The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger."
--Joseph Addison
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Addison>
The Inaccessible Island rail (Laterallus rogersi) is a bird found only
on Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Tristan archipelago. This
rail, the smallest extant flightless bird, was described by physician
Percy Lowe in 1923. The adult has brown plumage, a black bill, black
feet, and red eyes. It occupies most habitats on the island, from the
beaches to the central plateau, feeding on a variety of small
invertebrates and some plant matter. Pairs are territorial and
monogamous; both parents incubate the eggs and raise the chicks. The
rail's adaptations to living on a tiny island at high densities include
a low basal metabolic rate, small clutch sizes, and flightlessness.
Unlike many other oceanic islands, Inaccessible Island has remained free
from introduced predators, allowing this species to flourish while many
other flightless rails have gone extinct. The species is nevertheless
considered vulnerable, due to the danger of a single catastrophe wiping
out the small, isolated population.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaccessible_Island_rail>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1943:
Second World War: The Royal Navy submarine HMS Seraph began
Operation Mincemeat to deceive Germany about the upcoming invasion of
Sicily.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat>
1963:
A refusal by the Bristol Omnibus Company and the Transport and
General Workers' Union to permit the employment of black bus crews led
to a bus boycott in Bristol, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Bus_Boycott>
1975:
American forces completed a helicopter evacuation (aircraft and
evacuees pictured) of U.S. citizens, South Vietnamese civilians and
others from Saigon, just before North Vietnamese troops captured the
city and ended the Vietnam War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Saigon>
2021:
A crowd crush killed 45 people during the annual pilgrimage to
the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Israel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Meron_crowd_crush>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
tchotchke:
1. A small ornament of minor value; a knick-knack, a trinket.
2. (figurative, dated) Chiefly in Jewish contexts: an attractive girl or
woman.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tchotchke>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever
on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really
and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation
is Drinking it.
--Taisen Deshimaru
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Taisen_Deshimaru>