Jameson's mamba (Dendroaspis jamesoni) is a species of highly venomous
snake native to equatorial Africa. A member of the mamba genus
Dendroaspis, it is slender with dull green upperparts and cream
underparts and generally ranges from 1.5 to 2.2 m (4 ft 11 in to
7 ft 3 in) in length. Described by Scottish naturalist Thomas Traill
in 1843, it has two recognised subspecies: the nominate subspecies from
central and western sub-Saharan Africa and the eastern black-tailed
subspecies from eastern sub-Saharan Africa. Predominantly arboreal, it
preys mainly on birds and mammals. Its venom consists of both
neurotoxins and cardiotoxins. Symptoms of envenomation in humans include
pain and swelling of the bite site, followed by swelling, chills,
sweating, abdominal pain and vomiting, with subsequent slurred speech,
difficulty breathing and paralysis. Fatalities have been recorded within
three to four hours of being bitten. The eastern subspecies is twice as
venomous as the nominate subspecies.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson%27s_mamba>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1893:
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony (audio
featured) premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_%28Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k%29>
1918:
Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declared the formation of the
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, a puppet state created by Soviet
Russia to justify the Lithuanian–Soviet War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Soviet_Socialist_Republic_%281918%E2%80%9319%29>
1971:
The surrender of East Pakistani forces in Dacca concluded the
Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971>
2014:
A hostage crisis in a Lindt chocolate café in Sydney,
Australia, ended with police storming the building, killing the
perpetrator and one of the hostages.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindt_Cafe_siege>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
reconciliation:
1. The re-establishment of friendly relations; conciliation,
rapprochement.
2. (accounting) The process of comparing and resolving apparent
differences between accounting records, or between accounting records
and bank statements, receipts, etc.
3. Religious senses.
4. (Christianity) The end of estrangement between a human and God as a
result of atonement.
5. (Christianity) The reconsecration of a desecrated church or other
holy site.
6. (Christianity, chiefly Roman Catholicism) Admission of a person to
membership of the church, or readmission after the person has previously
left the church.
7. (Roman Catholicism) Short for sacrament of reconciliation (“a
sacrament (sacred ritual) formerly called confession, involving
contrition by a person, confessing sins to a priest, penance performed
by the person, and absolution granted by the priest”).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reconciliation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have
superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and
self-destroying.
--Arthur C. Clarke
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke>