The New South Wales waratah (Telopea speciosissima) is a large shrub in
the family Proteaceae. Endemic to New South Wales, Australia, it is the
floral emblem of that state. It grows as a shrub to 3–4 m
(10–13 ft) high and 2 m (7 ft) wide, with dark green leaves and
several stems rising from a pronounced woody base known as a lignotuber.
During the spring it has striking large red flowerheads, each made up of
hundreds of individual flowers. These are visited by the eastern pygmy
possum (Cercartetus nanus), birds such as honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) and
insects. T. speciosissima has featured prominently in art, architecture
and advertising. No subspecies are recognised, but cultivars with
various shades of red, pink and white flowers are commercially grown in
several countries as a cut flower. The shrub can be difficult to
cultivate in home gardens, requiring good drainage and being vulnerable
to fungal disease and pests.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telopea_speciosissima>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1925:
The novel The Great Gatsby by American author F. Scott
Fitzgerald was first published by Scribner's.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby>
1970:
In the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, Paul
McCartney announced his departure from the Beatles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney>
1973:
In the deadliest aviation accident in Swiss history, Invicta
International Airlines Flight 435 crashed into a hillside near
Hochwald, killing 108 people of 145 on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invicta_International_Airlines_Flight_435>
2019:
Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project released
the first image of a black hole (depicted), located at the center of the
galaxy M87.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
baffle:
1. (transitive)
2. To confuse or perplex (someone) completely; to bewilder, to confound,
to puzzle.
3. (archaic) To defeat, frustrate, or thwart (someone or their efforts,
plans, etc.); to confound, to foil.
4. (specifically, nautical) Of weather or wind: to hinder or prevent (a
ship or its crew) from advancing.
5. (technology) To dampen, muffle, restrain, or otherwise control (a
fluid, or waves travelling through a fluid such as light or sound).
6. (obsolete)
7. To deceive or hoodwink (someone); to gull.
8. Followed by away or out: to deprive of (something) through cheating
or manipulation; also (followed by out of), to deprive of something by
cheating or manipulating (someone).
9. (intransitive)
10. To expend effort or struggle in vain.
11. (obsolete) To argue or complain in a petty or trivial manner; to
quibble. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baffle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am no politician, and still less can I be said to be a party-
man: I have a hatred of tyranny, and a contempt for its tools; and this
feeling I have expressed as often and as strongly as I could. I cannot
sit quietly down under the claims of barefaced power, and have tried to
expose the little arts of sophistry by which they are defended. I have
no mind to have my person made a property of, nor my understanding made
a dupe of. I deny that liberty and slavery are convertible terms, that
right and wrong, truth and falsehood, plenty and famine, the comforts or
wretchedness of a people, are matters of perfect indifference. That is
all I know of the matter; but on these points I am likely to remain
incorrigible, in spite of any arguments that I have seen used to the
contrary. It needs no sagacity to discover that two and two make four;
but to persist in maintaining this obvious position, if all the fashion,
authority, hypocrisy, and venality of mankind were arrayed against it,
would require a considerable effort of personal courage, and would soon
leave a man in a very formidable minority.
--William Hazlitt
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Hazlitt>
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