75px|Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video
sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park. Designed by Catalan
artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it
opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a black granite
reflecting pool placed between a pair of glass brick towers. The towers
are 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, and they use light-emitting diodes to
display digital videos on their inward faces. Weather permitting, the
water operates from May to October, intermittently cascading down the
two towers and spouting through a nozzle on each tower's front face.
The fountain highlights Plensa's themes of dualism, light, and water,
extending the use of video technology from his prior works. Crown
Fountain has been the most controversial of all the Millennium Park
features. Before it was even built, some were concerned that the
sculpture's height violated the aesthetic tradition of the park. The
fountain has survived its somewhat contentious beginnings to find its
way into Chicago pop culture. It is a popular subject for photographers
and a common gathering place. The fountain is a public play area and
offers people an escape from summer heat, allowing children to frolic
in the fountain's water. (more...)
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1931:
American gangster Al Capone was convicted on five counts of income tax
evasion.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone>
1956:
Queen Elizabeth II opened the world's first commercial nuclear power
plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield>
1964:
Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies opened the artificial Lake
Burley Griffin in the middle of the capital Canberra.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Burley_Griffin>
1989:
A 6.9 Mw earthquake struck California's San Francisco Bay Area, killing
63 people, injuring 3,757, and leaving at least 8,000 homeless.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake>
2010:
Mary MacKillop was canonised to become the only Australian to be
recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as a saint.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_MacKillop>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
effusive (adj):
1. Gushy; unrestrained, extravagant or excessive (in emotional
expression).
2. (archaic) Pouring, spilling out freely; overflowing.
3. (of igneous
rock) Extrusive; having solidified after being poured out as molten
lava
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/effusive>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The law of cases of necessity is not likely to be well furnished with
precise rules; necessity creates the law, it supersedes rules; and
whatever is reasonable and just in such cases, is likewise legal; it is
not to be considered as matter of surprise, therefore, if much
instituted rule is not to be found on such subjects.
--William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Scott%2C_1st_Baron_Stowell>
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