MissingNo. is a Pokémon species found in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue. Standing for "Missing Number", MissingNo. Pokémon are used as error handlers by game developer Game Freak; they appear when the game attempts to access data for a nonexistent Pokémon species. Due to the programming of three in-game events, players can encounter MissingNo. via a glitch. The species was first documented by Nintendo in the May 1999 issue of Nintendo Power. Encountering MissingNo. causes graphical errors and the mass replication of the sixth item in the player's item menu; the latter effect resulted in the glitch's coverage by strategy guides and game magazines. IGN has noted MissingNo.'s appearance in Pokémon Red and Blue as one of the most famous video game glitches. Fans of the series have attempted to rationalize MissingNo. as canon, which has sparked discussion in sociological studies about the impact of video games upon society. (more...) Recently featured: Galerina marginata – History of the New York Jets – American Airlines Flight 11 Archive – By email – More featured articles... Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MissingNo.> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1946: Residents of the Faroe Islands narrowly approved a referendum on independence from Denmark. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands> 1954: In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber dropped a 40-kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village, exposing some 45,000 soldiers and 10,000 civilians to nuclear fallout. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totskoye_range_nuclear_tests> 1979: Afghan President Nur Muhammad Taraki was assassinated upon the order of Hafizullah Amin, who became the new president. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nur_Muhammad_Taraki> 1992: The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Republic_of_Herzeg-Bosnia> 2007: Late-2000s financial crisis: The Northern Rock bank received a liquidity support facility from the Bank of England, sparking a bank run—the United Kingdom's first in 150 years. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rock> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: comeuppance (n): A negative outcome which is justly deserved <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/comeuppance> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run. --Sydney J. Harris <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_J._Harris>