Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have
eight legs, a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail,
often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always
ending with a stinger. There are over 2,500 described species. They
mainly live in deserts but have adapted to a wide range of environments.
Most species give birth to live young, and the female cares for the
juveniles while their exoskeletons harden, transporting them on her
back. Scorpions primarily prey on insects and other invertebrates, but
some species take vertebrates. They use their pincers to restrain and
kill prey. Scorpions themselves are preyed on by larger animals. Their
venomous sting can be used both for killing prey and for defense. Only
about 25 species have venom capable of killing a human. In regions with
highly venomous species, human fatalities regularly occur. Scorpions
with their powerful stingers appear in art, folklore, mythology, and
commercial brands.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1921:
The Tulsa race massacre, "the single worst incident of racial
violence in American history", began in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre>
1961:
The Union of South Africa was dissolved by the Constitution Act
and replaced by the Republic of South Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa>
1981:
An organized mob of police and government-sponsored Sinhalese
paramilitary forces began three days of attacks that led to the burning
of the Jaffna Library in Sri Lanka.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Jaffna_Public_Library>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ether:
1. (uncountable, literary or poetic) The substance formerly supposed to
fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular
as a medium breathed by deities.
2. (by extension) The medium breathed by human beings; the air.
3. (by extension) The sky, the heavens; the void, nothingness.
4. (uncountable, physics, historical) Often as aether and more fully as
luminiferous aether: a substance once thought to fill all unoccupied
space that allowed electromagnetic waves to pass through it and interact
with matter, without exerting any resistance to matter or energy; its
existence was disproved by the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment and the
theory of relativity propounded by Albert Einstein (1879–1955).
5. (uncountable, colloquial) The atmosphere or space as a medium for
broadcasting radio and television signals; also, a notional space
through which Internet and other digital communications take place;
cyberspace.
6. (uncountable, colloquial) A particular quality created by or
surrounding an object, person, or place; an atmosphere, an aura.
7. (uncountable, organic chemistry) Diethyl ether (C4H10O), an organic
compound with a sweet odour used in the past as an anaesthetic.
8. (countable, organic chemistry) Any of a class of organic compounds
containing an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrocarbon groups.
9. (transitive, slang) To viciously humiliate or insult.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ether>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Weave lasting sure, weave day and night the weft, the warp,
incessant weave, tire not, (We know not what the use O life, nor know
the aim, the end, nor really aught we know, But know the work, the need
goes on and shall go on, the death-envelop'd march of peace as well as
war goes on,) For great campaigns of peace the same the wiry threads to
weave, We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.
--Leaves of Grass
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass#Weave_in,_My_Hardy_Life>