Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve
Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob
Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. The first video game known to be
played at multiple computer installations, it was popular in the small
American programming community in the 1960s. Players wage a dogfight
between two spaceships with limited weaponry and fuel in the gravity
well of a star. Spacewar! was written for the newly installed Digital
Equipment PDP-1, a minicomputer, at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and the public domain code was widely ported. Saunders built
an early gamepad controller for the game. It directly inspired many
electronic games, such as the first commercial arcade video games,
Galaxy Game and Computer Space (both 1971), and later games such as
Asteroids (1979). In 2007, Spacewar! was named to a list of the ten most
important video games of all time, which formed the start of the game
canon at the Library of Congress.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1752:
The Pennsylvania Gazette published a statement by Benjamin
Franklin describing a kite experiment (depicted) to determine the
electrical nature of lightning.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_experiment>
1914:
First World War: Allied forces began engaging German troops at
the First Battle of Ypres.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Ypres>
1987:
Iran–Iraq War: U.S. Navy forces destroyed two Iranian oil
platforms in the Persian Gulf in response to an Iranian missile attack
on a Kuwaiti oil tanker three days earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nimble_Archer>
2013:
British YouTube collective the Sidemen were formed as a
Rockstar Games Social Club group in Grand Theft Auto Online.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidemen>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
honeycomb:
1. (uncountable) A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily
from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for
storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other
food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey;
(countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance.
2. (countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in
having numerous cells or small holes.
3. (countable, geometry) A space-filling packing of polytopes in three-
or higher-dimensional space.
4. (countable, technology)
5. The texture of the surface of a solar cell, intended to increase its
surface area and capture more sunlight.
6. (archaic) A defect in a material (especially metal) where small holes
are present; specifically (construction), a defect in concrete
consisting of numerous voids resulting from the failure of mortar to
effectively fill the spaces among coarse aggregate particles.
7. (chiefly aviation) Material manufactured with small hollow cells,
sometimes sandwiched between two flat sheets, which is used to make
light, stiff structural components.
8. (countable, zoology) Short for honeycomb stomach (“the reticulum or
second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant”).
9. (uncountable, architecture) Short for honeycomb work (“especially in
Moorish architecture: a form of ceiling ornamentation (especially of an
arch or dome) made up of small vaulted arches”).
10. (countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness;
hence, something desirable or pleasant.
11. (countable, archaic) Used as a term of endearment: honey,
sweetheart.
12. (uncountable, chiefly Australia, Britain, often attributive) A
crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar,
bicarbonate of soda, and water.
13. (transitive, often passive voice)
14. To riddle (something) with small holes, especially in a pattern
resembling a honeycomb (noun sense 1); also, to cause (something) to
become hollow or weakened in this way.
15. To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something).
16. To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern.
17. (figurative, chiefly passive voice) To make way deeply into
(something) so as to weaken it; to undermine.
18. (architecture) To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun
sense 2.4).
19. (intransitive, also figurative, archaic) To become riddled with
small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to
become hollow or weakened in this way.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/honeycomb>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I would die happy if I knew that on my tombstone could be written
these words, "This man was an absolute fool. None of the disastrous
things that he reluctantly predicted ever came to pass!".
--Lewis Mumford
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford>
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