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Hot Chip performing in 2016

Made in the Dark is the third studio album by English indietronica band Hot Chip (pictured), released on 4 February 2008 through EMI Records internationally and Astralwerks and DFA Records in the United States. A defining feature of the 13-track album is the strong presence of romantic ballads. Alexis Taylor, the main contributor to the lyrics, felt that feelings of love and happiness, partly the result of his recent marriage, had contributed to the album's romantic tone. The title track was described as "sublime" by one critic. Songs such as "Ready for the Floor" and "Bendable Poseable" were noted by critics to be reminiscent of the band's previous release, The Warning. Some critics felt that Made in the Dark lacked focus and contained too many varied elements. The album peaked at number four on the UK Albums Chart, and entered at number 109 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Several singles were released from the album, including "Shake a Fist", "Ready for the Floor", and "One Pure Thought". (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Luna Park

... that during the construction of Coney Island's Luna Park (pictured), its owners electrocuted Topsy the elephant?
... that with his self-produced solo ice show Gift, two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu is expected to become the first ice skater to perform at the Tokyo Dome?
... that during its run of screenings at the Whitney Museum, the 1979 film Asparagus was shown rear-projected onto a set that appears in the film itself?
... that Eudoro Galindo, who was nearly elected Vice President of Bolivia, was also a three-time national fencing champion and a two-time Bolivarian Games bronze medallist?
... that SZA said her label insisted on scrapping a song from her second album, even though they had used it to promote the album?
... that attendees from forty countries and financial institutions at the 2023 International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan pledged more than US$9 billion for flood recovery?
... that Margaret Cooper wrote that the Women's Royal Indian Naval Service was providing "the experience of a lifetime" to the young women she recruited during the Second World War?
... that in 2012, a "stylish but illegal monkey" was seen wandering a Toronto-area IKEA?

In the news

Comet C/2022 E3

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) (pictured) makes its closest approach to the Earth.
A suicide bombing in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills 100 people and injures more than 220 others.
Petr Pavel is elected as president of the Czech Republic.
Cyclone Cheneso leaves at least 33 people dead in Madagascar.
A Palestinian attack at a synagogue in East Jerusalem kills seven Israeli civilians, following an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp that killed ten Palestinians, including two civilians.

On this day

February 4

Emperor Taizu of Song

960 – Emperor Taizu (pictured) came to power, initiating the Song dynasty of China that eventually lasted for more than three centuries.
1797 – The Riobamba earthquake, the most powerful in Ecuador's history, devastated Riobamba and many other cities, causing at least 6,000 casualties.
1820 – Chilean War of Independence: Chilean forces captured the city of Valdivia.
1899 – The Philippine–American War began when an American soldier, under orders to keep insurgents away from his unit's encampment, fired on a Filipino soldier in Manila.
2015 – Shortly after takeoff from Taipei Songshan Airport, the crew of TransAsia Airways Flight 235 shut down the wrong engine in response to a flameout, leading to a crash that resulted in 43 deaths.

Ceolnoth (d. 870)
Carl Michael Bellman (b. 1740)
Jenny Shipley (b. 1952)

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Today's featured picture

The geology of the Moon is quite different from that of the Earth. The Moon lacks a true atmosphere, and the absence of oxygen and water eliminates erosion due to weather. Instead, the surface is eroded much more slowly through bombardment of the lunar surface by micrometeorites. It lacks any known form of plate tectonics, has a lower gravitational acceleration, and cooled faster after its formation because of its small size. In addition to impacts, the geomorphology of the lunar surface has been shaped by volcanism, which is now thought to have ended less than 50 million years ago. The Moon is a differentiated body, with a crust, mantle, and core. This global geologic map of the Moon was published by Chinese planetary geologists in 2022 at a scale of 1 to 2.5 million at full resolution. Colours are used to indicate different stratigraphic units corresponding to various periods of the lunar geologic timescale, with structural features and Moon landing sites also marked. The main map uses the Mollweide projection. Two insets are provided for the northern and southern polar areas, as well as two smaller maps illustrating the lithology and tectonic units of the lunar surface.

Map credit: Jinzhu Ji et al.

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