The birthday-number effect is the unconscious tendency of people to
prefer the numbers in the date of their birthday over other numbers.
First reported in 1997 by Japanese psychologists Shinobu Kitayama and
Mayumi Karasawa, the birthday-number effect has been shown to hold
across age and gender. The effect is most prominent for numbers over 12.
Birth dates are unconsciously associated with the self, and most people
like themselves; this has been offered as an explanation for the effect.
Conversely, people who do not like themselves tend not to exhibit the
effect. One lab study revealed an increase in favourable attitudes
towards prices that were secretly manipulated to match the day of the
month of the subjects’ birth, but a second study using birth year as
price did not lead to the same result. People also have an unconscious
preference for the letters in their name, and the two effects are
significantly correlated. Another study found that participants with
high self-esteem tended to prefer product names that included numbers
from their birthday along with letters from their name.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday-number_effect>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1775:
American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Quebec, British
forces repulsed an attack by the Continental Army to capture Quebec City
and enlist French Canadian support.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Quebec_(1775)>
1857:
Queen Victoria selected Ottawa, then a small logging town, to
be the capital of the British colony of Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa>
1963:
Despite Prime Minister Roy Welensky's efforts, the Central
African Federation officially collapsed, subsequently becoming three
separate nations: Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Welensky>
1986:
Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel
in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140
others (rescue efforts depicted), making it the second deadliest hotel
fire in United States history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_Plaza_Hotel_arson>
1999:
Panama took control of the Panama Canal Zone from the United
States, in accordance with the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Zone>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hemerology:
The study of calendars, especially with a view to identifying propitious
days.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hemerology>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious. That
must be apparent to all intelligent people. I think one difficulty is
that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass
of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly
difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the
situation. … it is of vast importance that our people reach some
general understanding of what the complications really are, rather than
react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment. … It
is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or
listening, or even seeing photographs or motion pictures, to grasp at
all the real significance of the situation. And yet the whole world of
the future hangs on a proper judgment. It hangs, I think, to a large
extent on the realization of the American people, of just what are the
various dominant factors. What are the reactions of the people? What are
the justifications of those reactions? What are the sufferings? What is
needed? What can best be done? What must be done?
--George Marshall
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Marshall>
William Borah (1865–1940) was an outspoken Republican United States
Senator from the state of Idaho. A progressive who served in the Senate
from 1907 until his death, he is often considered an isolationist. He
reluctantly voted for U.S. entry into World War I in 1917 and, once the
war ended, fought successfully against Senate ratification of the Treaty
of Versailles, which would have made the U.S. part of the League of
Nations. Remaining a maverick, he often fought with the Republican
presidents in office between 1921 and 1933, though Coolidge offered to
make Borah his running mate in 1924. Deprived of his post as Chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the Democrats took control
in 1933, Borah supported some New Deal legislation, but opposed other
proposals. In his final years, he felt he might be able to settle
differences in Europe by meeting with Hitler; though he did not go, this
has not enhanced his historical reputation. His statue, presented by the
state of Idaho in 1947, stands in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Borah>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1460:
Wars of the Roses: Richard, Duke of York, was killed in the
Battle of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, and his army was
destroyed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wakefield>
1813:
War of 1812: British forces captured Buffalo, New York, and
engaged in considerable plundering and destruction.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Buffalo>
1906:
The All-India Muslim League, a political party in British India
that developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as
a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent, was founded in Dhaka.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-India_Muslim_League>
1954:
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation was established to
consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single
agency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Investigation_(Finland)>
2009:
Pro-government counter-demonstrators held rallies in several
Iranian cities in response to recent anti-government protests held on
the holy day of Ashura.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_30,_2009_pro-government_rally_in_Iran>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cognate accusative:
(grammar) An object of kindred sense or derivation; specifically, that
which may adverbially follow an intransitive verb (for example, the word
death in “to die the death”).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cognate_accusative>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for
the faith of tomorrow.
--Romain Rolland
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Romain_Rolland>
Qatna is an ancient city in Syria whose remains are about 18 km
(11 mi) northeast of Homs near the village of al-Mishrifeh. It was an
important center in the second millennium BC and in the first half of
the first millennium BC, with one of the largest royal palaces of Bronze
Age Syria. An intact royal tomb has provided data on the funerary habits
of that period. First inhabited in the second half of the fourth
millennium BC, it was repopulated around 2800 BC and continued to grow.
Around 2000 BC, it became the capital of a regional kingdom that spread
its authority over the central and southern Levant. By the 15th century
BC, Qatna had lost its hegemony and was under the authority of Mitanni.
It was conquered and sacked by the Hittites in the late 14th century BC
and abandoned by the 13th century BC. It was re-inhabited in the 10th
century BC, becoming a center of the kingdoms of Palistin and Hamath
until it was destroyed by the Assyrians in 720 BC, eventually
disappearing in the 6th century BC. The site has been excavated since
the 1920s. As a result of the Syrian Civil War, excavations stopped in
2011.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatna>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1845:
The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States,
becoming the 28th state admitted into the union.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_annexation>
1860:
To counter the French Navy's Gloire, the world's first ironclad
warship, the British Royal Navy launched the world's first iron-hulled
armoured battleship, HMS Warrior.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warrior_(1860)>
1911:
Sun Yat-sen was elected in Nanjing as the Provisional President
of the Republic of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen>
1975:
A bomb set by unknown perpetrators at LaGuardia Airport in New
York City exploded, killing 11 people and seriously injuring 74 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_LaGuardia_Airport_bombing>
1997:
In order to prevent the spread of the H5N1 flu virus, the Hong
Kong government began the slaughter of 1.3 million chickens.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_spread_of_H5N1>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ensete:
Ensete ventricosum, a species of flowering plant in the banana family
Musaceae, the root of which is used for food and other purposes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ensete>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We praise thee, O God, for thy glory displayed in all the
creatures of the earth, In the snow, in the rain, in the wind, in the
storm, in all of thy creatures, both the hunters and the hunted, For all
things exist as seen by thee, only as known by thee, all things exist
Only in thy light, and thy glory is declared even in that which denies
thee; the darkness declares the glory of light. Those who deny thee
could not deny, if thou didst not exist; and their denial is never
complete, for if it were so, they would not exist.
--T. S. Eliot
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot>
Leelah Alcorn (November 15, 1997 – December 28, 2014) was an American
transgender girl whose suicide attracted international attention. At age
14, she came out as transgender to her parents, and at 16, she asked to
undergo transition treatment; instead, they sent her to conversion
therapy. After she revealed her attraction toward males to her
classmates, her parents removed her from school and revoked her access
to social media. She killed herself by walking into highway traffic. In
her suicide note, Alcorn blamed her parents for her loneliness and
alienation, and asked people to pay more attention to discrimination and
abuse faced by transgender youth. LGBT rights activists cited the
incident as evidence of the problems she wrote about, and vigils were
held in her memory. Petitions that called for the establishment of
"Leelah's Law", a ban on conversion therapy in the U.S., received a
supportive response from President Barack Obama. Within a year, her
hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, criminalized conversion therapy.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Leelah_Alcorn>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
484:
Alaric II succeeded his father Euric as king of the Visigoths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaric_II>
1612:
Galileo became the first person to observe the planet Neptune,
although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune>
1895:
History of film: Using their cinematograph in Paris, the
Lumière brothers showed motion pictures to a paying audience for the
first time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re>
1943:
World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house
fighting, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division captured Ortona, Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ortona>
2014:
The passenger ferry MS Norman Atlantic caught fire in the
Adriatic Sea, resulting in nine deaths, with a further 19 missing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Norman_Atlantic>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wurley:
1. (chiefly South Australia) An Australian indigenous shelter made from
small branches with the leaves still attached.
2. (chiefly South Australia, by extension) A settlement made up of such
shelters.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wurley>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just
get used to them.
--John von Neumann
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann>
São Paulo was a dreadnought battleship in the Brazilian Navy, the
second of two ships in the Minas Geraes class. Launched in 1909 and
commissioned a year later, São Paulo was soon involved in the Revolt of
the Lash, in which crews on four Brazilian warships mutinied over poor
pay and harsh punishments for even minor offenses. In 1922 the ship
fired its guns in anger for the first time, attacking a fort that had
been taken during the Tenente revolts. Two years later, mutineers took
control of the ship and sailed to Montevideo where they obtained asylum.
In the 1930s, São Paulo was passed over for modernization. When Brazil
entered the Second World War, the ship sailed to the port of Recife and
remained there as the port's main defense for the duration of the war.
Stricken from the naval register in 1947, the dreadnought remained as a
training vessel until 1951, when it was taken under tow to be scrapped
in the United Kingdom. The tow lines broke during a strong gale in
November when the ships were 150 nmi (280 km; 170 mi) north of the
Azores, and São Paulo was lost.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_battleship_S%C3%A3o_Paulo>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
Three men of the Radical Reformation arrived in Wittenberg,
Saxony, and caused an unrest that required the release of Martin Luther
from custody to quell.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwickau_prophets>
1831:
Aboard HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin left Plymouth, England, on
what became a historic expedition to South America that made his name as
a naturalist.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_voyage_of_HMS_Beagle>
1922:
The Imperial Japanese Navy commissioned Hōshō, the world's
first purpose-built aircraft carrier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_H%C5%8Dsh%C5%8D>
1997:
Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright was assassinated
in the HM Prison Maze by members of the Irish National Liberation Army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Wright_(loyalist)>
2007:
Riots erupted in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki was declared
the winner of the presidential election—the first event in a
political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%9308_Kenyan_crisis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dragline excavator:
Any of several very large vehicles used for lifting, especially in the
process of mining: basically an excavator which drags its bucket to fill
it.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dragline_excavator>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
He who proclaims the existence of the Infinite, and none can avoid
it — accumulates in that affirmation more of the supernatural than is
to be found in all the miracles of all the religions; for the notion of
the Infinite presents that double character that forces itself upon us
and yet is incomprehensible. When this notion seizes upon our
understanding we can but kneel ... I see everywhere the inevitable
expression of the Infinite in the world; through it the supernatural is
at the bottom of every heart. The idea of God is a form of the idea of
the Infinite. As long as the mystery of the infinite weighs on human
thought, temples will be erected for the worship of the Infinite,
whether God is called Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus; and on the
pavement of these temples, men will be seen kneeling, prostrated,
annihilated by the thought of the Infinite.
--Louis Pasteur
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur>
The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding
schools for Indigenous children who were removed from their families and
culture to be assimilated into Canadian culture. It was funded by the
government's Department of Indian Affairs, in keeping with the Indian
Act of 1876, and administered by various churches. Over more than a
century about 30 percent of Indigenous children (roughly 150,000) were
placed in residential schools, where at least 6,000 of them died. The
schools were intentionally located far away from home communities, and
parental visits were further restricted by a pass system that confined
Indigenous peoples to reserves. Students often graduated unable to fit
into either their home communities or Canadian society, and impacted
families have suffered disproportionately from post-traumatic stress,
alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide. The last federally operated
residential school closed in 1996. The 2015 findings of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission concluded that the system amounted to cultural
genocide.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1606:
The first known performance of the play King Lear, a tragedy by
William Shakespeare based on the legendary King Lear of the Britons, was
held.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Lear>
1898:
At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie
Curie announced the discovery of a new element, naming it radium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium>
1900:
A relief crew arrived at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse of
Scotland and discovered that the previous crew had disappeared without a
trace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles_Lighthouse>
1919:
American baseball player Babe Ruth was sold by the Boston Red
Sox to their rivals, the New York Yankees, starting the 84-year-long
"Curse of the Bambino".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth>
1996:
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions called upon its 1.2
million members to walk off the job, beginning the largest organized
strike in South Korea's history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_strikes_in_South_Korea>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
St. Stephen's Day:
(Christianity) A Christian holiday commemorating Saint Stephen the
protomartyr (first Christian martyr; died 34 C.E.), falling immediately
after Christmas Day (on December 26 in the Western Church and on
December 27 in the Eastern Orthodox Church).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Day>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again
to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery.
--Henry Miller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Miller>
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) is
honoured as the founder of Pakistan, where his birthday is observed as a
national holiday. He served as leader of the All-India Muslim League
from 1913 until Pakistan's independence from Great Britain in 1947, and
then as the first Governor-General of Pakistan until his death. Jinnah
rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress in the first two
decades of the 20th century. In these early years of his political
career, he advocated Hindu–Muslim unity, helping to shape the 1916
Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the All-India Muslim League. By
1940, he had come to believe that Muslims of the Indian subcontinent
should have their own state. As the first leader of Pakistan, he worked
to establish the nation's government and policies, and to aid the
millions of Muslim migrants who had emigrated from the new nation of
India to Pakistan after independence, personally supervising the
establishment of refugee camps. Several universities and public
buildings in Pakistan bear Jinnah's name.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1100:
Baldwin of Boulogne was crowned as Baldwin I of Jerusalem, the
first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_I_of_Jerusalem>
1831:
A Baptist preacher named Samuel Sharpe began an unsuccessful
eleven-day slave revolt in Jamaica.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_War>
1927:
The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng, a revolutionary socialist
political party that sought Vietnamese independence from French colonial
rule, was formed in Hanoi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi%E1%BB%87t_Nam_Qu%E1%BB%91c_D%C3%A2n_%C4%90…>
1989:
Romanian Revolution: Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife
Elena were condemned to death under a wide range of charges and
executed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau%C8%99escu>
2007:
A tiger at the San Francisco Zoo escaped from its enclosure and
attacked three patrons before it was shot and killed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Zoo_tiger_attacks>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Yuletide:
1. (dated) The period of celebration of a pre-Christian festival associated
with the (northern) winter solstice, later absorbed into the festival of
Christmas.
2. (dated) The period around Christmas; the Christmas season,
Christmastime; specifically, Christmas itself.
3. (Australia, regional) The period of southern winter in the middle of the
year, sometimes celebrated in the colder, snowy regions of Australia
with allusions to Christmas, which originated as a marketing gimmick.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Yuletide>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The central core of truth is that Christmas turns everything
upside down, the upside of heaven come down to earth. The Christmas
story puts a new value on every man. He is not a thing to be used, not a
chemical accident, not an educated ape. Every man is a V.I.P., because
he has divine worth. That was revealed when “Love came down at
Christmas.” A scientist said, making a plea for exchange scholarships
between nations, “The best way to send an idea is to wrap it up in a
person.” That was what happened at Christmas. The idea of divine love
was wrapped up in a person. Christmas is good news in a world of bad
news. … Christmas brings hope to a dark world.
--Halford E. Luccock
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Halford_E._Luccock>
The American Bible Challenge (2012–2014) is a Biblical-themed American
television game show created by Game Show Network. The series is hosted
by Jeff Foxworthy (pictured), joined by Kirk Franklin in the second
season. Each season of the series is played as a nine-episode tournament
with six episodes of opening rounds, two semi-finals, and a final. Each
opening round starts with three teams of three contestants answering
questions about the Bible. One contestant from each team participates in
the following round. The two highest-scoring teams compete in a final
one-minute round, and a $20,000 prize is donated to a charity of the
winning team's choice. Over the course of the season, winning teams
advance to semi-final games and then to a final game with a grand prize
of $100,000, for a total possible payout of $140,000 for the season
winner's charity. The show became GSN's highest rated original program
in the history of the network. In 2014, the show received a nomination
at the 41st Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show, and Foxworthy
was nominated as Outstanding Game Show Host.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Bible_Challenge>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1818:
"Silent Night", a Christmas carol by Josef Mohr and Franz
Gruber, was first performed in a church in Austria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night>
1846:
The Sultanate of Brunei ceded the island of Labuan to Great
Britain as a colony.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Colony_of_Labuan>
1914:
British and German soldiers interrupted the World War I to
celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce>
1964:
The Viet Cong bombed the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, killing two
U.S. Army officers, raising fears of an escalation in the Vietnam War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brinks_Hotel_bombing>
1973:
The United States Congress granted Washington, D.C. home rule,
allowing the residents to elect their own mayor and city council.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_home_rule>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
carol:
1. (historical) A round dance accompanied by singing.
2. A ballad or song of joy.
3. (specifically) A (usually traditional) religious or secular song sung at
Christmastime.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/carol>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Thou waitest for the spark from heaven! and we, Light half-
believers of our casual creeds, Who never deeply felt, nor clearly
will’d, Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds, Whose vague
resolves never have been fulfill’d; For whom each year we see Breeds
new beginnings, disappointments new; Who hesitate and falter life away,
And lose to-morrow the ground won to-day — Ah! do not we, wanderer!
await it too?
--Matthew Arnold
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold>
Mortimer Wheeler (1890–1976) was a British archaeologist and army
officer who served as Director of the National Museum of Wales and the
London Museum, headed the Archaeological Survey of India, and wrote
twenty-four books on archaeology. He argued that excavation and the
recording of stratigraphic context required an increasingly scientific
and methodical approach, developing the "Wheeler Method". In 1934, he
established the Institute of Archaeology as part of the federal
University of London, becoming its Honorary Director and overseeing
excavations of the Roman sites at Lydney Park and Verulamium and the
Iron Age hill fort of Maiden Castle. During World War II, he rose to the
rank of brigadier, serving in the North African Campaign and the Allied
invasion of Italy. In India, he oversaw excavations of sites at Harappa,
Arikamedu, and Brahmagiri. In later life, his popular books, cruise ship
lectures, and appearances on radio and television, particularly the BBC
series Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?, helped to bring archaeology to a
mass audience. Appointed Honorary Secretary of the British Academy, he
raised large sums of money for archaeological projects.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortimer_Wheeler>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
French Revolution: The Royalist counterrevolutionary army was
decisively defeated in the Battle of Savenay, although fighting
continued in the War in the Vendée for years afterward.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_the_Vend%C3%A9e>
1876:
The Great Powers convened the Constantinople Conference to
discuss political reforms both in Bosnia and in the Ottoman territories
with a majority Bulgarian population.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople_Conference>
1919:
The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 was enacted,
lifting most of the existing common-law restrictions on women in the
United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Disqualification_(Removal)_Act_1919>
1957:
Ian Craig of Australia became the youngest Test cricket captain
in history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Craig>
2010:
A monsoonal trough brought torrential rain to Queensland,
causing massive flooding that killed 38 people and caused A$2.38 billion
in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%9311_Queensland_floods>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pappardelle:
A broad form of fettuccine, or a narrow form of lasagne, traditionally
eaten with a meat sauce (especially one made with hare).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pappardelle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
For some people the revelation comes too late that life is best
kept to the essentials. Some people are given their last rites and that
person might say in their last breath, "I should have celebrated
Festivus."
--Jerry Stiller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jerry_Stiller>
Blast Corps is an action video game for the Nintendo 64, released
worldwide on December 22, 1997, in which the player uses vehicles to
destroy buildings in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier.
Through the game's 57 levels, the player solves puzzles by moving
objects and bridging gaps with the vehicles. The game was developed at
Rare by a small team of recent graduates over the course of a year. They
were inspired, in part, by the puzzle elements of Donkey Kong (1994).
Nintendo published and released Blast Corps to critical acclaim in March
1997 in Japan and North America, with a wider release at the year's end.
The game received several editor's choice awards and Metacritic's second
highest Nintendo 64 ratings of 1997, but sold below the team's
expectations at one million copies. Reviewers praised the game's
originality, variety, and graphics, but some critiqued its controls and
repetition. Reviewers of the 2015 Rare Replay retrospective compilation
noted Blast Corps as a standout title.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_Corps>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
856:
An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 struck the
eastern Alborz mountains of Persia, causing 200,000 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/856_Damghan_earthquake>
1769:
Having been soundly defeated in battle, the Qing dynasty agreed
to terms of truce, ending the Sino-Burmese War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Burmese_War_(1765%E2%80%9369)>
1937:
The Lincoln Tunnel, connecting New York City to Weehawken, New
Jersey, opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Tunnel>
1987:
The Zimbabwe African National Union and Zimbabwe African
People's Union agreed to merge, bringing an end to the Gukurahundi, the
suppression of predominantly Ndebele civilians by the 5th Brigade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gukurahundi>
1997:
Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquished the disputed title of
President of Somalia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Farrah_Aidid>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
etendue:
(optics) A conserved property of the light in an optical system which
characterizes how "spread out" the light is in terms of angle and area:
it is the product of its cross-sectional area (normal to the direction
of propagation) and the solid angle it subtends.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/etendue>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I think each of us knows his own mystery with a knowing that
precedes the origins of all knowledge. None of us ever gives it away. No
one can. We envelop it with talk and hide it with deeds. Yet we always
hope that somehow the others will know it is there, that a mystery in
the other we cannot know will respond to a mystery in the self we cannot
understand. The only full satisfaction life offers us is this sense of
communion. We seek it constantly. Sometimes we find it. As we grow older
we learn that it is never complete and sometimes it is entirely
illusory.
--Kenneth Rexroth
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rexroth>