Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 2007

Today's featured articles for April 2007

Today's featured article archive

April 1

George Washington was an early inventor of instant coffee, and worked to ensure a full supply to soldiers fighting at the front. Early on, his campaign was based in Brooklyn, but later he crossed into New Jersey toward a more profitable position. In the countryside, he demonstrated a love of wild creatures, and was often seen with a bird or a monkey on his shoulder. Washington's choice beverage was taken up by the soldiers for its psychoactive properties, even though it tasted terrible. Some thought his brewed powder could even remedy the chemical weapons then in use. But, despite this, Washington failed in his first bid for the Presidency, as papers were filed too late, and the nominator forgot to tell him about it. (more...)

Recently featured: New Carissa – Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria – Cleveland

April 2

Gremlins 2 is a film released in 1990 and a sequel to the original Gremlins (1984). Gremlins 2 is directed by Joe Dante and written by Charles S. Haas, with creature designs by Rick Baker. It stars Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Haviland Morris, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Robert Picardo, and Christopher Lee. The story continues the adventures of the creature Gizmo, who spawns numerous small monsters when wet. In the first film Gizmo's offspring had rampaged through a fictional small town. In Gremlins 2, Gizmo multiplies within a building in New York City. The new creatures thus pose a serious threat to the city should they be able to leave the building, and much of the story involves the human characters' efforts to prevent this disaster. Like the first film, Gremlins 2 is a live action comedy-horror film. However, Dante put effort into taking the sequel in new anarchic directions. Unlike its highly successful predecessor, Gremlins 2 had a mediocre performance at the box office. (more...)

Recently featured: George Washington – New Carissa – Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria

April 3

Ziaur Rahman was the 6th President of Bangladesh and founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. While an officer in the Pakistan Army, Zia's unit captured the Kalurghat radio station at the onset of the Bangladesh Liberation War and declared the independence of Bangladesh. Recognised as a war hero, he would be honoured with the Bir Uttom in 1972. A high-ranking officer in the Bangladesh Army, Zia was appointed chief of army staff following the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. Although briefly overthrown in a coup d'etat, Zia returned to power in a counter-coup organised by Colonel Abu Taher. Declaring himself president in 1977, Zia won a referendum held in 1978. Founding the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Zia won widespread popular support for stabilising the nation and leading it in a new direction. A right-wing politician, Zia established free-market policies in a 19-point programme of industrialisation and development. He adopted policies bringing the government increasingly under Islam, which he included in the national constitution. Zia controversially pardoned the assassins of Sheikh Mujib by signing the Indemnity Act and rehabilitated individuals who had supported the Pakistan Army. A popular yet controversial leader, Zia was assassinated in 1981 in an abortive military coup. (more...)

Recently featured: Gremlins 2: The New Batch – George Washington – New Carissa

April 4

Mandy Moore is an American pop singer and actress. Moore grew up in Florida and came to fame as a teenager in 2000, after the release of her teen-oriented pop debut album So Real. Moore has branched out into a film career, starring in 2002's successful teen film A Walk to Remember and later appearing in the lead roles of less well-received movies also aimed at teenage audiences. Two of her latest films, American Dreamz and Saved!, were satires in which Moore portrayed darker characters than in her previous roles. Moore's private life, including her relationships with tennis player Andy Roddick and actors Wilmer Valderrama and Zach Braff, has been much-discussed in the media. She is scheduled to appear in several films during 2007 and is completing work on another album, Wild Hope, due for release the same year. (more...)

Recently featured: Ziaur Rahman – Gremlins 2: The New Batch – George Washington

April 5

Medieval cuisine was the variety of foods eaten by the various European cultures during the Middle Ages. During this period, diets and cooking changed across Europe, and many of these changes laid the foundations for contemporary regional and folk cuisines. Transportation and communication were slow and prevented the export of many foods, especially fresh fruit and meat, which today are commonplace in all industrialized nations. Imported ingredients such as spices were expensive and mainly the preserve of the wealthy nobility, making their foods more prone to foreign influence than the foods of lower strata of society. The single most important foodstuff was bread, and to a lesser extent other foods made from cereals such as porridge and pasta. Meat was more prestigious but more expensive and therefore less cost-efficient than grain or vegetables. The most common dishes were potages and stews, and common ingredients used in cooking were verjuice, wine and vinegar. These, combined with the widespread usage of sugar (among those who could afford it), gave many dishes a distinctly sweet-sour flavor. The most popular types of meat were pork and chicken, while beef required greater investment in land and grazing and therefore was less common. (more...)

Recently featured: Mandy Moore – Ziaur Rahman – Gremlins 2: The New Batch

April 6

The Turk was a hoax that purported to be a chess-playing machine. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by the Hungarian baron Wolfgang von Kempelen, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once. Publicly promoted as an automaton and given its common name based on its appearance, the Turk was a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master to hide inside and operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played. The apparatus was demonstrated around Europe and the United States of America for over 80 years until its destruction in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. (more...)

Recently featured: Medieval cuisine – Mandy Moore – Ziaur Rahman

April 7

Germany is a country in West-Central Europe. It is bordered on the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea, on the east by Poland and the Czech Republic, on the south by Austria and Switzerland, the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Germany is a parliamentary federal republic of sixteen states. The capital city and seat of government is Berlin. The country was first unified as a nation-state amidst the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. After World War II, Germany was divided and became reunified in 1990. It is a founding member of the European Union and with over 82 million people it has the largest population among the EU member states. The Federal Republic of Germany is a modern great power, and a member state of the United Nations, NATO, the G8 and the G4 nations. Germany is the world's third largest economy by nominal GDP, the world's largest exporter of goods, and the world's second largest importer of goods. In 2007 it holds the rotating presidencies of both the European council and the G8 summits. (more...)

Recently featured: The Turk – Medieval cuisine – Mandy Moore

April 8

Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman during the nation's antebellum era. Webster first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests. His increasingly nationalistic views and the effectiveness with which he articulated them led Webster to become one of the most famous orators and influential Whig leaders of the Second Party System. As an attorney he served as legal counsel in several cases that established important constitutional precedents that bolstered the authority of the Federal government. As Secretary of State, Webster negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty that established the definitive Eastern border between the United States and Canada. Primarily recognized for his Senate tenure, Webster was a key figure in the institution's "Golden Age". So well known was his skill as a Senator throughout this period that Webster became a third of what was and still is known today as the "Great Triumvirate", with his colleagues Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. His "Reply to Haynes" (1830) was generally regarded as "the most eloquent speech ever delivered in Congress." Though Webster made three bids he never achieved the Presidency, his final attempt failing in part because of his compromises. Like his attempts at gaining the White House, Webster's efforts at steering the nation away from civil war toward a definite peace would ultimately prove futile. (more...)

Recently featured: Germany – The Turk – Medieval cuisine

April 9

The Solar System comprises the Sun and the retinue of celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 162 known moons, three currently identified dwarf planets and their four known moons, and thousands of small bodies. This last category includes asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and interplanetary dust. In broad terms, the charted regions of the Solar System consist of the Sun, four rocky bodies close to it called the inner planets, an inner belt of rocky asteroids, four giant outer planets and a second belt of small icy bodies known as the Kuiper belt. In order of their distances from the Sun, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Six of the eight planets are in turn orbited by natural satellites (usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon) and every planet past the asteroid belt is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles. All the planets, other than the Earth, are named after gods and goddesses from Greco-Roman mythology. The three dwarf planets are Pluto, the largest known Kuiper belt object, Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, and Eris which lies beyond the Kuiper belt in a region called the scattered disc. (more...)

Recently featured: Daniel Webster – Germany – The Turk

April 10

In the United States, the dime is a coin with a face value of ten cents, or one-tenth of a dollar. The dime is the smallest in diameter and the thinnest of all U.S. coins currently minted for circulation. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt is featured on the obverse while a torch, oak branch, and olive branch are featured on the reverse. Mintage of the dime was authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792, and production began in 1796. The most recent design change was in 1946. The composition and diameter of the dime has changed throughout its mintage. Initially the dime was 19 millimeters wide, but it was changed to its present size of 17.91 millimeters in 1828. The composition (initially 89.24 percent silver and 10.76 percent copper) remained constant until 1837, when it was altered to 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper. Dimes with this composition were minted until 1966. Beginning in 1965, dimes also began to be minted with a clad composition of cupronickel; this composition is still in use today. The term 'dime' comes from the French word disme, meaning "tithe" or "tenth part". (more...)

Recently featured: Solar System – Daniel Webster – Germany

April 11

Anton Chekhov. Painting by Osip Braz

Anton Chekhov was a Russian physician, short story writer, and playwright. His brief playwriting career produced four classics of the repertoire, while his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practised as a doctor throughout his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress". Chekhov renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896; but the play was revived to acclaim by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered Chekhov’s last two plays, The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a special challenge to an acting ensemble, and they also challenge audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text". Not everyone appreciated that challenge: Leo Tolstoy reportedly told Chekhov, "You know, I cannot abide Shakespeare, but your plays are even worse". Tolstoy did, however, admire Chekhov's short stories. Chekhov had at first written stories only for the money, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later exploited by Virginia Woolf and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. (more...)

Recently featured: Dime – Solar System – Daniel Webster

April 12

Scooby-Doo is a long-running American animated television series produced for Saturday morning television in several different versions from 1969 to the present. The series was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbera Productions, who produced numerous spin-offs and related works until being absorbed in 1997 into Warner Bros, which has handled production since then. Though the format of the show and the cast (and ages) of characters have varied significantly over the years, the most familiar versions of the show feature a talking Great Dane named Scooby-Doo and four teenagers: Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers. These five characters (officially referred to collectively as "Mystery, Inc.", but never referred to as such in the original series) drive around the world in a van called the "Mystery Machine," and solve mysteries typically involving tales of ghosts and other supernatural forces. At the end of each episode, the supernatural forces turn out to have a rational explanation (usually a criminal of some sort trying to scare people away so that they can commit crimes). (more...)

Recently featured: Anton Chekhov – Dime – Solar System

April 13

A fairy tale is a story featuring folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and talking animals, and usually enchantments. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legendary narratives, where the context is perceived by teller and hearers as having historical actuality. However, unlike legends and epics they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, persons, and events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times. Fairy tales are found in oral folktales and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace, because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre; the name "fairy tale" was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy. Literary fairy tales are found over the centuries all over the world, and when they collected them, folklorists found fairy tales in every culture. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. (more...)

Recently featured: Scooby-Doo – Anton Chekhov – Dime

April 14

Hamersley is a residential suburb fourteen kilometres north-northwest of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, and six kilometres from the Indian Ocean. The suburb adjoins two major arterial roads — Mitchell Freeway to the west and Reid Highway to the south — and is within the City of Stirling local government area. It was built during the late 1960s and 1970s as part of the Government of Western Australia's response to rapidly increasing land prices across the metropolitan area. Prior to development, Hamersley was a remote district covered in jarrah, marri, banksia and other vegetation typical of the Swan Coastal Plain, with small areas having been cleared for small-scale agriculture such as market gardening and poultry farming. Rapid growth in areas further north removed the focus from Hamersley, which was completed in 1981, remaining relatively stable since. Significant reserves of remnant bushland are retained in parts of the suburb. The guyed tower was constructed in 1939 and is a landmark in the region, although it has become a local political issue over the past decade. (more...)

Recently featured: Fairy tale – Scooby-Doo – Anton Chekhov

April 15

The first few thousand terms and partial sums of the series

In mathematics, 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · is the infinite series whose terms are the successive positive integers, given alternating signs. The series diverges, meaning that its sequence of partial sums (1, −1, 2, −2, …) does not tend towards any finite limit. Nonetheless, Leonhard Euler claimed that 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · = ¹⁄₄. Starting in 1890, Ernesto Cesàro, Émile Borel, and others investigated well-defined methods to assign generalized sums to divergent series – including new interpretations of Euler's attempts. Many of these summability methods assign to 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · a "sum" of ¹⁄₄ after all. Cesàro summation is one of the few methods that does not sum 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · ·, so the series is an example where a slightly stronger method, such as Abel summation, is required. The series 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · is closely related to Grandi's series 1 − 1 + 1 − 1 + · · ·. Euler treated these two as special cases of 1 − 2ⁿ + 3ⁿ − 4ⁿ + · · · for arbitrary n, a line of research extending his work on the Basel problem and leading towards the functional equations of what we now know as the Dirichlet eta function and the Riemann zeta function. (more...)

Recently featured: Hamersley, Western Australia – Fairy tale – Scooby-Doo

April 16

George VI was the King of the United Kingdom and each of the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death on 6 February, 1952. He was the last Emperor of India (until 1947) and the last King of Ireland (until 1949). As the second son of his father, King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne, and he spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward. After the death of his father in 1936, his brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII. Less than a year later, Edward VIII unexpectedly abdicated in order to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. By reason of this unforeseen abdication, unique in British history, George VI ascended the throne. In the first 24 hours of the accession, the Irish parliament passed the External Relations Act, which essentially removed the power of the monarch in Ireland. Within three years of his accession, the British Empire was at war with Nazi Germany, within four years with Italy and within five years with the Empire of Japan. With the independence of India and Pakistan, and the foundation of the Republic of Ireland, his later reign saw the acceleration of the break-up of the Empire, and foreshadowed its eventual transformation from Empire to Commonwealth. (more...)

Recently featured: 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · – Hamersley, Western Australia – Fairy tale

April 17

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the U.S. military responsible for providing power projection from the sea, utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces to global crises. Alongside the U.S. Navy, the Marine Corps operates under the United States Department of the Navy. Originally organized as the Continental Marines, the Marine Corps has evolved its mission with changing military doctrine and American foreign policy. The Marine Corps has served in every American armed conflict including the Revolutionary War. It attained prominence in the twentieth century when its theories and practice of amphibious warfare proved prescient, and ultimately formed the cornerstone of the Pacific campaign of World War II. By the early twentieth century, the Marine Corps had become the dominant theorist and practitioner of amphibious warfare. Its ability to rapidly respond to regional crises has made and continues to make it an important body in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy. The United States Marine Corps, with 180,000 active duty and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2005, is the smallest of the United States' armed forces in the Department of Defense. (more...)

Recently featured: George VI of the United Kingdom – 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · · – Hamersley, Western Australia

April 18

The Wii is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. The console was previously known by its code name of Revolution and is the direct successor to the Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, but it competes with both as part of the seventh generation of gaming systems. A distinguishing feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect motion and rotation in three dimensions. Another is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode. Nintendo first mentioned the console at the 2004 E3 press conference and later unveiled the system at the 2005 E3. Satoru Iwata revealed a prototype of the controller at the September 2005 Tokyo Game Show. In the 2006 E3, the console won the first of several awards. By December 8 2006, it completed its launch in four key markets. (more...)

Recently featured: United States Marine Corps – George VI of the United Kingdom – 1 − 2 + 3 − 4 + · · ·

April 19

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who proposed and provided evidence for the theory that all species have evolved over time from a common ancestor through the process of natural selection. This theory came to be accepted by the scientific community in modified form, forming much of the basis of modern evolutionary theory, a cornerstone of biology. His five-year voyage on the Beagle established him as a prominent geologist whose observations and theories supported uniformitarianism. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838. In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay describing a similar theory, causing the two to publish their theories in a joint publication. His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation of the diversity of life in nature. (more...)

Recently featured: Wii – United States Marine Corps – George VI of the United Kingdom

April 20

Yosemite National Park is a national park largely in Mariposa County, and Tuolumne County, California, United States. The park covers an area of 1,189 mi² (3,081 km²) and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain. Yosemite is visited by over 3.5 million visitors each year, with most only seeing the seven square miles of Yosemite Valley. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity. About 89% of the park is designated Wilderness. It was also the first park set aside by the U.S. federal government. Although not the first designated national park, Yosemite was a focal point in the development of the national park idea, largely owing to the work of people like John Muir. Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. (more...)

Recently featured: Charles Darwin – Wii – United States Marine Corps

April 21

The City of Manchester Stadium is a sports venue in Manchester, England. Originally designed as part of Manchester's failed bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, the stadium was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games at a cost of GB£110 million. After the Games it was converted for use as a football facility, and became the home of Manchester City F.C. who moved there from Maine Road in 2003, signing a 250 year lease. The stadium is bowl shaped, with two tiers all the way round the ground and third tiers along the two side stands. With a seating capacity of 47,726, it is currently the fourth largest stadium in the FA Premier League and tenth largest in the United Kingdom. On 4 October 2006 it was announced that the stadium will host the 2008 UEFA Cup Final. (more...)

Recently featured: Yosemite National Park – Charles Darwin – Wii

April 22

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the main city of the Dhaka District. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka and its metropolitan area have a population of 11 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh and one of the most populous cities in the world. Under Mughal rule, the city was also known as Jahangir Nagar. The modern city was largely developed by British authorities and soon became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta. With the partition of India, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan before becoming the capital of an independent Bangladesh in 1972. During this period Dhaka witnessed extensive political turmoil, including many periods of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression and devastation from war and natural calamities. Modern Dhaka is the centre of political, cultural and economic life in Bangladesh, enjoying the highest literacy rate amongst other Bangladeshi cities and a diverse economy. While the urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country, Dhaka suffers from severe challenges such as pollution, congestion, supply shortages, poverty and crime. In recent decades Dhaka has seen a modernisation of transport, communications and public works. (more...)

Recently featured: City of Manchester Stadium – Yosemite National Park – Charles Darwin

April 23

The Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland and Ireland. London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York and Findhorn have all served as a home for the group. The band has played in a number of different styles, but most often their music can be described as a mix of Celtic folk music with rock and roll, or folk rock. After ten years of recording and touring, the band dissolved in 1993 and Scott pursued a solo career. The band reformed in 2000, and continues to release albums and tour worldwide. The early Waterboys sound was dubbed "The Big Music" after a song on their second album, A Pagan Place. This musical style was described by Scott as "a metaphor for seeing God's signature in the world." Their songs, largely written by Scott, often contain literary references and are frequently concerned with spirituality. Both the group and its members' solo careers have received much praise from both rock and folk music critics, but The Waterboys as a band has never received the commercial success that some of its members have had independently.

Recently featured: Dhaka – City of Manchester Stadium – Yosemite National Park

April 24

Hurricane Edith was the strongest hurricane to form during the 1971 Atlantic hurricane season. It developed from a tropical wave on September 5, and quickly strengthened into a hurricane in the Caribbean Sea. Edith rapidly intensified on September 9, and made landfall on Cape Gracias a Dios as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It quickly lost intensity over Central America, and after briefly entering the Gulf of Honduras, it crossed the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. After moving across the Gulf of Mexico, a trough turned the storm to the northeast, and Edith, after having restrengthened while accelerating towards the coast, made landfall on Louisiana with winds of 105 mph (170 km/h) on September 16. Edith steadily weakened over land and dissipated over Georgia on September 18. The hurricane killed two people when it passed near Aruba. Striking northeastern Central America as a Category 5 hurricane, Edith destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at least 35 people. In Texas, high tides caused coastal flooding, but little damage. Edith caused moderate to heavy damage in portions of Louisiana due to flooding and a tornado outbreak from the storm.

Recently featured: The Waterboys – Dhaka – City of Manchester Stadium

April 25

The Maserati MC12 is a grand tourer produced by Maserati to allow a racing variant to compete in the FIA GT Championship. The car entered production in 2004 with 25 cars produced. A further 25 were produced in 2005 making a total of 50 cars available for customers, all of which were pre-sold for €600 000. Maserati designed and built the car on the chassis of the Enzo Ferrari but the final car is much larger. The MC12 is longer, wider and taller than the Enzo Ferrari, though the Enzo has faster acceleration and a higher top speed. The MC12 was developed to signal Maserati's return to racing after 37 years. The road version was produced to homologate the race version. One of the requirements for participation in the FIA GT is the production of at least 25 road cars. Three GT1 race cars were entered into the FIA GT with great success. Maserati began racing the MC12 in the FIA GT toward the end of the 2004 season, achieving a victory at the Zhuhai International Circuit. The racing MC12's were entered into the American Le Mans Series races in 2005 but exceeded the size restrictions and consequently paid weight penalties. (more...)

Recently featured: Hurricane Edith – The Waterboys – Dhaka

April 26

A kidney transplant
of the type that
Woodruff pioneered.

Michael Woodruff was a British surgeon and scientist principally remembered for his research into organ transplantation. Though born in London, Woodruff spent his youth in Australia, where he earned degrees in electrical engineering and medicine. Having completed his studies shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Australian Army Medical Corps, but was soon captured by Japanese forces and imprisoned in the Changi Prison Camp. While there, he devised an ingenious method of extracting nutrients from agricultural wastes to prevent malnutrition among his fellow POWs. At the conclusion of the war, Woodruff returned to Britain and began a long career as an academic surgeon, mixing clinical work and research. By the end of the 1950s, his study of aspects of transplantation biology such as rejection and immunosuppression led to his making the first kidney transplant in the United Kingdom, on October 30, 1960. For this and his other scientific work, Woodruff was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968 and knighted in 1969. Although retiring from surgical work in 1976, he remained an active figure in the scientific community, researching cancer and serving on the boards of various medical and scientific organizations. (more...)

Recently featured: Maserati MC12 – Hurricane Edith – The Waterboys

April 27

Some Thoughts Concerning Education is a 1693 treatise on education written by the English philosopher John Locke. For over a century, it was the most important philosophical work on education in Britain. It was translated into almost all of the major written European languages during the eighteenth century, and nearly every European writer on education after Locke, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, acknowledged its influence. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke outlined a new theory of mind; he contended that the child's mind was a tabula rasa or "blank slate," that is, it did not contain any innate ideas. Some Thoughts Concerning Education explains how to educate that mind using three distinct methods: the development of a healthy body; the formation of a virtuous character; and the choice of an appropriate academic curriculum. Locke originally wrote the letters that would eventually become Some Thoughts for an aristocratic friend, but his advice had a broader appeal, since his educational principles allowed women and the lower classes to aspire to the same kind of character as the aristocrats for whom Locke originally intended the work. (more...)

Recently featured: Michael Woodruff – Maserati MC12 – Hurricane Edith

April 28

Adam Gilchrist is an Australian cricketer. He made his first-class debut in 1992, going on to make his first One-day International appearance in 1996 and his Test debut in 1999. He has been Australia's vice-captain in both forms of the game since 2000, captaining the team when regular captains Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting were unavailable. Gilchrist is an aggressive left-handed batsman and effective wicket-keeper, combining the two roles for the Australian national team; he is considered to be one of the best wicket-keeper-batsmen in the history of the game. His strike rate is amongst the highest in the history of both One-Day and Test cricket and he currently holds the record for the second fastest century in Test cricket. Gilchrist has been reprimanded for outbursts on the pitch a number of times during his playing career. He is also renowned for walking when he considers himself to be out, sometimes even contrary to the decision of the umpire. (more...)

Recently featured: Some Thoughts Concerning Education – Michael Woodruff – Maserati MC12

April 29

The Arctic Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, breeding colonially in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America (as far south as Brittany and Massachusetts). The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates from its northern breeding grounds to the oceans around Antarctica and back each year. This is the longest regular migration by any known animal. Arctic Terns are medium-sized birds, with a length of 33–39 centimetres (13–15 in) and a wingspan of 76–85 cm (26–30 in). They are mainly grey and white plumaged, with a red beak (as long as the head, straight, with pronounced gonys) and feet, white forehead, a black nape and crown (streaked white), and white cheeks. The Arctic Tern is K-selected, caring for and aggressively defending a small number of young. Parents feed them fish for a considerable time, and help them fly south to winter. Arctic Terns are long-lived birds, with many reaching twenty years of age. They eat mainly fish and small marine invertebrates. The species is abundant, with an estimated one million individuals. While the trend in the number of individuals in the species as a whole is not known, exploitation in the past has reduced this bird's numbers in the southern reaches of its range. (more...)

Recently featured: Adam Gilchrist – Some Thoughts Concerning Education – Michael Woodruff

April 30

A military brat is a person whose parent or parents served full-time in the armed forces during the person's childhood. In conventional usage, the word "brat" is derogatory; in a military context, however, it is neither a subjective nor a judgmental term. Although the term "military brat" is used in other English-speaking countries, only the United States has studied its military brats as an identifiable demographic. This group is shaped by frequent moves, absence of a parent, authoritarian family dynamics, strong patriarchal authority, the threat of parental loss in war, and the militarization of the family unit. As adults, military brats share many of the same positive and negative traits developed from their mobile childhoods. Having had the opportunity to live around the world, military brats often have a breadth of experiences unmatched by most teenagers. Regardless of race, religion, nationality, or gender, brats identify more with other highly mobile children than with non-mobile ones. Many are typically highly educated, outgoing and patriotic, and they have been raised in a culture that emphasizes loyalty, honesty, discipline, and responsibility. Many struggle to develop and maintain deep lasting relationships, feeling like outsiders to U.S. civilian culture. This subculture cuts across other cultural identities. (more...)

Recently featured: Arctic Tern – Adam Gilchrist – Some Thoughts Concerning Education