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November 24

Scene from the play's opening run

The Importance of Being Earnest is a drawing-room comedy by Oscar Wilde. Premiered on 14 February 1895 in London, it depicts the affairs of two young men about town who lead double lives to evade unwanted social obligations, both assuming the name Ernest to woo two young women. Other characters are the formidable Lady Bracknell, the fussy governess Miss Prism and the benign and scholarly Canon Chasuble. The play, celebrated for its wit and repartee, parodies contemporary dramatic norms and comically satirises late-Victorian manners. The triumphant opening night was followed within weeks by Wilde's downfall and imprisonment for homosexual acts and the closure of the production, and Wilde wrote no more comic or dramatic works. From the early 20th century onwards, the play has been revived frequently and adapted for radio, television, film, operas and musicals. (Full article...)

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April 24

Diego Velázquez was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist. His two visits to Italy while part of the Spanish court are well-documented. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he created scores of portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece, Las Meninas. Starting in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Velázquez's artwork proved a model for the realist and impressionist painters, in particular Édouard Manet. Since that time, more modern artists, including Spain's Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, have paid tribute to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works. (more...)

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March 24

Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View

The known history of the Yosemite area started with Miwok and Paiute peoples who inhabited the central Sierra Nevada region of California that now includes Yosemite National Park. At the time the first non-indigenous people entered the area, a band of Miwok called the Ahwahnechee lived in Yosemite Valley. Conflict ensued in the mid 19th century and the Mariposa Battalion pursued the Ahwahnechee into the Valley. The Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia were ceded to California as a state park in 1864. Naturalist John Muir and others soon became alarmed about over-exploitation of the area and helped push through the creation of Yosemite National Park, in 1890. It would not be until 1906 that the Valley and Grove would be added. Park jurisdiction was at first under the United States Army's Fourth Cavalry Regiment then in 1916 it was transferred to the National Park Service. The failed fight to save Hetch Hetchy Valley from becoming a reservoir and hydroelectric power plant in the early 20th century sparked a great deal of controversy that polarized the nation. Since then about 94% of the park has been set aside in a highly protected wilderness area. (more...)

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February 24

Sid McMath was a U.S. Marine veteran and progressive Democratic reform Governor of the State of Arkansas from 1949–1953. In defiance of his state's political establishment, he championed rapid extension of rural electric power, massive highway and school construction, the building of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, repeal of the poll tax, open and honest elections and broad expansion of opportunity for black citizens in the decade following World War II. He remained loyal to President Harry S. Truman during the "Dixiecrat" rebellion of 1948, campaigning throughout the South for Truman's re-election. As a former governor, McMath led the opposition to segregationist Governor Orval Faubus following the 1957 Little Rock school crisis. He later became one of the nation's foremost trial advocates, representing thousands of injured persons in precedent-setting cases and mentoring several generations of young attorneys. (more...)

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January 24

Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, founder of the resistance movement Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska) and member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). During World War II he was the only person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. While there, he organized inmate resistance and as early as 1940 informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's camp atrocities. He escaped from Auschwitz in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising (August-October 1944). Pilecki was executed in 1948 by communist authorities. (more...)

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December 24

Homo floresiensis is a newly described species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and recent survival. It is thought to have been contemporaneous with modern humans on the remote Indonesian island of Flores. One sub-fossil skeleton, dated at 18,000 years old, is largely complete except for arm bones which may yet be found. It was discovered in deposits in Liang Bua Cave, Flores, in 2003. Also here, parts of six other individuals, all diminutive, have been recovered as well as similarly small stone tools from horizons ranging from 94,000 to 13,000 years ago. The discoverers have called members of the diminutive species hobbits, after J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional race of roughly the same height. In the island's mythology there were common references to Ebu Gogo, a small furry man, even into the 19th century. (more...)

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November 24

Buddha and Bodhisattvas, 11th century, Pala Empire.

The history of Buddhism spans from the 6th century BCE to the present, starting with the birth of the Buddha Siddharta Gautama. This makes it one of the oldest religions practiced today. Throughout this period, the religion evolved as it encountered various countries and cultures, adding to its original Indian foundation Hellenistic as well as Central Asian, East Asian and Southeast Asian cultural elements. In the process, its geographical extent became considerable so as to affect at one time or another most of the Asian continent. The history of Buddhism is also characterized by the development of numerous movements and schisms, foremost among them the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, punctuated by contrasting periods of expansion and retreat. (more...)

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October 24

Casablanca is a 1942 movie set during World War II in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, and stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa. It focuses on Rick's conflict between, in the words of one character, love and virtue: he must choose between his love for Ilsa and his need to do the right thing by helping her husband—Resistance hero Victor Laszlo—to escape from Casablanca and continue his fight against the Nazis. The film was an immediate hit, and it has remained consistently popular ever since. Critics have praised the charismatic performances of Bogart and Bergman, the chemistry between the two leads, the depth of characterisation, the taut direction, the witty screenplay and the emotional impact of the work as a whole. (more...)

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September 24

Defintion of the Akermann function

The Ackermann function is an important example encountered by mathematicians in the theory of computation. It is a recursive function which takes two natural numbers as arguments and returns a natural number as its value. In 1928, Wilhelm Ackermann considered a function A (m, n, p) of three variables, the p-fold iterated exponentiation of m with n or m → n → p in Conway's notation. He proved that it is a recursive function which is not primitive recursive. This definition was later simplified by Rozsa Peter and Raphael Robinson to the two-variable definition given above. It grows extremely quickly, and this extreme growth can be exploited to show that the computable function f (n) = A(n, n) grows faster than any primitive-recursive function and is therefore not primitive-recursive. Due to its definition in terms of extremely deep recursion, it can be used as a benchmark of a compiler's ability to optimize recursion. (more...)

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September 6

The Warsaw Uprising was an armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. It started on August 1, 1944 as a part of a nationwide uprising, Operation Tempest. The Polish troops resisted the German-led forces until October 2. An estimated 85% of the city was destroyed during the urban guerrilla war and after the end of hostilities. The Uprising started at a crucial point in the war as the Soviet army was approaching Warsaw. Although the Soviet army was within a few hundred metres of the city from September 16 onward, the link between the uprising and the advancing army was never made. This failure and the reasons behind it have been a matter of controversy ever since. (more...)

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August 24

Cold fusion is the name for a nuclear fusion reaction that occurs well below the temperature required for thermonuclear reactions — such reactions may occur near room temperature and atmospheric pressure, and even in a relatively small experiment. The term was coined by Dr. Paul Palmer of Brigham Young University in 1986 in an investigation of the possible existence of fusion in a planetary core. It was brought into popular consciousness by the controversy surrounding the Fleischmann-Pons experiment in 1989. Unfortunately, no "cold" fusion experiments that gave an otherwise unexplainable net release of energy have so far been reproducible. (more...)

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July 24

Galileo Galilei was a Tuscan astronomer, philosopher, and physicist who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. He has been referred to as the "father of modern astronomy," as the "father of modern physics," and as "father of science." His experimental work is widely considered complementary to the writings of Bacon in establishing the modern scientific method. Galileo was born in Pisa and his career coincided with that of Kepler. The work of Galileo is considered to be a significant break from that of Aristotle; in particular, Galileo placed emphasis on quantity, rather than quality. (more...)

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June 24

A billboard is a large outdoor signboard, usually wooden, found in places with high traffic such as cities, roads, motorways and highways. Billboards show large advertisements to pedestrians and drivers traveling from one place to another. The vast majority of billboards are rented to advertisers rather than owned by them. Shown with large, witty slogans splashed with distinctive color pictures, billboards line the highways and are placed on the sides of buildings, peddling products and getting out messages. Billboard advertisements are designed to catch a person's attention and create a memorable impression very quickly, leaving the reader thinking about the advertisement after they have driven past it. Thus there are usually a few large words, and a humorous or arresting image in brilliant color. (more...)

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May 24

Rembrandt van Rijn is generally considered one of the greatest painters in Western art history, and the most important Dutch painter of the 17th century. Rembrandt was also a proficient engraver and made many drawings. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age (roughly equivalent to the 17th century), in which Dutch culture, science, commerce, world power and political influence reached their pinnacles. (more...)

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April 24

Aum symbol

Hinduism is the oldest of the major world religions and first among Dharma faiths. Hinduism has a diverse array of belief systems, practices and scriptures. It has its origin in Vedic culture at least as far back as 2000 BCE. It is the third largest religion with approximately 1.05 billion followers worldwide, 96% of whom live in the Indian subcontinent. (more...)

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March 24

The Summer Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event held every four years, organised by the International Olympic Committee. The Olympics are the most prestigious of such events in the world, featuring a larger range of sports than others. Olympic victory is generally considered to be the most prestigious achievement in any field of sport. The modern Olympic Games were founded in 1894 by Pierre Fredi, Baron de Coubertin, who sought to promote international understanding through the sporting competition. The first games were held in Athens in 1896. (more...)

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