The Wikipedia article of the day for October 8, 2016 is 2006 UAW-Ford 500.
The 2006 UAW-Ford 500 was an American stock car racing competition. Held on October 8 at Talladega Superspeedway, the 188-lap race was the 30th in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fourth in the ten-race, season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. Brian Vickers (pictured) of Hendrick Motorsports won the first race of his career; Kasey Kahne finished second, and Kurt Busch came in third. David Gilliland, who had the pole position, was passed immediately by teammate Dale Jarrett. The race lead changed 63 times, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading for the most laps (37). On the final lap, Jimmie Johnson and Vickers made a move to pass Earnhardt, but Vickers clipped Johnson. Then Johnson clipped Earnhardt, and both were knocked into the infield. The race was halted, giving Vickers the win, although the crowd booed, and he was later criticized for hurting his teammate Johnson in the points standings. After the race Jeff Burton maintained his Drivers’ Championship points lead, while Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers’ Championship, 51 points ahead of Dodge and 52 ahead of Ford with six races remaining in the season.
Archives for October 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for October 8, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for October 7, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 7, 2016 is Angel of Death (Slayer song).
“Angel of Death” is the opening track on thrash metal band Slayer’s album Reign in Blood, released on October 7, 1986. Written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman (pictured) and produced by Rick Rubin, it is by far the longest track on the album at 4 minutes and 51 seconds, and features prominent verses and choruses, unlike the other tracks. The lyrics invent a sadistic rant by the Nazi physician Josef Mengele, who conducted human experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Despite accusations that the lyrics reflect Nazi sympathizing and racism, which the band vigorously denied, the song has been highly influential in the development of both thrash and speed metal. Although it did not chart, it has been praised by critics, and appears on all of Slayer’s live albums. AllMusic’s Steve Huey described it as a classic and the album as “the pinnacle of speed metal”. One of its riffs was sampled by Public Enemy in their 1988 song “She Watch Channel Zero?!”
Wikipedia article of the day for October 6, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 6, 2016 is Æthelwulf.
Æthelwulf was King of Wessex from 839 to 858. He was defeated in 843 in battle against the Vikings at Carhampton in Somerset, but achieved a major victory at the Battle of Aclea in 851. He went on pilgrimage to Rome in 855, leaving his eldest surviving son Æthelbald to act as King of Wessex in his absence. Æthelwulf stayed a year in Rome; on his way back he married Judith, the daughter of the West Frankish King Charles the Bald. When Æthelwulf returned to England, Æthelbald refused to surrender the throne, and Æthelwulf agreed to divide the kingdom, taking the east and leaving the west in Æthelbald’s hands. Before the twenty-first century Æthelwulf’s reputation among historians was poor: he was seen as excessively pious and impractical, and his pilgrimage was viewed as a desertion of his duties. Now historians see him as a king who consolidated and extended the power of his dynasty, and dealt more effectively than most of his contemporaries with Viking attacks. He is regarded as one of the most successful West Saxon kings, who laid the foundations for the success of his son, Alfred the Great.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 5, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 5, 2016 is Jarrow March.
The Jarrow March (5–31 October 1936) was a protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the Tyneside town of Jarrow, England, during the 1930s. Around 200 men marched from Jarrow to London to petition the British government, requesting the re-establishment of industry in the town following the closure in 1934 of Palmer’s shipyard. Palmer’s had seen the launching of more than 1,000 ships since 1852. In the 1920s, a combination of mismanagement and changed world trade conditions brought a decline which led to the yard’s closure. When plans for its replacement by a modern steelworks plant were thwarted, the lack of any prospect of large-scale employment in the town led the borough council to organise the march on London to present their case to the government. The petition was received by the House of Commons but not debated, and the march produced few immediate results. The Jarrovians went home believing that they had failed. Nevertheless, in subsequent years the Jarrow March became recognised by historians as a defining event of the 1930s and helped to prepare the way for widespread social reform after the Second World War.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 4, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 4, 2016 is Hurricane Iris.
Hurricane Iris of 2001 was the most destructive tropical cyclone in Belize since Hurricane Hattie in 1961. Iris was the second-strongest storm of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, behind Hurricane Michelle. While passing south of the Dominican Republic, Iris dropped heavy rainfall that caused landslides, killing eight people. Later, the hurricane passed south of Jamaica, where it destroyed two houses. On reaching the western Caribbean Sea, it rapidly intensified to Category 4 on the Saffir–Simpson scale. A small hurricane with an eye of only 7 miles (11 km) in diameter, it reached peak winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) before making landfall in Belize. The storm killed 24 people there, including 20 who died when a scuba diving boat capsized near Big Creek. It also killed eight people and damaged about 2,500 homes in neighboring Guatemala, and later dropped heavy rainfall in southern Mexico, where two people died. Destruction in Belize totaled US$250 million. Because Iris was compact, the damage was confined to 72% of the houses in the Toledo district and 50% of the houses in the Stann Creek district.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 3, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 3, 2016 is Eremoryzomys.
Eremoryzomys, also known as the gray rice rat, is a genus of rodent consisting of a single species, E. polius. Discovered in 1912 and first described in 1913 by Wilfred Osgood, it was originally named Oryzomys polius. In 2006, a cladistic analysis found that it was not closely related to Oryzomys or to any other known member of its tribe, Oryzomyini. The Brazilian genus Drymoreomys, named in 2011, is probably its closest relative. Eremoryzomys has a limited distribution in the dry upper valley of the Marañón River in central Peru. A large, long-tailed rice rat, with a head and body length of 138 to 164 mm (5.4 to 6.5 in), it has gray fur, short ears, and well-developed ungual tufts of hair on the hindfeet. Females have eight mammae. The rostrum (front part of the skull) is long and robust and the braincase is rounded. The bony palate is relatively short. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has found insufficient data to assess the conservation status; the species may be threatened by destruction of its habitat for cattle farming.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 2, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 2, 2016 is Super Meat Boy.
Super Meat Boy is an independent video game designed by Edmund McMillen (pictured) and Tommy Refenes and developed by Team Meat. The successor to the 2008 Flash game Meat Boy, Super Meat Boy was released on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in October 2010 and on Microsoft Windows in November 2010. It was ported to OS X and Linux in 2011, to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2015, and to the Wii U in 2016. In the game the player controls Meat Boy, a red, cube-shaped character, as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend, Bandage Girl, from the game’s antagonist Dr. Fetus. The platform gameplay is characterized by fine control and split-second timing as the player runs and jumps through over 300 hazardous levels while avoiding obstacles. The game sold over 1,000,000 copies by January 2012, and was critically acclaimed. In 2010, it received awards for Most Challenging Game from IGN and for Best Downloadable Game from GameSpot and GameTrailers, as well as a nomination for the Grand Prize at the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Critics lauded the game’s difficulty, precise control, retro artwork, and soundtrack.
Wikipedia article of the day for October 1, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for October 1, 2016 is A Streetcar Named Marge.
“A Streetcar Named Marge” is the second episode of The Simpsons’ fourth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 1, 1992. In the episode, Marge wins the role of Blanche DuBois in a musical version of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire. Homer offers little support for his wife’s acting pursuits, and Marge begins to see parallels between him and Stanley Kowalski, the play’s boorish lead male character. The episode contains a subplot in which Maggie attempts to retrieve her pacifier from a strict daycare owner. Jeff Martin wrote the episode, and Rich Moore served as director. Jon Lovitz made his fourth guest appearance on The Simpsons, this time as musical director Llewellyn Sinclair, as well as Llewellyn’s sister, who runs the daycare. The episode generated controversy with an unflattering original song about New Orleans; one newspaper published the lyrics before the episode aired, and the president of Fox Broadcasting issued a public apology. The episode was well received by many fans, and show creator Matt Groening has named it one of his favorite episodes.
