The Wikipedia article of the day for November 22, 2016 is Star Trek: First Contact.
Star Trek: First Contact is an American science fiction film, released on November 22, 1996. It is the eighth in the Star Trek film franchise and the first without any characters from the original series. On mid-21st century Earth, characters from the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation struggle to save their future from the cybernetic Borg. After the seventh film, Star Trek Generations (1994), Paramount tasked writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore with developing a sequel. Cast member Jonathan Frakes made his directorial debut. Production designer Herman Zimmerman and illustrator John Eaves created a sleeker starship than its predecessor, and Industrial Light & Magic’s traditional optical effects techniques were supplemented with computer-generated imagery. First Contact made $146 million worldwide. Critical reception was mostly positive, especially for the Borg and the special effects. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup and won three Saturn Awards. Scholarly analysis of the film has focused on the nature of the Borg and on Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s parallels to Herman Melville’s Ahab.
Archives for November 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for November 22, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for November 21, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 21, 2016 is CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship.
The CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship (Campeonato Mundial Semi Completo de CMLL in Spanish) is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship promoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) since 1991. As with other professional wrestling championships, it is not an actual competition, but is won according to a scripted ending to a match, and sometimes awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. The light heavyweight division in Mexico ranges between 92 kg (203 lb) and 97 kg (214 lb), but the weight limits are not always strictly adhered to. Because CMLL puts more emphasis on the lower weight classes, this division is considered more important in Mexico; the heavyweight division is considered the most important championship by most promotions outside of Mexico. The current CMLL World Light Heavyweight Champion in his first reign is La Máscara (pictured), who won it by defeating Ángel de Oro in April 2016. La Máscara is the 15th overall champion and the 13th wrestler to officially hold the championship. The title has been vacated only once since its creation in 1991.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 20, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 20, 2016 is Divisional Cavalry Regiment (New Zealand).
The Divisional Cavalry Regiment, New Zealand’s first armoured unit, was formed in September 1939 after the country entered the Second World War. After being sent to Egypt with the 2nd New Zealand Division, the regiment deployed to Greece as part of W Force, the British contingent sent to defend the country from Nazi Germany in March 1941. The regiment was scattered during the retreat from Greece; most of it ended up in Crete, but had to evacuate in May after a German paratroop attack. Its men fought in Operation Crusader and spent a brief interlude in Syria before engaging in the First Battle of El Alamein, equipped with four recaptured Stuart tanks (pictured). They fought again in the Second Battle of El Alamein, at El Agheila, and at the Mareth Line. After the German retreat from Tunisia, they were sent to Italy with the division in September, and fought in the Italian Campaign. In October 1944, the regiment was reorganized into an infantry battalion, fighting until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. In March 1946 they arrived in Japan as a regiment of J Force, the New Zealand contribution to the occupation. The regiment was disbanded in September 1947.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 19, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 19, 2016 is Columbian half dollar.
The Columbian half dollar is the first US commemorative coin, struck at the Mint from November 19, 1892, until early 1893. It was issued both to raise funds for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and to mark the quadricentennial of the first voyage to the Americas of Christopher Columbus, the first historical person to be depicted on an American coin (pictured). Fair official James Ellsworth wanted the new half dollar to be based on a 16th-century painting he owned by Lorenzo Lotto, reputedly of Columbus, and pushed for this throughout the design process. When initial sketches by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber proved unsatisfactory, the fair’s organizers turned to a design by artist Olin Levi Warner that was modified by Barber and his assistant, George T. Morgan. Some five million half dollars were struck, far beyond the actual demand, and half of them were returned to the Mint and melted after the fair closed. Sales of the coins did not cure the fair’s financial woes; fewer than 400,000 were sold at a premium price. Some two million were released into circulation, where they remained as late as the 1950s.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 18, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 18, 2016 is Black American Sign Language.
Black American Sign Language (BASL) is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL), usually encountered among deaf African Americans. The divergence from ASL was influenced largely by segregation in the American South. Like other schools at the time, schools for the deaf were segregated by race, creating two language communities: White deaf signers at White schools and Black deaf signers at Black schools. Today, BASL is still used by signers in the South despite the gradual desegregation of deaf schools after 1954, the year of the US Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring racial segregation in schools unconstitutional. Linguistically, BASL differs from other varieties of ASL in its phonology, syntax, and lexicon. In ASL, most signs are produced near the body, but BASL tends to have a larger signing space. Signers of BASL also tend to prefer two-handed variants of signs while signers of ASL tend to prefer one-handed variants. Some signs are different in BASL as well, with some borrowings from African American English.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 17, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 17, 2016 is Bluebuck.
The bluebuck (Hippotragus leucophaeus), now extinct, was a South African antelope. Classified in the same genus as the roan antelope and sable antelope, it was smaller than either. The largest mounted bluebuck specimen is 119 centimetres (47 in) tall at the withers, with horns measuring 56.5 centimetres (22.2 in) along the curve. The bluebuck’s coat was bluish-grey, with a pale whitish belly. It was a grazer, and may have calved where rainfall would peak. When encountered by Europeans, it was confined to a 4,300-square-kilometre (1,700 sq mi) grassland habitat of the southwestern Cape, but fossils and rock paintings give evidence of a larger distribution. The first published mention of the bluebuck is from 1681. The few 18th-century illustrations appear to have been based on stuffed specimens. Hunted by European settlers, the bluebuck was the first large African mammal that went extinct in historical times, around 1800. Only four mounted specimens remain, in museums in Leiden, Stockholm, Vienna, and Paris; other museums contain skulls and horns.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 16, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 16, 2016 is Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is an action role-playing video game developed by Troika Games (founders pictured) and first released on November 16, 2004,
by Activision for Microsoft Windows. Based on White Wolf Publishing’s role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, it follows a male or female character who is killed and revived as a fledgling vampire in 21st-century Los Angeles. Bloodlines is presented from first- and third-person perspectives. Characters may use violent and nonviolent methods to achieve their goals while moving freely between the available hubs: Santa Monica, Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, and Chinatown. Troika’s 32-member team began development in 2001, using Valve Corporation’s brand-new Source game engine, also used for Valve’s own Half-Life 2. Bloodlines was incomplete at its first release, with disappointing sales of fewer than 80,000 copies initially. It divided critics at the time, who faulted it for technical flaws. It now has a cult following as a rarely replicated example of a game that succeeds in both gameplay and narrative; critical opinion now styles it as a flawed masterpiece.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 16, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 16, 2016 is Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is an action role-playing video game developed by Troika Games (founders pictured) and first released on November 16, 2004,
by Activision for Microsoft Windows. Based on White Wolf Publishing’s role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, it follows a male or female character who is killed and revived as a fledgling vampire in 21st-century Los Angeles. Bloodlines is presented from first- and third-person perspectives. Characters may use violent and nonviolent methods to achieve their goals while moving freely between the available hubs: Santa Monica, Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles, and Chinatown. Troika’s 32-member team began development in 2001, using Valve Corporation’s brand-new Source game engine, also used for Valve’s own Half-Life 2. Bloodlines was incomplete at its first release, with disappointing sales of fewer than 80,000 copies initially. It divided critics at the time, who faulted it for technical flaws. It now has a cult following as a rarely replicated example of a game that succeeds in both gameplay and narrative; critical opinion now styles it as a flawed masterpiece.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 15, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 15, 2016 is Hurricane Kate (1985).
Hurricane Kate formed northeast of Puerto Rico on November 15, 1985, as the eleventh named storm of the annual hurricane season. Kate made its first landfall on the northern coast of Cuba at Category 2 intensity, then emerged as a slightly weaker storm during the evening hours of November 19. Heavy rainfall in Cuba caused numerous mudslides and flooding, killing 10 people and leading to severe agricultural damage. Wind gusts also damaged crops, and resulted in widespread power outages and significant building damage; the cost in Cuba totaled $400 million, the most from a hurricane strike on that island in many decades. Once clear of land, Kate intensified to Category 3, and the following day it attained its peak winds of around 120 mph (195 km/h). It came ashore near Mexico Beach, Florida, as a minimal Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph (160 km/h) on November 21, the latest day ever in an Atlantic hurricane season that a hurricane-strength storm has struck the United States. There were 17 deaths attributable to the storm, in Jamaica and Cuba, and the total damage caused was at least $700 million.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 14, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 14, 2016 is The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati.
“The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati” is the second episode of the seventh season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. Originally airing November 14, 1999, on the Fox network, it was directed by Michael Watkins and written by series creator Chris Carter and lead actor David Duchovny, who plays Fox Mulder. Mimi Rogers (pictured) guest-starred in her last appearance in the series. The X-Files centers on Federal Bureau of Investigation special agents Mulder and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Scully returns from Africa to discover Mulder in a coma induced by exposure to shards from an alien spaceship wreck. After Mulder awakens from his coma, he realizes his duty to prevent alien colonization. Carter explored themes of extraterrestrial involvement in ancient mass extinctions in this episode, the third in a trilogy focused on Mulder’s severe reaction to an alien artifact. Initial reviews were mixed, but later critics viewed the episode in a more positive light and several writers named it among the show’s best.
