The Wikipedia article of the day for February 11, 2017 is Kedok Ketawa.
Kedok Ketawa (The Laughing Mask) is a 1940 action film from the Dutch East Indies, in present-day Indonesia. After a young couple falls in love, the title character, a vigilante, helps them fight off criminals who have been sent to kidnap the woman by a rich man who wants her as his wife. It was the first film of Union Films, one of four new production houses established after the country’s ailing film industry was revived by the success of Albert Balink’s Terang Boelan. Kedok Ketawa was directed by Jo An Djan and stars Basoeki Resobowo, Fatimah, Oedjang (as the vigilante), S Poniman and Eddy Kock. Featuring fighting, comedy, and singing, and advertised as an “Indonesian cocktail of violent actions … and sweet romance”, the film received positive reviews, particularly for its cinematography. Following the success of the film, Union produced another six before being shut down in early 1942 during the Japanese occupation. Screened until at least August 1944, the film may be lost.
Archives for February 2017
Wikipedia article of the day for February 11, 2017
Wikipedia article of the day for February 10, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for February 10, 2017 is Olympic marmot.
The Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) is a rodent in the squirrel family, Sciuridae. It lives only in the U.S. state of Washington, at middle elevations on the Olympic Peninsula. About the size of a domestic cat, an adult weighs around 8 kg (18 lb) in summer. Its coat is brown all over with small whiter areas for most of the year, although the color changes with the season and with age. It has a wide head, small eyes and ears, stubby legs, and a long, bushy tail. Its sharp, rounded claws aid in digging burrows. It eats a variety of meadow flora, including the dry grasses that it uses as bedding in burrows. Its main predator is the coyote. Like its closest relatives, the hoary marmot and the Vancouver Island marmot, it hibernates seven to eight months a year. It is not endangered, and is protected by law in the Olympic National Park, which contains most of its habitat. Olympic marmots are social animals; they often engage in play fighting and use four different whistles to communicate.
Wikipedia article of the day for February 9, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for February 9, 2017 is USS Constellation vs L’Insurgente.
The USS Constellation captured the French L’Insurgente in a single-ship action between the frigates on 9 February 1799. The previous year, French privateering attacks against American vessels had led to the undeclared Quasi-War. Four US naval squadrons were sent to the Caribbean with orders to seize armed French vessels and prevent attacks on American ships. The squadron under Commodore Thomas Truxtun was on assignment in the waters between Puerto Rico and Saint Kitts when his flagship Constellation, cruising independently, met and engaged L’Insurgente, commanded by Michel-Pierre Barreaut. After chasing the French ship through a storm, Truxtun forced an engagement. The French frigate surrendered after 74 minutes with heavy casualties; the Americans sustained only a few casualties. L’Insurgente was taken to Saint Kitts and commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Insurgent. The action was the first victory over an enemy warship for the newly formed navy, and Truxtun was praised by the American government and public.
Wikipedia article of the day for February 8, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for February 8, 2017 is The Good Terrorist.
The Good Terrorist is a 1985 political novel by Doris Lessing (pictured), a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The story examines events in the life of Alice, a naïve and well-intentioned squatter, who moves in with a group of radicals in London, and is drawn into their terrorist activities. Lessing began writing The Good Terrorist after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed the Harrods department store in London in 1983. She had been a member of the British Communist Party in the early 1950s, but later grew disillusioned with it. Some reviewers labelled The Good Terrorist as a satire; Lessing called it humorous. Some focused on Alice’s ambivalent nature, as highlighted by the novel’s oxymoronic title, describing her as neither a good person nor a good revolutionary. Some were impressed by the book’s insight and characterization, while others complained about its style and the characters’ lack of depth. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the Mondello Prize and the WH Smith Literary Award.
Wikipedia article of the day for February 7, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for February 7, 2017 is Johnson Creek (Willamette River).
Johnson Creek is a 25-mile (40 km) tributary of the Willamette River in the Portland metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Oregon. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its watershed covers 54 square miles (140 km2) of mostly urban land occupied by about 180,000 people. The creek flows generally west from the foothills of the Cascade Range through sediments deposited by glacial floods on a substrate of basalt. Though polluted, it provides habitat for salmon and other migrating fish along its free-flowing main stem. Prior to European settlement, the heavily forested watershed was used by Native Americans of the Chinook band for fishing and hunting. In the 19th century, white settlers cleared much of the land for farming. The stream is named for William Johnson, a settler who in 1846 built a water-powered sawmill along the creek. By the early 20th century, a rail line parallel to the stream encouraged further residential and commercial development. Damage from seasonal flooding grew as urban density increased in the floodplain.
