The Wikipedia article of the day for December 4, 2016 is Boeing C-17 Globemaster III in Australian service.
In Australian service, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft are operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). To improve the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF’s) ability to operate outside Australia, eight were ordered from 2006 to 2014; the first arrived in Australia on 4 December 2006. Three more entered service by January 2008, two more by November 2012, and the last two by November 2015. All eight Globemasters are assigned to No. 36 Squadron and operate from RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. The aircraft have supported ADF operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations in the Middle East, as well as training exercises in Australia and the United States. They have also transported supplies and personnel as part of relief efforts following disasters in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and several other countries. Their acquirement process was seen as exemplary of good practice in defence procurement. C-17s are highly regarded throughout the Australian military for their ability to carry large amounts of cargo across long distances.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 4, 2016
Wikipedia article of the day for December 3, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 3, 2016 is Union Station (Erie, Pennsylvania).
Union Station is an Amtrak railroad station and commercial building in downtown Erie in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the only stop in Pennsylvania for the Lake Shore Limited, a passenger rail line serving Chicago, New York City, and Boston. The first railroad station in Erie, established in 1851, was replaced with a Romanesque Revival-style building in 1866. Union Station, the first Art Deco depot in the U.S., was dedicated on December 3, 1927. Passenger rail service dwindled after World War II, as air and highway travel increased. The station was jointly owned and operated by the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads, which merged to form Penn Central, and passenger rail service was transferred to Amtrak in 1971. From 1972 to 1975, even Amtrak service in Erie was suspended. Union Station was largely neglected and allowed to decay until the freight management company Logistics Plus bought it in 2003. Since then, it has been restored and portions re-purposed as commercial and retail space.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 2, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 2, 2016 is Migration of the Serbs.
Migration of the Serbs is a set of oil paintings by the artist Paja Jovanović that depict the Great Serb Migration of 1690–91. The first was commissioned in 1895 by Georgije I, the Patriarch of Karlovci, intended for the following year’s Budapest Millennium Exhibition. In the view of the Serbian clergy, the painting was to support Serb claims to religious autonomy and partial self-administration in Austria-Hungary. The Patriarch was dissatisfied with Jovanović’s initial rendering and asked the artist to adjust his work to conform with the Church’s view of the migration. Jovanović could not complete the revision in time, and the painting was not shown at the Exhibition. Three of the original four paintings survive, at the patriarchate building of the Serbian Orthodox Church and at Princess Ljubica’s Residence, both in Belgrade, and at the Pančevo Museum. Migration of the Serbs holds iconic status in Serbian popular culture, and several authors consider it one of Jovanović’s finest achievements.
Wikipedia article of the day for December 1, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for December 1, 2016 is White-winged fairywren.
The white-winged fairywren (Malurus leucopterus) is a bird species in the family Maluridae, unrelated to true wrens. It lives in the drier parts of central Australia, from central Queensland and South Australia to Western Australia. Like other fairywrens, this species displays marked sexual dimorphism, and one or more males of a social group grow brightly coloured blue plumage during the breeding season. The females, sandy-brown with light-blue tail feathers, are smaller, and almost indistinguishable from the younger sexually mature males. A subspecies is found on Dirk Hartog Island, and another on Barrow Island off the coast of Western Australia, both having black rather than blue male plumage. The white-winged fairywren mainly eats insects, and lives in heathland and arid scrubland. It is a cooperative breeding species, and small groups of birds maintain and defend territories year-round. Groups consist of a socially monogamous pair with several helper birds who assist in raising the young. As part of a courtship display, the male wren plucks petals from flowers and brings them to female birds.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 30, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 30, 2016 is Scotland national football team.
The Scotland national football team has represented Scotland in association football since the world’s first international football match on St. Andrew’s Day (Scotland’s National Day), 30 November 1872. Controlled by the Scottish Football Association, the team competes in the two major professional tournaments, the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship, but not the Olympic Games. Most of their home matches are played at the national stadium, Hampden Park. They have a long-standing rivalry with England, with annual matches from 1872 until 1989, and six matches since then. They have qualified for the FIFA World Cup on eight occasions and the UEFA European Championship twice; they have never progressed beyond the first group stage of a finals tournament, but they did once beat the FIFA World Cup winners – England, in 1967. Their supporters are collectively known as the Tartan Army. The Scottish Football Association operates a roll of honour for every player who has made more than 50 appearances for the team. Kenny Dalglish, with 102 appearances between 1971 and 1986, holds the record for Scotland; he also shares the record for goals scored (30), with Denis Law.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 29, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 29, 2016 is SMS Lützow.
SMS Lützow was the second Derfflinger-class battlecruiser built by the German Imperial Navy before World War I. Launched on 29 November 1913, the ship was named in honor of the Prussian general Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. Due to engine damage during trials, Lützow did not join the I Scouting Group until March 1916. She missed most of the major actions conducted by the German battlecruiser force, taking part in only one bombardment operation, at Yarmouth and Lowestoft, on 24–25 April 1916. One month after becoming Admiral Franz von Hipper’s flagship, Lützow sank the British battlecruiser HMS Invincible during the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June; she is sometimes given credit for sinking the armored cruiser HMS Defence as well. Heavily damaged by around 24 heavy-caliber shell hits that flooded her bow, the ship was unable to make the return voyage to German ports. Her crew was evacuated and she was sunk by torpedoes fired by one of her escorts, the torpedo boat G38.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 28, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 28, 2016 is Keith Miller with the Australian cricket team in England in 1948.
The Australian cricketer Keith Miller toured England in 1948 as a member of The Invincibles, a team that went undefeated in their 34 tour matches. Miller (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an all-rounder: a fast bowler and a right-handed middle-order batsman. Don Bradman, the team captain, typically used him and Ray Lindwall in short bursts with the new ball. Miller took 13 wickets at an average of 26.28, playing a key role in subduing England’s leading batsmen, Len Hutton and Denis Compton, with a barrage of short-pitched bowling. In the First Test, Miller took seven wickets, including Hutton and Compton twice, bearing a large part of the bowling workload. With the bat, he scored 184 runs in the Tests at an average of 23.15, including 74 in the second innings of the Second Test at Lord’s, and a rapid 58 in the Fourth Test that helped Australia regain the momentum in the match. In all first-class matches on the tour, he took 56 wickets at 17.58 and scored 1,088 runs at 47.30. A carefree cricketer, Miller was seen as charismatic; his joie de vivre on the field alienated his captain, and his friendship with Princess Margaret was particularly scrutinised by the media.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 27, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 27, 2016 is Banksia canei.
Banksia canei (mountain banksia) is a shrub of the subalpine areas of the Great Dividing Range between Melbourne and Canberra in southeastern Australia. First collected on 27 November 1962, it superficially resembles B. marginata, but is more closely related to another subalpine species, B. saxicola. Although no subspecies are recognised, four geographically isolated populations have been described, as there is significant variation in the shape of both adult and juvenile leaves between populations. B. canei is generally encountered as a many-branched shrub with narrow leaves that grows up to 3 m (9.8 ft) high, with yellow inflorescences (flower spikes) from late summer to early winter. The old flowers fall off the spikes, and up to 150 finely furred follicles develop, which remain closed until burnt in a bushfire. Each follicle bears two winged seeds. Birds such as the yellow-tufted honeyeater and various insects forage among the flower spikes. B. canei is frost tolerant in cultivation, but copes less well with aridity or humidity, and is often short-lived in gardens. One cultivar, Banksia “Celia Rosser”, was registered in 1978, but has vanished.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 26, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 26, 2016 is Warlugulong.
Warlugulong (1977) is an acrylic painting by Indigenous Australian artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. In 2007 it was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia for A$2.4 million, a record auction price for a contemporary Indigenous Australian art work. The painting illustrates eight dreamings of traditional locations the artist had knowledge of, and depicts the story of an ancestral creature called Lungkata or the Blue-Tongue Lizard Man, who created bushfire. The painting portrays the aftermath of a fire caused by Lungkata to punish his two sons who had not shared a kangaroo with him that they had caught. The sons’ skeletons are on the right-hand side of the image, shown against a background representing smoke and ashes. The painting exemplifies a distinctive style developed by Papunya Tula artists in the 1970s, blending representation of landscape with ceremonial iconography. Art critic Benjamin Genocchio describes it as “a work of real national significance [and] one of the most important 20th-century Australian paintings”.
Wikipedia article of the day for November 25, 2016
The Wikipedia article of the day for November 25, 2016 is Killer Instinct Gold.
Killer Instinct Gold is a fighting video game based on the arcade game Killer Instinct 2. It was developed by Rare and initially released on November 25, 1996, by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 video game console. As in other series entries, players press buttons to punch and kick their opponent in chains of successive hits, known as combos. Large combo chains lead to stronger attacks and brutal, stylistic finisher moves. Characters—including a gargoyle, a ninja, and a femme fatale—fight in settings including a jungle and a spaceship. The Gold release lacks the arcade version’s full-motion video sequences, but adds a training mode, new camera views, and improved audiovisuals. It was later included in Rare’s 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, Rare Replay. Reviewers appreciated the game’s sound and environment backdrops, but felt that its graphical upgrades and memorization-based combo gameplay were insufficient when compared to fighting games like Tekken 2 and Virtua Fighter 2. Gold ultimately did not replicate the success of its Super NES predecessor, and the series remained dormant through its 2002 acquisition by Microsoft until its 2013 reboot.
