The Wikipedia article of the day for February 13, 2017 is Marvel Science Stories.
Marvel Science Stories was a U.S. pulp magazine with fifteen issues in two separate runs, both edited by Robert O. Erisman and published by Abraham and Martin Goodman. The first issue, dated August 1938, carried stories with more sexual content than was usual for the genre, including several stories by Henry Kuttner. Reader reaction was generally negative; one referred to Kuttner’s story “The Time Trap” as “trash”. The magazine was cancelled after the April 1941 issue, but when a boom in science fiction magazines began in 1950, the publishers revived it. The first issue of the new series was dated November 1950; a further six issues appeared, with the last dated May 1952. Contributors to the first run included Arthur J. Burks and Jack Williamson; the second run published stories by better-known writers, including Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Jack Vance and L. Sprague de Camp. But many of the writers were publishing their best work elsewhere, and the second incarnation of the magazine did not succeed in the more competitive market of the 1950s.
Wikipedia article of the day for February 12, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for February 12, 2017 is Bobby Peel.
Bobby Peel (12 February 1857 – 12 August 1941) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire between 1883 and 1897. Although an effective batsman, he was primarily a left-arm spin bowler; when conditions favoured his bowling style, he was a matchwinner. Between 1884 and 1896, Peel was regularly selected to represent England, playing 20 Test matches in which he took 101 wickets; in one such game, he bowled England to victory after they had followed on in Australia in 1894–95. Peel began playing for Yorkshire in 1883 and was the team’s main spinner by 1887; he regularly took over 100 wickets in a season, despite receiving little support from other bowlers, and was among the leading batsmen for the county. As a player, he was very popular but had a reputation for drinking heavily. In 1897 he was suspended for drunkenness during a match and never played for Yorkshire again, although the events leading up to this are unclear. Later stories, generally dismissed by historians, suggested he urinated on the pitch. He continued to play and coach cricket for most of his life. Among his other jobs, he became the landlord of a public house and worked in a mill.
Wikipedia article of the day for February 11, 2017
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.
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.
Wikipedia article of the day for January 6, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for January 6, 2017 is Clinton Engineer Works.
The Clinton Engineer Works was the site of the Manhattan Project’s World War II production facilities that provided the enriched uranium used in the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945. Its X-10 Graphite Reactor produced the first samples of plutonium from a reactor. Located just south of the town of Clinton, Tennessee, it included the production facilities of the K-25, Y-12 and S-50 projects, various utilities, and the township of Oak Ridge. The Manhattan District Engineer, Kenneth Nichols, moved the Manhattan District headquarters there from Manhattan in August 1943. Many construction workers were housed in large temporary communities, including Happy Valley. The construction labor force peaked at 75,000. Oak Ridge was established to house the operating staff, which peaked at 50,000 workers just after the war. It was developed by the federal government as a segregated community; black residents lived in an area known as Gamble Valley, in government-built hutments of one-room shacks.
Wikipedia article of the day for January 5, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for January 5, 2017 is Defense of the Ancients.
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a multiplayer online battle arena mod, or game modification, created for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. First released in 2003, it is based on StarCraft custom map “Aeon of Strife”. Each team of up to five players attempts to destroy the opponents’ Ancient, a heavily guarded structure at a far corner of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters. As in role-playing games, players level up their heroes and use gold to buy items and equipment during the game. DotA became a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon, and was featured at the Asian World Cyber Games and in the Cyberathlete Amateur League. Valve Corporation acquired the intellectual property rights to DotA to develop a stand-alone sequel, Dota 2, released in July 2013.
Wikipedia article of the day for January 4, 2017
The Wikipedia article of the day for January 4, 2017 is Wrestle Kingdom 9.
Wrestle Kingdom 9 was a professional wrestling event at the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2015, produced by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. The first event on the 2015 NJPW schedule, it featured ten professional wrestling matches and one pre-show match, six of which were for championships. In the double main event, Shinsuke Nakamura successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship (belt pictured) against Kota Ibushi, and Hiroshi Tanahashi successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. The appearance of Pro Wrestling Noah wrestlers led to a storyline in which NJPW’s Suzuki-gun group began wrestling at Noah events. Wrestle Kingdom 9 was attended by 36,000 people and was broadcast as a pay-per-view event with English commentary in the United States and Canada. Critics issued universally positive reviews; Paste magazine said it presented “some of the most passionate and poignant performance art today”. Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted Wrestle Kingdom 9 the Best Major Wrestling Show of 2015, and named its Ibushi–Nakamura match as the 2015 Pro Wrestling Match of the Year.
