Wikipedia Article-of-the-Day

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship

During mating season the male hippopotamus will find a mate out of the herd, showing interest by smelling the female’s dorsal end. As long as the male acts submissive during courting season the adults in the herd will not interfere. Once the male finds the female he wants to mate with, he begins provoking the female. He then will push the female into the water and mounts her. In order to alert the herd or other animals that may be lurking around the male will let a loud wheezing sound. Preceding birth the female exhibits aggressive behavior leaving the herd until after the birth of the calf.

[DoomYoshi]

On April 5, 2063, Cochrane made Earth's first warp flight, playing Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" during blast-off. The Phoenix's warp flight is detected by a Vulcan survey ship, the T'Plana Hath, which then makes peaceful first contact with humans, including Cochrane, at the Phoenix's launch site.

Only 47 more years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zefram_Cochrane

[DoomYoshi]

In mathematics, specifically in group theory, the phrase group of Lie type usually refers to finite groups that are closely related to the group of rational points of a reductive linear algebraic group with values in a finite field. The phrase "group of Lie type" does not have a widely accepted precise definition,[1] but the important collection of finite simple groups of Lie type does have a precise definition, and they make up most of groups in the classification of finite simple groups.

The name "groups of Lie type" is due to the close relationship with the (infinite) Lie groups, since a compact Lie group may be viewed as the rational points of a reductive linear algebraic group over the field of real numbers. Dieudonné (1971) and Carter (1989) are standard references for groups of Lie type.

I've been studying group theory a lot recently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Lie_type

[DoomYoshi]

I believe that to be inconsistent with my views.

+1

[DoomYoshi]

One of the first exhibits to receive attention was the Westinghouse Time Capsule, which was not to be opened for 5,000 years (the year 6939). The time capsule was a tube containing writings by Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann, copies of Life Magazine, a Mickey Mouse watch, a Gillette safety razor, a kewpie doll, a dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes, millions of pages of text on microfilm, and much more. The capsule also contained seeds of foods in common use at the time: (wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, cotton, flax, rice, soy beans, alfalfa, sugar beets, carrots and barley, all sealed in glass tubes). The time capsule is located at 40°44′34.089″N 73°50′43.842″W, at a depth of 50 feet (15 m). A small stone plaque marks the position.[7] Westinghouse also featured "Electro the Moto-Man": the 7-foot (2.1 m) tall robot that talked, differentiated colors, and even "smoked" cigarettes.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World%27s_Fair

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Hodge

Ed Oliver Hodge (born November 19, 1964 in Bellflower, California) is a former baseball pitcher who appeared in twenty-five games for the Minnesota Twins in 1984.

In 1992 Brent Holland, president of the Ed Hodge Fan Club Wilmington, NC chapter, led a group of Laney High School students to sign a petition to have Ed Hodge inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The petition gained traction and had over 591 signatures. However, Hodge was left off the ballot and never was elected to Cooperstown.

Meanwhile, in the surreal corner of NC...

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Subpluvial

Date ranges

The Neolithic Subpluvial began during the 7th millennium BCE and was strong for about 2,000 years; it waned over time and ended after the 5.9 kiloyear event (3900 BCE). Then the drier conditions that prevailed prior to the Neolithic Subpluvial returned; desertification advanced, and the Sahara Desert formed (or re-formed). Arid conditions have continued through to the present day.[1]
Geography and hydrography
During the Neolithic Subpluvial, large areas of North, Central, and East Africa had hydrographic profiles significantly different from later norms. Existing lakes had surfaces tens of meters higher than today, sometimes with alternative drainages: Lake Turkana, in present-day Kenya, drained into the Nile River basin. Lake Chad reached a maximum extent of some 400,000 square kilometers in surface area, larger than the modern Caspian Sea, with a surface level about 30 meters (100 feet) higher than its twentieth-century average. Some shallower lakes and river systems existed in the subpluvial era that later disappeared entirely, and are detectable today only via radar and satellite imagery.

Sounds like the Garden of Eden. No wonder nobody can find where those rivers all intersect.

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Americans_(commentary)

"The Americans" is a famous commentary by the late Canadian broadcaster Gordon Sinclair. Originally written for a regular broadcast on CFRB radio in Toronto on June 5, 1973, it became a media and public phenomenon. It was replayed several times a day by some United States radio stations and released as a hit audio recording in several forms.

This version here, by 25 year old Byron MacGregor, set the record for highest debut on American Top 40, debuting at 33. It eventually hit No. 4 before falling again. At that time, another Canadian spoken word recording was on the chart as well - Sister Mary Elephant by Cheech and Chong (Chong is the Canadian).

[DoomYoshi]

Histoires ou contes du temps passé or Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals or Mother Goose Tales)[1] is a collection of literary fairy tales written by Charles Perrault, published in Paris in 1697. The work became popular because it was written at a time when fairy tales were fashionable amongst aristocrats in Parisian literary salons.[2] Perrault wrote the work when he retired from court as secretary to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to Louis XIV of France. Colbert's death may have forced Perrault's retirement, at which point he turned to writing. Scholars have debated as the origin of his tales and whether they are original literary fairy tales modified from commonly known stories, or based on stories written by earlier medieval writers such as Boccaccio.

Elaborate embellishments were a preferred style at the French court. The simple plots Perrault started with were modified, the language enhanced, and rewritten for an audience of aristocratic and noble courtiers. Thematically, the stories support Perrault's belief that the nobility is superior to the peasant class, and many of the stories show an adherence to Catholic beliefs, such as those in which a woman undergoes purification from sin and repentance before reintegration into society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoires_ou_contes_du_temps_pass%C3%A9

The original Mother Goose was high society in Paris. Funny how everywhere else it is an infantile pleasure.

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typee

Before Typee's publication, the publisher[which?] asked Melville to remove one sentence. In a scene where the Dolly is boarded by young women from Nukuheva, Melville originally wrote:

Our ship was now given up to every species of riot and debauchery. Not the feeblest barrier was interposed between the unholy passions of the crew and their unlimited gratification.

The second sentence was removed from the final version.[8]

Here I provide what I think is the context. I didn't find the line "riot and debauchery" anywhere in the text, but I'm just reading it on Gutenberg, not an academic critical edition.

show

This is like the 1840s edition of reading National Geographic for the pictures.

[DoomYoshi]

Muhammed never actually lived because he would've lived during a period of time that never happened -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_time_hypothesis

First published in 1991, the hypothesis proposes a conspiracy by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, Pope Sylvester II, and possibly the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, to fabricate the Anno Domini dating system retrospectively, so that it placed them at the special year of AD 1000, and to rewrite history[1] to legitimize Otto's claim to the Holy Roman Empire. Illig believed that this was achieved through the alteration, misrepresentation, and forgery of documentary and physical evidence.[2] According to this scenario, the entire Carolingian period, including the figure of Charlemagne, would be a fabrication, with a "phantom time" of 297 years (AD 614 to 911) added to the Early Middle Ages.

The bases of Illig's hypothesis include:[7][8]

The scarcity of archaeological evidence that can be reliably dated to the period AD 614–911, the perceived inadequacies of radiometric and dendrochronological methods of dating this period, and the over-reliance of medieval historians on written sources.
The presence of Romanesque architecture in tenth-century Western Europe, suggesting the Roman era was not as long ago as conventionally thought.
The relation between the Julian calendar, Gregorian calendar and the underlying astronomical solar or tropical year. The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar, was long known to introduce a discrepancy from the tropical year of around one day for each century that the calendar was in use. By the time the Gregorian calendar was introduced in AD 1582, Illig alleges that the old Julian calendar should have produced a discrepancy of thirteen days between it and the real (or tropical) calendar. Instead, the astronomers and mathematicians working for Pope Gregory XIII had found that the civil calendar needed to be adjusted by only ten days. (The Julian calendar day Thursday, 4 October 1582 was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582). From this, Illig concludes that the AD era had counted roughly three centuries which never existed.

I'm glad mr. hot sauce doesn't know how to use Wikipedia, or we'd have a whole new problem to defend against.

[DoomYoshi]

cheese made in the village of Stilton ... could not be sold as "Stilton"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stilton_cheese

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Pierce

Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick

[DoomYoshi]

I found this great site:
https://wikiworldcomic.wordpress.com/



It's not updated anymore, but some of them are pretty neat.

[DoomYoshi]

The first Harvard to attend Harvard, he died in the First World War less than three years later, leaving a wife and infant son.

including one reporter's pet cheetah

[DoomYoshi]

Do you think your ambitions have been thwarted?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_del_Toro%27s_unrealized_projects

[DoomYoshi]

Historical documents, including "physician notes, cathedral sermons, local and regional chronicles, and even notes issued by the Strasbourg city council" are clear that the victims danced. It is not known why these people danced, some even to their deaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518

[DoomYoshi]

No guff:

Christian fundamentalism was invented at McGill in 1876

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Bible_Conference

[DoomYoshi]

Most of my favorite foods

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_ ... _Adventure

Right now it says:

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure received generally positive reviews and was wildly successful becoming the highest grossing film ever and setting a new record for Orion. It is now considered a new milestone in comedy. As of 2018 it was the start of a new legend for embassy and Interscope.

[DoomYoshi]

Either way, somebody fixed the changes.

[DoomYoshi]

The "Francis" used in the movies was not named "Molly". She was named "Judy". I thought, perhaps, you would like a true version in regards to Francis (Judy) who belonged to my step-grandfather Archie Dean who, at the time, owned and operated the High Sierra Pack Train in Independence, California. As a young man in his teens Archie worked as a carpenter in one of the Hollywood movie studios and met people of the movie industry who were familiar with his father who had taken many of them on pack trips into the High Sierras from the town of Independence, California in the Owens Valley. After his father's passing, Archie took over the pack train operation. Archie Dean was contacted by Universal Pictures Studio when they wanted a mule for a picture they were making about a talking mule. Archie sold them a male mule named "Billie". The mule did not work out so they brought "Billie" back to Archie and wanted to use his pet mule "Judy" for the movie. Archie was reluctant to let his pet go, but finally told them he would "not ever sell her to them", but would loan her to them as long as they brought her back for the packing season in the Spring. The studio came back to Independence to get "Judy" in the Fall and promised to return her in the Spring. They never returned Judy the mule as promised and Archie, eventually, had to hire an attorney to try and get his pet mule, "Judy", returned. At the time, my mother, Mary "Tansy" Fitz-Patrick Smith and, my grandmother, Mary "Mateet" Fitz-Patrick Dean were very familiar with these events as they transpired. "Tansy" and "Mateet" worked at the pack station and were aware of the dealings with Universal Studios and knew all the people and animals involved with the pack station. In the end, the studio refused to return "Judy", Archie's pet mule, and he never saw or heard of her again except, as they say, "In The Movies".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_the_Talking_Mule

This is just excellent, it's like somebody wrote a letter entitled "Dear Mr. Pedia" and it got added to the page. Never change, internet.

[DoomYoshi]

In A.D. 1759, Francis Maseres, an English mathematician, wrote that negative numbers "darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature excessively obvious and simple". He came to the conclusion that negative numbers were nonsensical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_number

This guy is a true legend for writing that. At the time, negative numbers were really controversial and a lot of people wouldn't use them. As a reward for being so clever, the king made him attorney general of Quebec (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?BioId=37123). Of course, he hated French Canadians because he was a Hugenot.

Maseres came to Canada June 1766. James McGill might have come earlier, but check out his biography:

When and in what circumstances James McGill emigrated is not known. In 1766 he was in Montreal en route to the pays d’en haut as “the deputy” of the Quebec merchant William Grant (1744–1805).

They were in Montreal at the same time!!!

William Grant got into some hot water with the Flaming Frenchmen (as the Montreal Canadiens were then and are still known as) for printing the words of Maseres. Imagine that, the attorney general having actual documents in circulation.

Basically, they all knew each other, so we can thank Maseres for Conquer Club, and therefore the moral of the story is that Conquer Club was founded on the principle of hating negative numbers and you should too.

Next week on "off the deep end": that time that an American President wrote a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem because he thought that Euclid didn't do a good enough job. (Spoiler Alert: He gets assassinated for it, but doesn't found McGill university).

[DoomYoshi]

Learning Russian:

The perfective is also sometimes described as referring to a "completed" action, but it would be more accurate to say that it refers to an action or situation that is seen as a complete whole, e.g., the Russian perfective future я убью тебя "I shall kill you" refers to an event that has not yet been completed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfective_aspect

In other languages we start with verbs I am, You are, She is, etc. In Russian they start with I kill, you kill, she kills, etc.

[Dukasaur]

Here's one I found interesting. Before today, I never knew that one of my favourite songs was a heavily-bowdlerized version of the original.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasons_in_the_Sun

The original French-language song is a sardonic ballad, in which the speaker gives backhanded farewells to his adulterous wife and her lover and the priest he disagreed with while sarcastically expressing his wish that there should be singing and dancing when he is buried.

Although prior English language versions had attempted to retain the sarcastic tone of the original French song, Jacks opted to make it more sentimental. In each verse, the protagonist bids farewell to someone important in his life:

• The first verse refers to "a trusted friend" that he had known since he was "9 or 10". The original specifically names the friend as "Émile", which Jacks's versions does not.
  
• The second verse refers to the protagonist's father (who unsuccessfully tried to warn him of his lifestyle); this verse differed from the original as it was sung in a manner which downplayed the original's bitter tone of regret.
  
• The third verse refers to "Michelle, my little one" (implied to be his daughter, who will now grow up without her father). This verse completely replaced the third and fourth verses referring to infidelity in the French original.