The 1896 Summer Olympics were the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. The International Olympic Committee was established in 1894 by a congress organized by Pierre de CoubertininParis. The committee appointed the Greek capital Athens as the host city, and the games took place from 6 to 15 April 1896. According to the committee, 14 nations took part, and 241 male athletes competed. The participants were all European, or living in Europe, with the exception of the United States team. More than 65 per cent of the competing athletes were Greek, and Greece won the most medals overall, 47. The athletic highlight for the Greeks was the marathon victory by their compatriot Spyridon Louis. The most successful competitor was the German wrestler and gymnast Carl Schuhmann, with four victories. The 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success, with the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. (Full article...)
Apollo 15 (July 26 – August 7, 1971) was the fourth crewed mission to land on the Moon. It was the first of three J missions, with a longer stay on the Moon, a greater focus on science, and the use of the first Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). David Scott and James Irwin landed near Hadley Rille and spent 18 and a half hours on extravehicular activity (EVA), collecting 170 pounds (77 kg) of surface material. During the return trip, Alfred Worden performed the first spacewalk in deep space. The mission included the collection of the Genesis Rock, thought to be part of the Moon's early crust, and Scott used a hammer and a feather to demonstrate Galileo's theory that, absent air resistance, objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass. The mission was later marred when it was found that the crew had carried unauthorized postal covers to the lunar surface, some of which were sold by a West German stamp dealer. The crew was reprimanded for poor judgment, and none flew in space again. This photograph, taken by Scott during an EVA on August 2, shows Irwin giving a military salute beside the U.S. flag. The Lunar ModuleFalcon is in the center, with the LRV on the right.
Pisaura mirabilis is a species of arachnid in the family Pisauridae, the nursery web spiders. It has a palearctic distribution, being found all over Europe, and also inhabits the Canary Islands and Madeira, the Asian part of Russia, China and North Africa. It lives in all habitats but prefers wet environments, and inhabits all strata from the ground to the top of trees, at altitudes up to 1,100 metres (3,600 feet), but is not found under rocks or in caves. The spider has relatively long legs, the fourth pair being the longest, and a slender opisthosoma. Males are 10 to 13 millimetres (0.39 to 0.51 in) in length, while females are 12 to 15 millimetres (0.47 to 0.59 in). This photograph shows a female P. mirabilis spider carrying an egg sac, photographed at a lake near Wolvercote in Oxfordshire, England.
Justice was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in the early 1900s. She was the second member of the Liberté class, which included three other vessels and was a derivative of the preceding République class. Justice carried a main battery of four 305 mm (12 in) guns, with ten 194 mm (7.6 in) guns for her secondary armament. On entering service, Justice became the flagship of the 2nd Division of the Mediterranean Squadron, participating in the training routine of squadron and fleet maneuvers and cruises, as well as several naval reviews. During World War I, Justice was used to escort troopship convoys carrying elements of the French Army from North Africa to face the Germans invading northern France and also steamed to contain the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea, taking part in the minor Battle of Antivari. She was sent to the Black Sea after the war to oversee the surrender of German-occupied Russian warships, and then briefly became a training ship, before being decommissioned in the early 1920s. This photograph shows Justice in 1909 near New York City.
Censorship under the military dictatorship in Brazil consisted of restrictions on the media, artists, journalists, and others whom the government deemed "subversive", "dangerous" or "immoral". The political system of the Brazilian military dictatorship, installed by a 1964 coup d'état and which persisted until 1985, also set out to censor material that went against what it called "morality and good manners". The constitution of 1967 established censorship as an official, centralized activity of the Brazilian federal government. There were several protests against the practice, including the Cultura contra Censura protest in February 1968, depicted in this photograph, which shows the actresses Tônia Carrero, Eva Wilma, Odete Lara, Norma Bengell and Cacilda Becker.
Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden
There is a great disconnect between how athiests and religionist view the proper place for religion in the public square. Briefly, atheists (usually) want no religion in the public square, and religionists want equal access (non-denominational) to the public square and view athiesm as just one other "religion" that needs access.
Wikipedia's Reputation
I've been thinking about this key principle: "[What] reliable sources ... have in common is process and approval between document creation and publication." This is also the key to Wikipedia's reliability and reputation. The core principles of neutrality and verifiability along with the standards for articles (featured/good/etc) and the implicit approval of every person who reads an article and makes no changes to it.
Intellectual Property
We (Americans) often "borrow" other people's intellectual property because the transaction method (i.e. limited use permission) does not exist and can not be created without the transaction cost exceeding the value of the permission (which is close to $0.00 in most cases) so we keep using other's work, and they don't sue us.
