Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 2004
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September 1
Under English common law, a common scold was a species of public nuisance—a troublesome and angry woman who broke the public peace by habitually arguing and quarrelling with her neighbours. The Latin name for the offender, communis rixatrix, appears in the feminine gender, and makes it clear that only women could commit this crime. The prescribed penalty for this offence involved dunking the convicted offender in water in an instrument called the cucking stool, which by folk etymology became ducking stool. The stool consisted of a chair attached to a lever, suspended over a body of water; the prisoner was strapped into the chair and dunked into the water for her punishment. (more...)
Recently featured: Ferdinand Magellan – Tank – Traditional counties of England
September 2
Laika was one of the Russian space dogs and the first living being to enter orbit, as a passenger on Sputnik 2, a Soviet spacecraft. Some classify her as the first animal to enter space, although other animals had entered space during sub-orbital flights on previous missions. Laika was found as a stray wandering the streets of Moscow, a female part-Samoyed terrier weighing approximately 6 kg (13 lb). Laika died on November 4, 1957, a few hours after launch, due to stress and overheating. Her true cause of death was not made public until years after the flight, with officials always stating that she was either euthanized by poisoned food or died when the oxygen supply ran out. Russian officials have since expressed regret for allowing Laika to die; to this date, Laika is the only living passenger ever to have been launched into space without the intention of retrieval. (more...)
Recently featured: Common scold – Ferdinand Magellan – Tank
September 3
The Behistun Inscription is to cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs: the document most crucial in the decipherment of a previously lost script. The inscription is approximately 15 metres high by 25 metres wide, and 100 metres up a cliff from an ancient road connecting the capitals of Babylonia and Media (Babylon and Ecbatana). It is extremely inaccessible as the mountainside was removed to make the inscription more visible after its completion. The text itself is a statement by Darius I of Persia, written three times in three different scripts and languages: two languages side by side, Old Persian and Elamite, and Akkadian above them. (more...)
Recently featured: Laika – Common scold – Ferdinand Magellan
September 4
In computer security, PaX is a patch for the Linux kernel that implements least privilege protections for memory pages. This approach allows computer programs to do only what they have to be able to do to execute properly, and nothing more. PaX flags data memory as non-executable and program memory as non-writable; and randomly arranges the program memory. This effectively prevents many security exploits, such as those stemming from buffer overflows. The former prevents direct code injection absolutely; while the latter makes so-called return-to-libc (ret2libc) attacks indeterminate, relying on luck to succeed. PaX was first released in the year 2000. (more...)
Recently featured: Behistun Inscription – Laika – Common scold
September 5
Anno Domini (Latin for "In the Year of the Lord"; commonly abbreviated AD) refers to the conventional numbering of years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It defines an epoch based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus. Years before the epoch were denoted a.C.n. (for Ante Christum Natum, Latin for "before the birth of Christ"), although BC (Before Christ) is now usually used in English. The Anno Domini era is the only system in everyday use in the Western hemisphere, and the main system for commercial and scientific use in the rest of the world. Some non-Christians or secular persons, however, object to a system based upon an event in the Christian faith; for this reason, the same epoch is also referred to as the Common Era, abbreviated CE. (more...)
Recently featured: PaX – Behistun Inscription – Laika
September 6
The Warsaw Uprising was an armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. It started on August 1, 1944 as a part of a nationwide uprising, Operation Tempest. The Polish troops resisted the German-led forces until October 2. An estimated 85% of the city was destroyed during the urban guerrilla war and after the end of hostilities. The Uprising started at a crucial point in the war as the Soviet army was approaching Warsaw. Although the Soviet army was within a few hundred metres of the city from September 16 onward, the link between the uprising and the advancing army was never made. This failure and the reasons behind it have been a matter of controversy ever since. (more...)
Recently featured: Anno Domini – PaX – Behistun Inscription
September 7
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding her half-sister, Mary I. She reigned over a period of deep religious division in English history. Elizabeth's reign is referred to as the Elizabethan era and was marked by several changes in English culture. Elizabeth was a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler. Like her father Henry VIII, she was a writer and poet. She granted Royal Charters to several famous organisations, including Trinity College, Dublin (1592) and the British East India Company (1600). (more...)
Recently featured: Warsaw Uprising – Anno Domini – PaX
September 8
In prosody, alliterative verse is any of a number of closely related verse forms that are the common inheritance of the older Germanic languages. This was the verse form in which the Old English epic Beowulf was written, as well as most of the other Old English poetry; so were the Bavarian Muspillo and the Old Saxon Heliand. A modified form of alliterative verse is found in the Elder Edda. Alliterative verse exists from the earliest attested monuments of the Germanic languages; extended passages of alliterative verse are attested in Old English, Old Norse, Old High German, and Old Saxon. (more...)
Recently featured: Elizabeth I – Warsaw Uprising – Anno Domini
September 9
The Milgram experiment was a famous scientific experiment of social psychology described by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1974. It was intended to measure the willingness of a participant to obey an authority who instructs the participant to do something that may conflict with the participant's personal conscience. The participant is assigned the role of "teacher". The participant is then given simple memory tasks to give to the "learner" (an actor) and instructed to administer a shock by pressing a button each time the learner makes a mistake. The participant is also told that the voltage is to be raised by 15 volts after each mistake. In reality, there are no actual shocks being given to the learner – the actor is acting. The experiment raised questions about the ethics of scientific experimentation itself because of the extreme emotional stress suffered by the participants. Most modern scientists would consider the experiment unethical today, though it resulted in valuable insights into human psychology. (more...)
Recently featured: Alliterative verse – Elizabeth I – Warsaw Uprising
September 10
A mains power plug is a mechanical connector that fits into a power point or electrical socket. It has male features, usually brass and often tin or nickel plated, that interface mechanically and electrically to the mains. Such plugs have live, neutral and an optional earth contact. Large appliances with higher voltages use three-phase current and have phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, neutral and an optional earth contact. The reason we now have over a dozen different styles of plugs and wall outlets is that many countries preferred to develop plug designs of their own, instead of adopting a common standard. In many countries, there is no single standard, with multiple plug designs in use, creating extra complexity and potential safety problems for users. (more...)
Recently featured: Milgram experiment – Alliterative verse – Elizabeth I
September 11
Nineteen Eighty-Four was a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in the winter of 1954. Orwell's novel was adapted for television by Nigel Kneale, one of the most successful television scriptwriters of the era. Although all went off well technically and artistically, the production proved to be hugely controversial. There were complaints both about the "horrific" content (particularly the infamous Room 101 scene where Winston Smith is threatened with torture by rats) and the "subversive" nature of the play. Most were worried by the depiction of a totalitarian government controlling the population's thoughts. (more...)
Recently featured: Mains power plug – Milgram experiment – Alliterative verse
September 12
Anatoly Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He is considered one of the greatest players in chess history, especially in tournament play: he is the most successful tournament player in history, with over 140 first-places to his credit. His overall record is 1,118 wins, 287 losses, and 1,480 draws in 3,163 games, and his peak Elo rating is 2780. Karpov's "boa constrictor" playing style is solidly positional, taking no risks but reacting mercilessly to any tiny errors made by his opponents. As a result, he is often compared to his idol, the famous José Raúl Capablanca, the third World Champion. (more...)
Recently featured: Nineteen Eighty-Four – Mains power plug – Milgram experiment
September 13
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was the most significant volcanic eruption to occur in the lower 48 states of the United States in recorded history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month long series of earthquakes and steam venting episodes that created a huge bulge and a fracture system on Mount St. Helens' north slope. An earthquake on May 18, 1980 caused the entire weakened north face to slide away, suddenly exposing the partly molten, gas and steam-rich rock in the volcano to lower pressure. The rock responded by exploding into a super-heated mix of pulverized lava and older rock that sped toward Spirit Lake so fast that it quickly passed the avalanching north face. By the time the ash settled and the lahars stopped advancing, 57 people were dead, many thousands of animals were killed, hundreds of square miles were reduced to a wasteland, and over a billion U.S. dollars in damage was done. (more...)
Recently featured: Anatoly Karpov – Nineteen Eighty-Four – Mains power plug
September 14
The Holy Prepuce (or Holy Foreskin) is one of the various relics purported to be associated with Jesus Christ. Orthodox Christian belief has it that Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven at the end of his earthly life. This would mean that Jesus's foreskin (removed at his circumcision) would be one of the few physical remainders of Jesus left behind on Earth. At various points in history, a number of churches in Europe have claimed to possess it, sometimes concurrently. Various miraculous powers have been ascribed to it. The abbey of Charroux claimed to possess the Holy Foreskin during the Middle Ages. It was said to have been presented to the monks by none other than Charlemagne, who in turn is said to have claimed (per the legend) that it had been brought to him by an angel. Other claimants at various points in time have included (at least) the Cathedral of Le Puy en Velay, Santiago de Compostela, the city of Antwerp, and churches in Besançon, Metz, Hildesheim, and Calcata. (more...)
Recently featured: 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens – Anatoly Karpov – Nineteen Eighty-Four
September 15
DNA repair is a constantly operating process in the cell essential to survival because it protects the genome from damage. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors (such as UV rays) can cause DNA damage, resulting in as much as 500,000 individual molecular lesions per cell per day. These lesions cause structural damage to the DNA molecule, and can dramatically alter the cell's way of reading the information encoded in its genes. Consequently, the DNA repair process must be constantly operating, to rapidly correct any damage in the DNA structure. (more...)
Recently featured: Holy Prepuce – 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens – Anatoly Karpov
September 16
Lawrence v. Texas was a 2003 case decided by the United States Supreme Court. In the 6–3 ruling, the justices invalidated the criminal prohibition of homosexual sodomy in Texas. The court had previously addressed the same issue in 1986 with Bowers v. Hardwick, but there had upheld the challenged Georgia statute, not finding a constitutional right to homosexual sodomy. Lawrence overturned Bowers, which it held viewed the liberty at stake too narrowly. The Lawrence court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Lawrence had the effect of invalidating similar laws throughout the United States insofar as they apply to consenting adults acting in private. The case attracted much public attention, and a large number of amicus curiae briefs were filed in the case. The decision was celebrated by gay rights activists, hoping that further legal advances may result as a consequence; the decision was lamented by social conservatives for the same reasons. (more...)
Recently featured: DNA repair - Holy Prepuce - 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
September 17
In its pure form, glass is a transparent, relatively strong, hard-wearing, essentially inert, and biologically inactive material which can be formed with very smooth and impervious surfaces. These desirable properties lead to its very many uses. Glass is, however, brittle and will break into sharp shards. These properties can be modified, or even changed entirely, with the addition of other compounds. Glasses are uniform amorphous solid materials, usually produced when a suitably viscous molten material cools very rapidly, thereby not giving enough time for a regular crystal lattice to form. Glasses can be made from many materials, although only a few varieties are in common use. Common glass is mostly amorphous silicon dioxide, which is the same chemical compound as quartz, or, in its polycrystalline form, sand. (more...)
Recently featured: Lawrence v. Texas – DNA repair – Holy Prepuce
September 18
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 began with a set of national protests in the China, which occurred between April 15, 1989 and June 4, 1989, centered at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The protests were part of a conflict between students and antigovernment demonstrators and the Chinese Communist Party. After several weeks, a decision was made to forcibly remove the protesters, and an estimated 2,600 people died in the ensuing conflict. (more...)
Recently featured: Glass – Lawrence v. Texas – DNA repair
September 19
Cricket is a team sport. The game, sometimes referred to as the "gentleman's game", originated in its formal form in England, and is popular mainly in the countries of the Commonwealth. In the countries of South Asia, including India and Pakistan, cricket is by far the most popular participatory and spectator sport. It is also the national sport of Australia, and it is the major summer sport in New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The rich jargon of cricket can often leave those unfamiliar with the game confused; the rules are of similar complexity to those of its cousin baseball. Cricket fosters die-hard aficionados, for whom matches provide passionate entertainment. Occasionally, rival nations have lampooned each other over cricket matches, provoking diplomatic outrage. (more...)
Recently featured: Tiananmen Square protests – Glass – Lawrence v. Texas
September 20
The U.S. Electoral College is a specific form of an electoral college and is the method by which the President and Vice President of the United States are chosen. The Electoral College was established by Article Two, Section One of the U.S. Constitution, and meets every four years with electors from each state. The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution has allowed electors from the District of Columbia to cast votes for the election of the president. The electoral process was modified in 1804 with the ratification of Amendment XII. Presidential elections take place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in years evenly divisible by four. Although ballots typically list the names of the Presidential candidates, voters within the 50 states and the District of Columbia actually choose electors when they vote for President. These electors in turn cast the official votes for President. Federal law says that each state's electors meet in their state capitals on the Monday following the second Wednesday of December. There, they cast their electoral votes for President and Vice President. (more...)
Recently featured: Cricket – Tiananmen Square protests – Glass
September 21
The Coronation of the British monarch is a ceremony in which the monarch is formally crowned and invested with regalia. The coronation usually takes place several months after the death of the previous monarch, for the coronation is considered a joyous occasion that would be inappropriate when mourning still continues. For example, Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2, 1953, having ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952. The ceremony is officiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric of the Church of England. Many other government officials and guests attend. (more...)
Recently featured: U.S. Electoral College – Cricket – Tiananmen Square protests
September 22
The history of Irish theatre begins with the rise of the English administration in Dublin at the start of the 17th century. In the early days of its history, theatrical productions in Ireland tended to serve the political purposes of the administration, but as more theatres opened and the popular audience grew, a more diverse range of entertainments were staged. Many Dublin-based theatres developed links with their London equivalents and performers and productions from the English capital frequently found their way to the Irish stage. However, most Irish playwrights from William Congreve to George Bernard Shaw found it necessary to go abroad to establish themselves. At the beginning of the 20th century, theatres and theatre companies dedicated to the staging of Irish plays and the development of indigenous writers, directors and performers began to emerge. This allowed many of the most significant Irish dramatists to learn their trade and establish their reputations at home rather than in Britain or the United States. (more...)
Recently featured: Coronation of the British monarch – U.S. Electoral College – Cricket
September 23
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A black hole is a theoretical concentration of mass with a gravitational field so strong that its escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. This implies that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravity, hence the word "black". The term "black hole" is widespread, even though the theory does not refer to any hole in the usual sense. According to classical general relativity, no matter or information can flow from the interior of a black hole to an outside observer, although quantum mechanics may allow deviations from this strict rule. The existence of black holes in the universe is well-supported both theoretically and by astronomical observation; however, a minority of physicists dissent. (more...)
Recently featured: Irish theatre – Coronation of the British monarch – U.S. Electoral College
September 24
The Ackermann function is an important example encountered by mathematicians in the theory of computation. It is a recursive function which takes two natural numbers as arguments and returns a natural number as its value. In 1928, Wilhelm Ackermann considered a function A (m, n, p) of three variables, the p-fold iterated exponentiation of m with n or m → n → p in Conway's notation. He proved that it is a recursive function which is not primitive recursive. This definition was later simplified by Rozsa Peter and Raphael Robinson to the two-variable definition given above. It grows extremely quickly, and this extreme growth can be exploited to show that the computable function f (n) = A(n, n) grows faster than any primitive-recursive function and is therefore not primitive-recursive. Due to its definition in terms of extremely deep recursion, it can be used as a benchmark of a compiler's ability to optimize recursion. (more...)
Recently featured: Black hole – Irish theatre – Coronation of the British monarch
September 25
Du Fu was a Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty. Along with Li Po, he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His own greatest ambition was to help his country by becoming a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like the country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and the last 15 years of his life were a time of almost constant unrest. Initially unpopular, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese poetry. He has been called "poet historian" and "poet sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire". (more...)
Recently featured: Ackermann function – Black hole – Irish theatre
September 26
A mixed-breed dog (also called a mutt or mongrel) is a dog that is a mixture of two or more breeds. Mixed-breed dogs vary in size, shape, and color, making them hard to classify physically, but some colors are more common than others. With each generation of mixing, the offspring move closer to the genetic norm. Dogs that are descended from many generations of mixes are typically light brown or black and weigh about 18 kg (40 lbs). The theory of hybrid vigor suggests that dogs of mixed ancestry will be healthier than their purebred counterparts. In some cases this might be true, because inbreeding among purebreds has made some breeds prone to various genetic health problems. Historically, dog shows and dog sports excluded mixed-breed dogs from competition. While this tradition is changing, some sports still remain open only to one breed of dog, such as greyhound racing. (more...)
Recently featured: Du Fu – Ackermann function – Black hole
September 27
Yesterday is a song written by Paul McCartney, originally recorded by The Beatles for their album Help! in 1965. "Yesterday" was the first official recording by the group which relied upon a performance by a single member of the band, although the background accompaniment of a string quartet was added a few days later during the editing stage. It is a ballad about unrequited love, and differed greatly from other works by the Beatles, leading the other three members of the band to veto the song's release as a single in the United Kingdom. Although solely written by McCartney, due to his contract with the Beatles the song was credited to both him and John Lennon as "Lennon/McCartney". According to the Guinness Book of Records, "Yesterday" has the most cover versions (over three thousand) of any song yet produced. BMI asserts that it was performed over seven million times during the 20th century alone. (more...)
Recently featured: Mixed-breed dog – Du Fu – Ackermann function
September 28
A split infinitive is a construction in the English language made by inserting an adverb or adverbial phrase between "to" and a verb in its infinitive form. One famous example is from the science fiction series Star Trek: "To boldly go where no man has gone before." Here, the infinitive verb form of "go" is "to go", and the adverb "boldly" has been inserted, creating a split infinitive. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some grammatical authorities argued that split infinitives should not be allowed in English, by an analogy with Latin, where they are usually impossible. Most authorities from the last 100 years, however, agree that this rule was mistaken, and indeed that splitting an infinitive can sometimes reduce ambiguity. (more...)
Recently featured: Yesterday – Mixed-breed dog – Du Fu
September 29
Adoption in Rome was a fairly common procedure, particularly in the upper senatorial class. The need for a male heir and the expense of raising children were strong incentives to have at least one son, but not too many children. Adoption, the obvious solution, also served to cement ties between the two families, thus fostering and reinforcing alliances. In the Imperial period, the system also acted as a mechanism for ensuring a smooth succession, the emperor taking his chosen successor as his adopted son. (more...)
Recently featured: Split infinitive – Yesterday – Mixed-breed dog
September 30
The Ridge Route was the popular name given to an early 20th-century road in the United States. The Ridge Route was California's first highway, linking the Los Angeles Basin with the San Joaquin Valley; it was particularly used to travel from the city of Los Angeles to Bakersfield. Its official name was the Castaic-Tejon Route. In 1895, the State Bureau of Highways was created by Governor James H. Budd who appointed three highway commissioners: R.C. Irvine of Sacramento, Marsden Manson of San Francisco and L. Maude of Riverside. Though a great deal of the route had been daylighted (widened) and paved in asphalt by the mid-1920s, much of the 1919 concrete pavement remains intact. In some areas, Model T tire tracks can still be seen, left decades ago in the still-soft concrete. (more...)
Recently featured: Adoption in ancient Rome – Split infinitive – Yesterday