Gao Qifeng (1889–1933) was a Chinese painter who co-founded the Lingnan School. He spent much of his early life following his older brother Gao Jianfu, learning the techniques of Ju Lian before travelling to Tokyo in 1907 to study Western and Japanese painting. While abroad, Gao joined the revolutionary organization Tongmenghui to challenge the Qing dynasty; after he returned to China, he published the nationalist magazine The True Record. He moved to Guangzhou in 1918, taking teaching positions that culminated with an honorary professorship at Lingnan University in 1925. Falling ill in 1929, Gao left for Ersha Island, where he established the Tianfang Studio. He blended traditional Chinese approaches to painting with Japanese techniques for light and shadow and Western understandings of geometry and perspective. Gao is best recognized for his paintings of animals, particularly eagles, lions, and tigers. (Full article...)
Recently featured:"My Little Love" is a song by English singer Adele (pictured) from her fourth studio album, 30 (2021). Adele wrote the song with its producer, Greg Kurstin. The song became available as the album's third track on 19 November 2021, when it was released by Columbia Records. "My Little Love" is a jazz, R&B, and soul song with a 1970s-style groove, gospel-music influences, late-night bar piano, and a funk bassline. The song incorporates voice notes of Adele's conversations with her son as she explains the effects of her divorce on his life and pleads for his understanding and forgiveness. Critics generally praised "My Little Love", comparing it to the work of Marvin Gaye, among other artists. Reviews highlighted the emotionalism and vulnerability displayed in the song, but some found the inclusion of the voice notes excessive. The track reached the top 20 in Australia, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden, and entered the top 40 in several other countries. (This article is part of a featured topic: 30 (album).)
Recently featured:The Boot Monument is an American Revolutionary War memorial located in Saratoga National Historical Park in the state of New York. Sculpted by George Edwin Bissell and erected during 1887 by John Watts de Peyster, it commemorates Major General Benedict Arnold's service at the Battles of Saratoga while in the Continental Army, but does not mention him on the monument as Arnold later defected from the Americans to the British. Instead, it commemorates Arnold as the "most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army". While fighting at the Battle of Bemis Heights, the second of the Saratoga engagements, Arnold was shot and severely injured in his left leg. His horse was also hit by gunfire and fell on Arnold, crushing his already injured leg. Arnold was then passed over for promotion and court-martialed. Feeling hard done by, he attempted to help the British capture the fortification of West Point but was discovered and fled to the British army. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Tropical Storm Gabrielle was a short-lived tropical cyclone that passed over North Carolina before tracking out to sea. The seventh named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, Gabrielle developed as a subtropical cyclone on September 8 about 385 miles (620 km) southeast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Unfavorable wind shear impacted the storm for much of its duration, although a temporary decrease in the shear allowed the cyclone to become a tropical storm. On September 9, it made landfall at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina with winds of 60 mph (97 km/h). Turning to the northeast, the storm quickly weakened and dissipated on September 11. The storm dropped heavy rainfall near its immediate landfall location but little precipitation elsewhere. Along the coast of North Carolina, slight localized flooding was reported. Along the coast of Florida, rough surf drowned one person. Overall damage was minor. (Full article...)
Recently featured:More than 70 people died of methanol poisoning in the Russian city of Irkutsk in December 2016. Caused by the consumption of adulterated surrogate alcohol, it was the deadliest such incident in Russia's post-Soviet history. Russian consumption of surrogate alcohol rose rapidly in the early 2010s amid worsening economic conditions because they were commonly available and cost less than government-regulated vodka. In the Irkutsk incident, people drank hawthorn-scented bath oil which was typically made with and labeled as containing drinkable ethanol. At least one batch was made instead with a toxic amount of methanol (pictured with ethanol), causing injuries and deaths among residents of Novo-Lenino, a neighborhood in Irkutsk. An investigation found that the surrogate alcohol's producer sourced the methanol from an employee of a local windshield washer fluid production facility. The Russian government increased punishments for illegally producing and selling alcohol, and they made it more difficult to acquire surrogate alcohol. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Benjamin F. McAdoo (1920–1981) was an American architect mainly active in the Seattle area. Born in Pasadena, California, he was inspired to study architecture by a mechanical-drawing class and the work of Paul R. Williams. After working as a draftsman for local architectural firms and the Corps of Engineers, he pursued his Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Washington. The first licensed Black architect in the state of Washington, his work featured a modernist aesthetic influenced by the Northwest Regional style. After designing a number of low-income houses and apartments throughout the 1950s, he was hired by the Agency for International Development to design modular houses in Jamaica. He returned to Seattle after a period of work in Washington, D.C., and pursued civic commissions. Outside of work, he participated in the NAACP, hosted a weekly radio show on racial issues for several years, and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Washington House of Representatives. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Huaynaputina is a volcano in a volcanic plateau in southern Peru. Lying in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it was formed by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca plate under the continental South American plate. Huaynaputina is a large volcanic crater, lacking an identifiable mountain profile, with an outer stratovolcano and three younger volcanic vents within an amphitheatre-shaped structure that is either a former caldera or a remnant of glacial erosion. The volcano has erupted dacitic magma. In the Holocene, Huaynaputina has erupted several times, including on 19 February 1600 – the largest eruption ever recorded in South America. Witnessed by people in the city of Arequipa, it killed at least 1,000 people in the region, wiped out vegetation, buried the surrounding area with 2 metres (7 feet) of volcanic rock and damaged infrastructure and economic resources. The eruption caused a volcanic winter and may have played a role in the onset of the Little Ice Age. Floods, famines, and social upheavals resulted, including a probable link with the Russian Time of Troubles. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Tesla has had labor disputes in the United States, Germany and Sweden, including an ongoing strike in Sweden. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has expressed his opposition to unions on Twitter (now called X). The NLRB held that one tweet was unlawful, but was overturned by a federal appeals court. All unionization efforts at the Tesla Fremont Factory and Gigafactory New York in the United States have been unsuccessful. In Germany, Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg and Tesla Automation have elected works councils, but they have not signed collective bargaining agreements with the German trade union IG Metall (members pictured). The Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg works council is divided into pro-union and anti-union factions. In Sweden, mechanics who are members of the trade union IF Metall have been on strike since October 27, 2023, making it the longest strike in Sweden since 1938. The strike has since spread, with other Swedish, Danish and Norwegian unions calling for solidarity strikes. (Full article...)
Recently featured:The Virgo interferometer is a large-scale scientific instrument near Pisa, Italy, for detecting gravitational waves. The detector measures minuscule length variations in its two 3-kilometre (1.9-mile) arms induced by the passage of gravitational waves. The project, named after the Virgo galaxy cluster, was first approved in 1992 and construction was completed in 2003. After undergoing important upgrades between 2011 and 2016 (during which LIGO made the first detection of gravitational waves), Virgo made its first detection on 14 August 2017. This was followed by the detection of GW170817, the only gravitational wave also observed with classical methods (optical, gamma-ray, X-ray and radio telescopes) as of 2024. Virgo is managed by the Virgo Collaboration, gathering 940 members in 20 countries, in cooperation with similar detectors such as LIGO and KAGRA. (Full article...)
Recently featured:Eddie Gerard (February 22, 1890 – August 7, 1937) was a Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he played professionally for ten seasons for the Ottawa Senators, as a left winger for three years before switching to defence. He was the first player to win the Stanley Cup four years in a row, from 1920 to 1923, three times with the Senators and once as an injury replacement player with the Toronto St. Patricks. After his playing career he served as a coach and manager, working with the Montreal Maroons from 1925 until 1929, and winning the Stanley Cup in 1926. He coached the New York Americans for two seasons before returning to the Maroons for two more seasons, then ended his career coaching the St. Louis Eagles in 1934. Regarded as one of the best defenders of his era, Gerard was one of the original nine players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945. He was also inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. (Full article...)
Recently featured:February 15: National Flag of Canada Day; Statehood Day in Serbia; Susan B. Anthony Day in some parts of the United States
Don DunstanFebruary 16: Day of the Shining Star in North Korea; Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska
Act of Independence of LithuaniaFebruary 17: Presidents' Day in the United States (2025)
Helicopter stolen in the 1974 White House incidentFebruary 20: Day of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes in Ukraine (2014)
Avro CF-105 ArrowThe Jadeite Cabbage, also known as Jadeite Cabbage with Insects, is a piece of jadeite carved into the shape of a head of Chinese cabbage, with a locust and a katydid camouflaged in the leaves. Created by an unknown sculptor in the 19th century, it was first displayed in the Forbidden City's Yonghe Palace, the residence of Consort Jin, who probably received it as part of her dowry for her wedding to the Guangxu Emperor in 1889. The Jadeite Cabbage is now part of the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. It has been called the museum's "most famous masterpiece" and, along with the Meat-Shaped Stone and the Mao Gong ding, is considered one of the Three Treasures of the National Palace Museum.
Photograph credit: National Palace Museum
Recently featured:The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae that grows between 5 and 10 metres (16 and 33 feet) tall. The pomegranate fruit husk is red-purple in color, with an outer, hard pericarp, and an inner, spongy mesocarp (white "albedo"), which comprises the fruit inner wall where seeds attach. Pomegranate seeds are characterized by having sarcotesta, thick fleshy seed coats derived from the integuments or outer layers of the ovule's epidermal cells. The number of seeds in a fruit can vary from 200 to about 1,400. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, the pomegranate is thought to have originated from Afghanistan and Iran before being introduced and exported to other parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. This photograph, which was focus-stacked from 10 separate images, shows a whole pomegranate fruit (right), and a fruit split open to reveal the sarcotestas, each of which surrounds a seed (left).
Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
Recently featured:Ernest Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. He and three companions established a new record Farthest South latitude, 112 miles (180 km) from the South Pole, as part of the Nimrod Expedition of 1907–1909; Shackleton was knighted on his return home. He planned the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 but his ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and then sank on 21 November 1915. The crew escaped and used the lifeboats to reach Elephant Island and ultimately the island of South Georgia in a stormy ocean voyage of more than 700 nautical miles (800 mi; 1,300 km), Shackleton's most famous exploit. He returned to the Antarctic in 1921 with the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition but died of a heart attack on South Georgia, where he was buried at his wife's request. This photograph of Shackleton was taken by George Charles Beresford before 1909.
Photograph credit: George Charles Beresford; restored by Adam Cuerden
Recently featured:The lesser violetear (Colibri cyanotus) is a medium-sized, metallic-green species of hummingbird commonly found from Costa Rica south to the Andes and Argentina and east to Venezuela. It commonly inhabits the canopy and borders of subtropical and lower temperate forest, secondary woodland and scrub, and clearings and gardens. It is recorded mostly between altitudes of 1,500 and 3,000 metres (4,900 and 9,800 ft), although it is sometimes found down to 900 metres (3,000 ft). The lesser violetear is a medium-sized hummingbird with an average length around 9.7 to 12 centimetres (3.8 to 4.7 in) and a body mass of 4.8 to 5.6 grams (0.17 to 0.20 oz). Its bill is black and mostly straight with only a slight downward curve. This lesser violetear of the subspecies C. c. cabanidis was photographed in the Mount Totumas cloud forest in Chiriquí Province, Panama.
Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
Recently featured:Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. Known for her headstrong independence and spirited personality, Hepburn's career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned more than 60 years. She won a record four Academy Awards, and in 1999 was named as Hollywood's top female legend by the American Film Institute. Hepburn began acting in college, and spent four years in the theatre before entering films in 1932. She became an instant star, but after a series of unsuccessful films was named "box office poison". The Philadelphia Story revived her career, and she subsequently formed a popular alliance with Spencer Tracy that lasted 25 years. In middle age, Hepburn found a niche playing spinsters, such as in The African Queen, and became a Shakespearean stage actress. She continued to work into old age, making her final screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87. Hepburn is remembered as an important cultural figure, as she came to epitomize the "modern woman" in 20th-century America and helped change perceptions of women. This publicity photograph of Hepburn was taken around 1941.
Photograph credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, restored by Adam Cuerden
Recently featured:Vaduz Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of St. Florin, is a neo-Gothic church in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and the centre of the Archdiocese of Vaduz. Originally a parish church, it has held the status of cathedral since 1997. The church was built in 1874 by Friedrich von Schmidt on the site of earlier medieval foundations. Its patron saint is Florinus of Remüs (Florin), a 9th-century saint of the Vinschgau valley. This photograph shows the nave and choir of the cathedral.
Photograph credit: A.Savin
Recently featured:The oak eggar (Lasiocampa quercus) is a common moth in the family Lasiocampidae found in Europe and northern and western parts of Asia. The larvae feed on a wide variety of plant species, low down, including blackthorn, hawthorn, viburnum, dogwood, ivy and ling, but are not known to feed on oak. They can be infected by baculoviruses, which change their behaviour and cause them to climb out of the protection of low scrub and leave them open to predation, facilitating the spread of infection. Oak eggar larvae eventually pupate on the ground inside a silken cocoon, the exterior of which is hard and yellowish, and resembles an acorn, from which the common name "oak eggar" is derived. This oak eggar larva in the form of a fourth-instar caterpillar, with a body length of 53 millimetres (2.1 inches), was photographed on a branch in Keila, Estonia. The photograph was focus-stacked from 59 separate images.
Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
Recently featured:Catherine Grand (1761–1835) was a French courtesan and noblewoman. Born in India as the daughter of a French East India Company officer, she married George Grand, an officer of the English East India Company. After her marriage, she had a scandalous liaison with Bengal councillor Philip Francis in Calcutta. Her husband sent her to Paris, where she became a popular courtesan, having relationships with several powerful men, and was known as Madame Grand. She became the mistress and later the wife of French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the first prime minister of France. This 1783 oil-on-canvas portrait of Grand was painted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. It was exhibited at the Salon of the Royal Academy in Paris the same year, as one of at least ten portraits submitted by Le Brun, and was favourably received. The painting is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Painting credit: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Recently featured:Pumori is a mountain on the China–Nepal border in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. Its peak lies at an elevation of 7,165 metres (23,507 feet) above sea level. Located 8 kilometres (5 miles) west of Mount Everest, it is sometimes known as "Everest's daughter"; the name Pumori, meaning 'the mountain daughter' in the Sherpa language, was coined by the mountaineer George Mallory. Pumori is a popular climbing peak, the easiest route being graded class 3, although with significant avalanche danger. Pumori was first climbed in 1962 by a German–Swiss expedition.
Photograph credit: Vyacheslav Argenberg
Recently featured:Wheelwright is a city in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Located at the southern end of Floyd County, the land that would later become the city was originally owned by the Hall family. In 1916, the family sold their land to the Elk Horn Coal Company, which established a post office and named it Wheelwright in honor of its president, Jere Wheelwright. It was incorporated as a city in 1917. The Elk Horn Coal Company founded the city as a company town, and built houses, stores, churches, schools, and hospitals, which were used by miners employed by the company. In 1930, Wheelwright was sold to the Inland Steel Company, which in turn sold the city to the Island Creek Coal Company in 1966. In the 1970s, the mine closed and the city was purchased by the Kentucky Housing Corporation. This 1946 photograph, taken by the American photographer Russell Lee, shows Harry Fain, a coal loader from Wheelwright who worked for the Inland Steel Company. The photograph is in the collection of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Photograph credit: Russell Lee; restored by Kentuckian
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