Wise Words for You

The Wikipedia article of the day for March 14, 2018 is Thomas R. Marshall . Thomas R. Marshall (March 14, 1854 – June 1, 1925) was a Democratic politician who served as the 28th Vice President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. As the 27th Governor of Indiana, he proposed a new, controversial state constitution and pressed for other Progressive Era reforms. His popularity as governor, and Indiana's status as a critical swing state, helped him secure the vice presidential nomination on a ticket with Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and win the general election. During World War I, after a small number of anti-war senators kept the Senate deadlocked by refusing to end debate, Marshall led the body to adopt its first rule allowing filibusters to be ended by a two-thirds majority vote. After a stroke incapacitated Wilson in October 1919, many cabinet officials and Congressional leaders urged Marshall to become acting president, but he refused to forcibly assume the presidency for fear of s...

The Wikipedia article of the day for March 13, 2018 is Winter War . The Winter War (30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940) began when the Soviet Union (USSR) invaded Finland three months after the outbreak of World War II. The USSR had sought to annex Finnish territory, including land near Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the border. After Finland refused, the USSR attacked with more than twice as many soldiers, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks as the defending forces. The Red Army had been crippled by Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and the Finnish Defence Forces repelled the invasion in temperatures down to −43 °C (−45 °F) for much longer than expected. A reorganized Soviet offensive broke through in February 1940 and forced the Finns to seek peace. Finland ceded 11 percent of its territory, but retained sovereignty. Soviet casualties have been estimated at 321,000 to 381,000, compared to Finnish casualties of 70,000. The poor performance of the Red Army enco...

The Wikipedia article of the day for March 12, 2018 is Family Trade . Family Trade is an American reality television series broadcast by Game Show Network (GSN). The show premiered on March 12, 2013, and continued to air new episodes until April 16, 2013. Filmed in Middlebury, Vermont, the series chronicles the daily activities of G. Stone Motors (pictured), a GMC and Ford car dealership that employs the barter system in selling its automobiles. The business is operated by its founder, Gardner Stone, his son and daughter, Todd and Darcy, and General Manager Travis Romano. The series features the shop's daily interaction with its customers, who bring in pigs, maple syrup, collectable dolls and other items for resale to make a down payment on a vehicle they are leasing or purchasing. Family Trade was part of GSN's attempt to broaden their programming beyond traditional game shows. The series was given unfavorable reviews by critics, and its television ratings fell over time, los...

The Wikipedia article of the day for March 11, 2018 is Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines . Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines during World War II began on 11 March 1942, after U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered him to withdraw. MacArthur left Corregidor Island and traveled in PT boats with his forces through stormy seas patrolled by Japanese warships, reaching Mindanao two days later. Arriving in Australia, he declared, "I came through and I shall return". MacArthur, a well-known general who had a distinguished record in World War I, had retired from the army in 1937 to become a defense advisor to the Philippine government. He was recalled to active duty in July 1941, a few months before the outbreak of the Pacific War with the Empire of Japan, to become commander of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, which included Philippine forces. By March 1942, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines had compelled him to withdraw his forc...

The Wikipedia article of the day for March 10, 2018 is Amazing Stories Quarterly . Amazing Stories Quarterly was a U.S. science fiction pulp magazine published from 1928 to 1934. Launched by Hugo Gernsback as a companion to his Amazing Stories, the first science fiction magazine, it premiered with a reprint of H.G. Wells' When the Sleeper Wakes in the Winter 1928 issue. Over the next five issues only one more reprint appeared: Gernsback's own novel Ralph 124C 41+, in the Winter 1929 issue. He went bankrupt in early 1929, and lost control of both publications; his assistant, T. O'Conor Sloane, took over as editor. The magazine began having financial difficulties in 1932, and the schedule became irregular; the last issue was dated Fall 1934. Authors whose work appeared in Amazing Stories Quarterly include Stanton A. Coblentz, Miles J. Breuer, A. Hyatt Verrill, and Jack Williamson. Critical opinions differ; Everett Bleiler considers few of the stories to be of acceptable qual...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 27, 2018 is Olivia Manning . Olivia Manning (1908–1980) was a British novelist, poet, writer and reviewer. Her fiction and non-fiction, frequently detailing journeys and personal odysseys, were principally set in England, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. Her first serious novel, The Wind Changes, was published in 1937. She lived in Bucharest, Romania, and in Greece, Egypt and Palestine, as Nazi Germany overran Eastern Europe. Her experiences helped form the six novels making up The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy, known collectively as Fortunes of War. The overall quality of her output was considered uneven by critics, but this series, published between 1960 and 1980, was described by Anthony Burgess as "the finest fictional record of the war produced by a British writer". Manning returned to London after the war, writing poetry, short stories, novels, non-fiction, reviews, and drama for the British Broadcasting Corpora...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 26, 2018 is Stegoceras . Stegoceras, a pachycephalosaurid (dome-headed) dinosaur, lived in what is now North America during the Late Cretaceous period, about 77.5 to 74 million years ago. (This genus is unrelated to Stegosaurus, which lived more than 70 million years earlier.) Small and bipedal, Stegoceras was about 2 to 2.5 metres (6.6 to 8.2 ft) long and weighed around 10 to 40 kilograms (22 to 88 lb). It had a rigid vertebral column and a stiffened tail. The pelvic region was broad, perhaps due to an extended gut. The skull was roughly triangular with a short snout, topped by a thick, broad, and relatively smooth dome. The skull jutted out in the back over the occiput, and had a thick ridge over the eyes. The teeth were small and serrated. The skull is thought to have been flat in juvenile animals, growing into a dome with age. The dome may have been used for combat, display, or recognition. Specimens have been found in the Din...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 25, 2018 is USS West Bridge (ID-2888) . USS West Bridge (ID-2888) was a cargo ship during World War I, one of the steel-hulled West ships built for the U.S. Shipping Board on the West Coast. Launched in April 1918, the ship joined a convoy of cargo ships headed to France in August. After the convoy was attacked by two German submarines and West Bridge was torpedoed, a salvage crew from the American destroyer Smith and four tugs dispatched from France successfully brought the ship into port. After seven months of repair, West Bridge resumed Navy service until December 1919. The ship was laid up for nearly seven years from 1922 to 1929, when she was sold to an intercoastal cargo service under the name SS Barbara Cates. By 1938, the ship had been renamed Pan Gulf for service with a subsidiary of the Waterman Steamship Company. During World War II, Pan Gulf made nine round trips across the North Atlantic without incident in convoys. In May 194...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 24, 2018 is Pyxis . Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky. The name comes from Pyxis Nautica, Latin for a mariner's compass (as opposed to a draftsman's compass, represented by the constellation Circinus). Introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century, Pyxis is counted among the 88 modern constellations. In the 19th century, astronomer John Herschel suggested renaming Pyxis to Malus, the mast, since it appears near the old constellation of the ship Argo Navis, but the suggestion was not followed. Pyxis is completely visible from latitudes south of 53 degrees north, with its best evening-sky visibility in February and March. The plane of the Milky Way passes through it. Its three brightest stars—Alpha, Beta and Gamma Pyxidis—are in a rough line; the brightest of these is Alpha (magnitude 3.68), a blue-white star around 22,000 times as luminous as the Sun. Near Alpha is T Pyxidis, a recurrent nova...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 23, 2018 is A Cure for Pokeritis . A Cure for Pokeritis is an American short silent film starring John Bunny and Flora Finch, released on February 23, 1912. A domestic comedy, it depicts a woman who stops her husband's gambling habit by having her cousin stage a fake police raid on his weekly poker game. It was one of many shorts produced by Vitagraph Studios, whose popularity made Bunny and Finch early film stars. Although its style of humor is dated, it is a historically important representative of its period and genre. The film was an early example of efforts to move beyond the conventions of stage plays: during the police raid, action took place in both the foreground and the background, with the actors moving between them. This cinematography technique improved the realism and pacing of the scene. A Cure for Pokeritis may be the first depiction of poker in film. Like Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's Dogs Playing Poker paintings, i...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 22, 2018 is Æthelflæd . Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (c. 870 – 918), ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death. The oldest daughter of King Alfred the Great of Wessex, she married Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, who ruled western Mercia when the eastern part was occupied by the Vikings. After her husband's death, she ruled Mercia and played a leading role in recovering southern England from the Vikings in cooperation with her brother, King Edward the Elder. She fortified many towns, sent an army to capture Derby, and secured the surrender of Leicester without a fight. The Viking leaders of York offered her their loyalty, but she died before she could take up the offer. Her daughter Ælfwynn briefly ruled Mercia, but was seized by Edward, who took her into Wessex and brought Mercia under his direct rule. Historians disagree whether Mercia was an independent kingdom under Æthelred and Æthelflæd, but they agree that ...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 21, 2018 is North Ronaldsay sheep . The North Ronaldsay is a breed of domestic sheep from the northernmost island of Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland. It belongs to the Northern European short-tailed sheep group of breeds, and has evolved without much cross-breeding with modern breeds. It is a smaller sheep than most, with the rams (males) horned and ewes (females) mostly hornless. It was formerly kept primarily for wool, but now the two largest flocks are feral, one on North Ronaldsay and another on the Orkney island of Linga Holm. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust lists the breed as "vulnerable", with fewer than 600 registered breeding females in the United Kingdom. The sheep on North Ronaldsay are confined to the shoreline by a 1.8 m tall (6 ft) dry-stone wall, which completely encircles the island. The wall was built originally to protect the shoreline and keep the sheep inside it, but when seaweed farming on the shore be...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 20, 2018 is Maxinquaye . Maxinquaye is the debut album by English rapper and producer Tricky (pictured), released on 20 February 1995. By the time he recorded the album, Tricky had grown frustrated with his limited role in the group Massive Attack and had discovered vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, who he felt would offer another dimension to his lyrics. He signed a solo contract with 4th & B'way Records in 1993 and recorded Maxinquaye the following year primarily at his home studio in London with Topley-Bird as the predominant vocalist. The record's groove-oriented and low-tempo sound incorporates elements from hip hop, soul, rock, ambient techno, reggae, and experimental music. The songs explore themes of cultural decline, dysfunctional sexual relationships, fear of intimacy, and recreational drug use. In writing them, Tricky drew on his experiences in the British drug culture and the influence of his late mother Maxine Quaye, a...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 19, 2018 is Dungeon Siege . Dungeon Siege is an action role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft for Windows (2002) and by Destineer for MacOS (2003). Set in the pseudo-medieval kingdom of Ehb, the high fantasy game follows a young farmer and his companions as they journey to defeat an invading force. Instead of manually controlling characters, the player sets their overall tactics, weapons and magic usage. Chris Taylor and Jacob McMahon aimed for a role-playing game stripped of the typical genre elements they found slow or frustrating, including all loading screens, to keep the player focused on the action. Development took over four years, often with 12- to 14-hour workdays. The game is listed by review aggregator Metacritic as the third-highest rated computer role-playing game of 2002. Critics praised the graphics and seamless world, as well as the fun and accessible gameplay, but were dismissive of the...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 18, 2018 is Lazarus Aaronson . Lazarus Aaronson (18 February 1895 – 9 December 1966) was a British poet and a lecturer in economics. As a young man, he belonged to a group of Jewish friends who are today known as the Whitechapel Boys, many of whom later achieved fame as writers and artists. His diction and verbal energy have been compared to those of his more renowned and innovative Whitechapel friend, Isaac Rosenberg. Reviewers have traced influences in Aaronson's poetry from the English poet John Keats and from Hebrew poets such as Shaul Tchernichovsky and Zalman Shneur. Aaronson lived most of his life in London and spent much of his working life as a lecturer in economics at the City of London College. In his twenties, he converted to Christianity; a large part of his poetry focused on his conversion and spiritual identity as a Jew and an Englishman. He published three collections of poetry: Christ in the Synagogue (1930), Poems (19...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 17, 2018 is Isabelle Eberhardt . Isabelle Eberhardt (17 February 1877 – 21 October 1904) was a Swiss explorer and writer. As a teenager, she published short stories under a male pseudonym. She became interested in North Africa, and was considered a proficient writer on the region despite learning about it only through correspondence. Eberhardt moved to Algeria in 1897, where she converted to Islam, dressed as an Arabic man and adopted a male name. Her unorthodox behaviour made her an outcast to European settlers and the French administration. Her acceptance by the Qadiriyya, an Islamic order, convinced the French that she was a spy or an agitator. In 1901 she survived an assassination attempt and was ordered to leave Algeria, but was allowed to return the following year after marrying her long-time partner, an Algerian soldier. In 1904, aged 27, she was killed by a flash flood in Aïn Sefra. Her manuscripts were collected and published post...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 16, 2018 is Space Seed . "Space Seed" is an episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. First broadcast by NBC on February 16, 1967, it was written by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber and directed by Marc Daniels. Set in the 23rd century, the series follows the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew aboard the starship USS Enterprise. In the episode, they encounter a sleeper ship holding selectively bred superhumans from Earth's past. Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) attempts to take control of Enterprise with the help of Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue). Montalbán, the casting director's first choice, described the role as "wonderful". The script changed many times during preproduction, in part to reduce costs, but the special sets and shots using starship miniatures took the show over budget. Although the episode did not win its time slot on its first run, it...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 15, 2018 is Fantastic (magazine) . Fantastic (1952–1980) was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, founded by Ziff Davis as a fantasy companion to Amazing Stories. Within a few years sales fell, and Howard Browne, the first editor, was forced to switch the focus to science fiction rather than fantasy. At the end of the 1950s Cele Goldsmith took over from Paul W. Fairman as editor of both Fantastic and Amazing, bringing in many new writers and making the magazines, in the words of one science fiction historian, the "best-looking and brightest" in the field. She helped to nurture the early careers of writers such as Roger Zelazny and Ursula K. Le Guin, but was unable to increase circulation. In 1965 the magazines were sold to Sol Cohen, who hired Joseph Wrzos as editor and switched to a reprint-only policy. This was financially successful, but brought Cohen into conflict with the newly formed Science Fiction...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 14, 2018 is Paxillus involutus . Paxillus involutus, the common roll-rim, is a fungus widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere; it has also been unintentionally introduced to Australia, New Zealand, and South America. The brownish fruit body grows up to 6 cm (2.4 in) high. It has a funnel-shaped cap up to 12 cm (5 in) wide with a distinctive in-rolled rim and decurrent gills close to the stalk. Genetic testing suggests that the fungus may be a species complex rather than a single species. A common mushroom of deciduous and coniferous woods and grassy areas in late summer and autumn, P. involutus is symbiotic with the roots of many tree species, reducing the trees' intake of heavy metals and increasing their resistance to pathogens. Previously considered edible and eaten widely in Eastern and Central Europe, the mushroom has been found to be dangerously poisonous; in 1944, it killed the German mycologist Julius S...

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 13, 2018 is Stretford . Stretford (pop. 46,910) is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. Lying on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, it is 3.8 miles (6.1 km) to the southwest of Manchester city centre. Historically in Lancashire, Stretford was an agricultural village during much of the 19th century known locally as Porkhampton, in reference to the large number of pigs produced for the nearby Manchester market. The arrival of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894, and the subsequent development of the Trafford Park industrial estate in the north of the town, accelerated the industrialisation that had begun in the late 19th century; by 2001 less than one per cent of Stretford's population was employed in agriculture. Stretford has been the home of Manchester United Football Club since 1910, and of Lancashire County Cricket Club since 1864. Residents have included the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst,...