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From today's featured article

Logo of Plaza Sésamo, a Mexican co-production

Sesame Street international co-productions are educational children's television series based on the American Sesame Street but tailored to the countries in which they are produced. Shortly after the debut of Sesame Street in the US in 1969, television producers, teachers, and officials of several countries approached the show's producers and the executives of Children's Television Workshop (CTW) about the possibility of airing international versions of the show. Creator Joan Ganz Cooney hired former CBS executive Mike Dann to field offers to produce versions of the show in other countries, with original sets, characters, and curriculum goals. CTW's new shows included both dubbed versions of the American show and versions created, developed, and produced to reflect each country's needs, educational priorities, and culture. For example, the first HIV-positive Muppet, Kami, from the South African co-production Takalani Sesame, was created in 2003 to address the epidemic of AIDS. In 2001, there were more than 120 million viewers of all international versions of Sesame Street, and by the US show's 40th anniversary in 2009, they were being seen in more than 140 countries. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Ernst Keil

... that 19th-century German publisher Ernst Keil (pictured) conceived the idea, while in prison, of what was to become one of the most widely read magazines?
... that Gwen Stefani's unreleased song "Start a War" was compared to Sia Furler's solo work?
... that there were two special elections for Manila's first district seat to the Philippine Assembly in 1908?
... that Germany's Klein Heidelberg used Great Britain's own Chain Home radar transmitters as the source for their passive radar?

... that pyrithione is used to prepare medicated shampoos to treat dandruff and seborrhoeic dermatitis?
... that Australian cricketer Ian Moran took unpaid leave from his teaching job to play in the 2012 Champions League Twenty20?
... that the name of the musical unit Myth & Roid comes from words representing the past and the future?

In the news

Yahya Jammeh

Yahya Jammeh (pictured) calls a 90-day state of emergency, after refusing to step down as President of the Gambia.
A Turkish cargo aircraft crashes near Manas International Airport, Kyrgyzstan, killing all 4 crew members and 33 people on the ground.
The Northern Ireland Executive collapses in the wake of the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal, and a snap Assembly election is called.
At least 25 people drown in the Ganges in a boat accident at Patna, India.
Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang, creator of the pinyin system for writing Chinese in Latin letters, dies at the age of 111.

On this day...

January 18: The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins

Legionella sp. under UV illumination

1535 – Conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded Ciudad de los Reyes, present-day Lima, Peru, as the capital of the lands he conquered for the Spanish Crown.
1871 – A number of independent German states unified into the German Empire, with Prussian King Wilhelm I being proclaimed as its first Emperor.
1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opened, to set the peace terms for the Central Powers.
1958 – African Canadian Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his first game in the National Hockey League, breaking the colour barrier in professional ice hockey.
1977 – The mysterious Legionnaires' disease was found to be caused by a previously unknown bacterium now known as Legionella (pictured).

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Today's featured picture

Bathsheba is a figure from the Hebrew Bible. She is most known for the story in which she was summoned by King David, who had seen her bathing, seduced her, and impregnated her. As Bathsheba was already married to a soldier named Uriah, David attempted to recall Uriah so he would re-consummate his marriage. When this attempt failed, David arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle so that he could marry Bathsheba. Though the child of this union died in infancy, Bathsheba later bore David's heir, Solomon.

This 1654 painting by Willem Drost, titled Bathsheba Holding King David's Letter, is one of numerous paintings depicting the story of Bathsheba. It is contemporaneous with Rembrandt's Bathsheba at Her Bath, which likewise depicts the nude subject holding a letter from David.

Painting: Willem Drost

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