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From today's featured article

The eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis) is a highly venomous snake of the family Elapidae, native to eastern and central Australia and southern New Guinea. Up to 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) long with a slender build, it has variable upperparts, pale brown to almost black, and a pale cream-yellow underside, often with orange or grey splotches. It was first described by André Marie Constant Duméril in 1854. The eastern brown snake is found in many habitats, though not in dense forests. It has become more common in farmland and on the outskirts of urban areas, preying mainly on the introduced house mouse. It is considered the world's second-most venomous land snake after the inland taipan, based on the toxicity of its venom in mice. According to one study, as a genus, brown snakes were responsible for 15 of 19 snakebite fatalities in Australia between 2005 and 2015. The venom mainly affects the circulatory system, causing bleeding, cardiovascular collapse and cardiac arrest. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Sign at the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant

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... that racially themed time-travel comedy Timewasters was developed under the working title Black to the Future?
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In the news

Abdulrazak Gurnah

Abdulrazak Gurnah (pictured) is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
A magnitude-5.9 earthquake kills at least 20 people and injures 300 others in Balochistan, Pakistan.
Benjamin List and David MacMillan are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in asymmetric organocatalysis.
RTS,S becomes the first malaria vaccine to be approved by the World Health Organization.

On this day

October 9: Leif Erikson Day

Washington Monument

1793 – French Revolution: After a month-long siege, the leaders of Lyon surrendered, ending their revolt against the National Convention.
1888 – The Washington Monument (pictured) in Washington, D.C., at the time the world's tallest building, officially opened to the general public.
1913 – Carrying a cargo hold full of highly flammable chemicals, the ocean liner SS Volturno caught fire in the north Atlantic and sank, resulting in 136 deaths.
1986 – The Phantom of the Opera, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and currently the longest-running Broadway show in history, opened in London's West End.
2019 – Syrian civil war: Turkish forces began an offensive into north-eastern Syria following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region.

Claude Gaspar Bachet de Méziriac (b. 1581)
Reginald Dyer (b. 1864)
Clare Boothe Luce (d. 1987)

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Today's featured picture

The marsh frog (Pelophylax ridibundus) is a species of amphibian native to Europe and parts of Asia. It is the largest type of frog in most of its range, growing to a snout-to-vent length of around 100 mm (4 in); tadpoles can reach up to 190 mm (7.5 in) in length, but this usually occurs in places with long winters where the tadpole has time to grow. Marsh frogs hibernate during the winter, either underwater or in burrows, and are able to use the Earth's magnetic field to locate breeding ponds. This marsh frog was photographed in Kampinos National Park, Poland.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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