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From today's featured article

Male snowy plover in breeding plumage

The snowy plover (Anarhynchus nivosus) is a small shorebird found in much of the Americas on both coasts and inland. Inland populations are migratory, whereas some coastal birds are resident. This plover is brown above and white below, with a white band on the neck, a slender black bill, and gray to black legs. Breeding males have black patches behind the eye and on the neck. The typical call is a repeated "tu-wheet". The bird inhabits open areas with sparse vegetation, like sandy beaches and shores of salt or soda lakes, where it feeds on invertebrates, such as crustaceans, worms, beetles, and flies. Males excavate multiple nest scrapes that are advertised to females, who may be polygamous. The species is listed as near threatened by the IUCN. The main threats are habitat destruction due to invasive beach grasses, urban development, and disturbance due to recreational uses of beaches. While conservation measures have been successful locally, the global population is thought to be in decline. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Hanging Stone

... that groups of tourists have unsuccessfully tried to push the Hanging Stone (pictured) into the lake below?
... that a 16-year-old high-school student reverse-engineered iMessage to let Android users text iPhone users with blue chat bubbles using the Beeper Mini app?
... that with an inclination of 1 in 2.5, the slipway at Newquay Lifeboat Station was one of the steepest in England?
... that heist-horror film Johnny & Clyde has been called "unwatchable"?
... that Romanian adventure novelist N. D. Popescu-Popnedea "generate[d] laughter" with his deposition at a political assassin's trial?
... that Misfat al Abriyeen in Oman was named one of the best tourism villages by the World Tourism Organization in 2021?
... that King Charles III of Navarre wanted his illegitimate son Lancelot to become a bishop but the pope forbade it?
... that in one neighborhood commission district, the voters and officeholders are all inmates at the D.C. Jail?

In the news

Imran Khan in 2023

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan (pictured) is sentenced to ten years in prison for leaking state secrets, and to fourteen years for corruption.
Following damage to the helicopter's rotors, NASA ends the Ingenuity mission on Mars after seventy-two flights in almost three years.
The Ram Mandir, a temple to Rama, is consecrated at a disputed site in Ayodhya, India.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's lunar module SLIM lands on the Moon.

On this day

February 2: Candlemas (Western Christianity); Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States

F-16 Fighting Falcon

1709 – Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued by English captain Woodes Rogers and his crew after spending four years as a castaway on an uninhabited island in the Pacific, providing the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.
1934 – The Export–Import Bank of the United States, the country's official export credit agency, was established.
1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon (pictured), the most numerous fixed-wing aircraft currently in military service, made its first flight.
2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer became the top-ranked men's singles player, a position he held for a record 237 consecutive weeks.

William Stanley (b. 1829)
Likelike (d. 1887)
Marian Cruger Coffin (d. 1957)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (d. 2014)

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From today's featured list

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

The Lego Movie, a 2014 animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (both pictured), won 39 awards from 76 nominations. It received a nomination for Best Original Song ("Everything Is Awesome") at the 87th Academy Awards. The film won one of six nominations at the 42nd Annie Awards. At the 67th British Academy Film Awards, it won Best Animated Film. The film received two nominations at the 20th Critics' Choice Awards and won Best Animated Feature. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 71st Golden Globe Awards. Various critic circles also picked The Lego Movie as the best animated feature film of the year. In addition, the National Board of Review named The Lego Movie one of the top ten films of 2014. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907), also known as "Wildfire", was a sculptor of African-American and Native American heritage. Born free from slavery, Lewis spent her childhood in Upstate New York and New Jersey before moving to Boston in 1864 to pursue her career as a sculptor. After training with marble-bust specialist Edward Augustus Brackett, Lewis opened her own studio later in 1864. In 1866, she moved to Rome, Italy, citing "opportunities for art culture" and finding "a social atmosphere where I was not constantly reminded of my color" as reasons for the move. She went on to spend most of her adult career there. Her largest and most significant work was a marble sculpture weighing more than 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) showing the death of Cleopatra, which was created for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This albumen print of Lewis was produced in around 1870 by the German-American photographer Henry Rocher.

Photograph credit: Henry Rocher; restored by Adam Cuerden

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