Thursday, February 20, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for February 21, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 21, 2020 is Wail al-Shehri.
Wail al-Shehri (1973–2001) was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks (memorial pictured). He and his younger brother Waleed joined an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in March 2000. They were chosen, along with other Saudis, to participate in the attacks. Shehri returned to Saudi Arabia in October 2000 to obtain a clean passport and went back to Afghanistan before arriving in the United States in early June 2001. He stayed in motels in the Boynton Beach area of south Florida. On September 5, 2001, Shehri traveled to Boston and checked into a motel with his brother. Six days later, he arrived early in the morning at Boston's Logan International Airport and boarded American Airlines Flight 11. Shehri, his brother and three other hijackers deliberately crashed the airliner into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m.

New Mexico Sues Google Over Children’s Privacy Violations


By BY NATASHA SINGER AND DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2PbuEqF

Lawrence Tesler, Pioneer of Personal Computing, Dies at 74


By BY JOHN MARKOFF from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2uT4r9x

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for February 20, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 20, 2020 is Ashcan comic.
An ashcan comic is a type of American comic book originally created solely to establish trademarks on potential titles and not intended for sale. It was developed by publishers including All-American Publications (logo pictured) and Fawcett Comics to gain legal protection for desirable titles. An ashcan comic was the same size as a regular comic book and usually had a black and white cover. The practice became common in the 1930s and 1940s when the comic book industry was in its infancy, but was phased out after updates to US trademark law. The term "ashcan" was revived in the 1980s by Bob Burden, who applied it to prototypes of his self-published comic book. Since the 1990s, the term has been used to describe promotional materials produced in large print runs and made available for mass consumption. In the film and television industries, the term has been adopted for low-grade material created to preserve a claim to licensed property rights.

Your Doorbell Camera Spied on You. Now What?


By BY BRIAN X. CHEN from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2VgShSH

Aircraft, Big and Small, Are Changing Our Relationship With Flight


By BY CHRISTINE NEGRONI from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2V5ErSM

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for February 19, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 19, 2020 is Kosmoceratops.
Kosmoceratops was a ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in what is now the U.S. state of Utah about 76.4–75.5 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. Specimens of the genus were discovered in Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in 2006 and 2007. It had an estimated length of 4.5 m (15 ft) and weight of 1.2 t (1.3 short tons). Kosmoceratops (from Greek for "ornate horned face") was named for its skull, the most ornamented of any known dinosaur, with fifteen well-developed horns and horn-like structures. It had a triangular beak with a pointed tip, a blade-like nasal horn, and two horns that pointed up and to the sides, then downwards. The neck frill was short from front to back, with eight hook-like processes on the hind margin curving forwards, and two curving to the sides. Kosmoceratops grew rapidly and, like modern birds and mammals, had an elevated metabolism. Its teeth were adapted to chewing fibrous plants.