Monday, August 10, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for August 11, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 11, 2020 is MAX Yellow Line.
The MAX Yellow Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It connects North Portland to Portland City Center and Portland State University. Following years of failed attempts to construct the South/North Line between Clackamas County and Clark County, Washington, Portland business leaders and local residents persuaded TriMet to build a light rail extension from the city center to North Portland in 1999. The line began construction in 2001 and opened on May 1, 2004. As a source of funding, the city created an urban renewal area, which has been blamed for gentrifying historically black inner-city neighborhoods; about 10,000 people of color left Portland's Central City between 2000 and 2010. The line serves 17 stops and runs for approximately 21 hours daily with a minimum headway of 15 minutes during most of the day.

The Global Internet Is a Mirage


By BY SHIRA OVIDE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2PI434s

After a Flop, Amazon Makes Another Foray Into Video Games


By BY KELLEN BROWNING from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/3ipHDRI

Start-Ups Braced for the Worst. The Worst Never Came.


By BY ERIN GRIFFITH from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/31wRM8m

Big Tech Makes Inroads With the Biden Campaign


By BY DAVID MCCABE AND KENNETH P. VOGEL from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2F185CG

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for August 10, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 10, 2020 is Battle of Azaz (1030).
The Battle of Azaz was fought in 1030 in northern Syria between the Byzantine army, led by Emperor Romanos III Argyros, and the Mirdasid forces of the Emirate of Aleppo, under the personal command of Shibl al-Dawla Nasr. Romanos aimed to conquer Aleppo, long a flashpoint between Byzantium and its Arab neighbours. At the head of a large army and confident of success, the Emperor rejected Mirdasid peace offers, as well as his generals' advice to avoid action in the hot and dry Syrian summer. After the Byzantines camped near Azaz, the considerably smaller Mirdasid army, mostly Bedouin light cavalry, harassed the imperial camp and kept the heavier Byzantine troops from foraging. Romanos ordered his hungry and thirsty army to withdraw to Antioch, but the retreat soon collapsed into chaos, and the Byzantines were routed by the Arabs. Humiliated, Romanos returned to Constantinople, but his generals later managed to restore the Byzantine position, and Nasr concluded a treaty with Byzantium.

Saturday, August 8, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for August 9, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for August 9, 2020 is 2nd Red Banner Army.
The 2nd Red Banner Army was a Soviet field army of World War II that was formed at Khabarovsk in the Soviet Far East in July 1938. It spent most of the war guarding the border in the Blagoveshchensk area, sending formations to the Eastern Front while undergoing several reorganizations. At the time of its creation, the unit was part of the army group known as the Far Eastern Front. The unit was designated as the 2nd Army and was led by corps commander Ivan Konev (pictured). It became the 2nd Independent Red Banner Army in September 1938 when the front was dissolved and its troops were split into two independent armies, and was redesignated in June 1940 as the 2nd Red Banner Army. In August 1945, the army fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, capturing the Japanese fortified regions of Aihun and Sunwu adjacent to its sector of the border, and advancing into Manchuria to Qiqihar. The army was disbanded after the war in late 1945.