Wikipedia article of the day for October 19, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 19, 2020 is V. Gordon Childe.
V. Gordon Childe (1892–1957) was an Australian archaeologist who specialised in the study of European prehistory. He spent most of his life in the United Kingdom, working as an academic for the University of Edinburgh and then the Institute of Archaeology, London, and wrote twenty-six books during his career. Initially an early proponent of culture-historical archaeology, he later became the first exponent of Marxist archaeology in the Western world. Childe studied classics at the University of Sydney before moving to England to study classical archaeology at the University of Oxford. In 1921 he became librarian of the Royal Anthropological Institute and journeyed across Europe to pursue his research into the continent's prehistory. He co-founded The Prehistoric Society in 1934 and was its first president. In a 1935 presidential address he argued that a Neolithic Revolution initiated the Neolithic era, and that other revolutions marked the start of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Wikipedia article of the day for October 18, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 18, 2020 is Canada lynx.
The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a medium-sized North American cat breeding across Alaska, Canada and much of the contiguous United States. It has long, dense fur, triangular ears with black tufts, and broad paws. It is a good swimmer and climber. A specialist predator, the lynx depends heavily on snowshoe hares for food, which leads to a prey–predator cycle, as populations of the two species respond to each other. The lynx hunts at twilight or at night, ambushing hares and killing them by biting the head or throat. After a gestation period of two to three months, up to eight kittens are born which are weaned at three months. This lynx occurs predominantly in dense boreal forests, its range coinciding with that of the hare. Given its abundance and no severe threats, the Canada lynx is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is regularly trapped for the international fur trade in most of Alaska and Canada but is protected in the south due to threats such as habitat loss.

Wikipedia article of the day for October 17, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 17, 2020 is Tube Alloys.
Tube Alloys was the code name of the United Kingdom's research-and-development programme, with participation from Canada, to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. A 1940 memorandum on the possibility of a nuclear weapon led to the formation early in the war of the MAUD Committee, chaired by George Thomson (pictured), which called for an all-out development effort. Due to the high costs and the potential threat from German bombers, Tube Alloys was subsumed into the Manhattan Project by the Quebec Agreement. The British contribution to the Manhattan Project was crucial, but the United States did not provide complete details to the United Kingdom. The Soviet Union gained valuable information through its atomic spies, who had infiltrated both the British and American projects. After the war, the United States terminated co-operation with the enactment of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. This prompted the United Kingdom to relaunch its own project: High Explosive Research.

How The Babylon Bee, a Right-Wing Satire Site, Capitalizes on Confusion

By Unknown Author from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/3lSvOVL

How The Babylon Bee, a Right-Wing Satire Site, Capitalizes on Confusion

By BY KEVIN ROOSE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/37emoQk

Brace for Holiday ‘Shipageddon’

By BY SHIRA OVIDE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/344nCMn

Wikipedia article of the day for October 16, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for October 16, 2020 is A History of the Birds of Europe.
A History of the Birds of Europe, including all the Species inhabiting the Western Palearctic Region is a nine-volume ornithological book published in parts between 1871 and 1882. It is mainly written by Henry Eeles Dresser, although Richard Bowdler Sharpe co-authored the earlier volumes. The book describes all the bird species reliably recorded in the wild in Europe and adjacent geographical areas with similar fauna, giving their worldwide distribution, variations in appearance and migratory movements. It was published as 84 quarto parts, each typically containing 56 pages of text and eight plates of illustrations, the latter mainly by the Dutch artist John Gerrard Keulemans, and bound into permanent volumes when all the parts were published. In total, 339 copies were made, at a cost to each subscriber of £52 10s. Birds of Europe was well received by its contemporary reviewers, although Dresser's outdated views and the cost of his books meant that in the long run his works had limited influence.