Wikipedia article of the day for December 22, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 22, 2020 is Meghan Trainor.
Meghan Trainor (born December 22, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter and talent show judge. Her 2014 debut single "All About That Bass" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold 11 million copies worldwide. She won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Trainor has released three studio albums with Epic Records. In 2015, her pop and hip hop album, Title, included the top-10 singles "Lips Are Movin" and "Like I'm Gonna Lose You". It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. The single "No" led her R&B album Thank You (2016); both the song and the album reached number three on the respective charts. Trainor has had voice roles in the animated films Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) and Playmobil: The Movie (2019), and has served as a judge on the television talent shows The Four: Battle for Stardom (2018) and The Voice UK (2020). She has won four ASCAP Pop Music Awards and two Billboard Music Awards. (This article is part of a featured topic: Overview of Meghan Trainor.)

Wikipedia article of the day for December 21, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 21, 2020 is Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
Sergo Ordzhonikidze (1886–1937) was a Bolshevik and Soviet politician from Georgia. Joining the Bolsheviks at a young age, he became an important figure and was arrested repeatedly. After the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, he oversaw the invasions of Azerbaijan, of Armenia, and of Georgia. He backed their union into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in 1922, one of the original Soviet republics, and served as its first secretary until 1926. He then oversaw Soviet economic production and led a massive overhaul; he implemented five-year plans, helped create the Stakhanovite movement and was named to the Politburo. He was reluctant to join the campaign against so-called wreckers and saboteurs in the early 1930s, causing friction with Joseph Stalin. Before a meeting where he was expected to denounce workers, Ordzhonikidze shot himself. He was posthumously honoured, and several towns and cities in the Soviet Union were named after him.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 20, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 20, 2020 is Oxenfree.
Oxenfree is a supernatural-mystery graphic adventure game. Developed and published by Night School Studio, it was released for Windows, OS X, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Linux in 2016 and iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch in 2017. Players assume the role of teenager Alex on a weekend trip to a local island. Alex and her friends must unravel the island's secrets after supernatural events occur. The developers designed Oxenfree as a story-driven game without cutscenes; players choose dialogue via a "walk and talk" mechanic. Oxenfree's audiovisual presentation marries dark, organic, and analog elements with bright, geometric, and digital ones. The release was accompanied by development documentaries, an alternate reality game, and a collector's edition. Oxenfree received generally positive reviews; critics praised the presentation and characters, although some reviewers were left wanting more. The game was nominated for "Best Narrative" at The Game Awards 2016.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 19, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 19, 2020 is Achelousaurus.
Achelousaurus was a ceratopsid dinosaur that lived about 74.2 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. The first fossils of the genus were collected from the Two Medicine Formation in the U.S. state of Montana in 1987. Mainly known from skull material, Achelousaurus was about 6 m (20 ft) long, with a weight of about 3 tonnes (3.3 short tons). It had a large head with a hooked beak, and a bony neck-frill with a pair of long, curved spikes. In the places where other centrosaurines often had horns, Achelousaurus had bosses (roundish protuberances) above the eyes and on the snout that may have been used in fights and for display. It has been suggested that Achelousaurus was a transitional form between Einiosaurus (which had spikes but no bosses) and Pachyrhinosaurus (which had larger bosses), though this is debated. As a ceratopsian, Achelousaurus would have been a herbivore. It appears to have had a high metabolic rate, though lower than that of modern mammals and birds.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 18, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 18, 2020 is Mount Takahe.
Mount Takahe is a 3,460-metre-high (11,350 ft) snow-covered shield volcano in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the Amundsen Sea. It is about 30 kilometres (20 mi) wide with parasitic vents and a caldera up to 8 kilometres (5 mi) wide. Most of the volcano was formed by trachytic lava flows. It reached its present height about 200,000 years ago. Snow, ice, and glaciers cover most of Mount Takahe. With a volume of 780 km3 (200 cu mi), it is a massive volcano; the parts of the edifice that are buried underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are probably even larger. It is part of the West Antarctic Rift System along with eighteen other known volcanoes. A major eruption took place around 17,700 years ago, possibly forming an ozone hole over Antarctica. The last eruption occurred about 7,600 years ago; there is no present-day activity. The name of the volcano refers to the takahē, a flightless bird from New Zealand.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 17, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 17, 2020 is Interstate 296.
Interstate 296 (I-296) is a part of the Interstate Highway System in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that runs for 3.43 miles (5.52 km) parallel to the Grand River on the west bank, entirely within the Grand Rapids area. Its termini are I-196 near downtown Grand Rapids and I-96 on the north side of Grand Rapids in Walker. For most of its length, the Interstate runs concurrently with US Highway 131, which continues as a freeway built to Interstate Highway standards north and south of the shorter I-296. The highway was first proposed in the late 1950s and opened in December 1962. The Michigan Department of Transportation has since eliminated all signage for I-296 and removed the designation from their official state map, leaving it unsigned, but I-296 is still listed on the Interstate Highway System route log maintained by the Federal Highway Administration.

Wikipedia article of the day for December 16, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 16, 2020 is Banksia serrata.
Banksia serrata, the old man banksia, is a species of woody shrub or tree in the family Proteaceae. It is found from Queensland to Victoria, commonly growing as a gnarled tree up to 16 m (50 ft) in height, though it can be much smaller in more exposed areas. It has wrinkled grey bark and shiny dark green serrated leaves. The large yellow or greyish-yellow flower spikes turn grey as they age, and pollinated flowers develop into large, grey, woody seed pods. This Banksia species is one of four collected by Joseph Banks in 1770, and one of four published in 1782 as part of Carl Linnaeus the Younger's original description of the genus. Throughout its range, it grows exclusively in sandy soils, and is usually the dominant plant where it grows in scrubland or low woodland. B. serrata is pollinated by and provides food for a wide array of vertebrate and invertebrate animals in the autumn and winter months. It is a common plant of parks and gardens.