Wikipedia article of the day for June 26, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for June 26, 2021 is Shojo Beat.
Shojo Beat was a shōjo manga magazine published in North America by Viz Media. Launched in June 2005 as a sister magazine for Shonen Jump, it featured serialized chapters from six manga series per issue, as well as articles on Japanese culture, manga, anime, fashion and beauty. Viz launched a related imprint of the same name for female-oriented manga, light novels and anime. Targeted at women aged 16 to 18, the first issue of Shojo Beat launched with a circulation of 20,000. By 2007, the average circulation was approximately 38,000 copies, with half coming from subscriptions rather than store sales. It was well received by critics, though some found the early issues boring and poorly written. In May 2009, Viz announced that it was discontinuing the magazine; the July 2009 issue was the last released. Fans were disappointed at the news. Industry experts felt its loss left female manga fans without a magazine of their own, but praised Viz for continuing the Shojo Beat imprint and branding for its shōjo manga and anime releases.

Wikipedia article of the day for June 25, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for June 25, 2021 is Grevillea juniperina.
Grevillea juniperina, the prickly spider-flower, is a plant of the family Proteaceae native to eastern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland in Australia. It is a small prickly-leaved shrub from 0.2 to 3 m (8 in to 10 ft) high, generally growing on clay-based or alluvial soils in eucalypt woodland. Scottish botanist Robert Brown described G. juniperina in 1810, and seven subspecies are recognised. The flower heads (inflorescences) appear from winter to early summer and are red, orange or yellow. Birds visit and pollinate the flowers. G. juniperina plants are killed by bushfire, regenerating afterwards from seed. The species adapts readily to cultivation and has been important in horticulture as it is the parent of many popular garden hybrids. G. j. juniperina, a subspecies restricted to western Sydney and environs, has its habitat threatened by housing development and other factors.

Wikipedia article of the day for June 24, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for June 24, 2021 is New Rochelle 250th Anniversary half dollar.
The New Rochelle 250th Anniversary half dollar is a fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1937 as a commemorative coin to mark the 250th anniversary of the settling of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The coin's obverse (pictured) depicts a fatted calf being led by John Pell, who sold the land on which New Rochelle now stands; a "fatt calfe" was to be presented to him annually on June 24 if he asked for it, lest New Rochelle's land be forfeited back to him. The other side shows a fleur-de-lis, an element of the city seal of New Rochelle and of France's La Rochelle, its eponym. The piece is dated 1938 but was minted the previous year. Artist Gertrude K. Lathrop designed the coin; she was hired based on her work on the 1936 Albany Charter half dollar. New Rochelle's coin committee sold the half dollar for $2.00 both locally and by mail order, sending them to all 48 states and internationally, distributing them during 1937 and early 1938. Lathrop's work has been both praised and criticized by numismatic commentators.

Wikipedia article of the day for June 23, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for June 23, 2021 is Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created and owned by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. In addition to video games, Sonic incorporates printed media, animations, a 2020 feature film, and merchandise. The first Sonic game, released for the Sega Genesis on June 23, 1991, was developed after Sega requested a mascot character to compete with Nintendo's mascot Mario. Sonic's success helped Sega become one of the leading video game companies during the fourth generation of video game consoles in the early 1990s. When Sega exited the console market and shifted to third-party development in 2001, it continued the series on Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation systems. Sonic the Hedgehog is Sega's flagship franchise and one of the bestselling video game franchises, having sold more than 140 million copies by 2016. Several Sonic games have been listed among the greatest of all time. Although later games, notably the 2006 series reboot, have been criticized for a perceived decline in quality, Sonic is influential in the video game industry and is frequently referenced in popular culture.

Wikipedia article of the day for June 22, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for June 22, 2021 is Discovery of nuclear fission.
Nuclear fission was discovered in December 1938 by physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, and chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann. Fission is a nuclear reaction and process of radioactive decay in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller, lighter nuclei. The fission process releases a very large amount of energy. The discovery that a nuclear chain reaction was possible led to the development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Hahn and Strassmann bombarded uranium with slow neutrons, and discovered that barium had been produced (illustration pictured). Meitner and her nephew Frisch theorised, and then proved, that the uranium nucleus had been split, and published their findings in Nature. Meitner calculated that the energy released by each disintegration was approximately 200 megaelectronvolts, and Frisch observed this. By analogy with the division of biological cells, Frisch named the process "fission". Hahn was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery.

Wikipedia article of the day for June 21, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for June 21, 2021 is The Thankful Poor.
The Thankful Poor is an 1894 painting by the African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It is a genre painting of two African Americans praying at a table and shares themes with Tanner's other works like The Banjo Lesson (1893). The painting is considered a milestone in African-American art, notably for its countering of racial stereotypes by portraying African-American culture in a dignified manner. This depiction was influenced by Tanner's father and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Despite its popularity with critics, The Thankful Poor was Tanner's last African-American genre work before he began to focus on biblical scenes. After remaining hidden for years, the painting was discovered in a storage closet of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in 1970, before being purchased by Camille and Bill Cosby in 1981 for their private collection. In 2020, the painting was sold by the Cosbys to Art Bridges, a foundation created by Alice Walton for loaning artwork.

Wikipedia article of the day for June 20, 2021

The Wikipedia article of the day for June 20, 2021 is Pisco sour.
A pisco sour is a cocktail typical of South American cuisine. The drink's name is a combination of the word pisco, which is its base liquor, and the term sour, in reference to sour citrus juice and sweetener components. Chile and Peru both claim the pisco sour as their national drink, and each asserts exclusive ownership of both pisco and the cocktail. The Peruvian pisco sour uses Peruvian pisco as the base liquor and adds Key lime (or lemon) juice, syrup, ice, egg white, and Angostura bitters. The Chilean version is similar, but uses Chilean pisco and Pica lemon, and excludes the bitters and egg white. The cocktail was invented by Victor Vaughen Morris, an American bartender working in Peru in the early 1920s. In Chile, the invention of the drink is attributed to Elliot Stubb, an English ship steward, at a bar in the port city of Iquique in 1872, although the source for this attributed the invention of the whiskey sour to Stubb, not the pisco sour. The two kinds of pisco and the two variations in the style of preparing the pisco sour are distinct in both production and taste, and the pisco sour has become a significant and oft-debated topic of Latin American popular culture.