Operation Title was an unsuccessful 1942 Allied attack on the German battleship Tirpitz during World War II. The Allies considered Tirpitz to be a major threat to their shipping and after several Royal Air Force heavy bomber raids failed to inflict any damage it was decided to use Royal Navymidget submarines instead. Operation Title involved a pair of two-man British Chariots which were transported to Norway on board a small boat named Arthur. Both Chariots were lost when bad weather caused them to detach from Arthur on 31 October. It was not possible for the Allied boat to reach the sea due to German security measures, and Arthur was scuttled. The Allied personnel attempted to escape overland and all but one reached neutral Sweden on 5 November. The other – a British serviceman – was taken prisoner by German forces and murdered on 19 January 1943. Tirpitz was eventually sunk by another bomber raid on 12 November 1944. (Full article...)
The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a neotropical species of hummingbird from the Andean regions of South America. Among the largest species of hummingbird, it is characterized by its unusually long beak, being the only bird to have a beak longer than the rest of its body, excluding the tail. It uses this to drink nectar from flowers with long corollas and has coevolved with the plant Passiflora mixta. While most hummingbirds preen using their beaks, the sword-billed hummingbird uses its feet to scratch and preen due to its beak being so long.
The Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It is one of the largest H II regions in the Local Group, with an estimated diameter around 650 to 1860 light years. It is around 160,000 light-years from Earth and has apparent magnitude of 8. The Tarantula Nebula was first observed by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille during an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope between 1751 and 1753. This high-resolution photograph was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shows the star-forming region of Tarantula Nebula with the R136 super star cluster at its center.
The Monteleone chariot is an Etruscan chariot, dated to circa 530 BC, that was uncovered in 1902 at Monteleone di Spoleto in Umbria, Italy, in an underground tomb covered by a mound. It was part of a chariot burial, containing the remains of two human corpses along with two drinking cups. Measuring 131 centimetres (51+5⁄8 inches) in height and designed to be drawn by two horses, the chariot itself is constructed of wood covered with hammered bronze plates and carved ivory decoration. The Monteleone chariot is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Artifact credit: unknown Etruscan sculptor; photographed by the Rogers Fund and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Carpocoris purpureipennis is a species in the shield bug family, Pentatomidae. With a length of 11–13 millimetres (0.43–0.51 in), its body color varies from purple or reddish-brown to yellowish. The pronotum angles are black and the pronotum usually shows short longitudinal black stripes, while the scutellum may have some contrasting black spots. The insect's antennae are black and its legs are orange. Both the adult bugs and their nymphs are polyphagous. Adults mainly feed on juices of Cirsium arvense and nectar of Leucanthemum vulgare. These images show top and bottom views of a C. purpureipennis nymph.
There is a great disconnect between how athiests and religionist view the proper place for religion in the public square. Briefly, atheists (usually) want no religion in the public square, and religionists want equal access (non-denominational) to the public square and view athiesm as just one other "religion" that needs access.
Wikipedia's Reputation
I've been thinking about this key principle: "[What] reliable sources ... have in common is process and approval between document creation and publication." This is also the key to Wikipedia's reliability and reputation. The core principles of neutrality and verifiability along with the standards for articles (featured/good/etc) and the implicit approval of every person who reads an article and makes no changes to it.
Intellectual Property
We (Americans) often "borrow" other people's intellectual property because the transaction method (i.e. limited use permission) does not exist and can not be created without the transaction cost exceeding the value of the permission (which is close to $0.00 in most cases) so we keep using other's work, and they don't sue us.