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Today's featured article

Aston Martin Rapide S
Aston Martin Rapide S

The Aston Martin Rapide is an executive sports saloon car that was produced by the British carmaker Aston Martin between 2010 and 2020. Development of the car commenced in 2005, and after about two months, a concept car, called the Rapide, was completed and displayed at the North American International Auto Show in 2006. In 2009, three years after the concept's unveiling, the production version debuted at the International Motor Show Germany. Official manufacture of the car began on 7 May 2010, at Magna Steyr's facility in Graz, Austria, but production was shifted to Gaydon, Warwickshire, in 2012 after Aston Martin received funding from the British government. Over its production run, the Rapide received two major updates, with the introduction of the Rapide S (pictured) in 2013 and the Rapide AMR in 2018. A battery electric version of the Rapide, called the Rapide E, was introduced in 2018 but Aston Martin announced in 2020 that it would not be series produced. (Full article...)

Recently featured:
IceCube Neutrino Observatory

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a neutrino detector constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. Similar to its predecessor, the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array, IceCube consists of spherical optical sensors called Digital Optical Modules, each with a photomultiplier tube, located under the Antarctic ice and distributed over a cubic kilometre. The project is a recognized CERN experiment and construction was completed in 2010. This photograph shows the exterior of the IceCube building in 2023.

Photograph credit: Christopher Michel

Belva Ann Lockwood

Belva Ann Lockwood (1830–1917) was an American lawyer, politician, educator, and author who was active in the women's rights and women's suffrage movements. She was one of the first women lawyers in the United States, and in 1879 she became the first woman to be admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court. She later ran for president, one of the first women to do so, in the 1884 and 1888 presidential elections, on the ticket of the National Equal Rights Party. This albumen silver print of a photograph of Lockwood was taken around 1880 by Benjamin Joseph Falk.

Photograph credit: Benjamin Joseph Falk; restored by Adam Cuerden

Recently featured:
Sedum acre

Sedum acre, commonly known as the biting stonecrop, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae. It is native to Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia, and is naturalised in other places such as North America and New Zealand. It is a low-growing plant which is adapted for growth on thin dry soils, being found on terrain including dry grassland, beaches, drystone walls and roadside verges. The plant forms mat-like stands up to 12 centimetres (5 inches) tall. For most of the year the stems are short with dense leaf coverage, but during the flowering season in June and July, the stems lengthen and become erect. This S. acre plant with a length of 3.5 centimetres (1.4 inches) was photographed in Niitvälja, Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

Edible frog

The edible frog or green frog (Pelophylax kl. esculentus) is a common European frog species that occurs naturally from the northern half of France to western Russia and from Estonia and Denmark to Bulgaria and northern Italy, and is also an introduced species in other parts of the continent. It is a fertile hybrid of the pool frog (Pelophylax lessonae) and the marsh frog (P. ridibundus) and reproduces using hybridogenesis, a process in which one parental genome is excluded. The species is used as food – particularly in France, as well as Germany and Italy – as the delicacy frog legs. This edible frog was photographed in the Danube delta east of Tulcea, Romania.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Principles

Religion in Society

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.

Committed identity: 958be6e36eac42126fb635b1513ec54d is a MD5 commitment to this user's real-life identity.

Alec Guinness edit that claims he believed Star Wars would be a big hit