Wikipedia:Picture of the day/September 2005

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Aglianico is a red wine grape grown in the Campania and Basilicata regions of Italy. It has also recently been planted in Australia, where it thrives in a predominantly sunny climate.

The grape is believed to have originated in Greece, and was introduced to Italy by the Phoenicians. The name is in fact a corruption of 'Ellenico' the Italian word for 'Greek'.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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The star thistles, cornflowers and knapweeds are a group of thistle-like plants in the Genus Centaurea of the Family Asteraceae. Some 350 species of herbaceous flowering plants belong to Centaurea, most native to the Old World. One species in this genus is the Centaurea solstitialis, shown in the picture. Also called the Yellow star thistle, this is an annual that grows to a height of 1 to 2.5 feet. This plant is widely naturalized outside of its native Europe.

Photo credit: Peggy Greb (USDA)
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Electron microscope image of the compound eye of an Antarctic krill.

Antarctic krill are shrimp-like invertebrates that live in large schools, called swarms, in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. Although the uses for and reasons behind the development of their disproportionately large, black, compound eyes remain a mystery, there is no doubt that Antarctic krill have one of the most fantastic structures for vision seen in nature.

Photo credit: Gerd Alberti and Uwe Kils
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Osteospermum 'Pink Whirls' is one of the many cultivars of the genus Osteospermum. It is particularly selected for its unusual flower. Its 13-18 purple to lavender-blue, 'spooned' petals around a blue disk, give the impression of an optical illusion. After a few days the spoon-like petals open up to form normally shaped petals. Most species of Osteospermum are native to Southern Africa, which gives rise to some of their common names such as African Daisy and Cape Daisy.

Photo credit: pdphoto.org
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In BDSM, a collar is a device of any material placed around the neck of the submissive partner. Materials used include leather, rubber, PVC, and metal. Collars may be decorated in various ways, and often feature buckles, straps and hooks, padlocks and other attachments. The standard colour is black, however variation is possible, including elegant necklaces.

Photo credit: Grendelkhan
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A sunset is the time at which the Sun disappears below the horizon in the west. Rayleigh scattering by atmospheric dust, preferentially affects short wavelength, blue light. During the day, this gives the sky its blue hue, but at sunset, when the sun is close to the horizon, the blue light is scattered away from the line of sight, leaving red, orange and yellow light to illuminate the sky and clouds.

Photo credit: Fir0002
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The Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume is a conservative 13th century Gothic church in Provence, France. Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume is a commune of southern France, in the Var département.

Photo credit: Ericd
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Hakea is a genus of about 110 species of shrubs and small trees native to Australia, and particularly Western Australia. Many species of Hakea are popular as ornamental garden plants. The most popular being the Pincushion Hakea (Hakea laurina) shown here, which flowers profusely throughout the winter. Each flower head is about 5 cm across and covered with creamy white protruding styles like pins from a pincushion.

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The Ray and Maria Stata Center is an academic complex designed by Frank Gehry for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The building opened in spring 2004. Funding for this project was provided by Ray and Maria Stata, Bill Gates and Alexander Dreyfoos.

Photo credit: Raul654
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Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire. Constructed between 2500 BC and 2000 BC, it is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones, known as megaliths. Archaeoastronomers claim that Stonehenge represents an "ancient observatory," with significant alignments for the sunrise on the solstice and equinox days.

Photo credit: Solipsist
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A praying mantis is a kind of insect of the family Mantidae (order Mantodea), named for their "prayer-like" stance. (The word mantis in Greek means prophet.) There are approximately 2,000 species world-wide; most are tropical or subtropical. Mantids are masters of camouflage and make use of protective coloration to blend in with the foliage, both to avoid predators themselves, and to better snare their victims. Their diet usually consists of living insects, including flies and aphids.

Photo credit: Shiva shankar
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Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was an influential figure in Russian literature, and is sometimes said to be a founder of existentialism. His novels include The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky was imprisoned in 1849 for engaging in revolutionary activity against Tsar Nicholas I. He later abandoned his radical sentiments and became deeply conservative and extremely religious. In the 1860s, Dostoevsky traveled to Western Europe to escape creditors. He married Anna Grigorevna Snitkina in 1867 and wrote many of his greatest books in this period.

Painting credit: Vasily Perov, 1872
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A grape is the fruit of a vine in the family Vitaceae. It is commonly used for making grape juice, jelly, wine, Grape seed oil and raisins, or can be eaten raw. Grapes are being extensively researched as a result of the "French Paradox". Despite the fact that the French eat substantially more animal fat compared with other Western countries, they have a significantly lower incidence of heart disease. Many scientists now believe the reason is the greater consumption of red wine in France.

Photo credit: Bob Nichols, USDA
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Mount Rainier is a stratovolcano and national park southeast of Seattle, Washington in Pierce County. The most recent recorded eruption was between 1820 and 1854, but many eyewitnesses reported eruptive activity in the late 1800s.

Photo credit: JediMaster16
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The Sweet Chestnut is large a tree native to southern Europe and Asia Minor. As early as Roman times it was introduced into more northerly regions, and later it was cultivated in monastery gardens by monks.

The nuts, which are very tasty, are used by confectioners and are also eaten roasted. They are popular in France, Italy and particularly in Corsica. They may be roasted whole or ground to make flour.

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Monopoly is one of the best selling board games in the world. Since the invention of the original version in 1904, it is estimated that more than 500 million people have played the game. Monopoly involves a substantial portion of luck. There are, however, many strategic decisions which allow skilled players to win more often than the unskilled.

Photo credit: Horst Frank
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The Common Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) is the best-known representative of a small genus of about 20 species in the family Amaryllidaceae that are among the first bulbs to bloom in spring. All species of Galanthus have bulbs, linear leaves, and erect flowering stalks, destitute of leaves but bearing a solitary pendulous bell-shaped flower. Galanthus nivalis grows 15cm tall, flowering in January or February in the northern temperate zone.

Photo credit: Aka
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The pomegranate, Punica granatum, is a species of fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5-8 m tall. The pomegranate is believed to have originated in the area from Iran east to northern India, but has been cultivated around the Mediterranean for so long (several millennia) that its true native range is not accurately known. The ancient city of Granada in Spain was renamed after the fruit by the Moors.

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The Emperor Gum Moth (Opodiphthera eucalypti) is a species of moth native to Australia and is one of the larger moths, with a wingspan of 120mm – 150mm.

Emperor Gum Moths do not feed after they emerge from the cocoon, relying solely on the energy they stored as caterpillars. Their adult life span is limited to a couple of short weeks in which they mate, lay eggs and die.

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The reindeer, known as caribou in North America, is an Arctic and Subarctic-dwelling deer. In the wild, caribou migrate in large herds between their birthing habitat and their winter habitat. Their wide hooves help the animal move through snow and tundra; they also help propel the animal when it swims.

The Barren-ground Caribou, shown here, is found in northern Canada and known for its whiter coat.

Photo credit: brian0918
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Broccoli, a plant of the Cabbage family, Brassicaceae, is a cool-weather crop eaten boiled, steamed, or raw. The Roman natural history writer, Pliny the Elder, wrote about a vegetable which might have been broccoli and some recognize broccoli in the cookbook of Apicius, but its history is unclear. Broccoli was certainly an Italian vegetable long before it was eaten elsewhere.

Photo credit: pdphoto
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Oceans cover almost three quarters (71%) of the surface of the Earth, and nearly half of the world's marine waters are over 3000 m deep.

This global, interconnected body of salt water, called the World Ocean, is divided by the continents and archipelagos into the following five bodies, from the largest to the smallest: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean. Official boundaries are defined by the International Hydrographic Organization

Illustration credit: Alexandre Van de Sande
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Antarctica, the continent surrounding the Earth's South Pole, is the coldest place on earth and is almost entirely covered by ice. Antarctica was discovered in late January 1820. Too cold and dry to support virtually any vascular plants, Antarctica's flora presently consists of around 250 lichens, 100 mosses, 25-30 liverworts, and around 700 terrestrial and aquatic algal species.

Photo credit: NASA
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Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the elementary constituents of matter and radiation, and the interactions between them. In the experiment illustrated here, particles erupt from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Electrically charged particles are discernible by the curves they trace in the detector's magnetic field.

Illustration credit: RHIC
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The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was a magnitude 9.15, undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26, 2004. The earthquake generated a tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people around the Indian Ocean, making it one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. This photograph shows the tsunami as it reached Ao Nang, Thailand.

Photo credit: David Rydevik
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The blue ice covering Lake Fryxell in the Transantarctic Mountains, a mountain range in Antarctica, comes from glacial meltwater from the Canada Glacier and other smaller glaciers. The freshwater stays on top of the lake and freezes, sealing in briny water below.

Photo credit: Joe Mastroianni
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Motocross is form of motorcycle or ATV racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The tracks are often quite large, natural, terrains with very few man made jumps, unlike Supercross, a sport that was originally derived from Motocross and is executed on a smaller track with many more extreme man made obstacles.

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The Sombrero Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation. It was discovered in the late 1700s. It is about 28 million light years away and is just faint enough to be invisible to the naked eye but easily visible with small telescopes. In our sky, it is about one-fifth the diameter of the full moon. M104 is moving away from Earth at about 1,000 kilometers per second.

Photo credit: NASA / STScI
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The willows are deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus Salix, part of the willow family Salicaceae. Willows are dioecious with male and female flowers appearing as catkins on different plants; the catkins are produced early in the spring, often before the leaves or as the new leaves open.

Photo credit: Aka
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The Emperor Penguin is the largest of all penguins. Like his King Penguin counterpart, a male Emperor Penguin has an abdominal fold, the "brood pouch", between its legs and lower abdomen. The male will incubate an egg in its brood pouch for 65 days without food by surviving on his fat reserves.

Photo credit: Josh Landis
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