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January 31

Stanley Green (1915–1993) was a sandwich man who became a well-known figure in London during the latter part of the 20th century. For 25 years Green patrolled Oxford Street, carrying a placard that advocated "Less Lust, By Less Protein: Meat Fish Bird; Egg Cheese; Peas Beans; Nuts. And Sitting", with the wording and punctuation changing over the years. Arguing that protein made people lustful and aggressive, his solution was "protein wisdom", a low-protein diet for "better, kinder, happier people". For a few pence, passers-by could buy his 14-page pamphlet, Eight Passion Proteins with Care, which reportedly sold 87,000 copies over 20 years. He became one of London's much-loved eccentrics, though his campaign was not invariably popular, leading to two arrests for obstruction and the need to wear green overalls to protect himself from spit. When he died at the age of 78, his pamphlets, placards, and letters were passed to the Museum of London. (Full article...)

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March 31

A bicycle is a pedal-driven land vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame one in front of the other. First introduced in 19th century Europe, it evolved quickly into its current design. With over one billion in the world today, bicycles provide the principal means of transportation in many regions and a popular form of recreation in others. The bicycle has had considerable historical impact, in both the cultural and industrial realms. In its early years, bicycle construction drew on pre-existing technologies, while more recently bicycle technology has contributed in turn to other, newer areas. Beyond recreation and transportation, bicycles have been adapted for use in many occupations, in the military, and in sports and entertainment as well. A recurring theme in bicycling has been the tension between bicyclists and drivers of motor vehicles, each of whom argue for their fair share of the world's roadways.

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January 31

Super Mario 64 is a platform game, published by Nintendo and developed by its EAD division, for the Nintendo 64. Along with Pilotwings 64, it was one of the launch titles for the console.[5] It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, and later in North America, Europe, and Australia. Super Mario 64 has sold over eleven million copies. An enhanced remake called Super Mario 64 DS was released for the Nintendo DS in 2004.

As one of the first three dimensional (3D) platform games, Super Mario 64 features free-roaming analog degrees of freedom, large open-ended areas, and true 3D polygons as opposed to two-dimensional (2D) sprites. It established a new archetype for the genre, much as Super Mario Bros. did for 2D sidescrolling platformers. Hailed as "revolutionary", the game left a lasting impression on 3D game design, particularly notable for its use of a dynamic camera system and the implementation of its analog control.

In going from two to three dimensions, Super Mario 64 placed an emphasis on exploration within vast worlds that require the player to complete multiple diverse missions, replacing the linear obstacle courses of traditional platform games. While doing so, it managed to preserve many gameplay elements and characters of earlier Mario games. The title is acclaimed by many critics and fans as one of the greatest and most revolutionary video games of all time. (more...)

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December 31

NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula

A planetary nebula is an astronomical object consisting of a roughly spherical glowing shell of gas formed by certain types of stars at the end of their lives. They are in fact unrelated to planets: the name originates from a supposed similarity in appearance to giant planets. They are a short-lived phenomenon, lasting a few thousand years of a typical stellar lifetime of several billion years. About 1,500 are known to exist in our galaxy. Planetary nebulae are important objects in astronomy because they play a crucial role in the chemical evolution of the galaxy, returning material to the interstellar medium which has been enriched in heavy elements by nucleosynthesis. In recent years, Hubble Space Telescope images have revealed many planetary nebulae to have extremely complex and varied morphologies. The mechanisms which produce such a wide variety of shapes and features are not yet well understood. (more...)

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October 31

A monkey at a typewriter

The "infinite monkey theorem" is a popular misnomer for an idea from Émile Borel's book on probability, published in 1909. The book introduced the concept of "dactylographic monkeys" seated in front of typewriter keyboards and hitting keys at random. Borel exemplified a proposition in the theory of probability called Kolmogorov's zero-one law by saying that the probability is one that such a monkey will eventually type every book in France's Bibliothèque nationale (national library). There need not be infinitely many monkeys; a single monkey who executes infinitely many keystrokes suffices. Subsequent restatements by other people have replaced the National Library not only with the British Museum but also with the Library of Congress; the most popular retelling says that the monkeys would eventually type out the collected works of William Shakespeare. (more...)

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September 6

Polish boy scouts fighting in the uprising

The Warsaw Uprising was an armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. It started on August 1, 1944 as a part of a nationwide uprising, Operation Tempest. The Polish troops resisted the German-led forces until October 2. An estimated 85% of the city was destroyed during the urban guerrilla war and after the end of hostilities. The Uprising started at a crucial point in the war as the Soviet army was approaching Warsaw. Although the Soviet army was within a few hundred metres of the city from September 16 onward, the link between the uprising and the advancing army was never made. This failure and the reasons behind it have been a matter of controversy ever since. (more...)

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August 31

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea explorer who sailed for Spain. He was the first to sail from Europe westwards to Asia, the first European to sail the Pacific Ocean, and the first to lead an expedition for the purpose of circumnavigating the globe. Though Magellan himself died in the East Indies before returning to Europe, some of the crew and fleet he organized and guided for half the journey did return there in 1522, having circumnavigated the globe. (more...)

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July 31

An Underwood 5 typewriter

A typewriter is a mechanical, electromechanical or electronic device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on paper. In the late 19^th and the start of the 20^th century the device operator was sometimes also called a "typewriter", though it then became more common to call the person a "typist". A typewriter has a keyboard, with keys for the characters in its font. The method by which the typewriter actually marks the paper now varies as greatly as types of printers do, but until the end of the 20^th century it was by the impact of a metal (or, later, metallized plastic) element against an "inked" ribbon which caused ink to be deposited on the paper. (more...)

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May 31

Helium on the periodic table

Helium is the chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol He and atomic number 2. A colorless, odorless noble gas, helium has the lowest boiling point of any element and can only be solidified under great pressure. This element occurs as a monatomic gas. It is for practical purposes chemically inert. It is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. It is found in the Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts from the decay of certain minerals and is present in some mineral waters. Helium occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases and is used as a lifting gas for balloons and blimps, as a cryogenic cooling liquid for superconducting magnets. (more...)

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March 31

Superman, also called The Man of Steel, is a fictional character, a superhero, starring in comic books bearing his name from DC Comics. The character has also been in various television series and movies. Superman was born as Kal-el on the planet Krypton. While still a baby he was put into a spaceship alone by his father. The ship launched moments before his home-planet exploded. His spaceship landed on Earth. (more...)

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