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From today's featured article

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, the calico or starved aster, is a perennial plant in the family Asteraceae found in North America. Its flowers are small, at about 13 millimeters (0.51 in) in diameter when in full bloom. It has seven to fifteen white ray florets that surround a group of about eight to sixteen cream to light yellow disk florets. After pollination, the disk florets may turn pink, then purple or light brown. Its late-summer and fall flowers are visited by small pollinators and nectar-seeking insects such as sweat bees, miner bees, and hoverflies. The leaves have fine veins and little to no hair except for the key characteristic of hair on the back midrib. The plant was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Solidago lateriflora. The Meskwaki and Potawatomi have used the plant medicinally and in sweatbaths. It was cultivated in Europe by 1758, and modern-day cultivars include 'Bleke Bet', 'Lady in Black', and 'Prince'. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Loess landscape near Hunyuan, Datong, Shanxi Province, China

... that one of the largest and thickest loess plateaus in the world is the Loess Plateau (pictured) in China?
... that Bobbi Kristina Brown died less than four years after her mother Whitney Houston died in similar circumstances?
... that during the January 1998 North American ice storm, an employee at Cornwall Electric used a bow and arrow to provide power to a city?
... that colonial printer Peter Edes was arrested by British forces for openly expressing support and sympathy for the patriots when they lost the Battle of Bunker Hill?
... that lesbians in Nazi Germany, unlike gay men, did not face systematic persecution?
... that former NFL halfback Art Pharmer pursued, tackled, and captured a shoplifter who ran from the sporting goods store where Pharmer worked?
... that the Degenerate Art auction in 1939, which included paintings by Van Gogh and Picasso, raised only $115,000?
... that actress Miya Cech was praised for "do[ing] what [she] can with nothing" in the ill-regarded The Darkest Minds?

In the news

Protests in Aktobe

Kazakhstan's government resigns amid protests (example pictured) against a sharp increase in fuel prices.
Peter Wright wins the PDC World Darts Championship.
American actress and comedian Betty White dies at the age of 99.
In Hong Kong, Stand News closes down after its staff are arrested for sedition.

On this day

January 5: Twelfth Night (Western Christianity)

Execution of Robert-François Damiens

1675 – Franco-Dutch War: French troops defeated Austrian and Brandenburg forces at the Battle of Turckheim in Alsace.
1757 – Louis XV of France survived an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who later became the last person in the country to be executed by being drawn and quartered (depicted).
1949 – In his State of the Union speech, U.S. president Harry S. Truman announced: "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal."
2000 – Sri Lankan Tamil politician Kumar Ponnambalam was killed in an assassination suspected to have been sanctioned by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Philippa of England (d. 1430)
Joseph Erlanger (b. 1874)
Edmund Herring (d. 1982)

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Today's featured picture

Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, cultural critic, political and social commentator, and novelist. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory, and Foucault's Pendulum, his 1988 novel that touches on similar themes. This photograph of Eco was taken in 1984, during the period of more than thirty years in which he taught at the University of Bologna.

Photograph credit: Rob Bogaerts

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