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From today's featured article

Detail of the tiger ridden by Dionysus in a mosaic in Delos

The mosaics of Delos are a significant body of ancient Greek mosaic art. Most of the surviving mosaics from Delos, Greece, an island in the Cyclades, date to the last half of the 2nd century BC and early 1st century BC, during the Hellenistic period and beginning of the Roman period. About half of all surviving tessellated mosaics from Hellenistic Greece come from Delos. The paved walkways of Delos range from simple pebble or chip-pavement constructions to elaborate mosaic floors composed of tesserae. Most motifs contain simple geometric patterns, while a handful utilize the opus tessellatum and opus vermiculatum techniques to create lucid, naturalistic, and richly colored scenes and figures. Mosaics have been found in places of worship, public buildings, and private homes. They share characteristics with those in other parts of the Greek world, such as Macedonian mosaics in Pella. They often employ a black-background technique as seen in the red-figure pottery of the Classical period. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Female A. diabolicum flowers with curled stigmas

... that Acer diabolicum, the devil maple, gets its scientific and common names from the curly stigmas of its flowers (pictured)?
... that Josef Protschka, who sang as a soloist in Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge at age 12, later appeared in leading tenor roles in the Mozart cycle staged by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle at the Cologne Opera?
... that when the LineageOS operating system refused to integrate MicroG software, the project forked its own version, with MicroG pre-installed?
... that Romanian neuroscientist Viviana Gradinaru was part of the research team from Caltech that found that serotonin is necessary for sleep in zebrafish and mice?
... that drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova have hosted the entertainment series UNHhhh, The Trixie & Katya Show, and I Like to Watch?
... that the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management has conducted research to improve the taste and nutrition of a children's dietary supplement distributed by the government of Kerala?
... that Harun el-Raschid Hintersatz, a German convert to Islam, led a Muslim SS unit comprising Turkmens and Tatars during World War II?
... that during a renovation of New York City's Bowne Park, some fish from its pond ended up in refrigerators of nearby homes?

In the news

Donald Trump

The United States Senate votes to acquit President Donald Trump (pictured) of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The Malawian Constitutional Court annuls the results of the 2019 general election which re-elected President Peter Mutharika, ordering a fresh election.
At the British Academy Film Awards, 1917 wins Best Film, along with six other awards.
In American football, the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl.

On this day

February 5: Kashmir Solidarity Day in Pakistan

Charles XIV John

1783 – The first of five strong earthquakes hit the region of Calabria on the Italian Peninsula, killing more than 32,000 people over a period of nearly two months.
1818 – Charles XIV John (portrait shown) succeeded to the thrones of Sweden and Norway as the first monarch of the House of Bernadotte.
1923 – Australian cricketer Bill Ponsford made 429 runs to break the world record for the highest first-class score.
1958 – A U.S. Mark 15 nuclear bomb disappeared off the shores of Tybee Island, Georgia, after it was jettisoned during a practice exercise when the bomber carrying it collided in midair with a fighter plane.
2000 – Second Chechen War: As the Battle of Grozny came to a close, Russian forces summarily executed at least 60 civilians in Grozny's Novye Aldi suburb.

Johan Ludvig Runeberg (b. 1804) · William Bostock (b. 1892) · Francisco Varallo (b. 1910)

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Today's featured picture

The Australia Telescope Compact Array is a radio telescope operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) at the Paul Wild Observatory, 25 km (16 mi) west of the town of Narrabri in New South Wales, Australia. The telescope is an array of six identical dishes each 22 metres (72 ft) in diameter, which commonly operate in aperture synthesis mode to produce images from radio waves. Five of the dishes can be moved along a 3-kilometre (2 mi) railway track; the sixth is situated three kilometres west of the end of the main track. Each dish weighs about 270 tonnes (270 long tons; 300 short tons).

This photograph, showing five of the Australia Telescope Compact Array's dishes, was taken around 1984, in the late phase of the construction process. It is a long-exposure photograph taken in darkness in the late evening; during the exposure, the photographer, John Masterson, walked around the dishes firing off over 130 flashes using a hand-held flash gun.

Photograph credit: John Masterson, CSIRO; restored by Bammesk

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