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Steve Gaynor (second left), Johnnemann Nordhagen (third) and Karla Zimonja (fourth), game developers

BioShock 2: Minerva's Den is a single-player downloadable content (DLC) campaign for the 2010 first-person shooter game BioShock 2, developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games. The player assumes the role of Subject Sigma, an armored and genetically modified human, or "Big Daddy"; Sigma must travel through Minerva's Den, the technological hub of the underwater city of Rapture, to download a schematic of the city's supercomputer. Minerva's Den was created by a small team (some members pictured) within 2K Marin led by Steve Gaynor. They decided upon a small, personal story about identity and free will, which explores an unseen part of Rapture. Minerva's Den was initially released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in August 2010, and was later released and reissued on other platforms. It was well received by critics, who praised its story, characters, and gameplay; reviewers, including those writing for Kotaku and Paste, considered it one of the best video game expansions of all time. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Amanda Lee

... that the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels' first female fighter jet demonstration pilot, Amanda Lee (pictured), uses the call sign "Stalin"?
... that in 1984, Charles, Prince of Wales described a proposed extension to the National Gallery as a "monstrous carbuncle"?
... that the editorial staff of online news startup The Messenger includes former editors-in-chief of Gizmodo, Entertainment Weekly, People, and Self?
... that İbrahim Çolak's 2019 gold medal in still rings was Turkey's first at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships?
... that at the time, the Battle of Shiloh was the largest battle fought in the United States, with nearly 24,000 casualties?
... that Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret spent much time at his family's Welsh country mansion Plas Dinas, but after his father's death the estate went to Snowdon's younger half-brother?
... that Michael Block, a club professional who charges $150 per hour for golfing lessons, scored a hole in one on his way to finishing joint 15th at the 2023 PGA Championship?
... that one critic called Patrician IV a "very dry affair"?

In the news

Devon Conway in April 2023

Devon Conway

More than 200 people are killed and over 900 others injured in a collision between two passenger trains and a goods train in Balasore, India.
In cricket, the Indian Premier League concludes with the Chennai Super Kings defeating the Gujarat Titans in the final (player of the match Devon Conway pictured).
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected President of Turkey in a runoff.
In auto racing, Josef Newgarden wins the Indianapolis 500.
Rock singer and actress Tina Turner dies at the age of 83.

On this day

June 3: Anniversary of Khomeini's Death in Iran (1989); Martyrs Day in Uganda

One of the last two great auks

1602 – Anglo-Spanish War: An English naval force defeated a Spanish-Portuguese fleet off Sesimbra, Portugal, and captured a carrack.
1844 – The last known pair of great auks (one pictured), the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus of flightless birds, were killed on Eldey, Iceland.
1968 – American radical feminist Valerie Solanas shot and wounded visual artist Andy Warhol and two others at Warhol's New York City studio, The Factory.
1973 – At the Paris Air Show, a Tupolev Tu-144 broke up in mid-air, killing all six members of its crew and eight bystanders on the ground.
1979 – Having invaded Uganda and deposed President Idi Amin, Tanzanian forces secured Uganda's western border, ending a seven-month war.

Staurakios (d. 800)
Georges Bizet (d. 1875)
Susannah Constantine (b. 1962)

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Today's featured picture

NGC 6530 is a young open cluster of stars lying around 4,350 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The cluster is set within the larger Lagoon Nebula, a large interstellar cloud of gas and dust. This photograph of a portion of NGC 6530 was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope released in 2022, with the Lagoon Nebula giving the image its smoky appearance.

Photograph credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / O. De Marco

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