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From today's featured article

Robinson performing on the Worlds Live Tour in 2014

Worlds is the debut studio album by American electronic music producer Porter Robinson, released on August 12, 2014, by Astralwerks. Initially known for his heavier bass-centric production, Robinson became increasingly dissatisfied with the electronic dance music (EDM) genre, believing it limited his artistic expression. Following the release of his 2012 single "Language", Robinson decided to prioritize aesthetic and emotional qualities in his work, taking inspiration from media that evoked nostalgia for his childhood and integrating elements taken from anime, films, and sounds from 1990s video games. The album was promoted with four singles and later a tour (pictured) in North America and Europe. Worlds was well-received by most critics, who praised it as innovative and forecasted a promising career for Robinson, though others felt the record lacked coherence or was unexciting. The album has been retrospectively noted for its impact on the EDM scene. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Fănuș Neagu

... that writer Fănuș Neagu (pictured) claimed to have spent the Romanian floods of May 1970 stranded with a feral wolf on the roof of a cannery?
... that Sierra Leone is the only country where a British law from 1861 still bans abortion?
... that Lewis Worthington Smith received royalties from his textbook The Mechanism of English Style for 20 years?
... that Tomas Fung founded the predecessor of the restaurant Ling Nam with only 3,000 Philippine pesos?
... that Lothar von Falkenhausen was appointed an honorary professor of Zhejiang University, an honor usually reserved for Nobel Prize winners?
... that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a United States regulatory agency, does not require workplaces to have employee break rooms?
... that a critic compared vocalist Riley Gale to a "rabid wolf"?
... that The Strip documents how the gangster Meyer Lansky would walk his Shih Tzu near the pool while visiting a casino?
... that a woman was sentenced to 10 months of forced labor when she "tickled" the breasts of The Motherland Calls?

In the news

The ATR 72 involved in the crash

Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 (aircraft pictured) crashes in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, killing all 62 people on board.
Sheikh Hasina resigns as the prime minister of Bangladesh following anti-government protests, and Muhammad Yunus is appointed leader of an interim government.
Following a mass stabbing in Southport, far-right protesters riot in England and Northern Ireland.
The United States, Russia, and their respective allies agree to a prisoner exchange of 26 people.

On this day

August 12

Quagga mare at London Zoo

1834 – A race riot in Philadelphia destroyed African-American businesses and killed two people.
1883 – The last known quagga (example pictured), a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in Amsterdam.
1914 – World War I: Belgian troops won a victory at the Battle of Halen, but were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of Belgium.
1944 – World War II: In Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Italy, the Waffen-SS and the Brigate Nere murdered about 560 local villagers and refugees and burned their bodies.

Archduchess Isabella Clara of Austria (b. 1629)
John C. Young (b. 1803)
Carlos Mesa (b. 1953)
Ladi Kwali (d. 1984)

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From today's featured list

Fire whirl near Redding, California, in 2018

The U.S. state of California experiences several tornadoes every year, with at least 482 recorded since 1891. Among these are four fire whirls, a type of tornado that develops from a wildfire. California's strongest tornadoes on the Fujita scale (or, after 2007, the Enhanced Fujita scale) have been rated an F3 or EF3, which has occurred three times – two F3 tornadoes in the Greater Los Angeles area in the 1970s, as well as an EF3-equivalent fire whirl (pictured) near Redding in Shasta County that developed within the Carr Fire in 2018. Although less common and not as strong as tornadoes in the central United States, there are regularly tornadoes in three regions of the state: the Los Angeles area, the deserts of Southern California, and the Central Valley. Most tornadoes in California are weak and short-lived, although some can be destructive or notable. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Ages Ago is a musical entertainment with an English-language libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Frederic Clay that premiered in 1869 at the Royal Gallery of Illustration in London. It marked the beginning of a seven-year collaboration between Gilbert and Clay. The piece features a haunted Scottish castle inhabited by Sir Ebenezer Tare, with other characters including his niece, her poor suitor and a housekeeper with second sight. The paintings of the castle's former owners come to life and step out of their frames. Gilbert re-used the device of paintings coming to life in his 1887 opera with Arthur Sullivan, Ruddigore. Ages Ago was a critical and popular success and was revived many times, including at St. George's Hall, London, in 1870 and 1874, and in New York in 1880. This chromolithograph theatre poster was created to advertise the original production of Ages Ago and is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Poster credit: Stannard & Son; restored by Adam Cuerden

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