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From today's featured article

The Flame Robin is a small passerine bird native to Australia. It is a moderately common resident of the coolest parts of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. First described by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830, it is often simply but inaccurately called the Robin Redbreast. Like many brightly coloured robins of the Petroicidae, it is sexually dimorphic. Measuring 12–14 cm (5–6 in) long, the Flame Robin has dark brown eyes and a small thin black bill. The male has a brilliant orange-red chest and throat, and a white patch on the forehead above the bill. Its upper parts are iron-grey with white bars, and its tail black with white tips. The female is a nondescript grey-brown. Its song has been described as the most musical of its genus, and it employs song and plumage displays to mark out and defend its territory. It mostly breeds in and around the Great Dividing Range, the Tasmanian highlands and islands in Bass Strait. With the coming of cooler autumn weather, most birds disperse to lower and warmer areas. Classified by BirdLife International as Near Threatened, the species has suffered a marked decline in the past 25 years. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Van Buren and Henry James all either lived in or visited the townhouses on Elk Street (pictured) in the Lafayette Park Historic District in Albany, New York?

... that Sir Robert Peel couldn't be bothered to fix his cotton mills, so he proposed an Act of Parliament to do it for him?

... that the recently discovered Eocypselus rowei may be ancestral to both hummingbirds and swifts?

... that former British National Party fundraiser Jim Dowson is registered as the leader of the recently founded loyalist party Protestant Coalition?

... that Richard Buck opened the first session of the Virginia General Assembly at Jamestown, Virginia on July 30, 1619 with a prayer?

... that stolen beer bottles once led to the postponement of a football cup semi-final at Stangmore Park?

... that Du Jiahao, acting governor of China's Hunan province, began his career as a farm tool factory worker?

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Today's articles for improvement

Jogging – Ruler – Double standard

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In the news

Cyclone Mahasen (storm track pictured) causes significant damage in Southern and Southeastern Asia, resulting in more than 90 deaths.

The Maya site Nohmul in Belize is largely destroyed by contractors seeking road construction materials.

The Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, led by Boyko Borisov, wins a plurality in the Bulgarian parliamentary election.

Genetic sequencing of the floating bladderwort reveals that its genome contains just 3% noncoding DNA.

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) wins a plurality in the Pakistani general election.

A Guatemalan court finds former president Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

At least 46 people are killed by a pair of car bombs in Reyhanlı, Turkey.

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On this day...

May 17: Galician Literature Day in Galicia, Spain

1521 – English nobleman Edward Stafford, whose father had been beheaded for rebelling against King Richard III, was himself executed for treason against King Henry VIII.

1792 – Twenty-four stock brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement to establish the New York Stock Exchange.

1863 – Rosalía de Castro (pictured) published Cantares gallegos, a collection of her poetry, the first book in the Galician language.

1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal".

1980 – On the eve of the Peruvian general election, the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacked a polling location in the town of Chuschi, Ayacucho, starting the internal conflict in Peru.

2009 – Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected the first female President of Lithuania, receiving 68.18 percent of the vote.

More anniversaries: May 16 – May 17 – May 18

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Today's featured picture

The Olds Motor Works (pictured between 1905 and 1920) was an automobile factory in Lansing, Michigan, US. Established by Ransom E. Olds of Olds Motor Works, it came under the ownership of General Motors in 1908. The plant was demolished in 2006–07.

Photo: Detroit Publishing Co.; Restoration: Jbarta

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