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From today's featured article

Invisible rail, adult by Joseph Wolf, 1859

The invisible rail (Habroptila wallacii) is a large flightless rail that is endemic to the island of Halmahera in North Maluku, Indonesia, where it inhabits impenetrable sago swamps adjacent to forests. Its plumage is predominantly dark slate-grey, and the bare skin around its eyes, the long, thick bill and the legs are all bright red. Its call is a low drumming sound which is accompanied by wing-beating. Information on the behaviour of this shy bird, usually shielded by its dense habitat, is limited. Recorded dietary items include sago shoots and insects, and it also swallows small stones to help break up its food. It is apparently monogamous, but little else is known of its courtship behaviour. The only known nest was a shallow bowl in the top of a rotting tree stump that was lined with wood chips and dry leaves. The two young chicks were entirely covered in black down typical of precocial newly hatched rails. The estimated population of 3,500–15,000 birds has a restricted range and is classified as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

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... that Dr. Young's Ideal Rectal Dilators were forcibly withdrawn after officials clamped down on them?

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In the news

Islam Karimov (pictured) is re-elected President of Uzbekistan.
In cricket, the World Cup concludes with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.
Twenty people, including a United Nations diplomat, are killed during a 12-hour siege at a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Mathematicians John F. Nash, Jr. and Louis Nirenberg share the Abel Prize for their work on partial differential equations.
Saudi Arabia conducts airstrikes against Houthi militants and their allies after their advance on the provisional Yemeni capital of Aden.
Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, dies at the age of 91.

Ongoing: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Tomas Tranströmer – Dinkha IV

On this day...

April 1: April Fools' Day; Assyrian New Year; National Day in Iran (1979); Edible Book Day

528 – China's only cross-dressing emperor ruled for a single day.
1293 – Robert Winchelsey left England for Rome to be consecrated by the Pope, only to find that there wasn't one.
1865 – Ordered to hold five forks, Confederate General George Pickett (pictured) instead lost almost 3,000.
1996 – The government of Nova Scotia ordered the people of the City of Halifax to mate with over 200 multiple partners around the area.
2004 – Google launched a free Web-based service, providing users with an unprecedented 1000 megabytes of storage for spam.

More anniversaries: March 31 – April 1 – April 2

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It is now April 1, 2015 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

Lucky Diamond Rich (b. 1971) is a New Zealand-born performance artist and street performer who holds the Guinness World Record for most tattooed man, taking the title from Tom Leppard in 2006. He is recognized by Guinness as being covered in tattoos over 100% of his body, including the inside of his eyelids, ears, and mouth.

Photograph: TOONMAN blchin

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