Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 October 7

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Hu Zhengyan's seal

Hu Zhengyan (c. 1584 – 1674) was a Chinese artist, printmaker and publisher. He worked in calligraphy, painting, and seal-carving (his own seal pictured), but was primarily a publisher, producing academic texts and records of his work. Hu lived in Nanjing during the transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty. A Ming loyalist, he designed the Hongguang Emperor's personal seal and was offered a position at the emperor's remnant court, but declined the post, and held only minor political offices. He largely retired from society after the emperor's capture and death in 1645. He owned and operated an academic publishing house called the Ten Bamboo Studio in Nanjing, where he practised various multi-colour printing and embossing techniques. Hu's work pioneered new techniques in colour printmaking, producing delicate gradations of colour not previously achievable. He is best known for The Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Painting and Calligraphy, an artist's primer which remained in print for around 200 years. (Full article...)

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In the news

Levee breach in South Carolina

Twelve Pacific Rim states, amounting to about 40% of world's GDP, reach an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
William C. Campbell, Satoshi Ōmura, and Tu Youyou are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of novel treatments against parasites.
Hurricane Joaquin and a nor'easter produce flooding in the Bahamas and southeastern U.S. coastal areas (levee breach pictured), causing an estimated 50 deaths.
At least 22 people are killed when a bombing conducted by the U.S. Air Force in Kunduz, Afghanistan, hits a Médecins Sans Frontières facility.
A landslide near Guatemala City kills at least 130 people.

Ongoing events:
- Southeast Asian haze
- European migrant crisis
Recent deaths:
- Henning Mankell
- Denis Healey

On this day...

October 7: Feast day of St. Osyth

Hua Guofeng

1542 – Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European to set foot on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of California.
1763 – Following Great Britain's acquisition of New France after the end of the Seven Years' War, King George III issued a Royal Proclamation closing most of this land to the residents of the Thirteen Colonies and reserving it for indigenous peoples.
1919 – KLM, the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name, was founded.
1976 – Hua Guofeng (pictured) succeeded Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
2001 – War on Terrorism: The War in Afghanistan began with an aerial bombing campaign targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces.

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Calocoris affinis is a species of bug of the family Miridae that can be found everywhere in Europe except for Switzerland and Greece. It feeds on Urtica dioica juices, Heracleum sphondylium nectar, and Centaurea jacea nectar. This specimen is shown on a field scabious.

Photograph: Darius Baužys

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