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From today's featured article

Boletus aereus, the dark cep, is a prized edible mushroom in the family Boletaceae. It is widely consumed in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and generally throughout the Mediterranean. Described as a new species in 1789 by French mycologist Pierre Bulliard, it is closely related to several other European boletes, including B. reticulatus, B. pinophilus, and the popular B. edulis. The fungus predominantly grows near broad-leaved trees and shrubs in symbiosis with the roots, enveloping them with sheaths of fungal tissue. Quercus suber, the cork oak, is a key host. The spore-bearing mushrooms appear above ground in summer and autumn, growing a large dark brown cap, up to 30 cm (12 in) in diameter. Like other boletes, B. aereus releases its spores through pores on the underside of the cap instead of gills; this surface is whitish when young, aging to a greenish-yellow. The squat brown stalk, up to 15 cm (6 in) tall and 10 cm (4 in) thick, is partially covered with a raised network pattern. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

1790s Vienna porcelain

... that exports of Vienna porcelain (example pictured) to the Ottoman Empire reached 120,000 pieces a year in the 18th century?
... that a lost film by Andy Warhol shows the production of Jack Smith's Normal Love?
... that minoritized languages are languages targeted for extermination, even when spoken by a majority of the population?
... that Japanese erotic film star Mitsu Dan writes fiction for literary magazines?
... that HMS Romulus used false colours to capture a Spanish corvette without a shot being fired?
... that former CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles twice escaped from prison in Venezuela, where he faced trial for the bombing of Cubana Flight 455?
... that Leasowe Lighthouse had the only known female lighthouse keeper when it ceased operating in 1908?
... that Munafri Arifuddin ran unopposed for mayor of Makassar, Indonesia, won more than 250,000 votes, and lost?

In the news

Alexander Zakharchenko

An explosion in Donetsk kills Alexander Zakharchenko (pictured), leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
The government of Puerto Rico revises the death toll in the territory from Hurricane Maria in 2017 from 64 to 2,975, after nearly a year of controversy and criticism.
A hotel fire in Harbin, China, kills 20 people and injures 23 others.
Scott Morrison replaces Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister of Australia, after a change of Liberal party leadership.

On this day

September 2: National Day in Vietnam (1945); Victory over Japan Day in the United States

Principality of Sealand

1792 – French Revolution: Due to an overwhelming fear that foreign armies would attack Paris and prisoners would revolt, the summary executions of over a thousand people began.
1885 – White miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, U.S., attacked Chinese immigrants, killing at least 28 Chinese miners and causing approximately US$150,000 in property damage.
1967 – Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed HM Fort Roughs, a former World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk, England, as an independent sovereign state: the Principality of Sealand (pictured).
1998 – A fire on Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva, caused the aircraft to crash into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 229 people on board.

Bhaktivinoda Thakur (b. 1838) · Mary Cecil Allen (b. 1893) · Carlos Valderrama (b. 1961)

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Today's featured picture

A Man with a Quilted Sleeve is a portrait painting by the Venetian painter Titian in the National Gallery in London. The identity of the subject is unknown. For many years, it was thought to be the poet Ludovico Ariosto. More recent research suggests that it may be of a man from the Barbarigo family of Venice, or even a self-portrait. Rembrandt copied the pose for his own Self-portrait at the age of 34.

Painting: Titian

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