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From today's featured article

The snowy plover

(Anarhynchus
nivosus) is a small
shorebird found in
much of the
Male snowy plover in Americas on both
breeding plumage coasts and inland.
Inland populations
are migratory, whereas some coastal birds
are resident. This plover is brown above and
white below, with a white band on the neck,
a slender black bill, and gray to black legs.
Breeding males have black patches behind
the eye and on the neck. The typical call is a
repeated "tu-wheet". The bird inhabits open
areas with sparse vegetation, like sandy
beaches and shores of salt or soda lakes,
where it feeds on invertebrates, such as
crustaceans, worms, beetles, and flies.
Males excavate multiple nest scrapes that
are advertised to females, who may be
polygamous. The species is listed as near
threatened by the IUCN. The main threats
are habitat destruction due to invasive
beach grasses, urban development, and
disturbance due to recreational uses of
beaches. While conservation measures have
been successful locally, the global
population is thought to be in decline.
(Full article...)

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Did you know ...

... that groups of

tourists have
unsuccessfully
tried to push the
Hanging Stone
Hanging Stone
(pictured) into
the lake below?

... that a 16-year-old high-school student

reverse-engineered iMessage to let
Android users text iPhone users with blue
chat bubbles using the Beeper Mini app?

... that with an inclination of 1 in 2.5, the

slipway at Newquay Lifeboat Station was
one of the steepest in England?

... that heist-horror film Johnny & Clyde

has been called "unwatchable"?

... that Romanian adventure novelist N. D.

Popescu-Popnedea "generate[d]
laughter" with his deposition at a political
assassin's trial?

... that Misfat al Abriyeen in Oman was

named one of the best tourism villages by
the World Tourism Organization in 2021?

... that King Charles III wanted his

illegitimate son Lancelot to become a
bishop but the pope forbade it?

... that in one neighborhood commission

district, the voters and officeholders are
all inmates at the D.C. Jail?

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article

In the news

Former Prime Minister of

Pakistan Imran Khan
(pictured) is sentenced
to ten years in prison for
leaking state secrets, and
to fourteen years for
corruption.
Imran Khan in
Following damage to the 2023
helicopter's rotors, NASA
ends the Ingenuity mission on Mars after
seventy-two flights in almost three years.

The Ram Mandir, a temple to Rama, is

consecrated at a disputed site in Ayodhya,
India.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's

lunar module SLIM lands on the Moon.

Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war · Myanmar civil

war · Red Sea crisis · Russian invasion of
Ukraine (timeline)
Recent deaths: Brian Griffin · Jimy Williams
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On this day

February 2: Candlemas (Western

Christianity); Groundhog Day in Canada and
the United States

1709 – Scottish
sailor Alexander
Selkirk was
rescued by
English captain
F-16 Fighting Falcon
Woodes Rogers
and his crew after spending four years as
a castaway on an uninhabited island in the
Pacific, providing the inspiration for Daniel
Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.

1934 – The Export–Import Bank of the

United States, the country's official
export credit agency, was established.

1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon

(pictured), the most numerous fixed-wing
aircraft currently in military service, made
its first flight.

2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer

became the top-ranked men's singles
player, a position he held for a record 237
consecutive weeks.

William Stanley (b. 1829) · Likelike

(d. 1887) · Marian Cruger Coffin (d. 1957) ·
Philip Seymour Hoffman (d. 2014)

More anniversaries: February 1 · February 2

· February 3
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year

From today's featured list

The Lego Movie, a

2014 animated
adventure comedy film
written and directed by
Phil Lord and Phil Lord and
Christopher Miller Christopher Miller

(both pictured), won 39 awards from 76

nominations. It received a nomination for
Best Original Song ("Everything Is
Awesome") at the 87th Academy Awards.
The film won one of six nominations at the
42nd Annie Awards. At the 67th British
Academy Film Awards, it won Best Animated
Film. The film received two nominations at
the 20th Critics' Choice Awards and won
Best Animated Feature. It was nominated for
Best Animated Feature Film at the 71st
Golden Globe Awards. Various critic circles
also picked The Lego Movie as the best
animated feature film of the year. In addition,
the National Board of Review named The
Lego Movie one of the top ten films of 2014.
(Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907), also known

as "Wildfire", was a sculptor of African-
American and Native American heritage.
Born free from slavery, Lewis spent her
childhood in Upstate New York and New
Jersey before moving to Boston in 1864 to
pursue her career as a sculptor. After
training with marble-bust specialist Edward
Augustus Brackett, Lewis opened her own
studio later in 1864. In 1866, she moved to
Rome, Italy, citing "opportunities for art
culture" and finding "a social atmosphere
where I was not constantly reminded of my
color" as reasons for the move. She went
on to spend most of her adult career there.
Her largest and most significant work was a
marble sculpture weighing more than 3,000
pounds (1,400 kg) showing the death of
Cleopatra, which was created for the 1876
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This
albumen print of Lewis was produced in
around 1870 by the German-American
photographer Henry Rocher.

Photograph credit: Henry Rocher; restored

by Adam Cuerden

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