The European rock pipit (Anthus petrosus) is a small species of songbird
that breeds in western Europe on rocky coasts. It has streaked greyish-
brown upperparts and buff underparts, and is similar in appearance to
other European pipits. There are three subspecies, of which only the
Fennoscandian form is migratory, wintering in shoreline habitats further
south in Europe and northwest Africa. The rock pipit is territorial at
least in the breeding season, and remains so year-round where it is
resident. Males will sometimes enter an adjacent territory to assist the
resident in repelling an intruder, behaviour only otherwise known from
an African fiddler crab. Rock pipits construct a cup nest under coastal
vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled pale grey
eggs which hatch in about two weeks. The pipits feed mainly on small
invertebrates picked off the rocks or from shallow water, and
occasionally catch insects in flight. The bird's population is large and
stable.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_rock_pipit>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1821:
Peruvian War of Independence: Argentine general José de San
Martín declared the independence of Peru from the Spanish Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn>
1917:
In New York City, the NAACP and church and community leaders
organized a silent march (newsreel footage featured) of at least 8,000
people to protest violence directed towards African Americans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Parade>
1976:
An earthquake registering 7.6 Mw, one of the deadliest in
history, devastated Tangshan, China, and killed at least 240,000 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Tangshan_earthquake>
2001:
At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan,
Australian Ian Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals
at a single FINA world championship.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Thorpe>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
urbane:
1. Of a person (usually a man): having refined manners; courteous,
polite, suave.
2. Of an act, expression, etc.: suited to a person of refined manners;
elegant, sophisticated.
3. Obsolete spelling of urban (“of, pertaining to, or characteristic of
a city or town, or life in such a place; living in a city or town;
having authority or jurisdiction over a city or town”)
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/urbane>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Not only do I hate violence, but I firmly believe that the fight
against it is not hopeless. I realize that the task is difficult. I
realize that, only too often in the course of history, it has happened
that what appeared at first to be a great success in the fight against
violence was followed by a defeat. I do not overlook the fact that the
new age of violence which was opened by the two World wars is by no
means at an end. Nazism and Fascism are thoroughly beaten, but I must
admit that their defeat does not mean that barbarism and brutality have
been defeated. On the contrary, it is no use closing our eyes to the
fact that these hateful ideas achieved something like a victory in
defeat. I have to admit that Hitler succeeded in degrading the moral
standards of our Western world, and that in the world of today there is
more violence and brutal force than would have been tolerated even in
the decade after the first World war. And we must face the possibility
that our civilization may ultimately be destroyed by those new weapons
which Hitlerism wished upon us, perhaps even within the first decade
after the second World war; for no doubt the spirit of Hitlerism won its
greatest victory over us when, after its defeat, we used the weapons
which the threat of Nazism had induced us to develop.
--Karl Popper
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper>