The red panda is a mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and
southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly
and legs, and a ringed tail. It has a head-to-body length of
51–63.5 cm (20–25 in) and a 28–48.5 cm (11–19 in) tail, and
it weighs between 3.2 and 15 kg (7 and 33 lb). It is genetically close
to raccoons, weasels and skunks. Solitary, largely arboreal and well
adapted to climbing, it inhabits coniferous, temperate broadleaf and
mixed forests, favouring steep slopes with dense bamboo cover close to
water sources. It uses elongated wrist bones ("false thumbs") to grasp
bamboo. It feeds mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves. Red pandas mate in
early spring, giving birth to up to four cubs in summer. On the IUCN
Red List as endangered since 2015, the species is threatened by poaching
and deforestation-based habitat destruction and fragmentation. It is
featured in animated movies, video games and comic books, and is also
the namesake of companies and music bands.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1841:
Giselle (title role pictured), a ballet by the French composer
Adolphe Adam, was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale
de Musique in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giselle>
1904:
In the worst maritime disaster involving a Danish merchant
ship, SS Norge ran aground on Hasselwood Rock and sank in the North
Atlantic, resulting in more than 635 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Norge>
1942:
World War II: The Wehrmacht launched Case Blue, a strategic
German offensive to capture oil fields in the south of the Soviet Union.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Blue>
1978:
In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the U.S.
Supreme Court barred quota systems in college admissions but held that
affirmative-action programs advantaging minorities were constitutional.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Bakke>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
tau:
1. The letter Τ/τ in the Greek, Hebrew, and ancient Semitic alphabets;
being the nineteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, and the
twenty-first letter of the Old and Ancient Greek alphabets.
2. A Τ-shaped object or sign; a Saint Anthony's cross, sometimes
regarded as a sacred symbol.
3. (Christianity) A crosier with a Τ-shaped head.
4. The ankh symbol (☥).
5. (astronomy) Chiefly written τ: used to designate the nineteenth star
(usually according to brightness) in a constellation.
6. (finance) A measurement of the sensitivity of the value of an option
to changes in the implied volatility of the price of the underlying
asset.
7. (mathematics, neologism) Chiefly written τ: an irrational and
transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a
Euclidean circle to its radius, equal to twice the value of pi (2π;
approximately 6.2831853071).
8. (neurology) Short for tau protein (“a protein abundant especially in
the neurons of the human central nervous system that stabilizes
microtubules, and when misfolded is associated with forms of dementia
such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases”).
9. (physics) Chiefly written τ.
10. Short for tau lepton or tau particle (“an unstable elementary
particle which is a type of lepton, having a mass almost twice that of a
proton, a negative charge, and a spin of ½; it decays into hadrons
(usually pions) or other leptons, and neutrinos; a tauon”).
11. (historical) Short for tau meson, now known as a kaon.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tau>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hope for the best. Expect the worst. The world's a stage. We're
unrehearsed. No way of knowing which way it's going. Take your
chances, there are no answers. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
--Mel Brooks
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mel_Brooks>
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