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From today's featured article

Crop from CDC publicity poster

Julio and Marisol was a bilingual public-service advertising campaign that ran from 1989 to 2001 in the New York City Subway promoting condom use to prevent AIDS. The well-known catchphrase was a line from the first installment, in which Marisol sobs, "I love you, but not enough to die for you". The story follows a young Hispanic couple as they explore human sexuality and the effects of the AIDS epidemic on their relationship. Designed to appeal to a Hispanic audience particularly at risk due to cultural attitudes discouraging condom use, it has been described as "one part steamy soap opera, one part language instruction, and two parts AIDS education service". The ads were praised by public health officials for presenting situations which people could relate to, and by AIDS activists for breaking down the social stigma associated with the disease. They drew criticism, however, from family values advocates who objected to the promotion of condoms and the tacit acceptance of homosexuality. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Artist's depiction of an apocalyptic impact event

... that fiction about impact events (pictured) typically focuses more on the societal ramifications than on the science?
... that after her father's death, Thora Thersner completed his work documenting Swedish buildings and landscapes?
... that a 2025 musical film, which topped the U.S. box office within a weekend, had its global release plan scrapped in multiple countries?
... that Michael D. Coe completed The True History of Chocolate to fulfill a promise he made to his dying wife?
... that golfer Michael Brennan won in his first start as a professional on the PGA Tour?
... that the titular mandolin in Picasso's Girl with a Mandolin has been attributed with "a mild autoerotic suggestion"?
... that NFL executive Jack Teele remained employed by the Los Angeles Rams under three different owners, six head coaches, and several different quarterbacks?
... that in his early career Charlie Chaplin was booed and heckled with thrown oranges and coins until he left the stage of Foresters Music Hall?
... that Umamusume character Haru Urara became so popular a website donating grass to feed her namesake racehorse crashed?

In the news

Wang Fuk Court fire

An apartment complex fire (pictured) in Hong Kong leaves at least 146 people dead.
In Guinea-Bissau, armed forces seize power in a military coup, arresting President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and proclaiming Horta Inta-A Na Man as head of a transitional government.
Cyclone Senyar leaves more than 790 people dead across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

On this day

December 1: World AIDS Day; Great Union Day in Romania; Rosa Parks Day in some states and cities in the United States

Pedro I of Brazil, later also Pedro IV of Portugal

1800 – French Revolutionary Wars: Austrian forces, led by Archduke John of Austria, defeated two divisions of the French First Republic, led by Paul Grenier, at the Battle of Ampfing.
1822 – Pedro I was crowned the first emperor of Brazil, seven weeks after his reign began on his 24th birthday.
1955 – Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, United States, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.
1974 – Two Boeing 727s, TWA Flight 514 and Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, crashed in the eastern United States in unrelated circumstances, killing 95 people on board both aircraft.
2019 – Vivianne Miedema scored six goals and had four assists for Arsenal W.F.C. in their 11–1 victory over Bristol City W.F.C., which broke the record for the most goals scored in a FA Women's Super League match.

Giovanni Morone (d. 1580)
Ardina Moore (b. 1930)
Ueli Maurer (b. 1950)
Kenshiro Abbe (d. 1985)

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From today's featured list

Huascarán, Peru’s highest peak, located within Huascarán National Park

Peru has 258 protected natural areas covering terrestrial and marine environments: 78 managed nationally by the National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP), 35 by regional governments, and 145 under private administration. Peru is recognized as one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, due to its high concentration of species and diverse ecosystems. Its protected areas are continental and marine regions formally designated by the State to conserve the country’s biological diversity and associated cultural, scenic and scientific values, while contributing to sustainable development. The protected areas cover 21.67% of the country’s terrestrial territory and 7.89% of its marine territory. The system includes 15 national parks, 18 national reserves, 9 national sanctuaries, 4 historic sanctuaries, 2 landscape reserves, 3 wildlife refuges, 11 communal reserves, 6 protected forests, 2 game reserves, and 8 reserved zones. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Massacre of the Mamelukes is an 1819 history painting by the French artist Horace Vernet. It depicts one of the final events in the rise to power of Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali, when the Mamluk people was massacred at the Cairo Citadel in 1811. The painting shows Ali sitting calmly after ordering the killings, smoking his narguile as he watches the violence unfold. The Massacre of the Mamelukes, one of several versions of the scene produced by Vernet, was exhibited at the Salon of 1819 in Paris, and is now in the collection of the Musée de Picardie in Amiens, France.

Painting credit: Horace Vernet

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