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From today's featured article

Admire Moon moments away from winning the 2007 race, ahead of Pop Rock and Meisho Samson

The Japan Cup is a Group 1 horse race in Japan, held annually on the last Sunday of November at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchū, Tokyo. It is a flat race run over a distance of 2400 metres (about 1+1⁄2 miles), with a maximum of 18 horses. First run in 1981, the Japan Cup was created by the Japan Racing Association and extends invitations to top-performing horses aged 3 and above from around the world. The race has had a total prize purse of over one billion yen since 2023, and is the middle leg of the informal "Autumn Triple Crown" along with the Tennō Shō (Autumn) and the Arima Kinen. The Japan Cup is regularly ranked highly in the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities' "Top 100 Group 1 Races of the Year" compilation due to the high quality and depth of racers, and has had winners from all over the world. Initially, the race was dominated by foreign horses, with 8 of the first 10 winners coming from abroad, however, in the last twenty years only one horse from outside Japan has won. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Sobaity seabream

... that the sobaity seabream (example pictured) is associated with celebrations in the Persian Gulf region?
... that actor Éric Bernard was advised not to hold hands with his husband at the Cannes Film Festival to avoid damaging possible roles as a straight man?
... that the Punisher skull has been adopted as an unofficial emblem by real-world police departments and far-right activists?
... that Constantinianus, a trusted adviser to Emperor Justinian I, investigated plots against him?
... that five different disorders have been identified as forms of POLR3-related leukodystrophy?
... that Benjamin Karim introduced Malcolm X at the event at which he was assassinated?
... that the Indonesian women's magazine Ummi dealt with issues such as dress, food, jewellery, contraceptives, and accepting sons' jihad?
... that "Will Play on the Beat" is the only Pakistan Super League anthem to have no opening ceremony?
... that fans of a fictional moving statue have nicknamed it "Peanut"?

In the news

MV Hondius

Passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius (pictured) disembark in Tenerife after being quarantined due to a hantavirus outbreak.
After a ransomware attack by the group ShinyHunters, the education platform Canvas goes offline, affecting thousands of educational institutions.
American media proprietor and philanthropist Ted Turner dies at the age of 87.
Wu Yize defeats Shaun Murphy to win the World Snooker Championship.
An explosion at a fireworks factory in Liuyang, Hunan, China, kills 37 people.

On this day

May 11

Cast of a 2011 production of Cats

1813 – William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth departed westward from Sydney on an expedition to become the first confirmed Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains.
1894 – In response to a 28-percent wage cut, 4,000 Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on strike in Illinois, bringing rail traffic west of Chicago to a halt.
1981 – Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats (performers pictured), opened at the New London Theatre.
2011 – An earthquake registering M_w 5.1, the worst to hit the region for more than 50 years, struck near Lorca, Spain.
2022 – Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed while reporting on an Israel Defense Forces raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

Chang and Eng Bunker (b. 1811)
Ed Stelmach (b. 1951)
Fermín López (b. 2003)
Sue Maroroa (d. 2023)

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From today's featured list

Convicts in front of the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney

The Australian Convict Sites are a World Heritage Site that consists of eleven penal sites associated with convict transportation to Australia. The sites were constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries, a period during which around 166,000 people were transported to Australia. Convicts were sent to Australia for a range of offences, including committing petty crimes and supporting particular political causes. Convicts were subjected to forced labour, which was used as a means of deterrence and rehabilitation, and as a way of developing the Australian colonies. Several thousand sites, including prisons and labour facilities, were established across Australia to support the convict system. The eleven designated sites served varied functions, including development of the colony's land and exploitation of its natural resources, deterrence of crime through secondary punishment, and rehabilitation of convicts. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Crabs are a group of decapod crustaceans, including the "true crabs" of Brachyura and several groups within the infraorder Anomura, such as hermit crabs, king crabs and porcelain crabs. They are typically armoured, flattened animals with their tails tucked beneath their bodies, and many species can move sideways and hide in crevices. Crabs are not a single natural clade; similar body forms have evolved repeatedly through carcinisation, making the group polyphyletic. Crabs range in size from the tiny pea crabs to the Japanese spider crab, with a leg span up to 4 metres (13 ft). They are found throughout the world's oceans, on coasts, in freshwater, and on land, especially in tropical regions. Crabs feed in varied ways, including scavenging, hunting, grazing on algae, filter feeding, and parasitism, and they are important in fisheries, cuisine, mythology, and art. This photograph shows a male hermit crab of the species Patagurus rex that was dredged from the ocean off the coast of French Polynesia and was designated as the species's holotype in 2013.

Photograph credit: Arthur Anker

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