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From today's featured article

Pond in the Big Cypress National Preserve

The geography and ecology of the Everglades are areas of study of the vast interconnected ecosystems known as the Everglades that once occupied about a third of the southern Florida peninsula. Although sawgrass and sloughs are the enduring geographical icons of the Everglades, other ecosystems are as vital, and the borders marking them are subtle or nonexistent. Pinelands and tropical hardwood hammocks are common; the trees, rooted in soil inches above the peat, marl, or water, support a variety of wildlife. The oldest and tallest trees are cypresses, with roots specially adapted to grow underwater for months at a time. Freshwater from Lake Okeechobee meets saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico, nurturing mangrove forests which harbor many species of birds, fish, and invertebrates. The marine environment of Florida Bay is also considered part of the Everglades. Minor fluctuations in water levels have far-reaching consequences for many species, and the system cycles and pulses with each change. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Seaweed roof on Læsø

... that the seaweed roofs (example pictured) of houses on the Danish island of Læsø were traditionally constructed by women?
... that novelist Norah Davis once recommended putting a boy in a hypnotic trance to treat his amnesia?
... that Beethoven's "Tremate, empi, tremate" was not performed for ten years after it was written?
... that, at the time he signed with the Denver Broncos, Tom Beck lived only a few houses away from the team's practice facility?
... that the Bunka Apartments were intended to introduce the US middle-class lifestyle to Japan, but were so expensive that an average salaryman would have spent his entire monthly wage on rent alone?
... that Regina Hall improvised parts of her role as Brenda Meeks in Scary Movie despite the director initially telling her not to "bother" the character and to follow the script?
... that Olympic swimmer Adán Gordón was called the "Human Fish"?
... that Tulasi Srinivas wrote an ethnographic study of beauty parlours?
... that the first New Orleans Marine Hospital exploded, the second sank partially into a swamp, and the third was given a jazz funeral?

In the news

Virat Kohli

In Myanmar, an explosion at a Ta'ang National Liberation Army base leaves 43 people dead.
In Twenty20 cricket, the Indian Premier League concludes with Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeating Gujarat Titans in the final (player of the match Virat Kohli pictured).
Following the collapse of Evika Siliņa's coalition, Andris Kulbergs is appointed prime minister of Latvia.
Pope Leo XIV issues his first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, which expresses concerns about artificial intelligence.

On this day

June 5: World Environment Day; Feast day of Saint Boniface (Christianity)

Teton Dam failure

663 – The Daming Palace in Chang'an became the seat of government and the royal residence of the Tang dynasty during the reign of Emperor Gaozong.
1610 – The masque Tethys' Festival was performed at the Palace of Whitehall to celebrate the investiture of Henry Frederick as Prince of Wales.
1963 – British politician John Profumo admitted that he had lied to the House of Commons about his involvement in a sex scandal with Christine Keeler, and resigned from government.
1976 – The Teton Dam in eastern Idaho, U.S., collapsed (failure pictured) as its reservoir was being filled for the first time, resulting in the deaths of eleven people and 13,000 cattle, and causing up to $2 billion in damage.
2001 – Tropical Storm Allison, the costliest Atlantic tropical cyclone that was never a hurricane, made landfall in Texas, causing approximately $8.5 billion in damage.

Elena Cornaro Piscopia (b. 1646)
Mary Helen Young (b. 1883)
Paul Soros (b. 1926)
TB Joshua (d. 2021)

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From today's featured list

19th-century portrait of Gu by Ye Yanlan

Gu Yanwu was a 17th-century Chinese scholar, active during the transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty. Following the Manchu conquest, Gu destroyed his prior poetry and took to wandering across northern China, where he collected large amounts of historical documents and local gazetteers (geographic directories). He wrote many books, essays, and poems during his travels. Only two of Gu's works, the Yinxue wushu and the first edition of the Rizhilu, were published during his lifetime. Many of his works were lost after his death, while others survived only as manuscripts and never saw proper publication. Several existing manuscripts which collected his letters, essays, and poems were included in the Gu Tinglin shiwenji (顧亭林詩文集; 'Collected Poetry and Prose of Gu Tenglin'), published by Zhonghua Books in 1959. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The adder (Vipera berus), also known as the common adder and the common European viper, is a species of venomous snake in the viper family, Viperidae. It occurs across much of Europe (where it is the most widespread snake species) and northern Asia, including Great Britain, Scandinavia, and parts of Russia and China. In several European countries, the adder is the only extant venomous snake. Usually growing to around 60 cm (24 in) in length, it has a dark zigzag stripe along the back, though colour varies considerably, including completely black melanistic forms. The adder inhabits a wide range of environments such as heathland, woodland edges, moors, and wetlands. It feeds mainly on small mammals, amphibians, and lizards, and is ovoviviparous, giving birth to live young. Although its bite can be painful, fatalities are extremely rare. The species is protected in several countries because of habitat loss and population declines. This female adder was photographed by the Grajcarek river in Szczawnica, Poland.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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