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rWotD Episode 3021: Superior cluneal nerves Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 11 August 2025, is Superior cluneal nerves.The superior cluneal nerves are pure sensory nerves that innervate the skin of the upper part of the buttocks. They are the terminal ends of the L1-L3 spinal nerve dorsal rami lateral branches. They are one of three different types of cluneal nerves (the middle and inferior cluneal nerves being the other two). They travel inferiorly through multiple layers of muscles, then traverse osteofibrous tunnels between the thoracolumbar fascia and iliac crest.Dysfunction of the superior cluneal nerves is often due to entrapment as the nerves cross the iliac crest – this can result in numbness, tingling or pain in the low back and upper buttocks region. Superior cluneal nerve dysfunction is a clinical diagnosis that can be supported by diagnostic nerve blocks.The superior cluneal nerves were first described by Maigne et al. in 1989 as a source of low back pain.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:03 UTC on Monday, 11 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Superior cluneal nerves on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Aria.
fWotD Episode 3020: Berners Street hoax Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 11 August 2025, is Berners Street hoax.The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by the writer Theodore Hook in London in 1810. After several weeks of preparation he made an apparently spontaneous bet with a friend that he could transform any property into the most talked-about address in London. Hook spent six weeks sending between a thousand and four thousand letters to tradespeople and businesses ordering deliveries of their goods and services to 54 Berners Street, London, at various times on 27 November 1810. Several well-known people were also invited to call on the address, including the chairmen of the Bank of England and the East India Company, the Duke of Gloucester and the Lord Mayor of London.Hook and his friends rented rooms in the house opposite number 54 to view proceedings. Chimney sweeps began arriving at the address at 5:00 am on the day, followed by hundreds of representatives of several trades and businesses, including auctioneers, undertakers, grocers, butchers, bakers, pastry chefs and dancing masters; goods deliveries included organs, furniture, coal, wedding cakes, food, drink and a coffin. The police were called to try and manage the crowd but they were not able to clear the street until after the final influx of visitors at 5:00 pm: domestic servants who thought they were to be interviewed for a job.Hook was unidentified at the time, but admitted his involvement in a semi-autobiographical novel published twenty-five years after the event. The hoax was repeated across Britain and Paris, and was retold on stage, in song and by cartoonists.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:55 UTC on Monday, 11 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Berners Street hoax on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Danielle.
pWotD Episode 3022: Fuck Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 99,444 views on Sunday, 10 August 2025 our article of the day is Fuck.Fuck () is profanity in the English language that often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475. In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives (such as fucker and fucking) are used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an infix, an interjection or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word as well as compounds that incorporate it, such as motherfucker and fuck off.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:58 UTC on Monday, 11 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Fuck on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Danielle.
fWotD Episode 3019: Hurra-yi Khuttali Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Sunday, 10 August 2025, is Hurra-yi Khuttali.Hurra-yi Khuttali (Persian: حره ختلی; fl. 1006 c. 1006 – c. 1040) was a princess from the Ghaznavid dynasty and the daughter of Sabuktigin, ruler of Ghazna (now in Afghanistan). She was married to two Maʽmunid rulers of the Khwarazm region, Abu al-Hasan Ali and, after his death, his brother Maʽmun II. It is not known if she had any children with either of her husbands. Her marriages were a direct cause of the annexation of Khwarazm by her brother, Mahmud of Ghazni. In 1030, upon Mahmud's death, she wrote a letter to her favourite nephew, Masʽud, urging him to claim the throne from his brother, Muhammad. After receiving her missive, Masʽud quickly marched to Ghazna and usurped the throne. Hurra's letter is considered the most prominent political act of a woman during the Ghaznavid era. She is last mentioned in 1040, leaving Ghazna for India; her ultimate fate is unknown.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:37 UTC on Sunday, 10 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Hurra-yi Khuttali on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Russell.
rWotD Episode 3020: Haparanda Line Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Sunday, 10 August 2025, is Haparanda Line.The Haparanda Line (Swedish: Haparandabanan) is a 165-kilometer (103 mi) long railway line between Boden and Haparanda in Sweden. There is a 3-kilometer (1.9 mi) long section from Haparanda to Torneå, which is on the Finnish side of the Finland–Sweden border. The line is the only Swedish railway to the Finnish border.The single track line was used exclusively by freight trains between 1992 and 2021, during which time it was necessary to use buses from Luleå to the Haparanda bus station, with onward connections to Kemi in Finland. Passenger service began again on the 1 April 2021, operated by Norrtåg.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:12 UTC on Sunday, 10 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Haparanda Line on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Joey.
pWotD Episode 3021: Jim Lovell Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 235,468 views on Saturday, 9 August 2025 our article of the day is Jim Lovell.James Arthur Lovell Jr. ( LUV-əl; March 25, 1928 – August 7, 2025) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he along with Frank Borman and William Anders, became one of the first three astronauts to fly to and orbit the Moon. He then commanded the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 which, after a critical failure en route, looped around the Moon and returned safely to Earth.A 1952 graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Lovell flew F2H Banshee night fighters. He was deployed in the Western Pacific aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La. In January 1958, he entered a six-month test pilot training course at the Naval Air Test Center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, with Class 20 and graduated at the top of the class. He was then assigned to Electronics Test, working with radar, and in 1960 he became the Navy's McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II program manager. In 1961, he became a flight instructor and safety engineering officer at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and completed Aviation Safety School at the University of Southern California.Lovell was not selected by NASA as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts due to a temporarily high bilirubin count. He was accepted in September 1962 as one of the second group of astronauts needed for the Gemini and Apollo programs. Prior to Apollo, Lovell flew in space on two Gemini missions, Gemini 7 (with Borman) in 1965 and Gemini 12 in 1966. He was the first person to fly into space four times. Among the 24 astronauts who have orbited the Moon, Lovell was the earliest to make a second visit but remains the only returnee who has not walked on the surface. He was a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He co-authored the 1994 book Lost Moon, on which the 1995 film Apollo 13 was based. Lovell was featured in a cameo appearance in the film.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:41 UTC on Sunday, 10 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Jim Lovell on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Joanna.
On this week's Curmudgeon's Corner Ivan and Sam talk about all the latest crazy news from the Trump administration, and their latest thoughts on AI in the wake of the release of GPT 5. But also movies, and dialup internet, and the trauma of shopping for suits, and Sam's, um, interesting, ways of maintaining to do lists. Fun all around! Show Details: Recorded 2025-08-09 Length this week 1:44:57 0:00:35 - But First Buying Suits To Do Lists Movie: Insurgent (2015) Movie: Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) 0:41:46 - Trumpy Stuff Trump on the Roof South Park on Noem Tim Apple visits Donald RFK Jr Damage 1:15:55 - AI Stuff GPT 5 Using AI AI Fails Dialup The Curmudgeon's Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is The Oh of Pleasure (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is Celestial Soda Pop (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album Deep Breakfast (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.
fWotD Episode 3018: 1883 FA Cup final Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Saturday, 9 August 2025, is 1883 FA Cup final.The 1883 FA Cup final was an association football match between Blackburn Olympic F. C. and Old Etonians F. C. on 31 March 1883 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the 12th final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (commonly known as the FA Cup). Old Etonians were the holders of the Cup, having defeated Olympic's local rivals, Blackburn Rovers, in the 1882 final. Blackburn Olympic had not previously progressed beyond the first round of the competition. Both teams had been victorious in six previous rounds to reach the final.Old Etonians took the lead in the first half with a goal from Harry Goodhart, but Alfred Matthews scored an equaliser for Blackburn and, with the scores level at the end of the regulation 90 minutes, the game went into extra time, during which Blackburn's James Costley scored and Blackburn won the match 2–1. It was the first time that a working-class team had won the competition, which had previously been won exclusively by teams of wealthy amateurs. The victory intensified a debate over professionalism in football which had been ongoing since the previous decade; following threats by teams which wished to pay their players to break away and create a new governing body, professionalism in football was legalised in 1885 and the dominance of the gentleman amateurs quickly ended.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:08 UTC on Saturday, 9 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 1883 FA Cup final on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Justin.
rWotD Episode 3019: The Lady Lies (song) Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Saturday, 9 August 2025, is The Lady Lies (song)."The Lady Lies" is the tenth track on the Genesis 1978 album …And Then There Were Three…, with music and lyrics written by Tony Banks. The lyrics tell the story of a man who rescues a woman from the mouth of a monster, but is later seduced by the woman, or as the band refer to her during the song, a demon, and led into an unknown fate. The song was performed often during the 1978 and 1980 tours. In the live shows, Phil would often coach the audience on when to cheer and when to boo in response to different characters in the song and their actions. The final instrumental part would be extended by Daryl Stuermer's guitar solo.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:57 UTC on Saturday, 9 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see The Lady Lies (song) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Danielle.
pWotD Episode 3020: Wednesday (TV series) Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 180,079 views on Friday, 8 August 2025 our article of the day is Wednesday (TV series).Wednesday is an American supernatural mystery comedy television series based on the character Wednesday Addams by Charles Addams. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jenna Ortega as the titular character, with Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Jamie McShane, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Georgie Farmer, Naomi J. Ogawa, Christina Ricci, and Moosa Mostafa appearing in supporting roles. Four out of the eight episodes of the first season were directed by Tim Burton, who also was executive producer. The first season revolves around Wednesday Addams, who attempts to solve a murder mystery at her new school.Burton was previously approached to direct the 1991 film The Addams Family and was later involved in a canceled stop-motion animated film featuring the Addams Family. In October 2020, he was reported to be helming a television series, which was later given a series order by Netflix. Ortega was cast in part to represent the character's Latina heritage. Ricci, who had played Wednesday in the 1991 film and its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values, was asked by Burton to join the series in a supporting role. Filming took place in Romania between September 2021 and March 2022.Wednesday premiered on November 16, 2022, and was released on Netflix on November 23 to positive reviews from critics; Ortega's performance received critical acclaim. Within three weeks of release, it became the second-most watched English-language Netflix series. It received two Golden Globe nominations: Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for Ortega. It also won four Primetime Emmy Awards, while receiving nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Ortega. In January 2023, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on August 6, 2025; the second half is expected to be released on September 3. In July 2025, the series was renewed for a third season.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:15 UTC on Saturday, 9 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Wednesday (TV series) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Olivia.
fWotD Episode 3017: The Diamond Smugglers Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 8 August 2025, is The Diamond Smugglers.The Diamond Smugglers is a non-fiction book by Ian Fleming that was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 29 November 1957. The book is based on two weeks of interviews Fleming undertook with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organisation (IDSO) and a former member of MI5; the IDSO was headed by Sir Percy Sillitoe, the ex-head of MI5 who worked for the diamond company De Beers.The IDSO was formed by Sillitoe to combat the smuggling of diamonds from Africa, where it was estimated that £10 million worth of gems were being smuggled every year out of South Africa alone. The book expands upon a series of articles Fleming wrote for The Sunday Times in 1957.Fleming is better known as the author of a series of books about James Bond; in 1956 Fleming wrote Diamonds Are Forever which sparked his interest in the diamond industry. The Diamond Smugglers is one of two non-fiction books he wrote. It received mixed reviews, although critics thought the subject was interesting and that the facts were as interesting as works of fiction. There was interest in turning the book into a film, but the plans did not come to fruition.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Friday, 8 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see The Diamond Smugglers on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Amy.
rWotD Episode 3018: Durham University Oriental Museum Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Friday, 8 August 2025, is Durham University Oriental Museum.The Oriental Museum, formerly the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, is a museum of the University of Durham in England. The museum has a collection of more than 23,500 Chinese, Egyptian, Korean, Indian, Japanese and other far east and Asian artefacts. The museum was founded due to the need to house an increasing collection of Oriental artefacts used by the School of Oriental Studies, that were previously housed around the university. The museum's Chinese and Egyptian collections were 'designated' by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), now the Arts Council England as being of "national and international importance".This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:09 UTC on Friday, 8 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Durham University Oriental Museum on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kendra.
pWotD Episode 3019: Thailand Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 333,468 views on Thursday, 7 August 2025 our article of the day is Thailand.Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula. It is officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam, the official name until 1939. With a population of almost 66 million, it spans 513,115 square kilometres (198,115 sq mi). Thailand is bordered to the northwest by Myanmar, to the northeast and east by Laos, to the southeast by Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the southwest by the Andaman Sea; it also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the state capital and largest city.Thai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 6th to 11th centuries. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire, and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na, and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, which became a regional power by the end of the 15th century. Ayutthaya reached its peak during the 18th century, until it was destroyed in the Burmese–Siamese War. King Taksin the Great quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom (1767–1782), of which he was the only king. He was succeeded in 1782 by Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I), the first monarch of the current Chakri dynasty. Throughout the era of Western imperialism in Asia, Siam remained the only state in the region to avoid colonisation by foreign powers, although it was often forced to make territorial, trade, and legal concessions in unequal treaties. The Siamese system of government was centralised and transformed into a modern unitary absolute monarchy during the 1868–1910 reign of Chulalongkorn (Rama V). In World War I, Siam sided with the Allies, a political decision made in order to amend the unequal treaties. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, it became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to Thailand, becoming an ally of Japan in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup under Sarit Thanarat revived the monarchy's historically influential role in politics. During the Cold War, Thailand became a major non-NATO ally of the United States and played an anti-communist role in the region as a member of SEATO, which was disbanded in 1977.Apart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s and 1990s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. Since the 2000s, the country has been in continual political conflict between supporters and opponents of twice-elected Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, which resulted in two coups (in 2006 and 2014), along with the establishment of its current constitution, a nominally democratic government after the 2019 Thai general election, and large pro-democracy protests in 2020–2021, which included unprecedented demands to reform the monarchy. Since 2019, it has been nominally a parliamentary constitutional monarchy; in practice, however, structural advantages in the constitution have ensured the military's continued influence in politics.Thailand is a middle power in global affairs and a founding member of ASEAN. It has the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia and the 23rd-largest in the world by PPP, and it ranks 29th by nominal GDP. Thailand is classified as a newly industrialised economy, with manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism as leading sectors.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:38 UTC on Friday, 8 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Thailand on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Geraint.
fWotD Episode 3016: Roy Marshall Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Thursday, 7 August 2025, is Roy Marshall.Roy Edwin Marshall (25 April 1930 – 27 October 1992) was a Barbadian cricketer who played in four Test matches for the West Indies and had an extensive domestic career with Hampshire in English county cricket. Marshall was born in Saint Thomas, Barbados. He made his debut in first-class cricket at the age of 15 for Barbados in January 1946, and three years later he established himself in the Barbadian side as an attacking opening batsman. After several strong performances for Barbados in West Indian domestic cricket, he was selected in the West Indian representative team. He played Test cricket between November 1951 and February 1952, making two appearances apiece against Australia and New Zealand. With several players surpassing him in the pecking order for Test selection, coupled with a disagreement with his teammates, he decided to end his brief international career and pursue a career in English county cricket.Marshall joined Hampshire in 1953, and after completing his two-year residential qualification period he established himself as one of their opening batsmen. He would form a successful opening partnership with Jimmy Gray that spanned over a decade and was considered at the time the strongest in county cricket. He became a consistent and attacking opening batsman for Hampshire, and in 1959 he was chosen as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was a member of the Hampshire side which won their first County Championship in 1961, and was appointed Hampshire's first professional captain in 1966. He held the captaincy until 1970, and retired in 1972. For Hampshire, he made 504 first-class appearances and scored 30,303 runs, a total for the county that is only surpassed by Phil Mead, who played for Hampshire between 1905 and 1936. In retirement, he moved to Taunton where he coached cricket at King's College and was a publican. He was appointed chairman of the Somerset County Cricket Club committee in 1987, a position he held until 1991, when ill-health forced him to step down. He died from skin cancer in October 1992.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Thursday, 7 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Roy Marshall on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Olivia.
rWotD Episode 3017: 2009 Table Mountain fire Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Thursday, 7 August 2025, is 2009 Table Mountain fire.The 2009 Table Mountain fire was a large fire in and around the Table Mountain National Park in Cape Town, South Africa. It broke out at approximately 20:30 on 17 March 2009 in the vicinity of Rhodes Memorial and initial fears were that the fire would spread to UCT's Upper Campus. The Table Mountain National Park quickly deployed firefighting personnel on the mountain, but the fire spread due to the strong winds. At around 23:20 on Tuesday evening, the fire started moving up Devil's Peak and by 00:00 was at the tip and making its way around the mountain to the suburbs of Tamboerskloof, Oranjezicht, Vredehoek and Gardens on the north side. The flames were engulfing the mountain and the huge amounts of smoke made it hard for rescue and fire-fighting helicopters making their way to the fire. By 00:30, people from the aforementioned areas were told to evacuate due to the strong winds pushing the fire around the mountain. By this time, Fire & Rescue Services had deployed 29 fire engines and 90 firefighters who were assisted by 45 firefighters from the South African National Parks and volunteers of Disaster Management The day following the fire, four helicopters, including a South African National Defence Force Atlas Oryx, were called in at dawn to water-bomb the fire, and to lift a team of firefighters high onto the mountain. Table Mountain National Park Fire Manager Philip Prins said about 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of park land had been burned: some fynbos, some renosterveld, some grass, and stands of pine trees.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:32 UTC on Thursday, 7 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 2009 Table Mountain fire on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Salli.
pWotD Episode 3018: Weapons (2025 film) Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 229,093 views on Wednesday, 6 August 2025 our article of the day is Weapons (2025 film).Weapons is a 2025 American mystery horror film written, produced, and directed by Zach Cregger. The film stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan. Its plot follows the case of seventeen children from the same classroom who mysteriously run out of their homes towards an unknown target in the middle of the night, all going missing with no reason why. Soon afterwards, the same force that abducted the children makes residents of the town disfigured and homicidal, with the culprit having to be stopped before time runs out.Weapons is scheduled to be released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on August 8, 2025. The film received widespread critical acclaim.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:57 UTC on Thursday, 7 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Weapons (2025 film) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Aditi.
rWotD Episode 3016: Inline skate wheel setup Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Wednesday, 6 August 2025, is Inline skate wheel setup.Inline skate wheel setup can refer to various aspects related to the selection and configuration of inline skate wheels. The total number of wheels and their diameter are often expressed in the form {number of wheels} x {wheel diameter in mm}. For instance, a common recreational skate setup is 4x80mm, which means four wheels, each with a diameter of 80 millimeters. Wheel arrangement patterns are typically named according to the profile formed by the wheels at their contact points with the ground. In a flat setup, all wheels maintain contact with the ground simultaneously. A classic rockered setup, by contrast, creates a banana-like profile along the bottom.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:07 UTC on Wednesday, 6 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Inline skate wheel setup on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Olivia.
fWotD Episode 3015: Constans II (son of Constantine III) Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Wednesday, 6 August 2025, is Constans II (son of Constantine III).Constans II (died 411) was the son of the Western Roman emperor Constantine III and served as his co-emperor from 409 to 411. When his father rebelled against the ruling emperor Honorius and the army in Britain acclaimed him as emperor in early 407, Constans was a monk. He was summoned to Gaul, appointed to the position of caesar (heir) and swiftly married so that a dynasty could be founded. In Hispania, Honorius's relatives took up arms in 408 and expelled Constantine's administration. An army under Constans and the general Gerontius was sent to deal with this and re-established Constantine's authority.Honorius acknowledged Constantine as co-emperor in early 409 and Constantine immediately raised Constans to the position of augustus (emperor), theoretically equal in rank to Honorius as well as to Constantine. Later in 409 Gerontius rebelled, proclaimed his client Maximus emperor and incited barbarian groups which had recently invaded Gaul to rise up. Constans was sent to Hispania to quash the revolt, but suffered a defeat and withdrew to Arelate (modern Arles). In 410, Constans was sent to Hispania with another army. Gerontius had strengthened his forces with barbarians and won a battle against Constans; the latter withdrew north and was defeated again and killed at Vienne early in 411. Gerontius then besieged Constantine in Arelate and killed him.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:15 UTC on Wednesday, 6 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Constans II (son of Constantine III) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Amy.
pWotD Episode 3017: 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 708,271 views on Tuesday, 5 August 2025 our article of the day is 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government deployed troops to occupy the square on the night of 3 June in what is referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre. The events are sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement, the Tiananmen Square Incident, or the Tiananmen uprising.The protests were precipitated by the death of pro-reform Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989 amid the backdrop of rapid economic development and social change in post-Mao China, reflecting anxieties among the people and political elite about the country's future. The reforms of the 1980s had led to a nascent market economy that benefited some people but seriously disadvantaged others, and the one-party political system also faced a challenge to its legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on political participation. Although they were highly disorganised and their goals varied, the students called for things like rollback of the removal of iron rice bowl jobs, greater accountability, constitutional due process, democracy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. Workers' protests were generally focused on inflation and the erosion of welfare. These groups united around anti-corruption demands, adjusting economic policies, and protecting social security. At the height of the protests, about one million people assembled in the square.As the protests developed, the authorities responded with both conciliatory and hardline tactics, exposing deep divisions within the party leadership. By May, a student-led hunger strike galvanised support around the country for the demonstrators, and the protests spread to some 400 cities. On 20 May, the State Council declared martial law, and as many as 300,000 troops were mobilised to Beijing.After several weeks of standoffs and violent confrontations between the army and demonstrators left many on both sides severely injured, a meeting held among the CCP's top leadership on 1 June concluded with a decision to clear the square. The troops advanced into central parts of Beijing on the city's major thoroughfares in the early morning hours of 4 June and engaged in bloody clashes with demonstrators attempting to block them, in which many people – demonstrators, bystanders, and soldiers – were killed. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded.The event had both short and long term consequences. Western countries imposed arms embargoes on China, and various Western media outlets labeled the crackdown a "massacre". In the aftermath of the protests, the Chinese government suppressed other protests around China, carried out mass arrests of protesters which catalysed Operation Yellowbird, strictly controlled coverage of the events in the domestic and foreign affiliated press, and demoted or purged officials it deemed sympathetic to the protests. The government also invested heavily into creating more effective police riot control units. More broadly, the suppression ended the political reforms begun in 1986 as well as the New Enlightenment movement, and halted the policies of liberalisation of the 1980s, which were only partly resumed after Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 1992. Considered a watershed event, reaction to the protests set limits on political expression in China that have lasted up to the present day. The events remain one of the most sensitive and most widely censored topics in China.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:52 UTC on Wednesday, 6 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Geraint.
rWotD Episode 3015: 2005–06 Los Angeles Lakers season Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Tuesday, 5 August 2025, is 2005–06 Los Angeles Lakers season.The 2005–06 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 58th of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the 60th overall. The Lakers finished in third place of the Pacific Division and as the seventh seed of the Western Conference. The season ended with the team being eliminated in seven games against the Phoenix Suns in the First Round of the playoffs after holding a 3–1 series lead. After a year absence, the Lakers rehired Phil Jackson as their head coach. It was the final season that Kobe Bryant wore jersey number 8 before changing it to 24 the following season. Also memorable from this season was during a January 22, 2006 game vs. the Toronto Raptors where Bryant dropped a record 81 points, the 2nd highest total in NBA history behind only Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962.After the playoffs, Bryant underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in July. This led to him missing the 2006 FIBA World Championship.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:10 UTC on Tuesday, 5 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 2005–06 Los Angeles Lakers season on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Gregory.
fWotD Episode 3014: Belvidere Apollo Theatre collapse Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Tuesday, 5 August 2025, is Belvidere Apollo Theatre collapse.On the evening of March 31, 2023, a tornado struck the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, United States, which caused the ceiling of the theater to suffer a critical structural failure and collapse onto a sold-out concert. The show, headlined by the death metal band Morbid Angel, began despite advanced knowledge of expected and imminent severe weather. After a half-hour storm break was instituted during the opening performance of the band Crypta, the tornado struck the theater. Winds of 90–100 miles per hour (140–160 km/h) caused the failure of the lower roof structure, with large amounts of debris falling into the venue, primarily onto concertgoers. Multiple people were buried by debris caused by the collapse. Concertgoers aided in removing debris from on top of others, before the arrival of the Belvidere Fire Department, which evacuated the building and handled search and rescue operations alongside emergency management agencies from three neighboring counties. One concertgoer was pronounced dead at the scene and 27 were taken to hospitals by ambulance, out of 48 that suffered non-fatal injuries.The venue had been selected for the concert in November of the previous year, following the theater's remodeling as a concert venue. Severe weather was expected on the evening of March 31 in what became a historic tornado outbreak, but multiple people remained in the stage area after warnings for imminent severe weather were received. Following the collapse, the lack of safety protocols despite warning became the subject of multiple lawsuits. The Apollo Theatre was condemned the next day, suffering major damage to not only the roof over the stage but also the street-facing facade and the upper roof structure, of which the latter two were found on the street after the tornado. The venue reopened that September after multiple months of remodeling efforts and a brief fire on the reconstructed roof.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:47 UTC on Tuesday, 5 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Belvidere Apollo Theatre collapse on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Olivia.
pWotD Episode 3016: Burt Reynolds Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 143,888 views on Monday, 4 August 2025 our article of the day is Burt Reynolds.Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor most famous during the 1970s and 1980s. He became well known in television series such as Gunsmoke (1962–1965), Hawk (1966) and Dan August (1970–1971). He had leading roles in films such as Navajo Joe (1966) and 100 Rifles (1969), and his breakthrough role was as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance (1972).Reynolds played leading roles in financial successes such as White Lightning (1973), The Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (which started a six-year box-office reign), Semi-Tough (1977), The End (1978), Hooper (1978), Starting Over (1979), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Sharky's Machine (1981), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and Cannonball Run II (1984), several of which he directed. He was nominated twice for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.Reynolds was voted the world's number one movie actor from 1978 to 1982 in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, a six-year record he shares with Bing Crosby. After a number of box-office failures, Reynolds returned to television, featuring in the situation comedy Evening Shade (1990–1994), which won a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. His performance as high-minded pornographer Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) brought him renewed critical attention, earning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, with nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 03:06 UTC on Tuesday, 5 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Burt Reynolds on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Russell.
fWotD Episode 3013: 2020 Missouri Amendment 2 Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 4 August 2025, is 2020 Missouri Amendment 2.2020 Missouri Amendment 2, also known as the Medicaid Expansion Initiative, was a ballot measure to amend the Constitution of Missouri to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The initiative was on August 4, 2020, primary ballot and passed with 53.27% of the vote. Following previous successful Medicaid expansion initiatives in other states, Republican lawmakers in Nebraska and Utah added work requirements to their states' Medicaid expansions, which supporters aimed to prevent by proposing state constitutional amendments for future Medicaid expansion initiatives.Opponents sued to prevent the initiative from being voted on, but courts ruled in the measure's favor. The measure was supported most in urban areas and opposed in rural areas. After a delay due to a lack of funding from the Missouri General Assembly and resulting litigation, the initiative was implemented in October 2021, albeit slowly. Republican lawmakers attempted to roll back the program and add a work requirement through a state constitutional amendment, which failed after the United States Supreme Court effectively prevented the implementation of one.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:07 UTC on Monday, 4 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 2020 Missouri Amendment 2 on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Joanna.
rWotD Episode 3014: General Government administration Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 4 August 2025, is General Government administration.The General Government administration (German: Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete, lit. 'General Government for the occupied Polish areas'), a government and administration of the General Government set up on part of that area of the Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule, operated during World War II between 1939 and early 1945. The Third Reich formed the General Government in October 1939 in the wake of the German and Soviet claim that the Polish state had totally collapsed following the invasion of Poland in September–October 1939. The German Wehrmacht had attacked Poland with strong air-power and with massive numbers of troops and tanks on 1 September 1939. The Germans' initial intent was to clear the western part of Poland, the Reichsgau Wartheland, and to bring it into the "Greater German Reich". However, those plans quickly stalled. On 23 August 1939, German foreign-minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart had agreed to a non-aggression pact and had demarcated their respective countries' "spheres of influence" in Poland.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:44 UTC on Monday, 4 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see General Government administration on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Olivia.
pWotD Episode 3015: The Naked Gun (2025 film) Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 158,340 views on Sunday, 3 August 2025 our article of the day is The Naked Gun (2025 film).The Naked Gun is a 2025 American action comedy film directed by Akiva Schaffer and written by Schaffer, Dan Gregor and Doug Mand. The fourth film in The Naked Gun franchise, it stars Liam Neeson in the main role, with Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, and Danny Huston starring in supporting roles. It follows the son of Lt. Frank Drebin who must succeed in his father's footsteps to prevent the closure of Police Squad.After several years of development, including a direct-to-TV sequel starring Leslie Nielsen and a reboot starring Ed Helms, it was announced that Seth MacFarlane had been hired to develop the project, and he expressed interest in casting Neeson in the main role. Although MacFarlane was hired to direct, Schaffer replaced him after the film was greenlit in October 2022, and Neeson was officially cast in the main role. Anderson was cast in April 2024, and further casting took place the following month. Filming began in Atlanta that month and wrapped in June.The Naked Gun premiered at the SVA Theater in Manhattan on July 28, 2025, and was released in the United States and United Kingdom by Paramount Pictures on August 1, 2025. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed $28.5 million worldwide during its opening weekend against a $42 million budget.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:43 UTC on Monday, 4 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see The Naked Gun (2025 film) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kendra.
fWotD Episode 3012: Mario Party: The Top 100 Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Sunday, 3 August 2025, is Mario Party: The Top 100.Mario Party: The Top 100 is a 2017 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fifth handheld game in the Mario Party series, as well as the third and final Mario Party game for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. The game was first released in North America in November 2017, and was released in PAL regions and in Japan in December 2017.Mario Party: The Top 100 is primarily a compilation of 100 minigames from across the series, specifically ones from the home console installments. The game offers several game modes centered around playing the minigames, including a mode that sees traditional Mario Party gameplay with up to four characters from the Mario franchise, controlled by humans or artificial intelligence, competing in an interactive board game.The game received mixed reviews, with general praise for its premise as a minigame compilation and criticism toward its lack of content aside from the minigames. A similar entry, Mario Party Superstars, which also features 100 minigames from the home console games, was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:40 UTC on Sunday, 3 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Mario Party: The Top 100 on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Joanna.
rWotD Episode 3013: Moskvityanin Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Sunday, 3 August 2025, is Moskvityanin.Moskvityanin (Москвитянин, "The Muscovite") was a monthly literary review published by Mikhail Pogodin in Moscow between 1841 and 1856. It was the mouthpiece of the Official Nationality theory espoused by Count Sergey Uvarov. The literary section was edited by Stepan Shevyrev. Gogol's novella Rome was first printed in Moskvityanin, as were many Slavophile papers. In 1850 the magazine was taken over by a young generation of Slavophiles which included Apollon Grigoryev. Their object of adulation was Alexander Ostrovsky. The frequency of the magazine switched from monthly to biweekly in 1849.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:17 UTC on Sunday, 3 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Moskvityanin on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kajal.
pWotD Episode 3014: SummerSlam (2025) Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 380,114 views on Saturday, 2 August 2025 our article of the day is SummerSlam (2025).The 2025 SummerSlam, also promoted as SummerSlam: New Jersey, is an ongoing professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It is the 38th annual SummerSlam and takes place as a two-night event on Saturday, August 2, and Sunday, August 3, 2025, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and is being held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. Rapper Cardi B serves as the hostess of the event.This marks the first SummerSlam to take place across two nights, which was previously only reserved for WrestleMania since 2020. This is the first SummerSlam to broadcast on Netflix in most international markets after the WWE Network merged under the platform in January 2025 in those areas. This is the third WWE event to be held at MetLife Stadium, after WrestleMania 29 and WrestleMania 35 in 2013 and 2019, respectively. This is the fourth Summerslam to take place in East Rutherford after the 1989, 1997, and 2007 events. The event will also feature John Cena's last appearance at a SummerSlam as an in-ring performer due to his retirement from professional wrestling at the end of 2025.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:08 UTC on Sunday, 3 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see SummerSlam (2025) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Brian.
This week on Curmudgeon's Corner Ivan and Sam discuss the crazy week in economic news we just had, the Gaza situation, and the Trump/Epstein situation once again. But also, adventures with going through immigration, some movie reviews, and a discussion on the flavor of batteries. Could you ask for anything more? Show Details: Recorded 2025-08-02 Length this week 1:37:55 0:01:26 - But First Going Through Immigration Movie: The African Queen (1951) Movie: Jurassic Park III (2001) 0:20:10 - Economy Job Creation Interest Rates Trade Deals 0:56:27 - Everything Else Gaza Situation Trump/Epstein Battery Flavor The Curmudgeon's Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is The Oh of Pleasure (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is Celestial Soda Pop (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album Deep Breakfast (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.
rWotD Episode 3012: Endre Farkas Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Saturday, 2 August 2025, is Endre Farkas.Endre Farkas (born 1948) is a Montreal-based poet, editor and playwright born in Hajdúnánás Hungary in 1948. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he fled to Canada with his parents, who were Holocaust survivors. When he first arrived, his given name Endre was Quebecized to André. During his undergraduate degree at Concordia University he participated in the Sir George Williams affair as an occupant. He then took a few years off to live at an artist commune called Meatball Creek Farm in the Quebec Eastern Townships.Since the 1970s, he taught literature at John Abbott College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. He retired in 2008. His work has been published in six different languages: French, Spanish, Hungarian, Italian, Slovenian and Turkish. He was a part of the Montreal experimental writing collective, The Vehicule Poets and was a founding editor of Véhicule Press. He later founded the publishing press, The Muses’ Company. He won the Quebec Writers' Federation Community Award in 2011 "for the inclusiveness and power of his vision for Quebec literature," according to QWF spokeswoman Gina Roitman.He participated in Dial-A-Poem Montreal 1985-1987.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:49 UTC on Saturday, 2 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Endre Farkas on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Brian.
fWotD Episode 3011: Value theory Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Saturday, 2 August 2025, is Value theory.Value theory, also called axiology, studies the nature, sources, and types of values. It is a branch of philosophy and an interdisciplinary field closely associated with social sciences such as economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology.Value is the worth of something, usually understood as covering both positive and negative degrees corresponding to the terms good and bad. Values influence many human endeavors related to emotion, decision-making, and action. Value theorists distinguish various types of values, like the contrast between intrinsic and instrumental value. An entity has intrinsic value if it is good in itself, independent of external factors. An entity has instrumental value if it is useful as a means leading to other good things. Other classifications focus on the type of benefit, including economic, moral, political, aesthetic, and religious values. Further categorizations distinguish absolute values from values that are relative to something else.Diverse schools of thought debate the nature and origins of values. Value realists state that values exist as objective features of reality. Anti-realists reject this, with some seeing values as subjective human creations and others viewing value statements as meaningless. Regarding the sources of value, hedonists argue that only pleasure has intrinsic value, whereas desire theorists discuss desires as the ultimate source of value. Perfectionism, another approach, emphasizes the cultivation of characteristic human abilities. Value pluralism identifies diverse sources of intrinsic value, raising the issue of whether values belonging to different types are comparable. Value theorists employ various methods of inquiry, ranging from reliance on intuitions and thought experiments to the analysis of language, description of first-person experience, observation of behavior, and surveys.Value theory is related to various fields. Ethics focuses primarily on normative concepts of right behavior, whereas value theory explores evaluative concepts about what is good. In economics, theories of value are frameworks to assess and explain the economic value of commodities. Sociology and anthropology examine values as aspects of societies and cultures, reflecting dominant preferences and beliefs. In psychology, values are typically understood as abstract motivational goals that shape an individual's personality. The roots of value theory lie in antiquity as reflections on the highest good that humans should pursue. Diverse traditions contributed to this area of thought during the medieval and early modern periods, but it was only established as a distinct discipline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:37 UTC on Saturday, 2 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Value theory on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Matthew.
pWotD Episode 3013: Pamela Anderson Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 196,632 views on Friday, 1 August 2025 our article of the day is Pamela Anderson.Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress, model and media personality. She rose to prominence after being selected as the February 1990 Playboy Playmate of the Month. She went on to obtain the record for the most Playboy cover appearances. Anderson began her acting career on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement (1991–1993, 1997), before receiving international recognition for starring as "C. J." Parker in the drama series Baywatch (1992–1997), which cemented her status as a sex symbol.In 1995, home videos of Anderson with her then husband, Tommy Lee, were stolen and sold as a sex tape, which resulted in a legal fight and made her the subject of controversy. Anderson starred as Vallery Irons in the syndicated series V. I. P. (1998–2002) and as Skyler Dayton in the Fox sitcom Stacked (2005–2006). Her film credits include Barb Wire (1996), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Borat (2006), Baywatch (2017), and City Hunter (2018). She starred in the reality series Pam: Girl on the Loose (2008) and appeared as a contestant on the Dancing with the Stars franchise (2010–2012, 2018).Anderson saw a career resurgence in the 2020s after her 2022 Broadway debut portraying Roxie Hart in the long-running musical Chicago, the 2023 Netflix documentary Pamela, a Love Story (which coincided with the release of her autobiography, Love, Pamela), and the 2024 indie-drama film The Last Showgirl, the latter of which earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress.Anderson has supported various charitable causes (particularly animal rights and PETA), and endorses plant-based cooking. She hosts Flavour Network's plant-based cooking show Pamela's Cooking with Love (2025–present). Her plant-based cookbook I Love You: Recipes from the Heart was nominated for a 2025 James Beard Award in the Media:Visuals" category for the work of her photographer, Ditte Isager.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:26 UTC on Saturday, 2 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Pamela Anderson on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Stephen.
rWotD Episode 3011: Ouseburn Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Friday, 1 August 2025, is Ouseburn.The Ouseburn is a small river in Newcastle upon Tyne, England that flows through the city into the River Tyne. It gives its name to the Ouseburn Valley and the Ouseburn electoral ward for Newcastle City Council elections.The Ouseburn has its source at Callerton in the north of the city near Newcastle Airport. It then flows through the Kingston Park area of the city, Newcastle Great Park, Gosforth Park and Whitebridge Park. The Ouseburn then continues from South Gosforth into Jesmond Dene then through Armstrong Park and Heaton Park, where it marks the boundary between Heaton and Sandyford. The river then flows through a culvert before re-emerging under Ouseburn railway viaduct, whence it flows past the City Farm, Seven Stories and the Toffee Factory and meets the River Tyne.The river was previously tidal from the Viaduct, revealing dark mud at low tide. However, since 2009 a tidal barrage at the river mouth retains high water in the Ouseburn at low tide, with the objective of providing a more pleasant environment alongside its banks at low tide, thus promoting development. Despite the expense of its construction, the Ouseburn barrage has had operational problems and was left open for a length of time while they were corrected.The lower Ouseburn Valley, whilst heavily industrialised in the past, serves as of 2013 as a hub for the arts and creative industries, and has a lively pub scene, noted for live music and real ale.In Roman times the lower Ouseburn Valley was crossed by Hadrian's Wall, but there are now no visible traces to be seen. On the eastern side of the valley, at the eastern end of a new block of flats, there is an information board with an artist's impression of the Wall crossing the valley. This section of the Wall was the later extension from the Roman fort of Pons Aelius (Newcastle) to that of Segedunum (Wallsend). This newer section of the Wall was not backed by the Vallum ditch, because the River Tyne rendered it superfluous.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:01 UTC on Friday, 1 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Ouseburn on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kimberly.
fWotD Episode 3010: SMS Hindenburg Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 1 August 2025, is SMS Hindenburg.SMS Hindenburg was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), the third ship of the Derfflinger class, built to a slightly modified design. She carried the same battery of eight 30.5 cm (12 in) guns, but in improved turrets that allowed them to fire further. The ship was also slightly larger and faster than her two sister ships. She was named in honor of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the victor of the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Masurian Lakes, as well as the supreme commander of the German armies from 1916. Construction of the ship was slowed after the start of World War I by shortages of material and manpower, the need to repair damaged ships, and shifting priorities. As a result, Hindenburg was the last capital ship of any type built for the German navy during the war.Hindenburg was commissioned late in the war and as a result had a brief service career. The ship took part in a handful of short fleet operations as the flagship of I Scouting Group in 1917–1918, though saw no major action with British forces. The proposed final sortie of the fleet in the last weeks of the war came to nothing when the crews of the capital ships mutinied. Following Germany's defeat in November 1918, Hindenburg was interned with the rest of the German battlecruisers at Scapa Flow in November 1918. Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the ships be scuttled on 21 June 1919, and Hindenburg was the last of the ships to sink. She was raised in 1930 and broken up for scrap over the following two years.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:52 UTC on Friday, 1 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see SMS Hindenburg on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Joanna.
pWotD Episode 3012: Sydney Sweeney Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 218,006 views on Thursday, 31 July 2025 our article of the day is Sydney Sweeney.Sydney Bernice Sweeney (born September 12, 1997) is an American actress and producer. She gained early recognition for her roles in Everything Sucks!, The Handmaid's Tale, and Sharp Objects. She received wider acclaim for her performances in the drama series Euphoria (2019–present) and the first season of the anthology series The White Lotus (2021), both of which earned her nominations for Primetime Emmy Awards.In film, Sweeney appeared in Tarantino's Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (2019) and later took on leading roles in the drama film Reality and the romantic comedy Anyone but You. In 2024, she starred in the superhero film Madame Web, and produced and starred in the horror film Immaculate.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:56 UTC on Friday, 1 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Sydney Sweeney on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Niamh.
fWotD Episode 3009: Battle of Warsaw (1705) Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Thursday, 31 July 2025, is Battle of Warsaw (1705).The Battle of Warsaw (also known as the Battle of Rakowitz or Rakowiec) was fought on 31 July 1705 (Gregorian calendar) near Warsaw in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, during the Great Northern War and the 1701–1706 Swedish invasion of Poland. The battle was part of a power struggle for the Polish–Lithuanian throne, and was fought between Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław Leszczyński and their allies. Augustus entered the Great Northern War as Elector of Saxony and King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and had formed an alliance with Denmark–Norway and Russia. Stanisław Leszczyński had seized the Polish throne in 1704, with the support of the Swedish army of King Charles XII. The struggle for the throne forced the Polish nobility to pick sides; the Warsaw Confederation supported Leszczyński and Sweden, and the Sandomierz Confederation supported Augustus and his allies. The conflict resulted in the Polish civil war of 1704–1706.In 1705, two events were planned to take place in Warsaw: a session of the Polish parliament to negotiate a formal peace between Poland and Sweden, and the coronation of Stanisław Leszczyński as the new king of Poland. Meanwhile, Augustus and his allies developed a grand strategy that envisioned a combined assault to crush the Swedish forces and restore Augustus to the Polish throne. Accordingly, an allied army of up to 10,000 cavalry under the command of Otto Arnold von Paykull was sent towards Warsaw to interrupt the Polish parliament. The Swedes sent a 2,000-strong cavalry contingent of their own, under the command of Carl Nieroth, to protect it. Encouraged by the fact that he heavily outnumbered the Swedes, Paykull took the initiative and attacked. He managed to cross the Vistula River with his army on 30 July, after a stubborn defence by a few Swedish squadrons, and reached the plains next to Rakowiec, directly west of Warsaw, on 31 July, where the two forces engaged in open battle.Augustus's allied left wing quickly collapsed; after a short but fierce fight, so did the right and centre. Paykull managed to rally some of his troops a few kilometres away, at the village of Odolany, where the fight was renewed. The Swedes again gained the upper hand and, this time, won the battle. They captured Paykull along with letters and other documents which informed the Swedes of the strategic intentions of Augustus's allies. The coronation of Stanisław Leszczyński occurred in early October. Peace between Poland and Sweden in November 1705 allowed Charles to focus his attention on the Russian threat near Grodno. The subsequent campaign resulted in the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706), by which Augustus renounced both his claim to the Polish throne and his alliance with Peter I of Russia.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 18:43 UTC on Thursday, 31 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Battle of Warsaw (1705) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Emma.
rWotD Episode 3010: Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975 Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Thursday, 31 July 2025, is Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975.The Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975 (c. 74) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which addressed the licensing, ownership, exploitation, production, transportation, processing and refining of petroleum and petroleum products in the UK. Enacted in 1975 when the UK’s first North Sea oil was produced, the act aimed to provide greater public control of the oil industry. The act established the British National Oil Corporation and a National Oil Account; modified the conditions of petroleum licences; controlled the construction and use of underground pipelines; and controlled the development of oil refineries.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:49 UTC on Thursday, 31 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975 on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Danielle.
pWotD Episode 3011: 2025 Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 294,947 views on Wednesday, 30 July 2025 our article of the day is 2025 Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake.On 30 July 2025, at 11:24:50 PETT (23:24:50 UTC, 29 July 2025), an Mw 8.8 megathrust earthquake struck off the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's far east, 119 km (74 mi) east-southeast of the coastal city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. It was the most powerful earthquake recorded since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, and is tied with the 1906 Ecuador–Colombia and the 2010 Chile earthquakes as the sixth-strongest earthquake ever recorded by seismometers. The earthquake and subsequent Pacific-wide tsunami caused moderate damage and multiple injuries in Kamchatka Krai and Sakhalin Oblast.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:26 UTC on Thursday, 31 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 2025 Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Ayanda.
rWotD Episode 3009: Gay and Lesbian Times Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Wednesday, 30 July 2025, is Gay and Lesbian Times.The Gay and Lesbian Times was an LGBT newspaper in the San Diego, California, area. It was a member of the National Gay Newspaper Guild. The paper originally launched in January 1988 as the San Diego Gay Times.In May 2010, it was accused of defrauding advertisers over circulation counts while being saddled in debt. In September 2010, it folded.In December 2010, its founder Michael Portantino committed suicide by jumping from the Park Manor Suites, a historic 7-story San Diego hotel, popular with the gay community.Another major newspaper, the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, launched in 2009 and continues to the present.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:40 UTC on Wednesday, 30 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Gay and Lesbian Times on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Russell.
fWotD Episode 3008: Scanners (collection) Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Wednesday, 30 July 2025, is Scanners (collection).Scanners (Autumn/Winter 2003) was the twenty-second collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. The collection is based on the idea of exiles travelling eastward through northern Eurasia: Siberia, Tibet, and finally Japan. The designs borrow heavily from the traditional clothing and art of those areas, and reflect an overall aesthetic of luxury, with voluminous silhouettes and rich materials. Cultural motifs include heavy embroidery, traditional patterns, and kimono-like shapes. The runway show was staged on 8 March 2003 at the Grande halle de la Villette in Paris, with production by McQueen's usual creative team. The set was made to look like a desolate tundra with rocks and snow. A clear plastic wind tunnel was suspended over the runway on industrial scaffolding for some models to walk through. Fifty-nine looks were presented in roughly three stages, representing the journey through each of Siberia, Tibet, and Japan. The show ended with a model struggling through the wind tunnel in an enormous kimono.Critical reception was mostly positive and sales were reportedly strong. Academic analysis has considered whether McQueen was engaging in cultural appropriation of Asian culture. Items from Scanners have appeared in exhibitions like the retrospective Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Wednesday, 30 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Scanners (collection) on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Amy.
rWotD Episode 3008: Crypsitricha roseata Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Tuesday, 29 July 2025, is Crypsitricha roseata.Crypsitricha roseata is a species of moth in the family Tineidae. It was described by Edward Meyrick in 1913. This species is endemic to New Zealand. The type locality of this species is the suburb of Wadestown, in Wellington.The wingspan is about 12 mm. The forewings are light rosy-purple-brownish with about eight small blackish costal marks and an irregular brown mark on the fold towards the base, terminated by a few blackish scales, and edged with some whitish suffusion. There is a narrow oblique brown fascia from before the middle of the costa to beyond the middle of the dorsum, partially edged with blackish posteriorly. A streak of brown suffusion runs from the middle of the disc to the middle of the termen, including a line of black scales, and edged above posteriorly by a fine white streak. The hindwings are grey.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:07 UTC on Tuesday, 29 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Crypsitricha roseata on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Joanna.
fWotD Episode 3007: Gaetano Bresci Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Tuesday, 29 July 2025, is Gaetano Bresci.Gaetano Bresci (Italian: [ɡaeˈtaːno ˈbreʃʃi]; 11 November 1869 – 22 May 1901) was an Italian anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy. As a young weaver, his experiences with exploitation in the workplace drew him to anarchism. Bresci emigrated to the United States, where he became involved with other Italian immigrant anarchists in Paterson, New Jersey. News of the Bava Beccaris massacre motivated him to return to Italy, where he planned to assassinate Umberto. Local police knew of his return but did not mobilize. Bresci killed the king in July 1900 during Umberto's scheduled appearance in Monza amid a sparse police presence.The government of Italy suspected that Bresci had been a part of a conspiracy but no evidence was found to indicate that others were involved. He was consequently sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and confined on Santo Stefano Island in Latina, Lazio, where he was found dead of an apparent suicide within the year. After his death, Bresci gained the status of a martyr within the Italian anarchist movement, who defended his regicidal act. Bresci inspired some anarchists to carry out their own acts of propaganda by deed, most prominently Leon Czolgosz's assassination of United States president William McKinley. Italian anarchists erected a monument to Bresci in Carrara despite governmental attempts to block it.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:21 UTC on Tuesday, 29 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Gaetano Bresci on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Gregory.
Surprise surprise, our resident curmudgeon was not happy with Happy Gilmore 2
On this week's Curmudgeon's Corner, another personal story heavy episode as Ivan and Sam start with more of Sam's adventures with cars and health. Then they settle in and hit the newsy stuff for the last half of the show. Hunter Biden. Inflation. All the Trump stuff you could possibly want. Depending on your proclivities of course. You can never guess just how much Trumpy stuff people will want. Show Details: Recorded 2025-07-26 Length this week 1:50:11 0:01:11 - Personal Stuff Movie Assignments Sam Car Incident Sam Sick 0:54:50 - Newsy Stuff Hunter Biden Trump at the Fed Inflation Trends Trump Approval Trump and Epstein The Curmudgeon's Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is The Oh of Pleasure (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is Celestial Soda Pop (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album Deep Breakfast (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.
rWotD Episode 3007: Shemaryahu Gurary Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Monday, 28 July 2025, is Shemaryahu Gurary.Shemaryahu Gurary, also known by his Hebrew initials as Rashag, (1897–1989) was a rabbi following the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty of Hasidism. His father was Menachem Mendel Gurary. He was a son-in-law of Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth Chabad-Lubavitch rebbe, and the brother-in-law of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh. He worked with his father-in-law in Russia and Poland and moved to the U. S. in 1940.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:07 UTC on Monday, 28 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Shemaryahu Gurary on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Matthew.
fWotD Episode 3006: Edward Drinker Cope Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Monday, 28 July 2025, is Edward Drinker Cope.Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, he distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science, publishing his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations.Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of U. S. Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Cope's financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s, forcing him to sell off much of his fossil collection. He experienced a resurgence in his career toward the end of his life before dying on April 12, 1897.Though Cope's scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, his contributions helped to define the field of American paleontology. He was a prodigious writer with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals debated the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species, including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His proposal for the origin of mammalian molars is notable among his theoretical contributions.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Monday, 28 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Edward Drinker Cope on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Matthew.
rWotD Episode 3006: USCIPP Welcome to random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia's vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Sunday, 27 July 2025, is USCIPP.The US Cooperative for International Patient Programs (USCIPP) is an organizational membership program of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL), a Chicago, Illinois, United States-based nonprofit. USCIPP is composed of US academic medical centers, hospitals, and healthcare systems that operate in the international patient care and global healthcare collaborations market.Founded in 2010, with support from the International Trade Administration's Market Development Cooperator Program, the consortium now represents nearly 60 US healthcare provider organizations. USCIPP's members work together to increase the global competitiveness of US hospitals in several ways:expand international access to US medical expertiseconduct research and market analysis on international trade in healthcare servicesfacilitate the inter-organizational sharing of best practices in caring for international patients as well as in executing collaborative healthcare projects outside of the US.While all of USCIPP's member institutions share a focus on providing care to international patients who travel to the US for treatment, the majority of its members also engage in non-patient international collaborations, such as cross-border education programs, providing management services to organizations in other countries, offering consulting services to hospitals and governments abroad, and/or engaging in international, joint clinical research.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:47 UTC on Sunday, 27 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see USCIPP on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Danielle.
fWotD Episode 3005: Dick Cresswell Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Sunday, 27 July 2025, is Dick Cresswell.Richard Cresswell, DFC (27 July 1920 – 12 December 2006) was an officer and pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He held command of No. 77 (Fighter) Squadron twice during World War II, and again during the Korean War. Cresswell was credited with being the first RAAF pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft at night over Australian soil, the only man to serve as commanding officer of an RAAF squadron on three occasions during wartime, and the first officer to lead a jet-equipped Australian squadron in combat. His performance in Korea earned him both the Commonwealth and the US Distinguished Flying Crosses.Born in Tasmania, Cresswell worked as an apprentice electrician before joining the RAAF in July 1938. He initially commanded No. 77 Squadron from April 1942 to August 1943, flying P-40 Kittyhawks in defence of Australia's North-Western Area against Japanese raiders. Cresswell claimed the squadron's first aerial victory—the first by an Australian over the mainland—in November 1942. He was wing leader of No. 81 (Fighter) Wing in New Guinea from May 1944 to March 1945, simultaneously commanding No. 77 Squadron for a second time between September and December 1944. In September 1950, during the Korean War, Cresswell took command of No. 77 Squadron in combat for the third time. He oversaw its conversion from P-51 Mustangs to Gloster Meteors, becoming the first RAAF commander of a jet squadron in war. As well as Meteors, Cresswell flew F-80 Shooting Star and F-86 Sabre jets in combat while on attachment to the United States Air Force in Korea. He handed over command of No. 77 Squadron for the last time in August 1951, but flew six more missions as a Meteor pilot in 1953.Cresswell was responsible for converting pilots to jet fighters as commanding officer of No. 2 Operational Training Unit in Australia from 1953 until 1956. He resigned from the RAAF the following year, and flew with Bobby Gibbes' Sepik Airways in New Guinea before joining de Havilland Australia in 1959. Initially engaged by the company as a pilot, he later became a salesman. Cresswell resigned from de Havilland in 1974, but maintained his connection with military aviation, including No. 77 Squadron. He died in December 2006, aged eighty-six.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:35 UTC on Sunday, 27 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Dick Cresswell on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Kimberly.
I've been contemplating some questions that have been bouncing around in my head lately.MasonicCon is back at South Pasadena Lodge No.290How many of you have read the ancient Masonic documents/What impressions did they make?Has it made you wonder what Freemasonry truly is?What is Freemasonry?The numbers don't lie!Is the Curmudgeon correct with his numbers?