Daily Pic (Kermode Bear) Spirit of the Rainforest

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John E Marriott/SuperStock

Spirit of the rainforest

The Kermode bear, often called the ‘spirit bear’ due to its ghostly appearance, isn’t albino. It’s a subspecies of black bear, born with pigmented skin and eyes, but a genetic mutation produces no pigment in the fur. Two black bears with dark fur can produce a Kermode cub, while a Kermode parent doesn’t guarantee a Kermode offspring. Spirit bears haunt the moss-covered territory of the Great Bear Rainforest, which is where our homepage photo was taken, but others have been documented in the greater coastal region of British Columbia. Nature, your lovely weirdness wins again.

Daily Pic 11/13/17

© Paul Panayiotou/SIME/eStock Photo

Planetarium, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt



Today in History 11/13 (Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

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An Army veteran stops to salute his fallen comrades on Memorial Day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, in 2015 (© J. David Ake/AP )(1982) Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC
Thousands of Vietnam War veterans march to the site and contemplate a wall of black granite sunk into the ground and etched with names of the more than 58,000 of their comrades killed in the war. Maya Lin’s stark design will prove controversial, but ‘The Wall’ will have a lasting impact.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a 2-acre U.S. national memorial in Washington D.C. It honors service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for during the war.
Website: www.nps.gov/vive
Address: 5 Henry Bacon Dr NW, Washington, DC 20050
Phone: (202) 426-6841
Established: Nov 13, 1982
Area: 86,111 sq feet
Annual visitors: 5.60 million (2015)

Names of Vietnam veterans at Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
One panel of ‘The Wall’, displaying some of the names of fallen U.S. service members from the Vietnam War.
wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial
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(1982) Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC.
Also on this day,

1956 | Bus segregation overturned as US Supreme Court rules racial segregation on buses illegal
In Browder v. Gayle, the Supreme Court strikes down Alabama laws requiring racial segregation on public buses. The high court rules these laws violate the 14h Amendment, which provides for equal protection under the law. The Montgomery Bus Boycott will end soon after the decision.
1974 | Union activist Karen Silkwood dies in suspicious car crash
Karen Silkwood, a technician at a Kerr-McGee nuclear facility in Crescent, Oklahoma, dies in a one-car crash on her way to meet a journalist to reportedly show him documents that reveal safety issues at the plant. The documents, however, will not be in the car when her body is found.
1998 | President Bill Clinton settles sexual harassment lawsuit
President Clinton agrees to pay Paula Jones, an ex-Arkansas state worker, $850,000 to drop her lawsuit claiming that he exposed himself to her in a hotel room in 1991. The settlement follows a series of appeals and denials that included an argument before the US Supreme Court.

Today in History 11/13/17

Paula Jones leaves a Little Rock, Arkansas, office after depositions in her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton in 1998 (© Reuters)(1998) President Bill Clinton settles sexual harassment lawsuit
President Clinton agrees to pay Paula Jones, an ex-Arkansas state worker, $850,000 to drop her lawsuit claiming that he exposed himself to her in a hotel room in 1991. The settlement follows a series of appeals and denials that included an argument before the US Supreme Court.
Paula Corbin Jones is a former Arkansas state employee who sued U.S. President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. The Paula Jones case precipitated Clinton's impeachment in the House of Representatives and the subsequent acquittal by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Charges of perjury and obstruction of justice were brought against Clinton. Eventually, the court dismissed the Paula Jones harassment lawsuit, before trial, on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages. However, while the dismissal was on appeal, Clinton entered into an out-of-court settlement by agreeing to pay Jones $850,000.
Born: Sep 17, 1966 (age 51) · Lonoke, AR
Height: 5' 3" (1.59 m)
Spouse: Steven Mark McFadden (m. 2001) · Stephen Jones (m. 1991 - 1999)
Children: Preston Jones (Son) · Stephen Jones (Son)
Movies: The Hunting of the President · The Clinton Chronicles
Siblings: Charlotte Corbin Brown (Sister) · Lydia Corbin Cathey (Sister)
Highlights
  • 1991: Paula Jones married Stephen Jones on December 01, 1991; their marriage lasted 8 years till June 01, 1999.

  • 1994: Jones filed a sexual harassment suit against Clinton on May 6, 1994, two days before the three-year statute of limitations, and sought $750,000 in damages.

  • 1997: In December 1997, Jones reduced the damages sought in her suit against Clinton to $525,000 and agreed to remove Clinton's co-defendant and former bodyguard, Danny Ferguson, from the suit.

  • 1998: On April 2, 1998, before the case could reach trial, Judge Wright granted President Clinton's motion for dismissal, ruling that Jones could not show that she had suffered any damages.

  • 1999: The Paula Jones case precipitated Clinton's impeachment in the House of Representatives and the subsequent acquittal by the Senate on February 12, 1999.

  • 1999: In April 1999, Judge Wright found Clinton in civil contempt of court for misleading testimony in the Jones case.

wiki/Paula_Jones
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Daily Pic (DC War Memorial)

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Sean Pavone/Alamy

Honoring those who served

Located near the Lincoln Memorial in West Potomac Park, the DC War Memorial honors citizens of the District of Columbia who served in World War I. It was dedicated in 1931 on Armistice Day, the observance now known as Veterans Day in the US, and is inscribed with the names of the 499 DC residents who died in the war. Built entirely of marble, it was designed to be large enough to accommodate the entire US Marine Band. That way, the structure could be both a memorial and a bandstand, with concerts that would pay tribute to those who served and sacrificed in the war. While Veterans Day was officially observed yesterday, many Americans have today off from work or school. How are you spending the day?

Daily Pic 11/12/17

© Richard du Toit/Getty Images

Secretarybird in Rietvlei Nature Reserve, South Africa



Today in History 11/12 (World Wide Web)

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The world's first web page, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, and photographed here in 2013 (Е FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)(1990) A worldwide web of internet communication is proposed
English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee publishes a proposal to interlink communications via the internet through hypertext, like this, for a project called “WorldWideWeb,” a web of documents viewed by “browsers.” Within weeks, he’ll have built the necessary infrastructure and published the first web pages, describing this very project.
The World Wide Web is a global information medium which users can read and write via computers connected to the Internet. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet itself, but the Web is a service that operates over the Internet, just as e-mail also does. The history of the Internet dates back significantly further than that of the World Wide Web. Web is the global information system.
This NeXT workstation (a NeXTcube) was used by Tim Berners-Lee as the first Web server on the World Wide Web. It is shown here as displayed in 2005 at Microcosm, the public science museum at CERN (where Berners-Lee was working in 1991 when he invented the Web). The document resting on the keyboard is a copy of
The NeXTcube used by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server.
wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web
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(1990) A worldwide web of internet communication is proposed.
Also on this day,

1892 | Pudge Heffelfinger is the first professional football player
William ‘Pudge’ Heffelfinger is paid $500 to play a game in Pittsburgh. The 6′-3″, 200-pounder scores the only points in the Allegheny Athletic Association’s win over the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. Heffelfinger will go on to be a college football coach and mount an unsuccessful bid for US Congress.
1954 | Ellis Island closes its doors
Having processed about 12 million immigrants seeking entry to the US since it opened in 1892, Ellis Island shuts down operations. In the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the processing center will fall into disrepair but the main building will be restored and will reopen in 1990 to host a museum of immigration.
1969 | Journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai massacre story
Freelance reporter Seymour Hersh breaks the story of a massacre in a Vietnamese village where hundreds of civilians were gunned down by US troops. The story of the horrific act and its subsequent cover-up gets widespread coverage and will help erode US public support for the Vietnam War.

Today in History 11/12/17

Arne Petterson, the last immigrant to leave Ellis Island, waves from the ferry on November 12, 1954 (© AP)(1954) Ellis Island closes its doors
Having processed about 12 million immigrants seeking entry to the US since it opened in 1892, Ellis Island shuts down operations. In the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the processing center will fall into disrepair but the main building will be restored and will reopen in 1990 to host a museum of immigration.
Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station for over sixty years from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine. The island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965 and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990.
Website: www.libertyellisfoundation.org
Address: 17 Battery Pl Ste 210, New York, NY 10004
Phone: (212) 561-4588
Established: Jan 01, 1892
Managed by: National Park Service

Ellis Island map
Ellis Island's location in Upper New York Bay

wiki/Ellis_Island
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Daily Pic (Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red)

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Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Poppies for Armistice Day

This is part of ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,’ an art installation created by Paul Cummins and Tom Piper to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of World War I. Crafted of thousands of ceramic poppies, the touring exhibit has been seen by more than 4 million people in 16 locations around the United Kingdom. One large section of the installation, ‘Wave,’ is currently at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England, which is where our image was photographed. We’re showing it today to honor Armistice Day, the day exactly 100 years ago when the Allied Forces and Germany signed an armistice that ended the war. The US renamed the holiday Veterans Day in 1954 to honor veterans of all its wars. To the roughly 20 million veterans in the US today–thank you.

Daily Pic 11/11/17

© AP Photo/Julio Cortez

New York City Veterans Day parade