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From today's featured article

No. 42 Trolley and Trailer, produced by Carlisle & Finch

Carlisle & Finch is a manufacturer of nautical equipment in Cincinnati, Ohio. For most of its history, the company has focused on searchlights, especially for marine applications; variants of this design have also been used for navigation beacons by airports and lighthouses. The company is considered the first in the US to produce electric toy trains (example pictured), introducing innovations such as using the rails to conduct electrical power to the cars. They were the first to manufacture and market trains in volume, which they did for about the first 20 years of operation. Other early products included electric generators; the earliest small models were intended to power train sets, but they later produced larger units. Gasoline engines for marine use were made under the Clifton Motor Works brand. They also produced electric-powered appliances such as clothes dryers. Since the start of World War I, Carlisle & Finch has concentrated on high-power lighting. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Indonesian Landscape, an example of a Mooi Indië painting

... that the works of both Dutch and indigenous Indonesian artists have been classified as Mooi Indië (example pictured)?
... that future Olympic softball player Lesley Attwell only began playing catcher because her club once ran out of players for the position?
... that some details in an 18th-century Boston house were built by ship carpenters?
... that Riley, a film about a closeted high school football player, is inspired by the director's own experience as a student athlete?
... that Benee once made a song with neuroscientists?
... that some products have labels that signify that they were made by humans, not AI?
... that Clara Coffey planted begonias in the middle of New York's Park Avenue?
... that a KOR agonist drug is used by the Mazatec people to induce altered states of consciousness?
... that Steven Roberts and Harry Howle won a "Best Sisters" award?

In the news

Dharmendra Pradhan

Cockroach Janta Party–led protests following an exam leak conclude with the resignation of India's Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan (pictured).
In mathematics, the Fields Medal is awarded to Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman and Hong Wang.
Co-president of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega announces the suspension of the next general election, declaring that the country will no longer have elections.
Andy Burnham succeeds Keir Starmer as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party following a leadership election.

On this day

July 27

Aston Martin DB9

1302 – Byzantine–Ottoman wars: The Ottoman sultanate gained its first major victory against the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Bapheus in Bithynia.
1953 – An armistice was signed to end hostilities in the Korean War, officially making the division of Korea indefinite by creating a 4 km wide (2.5 mi) demilitarized zone across the Korean Peninsula.
1990 – Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group, began a coup attempt against the government of Trinidad and Tobago by taking hostages, including Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson, before surrendering five days later.
2016 – The last nine Aston Martin DB9 (example pictured) units rolled off the production line, marking the end of a twelve-year manufacturing period.

Frances Stewart, Duchess of Lennox (b. 1578)
Benjamin Miessner (b. 1890)
Dacian Cioloș (b. 1969)
Owen Arthur (d. 2020)

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From today's featured list

Duran Duran

More than 200 songs have been recorded by the English band Duran Duran during their career. Since their formation in 1978, Duran Duran have credited all of their songs to all members equally, aside from covers. They emerged as members of the New Romantic scene with their debut album Duran Duran (1981). Its follow-up, Rio (1982), cemented Duran Duran as forerunners in the Second British Invasion. The synth-pop and new-wave record featured more experimentation than their debut, combining faster, upbeat songs ("Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf") with slower, atmospheric tracks ("Save a Prayer"). Between 1984 and 1985, Duran Duran worked with Nile Rodgers on a remix of Seven's "The Reflex" and "The Wild Boys", and recorded the title song of the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985). Duran Duran have continued their musical experimentation into the 21st century. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Hafnium is a chemical element; it has symbol Hf and atomic number 72. A lustrous, silvery gray, tetravalent transition metal, hafnium chemically resembles zirconium and is found in many zirconium minerals. Its existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, though it was not identified until 1922, by Dirk Coster and George de Hevesy. Hafnium is named after the Latin name for Copenhagen, where it was discovered. The element is obtained only by separation from zirconium, with most of the world's hafnium production coming from processes that also produce zirconium. These processes make use of heavy mineral sands ore deposits, which include the minerals zircon, rutile, and ilmenite, among others. This photograph shows the front and back sides of four pellets of 99.9%-pure argon-arc remelted hafnium ingots, with visible crystalline structures. Each pellet is about 3 centimetres (1.2 in) in diameter. The visible colours are caused by a thin-film effect in the surface oxide layer.

Photograph credit: Heinrich Pniok

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