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From today's featured article

Misti as seen from Arequipa

Misti is a volcano in the southern Peruvian Andes, rising above Arequipa, Peru's second-largest city. Because it is only 12 km (8 mi) from Arequipa and its million-plus inhabitants, it is considered one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. Narrow valleys on its western and southern flanks pose particular threats, as mudflows and fast-moving flows of hot volcanic debris could be channelled into the urban area and into important infrastructure, like hydropower plants. The last two significant eruptions were 2,000 years ago and from 1440 to 1470. Even a moderate eruption could deposit volcanic ash and tephra over most of the city. A volcano observatory monitors the mountain. The Inca viewed the volcano as a threat, and during the 1440–1470 eruption offered human sacrifices (capacocha) on Misti and neighbouring mountains to placate the volcano. The mummies on Misti form the largest known Inca human sacrifice. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Carola von Braun

... that Carola von Braun (pictured) was appointed in 1984 as the first women's representative of the Senate of West Berlin?
... that it took Jersey Jack ten years to secure the license for the Harry Potter pinball machine?
... that Swiss architect Luigi Snozzi became a professor at EPFL after students staged a sit-in over the withdrawal of his appointment?
... that the indigenous Taíno of the Caribbean channeled the powers of the god Baidrama by bathing in cassava juice?
... that "the father of Canadian psychiatry" was the godfather of Thomas J. W. Burgess?
... that the focus on suffering in the Letter of Peter to Philip suggests that the author, the intended readers, or both may have been familiar with persecution?
... that NFL player Pepper Petrella ran 73 bombing missions during World War II?
... that one company has tried to dissolve AFRINIC, which is part of Africa's Internet infrastructure?
... that Kazuo Ueda pats his Japanese–Yiddish dictionary before going to bed?

In the news

Tilcayo

A new species of tiger cat (pictured) is formally identified.
Former leader of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi is sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for war crimes during his leadership of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
At the Primetime Emmy Awards, Widow's Bay wins Outstanding Comedy Series, and The Pitt wins Outstanding Drama Series.
In Turkey, hundreds of people are arrested in a crackdown on LGBTQ expression and subsequent protests.

On this day

September 20

Great Buddha of Kamakura

1498 – A tsunami caused by the Meiō earthquake washed away the building housing the Great Buddha (pictured) at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura, Japan; the statue has since stood in the open air.
1906 – The ocean liner RMS Mauretania, the largest and fastest ship in the world at the time, was launched in Tyneside, England.
1944 – Second World War: Allied forces captured San Marino from the German Army.
1973 – Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, in an internationally televised tennis match dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes".
2011 – The United States military ended its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, consequently allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly.

George Robey (b. 1869)
Hartini (b. 1924)
Masashi Hamauzu (b. 1971)
Victor Henry Anderson (d. 2001)

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Today's featured picture

The Lambert conformal conic projection is a conic map projection introduced by the Swiss mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1772. It is widely used for aeronautical charts because straight lines closely approximate great-circle routes over typical flight distances. It is also employed in national and regional mapping systems, including the State Plane Coordinate System in the United States and Lambert-93 in Metropolitan France. This world map in the Lambert conformal conic projection has standard parallels at 20°N and 50°N, and a 15° graticule. The projection extends toward infinity southwards, and so has been cut off at 30°S on this map.

Map credit: Daniel R. Strebe

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