User:Rhododendrites/DYK

Did you know...

... that in his essay The Analytical Language of John Wilkins, Jorge Luis Borges speculated that, "it is not impossible to think of a language where the name of each thing says all the details of its destiny, past and future"?
... that in 1970 NAACP chairman Stephen Gill Spottswood publicly termed the Nixon administration's social policies "anti-Negro"?
... that after The American Review's owner expressed admiration for Hitler and Mussolini, a former contributor said he wouldn't write for it again "if it were the last publication left in America"?
... that an April 2013 exhibit in the Interference Archive featured homemade cardboard shields that were confiscated by the New York Police Department as weapons?
... that Operation Shrouded Horizon was an 18-month international law enforcement investigation into an online forum described as "a cyber hornet's nest of criminal hackers"?
... that a portable radio transmitter called Pocket FM enables people to create pirate radio networks in areas where authoritative governments tightly control communications?
... that people in Syria are using small, portable radio transmitters to create Syrnet, a network of pirate radio broadcasts committed to oppose the Assad regime?
... that the destruction of ivory has been called "indispensable in the fight against trafficking of threatened species"?
... that Dona Nelson, known for her two-sided paintings, was called "one of the best artists working today" by New York Times art critic Roberta Smith?
... that following the speech by Khizr and Ghazala Khan (pictured) at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, sales of pocket Constitutions spiked?
... that the entomologist Alice Gray became known as the "Bug Lady" for her work with the public at the American Museum of Natural History?
... that Time magazine said The J's with Jamie "have probably been heard by more people more times than any other group in the history of sound. Yet next to nobody knows who they are"?
... that Gilberto Gil said his Grammy Award for Quanta Live was particularly meaningful because the album is a summary of his three decades in music?
... that the first recorded human cannonball act was an 1877 London performance by 14-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter (pictured)?
... that pangolins (example pictured) are believed to be the world's most trafficked mammal?
... that in 1975, eight men stole $30 million from the Providence Mafia and associates in the Bonded Vault heist?
... that The New York Times said the podcast Crimetown "advances the [true crime] genre" and called it one of the "best new podcasts of 2016"?
... that during the Rhode Island banking crisis of the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people lost access to their money?
... that Manhattan vegetarian restaurant Dirt Candy is "waging war on the 'eat your vegetables' mind-set"?
... that after many years battling the forces of darkness, the Batcave became a popular venue for underground parties and concerts?
... that Green Jacket Shoal is Rhode Island's largest ship graveyard?
... that Roma producer Gabriela Rodríguez is the first Latin American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture?
... that The Marriage is a video game that tries to convey meaning through its mechanics rather than through audio or visuals?
... that Kitty O'Brien Joyner (pictured) was the first woman engineer at NACA, the predecessor to NASA?
... that a mandarin duck (pictured) that appeared in New York City's Central Park became an international celebrity, with followers whom the Associated Press called "quackarazzi"?
... that Robin Denselow of The Guardian called Orlando Julius (pictured) "one of the heroes of Nigerian music"?
... that amid the George Floyd protests, New York City implemented its first nighttime curfew since the Harlem riot of 1943?
... that a landmarked house on Abolitionist Place in Downtown Brooklyn may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad?
... that the Wild Bird Fund is New York City's first and only wildlife hospital (example treatment pictured)?
... that birders in New York City have recorded over 400 species?