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From today's featured article

A carp, an example of a teleost

The teleosts (from Greek for "complete bone") are an infraclass of ray-finned fishes that arose in the Triassic period. Making up 96 percent of all known fish species, this diverse group includes about 40 orders and 448 families. They inhabit oceans at all depths, estuaries, rivers, lakes and swamps. They range in size from the giant oarfish, measuring 25 feet (7.6 m) or more, and the ocean sunfish, weighing over 2.2 short tons (2 tonnes), to the male anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps, just 0.24 inches (6.2 mm) long. Teleosts can be torpedo-shaped, flattened (vertically or horizontally) or cylindrical, and some, like the anglerfish and seahorse, have unique shapes. They can protrude their jaws, enabling them to grab prey and draw it into their mouth. Depicted in art over the centuries, teleosts are economically important to humans. They are harvested for food, captured for sport, kept in aquariums, and used in research, especially in the fields of genetics and developmental biology. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Bagel and cream cheese

... that the bagel and cream cheese (example pictured) was a very popular dish in the United States in the early 1950s, having permeated American culture?

... that radioactive nanoparticles are being investigated as a treatment for cancer?
... that Daniel Tilton, one of the first three judges of the Mississippi Territory, lacked any legal experience prior to his appointment?
... that the stag beetle Geodorcus servandus is unable to fly, and is known to occur only on a single mountaintop in New Zealand?
... that Seattle's International District/Chinatown station is located under a large concrete lid that supports several office towers and a public plaza?
... that Angelo De Donatis is the first non-cardinal to be appointed Vicar General of Rome since the sixteenth century?
... that the 2008 film Dostana inspired several fashion trends in India, with Priyanka Chopra's silver sari, worn in the song "Desi Girl", becoming very popular?
... that the various versions of Titian's Venus and Musician include organists, lute-players, Cupids, and dogs, but always a nude Venus?

In the news

Nawaz Sharif

After Nawaz Sharif (pictured) is disqualified from public office, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi succeeds him as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
A suicide bombing in Lahore, Pakistan, kills 25 people and wounds 53 others.
In golf, Jordan Spieth wins the Open Championship.
The Women's Cricket World Cup concludes with England defeating India in the final.
In cycling, Chris Froome wins the Tour de France.
Ram Nath Kovind is elected President of India.

On this day...

August 2: Day of the Republic in Macedonia

Coin of Majorian

338 BC – A Macedonian army defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony over the majority of Ancient Greece.
461 – Unpopular among the senate aristocracy for his reform efforts, Roman emperor Majorian (pictured on coin) was deposed and executed five days later.
1897 – The Siege of Malakand ended when a relief column was able to reach the British garrison in the Malakand region of colonial India's North West Frontier Province.
1932 – At the California Institute of Technology, Carl David Anderson proved the existence of antimatter when he discovered the positron.
1947 – A British South American Airways airliner crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes but its wreckage was not found until 1998.

Andrew Barton (d. 1511) · Harriet Arbuthnot (d. 1834) · Marija Bursać (b. 1920)

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Today's featured picture

The Madonna of the Book is a small painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli that was executed in tempera on panel between 1480 and 1483. It depicts Mary and the Christ Child seated by a window, with Mary absorbed in a book of hours (prayer book for laymen) and the Child gazing at his mother. The work is held at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan.

Painting: Sandro Botticelli

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