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Velociraptor skeleton

Velociraptor is a genus of small dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch. It was about 1.5 to 2.07 m (4.9 to 6.8 ft) long with a body mass around 14.1 to 19.7 kg (31 to 43 lb). Velociraptor was a bipedal carnivore with feathers, a long tail, and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on each hindfoot; these claws are thought to have been used to tackle and restrain prey. It is distinguished from other dromaeosaurids by its long and low skull, with an upturned snout. One of the dinosaur genera most familiar to the general public (due to its prominent role in the Jurassic Park films), in actuality it was roughly the size of a turkey, considerably smaller than its depictions in novels and films. It is well known to paleontologists, with more than a dozen described fossil skeletons. One dramatic specimen preserves a Velociraptor locked in combat with a Protoceratops. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Painting used in the box art of John Company

... that the box cover of the board game John Company shows Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and George, Prince of Wales, gambling at hazard (pictured)?
... that Premana Premadi is the first Indonesian female astronomer to have an asteroid named in her honor?
... that the album No Highs is a response to the "corporate" ambient music of streaming services?
... that telephone operator Myriel Davies began her long career as a peace activist during the Suez Crisis?
... that New Zealand's Native Island hosted a colony of Samoyeds and huskies used in both the Southern Cross and Nimrod expeditions to the South Pole?
... that the suspect in a deadly shooting at the University of North Carolina was a graduate student of the victim?
... that the sound for the film A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution was recorded using a Walkman?
... that a man from Milwaukee who goes on walks shirtless is known as the "Milverine"?

In the news

Kalle Rovanperä

In motorsport, Kalle Rovanperä (pictured) and Jonne Halttunen win the World Rally Championship.
A mine fire in Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan, kills 42 people.
Hurricane Otis makes landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, leaving at least 39 people dead.
In the United States, 18 people are killed in a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

On this day

October 30: Mischief Night

Monument to the Gozo luzzu disaster

1938 – CBS Radio broadcast the radio drama The War of the Worlds, causing panic among some listeners who believed that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.
1948 – A luzzu fishing boat overloaded with passengers capsized and sank in the Gozo Channel off Qala, Gozo, Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board (monument pictured).
1991 – The Madrid Conference, an attempt by the international community to revive the Israeli–Palestinian peace process through negotiations, convened.
1993 – The Troubles: Three members of the Ulster Defence Association opened fire in a crowded pub during a Halloween party, killing eight people and wounding nineteen others.
2002 – Warren Zevon made his last public appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, giving the advice to "enjoy every sandwich".

Miloš Trifunović (b. 1871)
Dave Gallaher (b. 1873)
Gustav Ludwig Hertz (d. 1975)
Jam Master Jay (d. 2002)

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Dayanışma by Zühtü Müridoğlu

Twenty sculptures were erected in Istanbul in 1973 and 1974 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1973. The theme of the sculptures was open; the sculptors were not only allowed but encouraged to freely express their own characteristic styles. This was a unique event in the history of modern Turkish sculpture, which had until then mostly only seen commissions for monuments. The Istanbul Municipality intended to erect fifty sculptures, but a lack of funds necessitated that the number of sculptures be reduced to twenty. Only six of the sculptures remain, four of which remain in their original location. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Fumarole minerals are minerals that are deposited by fumarole exhalations. They form when gases and compounds desublimate or precipitate out of condensates, forming mineral deposits. They are mostly associated with volcanoes (as volcanic sublimate or fumarolic sublimate), following deposition from volcanic gas during an eruption or discharge from a volcanic vent or fumarole, but have been encountered on burning coal deposits as well. They can be black or multicoloured and are often unstable upon exposure to the atmosphere. This fumarole formation, formed of acicular crystals of tazieffite (black), was photographed at Mutnovsky, a volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

Photograph credit: Ppm61

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