User:Lx 121/WikiMediaWatch/(v.ii) 2009.06

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WikiMediaWatch (v.ii) 2009.06

Wittig (& Friends)'s Magazine/Wiki/Blog of WikiMedia

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June, from the Très riches heures du duc de Berry
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2000



June 12-13

Asbian's Pick: Perfect World

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Perfect World
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Developer(s)Beijing Perfect World
Publisher(s)  Beijing Perfect World
  GF Station
  Quang Minh
  MK-Style
  Cubinet Interactive
  Level Up! Games
  Level Up! Games
  CJ Internet
  Perfect World Entertainment
  Nival Online
  Games-Masters Ltd.
Platform(s)Windows
Release  July 2005
  December 2006
  February 2007
  March 2007
  May 2007
  September 2007
  May 2007 *OB
  June 2008
  TBA
  Fall 2008
  Fall 2008
  Q3/2008
Genre(s)Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)MMO

Perfect World (Chinese: 完美世界, commonly abbreviated as PW and W2), is an MMORPG developed by Beijing Perfect World. It has been released in several different areas in different versions already. The Malaysian version has now been released worldwide in an English-language format. Perfect World International, the official English version of the game, opened its teaser site on July 15, 2008, and launched its closed beta August 19, 2008. The open beta began on September 2, 2008. The International Version is specifically built to accommodate North America, Europe, and other English-speaking territories. In addition, the Multilanguage-Version is being prepared and will be available in the 3rd quarter of 2008. Perfect World Korea is currently still under development.

Perfect World is heavily based on Chinese mythology, and is set in the mythical world of Pangu. The simulated day and night, and flight is a key component in exploring the game world.

(read more... )



June 11

 
The ten digits of a GN-4 Nixie tube.

A nixie tube is an electronic device for displaying numerals or other information. The glass tube contains a wire-mesh anode and multiple cathodes. In most tubes, the cathodes are shaped like numerals. Applying power to one cathode surrounds it with an orange glow discharge. The tube is filled with a gas at low pressure, usually mostly neon and often a little mercury and/or argon, in a Penning mixture.[1]

Although it resembles a vacuum tube in appearance, its operation does not depend on thermionic emission of electrons from a heated cathode. It is therefore called a cold-cathode tube (a form of gas filled tube), or a variant of neon lamp. Such tubes rarely exceed 40 °C (104 °F) even under the most severe of operating conditions in a room at ambient temperature. [2]

The most common form of nixie tube has ten cathodes in the shapes of the numerals 0 to 9 (and occasionally a decimal point or two), but there are also types that show various letters, signs and symbols. A related device is the pixie tube, which uses a stencil mask with numeral-shaped holes instead of shaped cathodes. Some Russian nixies, e.g. the IN-14, used an upside-down digit 2 as the digit 5, presumably to save manufacturing costs as there is no obvious technical or aesthetic reason.

Each cathode can be made to glow in the characteristic neon red-orange color by applying about 170 volts DC at a few milliamperes between a cathode and the anode. The current limiting is normally implemented as an anode resistor of a few tens of thousands of ohms. Nixies exhibit negative resistance and will maintain their glow at typically 20 V to 30 V below the strike voltage. Some color variation can be observed between types, caused by differences in the materials and gas mixtures used. Longer-life tubes that were manufactured later in the nixie timeline have mercury added to reduce sputtering [3] resulting in a blue or purple tinge to the emitted light. In some cases, these colors are filtered out by a red or orange pigment coating on the glass.

(read more... )





June 7-8

For other uses, see Black hole (disambiguation).

 
Simulated view of a black hole in front of the Milky Way. The hole has 10 solar masses and is viewed from a distance of 600 km.[4] Of note is the gravitational lensing effect known as an Einstein ring.

In general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including light, can escape its pull. The black hole has a one-way surface, called an event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect blackbody in thermodynamics. Quantum analysis of black holes shows them to possess a temperature and Hawking radiation.

Despite its invisible interior, a black hole can reveal its presence through interaction with other matter. A black hole can be inferred by tracking the movement of a group of stars that orbit a region in space which looks empty. Alternatively, one can see gas falling into a relatively small black hole, from a companion star. This gas spirals inward, heating up to very high temperature and emitting large amounts of radiation that can be detected from earthbound and earth-orbiting telescopes. Such observations have resulted in the scientific consensus that, barring a breakdown in our understanding of nature, black holes do exist in our universe.[5]

(read more... )

June 6-7

Operation Neptune
Part of Operation Overlord, Battle of Normandy
 
U.S. Army troops wade ashore on Omaha Beach during the landings, 6 June 1944
DateJune 6, 1944
Location
Normandy, France coast and adjacent waters
Result Allied victory
Territorial
changes
Allied beachhead in Normandy, France
Belligerents
  United Kingdom
  United States
  Canada
  Free France
  Poland
  Norway
  Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
  Dwight D. Eisenhower
  Bernard Law Montgomery
  Omar Bradley
  Trafford Leigh-Mallory
  Arthur Tedder
  Miles Dempsey
  Bertram Ramsay
  Erwin Rommel
  Gerd von Rundstedt
  Friedrich Dollmann
Strength
156,001 380,000
Casualties and losses
Total allied casualties (killed, wounded, missing, or captured) are estimated at approximately 10,000.
These comprised:[6][7]
United States–6,603, of which 1,465 fatal.
United Kingdom–2,700.
Canada–1,074, of which 359 fatal.
Between 4,000 and 9,000 dead, wounded, or captured

The Normandy Landings were the first operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, also known as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 British Double Summer Time (UTC+2). In planning, D-Day was the term used for the day of actual landing, which was dependent on final approval.

The assault was conducted in two phases: an air assault landing of American, British and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France commencing at 6:30. There were also subsidiary 'attacks' mounted under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the Kriegsmarine and the German army from the real landing areas.[8]

The operation was the largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time, with 160,000[9] troops landing on June 6, 1944. 195,700[10] Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000[9] ships were involved. The invasion required the transport of soldiers and materiel from the United Kingdom by troop-laden aircraft and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the English Channel and naval fire-support. The landings took place along a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

(read more... )

  1. ^ (Weston 1968, p. 334), (Bylander 1979, p. 65)
  2. ^ (Bylander 1979, p. 60)
  3. ^ (Bylander 1979, p. 60)
  4. ^ Kraus, Ute (2005-03-20). "Step by Step into a Black Hole".
  5. ^ Celotti, Annalisa; John C. Miller and Dennis W. Sciama (December 1999). "Astrophysical evidence for the existence of black holes". Classical and Quantum Gravity. 16 (12A): A3–A21.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) arΧiv:astro-ph/9912186v1
  6. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions for D-Day and the Battle of Normandy (casualties)". Ddaymuseum.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  7. ^ "The Landings in Normandy — Veterans Affairs Canada". Vac-acc.gc.ca. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
  8. ^ Hakim, Joy (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 157–161. ISBN 0-19-509514-6.
  9. ^ a b "D-Day June 6, 1944". www.army.mil US Army Official website. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  10. ^ Ambrose, Stephen E. (1994). D-Day. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80137-X.