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August 16

San Sebastian Church in Manila
San Sebastian Church in Manila
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Srettha Thavisin in 2023
Srettha Thavisin
Complete set of snooker balls
Complete set of snooker balls

Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets. First played by British Army officers stationed in India circa 1875, the game uses twenty-two balls (pictured) – a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls collectively called "the colours". Using a snooker cue, individual players (or teams) take turns to strike the cue ball to pot the other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each foul committed by the opposing player/team. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player or team that has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player/team has won a predetermined number of frames. The standard rules of snooker were first established in 1919. As a professional sport, snooker is governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Top players of many nationalities compete in regular tournaments around the world, earning millions of pounds on the World Snooker Tour. (Full article...)

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Pavonia praemorsa flower
Pavonia praemorsa flower
  • ... that the flowers of Pavonia praemorsa (pictured) bloom and die within the same day?
  • ... that soprano Joan Ruth rejected a marriage proposal because her suitor wanted her to abandon ambitions of a singing career?
  • ... that the mascots of the 2026 Winter Olympics and 2026 Winter Paralympics were designed by schoolchildren?
  • ... that Bengisu Avcı had to abandon her 45-kilometre (28-mile) swim across the Kaiwi Channel after being stung by jellyfish twelve hours in?
  • ... that some of the first likely Libotonius fossils collected are lost at the Smithsonian?
  • ... that Argentine naval officer Barry Melbourne Hussey was known as El Ingles ('The Englishman') by his comrades?
  • ... that the 2024 song "Tobey" features "3 generations of Detroit"?
  • ... that Leonhard Kaiser, a student of Martin Luther, was burned at the stake on 16 August 1527 after being declared guilty of heresy?
  • ... that the area of Cultybraggan Camp has been a royal hunting ground, a prison for fervent Nazis and the site of an underground bunker intended for use in a nuclear war?
Ceramica pisi

Ceramica pisi, the broom moth, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in a range covering the whole of Europe from the Arctic Circle to northern Spain, and across to the Russian Far East. It lives at heights of up to 2,000 metres. This photograph shows a broom moth caterpillar in Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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