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2000 Sugar Bowl

Status: Approved, featured on Main Page January 4, 2010.

The 2000 Sugar Bowl was the designated Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game for the 1999 college football season and was played on January 4, 2000, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Florida State Seminoles, led by head coach Bobby Bowden (pictured) and representing the Atlantic Coast Conference, defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies, then representing the Big East Conference, by a score of 46–29. With the win, Florida State clinched the 1999 Division I college football championship, the team's second national championship. An estimated total of 79,280 people attended the game in person, while approximately 18.4 million US viewers watched the game on ABC television. The resulting 17.5 television rating was the third-largest ever recorded for a BCS college football game. Florida State wide receiver Peter Warrick was named the game's most valuable player. (more...)

Recently featured: Jerry Voorhis – Asser – Ceres

Martin Brodeur

Status: Rejected for February 12, 2010. May resubmit for a later date.

Martin Pierre Brodeur (born 1972) is a Canadian ice hockey goaltender from Montreal, Quebec, who has played his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the New Jersey Devils. In his 19-year career, he has led the team to three Stanley Cup championships and has taken them to the playoffs every year but one. Brodeur won an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Brodeur is the NHL's all-time leader in regular season wins, shutouts, and games played, has won at least 35 games in every season between 1996–97 and 2007–08, and is the only goalie in NHL history with seven 40-win seasons. He is a four-time Vezina Trophy winner, a four-time Jennings Trophy winner, a ten-time NHL All-Star, a Calder Memorial Trophy winner, and one of only two NHL goaltenders to have scored goals in both the regular season and the playoffs. Brodeur uses a hybrid style of goaltending by standing up more than butterfly style goalies. He is known for his puck handling, his positional play, and his reflexes, especially with his glove hand. Brodeur's prowess in puck handling directly led the NHL to change its rules regarding when goalies were allowed the handle the puck outside of the goal crease. (more...)

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Status: Rejected for May 21, 2010. May resubmit for a later date.

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. It was the second film released in the Star Wars saga, and the fifth in terms of internal chronology. The film is set three years after the destruction of the Death Star. The villainous Darth Vader and the forces of the Galactic Empire are in pursuit of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and the Rebel Alliance. While Vader chases Han and Leia across the galaxy, Luke studies the Force under Jedi Master Yoda. Vader uses Luke's friends to set a trap for him, leading to a fierce confrontation between the black-armored Sith and the young Jedi which ends with a shocking revelation. Following a difficult production, The Empire Strikes Back was released on May 21, 1980. The film initially received mixed reviews from critics, although it has since grown in esteem, becoming one of the most popular chapters in the Star Wars saga. It earned more than US$538 million worldwide over the original run and several re-releases, making it the highest grossing film of 1980. When adjusted for inflation, it is the 12th highest grossing film of all time. (more...)

Victoria Cross (Canada)

Status: Pending.

The Victoria Cross (French: Croix de Victoria) is a military decoration of Canada modelled on the original British Victoria Cross – instituted in 1856 – in both intent and appearance, though with several small changes. Created in 1993, it and the original are the highest honours in the Canadian honours system, taking precedence over all other orders, decorations, and medals. It is awarded by either the Canadian monarch or his or her viceregal representative, the Governor General of Canada, to any member of the Canadian Forces or allies serving under or with Canadian military command for extraordinary valour and devotion to duty while facing a hostile force. Recipients are entitled to use the post-nominal letters VC (for both English and French), and also to an annual annuity of C$3,000. The Victoria Cross can be awarded more than once, but no one has received the Canadian medal since its inception. (more...)

Grand Forks, North Dakota

Status: Pending.

Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. Originally called Les Grandes Fourches by French fur traders, the city was founded on June 15, 1870 by steamboat captain Alexander Griggs and incorporated on February 22, 1881. Grand Forks is located on the western banks of the Red River of the North across from where the river meets the Red Lake River, in an extremely flat region known as the Red River Valley; the city is prone to flooding and was struck by the devastating Red River Flood of 1997. In July 2008, its population was estimated at 51,313, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 97,190. Grand Forks, along with its twin city of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, forms the center of the Grand Forks, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is often called Greater Grand Forks or The Grand Cities. Historically dependent on local agriculture, the city's economy now encompasses higher education including the University of North Dakota, defense including Grand Forks Air Force Base, health care, manufacturing, food processing, and scientific research. (more...)

Allosaurus

Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago, in the late Jurassic period. The name Allosaurus means "different lizard" and is derived from the Greek αλλος/allos ("different, strange") and σαυρος/sauros ("lizard"). A large bipedal predator, it averaged 8.5 meters (28 ft) in length, possibly reaching over 12 meters (39 ft). Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, its three-fingered forelimbs were small; the body was balanced by a long, heavy tail. Allosaurus was at the top of the food chain; potential prey included ornithopods, stegosaurids, and sauropods. Some paleontologists believe Allosaurus had cooperative social behavior and hunted in packs, while others think they worked individually. It may have attacked large prey by ambush, using its upper jaws like a hatchet. As one of the first well-known theropod dinosaurs, it has long attracted attention outside of paleontological circles, and has been a lead dinosaur in several films and documentaries. (more...)

2005 Texas Longhorns football team

The 2005 Texas Longhorn football team represented The University of Texas at Austin during the college football season of 2005–2006, winning the Big 12 Conference Championship and the national championship. The team was coached by Mack Brown, led on offense by quarterback Vince Young, and played its home games at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The team's penultimate game, the 2005 Big 12 Championship Game, was won by the largest margin of victory in Big 12 Championship Game history. Texas finished the season by winning the 2006 Rose Bowl against the University of Southern California Trojans for the national championship. Numerous publications have cited this victory and this team's season as standing among the greatest performances in college football history. The Longhorns finished as the only unbeaten team in NCAA Division I-A football that year, with thirteen wins and zero losses. (more...)

Interstate 15 in Arizona

Interstate 15 (I-15), a transcontinental Interstate Highway from San Diego, California to the Canadian border, passes through Mohave County in the far northwest corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. Despite its length of 29.43 miles (47.36 km) and isolation from the rest of the state in the remote Arizona Strip, it is notable for the scenic section through the Virgin River Gorge. The highway heads in a northeasterly direction from the Nevada border northeast of Mesquite, Nevada to the Utah border southwest of St. George, Utah. The southern portion of the routing of I-15 was built close to the alignment of the old U.S. Route 91, but the northern section through the Virgin River Gorge was built along an alignment that previously had no road. The southern section of the highway was complete and opened in the early 1960s, while the section through the gorge did not open to traffic until 1973. When it opened, the portion of I-15 through the Virgin River Gorge was the most expensive section of rural Interstate per mile. (more...)

Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri (Latin [proxima] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help): meaning 'next to' or 'nearest to') is a red dwarf star approximately 4.2 light-years (3.97×10¹³ km) distant in the constellation of Centaurus. The star is the nearest star to the Sun and is only 0.21 ly (15,000 ± 700 astronomical units [AU]) away from the binary star system Alpha Centauri. Proxima Centauri's diameter is one-seventh that of the Sun; its mass is about an eighth of the Sun's, and its average density is about 40 times that of the Sun. Although it has a very low average luminosity, Proxima Centauri is a flare star that undergoes random increases in brightness because of magnetic activity; during a flare the star generates a total X-ray emission similar to that produced by the Sun. The star's relatively low energy production rate means that it will be a main-sequence star for another four trillion years, or nearly 300 times the current age of the universe. Searches for companions orbiting Proxima Centauri have been unsuccessful; the detection of smaller objects will require the use of new instruments, such as the proposed Space Interferometry Mission. Whether a planet orbiting this star could support life is disputed. Because of the star's proximity, it has been proposed as a destination for interstellar travel. (more...)

Ficus aurea

Ficus aurea, commonly known as the Florida strangler fig, golden fig, or higuerón, is a tree in the family Moraceae that is native to Florida, the northern and western Caribbean, southern Mexico and Central America south to Panama. The specific epithet aurea was coined by English botanist Thomas Nuttall who described the species in 1846; older names applied to this species have been ruled invalid. Ficus aurea is a strangler fig; seed germination usually takes place in the canopy of a host tree and the seedling lives as an epiphyte until its roots establish contact with the ground. It then enlarges and strangles its host, eventually becoming a freestanding tree in its own right. Individuals may reach 30 m (100 ft) in height. Like all figs, it has an obligate mutualism with fig wasps; figs are only pollinated by fig wasps, and fig wasps can only reproduce in fig flowers. The tree provides habitat, food and shelter for a host of tropical lifeforms including epiphytes in cloud forests and birds, mammals, reptiles and invertebrates. F. aurea is used in traditional medicine, for live fencing, as an ornamental and as a bonsai. (more...)

History of the Australian Capital Territory

The history of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) as an administrative division of Australia began after the Federation of Australia in 1901, when it was created in law as the site for Australia's capital city Canberra. The region has a long prior history of human habitation before the Territory's creation, however, with evidence of Indigenous Australian settlement dating back at least 21,000 years. Following the colonisation of Australia by the British, the 19th century saw the initial European exploration and settlement of the area and their encounters with the local indigenous peoples, beginning in 1820 and shortly followed by settlements in 1824. In 1908, the region was selected as the site of the nation's future capital city. The territory officially came under government control as the Federal Capital Territory on 1 January 1911. The planning and construction of Canberra followed, with the Parliament of Australia finally moving there in 1927. (more...)

Climate of Minnesota

The climate of Minnesota is typical of a continental climate with cold winters and hot summers. Minnesota's location in the Upper Midwest allows it to experience some of the widest variety of weather in the United States. Winter in Minnesota is characterized by cold temperatures as low as −60 °F (−51 °C). Snow is the main form of winter precipitation, but freezing rain, ice, sleet, and occasionally rain are all possible during the winter months. Common storm systems include Alberta clippers or Panhandle hooks; some of which evolve into blizzards. Annual snowfall extremes have ranged from over 170 inches (432 cm) in the rugged Superior Highlands of the North Shore to as little as 10 inches (25 cm) in southern Minnesota. Spring is a time of major transition; snowstorms are common early, but by late-spring as temperatures begin to moderate the state experiences tornadoes, averaging 24 per year. In summer, humid conditions help kick off thunderstorm activity 30–40 days per year. Summer high temperatures as hot as 114 °F (46 °C) are possible. Autumn weather in Minnesota is largely the reverse of spring weather; the jet stream—which tends to weaken in summer—begins to re-strengthen, leading to a quicker changing of weather patterns and an increased variability of temperatures. By late October and November these storm systems become strong enough to form major winter storms. (more...)