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From today's featured article

Jameson's mamba (Dendroaspis jamesoni) is a species of highly venomous snake native to equatorial Africa. A member of the mamba genus Dendroaspis, it is slender with dull green upperparts and cream underparts and generally ranges from 1.5 to 2.2 m (4 ft 11 in to 7 ft 3 in) in length. Described by Scottish naturalist Thomas Traill in 1843, it has two recognised subspecies: the nominate subspecies from central and western sub-Saharan Africa and the eastern black-tailed subspecies from eastern sub-Saharan Africa. Predominantly arboreal, it preys mainly on birds and mammals. Its venom consists of both neurotoxins and cardiotoxins. Symptoms of envenomation in humans include pain and swelling of the bite site, followed by swelling, chills, sweating, abdominal pain and vomiting, with subsequent slurred speech, difficulty breathing and paralysis. Fatalities have been recorded within three to four hours of being bitten. The eastern subspecies is twice as venomous as the nominate subspecies. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Heinz Baked Beans

... that Mo Drake came up with the slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz" for Heinz Baked Beans (pictured) in 1967?
... that in 1908, Island No. 2 in California was simultaneously deeded to two different people?
... that Soetardjo Kartohadikusumo had to be "made younger" to be eligible for elementary school?
... that the music video for Chris Hadfield's version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" was the first music video recorded in space?
... that Google searches for the term "dumpster fire" spiked after Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy in October 2015?
... that efforts by Shyam Sunder Jyani have led to the planting of 2.5 million saplings in the Indian state of Rajasthan?
... that "leek rust", caused by Puccinia allii, has also caused significant losses for garlic farmers?
... that it is said of the board game Photosynthesis that "you can always count on someone else screwing it all up"?

In the news

Siaosi Sovaleni

Siaosi Sovaleni (pictured) is elected as prime minister by the Legislative Assembly of Tonga.
A fuel tanker truck explodes in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, killing at least 75 people.
In Canadian football, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to win the Grey Cup.
In motor racing, Max Verstappen wins the Formula One World Championship, while Mercedes win the constructors' title.

On this day

December 16: Day of Reconciliation in South Africa

First movement of Dvořák's
New World Symphony

1707 – The last recorded eruption of Japan's Mount Fuji released some 800 million m³ (28 billion cu ft) of volcanic ash.
1893 – Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony (audio featured) premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declared the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, a puppet state created by Soviet Russia to justify the Lithuanian–Soviet War.
1971 – The surrender of East Pakistani forces in Dacca concluded the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Indo-Pakistani War.
2014 – A hostage crisis in a Lindt chocolate café in Sydney, Australia, ended with police storming the building, killing the perpetrator and one of the hostages.

Haakon IV of Norway (d. 1263)
Maria Rundell (d. 1828)
Carol Browner (b. 1955)

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Today's featured picture

Zinnia elegans, known as the youth-and-age, common zinnia or elegant zinnia, is an annual flowering plant in the daisy family, Asteraceae. It is native to Mexico but grown as an ornamental in many places and naturalised in a number of countries, including scattered locations in South and Central America, the West Indies, the United States, Australia and Italy. This photograph of a Z. elegans bloom in a garden in Bamberg, Germany, was stacked from fifteen separate images.

Photograph credit: Reinhold Möller

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