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Tony Hawk's Underground is a skateboarding-adventure video game published by Activision in 2003 and 2004 as part of the Tony Hawk's series. Neversoft developed the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions, while the Game Boy Advance adaptation was developed by Vicarious Visions and the mobile phone version by Jamdat. Players explore levels and complete goals while performing skateboarding tricks; players can also create a custom character instead of selecting a professional skater. The plot follows the player and their friend Eric Sparrow as the two become professionals and grow apart. The game was developed with a theme of individuality, and real-world skateboarders contributed their experiences during development. Reviewers praised its wide appeal, soundtrack, customization, multiplayer features, and plot. The graphics and the controls for driving vehicles and walking were less well received. Underground's PlayStation 2 version had sold 2.11 million copies in the United States by December 2007. A sequel, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, was released in 2004. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Winfield Blake

... that after a career as an opera singer and Broadway musical star, Winfield Blake (pictured) became a vaudeville comedian as one half of the duo Blake and Amber?
... that a Picasso sculpture at University Village was called "half as high and twice as sexy as the Great Sphinx of Egypt"?
... that country music singer Buck Owens bought a bankrupt TV station in California from his sister?
... that 13-year-old Nyah Mway is thought to be the first Karen person killed by police in the United States?
... that Ratnākara's Haravijaya is the longest extant Sanskrit mahākāvya?
... that Betty Brussel set three competitive swimming records on the same day at the age of 99?
... that both scholars and activists believe that diet culture is often intertwined with racism and other forms of prejudice?
... that G. R. Pantouw supported the Dutch puppet state of East Indonesia because he wanted to push the Netherlands into abandoning colonialism?
... that a Cretan man found a 1st-century statue of Aphrodite while trying to drill a well, and then reburied it?

In the news

Hopfield (left) and Hinton

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton (pictured) receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research in machine learning with artificial neural networks.
An attack on the Haitian town of Pont-Sondé by a gang leaves 70 people dead and another 50 injured.
More than 20 people die in flooding and landslides in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A school bus crashes and burns in Pathum Thani, Thailand, leaving 22 school children and 3 teachers dead.
Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Israel invades Lebanon, and Iran launches missiles against Israel.

On this day

October 8

Lithograph depicting the Great Chicago Fire

1871 – The Great Chicago Fire (pictured), which according to popular belief was started by a cow belonging to Catherine O'Leary kicking over a lantern, began and proceeded to destroy much of the city's central business district.
1956 – Major League Baseball pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history.
1998 – A new airport for Oslo, Norway, opened at Gardermoen, replacing a smaller one at the same location that had served as a backup to the city's previous main airport at Fornebu.
2001 – At Linate Airport in Milan, Italy, Scandinavian Airlines Flight SK686 collided on take-off with a Cessna Citation II business jet, killing 118 people.

Edward Wright (bap 1561)
John Hancock (d. 1793)
Franklin Pierce (d. 1869)
Marilou Diaz-Abaya (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

The common blackbird (Turdus merula) is a species of true thrush. It breeds in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands, Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It has several subspecies across its large range; a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species. Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory. The male of the nominate subspecies, which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song; the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage. The species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, mud-lined, cup-shaped nest. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits. This common and conspicuous bird has given rise to many literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song. This female common blackbird, of the subspecies T. m. mauritanicus, was photographed in the Souss-Massa National Park, Morocco.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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