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From today's featured article

The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice is a 12-story office building in East Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. Completed in 1967, it was designed in the late modernist style by architect Kevin Roche and engineering partner John Dinkeloo of Roche-Dinkeloo. The building was commissioned as the headquarters of the Ford Foundation, the largest private foundation in the United States at the time. It is a glass-and-steel cube held up by piers made of concrete and clad with Dakota granite. Dan Kiley was the landscape architect for the large public atrium inside, the first such space in an office building in Manhattan. The building has received critical acclaim for its design following both completion and renovation, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated the building and its atrium as city landmarks. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

2010 snowball fight in Washington, D.C.

... that the Washington DC Snowball Fight Association was formed when around 2,000 people showed up to a snowball fight (pictured) organized over Facebook?
... that Emily Sutton illustrated an abridged children's edition of Shakespeare's First Folio with "red-cheeked gentlemen, sword-wielding warriors and ladies in striking attire"?
... that gamblers in Myanmar worship the spirit Thone Myo Shin to ensure victory in cockfights?
... that John A. Jakle has co-authored nine books on "roadside America", including books on motels, road signs, gas stations, parking lots, and fast-food restaurants?
... that Ellie Goulding tied Adele for the most UK number one albums by a British female artist when Higher Than Heaven topped the charts?
... that Robert Van de Graaff, inventor of the Van de Graaff generator, turned to physics after injuries kept him from playing football at Alabama?
... that an unlockable vehicle in Kururin Squash! contains a reference to Super Mario Bros. by honking the horn?
... that the kingship ideology of the Lozi Kingdom emphasised powerful ancestral royal spirits, believed to affect the present?
... that the Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Anzio once took the place of an entire fleet?

In the news

Tô Lâm

Vietnam's communist party congress re-elects Tô Lâm (pictured) as general secretary, the most powerful position in the one-party state.
Iliana Iotova becomes the first female president of Bulgaria following the resignation of Rumen Radev.
The United States leaves the World Health Organization.
Italian fashion designer Valentino, founder of his eponymous fashion house, dies at the age of 93.

On this day

January 31: Independence Day in Nauru (1968)

Damage caused by the Pemex explosion

1578 – Eighty Years' War: Spanish forces won a crushing victory at the Battle of Gembloux, threatening the States General of the Netherlands and contributing to its move from Brussels to Antwerp.
1747 – The London Lock Hospital, the first voluntary hospital specialising in the treatment of venereal diseases, opened.
1961 – Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, the chimpanzee Ham became the first hominid to be launched into outer space.
1988 – Doug Williams became the first African-American quarterback to play in the Super Bowl, leading the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII.
2013 – A gas leak underneath the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City caused an explosion (aftermath pictured) that killed at least 37 people and injured another 121.

Zina D. H. Young (b. 1821)
Eric Burhop (b. 1911)
Justin Timberlake (b. 1981)
George Koval (d. 2006)

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Today's featured picture

Choriaster granulatus, the granulated sea star, is a species of sea star in the family Oreasteridae, and the only species of its genus. It is found both individually and in groups, and resides in the Indo-Pacific region, the Red Sea, Fiji, and the Great Barrier Reef, at depths of up to 53 metres (174 ft) and temperatures of 24 to 29 °C (75 to 84 °F). It favours sandy habitats with rubble slopes and detritus as well as those among corals and sponges. Choriaster granulatus has a convex body and five short arms with rounded tips and is relatively large among sea stars, having a maximum radius of about 27 centimetres (11 in). It is most commonly pale pink with brown papillae radiating out from the centre, but can also exhibit colours ranging from grey to yellow and even red. It is a carnivore, having a diet of small invertebrates such as coral polyps as well as carrion. This C. granulatus sea star was photographed off the coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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