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Today is February 17, 2025! I'm user 45,939!

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Today's featured article

Methanol (left) looks and smells like ethanol (right).

More than 70 people died of methanol poisoning in the Russian city of Irkutsk in December 2016. Caused by the consumption of adulterated surrogate alcohol, it was the deadliest such incident in Russia's post-Soviet history. Russian consumption of surrogate alcohol rose rapidly in the early 2010s amid worsening economic conditions because they were commonly available and cost less than government-regulated vodka. In the Irkutsk incident, people drank hawthorn-scented bath oil which was typically made with and labeled as containing drinkable ethanol. At least one batch was made instead with a toxic amount of methanol (pictured with ethanol), causing injuries and deaths among residents of Novo-Lenino, a neighborhood in Irkutsk. An investigation found that the surrogate alcohol's producer sourced the methanol from an employee of a local windshield washer fluid production facility. The Russian government increased punishments for illegally producing and selling alcohol, and they made it more difficult to acquire surrogate alcohol. (Full article...)

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Selected anniversaries

February 17: Presidents' Day in the United States (2025)

Helicopter stolen in the 1974 White House incident

1859 – Cochinchina campaign: French Navy forces captured the Citadel of Saigon, defended by 1,000 Vietnamese soldiers of the Nguyễn dynasty.
1904 – Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in Milan to poor reviews, forcing him to revise the opera.
1964 – Gabonese military officers overthrew President Léon M'ba, but French forces, honouring a 1960 treaty, forcibly reinstated him two days later.
1974 – A U.S. Army soldier stole a Bell UH-1 helicopter (pictured) and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
2011 – Arab Spring: Bahraini security forces killed four protesters in a pre-dawn raid at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, while the "Day of Rage" took place in Libya with nationwide protests against Muammar Gaddafi's government.

Joseph Favre (b. 1849)
María de las Mercedes Barbudo (d. 1849)
Don Tallon (b. 1916)
Hung Liu (b. 1948)

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In the news

Klaus Iohannis

President of Romania Klaus Iohannis (pictured) resigns from office, and is succeeded by Ilie Bolojan.
The Baltic states complete synchronization of their power grids with continental Europe's, disconnecting from Russia's.
The ruling Vetëvendosje party, led by Albin Kurti, wins the most seats in the Assembly of Kosovo.
The Patriotic Union, led by Brigitte Haas, wins the most seats in the Landtag of Liechtenstein.

{{TSF Monday}}

Sam Matlock

... that Sam Matlock (pictured) formed Wargasm with a woman who photographed Dead!, his rock band?
... that a SpongeBob-themed channel run by AI quickly devolved into characters discussing depression, drug use, kleptomania, communism, and tax fraud?
... that some workers in Japan pay agencies to tell their employers that they are resigning?
... that Jennifer Jones has won a record-tying six Canadian women's curling championships?
... that botanists at Kew Gardens suggested in 2018 that there were only three Madagascar banana trees left?
... that the movies available to Florida's first TV station were so bad early on that the host called his show "The P.U. Club"?
... that Kailash Puri became Marks & Spencer's first advisor on Indian ready meals?
... that the 2021 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in NCAA v. Alston made student athlete influencers eligible for compensation?
... that Jailson Mendes had to gain weight for his first pornographic film?

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