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From today's featured article

A sketch of Rainer Maria Rilke by Pasternak

The Duino Elegies are a collection of ten poems written by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), a Bohemian-Austrian poet. The elegies are intensely religious, mystical poems that employ a rich symbolism of angels and salvation weighing beauty and existential suffering while addressing issues such as the limits of the human condition, loneliness, love and death. Rilke began writing the elegies in 1912 while a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis (1855–1934) at Duino Castle near Trieste, and they were dedicated to her upon publication. Aside from brief episodes of writing in 1913 and 1915, Rilke did not return to the work until a few years after the end of World War I. With a sudden, renewed inspiration—writing in a frantic pace he described as a "boundless storm, a hurricane of the spirit"—he completed the collection in February 1922 while staying at Château de Muzot in Veyras, Switzerland. The delay in completing the work was because he suffered frequently from severe depression caused by the events of the war. The Duino Elegies are recognized by critics and scholars as his most important work, and have influenced many subsequent poets and writers. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest content:

... that at the time of her much-heralded 1926 debut, 19-year-old Marion Talley (pictured) was the youngest prima donna to perform at the Metropolitan Opera?

... that ahead of the 1977 election, the leader of the Spanish Democratic Socialist Party traveled to Brussels to secure support from the European socialist movement?

... that the Indies film Bajar dengan Djiwa, with a father selling his daughter to a loan shark, was advertised as a "realistic" depiction of family life?

... that Confederate Army officer William Walter Leake and Union Navy officer John E. Hart are commemorated by the same marble slab in a Louisiana cemetery?

... that during the 1997 Interstate Batteries 500, a large stretch of Texas State Highway 170 had to be closed for use as a parking lot?

... that I Shall Not Be Moved, Maya Angelou's fifth book of poetry, has been described as "exquisitely simple worksong"?

... that a giant blue cock standing 4.7 metres (15 ft) high has been erected in Trafalgar Square?

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In the news

Mamnoon Hussain is elected as the new President of Pakistan.

Amid allegations of voting irregularities, the Cambodian People's Party wins a majority of seats in the National Assembly.

Publicis and Omnicom agree to a merger that would form the world's largest advertising group.

Egyptian security forces fire upon pro-Mohamed Morsi demonstrators in Cairo, leaving dozens of people dead.

Tunisian opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi (pictured) is assassinated in Tunis.

A train crash in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, kills 79 people.

Thor's hero shrew, the sister species to the armored shrew, is discovered.

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On this day...

August 2: Day of the Republic in the Republic of Macedonia

338 BC – A Macedonian army defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony over the majority of Ancient Greece.

1870 – Tower Subway (pictured), the world's first underground tube railway, opened beneath the River Thames in London.

1903 – The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization started the Ilinden Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in Macedonia.

1923 – Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States after Warren G. Harding suffered a fatal heart attack.

1947 – A British South American Airways airliner crashed into Mount Tupungato in the Argentine Andes, the wreckage from which was not found until 1998.

1989 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The Indian Peace Keeping Force began killing 64 minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians over a two-day period in Valvettithurai, Sri Lanka.

More anniversaries: August 1 – August 2 – August 3

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Today's featured picture

The western departures concourse of London King's Cross railway station as seen through a fisheye lens. This semi-circular concourse, designed by John McAslan, built by Vinci, and completed in March 2012, is designed to cater to much-increased passenger flows, and provide greater integration between the intercity, suburban and Underground sections of the station.

Photo: Colin

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