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From today's featured article

Lundomys molitor, commonly known as the greater marsh rat, is a semiaquatic rat species from southeastern South America. Its distribution is now restricted to Uruguay and nearby Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, but it previously ranged northward into Minas Gerais, Brazil, and southward into eastern Argentina. It was first described in 1887 by Danish zoologist Herluf Winge, who reviewed materials collected by Peter Wilhelm Lund in the caves of Lagoa Santa in Minas Gerais. The Argentine form may have been distinct from the form that now lives in Brazil and Uruguay. It is a large rodent, with a head-and-body length averaging 193 mm (7.6 in). Its tail is longer than the head and body combined. Its coat, yellow-brown at the sides, is long, dense, and soft. It is an excellent swimmer, propelled by large hindfeet with conspicuous interdigital webbing. It builds nests above the water supported by reeds. It is not currently threatened, reflecting a relatively wide distribution and the absence of evidence for a decline in populations. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Thukkachi Abatsahayesvar temple

... that the Thukkachi Abatsahayesvar temple (pictured) was greatly expanded by Vikrama Chola after he was supposedly cured of vitiligo by praying to the presiding deity for 48 days?
... that award-winning soprano Christiane Karg appeared as Sophie at the Frankfurt Opera, the Semperoper and La Scala, and in Mahler's Second Symphony at the Rheingau Musik Festival?
... that the Clinton Liberal Institute existed in upstate New York from 1831 until it burned down in 1900?
... that Frederick the Great felt sure he had lost the Third Silesian War after his defeat at the Battle of Kunersdorf in 1759, until a "miracle" restored his hopes?
... that Supreme Court of India judge Deepak Gupta once heard and disposed of 33 cases in a single day?
... that the iBuyPower and NetcodeGuides match fixing scandal is considered the first large scandal of its type to hit the competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene?
... that Gao Minglu, founder of the Chinese avant-garde movement, was a herdsmen in Outer Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution?
... that Titian's Flaying of Marsyas (1570s) shows a satyr being skinned alive by Apollo, and was once the prize in a lottery?

In the news

La Rambla, Barcelona, in 2011

Three separate attacks in Barcelona (location pictured) kill at least fifteen people and injure more than one hundred others.
A Hong Kong court sentences three prominent pro-democracy activists to jail.
At least four hundred people are killed by mudslides in and around Freetown, Sierra Leone.
In golf, Justin Thomas wins the PGA Championship.
A suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, kills fifteen people and injures forty others.

On this day...

August 20: Day of Restoration of Independence in Estonia (1991); St. Stephen's Day in Hungary

Yellowstone fires

917 – Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory in the Battle of Achelous.
1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
1882 – The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first performed in Moscow, conducted by Ippolit Al'tani.
1988 – Fires (pictured) in the United States' Yellowstone National Park destroyed more than 150,000 acres (610 km²), the single-worst day of the conflagration.
1998 – The Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan was destroyed by a missile attack launched by the United States in retaliation for the August 7 U.S. embassy bombings.

James Prinsep (b. 1699) · Ron Paul (b. 1935) · Narendra Dabholkar (d. 2013)

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Today's featured picture

Arrival of the Hungarians is a large cyclorama – a circular panoramic painting – by the Hungarian painter Árpád Feszty and his assistants. It depicts the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin in 895. It was completed in 1894 for the 1000th anniversary of the event. It measures 15 meters (50 feet) in height and almost 120 meters (400 feet) in length. Since 1995, the painting has been displayed in the Ópusztaszer National Heritage Park, Hungary.

Painting: Árpád Feszty et al.

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