Wikipedia:Picture of the day/October 2024 - Wikipedia

Pristimantis elegans is a species of frog in the family Strabomantidae. It is endemic to the Colombian Andes, in the Cordillera Oriental, residing in páramos and cloud forests at elevations of 2,600–3,650 m (8,530–11,980 ft) above sea level. It is typically found in herbaceous vegetation and very small bushes. Pristimantis elegans is a stout-bodied frog, with males typically measuring 37–40 mm (1.5–1.6 in). Development is direct, without a free-living tadpole stage. Males of the species have a pulsed advertisement call, which is usually carried out at night, in vegetation. This Pristimantis elegans individual was photographed in Chingaza National Natural Park, Colombia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Iolanthe is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. Their seventh operatic collaboration, it tells the story of Iolanthe, a fairy banished from fairyland because she married a mortal. Her son Strephon, half a fairy, loves Phyllis, whom all the members of the House of Peers wish to marry. Phyllis sees Strephon embracing Iolanthe (as fairies never age, she appears to be seventeen) and assumes that he is unfaithful, not realizing that Iolanthe is his mother, setting off a climactic confrontation between the peers and the fairies. The opera satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. Iolanthe was the first new theatre production in the world to be illuminated entirely by electric lights. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre and ran there for 398 performances, with a simultaneous production in New York. It is still played throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. This poster by H. M. Brock was produced for an early 20th century tour production by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Poster credit: H. M. Brock; restored by Adam Cuerden

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 was photographed in Souss-Massa National Park, Morocco.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Li Fu Lee (1904–1985) was a Chinese engineer and teacher who in 1925 became the first Chinese woman to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She majored in electrical engineering, a course which undergraduate students at the time said was the most difficult major, according to The Boston Globe. She was one of the 25 women who graduated from MIT in 1929 and one of the first women to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering at MIT. After graduating from MIT, Lee returned to China where she became an engineer and taught at university. She fled with her family to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War and later returned to the United States, residing in Chicago. This 1925 photograph shows Lee at MIT's radio experiment station.

Photograph credit: Underwood & Underwood; restored by Adam Cuerden

Europa Clipper is a space probe developed by NASA, which is planned for launch today, 10 October 2024. The largest spacecraft NASA has built for a planetary mission, its mission is to study Jupiter's moon Europa through a series of flybys while in orbit around the planet. It is expected to reach its destination in 2030. This tantalum plate is attached to the outside of Europa Clipper to seal the entrance to a vault designed to protect the spacecraft's electronics from Jupiter's radiation. The outside of the plate (pictured) is decorated with waveforms that are visual representations of the sound formed by the word water in 103 languages, surrounding the American Sign Language symbol for the same word. The inside of the plate features a work by American poet Ada Limón.

Artwork and photograph credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Goniobranchus kuniei is a mollusc species in the family Chromodorididae, often classified as a sea slug. It is found in the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean including Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and the French territory of New Caledonia. It has a body length of up to 40 mm and features a pattern of blue spots with pale blue haloes on a creamy mantle. There mantle has a is a double border of purple and blue. This G. kuniei individual was photographed in Wakatobi National Park, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Photograph credit: q phia; retouched by Christian Ferrer

Art Tatum (October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American pianist, widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz performers in history. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he began playing the piano professionally and hosting a nationwide radio program while in his teens. He left Toledo in 1932 and had residencies as a solo pianist at clubs in major urban centers including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In that decade, he settled into a pattern he followed for most of his career – paid performances followed by long after-hours playing, all accompanied by prodigious consumption of alcohol. In the 1940s, Tatum led a commercially successful trio for a short time and began playing in more formal jazz concert settings, including at Norman Granz-produced Jazz at the Philharmonic events. His popularity diminished towards the end of the decade, as he continued to play in his own style, ignoring the rise of bebop. Granz recorded Tatum extensively in solo and small group formats in the mid-1950s, with the last session only two months before Tatum's death from uremia at the age of 47. This photograph by William P. Gottlieb shows Tatum in the Vogue Room in New York City at some point between 1946 and 1948.

Photograph credit: William P. Gottlieb

The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on its wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average 100–115 cm (39–45 in) from beak tip to end of tail, with a 155–215 cm (61–85 in) wingspan. The white stork is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa from tropical Sub-Saharan Africa to as far south as South Africa, or on the Indian subcontinent. A carnivore, the white stork eats a wide range of animal prey, including insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and small birds.

This picture shows a white stork carrying a piece of plastic back to its nest and is fitted with a wildlife transmitter, photographed in Huelva, Spain.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Oscar Wilde: Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.

At the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) was still being performed in London, Wilde prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On his release, he left immediately for France, and never returned to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Photograph credit: Napoleon Sarony; restored by Adam Cuerden

The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a passerine bird of the sparrow family Passeridae. Originally native to Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and a large part of Asia, it is now found in most parts of the world and is the the most widely distributed wild bird. It is is closely associated with human habitation and resides in both urban and rural areas. The house sparrow is a small bird with a typical length of 16 cm (6.3 in) and a mass of 24–39.5 g (0.85–1.39 oz). Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. It is sometimes considered a pest but is also sometimes kept as a pet or used as a food item. This male house sparrow was photographed in Prospect Park, New York City, United States.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

The hairy dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) is a species of European dragonfly in the hawker family, Aeshnidae. It is found in Europe and Asia Minor, as far east as the Caspian Sea, and resides close to water bodies containing plants with a flight season running from May to July. The hairy dragonfly is named for its hairy thorax, distinguishing it from other hawkers. With a typical length of around 5.5 centimetres (2.2 in), it has a long, narrow pterostigma and features coupled, oval-shaped markings on its abdomen, blue on males and yellow on females. This male hairy dragonfly on a fern was photographed in Burren National Park, County Clare, Ireland.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

USS Johnston was a Fletcher-class destroyer built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after Lieutenant John V. Johnston, a navy officer during the American Civil War. The ship was laid down in May 1942 and was launched in March 1943, entering active duty later that year as part of the US Pacific Fleet. Johnston provided naval gunfire support for American ground forces during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in 1944 and again, after three months of patrol and escort duty in the Solomon Islands, during the recapture of Guam in July. Thereafter, Johnston was tasked with escorting escort carriers during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and the liberation of the Philippines. On 25 October 1944, Johnston and various other ships were engaged by a large Imperial Japanese Navy flotilla, in what became known as the Battle off Samar. After engaging several Japanese capital ships and a destroyer squadron, Johnston was sunk with 187 dead. Johnston's wreck was discovered in 2019, and at a depth of more than 20,000 feet (6,100 m) below the surface, is one of the deepest shipwrecks ever surveyed. This photograph shows Johnston in Seattle in October 1943.

Photograph credit: uidentified US Navy photographer; restored by Adam Cuerden and Cobatfor