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From today's featured article

Cover of the first issue, 1914

Eyebrow Talk was a Chinese monthly literary magazine published in 18 issues from 1914 to 1916. Among the first Chinese literary magazines marketed towards women, and the first to be edited mainly by women, it was founded by Gao Jianhua and Xu Xiaotian, her husband and cousin. The magazine often ran romance stories aimed at women, but contained sexually explicit depictions of women in its advertising, covers, and pictures, some sourced from European erotic postcards. Unlike its contemporaries, Eyebrow Talk's romances often centered on the desires of their female protagonists, frequently including love triangles between the protagonists and multiple men. Its libertine content ran afoul of a government advisory committee, who unanimously voted to ban it in 1916, making it the first Chinese magazine to be banned under charges of obscenity. Its association with lowbrow "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly" fiction prevented scholarly research for much of the 20th century. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Da Mao

... that the male panda Da Mao (pictured) replaced Er Shun's female companion after zoologists discovered that Er Shun was actually female?
... that the Somyev language, spoken by just two people in 2010, became endangered due in part to the importation of hoes?
... that How to DAD has made a video titled "How to get a baby to clean the house"?
... that Rossini in Wildbad is an annual festival of bel canto opera held at the spa in Bad Wildbad, where Gioachino Rossini stayed in 1856?
... that Esperanza Sánchez Mastrapa was the first Afro-Cuban woman elected to the Congress of Cuba?
... that the Marquis de Lafayette stopped at the Rider Tavern during his 1824 US tour and reviewed the local militia?
... that Todoroki Hajime's viral song "Konkokonkonkonkonkonkon" derives from a noise that she made while playing a horror game?
... that Billie Joe Armstrong smashed eight guitars while filming Ordinary World?
... that the U.S. government can use the Invention Secrecy Act to make new inventions classified?

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Two aircraft mechanics servicing a rotary aircraft engine

This week's article for improvement is mechanic, a skilled tradesperson who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery.

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Finding reliable sources about the topic
Expanding the "Duties" section
Adding information about other types of mechanics

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In the news

Hôtel de Ville the day after the fire

In the Serbian parliamentary election, the Student List wins a majority of seats, defeating former President Aleksandar Vučić.
Two high-impact security vulnerabilities in PHP cause disruptions to many online services.
A drone attack on a market in the disputed Abyei region on the South Sudan–Sudan border kills at least 220 people.
The Hôtel de Ville in Limoges is partially destroyed by arson (damage pictured) amid fuel and student protests in France.

On this day

October 26

Edward Roye

1341 – The Byzantine army proclaimed chief minister John VI Kantakouzenos as emperor, triggering a civil war between his supporters and those of John V Palaiologos, the heir to the throne.
1871 – Liberian president Edward James Roye (pictured) was overthrown in modern Africa's first coup d'état.
1906 – The Illinois Memorial, honoring Union army soldiers from Illinois who fought at the Siege of Vicksburg, was dedicated at Vicksburg National Military Park.
1994 – Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, settling relations between the two countries and pledging that neither would allow its territory to become a staging ground for military strikes by a third country.

Michael Maestlin (d. 1631)
Pat Sajak (b. 1946)
Rebecca Tunney (b. 1996)
Walter Smith (d. 2021)

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From today's featured list

Nat Bailey Stadium, the Vancouver Canadians' ballpark

Since 2000, the Vancouver Canadians have played in the Northwest League of Minor League Baseball. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Vancouver Canadians were founded after the original Canadians relocated to Sacramento, California, days after winning the Triple-A World Series in 1999, and the Southern Oregon Timberjacks relocated to Vancouver and assumed the Canadians' identity for the 2000 Northwest League season. The Canadians' best regular-season record is 46–30 (.605), which they recorded in 2005, 2012 and 2014. Their worst regular-season record is 29–45 (.392), which they recorded in 2016. The Canadians have won five Northwest League championships (2011, 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2023), and also claimed seven division titles, including four consecutive division championships from 2011 to 2014. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, was a period in Jewish history during the 6th century BCE when thousands of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were deported to Babylonia. A major deportation occurred in 597 BCE, following the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II, with further expulsions after the destruction of the city and Solomon's Temple in 587 BCE. In the aftermath of the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great permitted the exiles to return to Judah, although many remained in Mesopotamia. The exile had a significant influence on the development of Judaism and is recounted in detail in the Hebrew Bible. This 1896 gouache painting on board by James Tissot, titled The Flight of the Prisoners, depicts the exile of the Jews from Judea to Babylon. The painting is now in the Jewish Museum in New York City.

Painting credit: James Tissot

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