User:LEC20/Daily Diversions
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April 5, 2007.
[edit] News of the Day
- Following the announcement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pictured), the Royal Navy personnel accused of trespassing into Iranian waters return to the UK after a two-week detention.
- TGV POS trainset number 4402 sets a new world speed record for railed vehicles at 574.8 km/h (357 mph) during test runs conducted in Champagne, France.
- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolves the parliament and calls for an early parliamentary election, a move denounced by the parliament as unconstitutional.
- A tsunami triggered by an earthquake strikes the Solomon Islands, killing at least 20, destroying around 900 homes and leaving thousands homeless.
- Michael Phelps breaks five world records in swimming at the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Australia and becomes the first person to win seven golds at a World Championships; seven other world records are also broken.
[edit] Article of the Day
Medieval cuisine was the variety of foods eaten by the various European cultures during the Middle Ages. During this period, diets and cooking changed across Europe, and many of these changes laid the foundations for contemporary regional and folk cuisines. Transportation and communication were slow and prevented the export of many foods, especially fresh fruit and meat, which today are commonplace in all industrialized nations. Imported ingredients such as spices were expensive and mainly the preserve of the wealthy nobility, making their foods more prone to foreign influence than the foods of lower strata of society. The single most important foodstuff was bread, and to a lesser extent other foods made from cereals such as porridge and pasta. Meat was more prestigious but more expensive and therefore less cost-efficient than grain or vegetables. The most common dishes were potages and stews, and common ingredients used in cooking were verjuice, wine and vinegar. These, combined with the widespread usage of sugar (among those who could afford it), gave many dishes a distinctly sweet-sour flavor. The most popular types of meat were pork and chicken, while beef required greater investment in land and grazing and therefore was less common. (more...)
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[edit] Picture of the Day
| Picture of the day | |
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The head of a Rothschild's Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi), a subspecies of giraffe found in Uganda and north-central Kenya. It has deep brown, blotched or rectangular spots with poorly defined cream lines and its hocks may be spotted. Photo credit: Fir0002 |
