"Friendship is Love without his wings!"
[Lord Byron]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2025/02/17)
Article of the Day
Tropical Storm Gabrielle was a short-lived tropical cyclone that passed over North Carolina before tracking out to sea. The seventh named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, Gabrielle developed as a subtropical cyclone on September 8 about 385 miles (620 km) southeast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Unfavorable wind shear impacted the storm for much of its duration, although a temporary decrease in the shear allowed the cyclone to become a tropical storm. On September 9, it made landfall at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina with winds of 60 mph (97 km/h). Turning to the northeast, the storm quickly weakened and dissipated on September 11. The storm dropped heavy rainfall near its immediate landfall location but little precipitation elsewhere. Along the coast of North Carolina, slight localized flooding was reported. Along the coast of Florida, rough surf drowned one person. Overall damage was minor. (Full article...)
Current Events

BBC One-minute World News
Fast briefed every day.
- Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts (1970-01-01 01:00)
- Haberman reveals why Trump attacked judge and his family in speech (2023-04-05 15:30)
- What to know about the Trump indictment on the eve of his court appearance (2023-04-06 00:50)
- READ: Trump indictment related to hush money payment (1970-01-01 01:00)
- Russian authorities detain suspect over St. Petersburg cafe blast (1970-01-01 01:00)
Image of the Day

Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: February 16
February 16: Day of the Shining Star in North Korea; Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska
- 1249 – King Louis IX dispatched André de Longjumeau as the French ambassador to the Mongol Empire.
- 1918 – The Council of Lithuania signed the Act of Independence (pictured), proclaiming the restoration of an independent Lithuania.
- 1922 – A landslide in Byblos revealed a sarcophagus in an underground tomb that was later discovered to be part of a large Bronze Age necropolis.
- 1996 – Eleven people died in a train collision in Silver Spring, Maryland, leading to the creation of comprehensive U.S. federal rules for the design of passenger cars.
- Richard of Dover (d. 1184)
- Coluccio Salutati (b. 1331)
- Michael Holding (b. 1954)
- Elizabeth Olsen (b. 1989)
Knowledge about Earth

Facts and Figures
- Age of Earth: ~ 4.568 billion years
- World Population: 7.3 billion (July 2015)
- Continents: 7 (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia)
- Mean Radius: 6371.0 km
- Axial Tilt: 23,44°

Image Source: Wikipedia - License: Public Domain (thanks to NASA)

Our Solar System
Our solar system consists of
1 star (Sun) and 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).
- 1 AU (astronomical unit) is roughly the distance between Earth and the Sun (about 150 million kilometres).
- The space probe Voyager 1 was launched by the NASA in 1977 and is meanwhile (autumn 2015) about 133 AU away from Earth.

Image Source: Wikipedia - License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Why you should extend your general knowledge:
There are many reasons why one should or wants to extend his knowledge.
First you should consider that "general knowledge" is knowledge which a group of humans - who belong together regional, temporal or otherwise - owns. Thus, it describes a basic understanding of specific categories of knowledge.
As the English philosopher Francis Bacon said before: "Wisdom is Power" [Bacon 1597].