Daily Knowledge "So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good."
[Helen Keller]
Quote of the Day, from brainyquote.com (2026/09/04)
Article of the Day
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Heard Island and McDonald Islands is an external territory of Australia in the southern Indian Ocean. It is a group of sub-Antarctic volcanic islands that lie on the Kerguelen Plateau. It is about 4,000 km (2,500 mi) south-west of the Australian mainland and 1,700 km (1,100 mi) north of Antarctica. The territory contains Australia's only active volcanoes, including Mawson Peak, a volcanic cone that is the country's highest point outside the Australian Antarctic Territory. Uninhabited and remote, the islands are a nature reserve and a World Heritage Site. Heavily glaciated, Heard Island (pictured) is dominated by Big Ben, a stratovolcano that is topped by Mawson Peak. Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are home to many eastern rockhopper, gentoo, macaroni, and king penguins. With more than one million breeding pairs, Heard Island contains about 20 per cent of the world's macaroni penguins. The islands also contain substantial populations of elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals. (Full article...)
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Image of the Day
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
On this day: September 4
- 476 – Germanic leader Odoacer captured Ravenna and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus, marking the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1666 – The most destructive damage from the Great Fire of London (depicted) occurred.
- 1912 – The Albanian revolt ended when the Ottoman government agreed to meet most of the rebels' demands.
- 1977 – The Golden Dragon massacre occurred in Chinatown, San Francisco, leaving five dead and spurring police to end Chinese gang violence in the city.
- 1995 – Three African-American U.S. sea servicemen stationed at Camp Hansen in Okinawa raped a 12-year-old local girl, after kidnapping, beating, and torturing her.
- John Palmer (b. 1885)
- Bert Olmstead (b. 1926)
- David Littleproud (b. 1976)
- Katharine, Duchess of Kent (d. 2025)
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].