Wikipedia:Picture of the day/December 2006

These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in December 2006.

You can add an automatically updating POTD template to your user page using {{Pic of the day}} (version with blurb) or {{POTD}} (version without blurb). For instructions on how to make custom POTD layouts, see Wikipedia:Picture of the day.Purge server cache

Picture of the day
	Ten-year-old Rose Biodo, carrying two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . The photo was taken on September 28, 1910, four weeks into the school year, and she was expected to stay on the job for another two weeks. Photo credit: Lewis Hine Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	Two Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus), displaying affection, an example of pair bonding . Gannet pairs may remain together over several seasons. They perform elaborate greeting rituals at the nest, stretching their bills and necks skywards and gently tapping bills together. Photo credit: Alan D. Wilson/Outriggr Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	An generic status. Animation credit: Dominique Toussaint Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day

The anodised aluminium, the plaque shows the figures of a man and a woman along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. However, the mean time for the spacecraft to come within 30 astronomical units of a star is longer than the current age of our galaxy . Plaque credit: Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, Linda Salzman Sagan Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day

A head-and-shoulders metrical structures of European poetry for an expansionist freestyle verse, which delivered his philosophical view that America was destined to reinvent the world as emancipator and liberator of the human spirit. His most famous work is Leaves of Grass , which he self-published in 1864 and continued to edit and revise until his death. This image is said to have been Whitman's favorite from the photo session. Photo credit: George C. Cox/Korath Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	Gateshead, England, standing 20 metres (66 feet) tall, with wings 54 metres (178 feet) — making it wider than the Statue of Liberty is tall. The wings themselves are not flat, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward, which Gormley has been quoted as saying was to create "a sense of embrace". Photo credit: David Wilson Clarke Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A fibreglass , have been introduced as an alternative. Photo credit: Doniv79/Janke Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day

An aerial view of Fort Jefferson in Dry Tortugas National Park, located at the end of the Florida Keys, United States. As seen easily in the photo, the clear waters in shallow areas surrounding Fort Jefferson are popular for snorkeling and scuba diving. Visible on the right side of the image is a breach of the seawall caused by the direct strike of Hurricane Charley in August 2004. Photo credit: National Park Service Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A vertical Bön religion which pre-dated Buddhism in Tibet . Photo credit: Moumine Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	The U.S. federal government. It is located in Washington, D.C., on top of Capitol Hill at the east end of the National Mall. The building is marked by its central dome above a rotunda and two wings. It is an exemplar of the Neoclassical architectural style . Photo credit: Diliff Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A male air pressure just above the wing and higher pressure below. When a bird flaps its wings they continue to develop lift but they also create an additional forward and upward force, thrust, to counteract its weight and drag . Photo credit: Alan D. Wilson Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	The Aisawan Thiphya-Art (Divine Seat of Personal Freedom), a Thai kings as a summer dwelling. Most of the present buildings were constructed between 1872 and 1889 by King Chulalongkorn . Photo credit: Dan Smith Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A camouflaged flounder. Camouflage is the method which allows an otherwise visible organism or object to remain indiscernible from the surrounding environment. Besides blending in with their surroundings, animals may disguise themselves as something else to avoid predation. Photo credit: Moondigger Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A large bolt of capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Colorado. In the spring and summer, Denver is subject to monsoon conditions with frequent thunderstorms . Photo credit: Dag Peak Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day

Petrified wood, such as this sample found in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, United States, is a fossil wood where all the organic materials have been replaced with minerals, while retaining the original structure of the wood. The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried under sediment. Mineral-rich water flowing through the sediment deposits minerals in the plant's cells and as the lignin and cellulose decay, a stone cast forms in its place. Photo credit: Daniel Schwen Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A close-up of the face of a vibrissae, or whiskers. Vibrissae are specialized hairs that grow around the nostrils or other parts of the face in most mammals. They offer an advantage to animals that do not always have sight to rely on to navigate, or to find food, or when the usefulness of non-tactile senses is limited. Photo credit: Whaldener Endo Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day

The assembled human PCNA, is a processivity factor that increases the speed and efficiency of DNA replication. In the assembled replication complex, the clamp encircles the DNA, which passes through the central pore, and binds DNA polymerase to prevent the enzyme from dissociating from the template DNA strand. The DNA clamp protein's presence can increase the rate of DNA synthesis up to 1,000-fold versus a nonprocessive polymerase. Illustration credit: Opabinia regalis Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	Cutaway diagram of the interior of a mitochondria , the 'power plants' of the cell. However, some parts of a living plant's tissue are selectively dead so they can serve the plant without consuming vital nutrients. Illustration credit: Mariana Ruiz Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A Supermarine Spitfire Mark XVI. The Spitfire was an iconic British single-seat fighter used by the RAF and many Allied countries in the Second World War. The Spitfire saw service during the whole of WWII in all theatres of war, and in many different variants. It is often credited with winning the Battle of Britain. Photo credit: Chowells Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	ft) the climb to the top is relatively challenging. This picture, taken from the west , shows the profile of the "saddle" to its best advantage. Photo credit: Nathaniel C. Sheetz Archive - More featured pictures...

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	An high speed photography, demonstrating that a horse's feet all leave the ground during a gallop. Muybridge used a battery of cameras lined along a track. The first camera had to be triggered manually, but the rest were automatically triggered by an electronic apparatus he designed. Animation credit: Waugsberg, from photos by Eadweard Muybridge Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	The Blue Skimmer ( Loyalty Islands and Lesser Sunda Islands . It inhabits a range of still and flowing water habitats including temporary waters. Photo credit: Fir0002 Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	The European Squid (Loligo vulgaris) is a large squid belonging to the family Loliginidae. It occurs abundantly in coastal waters of the North Sea to at least the west coast of Africa . This species lives from sea level to depths of 500 m. Photo credit: Hans Hillewaert Archive - More featured pictures...

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	The tallest structure at 558 ft (169 m), a title it inherited from the Cologne Cathedral and held until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was finished. Photo credit: Diliff Archive - More featured pictures...

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	A mosaic image of the Lord Rosse in 1844, using a 36-inch telescope. The nebula contains a pulsar in its centre which rotates thirty times per second, emitting pulses of radiation from gamma rays to radio waves . The nebula was the first astronomical object identified with a historical supernova explosion. Photo credit: Hubble Space Telescope Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A series of Inari in Kyoto, Japan. The thousands of vermilion torii gates are all donations from individuals, families or companies. The shrine was recently featured in the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha . Photo credit: Paul Vlaar Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day

The total eclipse in human history, although some areas offered impaired visibility due to adverse weather conditions. The path of the Moon's shadow began in the Atlantic Ocean, before traversing Cornwall, northern France, southern Germany, Austria, Hungary and northern Serbia. Its maximum was in Romania, and it continued across the Black Sea, Turkey, Iran, southern Pakistan and India . Photo credit: Luc Viatour Archive - More featured pictures...

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	An balloon, helicopter and some specialized fixed-wing aircraft (VTOL aircraft such as the Harrier), no runway is needed. Takeoff is the opposite of landing . Photo credit: Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Jonathan Chandler, U.S. Navy Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A branch from a pine tree, with both male and female pine cones. The male cones produce pollen and are orange, growing in a cluster. The female seed-producing cone, located at the end of the branch, is still immature. Photo credit: Menchi Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	A B-2 Spirit, it is the backbone of the United States' long-range bomber force. Photo credit: Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III, USAF Archive - More featured pictures...

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Picture of the day
	An anole lizard of the family Polychrotidae found in Hilo, Hawaii, United States. Anoles are small and common lizards that can be found throughout the various regions of the Western Hemisphere. They are frequently and incorrectly called chameleons or geckos due to their ability to alter their skin color and run up walls, respectively. Photo credit: Paul Hirst Archive - More featured pictures...

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