Wikipedia:Picture of the day/January 2012
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These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in January 2012. Individual sections for each day on this page can be linked to with the day number as the anchor name (e.g. [[Wikipedia:Picture of the day/January 2012#1]]
for January 1).
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
January 1
An image of the Earth's cloud cover, which is the amount of sky obscured by clouds, based largely on observations from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Terra satellite. Clouds play multiple critical roles in the climate system. In particular, being bright objects in the visible part of sunlight, they efficiently reflect light to space and thus contribute to the cooling of the planet. Image: Marit Jentoft-Nilsen, NASA
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January 2
Two Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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January 3
The Common Indian Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) is native to South Asia. It grows to about 20 cm (8 in) long and breeds during monsoon season. These toads are often seen at night under street lamps especially during times when winged termites swarm. They have been noted to feed on a wide range of invertebrates, including scorpions. Photo: Lokionly
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January 4
Extermination of Evil is a set of five paintings believed to have been created in the 12th century, depicting traditional Asian deities banishing evil. The paintings are collectively listed as a National Treasure of Japan and held at the Nara National Museum. Clockwise, from top left: Sendan Kendatsuba, Shinchū, Bishamonten, Tenkeisei, and Shōki. Artist: Unknown
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January 5
The Photo: Ester Inbar
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January 6
A rolling stock of the 'L' consists of 1,190 rail cars (all permanently coupled into 595 married pairs ) dating from 1969 to 2011. With 594 active cars out of a total of 600 built, the 2600 series is by far the most abundant in the 'L' rolling stock.
Photo: Daniel Schwen
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January 7
The main circuits of the basal ganglia, a group of nuclei in the brains of vertebrates that act as a cohesive functional unit. Shown here are two coronal slices that have been superimposed to include the involved basal ganglia structures. + and − signs at the point of the arrows indicate respectively whether the pathway is excitatory or inhibitory in effect. Excitatory glutamatergic pathways
Inhibitory
GABAergic pathways Dopaminergic pathways that are excitatory on the direct pathway and inhibitory on the indirect pathway
Image: Mikael Häggström
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January 8
The Photo: Rainer Lippert
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January 9
A 1937 anti- Reichstag building".
Poster: Herbert Agricola; Restoration: Jujutacular
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January 10
The Photo: 72426950scott
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January 11
A recruitment poster for the United States Navy from 1918. Prior to the outbreak of World War I, military recruitment in the US was conducted primarily by individual states. Upon entering the war, however, the federal government took on an increased role, using five basic appeals to these campaigns: patriotism (the most prevalent theme), job/career/education, adventure/challenge, social status, and travel. Poster: Vojtech Preissig; Restoration: Lise Broer
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January 12
A United Nations vehicle patrols the streets of the Bel-Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the catastrophic 2010 Haiti earthquake. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. An estimated three million people were affected by the earthquake, with an estimated 280,000 buildings severely damaged or destroyed. Photo: Marcello Casal Jr, Agência Brasil
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January 13
A "woolly bear" Arctiidae. Many species in this large and diverse family (containing around 11,000 members) have "hairy" caterpillars and the family name is derived from the Greek word for "bear ".
Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim |
January 14
The growing to about 12.5 to 21.5 cm (4.9 to 8.5 in). Juveniles (as seen here) are dark brown to black with five distinctive white to yellowish stripes running along the body and a bright blue tail. Photo: Thegreenj |
January 15
Photo: US Department of Energy; Restoration: Greg L/PLW |
January 16
A sixth-highest melting point of any element. It readily forms hard, stable carbides, and for this reason it is often used in high-strength steel alloys.
Photo: Alchemist-hp
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January 17
An illustrated version of Image: Religious Tract Society; Restoration: Adam Cuerden
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January 18
A photo of an original page from Leonardo da Vinci's journal, showing the world-renowned drawing known as the Vitruvian Man, created around the year 1492. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. Leonardo based his drawing on some hints at correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry in Book III of the treatise De architectura by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, thus its name. The accompanying notes are written in mirror writing and describe the drawing as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body as described by Vitruvius. Photo credit: Luc Viatour
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January 19
The Emperor shrimp (Periclimenes imperator) is a species of shrimp with a wide distribution across the Indo-Pacific. It lives commensally on a number of hosts, including sea cucumbers (Bohadschia argus shown here). Photo: Nick Hobgood
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January 20
Photo: Daniel Schwen
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January 21
A squash plants and other curcubits. There are over 1,800 coreid species found throughout the world, mostly inhabiting tropical and subtropical regions.
Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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January 22
The Photo: Benjamint444
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January 23
The Saint Paulin Church, a Baroque church in the city of Trier, Germany, named after Saint Paulinus. The current church building is the third to exist on this site and dates to 1734, but the church's history goes back to the 4th century. It was originally dedicated to the Theban Legion, a large group of men who were martyred for their Christian beliefs, twelve of whom are allegedly interred here. The fresco depicts scenes from the life of St Paulinus as well as the martyrdom of the legion.
Artist: Christoph Thomas Scheffler;
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January 24
American actor Ernest Borgnine, when he was made an honorary chief petty officer of the United States Navy in October 2004. After being discharged from the navy after World War II and having no direction in his life, Borgnine began his acting career on the advice of his mother, who thought his personality was well-suited for the stage. This began a six-decade period mostly as a character actor on stage, film, and television. His most famous roles were as the lead in Marty, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, the title role in McHale's Navy, and as a voice actor in the cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants. Photo: Mark D. Faram, US Navy
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January 25
The pixie's parasol (Mycena interrupta) is a small detritivorous mushroom with a Gondwanan distribution pattern, being found in Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Chile. It grows up to about 2 cm (1 in) in height, with the blue cap also growing up to 2 cm in diameter. It appears in small colonies on rotting, moist wood in rainforests and beech or eucalypt forests. Photo: JJ Harrison
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January 26
Panoramic view of the old town of Photo: Ahgee
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January 27
, which include white, pink and red pulps of varying sweetness (Ruby Red variety shown here). Photo: א (Aleph)
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January 28
Non-uniform rational B-spline is a mathematical model commonly used in computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces for both analytic (described by mathematical formulas) and modeled shapes. Control points (shown as small spheres) influence the directions the surface takes. The square at the bottom sets the maximum width and length of the surface. Image: Greg L
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January 29
The first and most-visited of the four Elakala Falls located in Blackwater Falls State Park, West Virginia, US. The Blackwater River, named for its tannic acid-darkened water, flows over the falls as it makes its way into the rugged Blackwater Canyon. Photo: ForestWander Nature Photography
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January 30
Baalbek in Lebanon is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when, then known as Heliopolis, it was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire. It can be counted among the wonders of the ancient world, containing some of the largest and best preserved Roman ruins. Seen here is the Great Court of the temple complex. Photo: Guillaume Piolle
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January 31
A cardboard. It is a combination of the properties of cellulose and additional optical brightening agents which makes the tissue glow.
Photo: Richard Wheeler
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