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The northern gannet (Morus bassanus) is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in the northern Atlantic. The sexes are similar in appearance. Nesting takes place in colonies on both sides of the North Atlantic. Its breeding range has extended northward and eastward, with colonies being established on Russia's Kola Peninsula in 1995 and Bear Island (the southernmost island of Svalbard) in 2011. Colonies are mostly located on offshore islands with cliffs, from which birds can more easily launch into the air. The northern gannet undertakes seasonal migrations and catches fish (which are the mainstay of its diet) by making high-speed dives into the sea. It faces few other natural or man-made threats. Because the northern gannet is both a conspicuous and a common bird, it is referred to in several ancient myths and legends. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Lake Superior eye agates

... that some Lake Superior agates have circular, concentric rings on their surfaces, called "eyes" (examples pictured)?
... that Cūḷāmaṇi Cetiya is believed in Buddhist cosmology to enshrine both the Buddha's topknot and his right canine tooth?
... that Joscelin I of Edessa won his final battle while carried in a litter and died of his wounds shortly thereafter?
... that Helmut Lachenmann's composition ... zwei Gefühle ... was based on a text about fear and desire by Leonardo da Vinci?
... that Framoi Bérété founded a political party with Ahmed Sékou Touré, but later lost his seat in parliament to another party founded by Sékou Touré?
... that a Genshin Impact character was inspired by the Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody"?
... that the documentary ...So Goes the Nation is named after the US state of Ohio's history of voting for the winning presidential candidate?
... that the artist Atang Tshikare sculpted an animal with the body of a lion and the head of South Africa's national flower?
... that Surreal launched a line of cereal that came with a free vibrator in every pack?

In the news

Faustin-Archange Touadéra

The Southern Transitional Council's secretary-general announces its dissolution after Yemeni government forces capture Aden.
Faustin-Archange Touadéra (pictured) is re-elected as president of the Central African Republic.
Delcy Rodríguez is sworn in as interim president of Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro during United States strikes on the capital.
Luke Littler wins the PDC World Darts Championship.

On this day

January 11: Prithvi Jayanti in Nepal

Gateway Bridge

1055 – Theodora Porphyrogenita became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire after the death of her brother-in-law Constantine IX Monomachos.
1946 – The People's Republic of Albania was proclaimed, with Enver Hoxha as the country's de facto head of state.
1961 – Students at the University of Georgia rioted in an attempt to prevent the attendance of two African-American students.
1986 – The Gateway Bridge (pictured) in Brisbane, Australia, opened as the largest prestressed-concrete, single-box bridge in the world.
2024 – Several thousand North Korean migrant workers in Helong engaged in civil unrest, including a factory occupation and the taking of managers as hostages, due to unpaid wages.

Alice Paul (b. 1885)
Roberta Fulbright (d. 1953)
Emile Heskey (b. 1978)
Tom Parry Jones (d. 2013)

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Today's featured video

An effusive eruption is a type of volcanic eruption in which lava steadily flows out of a volcano onto the ground. It is one of two major groupings of eruptions, the other being explosive. Effusive eruptions form lava flows and lava domes, each of which vary in shape, length, and width. Deep in the crust, gases are dissolved into the magma because of high pressures but, upon ascent and eruption, pressure drops rapidly, and these gases begin to exsolve out of the melt. A volcanic eruption is effusive when the erupting magma is volatile-poor, which suppresses fragmentation, creating oozing magma that spills out of the volcanic vent and out into the surrounding area. Effusive eruptions are most common in basaltic magma, but they also occur in intermediate and felsic magma, and occasionally in silicic magma as well. This video shows lava agitating and bubbling in an effusive eruption of Litli-Hrútur, near the volcano Fagradalsfjall in Iceland, in 2023.

Video credit: Giles Laurent

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