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Terraria is an action-adventure video game developed by Re-Logic and published by 505 Games. A sandbox game, it has no set goals. After creating the player character and choosing the game's difficulty, the player is placed in a two-dimensional, procedurally generated world where they explore, fight enemies, gather resources, and craft equipment. Players beat bosses, a tougher variety of enemies, to gain access to more items, resources, and equipment. By completing select goals, players receive access to non-player characters who sell items and offer services, such as healing and fishing quests. Terraria can be played alone or with others. Initially released in May 2011 on the Steam digital store, Terraria has received continuous content updates that have considerably changed it from its first version. Terraria has since seen the addition of new items, NPCs, enemies, and world difficulties, as well as quality-of-life improvements and crossovers with different games. Terraria has received generally favorable reviews from critics. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Ivatan woman wearing a vakul

... that Ivatan women wear waterproof headdresses made of leaves (example pictured)?
... that John Stonebraker moved 300-pound (140 kg) ice blocks to prepare for the 1939 college football season?
... that the rulers of the 14th-century Emirate of Erzincan were Muslims, but its major cities were primarily Christian?
... that Barbara Wilk once hand-painted two thousand frames for her animated film?
... that Hano Qritho is rooted in an ancient biblical story and continues to be celebrated by Assyrians in Tur Abdin?
... that Takuya Kawamura announced his marriage through a card game?
... that the South Rim Fire destroyed seven toilets in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park?
... that the release of Tyla's 2025 EP was interpreted as both a failure and a success depending on the measurements used?
... that circus performer Ferry Torrez lived next door to his crocodiles?

In the news

Andrej Babiš

The ANO party, led by Andrej Babiš (pictured), wins the most seats in the Czech parliamentary election.
Sarah Mullally is announced as the next archbishop of Canterbury, which will make her the first female leader of the Anglican Communion.
Guillaume V succeeds his father Henri as Grand Duke of Luxembourg after the latter's abdication.
English zoologist and primatologist Jane Goodall dies at the age of 91.

On this day

October 8

Wreckage from the Harrow and Wealdstone train crash

1862 – In the American Civil War, the Battle of Perryville was fought west of Perryville, Kentucky.
1952 – Three trains collided (aftermath pictured) at Harrow & Wealdstone station in London, killing 112 people and injuring 340 others.
1969 – Demonstrations organized by the Weather Underground known as the Days of Rage began in Chicago, aimed at ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
1995 – The Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council launched Operation Southern Move, their last offensive in the Bosnian War.
2019 – Anti-government protests calling for free and fair elections began in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Augustus Buchel (b. 1813)
Rano Karno (b. 1960)
Bruno Mars (b. 1985)
Charlotte Lamb (d. 2000)
Whitey Ford (d. 2020)

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Today's featured picture

Veronica filiformis, commonly known as the slender speedwell among other names, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is native to northern Turkey and the Caucasus, and is known in many other regions as an introduced species, for example in the United Kingdom, where it began as a rock garden plant and later became wild. Veronica filiformis is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing mats of hairy stems. It is self-sterile and rarely seeds, being spread by stolons. The petals are four-lobed and bluish with a white tip, around 8–10 mm in diameter, the top lobe being largest since it is actually a fusion of two lobes. At the center are two long, protruding stamens. Solitary flowers occur in leaf axils. They are on relatively long, slender stalks that arise from the leaf axils, and appear between April and July. This photograph of a V. filiformis flower was focus-stacked from 42 separate images.

Photograph credit: Reinhold Möller

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