Wikipedia:Picture of the day/June 2004

Blue Morpho butterfly (Morpho menelaus).

A butterfly is a flying insect of the order Lepidoptera. As Lepidoptera, butterflies have four wings, but unlike moths, the fore and hindwings are not hooked together, permitting a more graceful flight. Unlike most insects, butterflies do not experience a nymph period, but instead go through a pupal stage.

Photo credit: Gregory Phillips.

A panoramic photograph taken from the Tamar Bridge between Cornwall and Devon, England, showing the Tamar Valley and the Royal Albert Bridge.

The Tamar Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the UK when it opened in 1961. In 2001 it became the world's first suspension bridge to be widened using cantilevers. The Royal Albert Bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Photo credit: Tony Tapp

Epicyclic gears.

A gear is a toothed wheel designed to transmit torque to another gear or toothed component. Epicyclic gearing is a system consisting of outer gears, typically mounted on a movable arm, rotating about a central gear.

Photo credit: Wapcaplet

Dust storm, Spearman, Texas, 1935.

A dust storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. The dust picked up in such a storm can be carried thousands of kilometers: Sahara dust storms influence plankton growth in the western Atlantic Ocean.

Photo credit: US NOAA

Bumblebee.

The bumblebee is a flying insect of the genus Bombus in the family Apidae. Like the common honeybee, of which it is a distant relative, the bumblebee feeds on nectar and gathers pollen to feed its young. Bumblebees tend to be larger than other members of the bee family. Most, but not all, bumblebee species are gentle. Bumblebees are the pollinator of choice for modern greenhouse tomatoes and some other crops.

Photo credit: Mark Burnett

Physical map of physical geography of the Philippines.

The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands. The largest of these islands is Luzon. The islands are volcanic in origin, being part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and are mostly mountainous. The highest point in the country is the peak of Mt. Apo in Mindanao, which is 2,954 m above sea level. Most of the islands used to be covered in tropical rainforests, however, due to illegal logging, the forest cover has been reduced to less than 10% of the total land area.

Photo credit: Seav

The Yarra River is a river in southern Victoria, Australia. Its lower reaches travel through central Melbourne. It is approximately 242 kilometres in length, and its mean annual flow is 718,000 megalitres. Like virtually all of Australia's rivers, annual flows vary greatly due to the effect of El Nino. The river's source is a series of swamps on Mount Baw Baw. Some of the Yarra's major tributaries include the Plenty River, and the Merri Creek.

Photo credit: Russell Degnan

The London Eye observation wheel

The London Eye is the largest observation wheel in the world. It stands 135 metres (443 feet) high on the South Bank of the River Thames near the Houses of Parliament in Lambeth, London, England, close to Westminster Bridge. The Eye has become a major landmark and tourist attraction since its official opening on December 31, 1999

Photo credit: Fantasy

The USS Iowa firing during target exercises near Vieques, Puerto Rico.

USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleship, was the fourth United States Navy ship with this name. Iowa was launched on 27 August 1942. As of 21 April 2001, Iowa is part of the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, San Francisco.

Photo credit: Naval Historical Center

Looking east along the Champs-Élysées from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

The Champs-Élysées is a broad avenue in the French capital Paris. With its cinemas, cafés, and luxury specialty shops, the Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world. The name refers to the Elysian Fields, the kingdom of the dead in Greek mythology.

Photo credit: Michael Reeve

Potato plant.

Potato plants are low-growing and have white flowers with yellow stamens. They grow best in cool, moist climates such as Maine, Idaho, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Germany, Russia, and Poland, though they are widely adaptable and are grown on a small scale in most temperate regions. Common varieties of potatoes do not produce seeds; the flowers are sterile. Instead, they are propagated by planting pieces of existing tubers, cut to include at least one eye. Confusingly, these pieces are called "seed potatoes".

Photo credit: Agricultural Research Service

Earth at night.

The northernmost settlement on Earth is Alert, Ellesmere Island, Canada. The southernmost is the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, in Antarctica.

Photo credit: NASA and NOAA

Eastern Yellow Robin.

The Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) is a common resident of coastal and sub-coastal eastern Australia, from the extreme south-east corner of South Australia through most of Victoria and the western half of New South Wales and north as far as Cooktown, though tropical northern Queensland birds are mainly restricted to the cool heights of the Great Dividing Range.

Photo credit: Tony Wilson

Circlestrafing.

In video games, particularly in first-person shooters, circlestrafing is the technique of moving around a target in a circle while facing it. It allows a player to fire continuously at a target while simultaneously dodging attacks.

In this diagram, the blue player circlestrafes around his red adversary, firing continually as he does so. Red, unable to keep track of the moving blue, misses with most shots. Blue will prevail.

Photo credit: Fredrik

Chèche.

Headgear is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head. A "chèche" or "tagelmoust" turban is a form of headgear worn by men and women in Saharan Africa as protection against wind and sand.

Photo credit: Anthere

The asteroid 433 Eros was named after the Greek god of love Eros. This S-type asteroid is the second-largest near-Earth asteroid. This image shows the view looking from one end of the asteroid across the gouge on its underside and toward the opposite end.

Photo credit: NASA

High Cross at the Rock of Cashel in Ireland.

A High Cross is a standing cross with a circle, made of stone and often richly ornamented. High Crosses exist in Celtic parts of Britain and Ireland; the Irish High Cross has become more famous because of its distinctive shape (the ringed Celtic Cross) and the amount and quality of decoration.

The Rock of Cashel, also known as Cashel of the Kings, is situated in county Tipperary in Ireland.

Photo credit: Chmouel Boudjnah

Centre Block and Library of the Parliament of Canada.

The Parliament of Canada is housed in a complex on Parliament Hill, on the banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, in a Gothic revival suite of buildings. The best known is the Centre Block, with its prominent Peace Tower, a national symbol. The richly decorated interior of the centre block contains allegorical scenes.

Photo credit: Montréalais

A diagram of movement within a roundabout in a country where traffic drives on the left.

A roundabout is a type of road junction, or traffic calming device, at which traffic streams circularly around a central island after first yielding to the circulating traffic. Unlike with traffic circles, vehicles on a roundabout have priority over the entering vehicle, parking is not allowed and pedestrians are usually prohibited from the central island.

Photo credit: Fredrik and Mintguy

Three types of cell reproduction; Binary fission and reproduction involving mitosis or meiosis.

In the context of reproduction of living cells, "cell growth" refers to the "growth in cell numbers by means of cell reproduction." During cell reproduction one cell (the "parental" cell) divides to produce daughter cells. In other contexts, "cell growth" refers to increases in cell size.

Photo credit: John Schmidt

Spot Fetcher. U.S. President George W. Bush's dog.

The English Springer Spaniel is a gun dog used for flushing and retrieving game.

This spaniel is an older breed, appearing in paintings as early as the 1600s. It is possibly the ancestor of most modern spaniels; Springer spaniels and cocker spaniels were not recognized as separate breeds until the 1800s.

Photo credit: Paul Morse

Che Guevara statue at the site of his death in Bolivia.

Che Guevara was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader.

Guevara was a member of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, which seized power in Cuba in 1959. After the revolution Guevara became second only to Fidel Castro in the new government of Cuba.

Photo credit: Augusto Starita

Red sky at night, sailors delight.

Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.

A red sky occurs primarily at sunrise or sunset, when the sun's rays are passing through the greatest thickness of atmosphere. In weather lore, morning red skies are a good indicator of coming rain, evening red skies usually indicate clearing conditions.

Photo credit: Denni Windrim

The Gold Coast is a coastal region approximately 70 kilometres south of Brisbane, Australia that, over the past 50 years, has coalesced from a collection of scattered villages into a city of approximately 400,000 people. The subtropical climate, attractive surf beaches, and savvy marketing have attracted millions of tourists.

Photo credit: Gary Curtis

The USS Port Royal (CG-73) is a United States Navy guided missile cruiser, the last to be constructed in the 20th century, and the first cruiser to integrate women into the crew. The ship was deployed in 1996 as part of the Nimitz (CVN-68) battle group.

Photo credit: Christopher Mobley

The Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, England was built by James Gibbs between 1737 and 1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. The building was funded by a £40,000 bequest from John Radcliffe.

After the Radcliffe Science Library eventually moved into another building, the Radcliffe Camera became a reading room of the Bodleian Library. It now holds books from the English and History collection.

Photo credit: Michael Reeve