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Thesefeatured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as thepicture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia'sMain Page in July 2004.
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July 3
 | The Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown The Remarkables are a 540 acremountainski field located south ofQueenstown, New Zealand. The other skifields in Queenstown areCardrona,Coronet Peak, andTreble Cone. Queenstown is aresort town inSouth Island and is surrounded by theSouthern Alps. Photo credit:Tiles Recently featured: |
July 6
 | Bozen or Bolzano is a town in theTrentino-South Tyrol region ofItaly. It is thecapital of the German speaking autonomous province of Bozen-Südtirol or Bolzano-Alto Adige, officially bilingual. The province is almost completely mountainous, and is extended on the Etsch (It. Adige) valley north of the town of Salurn. Photo credit: Roland Wolf Recently featured: |
July 7
 | TheMadrid metro is the largemetro system servingMadrid, the capital ofSpain. It is one of the largest metro systems in the world, despite Madrid having a population of only four million. The metro opened in1919 under the direction of theCompañía de Metro Alfonso XIII. Metro stations served as air raid shelters during theSpanish Civil War. Photo credit:Montrealais Recently featured: |
July 8
 | Soldiers of anAustralian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in theYpres salient,October 29,1917. The photo was taken in the vicinity of theBattle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, which was one of the major battles ofWorld War I. Photo credit:James Francis Hurley Recently featured: |
July 9
 | The focus of theLincoln Memorial is this sculpture ofAbraham Lincoln, seated.Daniel Chester French studied many ofMathew Brady's photographs of Lincoln, and depicted the president as worn and pensive, gazing eastwards down theReflecting Pool at the capital's starkestemblem of the Union, theWashington Monument. One hand is clenched, the other open. Beneath his hands, the Romanfasces,symbols of the authority of the Republic, are sculpted in relief on the seat. Photo credit:Raul654 Recently featured: |
July 10
 | Brisbane at night Brisbane is the capital city of the state ofQueensland,Australia. It is situated in the southeast corner of Queensland and straddles theBrisbane River. The city is named after SirThomas Brisbane, a soldier and colonial administrator born inAyrshire,Scotland. Photo credit:Gary Curtis Recently featured: |
July 11
 | Amad scientist is astock character, oftenvillainous, who appears infiction as ascientist who isinsane oreccentric. He is usually working with some utterlyfictional technology in order to forward his evil schemes. Recent mad scientist depictions are oftensatirical andhumorous, and some are actually protagonists, such as Dexter in the cartoon seriesDexter's Laboratory. Photo credit:J.J. McCullough Recently featured: |
July 12
 | TheMoon is the onlynatural satellite ofEarth. During theancient period, it was not uncommon forcultures to believe that the Moondied eachnight, thus descending into theunderworld. As late as the1920s (or so), it was believed that the Moon might have abreatheableatmosphere. In1969,Neil Armstrong andBuzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon. Photo credit:Michael K. Fairbanks Recently featured: |
July 13
 | View ofParis from theNotre-Dame showing theRiver Seine and theEiffel Tower. The Notre-Dame de Paris is agothiccathedral on the eastern half of theÎle de la Cité inParis,France. The cathedral is probably best known fromVictor Hugo's novel,The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was first published in1831. Photo credit:Michael Reeve Recently featured: |
July 14
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Thepainter's algorithm is one of the simplest solutions to thevisibility problem in3D computer graphics. When projecting a 3D scene onto a 2D plane, it is at some point necessary to decide whichpolygons are visible and which are hidden. The distant mountains are painted first, followed by the closer meadows; finally, the closest objects in this scene - the trees - are painted. For detailed scenes, the painter's algorthm generally proves to be a slow solution. Photo credit:Fredrik Recently featured: |
July 15
 | Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is aflowering plant in thefamilyScrophulariaceae. This family comprises 220-300 genera and 4000-4500 species. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the majority found in temperate areas, including tropical mountains. Other members of the family includeDigitalis,Linaria andVerbascum. Yellow rattle is asemi-parasitic plant that gains some of its nutrients from the roots of neighbouring plants. The name refers to the seedpods, which contain loose, rattlingseeds when ripe. Photo credit:sannse Recently featured: |
July 16
| File unavailable | Left section of the ceiling of theSistine Chapel after restoration. TheSistine Chapel is a religiouschapel and one of the most famous artistic treasures of theVatican, built between1475 and1483, in the time ofPope Sixtus IV della Rovere. The chapel is known worldwide both for being the hall in whichconclaves and other official ceremonies are held, including somepapal coronations, and for having been decorated byMichelangelo. The subjects of the pictures were historical religious themes. Michelangelo was employed to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles, but when the work was finished there were more than 3,000. Photo credit:Adrian Pingstone using aartchive.com source Recently featured: |
July 17
 | Acompound eye is a visualorgan found in certainarthropods. The compound eye consists of between 12 and 1,000ommatidia, little dark/bright sensors. The image perceived by the arthropod is "recalculated" from the numerous ommatidia which point in slightly different directions. In contrast to othereye types, there is no centrallens orretina. Though the resulting image is poor in resolution, it can detect quick movements and, in some cases, thepolarization of light. Dragonflies have about 30,000 facets to their compound eyes, giving them nearly a 360° field of vision. Photo credit:David L. Green Recently featured: |
July 18
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The Skyline Boulevard in theSan Francisco Bay Area stretches through theSanta Cruz Mountains, here nearPalo Alto, California. Three large cities dominate the San Francisco Bay Area;San Francisco,San Jose, andOakland. As well as constituting one of the world's greatest metropolitan areas, the Bay Area includes some exceptional natural coastal and rural landscape. It includes significantnational parks such as thePoint Reyes National Seashore and a large number ofstate parks. Photo credit:Jawed Karim Recently featured: |
July 19
 | Bryce CanyonNational Park is distinctive due to its uniquegeological structures, calledhoodoos. In winter, mostbirds in the park migrate, butjays,ravens,nuthatches,eagles, andowls stay. The Mule Deer, Mountain Lion, andcoyotes will migrate to lower elevations.Ground squirrels andmarmots pass the winter inhibernation. Photo credit:National Park Service Recently featured: |
July 20
 | Mars, the fourthplanet from theSun, is named after theRoman god of war because of its bloodred color. Mars has two small, oddly-shaped moons,Phobos andDeimos, named after the sons of theGreek godAres. At some point in the future Phobos will be broken up bygravitational forces. Photo credit:NASA Recently featured: |
July 21
 | TheWater Buffalo is a very largeungulate. It survives in the wild inIndia,Nepal,Bhutan andThailand; is very widespread as a domestic animal inAsia,South America.North Africa andEurope; and is feral in northernAustralia. Photo credit:Chmouel Boudjnah Recently featured: |
July 22
 | Women dressed asgeisha inKyoto,Japan. They are wearing traditionalkimonos andgeta Geisha (芸者) are traditional Japanese artist-entertainers. Geisha were very common in the18th and19th centuries, and are still in existence today, although their numbers are dwindling. The geisha tradition evolved from thetaikomochi orhōkan, similar to courtjesters. Geisha were traditionally trained from youngchildhood although modern geisha begin their training, which remains extremely long and difficult, at much older age. Photo credit:Michael Reeve Recently featured: |
July 23
 | Zootomical terms of location overlap considerably with terms used inhuman anatomy. In animals, the head end is called the "cranial end" and the tail end is the "caudal end". The side of the body normally oriented upwards is the "dorsal" side; the opposite side, typically the one closest to the ground when walking on all legs, swimming or flying, is the "ventral" side. Photo credit:Jonathan Merritt Recently featured: |
July 24
 | Thefour-stroke cycle of aninternal combustion engine is the cycle most commonly used for automotive and industrial purposes today, includingcars,trucks, and generators. The cycle was invented byNikolaus Otto in1876, and is also called the Otto cycle. The cycle is characterized by fourstrokes, or straight movements in a single direction, of thepiston. Photo credit:Eric Pierce Recently featured: |
July 25
 | Thepin tumbler lock is alock mechanism that utilizes a group of pins of varying lengths to prevent opening the lock without the correctkey. Pin tumblers are most commonly employed incylinder locks, but may also be found in tubular or radial locks. When the correct key is inserted, the gaps between the key pins (red) and driver pins (blue) align with the edge of the plug (yellow). Photo credit:Eric Pierce Recently featured: |
July 26
 | Tawaret was a popular deity in ancientEgyptian mythology. She was ahousehold deity who protected women during pregnancy and childbirth, in conjunction with another deity,Bes. Tawaret was depicted as an amalgam of human and animal with the head of ahippopotamus,the arms and legs of alion, the back and tail of acrocodile, and the breasts and stomach of a pregnant woman. Photo credit:ChrisO Recently featured: |
July 27
 | Mount Cook, a peak in theSouthern Alps is the highestmountain inNew Zealand. Mount Cook is also known asAoraki, meaning "Cloud Piercer" in theKai Tahu dialect of theMaori language. The mountain is located within theAoraki/Mount Cook National Park and was formally declared one of theUnited Nations World Heritage Parks in 1953. Photo credit: User:Dynabee Recently featured: |
July 28
 | Icefish are a type ofAntarctic fish belonging to various families, including theChannichthyidae family. They have nohaemoglobin and theirblood is transparent. They feed onkrill,copepods, and other fish. Icefish rely on well-oxygenated water and absorb oxygen directly through the skin as they lackred blood cells. Photo credit:Uwe Kils Recently featured: |
July 29
 | Darlingtonia californica, also called theCaliforniaPitcher plant orCobra Lily, is acarnivorous plant in the familySarraceniaceae. Darlingtonia is native toCalifornia andOregon and grows in bogs and seeps. The name Cobra Lily is from the resemblance of the tubular leaf to a rearingCobra, complete with "fangs". The genusDarlingtonia ismonotypic. Photo credit:Daniel Keshet Recently featured: |
July 30
 | Weather lore, the informal folklore related to the prediction of theweather, suggests that thecumulus humilis clouds in thissky indicate a good day ahead. Such clouds show there is very littleconvection in the loweratmosphere, and the fact that it is well-formed indicates lightwinds at low levels. There is nocloud aloft, and thus nomoisture or stable conditions or both. Thecumulus congestus on thehorizon suggestsshowers may be possible three or four hours from now, at the earliest, but chances are good it will remain a pleasant day through until the evening. Photo credit:Denni Windrim Recently featured: |
July 31
 | The National Gallery at night, illuminated for an event to promote the launch of aPepsi commercial. TheNational Gallery inLondon is anart gallery designed byWilliam Wilkins. It holds part of the National Collection, particularly Western European art from1250 to1900. The collection of 2300 paintings belongs to the British public. Photo credit:Michael Reeve Recently featured: |
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