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White chocolate is achocolate made fromcocoa butter,sugar andmilk solids. It isivory in color as it does not contain the non-fat components of cocoa (cocoa solids). Of the three traditional types of chocolate (the others beingmilk anddark), white chocolate is the least popular; its taste and texture are divisive. White chocolate is sold in a variety of forms and it is common for manufacturers to pair white chocolate with other flavors. White chocolate is made industrially in a five-step process. The ingredients are mixed to form a paste; the paste is refined, reducing the particle size to a powder; then agitated for several hours (known asconching); further processing standardizes its viscosity and taste; and the chocolate istempered by heating, cooling and then reheating. White chocolate was first sold commercially intablet form in 1936 by the Swiss companyNestlé. It was not until the 1980s that white chocolate became popular in the United States. (Full article...)

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On this day

August 23:Black Ribbon Day

Natascha Kampusch

1305 –William Wallace, a leader of Scottish resistance against England during theWars of Scottish Independence, washanged, drawn and quartered.
1775 –King George III issueda proclamation that declared elements of theAmerican colonies of Great Britain to be in a state of "open and avowed rebellion".
1960 –Congo Crisis: In order to stop the secession ofSouth Kasai from theRepublic of Congo,Armée Nationale Congolaise forces launched aninvasion of South Kasai.
2006 –Natascha Kampusch(pictured), who had been abducted at the age of ten inVienna, escaped from her captor's house inStrasshof an der Nordbahn after more than eight years in captivity.
2011 – A 5.8 M_W earthquakestruck thePiedmont region ofVirginia, and was felt by more people than any other quake in U.S. history.

Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1498)
Jimi Jamison (b. 1951)
Laura Dahlmeier (b. 1993)
James White (d. 1999)

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Say's phoebe (Sayornis saya) is a bird species in thetyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae. A common bird across western North America, it prefers dry, desolate areas. The species was named afterThomas Say, an American naturalist. It has a diet consisting primarily of insects such as grasshoppers, flies, crickets, beetles and bees, and occasionally small fish. Similar to theeastern phoebe, itsallies from a perch to catch insects in mid-air. Like otherphoebes, it creates nests under bridges, canyon walls, wells and abandoned mine shafts, the cup-shaped nest created by the female out of grass and other fine materials. Say's phoebes have been found to breed anytime between late March and late August, egg clutches numbering between three and seven. Say's phoebe is known to use "song-like" displays as its main form of communication. The song is characterized as having a very loud pitch to begin and then slowly leveling off into a more steady pitch. This Say's phoebe was photographed inGrasslands National Park inSaskatchewan, Canada.

Photograph credit:Simon Pierre Barrette

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