Wikipedia:2008 main page redesign proposal/Alexfusco5

Welcome to Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
6,833,816 articles in the English.

Overview · Editing · Questions · Help

Contents · Categories · Featured content · A–Z index

Today's featured article

Marasmius rotula, the pinwheel mushroom, is a fungus in the family Marasmiaceae. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, it was first described scientifically in 1772 by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. The mushrooms are characterized by thin whitish caps up to 2.0 cm (0.8 in) wide that are sunken in the center and pleated with scalloped margins. The wiry black hollow stalks measure up to 8.0 cm (3.1 in) long by 1.5 mm (0.06 in) thick. On the underside of the caps are widely spaced white gills, attached to a collar encircling the stalk. The mushrooms grow in groups or clusters on decaying wood such as moss-covered logs and stumps. Spore release is dependent upon sufficient moisture. Dried mushrooms may revive after rehydrating and release spores for up to three weeks, much longer than most gilled mushrooms. Although the mushrooms are not generally considered edible, they produce a unique peroxidase enzyme that is attracting research interest for use in bioengineering applications. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know...

The Archangel Raphael and Tobias by Titian

... that depictions of Tobias and the Angel (example pictured), unusually for a religious subject, typically show Tobias's dog?
... that Australian gamer Zer0 led his team to an Apex Legends Global Series championship with a substitution teammate to whom he had never spoken before?
... that Louisa May Alcott wrote A Modern Mephistopheles as part of an anonymous series in which readers were meant to guess the author?
... that the first model of cosmic inflation was formulated by a Soviet physicist but initially remained unknown outside the Soviet Union?
... that the Beep the Meep puppet created for "The Star Beast" took six people to operate?
... that football player Levi Drake Rodriguez, considered small for his position, went on an "eat-as-much-as-humanly-possible diet" to be noticed by NFL teams?
... that Macklemore's song "Hind's Hall" refers to Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl who was killed in the Gaza Strip in January 2024?
... that starting at age 16, future Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci was named top sewing machine salesperson three years in a row?
... that the ancient Greek game polis is one of the world's oldest known strategy games?

In the news

Narendra Modi

In the Indian general election, the National Democratic Alliance led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi (pictured) is re-elected with a reduced majority.
The Boeing Starliner spacecraft conducts its first crewed flight, carrying two astronauts to the International Space Station.
The CNSA Chang'e 6 completes sampling and takeoff from the far side of the Moon.
Claudia Sheinbaum is elected as the president of Mexico.

On this day...

June 10: Dragon Boat Festival in China and Taiwan (2024)

John Diefenbaker

1624 – Thirty Years' War: France and the Dutch Republic concluded the Treaty of Compiègne, a mutual defence alliance.
1786 – Ten days after being formed by an earthquake, a landslide dam on the Dadu River in China was destroyed by an aftershock, causing a flood that killed an estimated 100,000 people.
1861 – American Civil War: The Confederate Army only suffered eight casualties in its victory at the Battle of Big Bethel in York County, Virginia.
1957 – Led by John Diefenbaker (pictured), the Progressive Conservative Party won a plurality of House of Commons seats in the Canadian federal election.
1987 – Mass protests demanding direct presidential elections broke out across South Korea.

Isabella Andreini (d. 1604)
Gustave Courbet (b. 1819)
Ninian Comper (b. 1864)
Alexandra Stan (b. 1989)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

An oblique shock is a shock wave that, unlike a normal shock, is inclined with respect to the direction of incoming air. It occurs when a supersonic flow encounters a corner that effectively turns the flow into itself and compresses. This photograph shows an oblique shock at the nose of a Northrop T-38 Talon aircraft, made visible through Schlieren photography.

Photograph credit: NASA & US Air Force (J.T. Heineck, Ed Schairer, Maj. Jonathan Orso, Maj. Jeremy Vanderhal)

Recently featured:

Today's featured list

June 10

Other projects by the Wikimedia Foundation

Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:

Commons
Free media repository
MediaWiki
Wiki software development
Meta-Wiki
Wikimedia project coordination
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
Wikidata
Free knowledge base
Wikinews
Free-content news
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
Wikisource
Free-content library
Wikispecies
Directory of species
Wikiversity
Free learning tools
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus

Wikipedia community

Every page on Wikipedia is a collaborative effort. But there are some special places reserved for specific types of discussion and assistance. Find what you're looking for here:

Help (contents) — Use this if you need help editing. There is also a comprehensive range of help articles available here. You can ask a question about using Wikipedia at the Help Desk.
Community bulletin board — Requests for help within the Wikipedia community.
The Village Pump — These are main discussion forums for Wikipedia.
The Signpost — This is Wikipedia's local newspaper.
The Community Portal — This is the center of community involvement. Learn about projects and activities you can join to help improve Wikipedia.

Collaborations — Weekly, monthly, and ongoing collaborative article improvement drives within specific subject areas.
Reference Desk — Help other Wikipedians who are looking for specific information by answering their subject-related questions at the reference desk (like a library's information desk).
Local Embassy — For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
Department of Fun — Dedicated to FUN on Wikipedia.
Clinic for Wikipediholics — Sign-in to Wikipedia!
Welcoming committee — Greet newcomers.
Wikipedia Boot Camp — Take a crash course about Wikipedia!

Wikipedia in other languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

1,000,000+ articles
- العربية
- مصرى
- Deutsch
- Español
- فارسی‎
- Français
- Italiano
- Nederlands
- 日本語
- Polski
- Português
- Русский
- Svenska
- Українська
- Tiếng Việt
- 中文
250,000+ articles
50,000+ articles