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Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) was an English author who wrote 34 novels, 7 volumes of short stories and a daily journal of more than a million words. He also wrote or co-wrote 13 plays, wrote articles and stories for more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, worked in and briefly ran the UK's Ministry of Information in the First World War, and wrote for the cinema in the 1920s. He was the most financially successful British author of his day. Because his books appealed to a wide public rather than to literary cliques and élites, and for his adherence to realism, Virginia Woolf and other writers and supporters of the modernist school belittled him, and his fiction became neglected after his death. Studies of his writing since the 1970s have led to a re-evaluation of Bennett's work, and his finest novels, including Anna of the Five Towns (1902), The Old Wives' Tale (1908), Clayhanger (1910) and Riceyman Steps (1923), are now widely recognised as major works. (Full article...)

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A droplet of rain on a leaf
A droplet of rain on a leaf

Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets (pictured) that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated—that is, become heavy enough to fall under gravity. It is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. Rain provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems, as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation.


The Girls He Left Behind Him and The Iron Clad Lover are two lost American silent short comedies produced by the Thanhouser Company. Both films were originally released together on a single reel and are of two distinct and separate subjects. Released on December 1910, the films were met with positive reviews.


Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong are domestic workers employed by Hongkongers, typically families. About three percent of Hong Kong's population, an overwhelming majority of which are women. Required by law to live in their employer's residence, they perform household tasks such as cooking, serving, cleaning, dishwashing and child care.

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Sabella spallanzanii

Sabella spallanzanii is a species of marine polychaete worms in the family Sabellidae. It is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and North Sea, but has spread to various other parts of the world and is included on the Global Invasive Species Database. The species grows to a total length of 9 to 40 centimetres (4 to 16 inches) and is usually larger in deep water. It features stiff, sandy tubes formed from hardened mucus secreted by the worm that protrude from the sand, and a two-layered crown of feeding tentacles that can be retracted into the tube. This S. spallanzanii worm was photographed in Arrábida Natural Park, Portugal.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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