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Banksia grossa is a shrub in the plant family Proteaceae endemic to Southwest Australia. It is one of fourteen species of banksia in the series Abietinae, which bear round or oval inflorescences. Collected in 1965, it was described in 1981 by Alex George. Its thick leaves and large seeds distinguish it from other Abietinae species. It is found among heath between Eneabba and Badgingarra, in shallow sand over laterite or in deep sand. It grows as a many-stemmed shrub to 1 m (3 ft) high with narrow leaves and oval brownish flower spikes up to 10 cm (4 in) high, composed of hundreds of individual flowers. Flowering occurs throughout the cooler months. Old flower spikes develop woody follicles which bear the seeds. The plant takes five to seven years to reach maturity and begin flowering. After bushfire, B. grossa regenerates from its woody lignotuber; bushfires also stimulate the release of seeds, which germinate after disturbance. Visitors to inflorescences include insects and the nocturnal white-tailed dunnart. (Full article...)

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The Stone Breakers

... that the 1849 painting The Stone Breakers (pictured), by French artist Gustave Courbet, was destroyed in 1945 during a bombing raid by the Allies of World War II?
... that in 2007, Joe Garcia became the first governor of a pueblo to swear in the governor of New Mexico?
... that the studios of Basin PBS had once been a movie theater, a church meeting space, and a nightclub?
... that while being considered for the post of ambassador to Paraguay, Lidia Patty brushed off her lack of diplomatic training because she had "indigenous, native, peasant diplomacy"?
... that all species of the genus Odontorrhina are covered with dense bristly hairs?
... that Arnie Roth debuted as a gay Marvel Comics character at a time when the publisher maintained a "No Gays in the Marvel Universe" policy?
... that after being arrested for organizing a general strike in 1920, S. Girinis was sent to the Soviet Union following a Soviet-Lithuanian exchange of political prisoners?
... that Pope Sisinnius was pope for only 20 days?

In the news

Wyndham Clark

In golf, Wyndham Clark (pictured) wins the U.S. Open.
Five people die in a submersible implosion in the North Atlantic near the wreck of the Titanic.
In Uganda, the Allied Democratic Forces kill 42 people at a school in Mpondwe.
In Canada, 16 people die after a bus collides with a semi-truck along the Trans-Canada Highway near Carberry, Manitoba.
At least 78 people are killed and hundreds of others are missing after a migrant boat sinks off the coast of Pylos, Greece.

On this day

June 23: Grand Duke's Official Birthday in Luxembourg

Gamal Abdel Nasser

1266 – War of Saint Sabas: In an action off Trapani, Sicily, a Venetian fleet captured all 27 opposing Genoese vessels.
1956 – In a nationwide referendum, Gamal Abdel Nasser (pictured) was elected President of Egypt, a post he held until his death in 1970.
1991 – The first installment of the video-game series Sonic the Hedgehog was released.
1992 – Croatian War of Independence: The Battle of the Miljevci Plateau ended after a failed counterattack by forces of the Republic of Serbian Krajina against the Croatian Army who had captured the plateau.
2016 – Citizens of the United Kingdom voted in favour of leaving the European Union.

Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (d. 1324)
Michèle Mouton (b. 1951)
Doug Ring (d. 2003)
Nguyễn Chánh Thi (d. 2007)

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Joseph Ratzinger, elected Pope Benedict XVI

One hundred and fifteen cardinal electors participated in the papal conclave of 2005, which was convened to elect a pope (the leader of the Catholic Church) to succeed Pope John Paul II following his death on 2 April 2005. In accordance with the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis, which governed the vacancy of the Holy See, only cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthday on the day on which the Holy See became vacant (in this case, cardinals who were born on or after 2 April 1925) were eligible to participate in the conclave. Of the 115 attending cardinal electors, 5 were cardinal bishops, 93 were cardinal priests, and 17 were cardinal deacons; 2 had been created cardinals by Pope Paul VI and 113 by Pope John Paul II. On 19 April, after four ballots over two days, they elected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (pictured), Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who took the papal name Benedict XVI. (Full list...)

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Cerussite is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate (PbCO₃), and is an important ore of lead. The name is from the Latin cerussa, white lead. Cerussa nativa was mentioned by Conrad Gessner in 1565, and in 1832 François Sulpice Beudant applied the name céruse to the mineral, while the present form, cerussite, is due to Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger in 1845. Miners' names for cerussite in early use were lead-spar and white-lead-ore. In a hydrate form known as white lead, the mineral is a key ingredient in lead paints and has also been used in cosmetics, but both uses are now discontinued in many places as a result of lead poisoning. These cerussite crystals, measuring approximately 4.0 cm × 3.0 cm × 2.0 cm (1.57 in × 1.18 in × 0.79 in), were found in a mine in Madan-e Nakhlak, Iran.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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