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From today's featured article

SoHo Weekly News stock certificate

The SoHo Weekly News was a weekly alternative newspaper published in New York City from 1973 to 1982, competing with The Village Voice. The paper struggled financially, was sold in 1979, and ceased publication three years later. It was known for its coverage of the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo as the area was becoming gentrified, and for its highlighting of emerging music acts (especially punk bands) in local venues. Although the official editorial stance was anti-gentrification, one retrospective argued that its coverage of local culture and business contributed to the upward trend in property values. Many of the staff went on to have distinguished careers after the paper shut down: Bill Cunningham spent decades at The New York Times as a photojournalist, Allan Tannenbaum became known for his coverage of rock musicians, and Bruce Weber got his start photographing male fashion models with an influential photo story showing an underwear-clad male model in erotic poses. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Puti Guntur Soekarno

... that Puti Guntur Soekarno (pictured) only learned of her deputy gubernatorial campaign after returning home from Japan?
... that one of the artists in the duo Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis kissed future Chilean president Ricardo Lagos on the mouth during a performance?
... that Anne Chisholm once had a fictional goat named after her over a negative book review she wrote?
... that Susie Day said that she had a "stupid amount of fun" writing about a family with same-sex parents in Pea's Book of Best Friends?
... that American judge Archie Simonson was recalled and replaced by his county's first woman judge after he said that rape was "a normal reaction" to "the way women dress"?
.... that the film All of Tokyo! was based on interviews about the real-life experiences of an idol group's fourth-generation members?
... that Melissa Gallegos was a member of the first United States women's national American football team?
... that a Walla Walla County winery occupies a former schoolhouse?
... that Jim Carrey's sixth-grade teacher confiscated his artwork and returned it only after he became famous?

Help us improve this article!

African spin tops

This week's article for improvement is spinning top, a type of toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom that is designed to be spun on its vertical axis. Once set in motion, it will usually wobble for a few seconds, spin upright for a while, then start to wobble again as it loses energy, before finally tipping over and rolling on its side.

You can improve this article by:

Expanding the "History" section
Finding reliable sources about spinning methods and its physics

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In the news

Kraków Main Square

A mass shooting in the Main Square (pictured) of Kraków, Poland, leaves six people dead and sixteen others injured.
President of Paraguay Santiago Peña is impeached, arrested, and replaced by Vice President Pedro Alliana amid a banking crisis involving Ueno Bank.
In the United States, the Democratic Party wins a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections.
In motorsport, Kimi Antonelli becomes the youngest ever winner of the Formula One World Championship.

On this day

November 9: Sigd in Israel (2026)

Scene from the premiere of Cardillac

1914 – World War I: Off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Australian light cruiser Sydney sank Emden, the last active German warship in the Indian Ocean, at the Battle of Cocos.
1926 – Paul Hindemith's opera Cardillac (scene pictured) premiered at the Dresden State Opera, conducted by Fritz Busch.
1928 – The Great Mecca Feast, the first documentary film on the Hajj, premiered in the Netherlands.
2016 – A tram derailment in Croydon, London, killed seven people.

Martha Settle Putney (b. 1916)
Dylan Thomas (d. 1953)
Vanessa Lachey (b. 1980)
Markus Wolf (d. 2006)

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From today's featured list

Castle Hotel

There are 38 Grade I listed buildings in Taunton Deane, a former local government district with borough status in the English county of Somerset. In the United Kingdom, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance; Grade I structures are those considered to be "buildings of exceptional interest". The oldest buildings in Taunton Deane are churches built before the end of the 12th century, and the Castle Bow, which has been incorporated into the Castle Hotel (pictured) in Taunton but was originally a gateway into Taunton Castle. Most of the Grade I listed buildings in Taunton Deane are Norman or medieval churches, many of which are included in the Somerset towers, a collection of distinctive, mostly spireless Gothic church towers. Many of the more recent structures in the list are manor houses such as Cothay Manor and Greenham Barton. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Oecophylla longinoda is a species of weaver ant that is native to tropical sub-Saharan Africa. It builds its nests in trees, stitching leaves together with silk produced by its larvae. A weaver ant colony consists of multiple nests spread across a territory in the treetops, which the ants defend aggressively. The species is a voracious predator, foraging on the ground and in trees for insects and other arthropods, and also feeds on honeydew excreted by scale insects. It is an important agent of biological pest control, particularly in Tanzanian coconut plantations, where it preys on the coconut bug, Pseudotheraptus wayi. This O. longinoda ant was photographed in Morogoro, Tanzania.

Photograph credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

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