Banksia verticillata or Albany banksia is a species of shrub of the genus Banksia in the Proteaceae family. It is native to the southwest of Western Australia and can reach up to 3 m (10 ft) in height, or even 5 m (16 ft) in sheltered areas; it is shorter in more exposed areas. This species has elliptic green leaves and large, bright golden yellow flower spikes that appear in summer and autumn. The New Holland honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) is the most prominent pollinator although several other species of honeyeater, as well as bees, visit the flower spikes. Listed as a vulnerable species by the Australian Government, it occurs in two disjunct populations on granite outcrops along the south coast of Western Australia, with the main population near Albany and a smaller population near Walpole. It is threatened by root rot (specifically Phytophthora cinnamomi) and aerial canker ( Zythiostroma). B. verticillata is killed by bushfire, following which new plants regenerate from seed. Populations take over a decade to produce seed, and fire intervals of more than twenty years are needed to allow the canopy seed bank to accumulate. ( Full article...)

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Barrage Vauban, October 2012

• ... that the principal defensive function of the Barrage Vauban in Strasbourg was to enable the flooding of all the lands south of the city, making them impassable to the enemy?
• ... that a previously unknown script found on an altar at the Grakliani Hill archeological site in Georgia is 1000 years older than any other script in the Caucasus?
• ... that Mayfield Mall, now a Google office building, was the first air-conditioned enclosed mall in Northern California?
• ... that the former Royal Marine Pen Farthing created a charity to reunite servicemen with dogs they met while on duty in Afghanistan?
• ... that sandstone sculptures of the Pilak site, which represents a heterodox culture of Hinduism and Buddhism from the 8th to 13th centuries, are on display at the Tripura Government Museum?
• ... that the iPhone 5S was the first iPhone to be available in the color of gold?
• ... that The Brimstone Sluggers is Crazy Town's first studio album in 13 years?
• ... that Agnes Ellen Harris began "Tomato Clubs" in Florida which later became part of an international youth organization?

Alpha Condé

• Alpha Condé (pictured) is re-elected President of Guinea.
• Anheuser-Busch InBev agrees to the purchase of SABMiller for £69 billion.
• Dell Inc. agrees to the acquisition of EMC Corporation for US$67 billion in cash and stock.
• Alexander Lukashenko is re-elected President of Belarus for a fifth term.
• Angus Deaton is awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
• At least 105 people are killed and more than 500 others injured in twin bombings at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey.

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October 19: Mother Teresa Day in Albania

Ferdinand and Isabella

• 202 BC – Publius Cornelius Scipio, a consul of the Roman Republic, decisively defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians at Zama, ending the Second Punic War.
• 1469 – Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella I of Castile (both pictured), a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain.
• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George Washington, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
• 1943 – Allied aircraft sank the cargo ship Sinfra, killing over 2,000 people, mostly Italian POWs.
• 2005 – Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar.

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Nigel Hitchin

Numerous notable mathematicians, physicians, and scientists have been educated at Jesus College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Mathematicians who have studied at Jesus College include Nigel Hitchin ( Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford since 1997, pictured), Jonathan Borwein (a former Rhodes Scholar who has held professorial appointments in Canada and Australia), and Jim Mauldon (who taught at Oxford before moving to the United States to teach at Amherst College in Massachusetts). Several noted individuals from biology, botany and zoology were educated at the college, including the Welsh clergyman Hugh Davies (whose Welsh Botanology of 1813 was the first publication to cross-reference the Welsh-language and the scientific names of plants). Jesus College had its own science laboratories from 1907 to 1947, which were overseen (for all but the last three years) by the physical chemist David Chapman, a Fellow of the college from 1907 to 1944. At the time of their closure, they were the last college-based science laboratories at the university. Scientific research and tuition (particularly in chemistry) became an important part of the college's academic life after the construction of the laboratories. ( Full list...)

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