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The rock parrot (Neophema petrophila) is a species of grass parrot native to Australia. Described by John Gould in 1841, it is a small parrot 22 to 24 cm (8+3⁄4 to 9+1⁄2 in) long and weighing 50 to 60 g (1+3⁄4 to 2 oz) with predominantly olive-brown upperparts and more yellowish underparts. Its head is olive with light blue forecheeks and lores, and a dark blue frontal band line across the crown with lighter blue above and below. The sexes are similar in appearance, although the female tends to have a duller frontal band and less blue on the face. The preferred habitats are rocky islands and coastal dune areas from Lake Alexandrina in southeastern South Australia westwards across coastal South and Western Australia to Shark Bay. Unlike other grass parrots, it nests in burrows or rocky crevices mostly on offshore islands such as Rottnest Island. Seeds of grasses and succulent plants form the bulk of its diet. The species is not threatened, but it has suffered in the face of feral mammals. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Twenty newly elected New Zealand MPs

... that a third of the MPs elected in the 2023 New Zealand election were new to Parliament, including Carlos Cheung, Grant McCallum, Suze Redmayne, Dana Kirkpatrick, Ryan Hamilton, James Meager, Greg Fleming, Vanessa Weenink, Mike Butterick, Katie Nimon, David MacLeod, Miles Anderson, Carl Bates, Rima Nakhle, Nancy Lu, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, Reuben Davidson, Scott Willis, Darleen Tana, Takutai Moana Kemp (all pictured), Kahurangi Carter, Todd Stephenson, Laura Trask, Cameron Luxton, Tākuta Ferris, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, Casey Costello, Jamie Arbuckle, and Tanya Unkovich?
... that since 1995, the AP NFL MVP award has been given to a player for the Green Bay Packers seven times?
... that Carla Ronci, an Italian declared venerable by the Catholic Church, is remembered as the "Vespa saint"?
... that Yellow Swans recorded their final album, Going Places, after their breakup?
... that code-switching in Lebanon is so common that "hi, كيفك؟ Ça va ?", which combines English, Levantine Arabic and French, is a typical greeting?
... that Peanut is inhospitable to peanuts?

In the news

Daniel Noboa

President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa (pictured) declares a state of internal armed conflict against multiple criminal groups.
The Peregrine lunar lander, the first mission on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, malfunctions after launch on the first flight of a Vulcan Centaur rocket.
Former German footballer and manager Franz Beckenbauer dies at the age of 78.
In darts, Luke Humphries wins the PDC World Championship.

On this day

January 11: Prithvi Jayanti in Nepal

Cover of Smoking and Health

1654 – Arauco War: The Mapuche-Huilliche of southern Chile defeated a slave-hunting Spanish army at the Battle of Río Bueno.
1693 – The most powerful earthquake recorded in Italy, registering 7.4 M_w, struck the island of Sicily.
1914 – The Karluk, the flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, sank after being crushed by ice.
1964 – In a landmark report (cover pictured), U.S. surgeon general Luther Terry issued a warning that tobacco smoking may be hazardous to health, concluding that it has a causative role in lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and other illnesses.
2003 – After Chicago police detective Jon Burge was discovered to have forced confessions from more than 200 suspects, the governor of Illinois commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners and pardoned four others.

Min Bin (d. 1554)
Socrates Nelson (b. 1814)
Eva Le Gallienne (b. 1899)
Eva Tanguay (d. 1947)

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Today's featured picture

The Maiden is a painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, completed in 1913. It depicts six interlaced women, each woman representing a particular stage of life. The painting touches on various topics of human life, such as love, sexuality and regeneration, depicted in a cyclical shape. The virgin's gown with its many spirals of blue and purple metaphorically indicates fertility, continual change and the evolution of the universe. The Maiden was one of Klimt's last paintings before he died and is in the collection of the National Gallery Prague in the Czech Republic.

Painting credit: Gustav Klimt

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