Wikipedia:Picture of the day/March 2022

Blackness Castle is a fortress located on the south shore of the Firth of Forth near Blackness, Scotland. Built by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s, the castle passed to King James II of Scotland in 1453. During its more than 500 years as Crown property, the castle has served as a prison, artillery fortification, and ammunition depot. The castle is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.

Photograph credit: Andrew Shiva

Haboku sansui (Broken Ink Landscape) is a splashed-ink landscape painting on a hanging scroll, made by the Japanese artist and Zen Buddhist monk Sesshū Tōyō in 1495, during the Muromachi period. It was presented by Sesshū to his pupil Josui Sōen, who wanted a physical demonstration that he had studied under Sesshū. Sōen travelled with the scroll to his home in Kamakura, stopping in Kyoto, where six Zen monks added poems to it. The work is designated a National Treasure of Japan, and is held by the Tokyo National Museum.

Painting credit: Sesshū Tōyō

The scarlet dragonfly (Crocothemis erythraea) is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae, commonly found in southern Europe and throughout Africa. Individuals can reach a length of 33 to 44 millimetres (1.3 to 1.7 inches), and have a flattened and rather broad abdomen. Adult males have a bright scarlet-red, widened abdomen, with small amber patches at the bases of the hindwings, while females and immature dragonflies are yellow-brown with a conspicuous pale stripe along the top of the thorax. This female scarlet dragonfly was photographed in Bulgaria.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

Margaret D. Foster (March 4, 1895 – November 5, 1970) was an American chemist. In 1918, she became the first female chemist to work for the United States Geological Survey, developing ways to detect minerals within naturally occurring bodies of water, and was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, developing new techniques of quantitative analysis for the radioactive elements uranium and thorium. This photograph depicts Foster working with chemicals in a laboratory in 1919.

Photograph credit: National Photo Company; restored by Adam Cuerden

The Soyuz programme is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It is the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok (1961–1963) and Voskhod (1964–1965) programmes. It is now the responsibility of the Russian Roscosmos space agency, and between the retirement of the Space Shuttle programme in 2011 and the launch of Crew Dragon in 2020, it served as the only vehicle for human spaceflight to the International Space Station.

This picture shows the launch of the Soyuz TMA-13 mission at Gagarin's Start launchpad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 12 October 2008.

Photograph credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls; retouched by Lošmi

The double-barred finch (Stizoptera bichenovii) is a small passerine bird in the family Estrildidae, found in dry savannah, dry grassland and shrubland habitats in northern and eastern Australia. Feeding on seeds, it is highly gregarious, and nests among grasses or in bushes or low trees. This double-barred finch was photographed in Glen Davis, New South Wales.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison

Hudson Yards is a 28-acre (11 ha) real estate development in the Hudson Yards area of Manhattan, New York City, between the Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen neighborhoods. The development sits on a platform built over the West Side Yard, a storage facility for Long Island Rail Road trains. The first of its two phases, opened in 2019, comprises a public green space and eight structures that contain residences, a hotel, office buildings, a mall, and a cultural facility. The second phase, on which construction had not started as of 2021^[update], will include residential space, an office building, and a school.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

Marguerite Durand (1864–1936) was a French stage actress, journalist, and a leading suffragette. In 1888, she gave up her career in the theatre to marry an up-and-coming young lawyer, Georges Laguerre. A friend and follower of the politically ambitious army general Georges Ernest Boulanger, her husband introduced her to the world of radical populist politics and involved her in writing pamphlets for the Boulangist movement. Her newspaper, La Fronde, was founded in 1897 to pick up where Hubertine Auclert's La Citoyenne left off. She had a pet lion, and her collected papers are now housed in the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand in Paris. This photograph of Durand was taken in 1910.

Photograph credit: Agence Rol; restored by Adam Cuerden

Social grooming among primates plays a significant role in animal consolation behavior in which individuals engage in establishing and maintaining alliances through dominance hierarchies. It cements pre-existing coalitions, and is used for reconciliation after conflicts. Primates groom socially in moments of boredom as well, and the act has been shown to reduce tension and stress. This video clip depicts Japanese macaques grooming each other at the Jigokudani Monkey Park in Japan.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

Thérèse is an opera in two acts by Jules Massenet to a French-language libretto by Jules Claretie. Set during the French Revolution, the plot concerns Thérèse, who is torn between duty and affection, between her husband André Thorel, a Girondist, and her lover, the nobleman Armand de Clerval. Although she had decided to follow her lover into exile, when her husband is being led to execution she shouts Vive le roi! (Long live the king!) amid the frenzied crowd and is dragged to her husband's side and marched to the guillotine. The opera first performed in Monte Carlo in 1907, and is among Massenet's lesser-known works. This poster was produced for the 1907 Paris premiere of Thérèse at the Opéra-Comique, and features the mezzo-soprano Lucy Arbell in the title role.

Poster credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

The rufous-collared sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis), also known as the Andean sparrow, is a species of New World sparrow found in a wide range of habitats, often near humans, from the extreme south-east of Mexico to Tierra del Fuego and the Caribbean. This sparrow of the subspecies Z. c. costaricensis was photographed in the Mount Totumas cloud forest in Panama.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

The Fugger family was a German upper-bourgeois family based in Augsburg that was a prominent group of European merchants and bankers who controlled much of the European economy in the 16th century and accumulated enormous wealth. This ten-ducat gold coin was struck by the family in 1621 for the County of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn, which they ruled from 1536 to 1806.

Coin design credit: County of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn; photographed by the National Numismatic Collection

Iris Calderhead (1889–1966) was a suffragist and organizer in the National Woman's Party. She became involved in the women's suffrage movement in 1915 after meeting Doris Stevens and Lucy Burns, leaders of the Congressional Union, in New York City. She spent the next several years traveling around the US, mobilizing support for a federal constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's right to vote. She was arrested twice in 1917, first for displaying a banner during a visit by President Woodrow Wilson and then for picketing the White House. The Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed women's right to vote in the United States in 1919, but Calderhead's activism continued as she campaigned for the same rights internationally.

Photograph credit: Unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

Haliotis clathrata, the lovely abalone, is a species of sea snail in the abalone family. It has a shell whose shape forms a logarithmic spiral. The species occurs in the western Pacific Ocean, on the coasts of Australia and the islands and mainland of Southeast Asia, as well as islands in the Indian Ocean such as Madagascar and Mauritius, and stretches of the East African coast. Clockwise from top left, this picture shows an empty H. clathrata shell in dorsal, lateral, ventral, front and back views. The shell is 3.2 centimetres (1.3 inches) in length, and was found in the Philippines.

Photograph credit: H. Zell

Gateway Generating Station is a combined-cycle natural-gas-fired power station in Contra Costa County, California, on the southern shore of the San Joaquin River in Antioch. Commissioned in 2009, and owned and operated by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the facility includes two gas turbines paired with heat recovery steam generators that power a steam turbine, seen on the left in this photograph, and an air-cooled condenser system, seen on the right. The facility has a peak capacity of 580 megawatts.

Photograph credit: JPxG

Ginevra de' Benci is an oil-on-panel portrait painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the 15th-century Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de' Benci, born circa 1458. It was painted between 1474 and 1478 to commemorate her engagement or wedding. The juniper bush that surrounds her head and fills much of the background is a symbol of female virtue, while the Italian word for juniper, ginepro, is a play on Ginevra's name. The work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and is the only painting by Leonardo on public view in the Americas.

Painting credit: Leonardo da Vinci

The brown quail (Synoicus ypsilophorus) is a species of small, ground-dwelling bird in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. Native to mainland Australia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea, the species has been introduced to New Zealand and Fiji. It is common in much of its wide range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of least concern. This brown quail was photographed at Sydney Olympic Park in New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

Holi is a popular Indian festival of love and spring. The festival celebrates the eternal and divine love of Radha Krishna, and signifies the triumph of good over evil, as it celebrates the victory of Vishnu over Hiranyakashipu. This photograph depicts the celebration of Lathmar Holi at Radha Rani Temple in Barsana, India, with devotees throwing gulal (coloured powder) at each other as a celebration of love and equality.

Photograph credit: Narender9

Saint Joseph was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth, who, according to the canonical gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and Anglicanism; his feast day is observed by some Lutherans. In Catholic traditions, he is regarded as the patron saint of workers and is associated with various feast days, including Saint Joseph's Day on March 19. This oil-on-canvas painting of Saint Joseph holding the Christ Child was painted by the Italian artist Guido Reni in 1640, and is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Painting credit: Guido Reni

Newroz is the Kurdish celebration of Nowruz, the arrival of spring and the new year in Kurdish culture, observed in many parts of Eurasia that are historically influenced by Persian culture and Zoroastrianism. At Newroz, Kurds celebrate the victory of the legendary Kaveh the Blacksmith over the tyrant Zahhak; in the modern era, the holiday has become associated with resistance to Turkish rule. These Kurds were photographed at a celebration of Newroz in Bisaran, Iran, in 2017.

Photograph credit: Salar Arkan

The gemsbok (Oryx gazella) is a species of large antelope in the genus Oryx, native to the arid regions of southern Africa, such as the Kalahari Desert. It is depicted on the coat of arms of Namibia, and the total population of the species is estimated at 373,000 individuals. This male gemsbok was photographed in Namibia's Etosha National Park.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

Rye (Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It belongs to the Triticeae tribe and is closely related to both wheat and barley. This picture is an 1878 oil-on-canvas painting by Ivan Shishkin, depicting boundless rye fields in the Central Black Earth Region of western Russia. The canvas hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

Painting credit: Ivan Shishkin

This historical coat of arms of Florida is an illustration from State Arms of the Union by Henry Mitchell, published by Louis Prang in 1876. It depicts a shoreline on which a Seminole woman is sprinkling flowers. A steamboat sails by and further away, a cocoa palm is growing. In the background the sun is appearing over the horizon, with rays of sunlight extending into the sky.

Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva

Trimeresurus gumprechti, commonly known as Gumprecht's green pitviper, is a species of venomous snake in the family Viperidae. Endemic to parts of southeastern Asia and strikingly bright green in colour, it is categorized as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This male T. gumprechti snake was photographed in Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park in Thailand.

Photograph credit: Rushenb

Porters Pass is a mountain pass in the region of Canterbury on the South Island of New Zealand. At an elevation of 939 metres (3,081 feet) and traversed by State Highway 73, it is the third-highest point on the South Island's state-highway network. The pass was named in 1858 after the Porter brothers, who were farming in the area. A scenic lookout is visible off the highway in the centre of this panoramic photograph, with the Big Ben Range, part of the Korowai / Torlesse Tussocklands Park, in the background.

Photograph credit: Michal Klajban

The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure in the Marina District of San Francisco, California. It was originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to 1974, it is the only structure from the exposition that survives on site. The most prominent building of the complex, a 162-foot-high (49-meter) open rotunda, is enclosed by a lagoon on one side, and adjoins a large, curved exhibition center on the other side, separated from the lagoon by colonnades.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

The song thrush (Turdus philomelos) is a species of thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic. It has brown upperparts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts, and comprises three recognised subspecies. It has a distinctive song with repeated musical phrases. It was introduced into New Zealand between 1860 and 1880, where it quickly established itself. This song thrush was photographed at Western Springs Lakeside Park in Auckland, New Zealand.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

Wheat Fields is a series of dozens of paintings by the Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh, borne out of his religious studies and sermons, connection to nature, appreciation of manual laborers and desire to provide a means of offering comfort to others. In this 1890 oil-on-canvas landscape painting, entitled Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds or Wheat Fields Under Clouded Sky, Van Gogh depicts the loneliness of the countryside and the degree to which it is "healthy and heartening". The work is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Painting credit: Vincent van Gogh

Hayley McFarland (born March 29, 1991) is an American actress. Seen here in 2011, she is best known for portraying Emily Lightman in the Fox crime drama series Lie to Me, and she portrayed Nancy Perron in the 2013 supernatural horror film The Conjuring.

Photograph credit: Aaron Delani

Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve is in the southern part of Mercury Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. Seen here is Cathedral Cove, with its bluffs and natural rock archway, a popular tourist destination.

Photograph credit: Krzysztof Golik

Borbo cinnara, commonly known as the rice swift, Formosan swift or rice leaf folder, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae, found in southern and southeastern Asia, and Australia. This photograph of a B. cinnara butterfly perching on a leaf, focus-stacked from eight images, was taken in Si Phan Don, Laos.

Photograph credit: Basile Morin