German torpedo boat Albatros

German torpedo boat Albatros.
Albatros was the fourth of six Type 23 torpedo boats built for the German Navy. Launched in July 1926 and commissioned in May 1927, she often served as a flagship of various torpedo boat units. The ship made multiple non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. After an attack by aircraft of the Spanish Republican Air Force that killed German sailors in 1937, Albatros participated in the retaliatory bombardment of Almería. At the beginning of World War II in 1939, she helped to lay minefields and made anti-shipping patrols before participating in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway in April 1940. Albatros fired the first shots of the campaign when she encountered and crippled a Norwegian patrol boat. She was lightly damaged during the Battle of Horten Harbor. Albatros then ran aground and was wrecked while maneuvering in an attempt to avoid Norwegian coastal artillery.

Battle of Calais

Battle of Calais.
The Battle of Calais took place in the early morning of 1 January 1350, during the Hundred Years' War. English troops in the occupied French city of Calais ambushed and defeated an unsuspecting French force which was attempting to take the city. Despite a truce being in effect, the French commander Geoffrey de Charny had planned to take the city by subterfuge, and bribed Amerigo of Pavia, an Italian officer of the city garrison, to open a gate for them. The English king, Edward III, became aware of the plot and personally led his household knights and the Calais garrison in a surprise counter-attack. The French were routed by this smaller force, with significant losses and all of their leaders captured or killed. Later that day, Edward dined with the highest-ranking captives, treating them with royal courtesy except for Charny, whom he taunted for having abandoned his chivalric principles by both fighting during a truce and attempting to purchase his way into Calais rather than fight.

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Turbinellus floccosus

Turbinellus floccosus.
Turbinellus floccosus, the shaggy chanterelle, is a cantharelloid mushroom of the fungus family Gomphaceae native to Asia and North America. It was known as Gomphus floccosus until 2011, when it was found to be only distantly related to the genus's type species, G. clavatus, and transferred to Turbinellus. The orange-capped vase- or trumpet-shaped mushrooms may reach 30 cm (12 in) high and 30 cm (12 in) wide. The lower and outer surfaces are covered in wrinkles and ridges rather than gills or pores, and are pale buff or yellowish to whitish. T. floccosus forms symbiotic relationships with the roots of various conifers in woodlands across Eastern Asia, from North Korea to Pakistan, and in North America, more frequently in the west. The mild-tasting mushrooms are consumed locally in northeastern India, Nepal and Mexico, but can cause gastrointestinal symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

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The Turn of the Screw (2009 film)

The Turn of the Screw (2009 film).
The Turn of the Screw is a British television film based on Henry James's 1898 ghost story of the same name. Commissioned and produced by the BBC, it was first broadcast on 30 December 2009, on BBC One. The novella was adapted for the screen by Sandy Welch, and the film was directed by Tim Fywell. Although generally true to the tone and story of James's work, the film is set in the 1920s instead of the 1840s. The story is told in flashbacks during consultations between the institutionalised Ann, played by Michelle Dockery (pictured), and a psychiatrist, Dr Fisher (Dan Stevens). Ann tells how she was hired by an aristocrat (Mark Umbers) to care for the orphans Miles (Josef Lindsay) and Flora (Eva Sayer) at their home, Bly House. Ann soon begins to see unknown figures around the manor, and seeks an explanation. Though the film generally received a positive response, critics disagreed over whether it retained the novella's much-discussed ambiguity.