Electra Heart is the second studio album by Welsh singer Marina Diamandis, professionally known as Marina and the Diamonds (pictured). Released in April 2012, it is a concept album inspired by electropop music, a distinct departure from the new wave musical styles seen throughout her debut studio album The Family Jewels (2010). Diamandis created the titular character "Electra Heart" to represent female archetypes of stereotypical American culture, and the album's lyrical content is united by the topics of love and identity. Critical opinion was divided and there was ambivalence towards Diamandis' shift in musical style and its overall production. The record debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, her first chart-topping record there, and performed moderately on international record charts, including a peak position at number 31 on the U.S. Billboard 200. " Primadonna" was released as the lead single, and peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The record was additionally promoted by two further singles and by Diamandis' headlining The Lonely Hearts Club Tour, which visited Europe and North America from May 2012 through May 2013. ( Full article...)

Recently featured: American white ibis – Voting Rights Act of 1965 – Southern Rhodesia in World War I

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that Comic Neue is "a slightly less horrible version of Comic Sans" (comparison pictured)?
• ... that only three possible fossils of the extinct ant Aphaenogaster oligocenica have been reported?
• ... that the Cenotaph war memorial in Cape Town has been relocated twice since it was first erected in 1924?
• ... that the Mama Lucy Gang was named after the owner of a restaurant?
• ... that, after plans to make a film with Dardanella fell through, Ali Joego established his own theatre company?
• ... that the success of Mikengreg's Solipskier gave them the means to experiment when making Gasketball?
• ... that I-Kiribati boxer Taoriba Biniati had never fought against a woman or in a ring before taking part at the 2014 Common­wealth Games?

• Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are found guilty of crimes against humanity by a UN-backed tribunal.
• The ESA spacecraft Rosetta reaches the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
• A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Yunnan, China, kills at least 589 people and injures more than 2,400 others.
• At least 15 soldiers die in clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• Gas explosions (aftermath pictured) in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, kill at least 30 people and injure more than 300 others.
• Heavy rains trigger a landslide in the Pune district of India, killing more than 130 people.

Ongoing: Libyan conflict – Gaza conflict – Ebola outbreak – Ukrainian unrest
Recent deaths: Dick Smith

August 8: Father's Day in Taiwan

• 1576 – The cornerstone of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe's observatory Uraniborg was laid on the island of Hven.
• 1786 – Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat completed the first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc in the Alps, an act considered to be the birth of modern mountaineering.
• 1929 – German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin (pictured) embarked on a flight to circumnavigate the world.
• 1967 – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand founded the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
• 2009 – Nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collided over the Hudson River near Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey, US.

More anniversaries: August 7 – August 8 – August 9

Forty-four women have been recipients of the Nobel Prize, while 803 men and 22 organizations have been recipients of the award. The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel. Curie is also the only woman to have won multiple Nobel Prizes; in 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie (pictured), won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, making the two the only mother-daughter pair to have won Nobel Prizes. Fifteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, thirteen have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, ten have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, four have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, two have won the Nobel Prize in Physics and one, Elinor Ostrom, has won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The most Nobel Prizes awarded to women in a single year was in 2009, when five women became laureates. The most recent woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize was Alice Munro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 for her work in short stories. ( Full list...)