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4chan is an English-language imageboard website based on the Japanese Futaba Channel. Launched on October 1, 2003, by "moot" (allegedly "Christopher Poole"), its boards are primarily used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime. Users generally post anonymously, and the site has been linked to Anonymous culture and Project Chanology. The Guardian describes 4chan as "at once brilliant, ridiculous and alarming". The "/b/" board is by far 4chan's most popular forum. It is known as the "random" board, and there are minimal rules on posted content. It is thus notorious on the Internet; Gawker.com once claimed in jest that "reading /b/ will melt your brain". The site has generated broad media attention, and its members have been responsible for the formation and popularization of Internet memes such as lolcats, rickrolling, and the popularity of the Tay Zonday song "Chocolate Rain". It has also received media attention for its attacks against other websites and Internet users, and for the threats of violence that have been posted on it. (more...)

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From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ... that the South Indian Hindu deity Shasta (statue pictured) is considered the son of Shiva and Mohini, a female form of Vishnu?
• ... that the Christmas carol Personent hodie, first published in the 1582 Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, is thought to be a parody of a 12th-century carol?
• ... that as a means to challenge the Microsoft/Intel PC architecture, IBM executive Jack Kuehler formed the AIM alliance that created the PowerPC microprocessor used in Apple's computers from 1994 to 2006?
• ... that despite being roughly only a square mile (2.6 km²) in area, the tiny atoll of Kaben in the Republic of the Marshall Islands actually has a functional airstrip?
• ... that pitcher Jesse Barnes made the Opening Day start for the Boston Braves against the New York Giants in the 1925 baseball season, after making the Opening Day start for the Giants against the Braves in 1920?
• ... that labourers paving Saskatchewan Highway 641 in 1942 earned 35 cents an hour and a labourer with a tractor-drawn drag earned 50 cents an hour?
• ... that the American Iron and Steel Institute formed the Steelmark in 1960 to promote American steel, with the logo put on the helmets of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1962 to further publicize the program?
• ... that during the Song Dynasty, the people of Sichuan worshipped Tang Dynasty general Wei Gao as a local deity?
  
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• The 66th Golden Globe Awards take place in Beverly Hills, California, with Slumdog Millionaire (director Danny Boyle pictured) winning four awards including Best Motion Picture—Drama.
• The ferry MV Teratai Prima capsizes and sinks off Sulawesi, Indonesia, killing more than 200 people.
• Flooding in Fiji, caused by Tropical Depression 04F, kills eight people and displaces 6,000.
• A 6.1 M_w earthquake kills 34 people and injures dozens more in Costa Rica.
• Russian state-controlled supplier Gazprom cuts off gas deliveries to Ukraine, with several European countries reporting a fall in supplies.
• John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress is elected President of Ghana.
• Israeli and Hamas forces resume fighting in Gaza after a six-month ceasefire.
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January 14: New Year in the Julian calendar; Makar Sankranti in India

• 1301 – The Árpád dynasty, who ruled in Hungary since the late 9th century, ended with the death of King Andrew III.
• 1761 – The Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the French-supplied and trained Maratha troops at the Third Battle of Panipat in Panipat, present-day Haryana, India.
• 1814 – Sweden and Denmark–Norway signed the Treaty of Kiel, whereby Frederick VI of Denmark, a loser in the Napoleonic Wars, ceded Norway to Sweden in return for the Swedish holdings in Pomerania.
• 1943 – Japanese forces began their withdrawal from Guadalcanal at the conclusion of the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II.
• 2004 – The national flag of Georgia, the so-called Five Cross Flag (pictured), was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.

• More events: January 13 – January 14 – January 15

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