I was going to end with the greatest football (soccer) rivalry, but I’m at a loss. Real Madrid–FC Barcelona? Celtic-Rangers? AC Milan–Inter Milan? Boca Juniors–River Plate? Manchester United–Liverpool? Too many choices. Instead, I’ll go the  rugby route: South Africa’s Springboks versus New Zealand’s All Blacks (a nickname derived from their uniforms, though several New Zealand players had to be declared “honorary whites” in order to be able to play in apartheid-era South Africa in 1970). With few exceptions, year in and year out, South Africa  and New Zealand have dominated international rugby. Since their first official meeting in 1921, neither has fared well on the other’s home turf, but New Zealand became dangerous for the Springboks in other ways in 1981, when local outrage at South Africa’s apartheid policy led to widespread protests and street battles with police. South Africa was prohibited from competing in the first World Cup competitions in 1987 and 1991. In 1995 apartheid was history (at least on paper), and long-imprisoned Black activist Nelson Mandela was the president of South Africa when it returned to the World Cup and won it by beating New Zealand in the championship game (a story told in the movie Invictus).

This week the U.S. celebrates the holiday of Thanksgiving, which has been an official national holiday since President Abraham Lincoln, after a campaign by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, declared it as such in 1863. In the modern consciousness, Thanksgiving is strongly associated with the near-mythological story of the Pilgrims at Plymouth (the English colonists) and their Wampanoag Indian neighbors, who shared a meal to celebrate the harvest in 1621. However, days of thanksgiving on a variety of occasions have been celebrated throughout American history. Among them have been days for giving thanks to the Creator for the ending of droughts and wars or in celebration of other events, such as the promulgation of the Constitution.

Huang Gongwang (born 1269, Changshu, Jiangsu province, China—died 1354) was the oldest of the group of Chinese painters later known as the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368). He was often cited meritoriously by later painters and critics for his rectitude (even though he briefly served in a junior capacity in the Mongol administration) and for his intense association with nature.

Huang spent most of his later years in retirement in the Fuchun Mountains, which he recorded in a long hand scroll produced over a three-year period (1347–50). He is known also for his accomplishments in literary arts and thus is listed among the paragons of the “literati painting” (wenrenhua) ideal. His style of and attitude toward landscape painting stand at a pivotal midpoint between such ancient masters as Dong Yuan and Juran in the Five Dynasties period and Shen Zhou, Dong Qichang, the Four Wangs, and others of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Rococo, style in interior design, the decorative arts, painting, architecture, and sculpture that originated in Paris in the early 18th century but was soon adopted throughout France and later in other countries, principally Germany and Austria. It is characterized by lightness, elegance, and an exuberant use of curving natural forms in ornamentation. The word Rococo is derived from the French word rocaille, which denoted the shell-covered rock work that was used to decorate artificial grottoes.

Excellent examples of French Rococo are the Salon de Monsieur le Prince (completed 1722) in the Petit Château at Chantilly, decorated by Jean Aubert, and the salons (begun 1732) of the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, by Germain Boffrand. The Rococo style was also manifested in the decorative arts. Its asymmetrical forms and rocaille ornament were quickly adapted to silver and porcelain, and French furniture of the period also displayed curving forms, naturalistic shell and floral ornament, and a more elaborate, playful use of gilt-bronze and porcelain ornamentation.

Rococo painting in France began with the graceful, gently melancholic paintings of Antoine Watteau, culminated in the playful and sensuous nudes of François Boucher, and ended with the freely painted genre scenes of Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Rococo portraiture had its finest practitioners in Jean-Marc Nattier and Jean-Baptiste Perroneau. French Rococo painting in general was characterized by easygoing, lighthearted treatments of mythological and courtship themes, rich and delicate brushwork, a relatively light tonal key, and sensuous coloring. Rococo sculpture was notable for its intimate scale, its naturalism, and its varied surface effects.

From France the Rococo style spread in the 1730s to the Catholic German-speaking lands, where it was adapted to a brilliant style of religious architecture that combined French elegance with south German fantasy as well as with a lingering Baroque interest in dramatic spatial and plastic effects. Some of the most beautiful of all Rococo buildings outside France are to be seen in Munich—for example, the refined and delicate Amalienburg (1734–39), in the park of Nymphenburg, and the Residenztheater (1750–53; rebuilt after World War II), both by François de Cuvilliés. Among the finest German Rococo pilgrimage churches are the Vierzehnheiligen  (1743–72), near Lichtenfels, in Bavaria, designed by Balthasar Neumann, and the Wieskirche  (begun 1745–54), near Munich, built by Dominikus Zimmermann and decorated by his elder brother Johann Baptist Zimmermann. Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff and Johann Michael Fischer also created notable buildings in the style, which utilized a profusion of stuccowork  and other decoration.

Goliath frog, (Conraua goliath), West African frog inhabiting dense lowland rainforests and a few fast-moving rivers and waterfalls in Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Classified in the family Conrauidae, it is best known as the world’s largest frog species. Males and females grow as long as 32 cm (12.6 inches), and the largest adults (which are often females) weigh 3 kg (6.6 pounds) or more. The goliath frog is an endangered species whose population has declined because of hunting and capture as well as its specific habitat and food  requirements and narrow tolerance limits, which make it vulnerable to habitat loss and degradation.

The goliath frog’s geographic range  extends from southwestern Cameroon south across the northern half of Río Muni (Continental Equatorial Guinea). It inhabits clear, warm rivers whose temperature hovers near 19.4 °C (67 °F) and nearby riverbanks and humid, undisturbed old-growth or secondary-growth forests (see also secondary succession). The species prefers waters that are highly oxygenated but slightly acidic.

Adult goliath frogs spend most of their time in the river to avoid daytime heat with only part of their heads above water. At night, they venture onto riverbanks to search for food. Larger adults sometimes bask in the sun on rocks, with occasional dips in the water to stay moist. Adult and juvenile frogs are carnivorous and feed on a variety of prey, including insects, worms, spiders, scorpions, fish, and even other frogs and small mammals. In captivity, they have been known to eat adult white mice. The tadpoles are herbivorous, however, and feed exclusively on Dicraeia warmingii, an aquatic plant found on rocks in rapids and near waterfalls. Having such an exclusive diet at this critical life stage may partially explain the species’ narrow habitat range. Despite their bulk, adult goliath frogs can jump up to 3 meters (10 feet) to escape predators, which include lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and human beings. Goliath frog eggs  are sometimes consumed by shrimp.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has announced that the SSC and HSC exams for 2025 will be held earlier than usual. Schools have been given time until August 23 to provide feedback and raise any concerns about the exam dates. This is the earliest announcement of exam dates by the board, as the dates for the 2024 exams were only released in November.