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Smash Hit is a 2014 rail-shooter video game developed and published by the Swedish indie game studio Mediocre. Through the game's twelve levels, the player takes a first-person perspective, shooting metal balls to destroy glass obstacles. The player can also shoot up to five balls at once by smashing a consecutive sequence of crystals and gather power-ups that are activated for a limited amount of time. The game also features a one-time in-game purchase that allows the player to start from any unlocked checkpoint. The game's development team consisted of Dennis Gustafsson, Henrik Johansson, and Douglas Holmquist. A virtual reality adaptation of the game was released for platforms in 2015 and 2018. Smash Hit received positive acclaim from reviewers, who praised its physics engine, graphics, music, and sound effects. CNET and Apple Inc. listed it as one of the best mobile games of 2014. Gustafsson and Holmquist later worked on Teardown after Mediocre closed in 2017. (Full article...)

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Lilium lophophorum flower

... that the unique flower shape of Lilium lophophorum (pictured) is adapted to protect its reproductive organs from the harsh ultraviolet light and torrential rains of its habitat?
... that with the Green Bay Packers' loss in the 2020 NFC Championship Game, Aaron Rodgers "became the first quarterback in NFL history to lose four straight NFC Championship Games"?
... that The House of Bijapur has been called a "painted curtain call" since the dynasty it depicts was overthrown only a few years later?
... that Dethloff Willrodt fought for the Union army on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, having previously been a soldier in the Confederate army?
... that in Greek mythology, Achilles promised to marry Pisidice if she would help him conquer her homeland, but afterwards he had her executed for treason?
... that blogger Charles LeBlanc interviewed a man who carried out a mass shooting the following year?
... that for cultural reasons the jijin was permitted to be worn by Catholic priests in China even while celebrating Mass?
... that in 1927 Berta Persson became the first woman bus driver in Sweden and was nicknamed "Buss-Berta"?
... that both the comedy film Starbuck, and the Holstein bull it was named after, had cloned remakes?

In the news

Joseph Aoun

Joseph Aoun (pictured) is elected president of Lebanon after a two-year vacancy.
A series of wildfires in Southern California, United States, leaves at least 11 people dead and forces the evacuation of nearly 180,000 others.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hits Tingri County in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China, leaving at least 126 people dead.
Indonesia becomes a full member of BRICS.
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On this day

January 12: Zanzibar Revolution Day in Tanzania (1964)

Comet McNaught

1659 – The fort at Allahabad was surrendered to the forces of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Natal Native Contingent and British troops defeated Zulu forces in the Action at Sihayo's Kraal.
1899 – During a storm, the crew of Lynmouth Lifeboat Station transported their 10-ton lifeboat 15 mi (24 km) overland in order to rescue a damaged schooner.
1967 – Seventy-three-year-old psychology professor James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
2007 – Comet McNaught (pictured) reached perihelion, becoming the brightest comet in over 40 years, with an apparent magnitude of −5.5.

John Singer Sargent (b. 1856)
Laura Adams Armer (b. 1874)
Princess Patricia of Connaught (d. 1974)

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Today's featured picture

John Henry Turpin (1876–1962) was a sailor in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the first African-American chief petty officers in the U.S. Navy, becoming a chief gunner's mate on the cruiser Marblehead in 1917. He was transferred to the Fleet Reserve in 1919 and retired in 1925. He is also notable for surviving the catastrophic explosions of two U.S. Navy ships: USS Maine in 1898, and USS Bennington in 1905.

Photograph credit: unknown photographer; restored by Adam Cuerden

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