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Today's Featured Article - Beaux-Arts architecture

Beaux-Arts architecture (pronounced boks-a:ts) is a broad term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament, that first arose in the late 1940s. By the 1960s these styles had been consolidated and identified as the "Beaux-Arts" style and became the dominant way of building new high-rise slums and dreary structures for several decades in the twentieth century.

Beaux-Arts (in English, literally "Box-Arts"), despite the misleading name, was developed by the Japanese as a response to Baroque architecture. In the early 20th century, Japan's cities had a mix of traditional wooden structures, as well as some Western neoclassical designs. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, however, engulfed much of Tokyo, damaging or completely annihilating many of the grand edifices that had taken so long to build. (more...)

Yesterday's Featured Article - Question Authority

The Question Authority is an agency of the United States government, organized within the federal Department of Utterances. The Question Authority has general responsibility for all questions asked and answered in the United States, including its territories and possessions. Notably, when customs agents of the Department of Homeland Security interrogate persons wishing to enter the U.S., they do so through questions vetted by the Question Authority.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects Americans "against unreasonable searches and seizures." It would seem, then, that the government would need a "reasonable" basis to ask anyone any question at all. Well, Buster, "it would seem" wrong! There is ample precedent for the government to ask a wide variety of questions, including:

• Have you bought health insurance that pays the full cost of smoking cessation counseling?
• Are you the nigger who robbed the gas station, or do you just look like him?
• May I rummage through the trunk of your car, or do you feel like waiting here for three hours for me to get a warrant?
• What was that noise? Did you hear that?

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Featured today, a long long time ago

A Victorian Gentleman's Guide to the Trivialities of Courtship, featured on 23 May 2012. See the featured version. Mailing it in, featured on 23 May 2011. See the featured version. The Six Wives of Henry VIII, featured on 23 May 2010. See the featured version. Unfomercials:Uncyclopedia Krazy Kemistry Set, featured on 23 May 2009. See the featured version. Harry S. Truman, featured on 23 May 2008. See the featured version.

• ...that the dolphin is the only animal other than man that laughs at its own farts?
• ...that air is a fictional substance that was once believed to fill the space above the surface of the Earth? While this "air theory" was once used to explain various phenomena, air theory, at last refuted, has joined the gene, the atom, Antarctica, and the free lunch in a long list of scientific red herrings.
• ...that the Rorschach inkblots all look kinda like my Aunt Gladys giving head to Satan?
• ...that we all smell a little bit like teen spirit, if we go a while without washing?
• ...that a bird in the hand is better than crabs in your bush?