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Pattern Recognition is a novel by science fiction writer William Gibson published in 2003. Set in August and September 2002, the story follows Cayce Pollard, a 32-year-old marketing consultant who has a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols. The action takes place in London, Tokyo, and Moscow as Cayce judges the effectiveness of a proposed corporate symbol and is hired to seek the creators of film clips anonymously posted to the internet. The novel's central theme involves the examination of the human desire to detect patterns or meaning and the risks of finding patterns in meaningless data. Other themes include methods of interpretation of history, cultural familiarity with brand names, and tensions between art and commercialization. The September 11, 2001, attacks are used as a motif representing the transition to the new century. Critics identify influences in Pattern Recognition from Thomas Pynchon's postmodernist detective story The Crying of Lot 49. The novel is Gibson's eighth and the first to be set in the contemporary world. Like his previous work, it has been classified as a science fiction and postmodern novel, with the action unfolding along a thriller plot line. Critics approved of the writing but found the plot unoriginal and some of the language distracting. The book peaked at No. 4 on the New York Times Best Seller list, was nominated for the 2003 British Science Fiction Association Award, and was shortlisted for the 2004 Arthur C. Clarke Award and Locus Awards. (more...)

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• The Japan Atomic Energy Agency raises the severity of the Fukushima I nuclear accidents to level 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
• Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo (pictured) is arrested after a months-long standoff with Alassane Ouattara.
• At least 12 people are killed and over 100 injured in a bomb attack on the Metro in Minsk, Belarus.
• France implements its controversial ban on face covering.
• Iceland rejects a plan to repay the British and Dutch governments over guarantee savings after Icesave's failure.
• In golf, South African Charl Schwartzel wins the Masters Tournament.
• American film director Sidney Lumet dies at the age of 86.
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April 12: Rama Navami begins (Hinduism, 2011); Cosmonautics Day in Russia; Yuri's Night

• 467 – Anthemius was proclaimed Western Roman Emperor at the third or twelfth mile from Rome.
• 1831 – The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, collapsed, reportedly owing to a mechanical resonance induced by troops marching over the bridge in step.
• 1861 – Confederate forces began firing at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War.
• 1910 – The SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was launched.
• 1961 – Aboard Vostok 3KA-3, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (pictured) became the first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108 minutes.
• 1994 – Husband-and-wife law partners Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel posted the first massive commercial Usenet spam.

More anniversaries: April 11 – April 12 – April 13

A c. 1890 Korean illustration of a litter (gama in Korean), a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Gamas were primarily used by royalty and government officials, or in traditional weddings. Because of the difficulties posed by the mountainous terrain of the Korean Peninsula and the lack of paved roads, gamas were preferred over wheeled vehicles. Artist: Unknown; Restoration: Lise Broer Recently featured: Pholiota malicola – Wakehurst Place – San Francisco fog Archive – More featured pictures...