Chagas disease is a human tropical parasitic disease which occurs in
the Americas, particularly in South America. Its pathogenic agent is a
flagellate protozoan named Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted to
humans and other mammals mostly by hematophagous insects of the
subfamily Triatominae. Those insects are known by numerous common
names varying by country, including assassin bug, benchuca, and
kissing bug. Other forms of transmission are possible, though, such as
ingestion of food contaminated with parasites, blood transfusion and
fetal transmission. T. cruzi is in the same genus as the infectious
agent of African sleeping sickness, but its clinical manifestations,
geographical distribution, life cycle and insect vectors are quite
different.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagas_disease
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1667:
The Treaty of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Breda)
1790:
The U.S. Patent Office issued the first patent in the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/patent)
1917:
The Battle of Passchendaele began on the Western Front in World War I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele)
1941:
Holocaust: Hermann Göring ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to
develop a final solution to the Jewish question.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/final_solution)
1971:
Apollo program: The first Lunar Rover was used during the Apollo 15
moon mission.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Rover)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"I think I'd most like to spend a day with Harry. I'd take him out for
a meal and apologise for everything I've put him through." -- J. K.
Rowling
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling)
Hero of Belarus is the highest title that can be bestowed on a citizen
of Belarus. Created in 1995 by President Alexander Lukashenko, the
title is awarded to those who perform great deeds in the name of
Belarus. The deed can be for military performance, economic excellence
or great service to the State and society. The design of the medal is
similar to its predecessor, Hero of the Soviet Union. Similar titles
to the Hero of Belarus include the Russian Hero of the Russian
Federation and the Ukrainian Hero of Ukraine. This title has only been
awarded to five people since its inception — Uładzimir Karvat,
Alaksandar Dubko, Michajił Karčmit, Vital Kramko and Pavieł
Maryjaŭ. Of those, only Kramko and Maryjaŭ are living today.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_Belarus
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1619:
The first representative assembly in the Americas, Virginia's House of
Burgesses, convened for the first time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Burgesses)
1825:
Malden Island (now one of Kiribati's Line Islands) was discovered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malden_Island)
1864:
American Civil War: Union forces attempted to break Confederate lines
in the Battle of the Crater.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater)
1966:
England won the Football World Cup, beating Germany 4 to 2.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup)
2003:
The last 'old style' VW Beetle rolled off the assembly line in Puebla,
Mexico.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW_Beetle)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world's storm-troubled
sphere: I see Heaven's glories shine, And Faith shines equal, arming
me from Fear. -- Emily Brontë --
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emily_Bront%C3%83%C2%AB)
An open cluster is a group of up to a few thousand stars that were
formed from the same giant molecular cloud, and are still
gravitationally bound to each other. Open clusters are found only in
spiral and irregular galaxies, in which active star formation is
occurring. They are usually less than a few hundred million years old:
they become disrupted by close encounters with other clusters and
clouds of gas as they orbit the galactic centre, as well as losing
cluster members through internal close encounters. Young open clusters
may still be contained within the molecular cloud from which they
formed, illuminating it to create an H II region. Over time, radiation
pressure from the cluster will disperse the molecular cloud.
Typically, about 10% of the mass of a gas cloud will coalesce into
stars before radiation pressure drives the rest away. Open clusters
are very important objects in the study of stellar evolution. Because
the stars are all of very similar age and chemical composition, the
effects of other more subtle variables on the properties of stars are
much more easily studied than they are for isolated stars.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1030:
– King Olaf II fought and died in the Battle of Stiklestad, trying to
regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stiklestad)
1907:
– The Scouting movement began with the first scout camp at Brownsea
Island in Dorset, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting)
1947:
– ENIAC, the world's first all-electronic digital computer, was turned
on; it remained in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC)
1954:
– The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of The Lord of the Rings,
was published in the United Kingdom.
1957:
–- The International Atomic Energy Agency was established.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Energy_Agency)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that
the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if
you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all
means, do not use a hammer." -- IBM maintenance manual (1925)
Tony Blair is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He has
led the Labour Party since July 1994, and brought Labour into power
with a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, replacing John
Major as Prime Minister and ending 18 years of Conservative
government. He is now the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime
Minister. He moved the Labour Party towards the centre of British
politics, using the term "New Labour" to distinguish what he calls
"modern social democracy" and his party's refusal to reverse
privatisation and support for a market economy from its past belief in
nationalisation and Fabian socialism. Since the advent of the "War on
Terror" much of his agenda has been dominated by foreign affairs and
he has supported many aspects of the foreign policy of George W. Bush.
His party won an unprecedented third term in the 2005 general
election, but its majority in the House of Commons was reduced
considerably.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1794:
Reign of Terror leader Maximilien Robespierre was guillotined.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre)
1914:
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, starting World War I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I)
1976:
The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude
flattened Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangshan_earthquake)
1990:
Alberto Fujimori became President of Peru and the first person of East
Asian descent to become executive head of state of a non-Asian nation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Fujimori)
1996:
The remains of the prehistoric Kennewick Man were discovered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennewick_Man)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this
as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem
which it was intended to solve." -- Karl Popper
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper)
Blackface is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the
United States, used to affect the countenance of an iconic, racist,
American archetype, that of the "darky." Blackface also refers to a
genre of musical and comedic theatrical presentation in which
blackface makeup is worn. White blackface performers in the past used
burnt cork, then later greasepaint, to affect jet-black skin and
exaggerated lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tails or ragged
clothes to complete the transformation. Later, black artists also
performed in blackface. Blackface was an important performance
tradition in the American theater for over 100 years and was extremely
popular overseas, as well. The negative archetypes that comprised the
stock characters of blackface minstrelsy played a seminal role in
cementing and proliferating racist images and perceptions of, and
attitudes about, blacks worldwide. By the mid-20th century, changing
attitudes about race and racism effectively ended the prominence of
blackface performance in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1139:
Afonso the Conqueror became the first king of an independent Portugal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_I_of_Portugal)
1822:
José de San Martín met with Simón Bolívar in Guayaquil to plan for the
future of South America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaquil)
1887:
L. L. Zamenhof published Dr. Esperanto's International Language.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto)
1953:
Fidel Castro led an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus
beginning the Cuban Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moncada_Barracks)
1963:
Syncom 2 became the world's first geosynchronous satellite.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncom)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge)
The Monty Hall problem is a puzzle in probability that is loosely
based on the American game show Let's Make a Deal. The name comes from
the show's host Monty Hall. In this puzzle a player is shown three
closed doors; behind one is a car, and behind each of the other two is
a goat. The player is allowed to open one door, and will win whatever
is behind the door. However, after the player selects a door but
before opening it, the game host opens another door revealing a goat.
The host then offers the player an option to switch to the other
closed door. Does switching improve the player's chance of winning the
car? The answer is yes — switching results in a 2/3 chance of winning
the car. The problem is also called the Monty Hall paradox, in the
sense that the solution is counterintuitive, although the problem is
not a logical self-contradiction.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1926:
Fox Film Corporation bought the patents of the Movietone sound system
for recording sound onto film.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Film_Corporation)
1952:
Farouk of Egypt abdicated after a coup d'état.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farouk_of_Egypt)
1962:
Telstar relayed the first live transatlantic television signal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstar)
1967:
The 12th Street Riot began in the predominantly African American inner
city area of Detroit, Michigan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_Street_Riot)
1983:
Air Canada flight 143, the "Gimli Glider", crash-landed in Gimli,
Manitoba without loss of life.
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and
speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense
but one, that one sense being that in life as we know it such a man
would not be a private detective." -- Raymond Chandler
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler)
Caile Ferate Romane is the official designation of the state railway
carrier of Romania. CFR manages the fourth-largest railway network in
Europe, in terms of volume of passengers and freight. The network is
significantly interconnected with other European railway networks,
providing pan-European passenger and freight services. CFR, which as
an entity has been operating since 1880, is divided into four
autonomous companies: CFR Calatori, which is responsible for
passenger services; CFR Marfa, responsible for freight transport; CFR
Infrastructura, which manages the infrastructure on the Romanian
railway network; Societatea Feroviara de Turism, or SFT, which
manages scenic and tourist railways. CFR is headquartered in
Bucharest, Romania, and has regional divisions in Cluj-Napoca,
Craiova, Iasi and Brasov.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C4%83ile_Ferate_Rom%C3%A2ne
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
American Civil War: Confederate forces unsuccessfully attacked Union
troops in the Battle of Atlanta.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Atlanta)
1933:
Wiley Post became the first pilot to fly a fixed-wing aircraft solo
around the world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post)
1934:
Bank robber John Dillinger, named "Public Enemy Number One" by the
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, was ambushed outside Biograph
Theater in Chicago.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger)
1946:
An Irgun bomb destroyed the headquarters of the British Mandate of
Palestine at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 90.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing)
2003:
U.S. forces attacked a compound in Mosul, Iraq, killing Saddam
Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uday_Hussein)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door! -- Emma Lazarus
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emma_Lazarus)
The Ashes is a biennial Test cricket contest played between England
and Australia. The series is named after the trophy, which is a small
wooden urn said to contain the burnt bails from an 1882 game at The
Oval. Each Ashes series typically consists of five Test matches, and
the series alternate between the two countries. In the cricketing
world, the Ashes is regarded as one of the sport's most famous and
fierce rivalries. Particularly notable Ashes series took place in
1932/33 (the Bodyline tour), 1948 (Sir Donald Bradman's "Invincibles"
Australian side) and 1981 (in which an England team spearheaded by Ian
Botham won a thrilling series).
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1298:
Edward I of England defeated William Wallace's Scottish rebels at
the Battle of Falkirk.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Falkirk_%281298%29)
1831:
In Brussels, Leopold I was inaugurated as the first King of the
Belgians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I_of_Belgium)
1861:
The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle in the American
Civil War, began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run)
1970:
The Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 11 years of
construction.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswan_Dam)
1995:
The Chinese People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the
waters north of Taiwan, starting the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements
profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged
things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This
is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for awhile,
but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is
going to blow up in our faces." -- Carl Sagan
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan)
Robert Heinlein was one of the most influential and controversial
authors in the science fiction genre. He became the first science
fiction writer to break into major general magazines in the late 1940s
with true, undisguised science fiction, and the first bestselling
novel-length science fiction in the 1960s. For many years he, Isaac
Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the Big Three of science
fiction. The major themes of Heinlein's work were social: radical
individualism, libertarianism, religion, the relationship between
physical and emotional love, and speculation about unorthodox family
relationships. His iconoclastic beliefs have led to wildly divergent
perceptions of him. The novel Stranger in a Strange Land put him in
the unexpected role of Pied Piper of the sexual revolution and 1960s
counterculture, but he has also been cast as a fascist, based on the
contemporaneous Starship Troopers.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Heinlein
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1927:
– Five-year old Michael I became King of Romania upon the death of his
father Ferdinand I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_I_of_Romania)
1940:
– Billboard magazine published its first "Music Popularity Chart."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_magazine)
1944:
– Adolf Hitler survived the July 20 Plot, an assassination attempt led
by Claus von Stauffenberg.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_20_Plot)
1960:
– Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected Prime Minister of Ceylon, thus
becoming the world's first elected female head of government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirimavo_Bandaranaike)
1969:
– The Apollo 11 lunar module landed; Neil Armstrong became the first
man to walk on the moon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11)
1976:
– Viking 1 landed on Mars, marking the first visit from Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_1)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil
Armstrong on first stepping onto the surface of the moon, 20th July
1969.
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong)
The Polish September Campaign was the conquest of Poland by the armies
of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small contingent of Slovak
forces during the Second World War. The campaign began on 1 September
1939 following a German-staged attack. This military operation, which
saw the first use of Blitzkrieg tactics, marked the start of the
Second World War in Europe as the invasion led Poland's allies, the
United Kingdom and France, to declare war on Germany on September 3.
On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Red Army invaded the eastern regions
of Poland. The Soviets were acting in co-operation with Nazi Germany,
carrying out their part of the secret appendix of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (the division of Europe into Nazi and Soviet
spheres of influence). The campaign ended on 6 October, 1939, with
Germany and the Soviet Union occupying the entirety of Poland.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_September_Campaign
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
711:
– Roderic and the Visigoths in Iberia were defeated in the Battle of
Guadalete by Moorish Umayyad invaders led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderic)
1553:
– Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England
after holding that title for just nine days.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_England)
1848:
– The two-day Women's Rights Convention opened in Seneca Falls, New
York, United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention)
1870:
– France declared war on Prussia, starting the Franco-Prussian War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War)
1947:
– Burmese nationalist Aung San was assassinated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San)
1979:
– Sandinista rebels overthrew the US-backed government of the Somoza
family in Nicaragua.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandinista)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on
the battlefield will think hard before starting a war." -- Otto von
Bismarck
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck)