Keratoconus is a degenerative non-inflammatory disorder of the eye in
which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change
to a more conical shape than its normal even curve. Keratoconus can
cause substantial distortion of the vision, with multiple images,
streaking and sensitivity to light all often reported by the patient.
Though frequently thought of as a rare condition, keratoconus is the
most common distrophy of the cornea, affecting around one person in a
thousand, and seems to occur equally in all ethnic groups worldwide.
It is typically diagnosed in the patient's adolescent years and
attains its most severe state in the twenties and thirties.
Keratoconus is a little-understood disease with an uncertain cause,
and the course of its progression following diagnosis is
unpredictable. The associated deterioration in vision, if in both
eyes, can affect the person's ability, for example, to drive a car
legally. It does not, however, lead to blindness, and in most cases,
corrective lenses are effective enough to allow the patient to
continue to drive and likewise function normally.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratoconus
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1849:
Denmark became a constitutional monarchy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark)
1947:
George Marshall called for economic aid to war-torn Europe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Marshall)
1967:
The Six-Day War began with an Israeli Air Force attack on Egypt,
Jordan, and Syria.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War)
1968:
Sirhan Sirhan mortally shot Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirhan_Sirhan)
1995:
A new phase of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate was discovered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose-Einstein_condensate)
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Wikiquote of the day:
Nobody knows you. No. But I sing of you.For posterity I sing of your
profile and grace.Of the signal maturity of your understanding.Of your
appetite for death and the taste of its mouth.Of the sadness of your
once valiant gaiety. -- Federico García Lorca
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca)
Elias Ashmole was an antiquarian, collector, politician, and student
of astrology and alchemy. He supported the royalist side during the
English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he was
rewarded with several lucrative offices. Throughout his life he was an
avid collector of curiosities and other artifacts. Many of these he
acquired from the traveller, botanist, and collector John Tradescant,
and most he donated to Oxford University to create the Ashmolean
Museum. He also donated his library and priceless manuscript
collection to Oxford. Apart from his collecting activities, Ashmole
illustrates the passing of the pre-scientific world view in the
seventeenth century: while he immersed himself in alchemical, magical
and astrological studies and was consulted on astrological questions
by Charles II and his court, these studies were essentially
backward-looking. Although he was one of the founding members of the
Royal Society, a key institution in the development of experimental
science, he never participated actively.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Ashmole
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1615:
Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu took Osaka Castle in Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_Castle)
1792:
Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Great Britain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound)
1920:
The Kingdom of Hungary was split into five countries with the signing
of the Treaty of Trianon in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon)
1942:
The Battle of Midway began with a massive Imperial Japanese strike on
Midway Atoll.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway)
1989:
The People's Liberation Army cracks down on the Tiananmen Square
protests in Beijing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided
the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn
and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the
same as the survival of the soul." -- Victor Hugo in Les
Misérables
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo)
Bob McEwen was a conservative Republican member of the United States
House of Representatives from southern Ohio's Sixth District from
January 3 1981, to January 3 1993. Tom Deimer of Cleveland's Plain
Dealer described him as a "textbook Republican ... opposed to
abortion, gun control, high taxes, and costly government programs."
McEwen, who had easily won three terms in the Ohio House, was elected
to Congress at the age of thirty to replace a retiring representative
in 1980 and easily won re-election five times. After a bruising
primary battle with another incumbent whose district was combined with
his in which McEwen faced charges of bouncing checks on the House
bank, he narrowly lost the 1992 general election to Democrat Ted
Strickland. Following an unsuccessful run in the adjacent Second
District in 1993, McEwen was largely absent from the Ohio political
scene for a decade until, in 2005, he unsuccessfully sought the
Republican nomination for Congress in the Second District special
election to replace Rob Portman, who beat him in 1993, and finished
second to the ultimate winner in the general election, Jean Schmidt.
In 2006, he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the
Second District.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_McEwen
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United
States was constructed between Willamette Falls and downtown Portland,
Oregon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electric_power_transmission)
1937:
The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_of_the_United_Kingdom)
1940:
World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ended with a German tactical
victory.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunkirk)
1944:
Charles de Gaulle became Prime Minister of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"It's a bumper sticker culture. People have to get it like that, and
if they don't, if it takes three seconds to make them understand,
you're off their radar screen. Three seconds to understand, or you
lose. This is our problem." -- Lawrence Lessig
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig)