The Brill Tramway was a six-mile (10Â km) rail line in rural
Buckinghamshire, England. It was privately built in 1871 by the 3rd
Duke of Buckingham as a horse tram line to help transport goods between
his lands around Wotton House and the national rail network. Lobbying
from the nearby town of Brill led to its extension to Brill railway
station and conversion to passenger use in early 1872. Although
locomotives were bought, the line had been designed for horses and
trains travelled at average speed of only 4Â miles per hour (6.4Â km/h).
In the 1880s, the Duke of Buckingham planned to upgrade the route to
main line standards and extend the line to Oxford, and in anticipation,
the line was named the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad. The extension to
Oxford was never built. Instead, the Brill Tramway became part of
London's Metropolitan Railway. In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway became
the Metropolitan Line of London Transport, and thus the Brill Tramway
became part of the London Underground, despite being 40Â miles (65Â km)
from London and not underground. In 1935 the London Transport
management closed the Brill Tramway and the infrastructure was
dismantled and sold. Little trace remains other than the former
junction station at Quainton Road, now the Buckinghamshire Railway
Centre.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_Tramway>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1700:
Great Northern War: Swedish forces led by King Charles XII defeated
the Russian army of Tsar Peter the Great at the Battle of Narva.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_%281700%29>
1872:
The first-ever international football match took place at Hamilton
Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_v_England_%281872%29>
1936:
The Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London,
was destroyed by fire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace>
1953:
Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda, is deposed and exiled
to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutesa_II_of_Buganda>
1993:
U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence
Prevention Act into law, requiring purchasers of handguns to pass a
background check.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Handgun_Violence_Prevention_Act>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sartorial (adj):
1. Of or relating to the tailoring of clothing.
2. Of or relating to the quality of dress
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sartorial>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world,
and moral courage so rare.
--Mark Twain
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain>
The Manchester Mark 1 was one of the earliest stored-program computers,
developed at the Victoria University of Manchester from the Small-Scale
Experimental Machine. Work began in August 1948, and the first version
was operational by April 1949; a program written to search for Mersenne
primes ran error-free for nine hours on the night of 16/17 June 1949.
The machine's successful operation was widely reported in the British
press, which used the phrase "electronic brain" in describing it to
their readers. The Mark 1 was initially developed to provide a
computing resource within the university, to allow researchers to gain
experience in the practical use of computers, but it very quickly also
became a prototype on which the design of Ferranti's commercial version
could be based. Development ceased at the end of 1949, and the machine
was scrapped towards the end of 1950, replaced in February 1951 by a
Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercially available
general-purpose computer. The computer is historically significant
because of its pioneering inclusion of index registers, an innovation
which made it easier for a program to read sequentially through an
array of words in memory. Many of the ideas behind its design were
incorporated in subsequent commercial products such as the IBMÂ 701 and
702. The chief designers, Frederic C. Williams and Tom Kilburn,
concluded from their experiences with the Mark 1 that computers would
be used more in scientific roles than in pure mathematics.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Mark_1>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1095:
At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade,
declaring holy war against the Muslims who had occupied the Holy Land
and were attacking the Eastern Roman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Clermont>
1815:
As specified by the Congress of Vienna, the Constitution of the Kingdom
of Poland was signed for the newly recreated Polish state that was
under Russian control.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Kingdom_of_Poland>
1895:
Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel signed his last will and
testament, setting aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel
Prize after his death.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel>
1971:
The Soviet space orbiter Mars 2 became the first man-made object to
reach the surface of Mars when it malfunctioned and crashed onto the
planet's surface.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_2>
2005:
French oral and maxillofacial surgeon Bernard Devauchelle performed the
world's first partial face transplant on a living human, replacing
Isabelle Dinoire's face after her Labrador retriever mauled her.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/face_transplant>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wallflower (n):
1. Any of several short-lived herbs or shrubs of the genus Erysimum
with bright yellow to red flowers.
2. A person who is socially awkward, especially one who does not dance
at a party due to shyness
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wallflower>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Flow in the living moment. — We are always in a process of becoming and
NOTHING is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you'll be flexible
to change with the ever changing. OPEN yourelf and flow, my friend.
Flow in the TOTAL OPENESS OF THE LIVING MOMENT. If nothing within you
stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like
water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.
--Bruce Lee
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee>
Minnie Pwerle (between 1910 and 1922 – 2006) was an Australian
Aboriginal artist. She came from Utopia, Northern Territory, a cattle
station in an area of Central Australia 300Â kilometres (190 mi)
northeast of Alice Springs known as the Sandover. Minnie began painting
in 2000, and her pictures soon became popular and sought-after works of
contemporary Indigenous Australian art. In the years after she took up
painting on canvas, until she died in 2006, Minnie's works were
exhibited around Australia and collected by major galleries, including
the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria
and the Queensland Art Gallery. With popularity came pressure from
those keen to acquire her work. She was allegedly "kidnapped" by people
who wanted her to paint for them, and there have been media reports of
her work being forged. Minnie's work is often compared with that of her
sister-in-law Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who also came from the Sandover
and took up acrylic painting late in life. Minnie's daughter, Barbara
Weir, is a respected artist in her own right.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Pwerle>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
43 BC:
Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark
Antony formed the Second Triumvirate alliance.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Triumvirate>
1476:
Vlad the Impaler defeated Basarab Laiotă with the help of Stephen the
Great and Stephen V Báthory and became the ruler of Wallachia for the
third time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler>
1778:
An expedition led by James Cook reached Maui, the second largest of the
Hawaiian Islands.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maui>
1805:
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the longest and highest aqueduct in Great
Britain, carrying the Llangollen Canal over the River Dee in northeast
Wales, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct>
1922:
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first people to enter the
tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3,000 years.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KV62>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
limbate (adj):
(biology, paleontology) Having a distinct edge; bordered
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/limbate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I believe that what separates us all from one another is simply society
itself, or, if you like, politics. This is what raises barriers between
men, this is what creates misunderstanding.
If I may be allowed to express myself paradoxically, I should say
that the truest society, the authentic human community, is extra-social
— a wider, deeper society, that which is revealed by our common
anxieties, our desires, our secret nostalgias. The whole history of the
world has been governed by nostalgias and anxieties, which political
action does no more than reflect and interpret, very imperfectly. No
society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can
deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst
for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social
condition, not vice versa.
--Eugène Ionesco
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Ionesco>
Edwin Taylor Pollock (1870–1943) was a career officer in the United
States Navy, serving in both the Spanish–American War and World War I.
He was subsequently promoted to the rank of Captain. As a young ensign,
Pollock served on board the USS New York during the Spanish–American
War. After the war, he gradually rose through the ranks and served on
many ships, including doing important research into wireless
communication. Less than a week before World War I, he won a race
against a fellow officer to be the one to officially sign over the U.S.
Virgin Islands from the Danish and serve as the territory's first
acting-governor. During the war, he was promoted to captain and
successfully transferred 60,000 American soldiers to France, for which
he was awarded a Navy Cross. Afterward, he was made the eighth Naval
Governor of American Samoa and then the superintendent of the United
States Naval Observatory, before retiring in 1927.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Taylor_Pollock>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1034:
After Malcolm II of Scotland died at Glamis, Duncan, the son of his
second daughter, instead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter,
inherited the throne to become the King of Scots.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_II_of_Scotland>
1120:
William Adelin, the only legitimate son of King Henry I of England,
drowned in the White Ship Disaster, leading to a succession crisis
which would bring down the Norman monarchy of England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ship>
1795:
Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland, was forced to
abdicate after the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth by Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_August_Poniatowski>
1970:
Failing to instigate a military coup to restore the powers of the
Emperor of Japan, Yukio Mishima committed the ritual suicide seppuku
at the Japan Self-Defense Forces headquarters in Tokyo.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima>
1975:
Johan Ferrier became the first President of Suriname.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Ferrier>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
shill (v):
To promote or endorse in return for payment, especially dishonestly
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shill>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Now and then it occurs to one to reflect upon what slender threads of
accident depend the most important circumstances of his life; to look
back and shudder, realizing how close to the edge of nothingness his
being has come.
--Upton Sinclair
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair>
"Pilot" (also known as "Everybody Lies") is the first episode of the
television series House. Premiered November 16, 2004, on FOX, it
introduces the character of Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie)—a
maverick antisocial doctor—and his team of diagnosticians at a hospital
in New Jersey. The episode features Dr. House's attempts to diagnose a
kindergarten teacher who has collapsed in class. House was created by
David Shore, who got the idea for the curmudgeonly title character from
a doctor's visit. Initially, producer Bryan Singer wanted an American
to play House, but British actor Laurie's audition changed his mind.
Shore wrote House as a character with parallels to Sherlock Holmes—both
are drug users, aloof, and largely friendless. The show's producers
wanted House handicapped in some way and gave him a damaged leg arising
from an improper diagnosis. The episode received generally positive
reviews; the character of House was widely noted as a unique aspect of
the episode and series, though reviewers such as Sherwin Nuland of
Slate believed that such a cruel character would not be tolerated in
real life. Other complaints with the episode included stereotyped
supporting characters and an implausible premise. The initial broadcast
of "Pilot" was watched by approximately seven million viewers, making
it the sixty-second most-watched show of the week.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_%28House%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1642:
A Dutch expedition led by Abel Tasman reached present-day Tasmania,
Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Tasman>
1859:
On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was
first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species>
1922:
Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Robert Erskine Childers
was executed by firing squad by the Irish Free State for illegally
carrying an automatic pistol.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers>
1971:
After collecting a ransom payout of US$200,000, "D. B. Cooper" leaped
out of the rear stairway of the airplane he had hijacked over the
Pacific Northwest and disappeared.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper>
1974:
A group of paleoanthropologists led by Donald Johanson discovered a
3.2-million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis in the
Afar Depression in Ethiopia, nicknaming it "Lucy" after The Beatles
song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28Australopithecus%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
claptrap (n):
Empty verbiage or nonsense
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/claptrap>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Fight the enemy with the weapons he lacks.
--Alexander Suvorov
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Suvorov>
Proteasomes are very large protein complexes inside all eukaryotes and
archaea, as well as in some bacteria. In eukaryotes, they are located
in the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The main function of the proteasome
is to degrade unneeded or damaged proteins by proteolysis, a chemical
reaction that breaks peptide bonds. Enzymes that carry out such
reactions are called proteases. Proteasomes are part of a major
mechanism by which cells regulate the concentration of particular
proteins and degrade misfolded proteins. Proteins are tagged for
degradation with a considerably small protein called ubiquitin. The
tagging reaction is catalyzed by enzymes called ubiquitin ligases. Once
a protein is tagged with a single ubiquitin molecule, this is a signal
to other ligases to attach additional ubiquitin molecules. The result
is a polyubiquitin chain that is bound by the proteasome, allowing it
to degrade the tagged protein. The proteasomal degradation pathway is
essential for many cellular processes, including the cell cycle, the
regulation of gene expression, and responses to oxidative stress. The
importance of proteolytic degradation inside cells and the role of
ubiquitin in proteolytic pathways was acknowledged in the award of the
2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and
Irwin Rose.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteasome>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for their
rescue of two Irish nationalists, who played important roles in the
failed Fenian Rising, from jail.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Martyrs>
1963:
The first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast on BBC television with
William Hartnell in the title role, starting a programme that
eventually became the world's longest-running science fiction on
television.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who>
1971:
The People's Republic of China was given China's permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_and_the_United_Nations>
2007:
MS Explorer became the first cruise ship to sink in the Antarctic
Ocean.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Explorer>
2009:
At least 57 people, including 34 journalists, were killed in the
Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maguindanao_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gestalt (n):
A collection of entities that creates a unified concept, configuration,
or pattern which is greater than the sum of its parts
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gestalt>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old friends to trust! Old authors
to read!
--Alfonso X of Castile
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfonso_X_of_Castile>
The Jordan River is a stream, about 51Â miles (82 km) long, in the U.S.
state of Utah. Regulated by pumps at its headwaters at Utah Lake, it
flows northward through the Salt Lake Valley and empties into the Great
Salt Lake. Four of Utah's five largest cities—Salt Lake City, West
Valley City, West Jordan and Sandy—border the river. More than a
million people live in the Jordan Subbasin, which is the part of the
Jordan River watershed that lies within Salt Lake and Davis counties.
During the Pleistocene, the area was part of Lake Bonneville. Members
of the Desert Archaic Culture were the earliest known inhabitants of
the region; an archaeological site found along the river dates back
3,000Â years. Mormon pioneers led by Brigham Young were the first
European-American settlers, arriving in July 1847 and establishing
farms and settlements along the river and its tributaries. The growing
population, needing water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use
in an arid climate, dug ditches and canals, built dams, and installed
pumps to create a highly regulated river.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_River_%28Utah%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1718:
Blackbeard the pirate was killed in battle by a boarding party of
British sailors off the coast of North Carolina, ending his reign of
terror in the Caribbean.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard>
1869:
The Cutty Sark , one of the last sailing clippers ever to be built, was
launched at Dumbarton in Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark>
1963:
Hours after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, Lyndon
B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One as the 36th President of
the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination>
1975:
Two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I was
declared King of Spain according to the law of succession promulgated
by Franco.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Carlos_I>
2004:
Massive protests started in cities across Ukraine, resulting from
allegations that the Ukrainian presidential election between sitting
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and leader of the opposition coalition
Viktor Yushchenko was rigged.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Revolution>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
yardbird (n):
1. (chiefly US, slang) A person who is imprisoned.
2. (chiefly US, slang) A soldier who is required to perform menial
work on the grounds of a military base
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yardbird>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is well known to all experienced minds that our firmest convictions
are often dependent on subtle impressions for which words are quite too
coarse a medium.
--George Eliot
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot>