DNA repair is a constantly operating process in the cell essential
to survival because it protects the genome from damage. In human
cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors
(such as UV rays) can cause DNA damage, resulting in as much as
500,000 individual molecular lesions per cell per day. These lesions
cause structural damage to the DNA molecule, and can dramatically
alter the cell's way of reading the information encoded in its genes.
Consequently, the DNA repair process must be constantly operating,
to rapidly correct any damage in the DNA structure.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_repair
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1821 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador
proclaimed independence from Spain
* 1916 - Tanks, the "secret weapons" of the British Army during World
War I, were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme_%281916%29)
* 1935 - Nazi Germany adopted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived
German Jews of citizenship, and a new national flag with the
Swastika.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws)
* 1950 - Incheon Landing: United States forces landed at Incheon, Korea
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_war#Inchon_Landing)
* 1952 - United Nations gave Eritrea to Ethiopia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea)
* 1963 - A bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church, an
African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing several
children.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing)
Wikiquote of the day:
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." ~ Anaïs Nin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ana%C3%AFs_Nin)
The Holy Prepuce (or Holy Foreskin) is one of the various relics
purported to be associated with Jesus Christ. Orthodox Christian
belief has it that Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven at the end of
his earthly life. This would mean that Jesus's foreskin (removed at
his circumcision) would be one of the few physical remainders of
Jesus left behind on Earth. At various points in history, a number
of churches in Europe have claimed to possess it, sometimes
concurrently. Various miraculous powers have been ascribed to it.
The abbey of Charroux claimed to possess the Holy Foreskin during
the Middle Ages. It was said to have been presented to the monks by
none other than Charlemagne, who in turn is said to have claimed (per
the legend) that it had been brought to him by an angel. Other
claimants at various points in time have included (at least) the
Cathedral of Le Puy en Velay, Santiago de Compostela, the city of
Antwerp, and churches in Besançon, Metz, Hildesheim, and Calcata.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Prepuce
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 786 - Harun al-Rashid became the Abbasid caliph upon the death of
his brother al-Hadi.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid)
* 1752 - The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping
eleven days (September 2 was followed directly by September
14 this year).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar)
* 1812 - The Russian army set Moscow on fire to prevent Napoleon from
capturing the city.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow)
* 1901 - Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt)
* 1959 - The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto and became the first
man-made object to reach the Moon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2)
* 1960 - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
was founded by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC)
Wikiquote of the day:
"He, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and
he, who dares not, is a slave." ~ William Drummond
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Drummond)
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was the most significant
volcanic eruption to occur in the lower 48 states of the United
States in recorded history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month
long series of earthquakes and steam venting episodes that created a
huge bulge and a fracture system on Mount St. Helens' north slope.
An earthquake on 1980-05-18 caused the entire weakened north face to
slide away, suddenly exposing the partly molten, gas and steam-rich
rock in the volcano to lower pressure. The rock responded by
exploding into a super-heated mix of pulverized lava and older rock
that sped toward Spirit Lake so fast that it quickly passed the
avalanching north face. By the time the ash settled and the lahars
stopped advancing, 57 people were dead, many thousands of animals
were killed, hundreds of square miles (km²) were reduced to a
wasteland, and over a billion U.S. dollars in damage was done.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 533 - Belisarius' legions defeated Gelimer and the Vandals at the
Battle of Ad Decimum, beginning the "Reconquest of the West"
under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ad_Decimum)
* 1759 - General James Wolfe was fatally wounded, but he died happy,
knowing that his British forces had defeated the French at
the Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, New
France, a decisive battle in the French and Indian War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham)
* 1814 - The battle for Fort McHenry outside Baltimore inspired
Francis Scott Key to pen The Star-Spangled Banner.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McHenry)
* 1987 - Goiânia accident: A radioactive object was stolen from an
abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many
people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%E2nia_accident)
* 1993 - After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo
Peace Accords were formally signed by PLO leader Yasser
Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a public
ceremony in Washington D.C.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
ambition." ~ Carl Sagan
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan)
Anatoly Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World
Champion. He is considered one of the greatest players in chess
history, especially in tournament play: he is the most successful
tournament player in history, with over 140 first-places to his
credit. His overall record is 1,118 wins, 287 losses, and 1,480 draws
in 3,163 games, and his peak Elo rating is 2780. Karpov's "boa
constrictor" playing style is solidly positional, taking no risks but
reacting mercilessly to any tiny errors made by his opponents. As a
result, he is often compared to his idol, the famous Jose Raul
Capablanca, the third World Champion.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Karpov
Today's selected anniversaries:
1683 - Several European armies joined forces to defeat the Ottoman
Empire at the Battle of Vienna
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna)
1933 - Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on
Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceived of the idea of the
nuclear chain reaction
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%F3_Szil%E1rd)
1942 - The Laconia incident: RMS Laconia, carrying some 80
civilians and 268 British soldiers, and about 1800 Italian
POWs with 160 Polish soldiers on guard, was hit by a
torpedo from a U-boat off the coast of West Africa and sank.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident)
1974 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the Rastafarian
'Messiah', was deposed following a military coup
by the Derg.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derg)
1990 - The Two Plus Four Agreement was signed, paving the way for
German re-unification.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Final_Settlement_With_Respect_to…)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Only tragedy allows the release of love and grief never normally
seen." ~ Kate Bush
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Bush)
Nineteen Eighty-Four was a British television adaptation of the novel
of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC
Television in the winter of 1954. Orwell's novel was adapted for
television by Nigel Kneale, one of the most successful television
scriptwriters of the era. Although all went off well technically and
artistically, the production proved to be hugely controversial. There
were complaints both about the "horrific" content (particularly the
infamous Room 101 scene where Winston Smith is threatened with
torture by rats) and the "subversive" nature of the play. Most were
worried by the depiction of a totalitarian governmental regime
controlling the population's freedom of thought.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty%2dFour_%28TV_programme%29
Today's selected anniversaries:
1297 - Scots under William Wallace defeated English troops in the
Battle of Stirling Bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stirling_Bridge)
1973 - A military coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet
toppled the elected Socialist government of President
Salvador Allende.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_coup_of_1973)
1922 - The British Mandate of Palestine began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_of_Palestine)
1992 - Hurricane Iniki hit the the U.S state of Hawaii, killing
six.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iniki)
2001 - The September 11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center
in New York City, part of The Pentagon in Washington, D.C.,
and downed a passenger airliner in Pennsylvania. In total,
almost 3,000 were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks)
Wikiquote of the day:
"He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he
knows, nor judge all he sees." ~ Benjamin Franklin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin)
A mains power plug is a mechanical connector that fits into a power
point or electrical socket. It has male features, usually brass and
often tin or nickel plated, that interface mechanically and
electrically to the mains. Such plugs have live, neutral and an
optional earth contact. Large appliances with higher voltages use
three-phase current and have phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, neutral and
an optional earth contact. The reason why we now have over a dozen
different styles of plugs and wall outlets is because many countries
preferred to develop plug designs of their own, instead of adopting
a common standard. In many countries, there is no single standard,
with multiple plug designs in use, creating extra complexity and
potential safety problems for users.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_power_plug
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1813 - The Battle of Lake Erie is fought between the United States
and Great Britain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Erie)
* 1960 - Mickey Mantle hit what is thought to be the Major League's
longest home run an estimated 643 feet.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mantle)
* 1974 - Guinea-Bissau's independence from Portugal is officially
recognized.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea-Bissau)
* 2003 - Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden was stabbed and
died of the wounds on September 11.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Lindh)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first; Be not
discouraged— keep on— there are divine things, well envelop'd;
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words
can tell." -- Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman)
The Milgram experiment was a famous scientific experiment of social
psychology described by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram
in 1974. It was intended to measure the willingness of a subject to
obey an authority who instructs the subject to do something that may
conflict with the subject's personal conscience. The subject is
assigned the role of "teacher". He is then given simple memory tasks
to give to the "learner" (an actor) and instructed to administer a
shock by pressing a button each time the learner makes a mistake.
He is also told that the voltage is to be raised by 15 volts after
each mistake. In reality, there are no actual shocks being given to
the learner - he is acting. The experiment raised questions about the
ethics of scientific experimentation itself because of the extreme
emotional stress suffered by the subjects. Most modern scientists
would consider the experiment unethical today, though it resulted in
valuable insights into human psychology.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1839 - John Herschel took the first glass plate photograph.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Herschel)
* 1942 - World War II: A Japanese floatplane dropped an incendiary
bomb on Oregon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_War)
* 1982 - Princess Grace of Monaco died a day after suffering a stroke
whilst driving.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Kelly)
* 2001 - Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was
assassinated in Afghanistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Shah_Massoud)
Wikiquote of the day:
"I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved.
I am not sure that you are of the same mind. But the realm of
silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of
light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are
very dear." -- George Eliot
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot)
In prosody, alliterative verse is any of a number of closely related
verse forms that are the common inheritance of the older Germanic
languages. This was the verse form in which the Old English epic
Beowulf was written, as well as most of the other Old English poetry;
so were the Bavarian Muspillo and the Old Saxon Heliand. A modified
form of alliterative verse is found in the Elder Edda. Alliterative
verse exists from the earliest attested monuments of the Germanic
languages; extended passages of alliterative verse are attested in
Old English, Old Norse, Old High German, and Old Saxon. The basic
shape of the inherited form of alliterative verse is that a line of
verse is divided into two half-lines by a cæsura, and each half-line
has two strongly stressed words, or "lifts."
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliterative_verse
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1331 - Stefan Dušan declared himself king of Serbia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Dusan)
* 1636 - A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony establishes Harvard College as the first college
founded in the Americas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University)
* 1900 - Galveston Hurricane of 1900: A powerful hurricane hits
Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston_Hurricane_of_1900)
* 1941 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins - German forces begin
a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad)
* 1978 - Iranian Revolution: Mass protests in Tehran were met with
military tanks and helicopter gunship on Black Friday.
Hundreds of demonstrators were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr.)
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 1558-11-17
until her death. Sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen, Elizabeth
I was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding her
half-sister, Mary I. She reigned over a period of deep religious
division in English history. Elizabeth's reign is referred to as the
Elizabethan era and was marked by several changes in English culture.
Elizabeth was a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler. Like her
father Henry VIII, she was a writer and poet. She granted Royal
Charters to several famous organisations, including Trinity College,
Dublin (1592) and the British East India Company (1600).
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England
Today's selected anniversaries:
September 7: Independence Day in Brazil (1822)
* 1191 - Saladin and the Seljuk Turks were defeated by the Crusaders
in the Battle of Arsuf.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arsuf)
* 1818 - Carl III of Sweden was crowned king of Norway.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XIV_of_Sweden)
* 1940 - The Blitz began when Nazi Germany bombs landed on London,
England, the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz)
* 1986 - Desmond Tutu became the first black to lead the Anglican
Church in South Africa.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu)
* 1997 - The first test flight of the F/A-22 Raptor took place.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F/A-22_Raptor)
Wikiquote of the day:
"In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is
misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood."
-- Henry David Thoreau
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau)
The Warsaw Uprising was an armed struggle during the Second World War
by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German
occupation and Nazi rule. It started on 1944-08-01 as a part of a
nationwide uprising, Operation Tempest. The Polish troops resisted the
German-led forces until October 2. An estimated 85% of the city was
destroyed during the urban guerrilla war and after the end of
hostilities. The Uprising started at a crucial point in the war as the
Soviet army was approaching Warsaw. Although the Soviet army was within
a few hundred metres of the city from September 16 onward, the link
between the uprising and the advancing army was never made. This failure
and the reasons behind it have been a matter of controversy ever since.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising
Today's selected anniversaries:
* 1522 - The Victoria, carrying Juan Sebastián Elcano and 17 survivors
of Ferdinand Magellan's 265-man expedition, returned to Sanlúcar
de Barrameda, Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate
the globe.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Sebasti%E1n_Elcano)
* 1901 - U.S. President William McKinley is fatally wounded by anarchist
Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley)
* 1972 - Munich Massacre : Israeli athletes and coaches were killed by
terrorists known as 'Black September' at the Olympic Games.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Massacre)
* 1995 - Baltimore Oriole shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. played his 2131st
consecutive professional baseball games, breaking the 56-year old
record set by New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cal_Ripken_Jr.)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you
have received." -- Seneca
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seneca)