news/notes 2009.03.09

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Francisco Bayeu
Francisco Bayeu, considered by his contemporaries to be the finest Spanish painter of their period and who was greatly influenced by Anton Raphael Mengs and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, was born this day in 1734.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1831: Creation of French Foreign Legion
The Foreign Legion, whose unofficial motto is “Legio patria nostra” (“The legion is our fatherland”), was founded this day in 1831 by King Louis-Philippe as an aid in controlling French colonial possessions in Africa.

news/notes 2009.03.08

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., born this day in 1841, was a U.S. Supreme Court justice and legal historian who advocated judicial restraint, arguing that speech could be limited only if it was a “clear and present danger.”

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1702: British throne ascended by Anne
On this day in 1702, Anne became the last Stuart monarch of Great Britain, having earlier acquiesced to the Act of Settlement of 1701, which designated as her successors the Hanoverian descendants of King James I.

news/notes 2009.03.07

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Viv Richards
West Indian cricketer Viv Richards, born this day in 1952 and nicknamed “Master Blaster,” was arguably the finest batsman of his generation, scoring 8,540 runs and averaging more than 50 runs per innings in Test competition.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1965: Attack on civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama
On this day in 1965, state troopers used nightsticks and tear gas to attack American civil rights activists as they crossed a bridge in Selma, Alabama, during their march to the state capitol in Montgomery.

news/notes 2009.03.06

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Michelangelo
Born this day in 1475 was Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, who exerted an unparalleled influence on Western sculpture, painting, and architecture and whose works rank among the most famous in existenc

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1924: King Tut's tomb opened
On this day in 1924, the Egyptian government opened the mummy case of King Tutankhamen, ruler of Egypt in the 14th century BC, whose burial chamber had been discovered in 1922 by renowned British archaeologist Howard Carter.

[Today's Studying Artiles] from [The Washington Post]

[Kirsten Kedzierski and Scot Hinshaw]

This happily quirky couple beat out four other pairs of finalists -- voted on by readers of Express and DC Scout -- to snag more than $35,000 in weddingproducts and services. Weddings must be their destiny, since their first date was at one.

Kirsten, 26, and Scot, 34, met while attending different destination weddings in Costa Rica. While hanging out at their resort's pool, Scot invited Kirsten to be his date for the wedding he was attending that night. She says, "I politely declined, but something struck me about him. When I mentioned this to my mother, my mother marched down to where he was and said, 'Hi, I'm Mary. I'm sorry my daughter is a dumb-ass. She will attend the wedding with you tonight.'"

Kirsten and Scot had to bridge the DC/NYC gap until Kirsten moved to DC. They bought a condo and now co-exist with Scot's Maryland Terrapins bobbleheads. "I [had] calmly asked him to wait until a proper man-cave was built [to display them in], and he refused," Kirsten jokes. But then the couplegot serious -- literally.

On Thanksgiving Day last year, "[Scot] sat me on the bed and told me he was very thankful for everything we have," says Kirsten, "and wanted to know if I would make him thankful for one more thing, and then he pulled out the mostbeautiful ring I have ever seen."

Kisten and Scot have set the date for Dec. 5, 2009.

Scot Hinshaw and Kirsten KedzierskiKirsten
Kedzierski, 26 Scot Hinshaw, 34

Kirsten and Scot will marry December 5, 2009 in Toledo, Ohio.

» KIRSTEN AND SCOT are our wedding contest winners. Read our follow-up story on them here.

1. How did you meet?

The couple met at a hotel in Costa Rica while attending different destination weddings. Kirsten caught Scot's eye by the resort's pool, and he approached her. When she explained she'd attended a wedding the evening before, he invited her to be his date at his friend's wedding that evening. "I politely declined, but something struck me about him," she says. "When I mentioned this to my mother, my mother marched down to where he was and said, 'Hi, I'm Mary. I'm sorry my daughter is a dumb-ass. She will attend the wedding with you tonight.'" Kirsten did. The next weekend, Scot traveled from D.C. to New York to attend a Yankees game with her, and the rest is history.

2. How did he propose?

With a houseful of relatives and dinner on the stove, Scot proposed on Thanksgiving Day in 2008. "He sat me on the bed and told me he was very thankful for everything we have and wanted to know if I would make him thankful for one more thing, and then he pulled out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen."

3. Describe a time when things were tough but you stayed together and forged through.

"When we moved into our condo and I discovered Scot's Maryland Terrapins bobbleheads had made the move with us. I calmly asked him to wait until a proper man-cave was built [to display them in], and he refused. In all seriousness, D.C. has been a tough adjustment for me. I miss my Yankees and my girlfriends — in that order."

4. If you had to make a TV show, movie or book into the theme of your wedding, which would you choose and why?
"'Flashdance'? Not really, but my copy just got scratched, and perhaps if we win this, the producers will send us a new copy because of the shout-out," Kirsten says.

5. You get to the ceremony site on your wedding day, and the roof has fallen in. What do you do?

"Actually, we are getting married at a historic theater in Toledo. A little roof issue won't stop us. As long as the chicken isn't dry, I'm happy," Kirsten says.

6. Would you rather get married in a lime-green prom ensemble from the 1970s, or include all your exes in the wedding party?

Exes, please! "My exes are performers and can provide cheaper music options for us. I love a good deal. As for his side, Scot agrees. His exes are event planners and are probably super-good at getting the best deal out of vendors."

news/notes 2009.03.05

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Soong Mei-ling
Soong Mei-ling, born this day in 1897, was the wife of Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek, launched the anticommunist New Life Movement, and led the effort to secure Chiang's release after his abduction in the Sian Incident.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1770: Boston Massacre
Harassed by a mob, British troops on this day in 1770 opened fire, killing Crispus Attucks and four others in the Boston Massacre, an event that galvanized anti-British feelings in the lead-up to the American Revolution.

news/notes 2009.03.04

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Miriam Makeba
South African singer Miriam Makeba, one of the world's most prominent black African performers of the 20th century, was born near Johannesburg this day in 1932 and introduced Xhosa and Zulu songs to Western audiences.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1933: Inauguration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
On this day in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd U.S. president, and later he led the country out of the Depression and to victory in World War II.

IEeeS_TechSupport_井上創学館_[English_Engineering_Education]

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[Engineering] Calculation Across All Fields; DOC & CALC(Excel & Word)

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EMAIL: iespcs@yahoo.co.jp BLOG: http://blog.goo.ne.jp/iespcs/

news/notes 2009.03.03

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh this day in 1847, was an audiologist who in his career was granted 18 individual patents and 12 with collaborators but was best known as the inventor of the telephone (1876).

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
2005: Steve Fossett's circumnavigation of Earth
On this day in 2005, American adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to complete a solo nonstop circumnavigation of the globe without refueling when he landed in Kansas after more than 67 hours in flight.

news/notes 2009.03.02

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Mikhail Gorbachev
Born this day in 1931, Mikhail Gorbachev, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985–91) and president of the Soviet Union (1990–91), instituted reforms that led to the end of the Cold War.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1956: Moroccan independence declared
The North African country of Morocco, situated directly across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain, proclaimed independence from France this day in 1956, with the sultan Muhammad V forming its first government.

news/notes 2009.03.01

[Born This Day] from [Britannica]
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin, born this day in 1810, was a Polish French composer and pianist of the Romantic period who ranks as one of music's greatest tone poets by reason of his imagination and fastidious craftsmanship.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
1872: Establishment of Yellowstone as world's first national park
Yellowstone National Park, situated in the western United States and designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978, was established by the U.S. Congress as the country's—and the world's—first national park this day in 1872.

[Today's Studying Articles]
[Health] from "Reuters"

Vitamin B12 can prevent major birth defects
Mon Mar 2, 2009 12:02am EST
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Before becoming pregnant, women need to get enough vitamin B12 in addition to folic acid to cut their risk of having a baby with a serious birth defect of the brain and spinal cord, researchers said on Monday.

Irish women with the lowest vitamin B12 levels were five times more likely to have a baby with a neural tube defect than those with the highest levels, the researchers wrote in the journal Pediatrics.

Neural tube defects can lead to lifelong disability or death. The two most common ones are spina bifida, in which the spinal cord and back bones do not form properly, and anencephaly, a fatal condition in which the brain and skull bones do not develop normally.

Dr. James Mills of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, one of the researchers, said the study showed that vitamin B12 deficiency was a risk factor for neural tube defects independent of folic acid, another B vitamin.
Many women now know of the importance of folic acid and there has been a drop in neural tube defects.

Mills said he hopes that awareness of the similar role of vitamin B12 can reduce neural tube defects further.

Vitamin B12 is essential to maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells. It is found in meat, dairy products, eggs, fish, shellfish and fortified breakfast cereals. It also can be taken as an individual supplement or in a multivitamin.

"An absolutely critical point is that women have to consider this before they become pregnant because once they realize they are pregnant it's likely to be too late," Mills, a researcher in the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in a telephone interview.
The developmental events involved in these birth defects occur in the first four weeks of pregnancy, Mills said.

Mills urged women who do not eat meat or dairy products to be particularly aware of the need to get enough vitamin B12.

He had similar advice for women with an intestinal disorder such as inflammatory bowel disease that may prevent them from absorbing sufficient amounts of the vitamin.

The study involved almost 1,200 women in Ireland who gave blood samples during early pregnancy, which were analyzed to determine vitamin B12 levels.

The women in the lowest 25 percent of vitamin B12 levels were five times more likely than those in the highest 25 percent to have had a baby with a neural tube defect.

The researchers suggested that women have vitamin B12 levels above 300 nanograms per liter before getting pregnant.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Mohammad Zargham)

[Words] from "CLD"
anencephaly - [MED] a congenital malformation in which all or most of the brain and skull bones are abcent
【名】《医》無脳症◆【同】anencephalia


[Science] from "Reuters"

Fossil of 10 million-year-old bird found in Peru
Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:57pm EST

LIMA (Reuters) - Paleontologists working in Peru have found a fossil from a bird that lived 10 million years ago, scientists said on Friday after returning from the dig site on the country's desert coast.

The species of bird had a wing span of 19.7 feet and fed mostly on fish from the Pacific Ocean. It first appeared 50 million years ago and was extinct about 2.5 million years ago because of climate change, paleontologist Mario Urbina of Peru's Natural History Museum said.

Scientists discovered a rare fossil of the bird's head in Ocucaje, in the Ica region of Peru's southern coast, where an arid climate has preserved many fossils.

"The cranium of the bird, from the Pelagornithidae family, is the most complete find of its kind in the world. Its fossil remains are hard to find," Urbina said.

Old ocean seabeds in the area have been a treasure trove for fossil hunters.

"This site had marine sediments. The fossil was found with other remains from whales, sharks and turtles," Urbina said.

At the time of the bird's death, Peru's coast was hot and rainy, but millions of years later, it turned cool and dry, he said.

The fossil is 15.7 inches long and will go on display on Saturday at the museum.

The bird had some peculiar characteristics, including teeth at the tip of its beak and large wings that were less efficient than those of contemporary birds.

"The teeth helped capture its prey. This was an animal that perhaps trapped its prey and chewed while it flew. It had a hard time taking off from the ground, and needed an elevated point to take off from," Urbina said.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino, Writing by Terry Wade)