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Faraaz Damji | 1 Mar 2007 22:55
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March 1: Immune system

   The immune system is a set of mechanisms that protect an organism from
   infection by identifying and killing pathogens.  This task is extremely
   difficult, since pathogens range from viruses to parasitic worms and
   these diverse threats must be detected with absolute specificity
   amongst normal cells and tissues.  Pathogens are also constantly
   evolving new ways to avoid detection by the immune system and
   successfully infect their hosts.  To meet this challenge, multiple
   mechanisms have evolved to recognize and neutralize pathogens.  The
   immune systems of vertebrates such as humans consist of many types of
   proteins, cells, organs, and tissues, which interact in an elaborate
   and dynamic network.  As part of this more complex immune response, the
   vertebrate system adapts over time to recognize particular pathogens
   more efficiently.  The adaptation process creates immunological
   memories and allows even more effective protection during future
   encounters with these pathogens.  This process of acquired immunity is
   the basis of vaccination.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1700:
   Sweden introduced its own Swedish calendar in an attempt to reform
   into the Gregorian calendar.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_calendar)

1872:
   Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world, was
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Faraaz Damji | 3 Mar 2007 07:52
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March 3: Galaxy

   A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of
   stars, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter.
   Typical galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million
   (10^7) stars up to giants with one trillion
   (10^12) stars, all orbiting a common center of gravity.
   Galaxies can also contain a large number of multiple star systems and
   star clusters as well as various types of interstellar clouds.
   Historically, galaxies have been categorized according to their
   apparent shape.  Interactions between nearby galaxies, which may
   ultimately result in a galaxy merger, may induce episodes of
   significantly increased star formation, producing what is called a
   starburst galaxy.  There are probably more than a hundred billion
   (10^11) galaxies in the observable universe.  Most galaxies
   are a thousand to a hundred thousand parsecs in diameter and are
   usually separated from one another by distances on the order of
   millions of parsecs.  Intergalactic space, the space between galaxies,
   is filled with a tenuous gas with an average density less than one
   atom per cubic metre.  There is some evidence that supermassive black
   holes may exist at the center of many, if not all, galaxies.  These
   massive objects are believed to be the primary cause of active
   galactic nuclei found at the core of some galaxies.  The Milky Way
   galaxy appears to harbor at least one such object within its nucleus.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1776:
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Faraaz Damji | 4 Mar 2007 06:06
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Subject: March 4: Turkey

   Turkey is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian
   peninsula in southwestern Asia and the Balkan region of southeastern
   Europe.  The region comprising modern Turkey has seen the birth of
   major civilisations including the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.  Owing
   to its strategic location at the intersection of two continents,
   Turkey's culture is a unique blend of Eastern and Western tradition,
   often described as a bridge between the two civilisations.  Turkey is a
   democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic whose political
   system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal
   Atatürk following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of
   World War I.  Since then, Turkey has increasingly integrated with the
   West while continuing to foster relations with the Eastern world.  It
   is a founding member of the United Nations, the Organization of the
   Islamic Conference, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
   Development and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
   Europe, a member state of the Council of Europe since 1949 and of NATO
   since 1952.  Since 2005, Turkey is in accession negotiations with the
   European Union, having been an associate member since 1963.  Turkey is
   also a member of the G20 which brings together the 20 largest
   economies of the world.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1461:
   Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by
   his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV.
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Faraaz Damji | 5 Mar 2007 04:51
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March 5: Law

   Law is a system of rules which is usually enforced through a set of
   institutions.  Law frames everyday life and society in a wide variety
   of ways.  "The rule of law," wrote the ancient Greek philosopher
   Aristotle in 350 BC, "is better than the rule of any individual."
   Legal systems around the world elaborate legal rights and
   responsibilities in different ways.  A basic distinction is made
   between civil law jurisdictions and systems using common law.  Small
   numbers of countries still base their law on religious scripts.
   Scholars investigate the nature of law through many perspectives,
   including legal history and philosophy, or social sciences, such as
   economics and sociology.  The study of law raises important questions
   about equality, fairness and justice, which is not always simple.  "In
   its majestic equality," said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the
   law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the
   streets and steal loaves of bread." The most important institutions
   for law are the judiciary, the legislature, the executive, its
   bureaucracy, the military and police, the legal profession and civil
   society.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1770:
   Boston Massacre: The pelting of British soldiers with snowballs during
   a military occupation soon escalated into a riot in Boston.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre)
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Faraaz Damji | 8 Mar 2007 02:49
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March 8: Lead(II) nitrate

   Lead(II) nitrate is a chemical compound, the inorganic salt of nitric
   acid and lead.  It is colourless crystal or white powder and a strong,
   stable oxidizer.  Unlike most other lead(II) salts, it is soluble in
   water.  Its main use from the Middle Ages, under the name plumb dulcis,
   has been as raw material in the production of many pigments.  Since the
   twentieth century, it has been used industrially as a heat stabilizer
   in nylon and polyesters, and in coatings of photothermographic paper.
   Commercial production did not take place until the nineteenth century
   in Europe, and in the United States until after 1943, with a typical
   production process of metallic lead or lead oxide in nitric acid.
   Lead(II) nitrate is toxic and probably carcinogenic to humans.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%28II%29_nitrate

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1702:
   Princess Anne became the queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Great_Britain)

1782:
   Almost 100 Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio died at the hands of
   Pennsylvanian militiamen in a mass murder known as the Gnadenhütten
   massacre.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenhütten_massacre)

1844:
   Oscar I acceded to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
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Faraaz Damji | 9 Mar 2007 06:06
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March 9: The KLF

   The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house
   movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Beginning in 1987,
   Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty released hip hop-inspired and
   sample-heavy records as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and, on one
   occasion (the British number one hit single "Doctorin' the Tardis"),
   as The Timelords.  As The KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered the genres
   "stadium house" (rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled
   crowd noise) and "ambient house".  The KLF released a series of
   international top-ten hits on their own KLF Communications record
   label, and became the biggest selling singles act in the world for
   1991.  Their most notorious performance was at the February 1992 Brit
   Awards, where they fired machine gun blanks into the audience and
   dumped a dead sheep at the aftershow party.  This performance announced
   The KLF's departure from the music business, and in May 1992 the duo
   deleted their entire back catalogue.  With The KLF's profits, Drummond
   and Cauty established the K Foundation and sought to subvert the art
   world, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the
   year and burning a million pounds sterling in The K Foundation burn a
   million quid.  Although Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word
   of May 1992—the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted—they have
   released a small number of new tracks since then, as the K Foundation.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_KLF

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1841:
   The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that captive Africans who seized control
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Faraaz Damji | 13 Mar 2007 03:18
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March 13: Cricket World Cup

  The Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of
  men's One-day International cricket.  The event is organised by the
  sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council, with
  preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament
  which is held every four years.  The tournament is one of the world's
  largest and most viewed sporting events.  The first Cricket World Cup
  contest was organised in England in 1975.  The finals of the Cricket
  World Cup are contested by all ten Test-playing and ODI-playing
  nations, together with other national teams that qualify through the
  ICC Trophy competition.  Australia has been the most successful of the
  five teams to have won the tournament, taking three titles.  The West
  Indies have won twice, while India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have each
  won once.

Read the rest of this article:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_World_Cup

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1781:
  William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus, thinking it was a
  comet.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus)

1881:
  Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated in a Nihilist plot by
  Ignacy Hryniewiecki.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russia)
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Faraaz Damji | 15 Mar 2007 06:13
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March 15: Hurricane Iniki

  Hurricane Iniki was the most powerful hurricane to strike the state of
  Hawaii and the Hawaiian Islands in recorded history.  Forming during
  the strong El Niño of 1991-1994, Iniki was one of eleven Central
  Pacific tropical cyclones during the 1992 season.  The eye of Hurricane
  Iniki passed directly over the island of Kauai on September 11, 1992
  as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.  It
  was the first hurricane to hit the state since Iwa in the 1982 season,
  and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Dot in 1959.  Iniki
  caused around $1.8 billion (1992 US dollars) in damage and 6 deaths.
  At the time, Iniki was among the costliest United States hurricanes
  and remains one of the costliest hurricanes on record in the eastern
  Pacific.

Read the rest of this article:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iniki

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Today's selected anniversaries:

44 BC:
  Julius Caesar of the Roman Republic was stabbed to death by Marcus
  Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March)

1311:
  The Catalan Company defeated Walter V of Brienne in the Battle of
  Halmyros and took control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in
  Greece.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halmyros)
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Faraaz Damji | 16 Mar 2007 05:33
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March 16: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

  The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is an autonomous
  engineering and technology-oriented institute of higher education
  founded by the Government of India in 1951.  The first of the seven
  IITs to be established, it is officially recognised as an Institute of
  National Importance by the Government of India and is regarded as one
  of the best engineering institutions in India.  IIT Kharagpur was
  established to train scientists and engineers after India attained
  independence in 1947.  Its organisational structure as well as its
  undergraduate admission process is shared by sister IITs.  The students
  and alumni of IIT Kharagpur are referred to as KGPians.  Among all
  IITs, IIT Kharagpur has the largest campus (2,100 acres), the most
  departments, and the highest student enrollment.  IIT Kharagpur is
  particularly famous for its festivals Illumination and Rangoli, Spring
  Fest and Kshitij.

Read the rest of this article:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institute_of_Technology_Kharagpur

_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:

1815:
  William I proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the
  Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I_of_the_Netherlands)

1872:
  In the first ever final of the FA Cup, the world's oldest football
  competition, Wanderers F.C. defeated Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The
  Oval in Kennington, London.
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Faraaz Damji | 17 Mar 2007 05:13
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March 17: Jocelin

  Jocelin was a 12th century Cistercian monk and cleric, who became the
  fourth Abbot of Melrose before becoming Bishop of Glasgow.  He was
  probably born in the 1130s, and in his teenage years became a monk of
  Melrose Abbey.  He rose in the service of Abbot Waltheof, and, by the
  time of the short abbacy of Waltheof's successor Abbot William,
  Jocelin had become prior.  Then in 1170 Jocelin himself became abbot, a
  position he held for four years.  Jocelin was responsible for promoting
  the cult of the emerging Saint Waltheof, and in this had the support
  of Enguerrand, Bishop of Glasgow.  As Bishop of Glasgow, he was a royal
  official.  In this capacity he traveled abroad on several occasions,
  and performed the marriage ceremony between King William the Lion and
  Ermengarde de Beaumont, later baptizing their son, the future King
  Alexander II.  Among other things, he has been credited by modern
  historians as "the founder of the burgh of Glasgow and initiator of
  the Glasgow fair", as well as being one of the greatest literary
  patrons in medieval Scotland, commissioning the Life of St Waltheof
  and the Life of St Kentigen and the Chronicle of Melrose.

Read the rest of this article:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelin

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Today's selected anniversaries:

45 BC:
  Julius Caesar scored his final military victory in the Battle of
  Munda, defeating the Optimate forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the
  Younger.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar)
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