February 28, 2007
Breath Test Can Detect Lung Cancer
In a new study, researchers found that a simple breath test can sometimes detect lung cancer in patients, even in the early stages of the disease. The test identified three-quarters of the people with lung cancer in the study, but it also registered many false positives. Lung cancer is the most common form of malignant cancer and also kills the most people, in part because it is not usually detected until it has spread.syncope
DEFINITION: (noun) A brief loss of consciousness caused by a temporary deficiency of oxygen in the brain; a swoon.
SYNONYMS: deliquium, faint, swoon.
USAGE: She was an enormous flirt, laughing at all the men's jokes and even feigning syncope to garner their concern.
Mario Andretti
Mario Andretti is an American auto racing driver known as the "Driver of the Century." He is the only man to have won the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, and the Formula One World Championship. He has also won four Champcar titles and the United States Grand Prix. He retired from Indy-car racing in 1994 with 52 victories. How many of his family members are involved in racing?John Wesley Charters the Methodist Church
John Wesley was the 18th century English theologian and clergyman who founded the Methodist movement, which became the first widely successful evangelical movement in the United Kingdom. Today, he continues to be the primary theological interpreter for Methodists the world over. The largest Wesleyan body is The United Methodist Church. Wesley's teachings also served as a basis for the Holiness movement, of which what Christian sects are the offshoots?Moses Montefiore
Montefiore was a famous 19th century British-Jewish philanthropist. He was connected through marriage to the famed Rothschild family and became affiliated with the family's banking business. After accumulating a fortune on the London stock exchange, he retired at age 40 to devote himself to philanthropy and to securing political and civil emancipation for Jews in England, founding a hospital and girls' school in Jerusalem in 1855. Montefiore was knighted by what queen?February 27, 2007
Taliban Targets Cheney in Afghan Blast
A Taliban suicide bomber killed more than a dozen people at the main US military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday in an attack that was aimed at Dick Cheney; the visiting US vice president was not hurt. Soon after the blast, Cheney went ahead with talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Bolstered by money from record opium crops and safe havens in Pakistan, the Taliban have vowed to launch a spring offensive in coming weeks.editorialist
DEFINITION: (noun) A journalist who writes editorials.
SYNONYMS: columnist.
USAGE: He grew so weary of armchair-general editorialists that he stopped reading the Op-Ed pages altogether and picked up a book on political theory.
David H. Hubel
Hubel is a neurobiologist who, along with Torsten Wiesel, received the 1981 Nobel prize for discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system. Their most famous studies were in the area of visual perception, with particular emphasis on the nerve impulses mediating between the retina and the brain. They observed that various nerve cells were responsible for different types of visual stimuli. Their studies opened the door for the understanding and treatment of what ailments?Dominican Republic Is Independent from Haiti
Occurring in the midst of the Dominican Republic's turbulent 19th century history, the 1844 revolution that overthrew French-Haitian rule established an independent republic with a presidency that was, in turns, held by Pedro Santana and Buenaventura Báez. Each president at one point tried to bring stability to the country through foreign rule, the former through Spain and the latter through the US. During what period did the US occupy and establish a military government there?Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fatima is the title given to the Virgin Mary by those who believe that she appeared to three shepherd children at Fátima, Portugal, in 1917, at a time when many young men, including relatives of the children, were fighting in WWI. She reportedly exhorted the children to do penance, and they wore tight cords around their waists and abstained from water on hot days. She also reportedly confided to them three secrets. One of these was a vision of Hell. What were the others?- » About
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