Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Spotlight: Topic of the Day: The first World Cup competition in soccer began in Montevideo, Uruguay on this date in 1930.

Word of the day: verisimilitude -- appearing to be true. Used in an article about the computation of the probability of God, which has recently been set at 67%. "Naked faith is what religious enterprise was always about, until science became the preeminent system of natural verisimilitude..." ("God's Number Is Up" in Scientific American) (© )

Today's News:

• Angelo dela Cruz -- Philippines to withdraw troops "ASAP" to save abducted trucker (story)
• Athens -- massive blackout casts shadow on upcoming Olympic games (story)
• LDL -- new cholesterol guidelines advise aggressive statin treatment for lower levels (story)

Today's History:

• Charlotte Corday -- murdered French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat (1793)
• Edward Whymper -- became the first person to climb the Matterhorn, in the Alps (1865)
• London, Philadelphia, Moscow & Sydney -- hosted the Live Aid international rock concert, to raise money for Africa's starving (1985)

Today's Birthdays:

• Wole Soyinka -- African Nobel Prize-winning writer and political activist turns 70
• Jack Kemp -- former U.S. congressman and Cabinet member turns 69
• Harrison Ford -- star of Hollywood Homicide turns 62