JUST AS IT HAPPENS

  A revolutionary surgery took place on this day 64 years ago, changing the world of medicine as we know it.  For the first time ever, a machine was inserted into the human body in lieu of a body part that was no longer able to function correctly.  In 1958, two doctors, cardiac surgeon Ake Senning and medical device engineer Rune Elmqvist, implanted the first ever internal cardiac pacemaker into the body of Swedish engineer Arne Larsson. Larsson’s surgery was done to treat his Stokes-Adams syndrome, a condition that slows the heartbeat and decreases blood flow to the brain, resulting in potentially fatal fainting spells.  This revolutionary internal pacemaker was the size of a hockey puck and used two transistors that would deliver tiny shocks to the heart. Unfortunately, the first edition of this pacemaker would not last past 8 hours. Thankfully, Senning managed to successfully implant a second pacemaker that Elmqvist had ready on hand.  This second pacemaker was more successful than

  Persecution of Buddhists Many adherents of Buddhism have experienced religious persecution TV. Many adherents of Buddhism have experienced religious persecution because of their adherence to the Buddhist practice, including unwarranted arrests, imprisonment, beating, torture, and/or execution. The term also may be used in reference to the confiscation or destruction of property, temples, monasteries, centers of learning, meditation centers, historical sites, or the incitement of hatred towards Buddhists. Sassanids In 224 CE Zoroastrianism was made the official religion of Persia, and other religions were not tolerated, thus halting the spread of Buddhism westwards.[1] In the 3rd century the Sassanids overran the Bactrian region, overthrowing Kushan rule,[2] were persecuted[clarification needed] with many of their stupas fired.[1] Although strong supporters of Zoroastrianism, the Sassanids tolerated Buddhism and allowed the construction of more Buddhist monasteries. It was during

  7-year-old boy tortured, killed for being Christian . India (GFA/MNN) — Seven-year-old Anmol (AH-NEE-MOHL) laughed and played; he sang songs and learned Bible stories at Sunday school—and later, he was cruelly tortured and killed for being a Christian. A photo of Anmol taken a couple years ago. (Image, caption courtesy GFA) Gospel for Asia’s Danny Punnose says Anmol’s family thought he went to a friend’s house after Sunday School, like he did in the past. But when the young boy didn’t come home, they began to worry. “A couple of days later, they actually found his body,” Punnose states. Harish, Anmol’s father, had filed a missing persons report with the local police Monday, November 18. That same evening, police received a call about a child’s body seen floating in a nearby pond. When Anmol’s parents heard the news, they rushed to the hospital, where the body was taken, and identified the dead child as their son. “It was very clear he was brutally murdered,” reported field cor

  Brutality of Syria war casts doubt on peace talks War crimes experts say they have huge cache of photos documenting mass killing by Assad; Syrian FM arrives in Switzerland, says Assad's future a 'red line' In this June 12, 2011 photo during a government-organized tour for media, Syrian army soldiers show reporters dead bodies after they claimed that they are policemen who were killed by gunmen, near the city's Military Police building, in the town of Jisr al-Shughour, north of Damascus, Syria. (photo credit: AP/Bassem Tellawi) Syria’s conflict was sparked by an act of brutality — the detention and torture of schoolchildren who spray-painted anti-government graffiti in a southern city. In the three years since, the conflict has evolved into one of the most savage civil wars in decades. The atrocities have been relentless. Protesters gunned down in the streets. An opposition singer whose vocal cords were carved out. Beheadings and mass sectarian killings. Barrels f

  A Woman Let Strangers Do Whatever They Wanted To Her Body For 6 Hours — And The Results Were Awful Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramović is the woman many credit as "the grandmother of performance art." She was featured on Sex and the City and collaborated with James Franco. Somehow, her celebrated 1988 art piece, "The Lovers: the Great Wall Walk" — in which she and her longtime lover and collaborator Ulay started at opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, to meet in the middle as a way of signaling the break up of their 12-year relationship — seems like something that happened over a million years ago now. In light of the events going on in the world today, her work may perhaps be more intensely important now than it ever has been before, particularly if you are either a woman or someone with a sincere interested in understanding the depth of what women experience. The premise was deceptively simple. Abramović announced that she would stan

The  Algerian War  or  Algerian Revolution  was a major armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France.  An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France. Effectively started by members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) on 1 November 1954, during the  Toussaint Rouge  ("Red All Saints' Day"), the conflict led to serious political crises in France, causing the fall of the Fourth Republic (1946–58), to be replaced by the Fifth Republic with a strengthened presidency. The brutality of the methods employed by the French forces failed to win hearts and minds in Algeria, alienated support in metropolitan France,