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Dracunculiasis, also called Guinea-worm disease, is aparasitic infection by the Guinea worm,Dracunculus medinensis. A person becomes infected by drinking water contaminated with Guinea-wormlarvae, which penetrate thedigestive tract and escape into the body. Around a year later, the adult female migrates to an exit site – usually the lower leg – and induces an intensely painfulblister on the skin. Eventually, the blister bursts, creating a painful wound from which the worm gradually emerges. The wound remains painful throughout the worm's emergence, disabling the affected person for the three to ten weeks it takes the worm to emerge. There is no medication to treat or prevent dracunculiasis. Instead, the mainstay of treatment is the careful wrapping of the emerging worm around a small stick or gauze to encourage and speed up its exit. A disease of extreme poverty, there were 14 cases reported worldwide in 2023, as efforts continue toeradicate it. (Full article...)

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A Bergebyløpet N70 musher

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... that Prime Minister of SingaporeLee Hsien Loong's phrase "mee siam mai hum" was described as "Singlish for being out of touch"?
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... that a stray dog namedArgo visited the ruins ofPompeii daily for 15 years and was considered its "guardian"?

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Nicușor Dan

Nicușor Dan(pictured)is elected aspresident of Romania.
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Austria, represented byJJ with the song "Wasted Love", winsthe Eurovision Song Contest.
In the Philippines, theAlyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas wins the most seats inthe Senate election, whileLakas–CMD, one of its component parties, wins the most seats inthe House elections.

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On this day

May 22:National Maritime Day in the United States

Prayut Chan-o-cha

1766 –A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struckConstantinople and was followed by atsunami that caused significant damage.
1874 –Giuseppe Verdi'sRequiem was first performed in theSan Marco church in Milan to commemorate the first anniversary ofAlessandro Manzoni's death.
1998 – InPublic Prosecutor v Taw Cheng Kong, theCourt of Appeal of Singapore overruled aHigh Court decision in the only time a statute in Singapore had been ruled unconstitutional.
2014 –Prayut Chan-o-cha(pictured), thecommander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, launcheda coup d'état against the caretaker government followingsix months of political crisis.

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In the Loge, also known asAt the Opera, is an 1878impressionist painting by the American artistMary Cassatt. Theoil-on-canvas painting displays abourgeois woman in aloge at the opera house looking through her opera glasses, while a man in the background looks at her. The woman's costume and fan make clear her upper class status. Art historians see the painting as commentary on the role of gender, looking, and power in the social spaces of the nineteenth century. The painting is currently in the collection of theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, which also holds a preliminary drawing for the work.

Painting credit:Mary Cassatt

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