Go, Wen, Go!

From http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_tams_0130.18507e59.html

TAMS student advances in contest

08:30 AM CST on Friday, January 30, 2009
By Britney Tabor / Staff Writer

(see my earlier post here)

ALSO ONLINE Scholarship awarded to Chyan

Intel Corp. this week chose Wen Chyan, a student at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at the University of North Texas, as one of 40 finalists nationwide for its Science Talent Search.

Wen Chyan Competing for the top prize — a $100,000 college scholarship — the second-year student is the lone finalist from Texas invited to Washington, D.C., in March to present a project he’s re­searched that may help hospital patients avoid bacterial infections resulting from treatment.

Annually, infections af­fect more than 2 million hospital patients and kill about 100,000, officials say. Chyan, 17, said he’s developed a polymer coat­ing for medical de­vices that he believes could help prevent those infections.

The 40 national finalists hail from 17 states and 35 schools. Intel reports that within the last 67 years, seven Science Talent Search finalists have gone on to win prestigious awards such as the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Science and the MacArthur Foun­dation Fellowship.

In December, Chyan’s project earned him the grand prize and a $100,000 scholarship in the country’s premier high school research contest, the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Tech­nology.

The Sign of the Cross (1932)

This 1932 film by Cecil B. DeMille, which you've probably never heard of (let alone seen), may be one of the most entertaining Christian movies to come out of Hollywood, even though it includes some things that might raise some Christian eyebrows (e.g., barely-hidden nudity, gratuitous violence and gruesome scenes, etc.). From the synopsis at The Internet Movie Database:

After burning Rome, Emperor Nero decides to blame the Christians, and issues the edict that they are all to be caught and sent to the arena. Two old Christians are caught, and about to be hauled off, when Marcus, the highest military official in Rome, comes upon them. When he sees their stepdaughter Mercia, he instantly falls in love with her and frees them. Marcus pursues Mercia, which gets him into trouble with Emperor (for being easy on Christians) and with the Empress, who loves him and is jealous.

Look for a young John Carradine at 1:53:34 as one of the Christians being led into the arena to be devoured by lions.

It's been nicely restored on DVD by Universal Studios to its original length, including all the "sinful" and gruesome scenes that were cut by the Hays Code. It's available through Netflix.