Sunday, February 29, 2004

Hooper, Franklin Henry

In 1899 Hooper joined the staff of the Britannica, in which his brother Horace, James Clarke, and others had acquired an interest. Franklin Hooper was connected with five editions of the Britannica in the ensuing

Saturday, February 28, 2004

Silicate Mineral

The silicates make up about 95 percent of the Earth's crust and upper mantle, occurring as the major constituents of most igneous rocks and in appreciable quantities in sedimentary and metamorphic varieties as well. They also are important constituents

Friday, February 27, 2004

Breadalbane

Historic district in the modern council areas of Perth and Kinross and Stirling, Scotland, bordered to the north by Loch Rannoch, east by Strathtay, south by Strathearn, and west by the council area of Argyll and Bute. It includes Loch Tay and Ben Lawers, at an elevation of 3,984 feet (1,214 metres) in the Grampian Mountains. The main settlements are Aberfeldy, Fortingall, Kenmore, and

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Cypriot Syllabary

System of writing used on the island of Cyprus, chiefly from the 6th to the 3rd century BC. The syllabary consists of 56 signs, each of which represents a different syllable. Most inscriptions written with this syllabary are in the Greek language, although the syllabary was originally designed for writing the earlier non-Greek language of Cyprus. The classical Cypriot syllabary

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Nephrosclerosis

Hardening of the walls of the small arteries and arterioles (small arteries that convey blood from arteries to the even smaller capillaries) of the kidney. This condition is caused by hypertension (high blood pressure). Hypertension can be present in a person for 20 to 30 years without evidence of kidney involvement; such persons usually die of other effects of hypertension

Monday, February 23, 2004

Aribau, Buenaventura Carles

After working in Madrid at the banking establishment of Gaspar Remisa (1830 - 41), Aribau became the director of the treasury and financial secretary to the royal household. Animated by a deep patriotism,

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Paradoxides Series

Rocks deposited during the Middle Cambrian Period in western Europe and Scandinavia and in eastern North America (the Middle Cambrian Period lasted from 520 to 512 million years ago). The Paradoxides Series is characterized by the fossil occurrence of trilobites of the family Paradoxididae and other trilobites, such as the genera Agnostus and Eodiscus.

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Metamorphism

Mineralogical and structural adjustments of solid rocks to physical and chemical conditions differing from those under which the rocks originally formed. Changes produced by surface conditions such as compaction are usually excluded. The most important agents of metamorphism include temperature, pressure, and stress. Equally as significant are changes

Friday, February 20, 2004

An-k'ang

Pinyin �Ankang, �formerly �Hsing-an, � city in southeastern Shensi sheng (province), China. Situated in the narrow valley of the Han River between the Tsinling and Ta-pa mountain ranges, it has been an important trade centre since antiquity, being situated at the junction of the east-west route via the Han River valley and the route to the north over the mountains to Sian (Ch'ang-an). A rail line, completed in 1978, links

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Interior Design, Concepts of design

The scale and proportion of any interior must always relate to the architecture within which the interior exists, but the other important factor in considering the scale of man's environment is the human body. Throughout the ages, designers and architects have attempted to establish ideal proportions. The most famous of all axioms about proportion was the golden

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Calas, Jean

On Oct. 13, 1761, Calas's eldest son, MarcAntoine, was found hanged in his father's textile shop in Toulouse. Anti-Huguenot hysteria broke out among the local Roman Catholic populace,

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Action Potential

The brief (about one-thousandth of a second) reversal of electric polarization of the membrane of a nerve cell (neuron) or muscle cell. In the neuron it constitutes the nerve impulse, and in the muscle cell it produces the contraction required for all movement. Sometimes called a propagated potential because a wave of excitation is actively transmitted along the nerve

Monday, February 16, 2004

John I

King of Aragon (1387 - 1395), son of Peter IV. Influenced by his wife, Violante, he pursued a pro-French policy but refused to become involved in the Hundred Years' War. He died by a fall from his horse, like his namesake, cousin, and contemporary of Castile, John I. He was a man of insignificant character, with a taste for artificial verse.

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Tsingtao

Originally a minor fishing village, Tsingtao developed a large junk trade

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Maccaig, Norman

After graduation from the University of Edinburgh, MacCaig held various teaching positions, mostly in Edinburgh. His early published works, which he later disavowed, were Far Cry (1943) and The Inward Eye (1946). In Riding Lights (1955), his characteristic poetic voice - recalling the polished

Friday, February 13, 2004

Xenophanes

Xenophanes was probably exiled from Greece by the Persians who conquered Colophon about 546. After living in Sicily

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Ostariophysan, Feeding habits

The remarkable diversity of feeding habits among ostariophysians is associated with a fantastic variety of adaptations in mouth shapes and tooth types (especially in the suborder Characoidei) probably unsurpassed by any other group. At one extreme are certain cyprinids (e.g., Notropis atherinoides) with highly developed gill rakers that strain phytoplankton

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Athabasca, Lake

Lake in Canada, astride the Alberta - Saskatchewan border, just south of the Northwest Territories. The lake, 208 mi (335 km) long by 32 mi wide, has an area of 3,064 sq mi (7,936 sq km) and a maximum depth of 407 ft (124 m). Fed from the southwest by the Peace and Athabasca rivers (the deltas of which have separated it from Lakes Claire and Mamawi), it is drained to the northwest by the Slave River, eventually reaching

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Bog

Type of wetland ecosystem characterized by wet, spongy, poorly drained peaty soil. Bogs can be divided into three types: (1) typical bogs of cool regions, dominated by the growth of bog mosses, Sphagnum, and heaths, particularly Chamaedaphne (northern bogs with trees growing on them are often called muskegs); (2) fens, dominated by grasslike plants, grasses, sedges, and reeds;

Monday, February 09, 2004

Awoonor, Kofi

Awoonor studied at the University College of Ghana (B.A., 1960), University College, London (M.A., 1970), and the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Ph.D., 1972). He lectured in English and African literature at the University of Ghana, directed the Ghana Film Corporation,

Sunday, February 08, 2004

More, Hannah

As a young woman with literary aspirations, More made the first of her visits to London in 1773 - 74. She was welcomed into a circle of Bluestocking wits and was befriended by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, and Edmund

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Javorn�ky

Mountains in central Czechoslovakia, on the western fringe of the Carpathian Mountains and forming part of the boundary between Moravia and Slovakia. The ridge of the Javorn�ky peaks - the highest, at 3,514 feet (1,071 m), is Velk� Javorn�k, overlooking the village of Velk� Karlovice - divides the Becva-Oder river systems to the north and west from the V�h River to the east. Climate

Friday, February 06, 2004

Skelton, Red

Byname of �Richard Bernard Skelton� U.S. pantomimist and radio and television comedian, host, and star performer of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) variety program The Red Skelton Show from 1951 to 1971. In this television series Skelton re-created a number of characters - among them Clem Kaddiddlehopper, Sheriff Deadeye, Junior, the Mean Widdle

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Giono, Jean

A love of nature came to Giono from his mountain town and from the shepherd family with whom, as a boy, he spent his summers. He was largely self-taught. As an infantryman in World War I, he was one of his company's

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Naqshbandiyah

Orthodox fraternity of Muslim mystics (Sufis) found in India, China, the Central Asian republics, and Malaysia. It claims a lineage extending back to Abu Bakr, the first caliph. Baha' ad-Din (d. 1384), founder of the order at Bukhara, Turkistan, was called an-naqshband, �the painter,� because of the impression of God that the repetition of his prescribed ritual prayer (dhikr) should leave upon

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Furniture, Fireplaces

The heating of rooms and large halls remained a major problem until the advent of modern central heating systems. The open hearth was replaced during the late Middle Ages by the fireplace, which is merely an architectonic way of framing the burning logs. During the period when it was important as a source of heat, the fireplace became the object of design work by significant

Monday, February 02, 2004

Talcahuano

City, Concepci�n provincia, B�o-B�o regi�n, south-central Chile, lying on a small peninsula that forms the southwestern shore of Concepci�n Bay, just north-northwest of the city of Concepci�n (q.v.), for which it became the outport after an earthquake in 1730. Talcahuano is now a major port and Chile's main naval station; it is also an important commercial, fishing, and manufacturing

Sunday, February 01, 2004

Taborite

Czech �T�bori� member of a militant group of Bohemian Hussite reformers who in 1420 gave the biblical name of Tabor (Czech: T�bor) to their fortified settlement south of Prague. Like their more moderate coreligionists, the Utraquists, they were strict biblicists and insisted on receiving a Eucharist of both bread and wine, though they denied transubstantiation and the Real Presence.