Friday, April 30, 2004

Colemanite

Borate mineral, hydrated calcium borate (Ca2B6O11�5H2O) that was the principal source of borax until the 1930s. It typically occurs as colourless, brilliant crystals and masses in Tertiary sediments (those formed 66.4 to 1.6 million years ago), where it has been derived from ulexite and borax. The chief localities are the Kramer district, Death Valley, and Daggett, Calif. Colemanite is an

Thursday, April 29, 2004

Bruner, Jerome S(eymour)

Bruner's father, a watch manufacturer, died when Bruner was 12 years old. Bruner studied at Duke University in Durham, N.C. (B.A., 1937), and then

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Maderna, Bruno

Maderna studied with well-known teachers, including the Italian composer Gian Francesco Malipiero and the German conductor Hermann Scherchen. In 1941 he received his degree in composition at Rome from the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia. He expanded

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Metalwork

Useful and decorative objects fashioned of various metals, including copper, iron, silver, bronze, lead, gold, and brass. The earliest man-made objects were of stone, wood, bone, and earth. It was only later that humans learned to extract metals from the earth and to hammer them into objects. Metalwork includes vessels, utensils, ceremonial and ritualistic objects, decorative

Monday, April 26, 2004

Sialkot

City and district, Lahore division, Punjab Province, Pakistan. The city, the district headquarters, lies just north of the Aik Nala (Aik Stream) and south of the Jammu Hills and is connected by rail with Wazirabad and Jammu and by road with Lahore and Gujranwala. It was once famous as a centre for the manufacture of damascened ware and paper; its modern industries include flour

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

In full� Dwight David Eisenhower� 34th president of the United States (1953 - 61), who had been supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during World War II. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America. See also Cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.)

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

In full� Dwight David Eisenhower� 34th president of the United States (1953 - 61), who had been supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during World War II. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America. See also Cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.)

Friday, April 23, 2004

Action Painting

Direct, instinctual, and highly dynamic kind of art that involves the spontaneous application of vigorous, sweeping brushstrokes and the chance effects of dripping and spilling paint onto the canvas. The term was coined by the American art critic Harold Rosenberg to characterize the work of a group of American Abstract Expressionists (see Abstract

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Nemours, Henri I De Savoie, Duc De

Henri had helped the Roman Catholic Savoyards to capture Saluzzo (1588) and had fought for the Holy League in Daupin�, of which he became governor in 1591. Becoming duc de Nemours in 1595, he submitted the following year to King Henry IV. After taking part in campaigns at Rouen and Amiens, he retired to his

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Nemours, Henri I De Savoie, Duc De

Also called �interstitial-cell stimulating hormone (ICSH)� one of two gonadotropic hormones (i.e., hormones concerned with the regulation of the gonads, or sex glands) that is produced by the pituitary gland. LH is a glycoprotein and operates in conjunction with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Following the release of the egg (ovulation) in the female, LH promotes the transformation of the graafian follicle (a small egg-containing

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Arts, Central Asian, Khitans

The figural style is believed to have been transmitted to the Mongols by the Khitans when the latter were living on the middle reaches of the Yenisey. The wealth of the Khitan princes is reflected in the furnishings of burial mounds discovered at Kopeni, some 200 miles (300 kilometres) to the south of Krasnoyarsk. Dating from the 7th to 8th century, these mounds were similar in

Monday, April 19, 2004

Arts, Central Asian, Khitans

The figural style is believed to have been transmitted to the Mongols by the Khitans when the latter were living on the middle reaches of the Yenisey. The wealth of the Khitan princes is reflected in the furnishings of burial mounds discovered at Kopeni, some 200 miles (300 kilometres) to the south of Krasnoyarsk. Dating from the 7th to 8th century, these mounds were similar in

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Arnold, Matthew, Poetical works.

Alaric at Rome (1840; Rugby School prize poem); Cromwell (1843; Newdigate Prize poem); The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems. By A. (1849); Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems. By A. (1852); Poems (1853; including �Sohrab and Rustum,� �The Forsaken Merman,� and �The Scholar Gipsy�); Poems, Second Series (1855); Merope (1858; classical tragedy); New Poems (1867; including �Thyrsis� and �Dover Beach�).

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Kocu Bey

In full� Kuricali Kocu Mustafa Bey, Kuricali �also spelled �G�riceli, Kocu �also spelled �Koci� Turkish minister and reformer, a notable early observer of the Ottoman decline. Originally from Albania, Kocu Bey was sent to Constantinople, where he was educated in the Imperial Palace. He later entered the service of a number of Ottoman sultans, finding particular favour with Murad IV (1623 - 40) and Ibrahim I (1640 - 48), whose adviser he became.

Friday, April 16, 2004

Argentina, Per�n's second presidency

Per�n was elected president with his third wife, Mar�a Estela Mart�nez de Per�n (Isabel Per�n), as vice president. Taking office in October 1973, he continued the campaign against the left, and in May 1974 the victims of the purge acknowledged the break with their former leader and passed into (still legal) opposition. Montonero activity increased, and the Triple A, suspected by

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Argentina, Per�n's second presidency

An extinct bird of the family Strigidae (order Strigiformes) that was native to New Zealand. It was last seen in the early 1900s. Laughing owls nested on the ground, where they fell prey to cats, rats, goats, and weasels. About 40 cm (1.3 feet) long and brownish in colour, they ate rodents, lizards, and insects.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Argentina, Per�n's second presidency

The EEC was created in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome, which was signed by Belgium

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Biblical Literature, The Wisdom of Solomon

The other deuterocanonical wisdom book, the Wisdom of Solomon, was written in Greek, though it purports to have been written by King Solomon himself. The hypothesis that the first half of the book was translated from Hebrew seems to be without foundation and probably came into existence because, in this section, the author imitated in Greek the Old Testament poetical

Monday, April 12, 2004

Brace And Bit

Hand-operated tool for boring holes in wood, consisting of a crank-shaped turning device, the brace, that grips and rotates the hole-cutting tool, the bit. The auger bit shown in the Figure is of the style traditionally used by carpenters; its six parts are shown in the Figure. At the end of the twist are two sharp points, called the spurs, that mark the circle, and two cutting

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Eliphaz The Temanite

In three speeches of increasing severity, Eliphaz attempts to reconcile Job to God and induce him to repent. In

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Biblical Literature, The patriarchal narratives

The universal primal history of man in the first 11 chapters of Genesis is followed by an account of the fathers of the Hebrew people; i.e., of the origins of a particular group. From a literary point of view, this portion may be divided into the sagas of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the story of Joseph. Although these narratives are not historical in the ordinary sense, they

Friday, April 09, 2004

World War I, The Eastern Front, 1915

The Russians' plans for 1915 prescribed the strengthening of their flanks in the north and in Galicia before driving westward again toward Silesia. Their preparations for a blow at East Prussia's southern frontier were forestalled, as Ludendorff, striking suddenly eastward from East Prussia, enveloped four Russian divisions in the August�w forests, east of the Masurian

Thursday, April 08, 2004

Mahabharata

One of the two major Sanskrit epics of India, valued for its high literary merit and its religious inspiration. The Mahabharata consists of a mass of legendary and didactic material surrounding a central heroic narrative that tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Together with the second major epic, the Ramaya

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Argon

�(Ar), � chemical element, inert gas of Group 0 (noble gases) of the periodic table, terrestrially the most abundant and industrially the most frequently used of the noble gases. Colourless, odourless, and tasteless, argon gas was isolated (1894) from air by the British scientists Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay. Henry Cavendish, while investigating atmospheric nitrogen (�phlogisticated

Monday, April 05, 2004

Outcault, Richard Felton

Outcault studied art in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in Paris and later contributed to Judge and Life, humour magazines that had begun publication in the early 1880s. By 1885 he was drawing comic cartoons based

Sunday, April 04, 2004

Ardhanarisvara

(Sanskrit: Lord Who Is Half Woman), composite male - female figure of the Hindu god Siva, together with his consort Parvati. As seen in many beautiful Indian and Southeast Asian sculptures, the right (male) half of the figure is adorned with the traditional ornaments of Siva. Half of the hair is piled in a hairdress of matted locks, half of a third eye is visible on the forehead, a tiger

Saturday, April 03, 2004

Mason City

City, seat (1855) of Cerro Gordo county, northern Iowa, U.S., along the Winnebago River, about 120 miles (195 km) north of Des Moines. The area was inhabited by Winnebago and Sioux peoples when Freemasons arrived to settle the site in 1853; its earlier names were Shibboleth, Masonic Grove, and Masonville before the present name was adopted. The city is underlain by deposits of clay and limestone,

Friday, April 02, 2004

Ilh�us

City, southeastern Bahia estado (�state�), northeastern Brazil. It is situated just east of Itabuna near the mouth of the Cachoeira River on Ilh�us Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic. An old Portuguese colonial settlement that was originally named S�o Jorge dos Ilh�os (1532), it was given city status in 1881. Most of Brazil's cacao is grown in the locality, and Ilh�us is consequently one of

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Kieslowski, Krzysztof

Kieslowski graduated from the State Theatrical and Film College in L�dz, Poland, in 1968 and began his film career making documentaries, including one he had made for Polish television