Monday, May 31, 2004

Ogaki

City, Gifu ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Ibi River. The site was settled in prehistoric times, but the present city developed around the castle built in 1535. Since the end of the Meiji period (1868 - 1912), Ogaki has become a textile and chemical centre aided by abundant groundwater. Machinery is also produced, and rice is grown in the environs. In Ogaki Park are the reconstructed castle,

Sunday, May 30, 2004

Mesopotamia, History Of, Political fragmentation

It is probable that the definitive separation from Ur III came about through changing components of the population, from �Sumerians and Akkadians� to �Akkadians and Amorites.� An Old Babylonian liver omen states that �he of the steppes will enter, and chase out the one in the city.� This is indeed an abbreviated formula for an event that took place more than once: the usurpation

Saturday, May 29, 2004

China, Climate and environment

Although the precise nature of the paleoenvironment is still in dispute, temperatures in Neolithic China were probably some 4� to 7� F (2� to 4� C) warmer than they are today. Rainfall, although more abundant, may have been declining in quantity. The Tsinling Mountains in northwest China separated the two phytogeographical zones of North and South China, while the absence of

Friday, May 28, 2004

Caccia

(Italian: �hunt,� or �chase�), one of the principal Italian musical forms of the 14th century. It consisted of two voices in strict canon at the unison (i.e., in strict melodic imitation at the same pitch), and often of a non-canonic third part, composed of long notes that underlay the canonic voices, followed by a ritornello. Caccia texts were typically realistic, animated scenes such

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Abbeville

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

�vila

Province, in the Castile-Le�n comunidad aut�noma (�autonomous community�), central Spain, on the plateau of Old Castile. It has an area of 3,107 square miles (8,048 square km) and is separated from Madrid province (east) by the Sierra de Guadarrama and from Toledo province (south) by the Sierra de Gredos. Agriculture predominates on the level ground in the north, but the soils are poor, resting

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Amphibole

Exhibiting an extensive range of possible cation substitutions, amphiboles crystallize in both igneous and metamorphic rocks with a broad range of bulk chemical compositions. Because of their relative instability to chemical weathering at the Earth's surface, amphiboles make up only a minor constituent in most sedimentary rocks.

Monday, May 24, 2004

Amphibole

Exhibiting an extensive range of possible cation substitutions, amphiboles crystallize in both igneous and metamorphic rocks with a broad range of bulk chemical compositions. Because of their relative instability to chemical weathering at the Earth's surface, amphiboles make up only a minor constituent in most sedimentary rocks.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Insectivore, Habitats

Insectivores utilize diverse habitats. Shrews occupy the ground surface in forests and grasslands but are less common in deserts, although Notiosorex and Diplomesodon occupy New and Old World deserts, respectively. Moles are largely confined to North Temperate Zone forests and meadows, especially in areas of deciduous forests and adjacent prairies. Hedgehogs

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Racine, Jean

Racine was born into a provincial family of minor administrators. His mother died 13 months after he was born, and his father died two years later. His paternal grandparents took him in, and when his grandmother, Marie des Moulins, became a widow, she brought Racine, then age nine, with her to the convent of Port-Royal des Champs near Paris. Since a group of devout scholars and

Friday, May 21, 2004

Essexite

Dark gray to black, fine-grained, intrusive igneous rock that occurs in Essex County, Mass.; at Mount Royal, near Montreal; near Oslo, Nor.; at Roztoky, Czech Republic; and at Carclout, Scot. It contains plagioclase as the dominant feldspar, as well as orthoclase feldspar, augite, biotite, hornblende, olivine, and nepheline. As the proportion of nepheline increases, essexite

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Cinnabar

Mercury sulfide (HgS), the chief ore mineral of mercury. It is commonly encountered with pyrite, marcasite, and stibnite in veins near recent volcanic rocks and in hot-springs deposits. The most important deposit is at Almad�n, Spain, where it has been mined for 2,000 years. Other deposits are in Huancavelica, Peru; Iudrio, Italy; and the Coast Ranges of California, U.S. Metacinnabar,

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

France, History Of, Charles Martel

The situation was rectified by Pepin's illegitimate son, Charles Martel. Defeating the Neustrians at Ambl�ve (716), Vincy (717), and Soissons (719), he made himself master of northern Francia. He then re-established Frankish authority in southern Gaul, where the local authorities could not cope with the Islamic threat; he stopped the Muslims near Poitiers (Battle of Tours; 732) and used this

Monday, May 17, 2004

Mcqueen, Steve

McQueen drifted through odd jobs and three years of service in the marines before he began performing at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in 1952. He did occasional theatre work, making his screen

Sunday, May 16, 2004

Wolseley (of Wolseley), Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount, Baron Wolseley Of Cairo And Of Wolseley

The son of an army major, Wolseley entered the army as second lieutenant in 1852 and fought with distinction in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny. Surviving

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Afghanistan, The 7th - 18th centuries

Under the Hephthalites and Sasanids, many of the Afghan princedoms were influenced by Hinduism. The Hindu kings of the Shahi family were concentrated in the Kabul and Ghazni areas. Excavated sites of the period include a major Hindu Shahi temple north of Kabul and a chapel in Ghazni that contains both Buddhist and Hindu statuary, indicating that there was a mingling of these

Friday, May 14, 2004

Kingston Upon Hull

Hull was a medieval wool port that passed from the monks of Meaux Abbey to Edward I, king of England, in 1293. Edward renamed the town Kingston upon

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Vent, �les Du

English �Windward Group� eastern group of islands within the Society Islands, French Polynesia, in the central South Pacific. The group is composed of volcanic islands surrounded by coral reefs. The far larger Tahiti and Moorea (qq.v.) lie at the centre of the group. Maiao, covering about 3 square miles (8 square km) and located some 60 miles (95 km) west of Tahiti, is sparsely populated and is cultivated for

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Braconid

Many species are valuable in the control

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Venezuela, Climate

Venezuela lies well within the tropics, and the country's temperatures are relatively uniform with little seasonal variation. Elevation, however, produces significant local differences in temperature, precipitation, and vegetation. More than nine-tenths of Venezuela has a mean annual temperature above 75 �F (24 �C). The average mean temperature for Caracas, lying in a

Monday, May 10, 2004

John

John took part in the commission that drew up the constitution of 1831 and succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother, King Frederick Augustus II. He was persuaded by

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Para�ba Do Sul River

Portuguese �Rio Para�ba Do Sul, � river, in eastern Brazil, formed by the junction of the Paraibuna and Paraitinga rivers, east of S�o Paulo, between Mogi das Cruzes and Jacare�. It flows east-northeastward, receiving tributaries from the Serra da Mantiqueira and the Serra do Mar and forming part of the border between Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro states. From its initial elevation of 5,000 ft (1,500 m), the river

Saturday, May 08, 2004

Peranakan

Until

Friday, May 07, 2004

Cylinder Seal

Small stone cylinder engraved in intaglio on its surface to leave impressions when rolled on wet clay. Cylinder seals are characteristic artifacts of ancient Mesopotamian civilization and are considered some of its finest artistic achievements. The seals first appear during the Protoliterate Period (c. 3400 - 2900 BC), and, although the earliest examples used primarily geometric,

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Flor, Roger De

As a boy he went to sea and became a Knight Templar. When Acre in Palestine fell to the Saracens (1291), he made his fortune by blackmailing refugees. Denounced

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Probability Theory

Suppose two balls are drawn sequentially without replacement from an urn containing r red and b black balls. The probability of getting a red ball on the first draw is r/(r b). If, however, one is told that a red ball was obtained on the first draw, the conditional probability of getting a red ball on the second draw is (r - 1)/(r b - 1), because for the second draw there are r b - 1 balls in the urn, of which

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Perc�

City, Gasp�sie - �les-de-la-Madeleine region, eastern Quebec province, Canada. It lies along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, at the east end of the Gasp� Peninsula. First visited in 1534 by Jacques Cartier, it has been the site of a Roman Catholic mission since 1670. Perc� is now a fishing port and summer resort. Offshore, but connected by a sandbar at low tide, is famed Rocher-Perc� (�Pierced

Monday, May 03, 2004

Andrew I

Having accompanied his father, Yury Dolgoruky, on his conquest of Kiev, Andrew refused to remain in the ancient capital of Rus and returned

Sunday, May 02, 2004

Moral Theology

Also called �Christian ethics� Christian theological discipline concerned with identifying and elucidating the principles that determine the quality of human behaviour in the light of Christian revelation. It is distinguished from the philosophical discipline of ethics, which relies upon the authority of reason and which can only call upon rational sanctions for moral failure. Moral

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Astronomy

Without doubt the most exciting event in astronomy was the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter, but studies of other small bodies in the solar system provided their own delights and surprises. Although the solar system is traditionally viewed as comprising the Sun, nine planets, their moons, and the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the discovery in