Sunday, February 29, 2004

Allston, Robert (francis Withers)

Rice planter and governor of South Carolina whose papers, South Carolina Rice Plantation, provide important agricultural, political, and social information about the pre-Civil War South. By scientifically draining and reclaiming swamps in his state, he developed one of the last great rice plantations in the Atlantic

Saturday, February 28, 2004

Mitchell, John Newton

Mitchell played semiprofessional hockey while working his way through Fordham University (New York City) and Fordham law school. During World War II he served in the Navy as a torpedo boat

Friday, February 27, 2004

Mecca, Plant and animal life

Plant and animal life are scarce and consist of species that can withstand the high degree of aridity and heat. Natural vegetation is sparse, and includes tamarisks and various types of acacia. Wild animals include wild cats, wolves, hyenas, foxes, mongooses, and kangaroo rats (jerboas).

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Vulcano Island

Italian �Isola Vulcano, �Greek �Hiera, �Latin �Vulcana, � southernmost of the Eolie Islands, in the Tyrrhenian Sea (of the Mediterranean), off northeastern Sicily. It is administered as part of Messina province, Sicily, Italy. Vulcano has an area of 8 sq mi (21 sq km). Although the last major eruptions were in 1888 - 90, fumaroles of sulfurous vapour testify to continuous volcanic activity, and its Gran Cratere is still active. See also Eolie

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Euripides

Last of classical Athens' three great tragic dramatists, following Aeschylus and Sophocles.

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Outwash

Deposit of sand and gravel carried by running water from the melting ice of a glacier and laid down in stratified deposits. An outwash may attain a thickness of 100 m (328 feet) at the edge of a glacier, although the thickness is usually much less; it may also extend many kilometres in length. For example, outwash deposits from the Wisconsin Glaciation can be traced to the mouth

Monday, February 23, 2004

Devitrification

Process by which glassy substances change their structure into that of crystalline solids. Most glasses are silicates in which the atomic structure does not have the repetitive arrangement required for the formation of crystals. Glass is formed by the cooling of a rock magma too rapidly for this structural regularity to become established. Glasses typically

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Henderson

Dairying, livestock raising, and feed are important to the economy, and tobacco is the major crop in the area.

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Henderson

Dairying, livestock raising, and feed are important to the economy, and tobacco is the major crop in the area.

Friday, February 20, 2004

Biblical Literature, The Third Letter of John

III John, addressed to Gaius, shows that the writer is concerned about and has responsibility as presbyter for the missionaries of the church. It is somewhat of a short note concerned with church discipline, encouraging hospitality to true missionaries, and thus not unconnected with true doctrine and the command of love.

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Canals And Inland Waterways

Despite modern technological advances in air and ground transportation, inland waterways continue to fill a vital role and, in many areas, to grow substantially. This article traces the history of canal building from the earliest times to the present day and describes

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Dbus-gtsang

One of three regions into which the area of Central Asia inhabited by Tibetans is traditionally divided. Dbus and Gtsang were provinces in the days of the early kings of central Tibet, c. 7th century. The area of Dbus encompassed the Skyid-chu valley system in which Lhasa is located, as well as the Yar-klungs and 'Phyong-rgyas valleys on the south side of the Brahmaputra

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Dbus-gtsang

One of three regions into which the area of Central Asia inhabited by Tibetans is traditionally divided. Dbus and Gtsang were provinces in the days of the early kings of central Tibet, c. 7th century. The area of Dbus encompassed the Skyid-chu valley system in which Lhasa is located, as well as the Yar-klungs and 'Phyong-rgyas valleys on the south side of the Brahmaputra

Monday, February 16, 2004

Aulis

Ancient Greek town in Boeotia, separated from Chalcis (on the island of Euboea) three miles to the north by the Euboean Channel. Aulis was traditionally held to be the port from which the Greek fleet set off to the siege of Troy and the scene of the related sacrifice of Iphigenia, the eldest daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae.

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Aulis

Ancient Greek town in Boeotia, separated from Chalcis (on the island of Euboea) three miles to the north by the Euboean Channel. Aulis was traditionally held to be the port from which the Greek fleet set off to the siege of Troy and the scene of the related sacrifice of Iphigenia, the eldest daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae.

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Ray, Nicholas

Ray studied architecture and theatre at the University of Chicago and was directing plays by the mid-1930s. He worked with John Houseman and Elia Kazan in New York City and was

Friday, February 13, 2004

Benserade, Isaac De

Benserade began visiting the salon of the Marquise de Rambouillet, the literary centre of Paris, in 1634 and wrote a succession of romantic verses that won him a reputation culminating in the �sonnets controversy� of 1649, in which his sonnet �Job� was

Thursday, February 12, 2004

'abd Allah Ibn Sa'd Ibn Abi Sarh

Governor of Upper (southern) Egypt for the Muslim caliphate during the reign of 'Uthman (644 - 656) and the cofounder, with the future caliph Mu'awiyah I, of the first Muslim navy, which seized Cyprus (647 - 649), Rhodes, and Cos (Dodecanese Islands) and defeated a Byzantine fleet off Alexandria in 652. He shared in the direction of the Muslim fleet that defeated the Byzantine navy in the battle of

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Tadpole

Most tadpoles are vegetarians, although those of some species are carnivorous or even cannibalistic. Tadpole metamorphosis follows

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Acre

Unit of land measurement in the British Imperial and United States Customary systems, equal to 43,560 square feet, or 160 square rods. One acre is equivalent to 0.4047 hectares (4,047 square metres). Derived from Middle English aker (from Old English aecer) and akin to Latin ager (�field�), the acre had one origin in the typical area that could be plowed in one day with a yoke of oxen pulling a wooden

Monday, February 09, 2004

Manasseh Ben Israel

Manasseh was born into a family of Marranos (Jews of Spain and Portugal who publicly accepted Christianity but privately practiced Judaism). After his father appeared as a penitent in an auto da f�, the family escaped

Sunday, February 08, 2004

Ibsen, Henrik (johan)

Ibsen was born at Skien, a small

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Wyandotte Cave

Cave in Crawford County, southern Indiana, U.S., near the village of Wyandotte. With 25 mi (40 km) of passages on five levels, it is the largest of the many such caves dissolved out in the horizontally bedded Mississippian limestones that extend southward into the cave-bearing regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. The entrance is about 200 ft (60 m) above the Blue River. The cave was used

Friday, February 06, 2004

Cheddar

Village (�parish�), Sedgemoor district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England, at the mouth of a spectacular limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills. The gorge (now owned by the National Trust) and caverns, in which human remains and artifacts dating back to the Stone Age have been found, attract many tourists. Cheddar cheese was first made there at or before

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Star, Line spectrum

Spectral lines are produced by transitions of electrons within atoms or ions. As the electrons move closer to or farther from the nucleus of an atom (or of an ion), energy in the form of light (or other radiation) is emitted or absorbed. The yellow �D� lines of sodium or the �H� and �K� lines of ionized calcium are produced by discrete quantum jumps from the lowest energy levels

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Chicago Critics

The group's members, associated from the 1940s with the University of Chicago, often were called �Aristotelian,� or, more accurately, �Neo-Aristotelian,

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Kizil Adalar

English �Princes Islands�, historically �Demonesi Insulae� group of nine islands (adalar) in the Sea of Marmara a few miles southeast of Istanbul; they are part of Turkey. There are permanent inhabitants on the smallest island, Sedef Adasi (ancient Antirobethos), and on the four larger islands, B�y�kada (Prinkipo, ancient Pityoussa), Heybeli Ada (Halki, ancient Chalcitis), Burgaz Adasi (Antigoni, ancient Panormos), and Kinali Ada (Proti).

Monday, February 02, 2004

Feldkirch

Town, Bundesland (federal province) Vorarlberg, western Austria. It lies along the Ill River, near the Liechtenstein border, about 48 miles (77 km) east-southeast of Z�rich, Switzerland. First mentioned as Veldkirichae (Veldkirichum) in 830, the settlement belonged to the counts of Montfort from 1190 until it was sold to Austria in 1375. It was chartered in 1218. Schattenburg castle, the Montforts'

Sunday, February 01, 2004

Polignac Family

From the 1050s and perhaps even from 860, the first viscounts of Polignac (in the modern d�partement of Haute-Loire) were practically independent rulers of Velay, where the Loire River rises. Their ultimate heiress, Valpurge, was married in 1349 to Guillaume III de Chalen�on, whose descendants assumed the Polignac name in 1421. The actual