Monday, January 31, 2005

Mahan, Alfred Thayer

Mahan was the son of a professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., in 1859 and went on to serve nearly 40 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy. He fought in

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Carnivore

Any member of the order Carnivora, literally �meat eaters.� The order includes 10 families of living mammals: Canidae (dogs, wolves, jackals, and foxes), Ursidae (bears), Procyonidae (raccoons), Mustelidae (skunks, mink, weasels, badgers, and otters), Viverridae (civets and mongooses), Hyaenidae (hyenas), Felidae (cats), Otariidae (eared seals), Odobenidae (walrus), and Phocidae (earless seals).

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Y�eh Fei

In 1126 North China was overrun by the nomadic Juchen and the Sung capital at K'ai-feng taken. The former emperor Hui-tsung, who had abdicated in 1125/26, together with his son, the emperor Ch'in-tsung (reigned 1125/26 - 27), was carried into captivity. Another son of Hui-tsung, later known as Kao-tsung (reigned

Friday, January 28, 2005

Yahya Khan, Agha Mohammad

Yahya was born to a family that was descended from the elite soldier class of Nader Shah, the Persian ruler who conquered Delhi in the 18th century. He was educated at Punjab University and later graduated first in his class

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Carlow

Irish �Ceatharlach (�The Four Lakes�)� county in the province of Leinster, Ireland. The second smallest Irish county, it is bounded by County Kildare (north), Counties Wicklow and Wexford (east), and Counties Kilkenny and Laoighis (west). The town of Carlow is the county seat. In the east are the granitic mountains of the Leinster Chain, which are crossed by the River Slaney and flanked to the west by the River Barrow

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Chao Phraya River

The Chao Phraya constitutes a valuable waterway for the transport of the nation's

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne D'

The son of prominent Montreal fur trader Charles Le Moyne, Iberville spent his young manhood in raids against English trading posts on

Monday, January 24, 2005

Visayas

Also called �Bisayas� island group, central Philippines. The Visayas group consists of seven large and several hundred smaller islands clustered around the Visayan, Samar, and Camotes seas. They have a total area of 23,582 square miles (61,077 square km). The seven main islands are Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Masbate, Negros, Panay, and Samar (qq.v.). These islands and their smaller neighbours make up the central group

Sunday, January 23, 2005

International Relations, The reorganization of the Middle East

The Treaty of S�vres likewise dismembered the Ottoman Empire. Here again secret war-aims treaties reflected Allied ambitions in the Middle East, but Wilson was less willing to challenge them given his belief that the Arab peoples were not ready for self-rule. To avoid the tinge of imperialism, the victors took control of the former Ottoman (and German) territories

Friday, January 21, 2005

Induction

Formation of b-galactosidase has been shown

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Heterophony

In music, texture resulting from simultaneous performances of melodic variants of the same tune, typical of Middle Eastern practices as well as of a vast array of folk music. Balkan Slavic epic singers, for example, accompany themselves heterophonically on the gusle (fiddle). In Persian art music, instrumentalists are expected to vary the singers' improvised lines.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Cloud Chamber

Radiation detector, originally developed between 1896 and 1912 by the Scottish physicist C.T.R. Wilson, that has as the detecting medium a supersaturated vapour that condenses to tiny liquid droplets around ions produced by the passage of energetic charged particles, such as alpha particles, beta particles, or protons. In a Wilson cloud chamber, supersaturation is caused

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Elis

The region was bounded on the north by Achaea, on the east by Arcadia, and on the south by Messenia. Elis consisted of three districts from north to south: Hollow Elis, which occupied the basin

Monday, January 17, 2005

Baltic States, Climate

Over most of the region, annual rainfall varies between 22 and 28 inches (550 and 700 millimetres) and generally increases from the coastal zone to the upland districts of the interior. The prevailing temperatures are moderate by the standards of European Russia and in general improve from north to south and from east to west across the Baltic region. January mean temperatures

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Binet, Alfred

Fascinated by the work of the French neurologist Jean Charcot on hypnosis at the Salp�tri�re Hospital, Paris, Binet abandoned a law career in 1878 to devote himself

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Pinar Del R�

Provincia, western Cuba, bounded on the north by the Gulf of Mexico, on the west by the Yucat�n Channel, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, on the southeast by the Gulf of Bataban�, and on the east by La Habana province. Low mountain ranges, including the Sierra de los �rganos and the Sierra del Rosario, form the backbone of the territory, which has an area of 4,218 square miles (10,925 square

Friday, January 14, 2005

China, Buddhism

The spokesmen of Chinese Buddhism under the early Mongol rulers came from the Ch'an sect (meditation Buddhism). Their high intellectuality and refined aestheticism, however, did not appeal to the Mongols, who felt more attracted by the mixture of magic practices, rather nebulous metaphysics, and impressive symbolism in the visual arts of Tibetan Buddhism. Kublai

Thursday, January 13, 2005

China, Buddhism

The spokesmen of Chinese Buddhism under the early Mongol rulers came from the Ch'an sect (meditation Buddhism). Their high intellectuality and refined aestheticism, however, did not appeal to the Mongols, who felt more attracted by the mixture of magic practices, rather nebulous metaphysics, and impressive symbolism in the visual arts of Tibetan Buddhism. Kublai

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Exuma Cays

Group of some 365 cays and islands, part of the Bahama Islands, situated in the Atlantic Ocean. The Exuma Cays begin some 35 miles (56 km) east-southeast of Nassau, stretch southeast in a gently curving arc for about 90 miles (145 km), and have an area of 112 square miles (290 square km). Most of the inhabitants live on the islands of Great Exuma and Little Exuma. The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, which includes

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

China, The Chou and Ch'in dynasties

This transitional period is examined in Chi Li, The Formation of the Chinese People (1928, reprinted 1967), useful for information on the ethnic history of ancient China; Herlee Glessner Creel, The Birth of China (1937, reprinted 1954), still regarded as one of the standard references, and The Origins of Statecraft in China, vol. 1 (1970), the first Western book to include extensive materials from bronze inscriptions - especially significant on the activities of non-Chou peoples; Cho-yun Hsu, Ancient China in Transition (1965), a standard work on social structure and social mobility in the Chou period; Derk Bodde, China's First Unifier (1938, reprinted 1967), and Statesman, Patriot, and General in Ancient China (1940, reprinted 1967), works covering the effort of the first emperors and their courts to accomplish unification; Arthur Cotterell, The First Emperor of China (1981), a popular history that includes a description and historical analysis of 7,000 terra-cotta life-size figures buried in 210 BC; Yu-ning Li, The First Emperor of China (1975), Yu-lan Fung, A History of Chinese Philosophy, 2nd ed., 2 vol., trans. from the Chinese (1952 - 53, reprinted 1983), coverage of the thought of different schools in ancient China; and Xueqin Li, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations (1986), an account of archaeological findings of the period from the 8th to the 3rd century BC.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Housefly

(Musca domestica), a common insect of the family Muscidae (order Diptera). About 90 percent of all flies occurring in human habitations are houseflies. Once a major nuisance and hazard to public health in cities, houseflies are still a problem wherever decomposing organic waste and garbage are allowed to accumulate. The adult housefly is dull gray with

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Saint Basil The Blessed

Also called �Pokrovsky Cathedral, �Russian �Svyatoy Vasily Blazhenny, or Pokrovsky Sobor, � church constructed on Red Square in Moscow between 1554 and 1560 by Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, as a votive offering for his military victories over the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. The church was dedicated to the protection and intercession of the Virgin, but it came to be known as the Cathedral of Vasily Blazhenny (St. Basil the Beatified) after Basil, the Russian holy fool

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Journal

An account of day-to-day events or a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private use that is similar to, but sometimes less personal than, a diary.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Fin De Si�cle

Of, relating to, characteristic of, or resembling the late 19th-century literary and artistic climate of sophistication, escapism, extreme aestheticism, world-weariness, and fashionable despair. When used in reference to literature, the term essentially describes the movement inaugurated by the Decadent poets of France and the movement called Aestheticism in

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Pierce, George Washington

The second of three sons of a farm family, Pierce grew up on a cattle ranch and fared well enough in the modest rural schools of central Texas to graduate (1893) after three years at the University of Texas, Austin. He taught in rural

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Bohemond V

The son of Bohemond IV by his wife Plaisance, he succeeded his father in 1233 and carried on the struggle with Armenia until 1251, when the marriage of the future Bohemond VI to the sister of the Armenian king finally brought peace. By his first marriage (1225) with Alice, the widow of Hugh I of Cyprus, Bohemond V connected the history

Monday, January 03, 2005

Buzzard

Any of several birds of prey of the genus Buteo and, in North America, various New World vultures (family Cathartidae), especially the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura; see photograph). Similarly, in Australia a large hawk of the genus Hamirostra is called a black-breasted buzzard. In North America, Buteo species are called buteos, buzzard hawks, or simply

Sunday, January 02, 2005

Buzzard

Any of several birds of prey of the genus Buteo and, in North America, various New World vultures (family Cathartidae), especially the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura; see photograph). Similarly, in Australia a large hawk of the genus Hamirostra is called a black-breasted buzzard. In North America, Buteo species are called buteos, buzzard hawks, or simply

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Wolfe, Tom

After studying at Washington and Lee University (B.A., 1951) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1957), Wolfe wrote for several newspapers, including the Springfield