Friday, December 31, 2004

Sabatier, Paul

A Calvinist from birth, Sabatier began his studies at the Protestant faculty of theology in Paris in 1880 and became pastor of St. Nicholas, Strasbourg, in 1885. He was expelled from Alsace in 1889 because he refused to

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Pacific Islands Forum

Formerly (1971 - 2000) �South Pacific Forum� organization established in 1971 to provide a setting for heads of government to discuss common issues and problems facing the independent and self-governing states of the South Pacific. Headquartered in Suva, Fiji, the Forum includes Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Hardwicke, Philip Yorke, 1st Earl Of, Viscount Royston

Called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1715, Hardwicke afterward joined Lincoln's Inn, of which he

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Lance Missile

The Lance is about 20 feet (6 m) long and is launched from a light trailer or a modified personnel carrier. It is propelled by a liquid-fueled rocket engine to ranges of 5 to 75 miles (8 to 120 km), depending on the warhead.

Monday, December 27, 2004

Stazewski, Henryk

Educated at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1913 - 19), Stazewski was a founding member of three Polish artist groups during the 1920s and a member of the Cercle

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Gumilyov, Nikolay Stepanovich

The son of a naval surgeon, Gumilyov was educated at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where he was influenced by the poet and teacher Innokenty Annensky. Gumilyov's earliest published volumes

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Toccoa

City, seat (1905) of Stephens county, northeastern Georgia, U.S. It lies on the Dahlonega Upland, northwest of Hartwell Dam and Lake near the South Carolina border, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Athens. Toccoa was laid out in 1873 and is at the edge of Chattahoochee National Forest in a prosperous agricultural area. The city has some industry, including the manufacture of textiles, heavy

Friday, December 24, 2004

Nordheim, Sondre

Nordheim in 1860 was the first to use bindings of willow, cane, and birch root around the heel from each side of the toe strap to fasten the boot to the ski, thus revolutionizing skiing and making ski jumping possible. He himself

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Devonshire, Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke Of, Marquess Of Hartington, Earl Of Devonshire, Baron Cavendish Of Hardwick

Entering the House of Commons

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Boufflers, Louis-fran�ois, Duc De (duke Of)

Born into an ancient Picard family, he entered the French army in 1662 and distinguished himself as a commander of the royal dragoons during the Dutch War (1672 - 78). Boufflers became a marshal of France in 1693 during the War of the Grand Alliance (1689 - 97) between France and other major European

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Monck (of Ballytrammon), Sir Charles Stanley, 4th Viscount, 1st Baron Monck Of Ballytrammon

Monck was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and was called to practice in the Irish bar in 1841. On the death of his father he succeeded to the peerage of Ireland in 1849 and was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal member from Portsmouth.

Monday, December 20, 2004

Orange Walk

Town, northwestern Belize, situated on the left (west) bank of the New River. Established in early colonial times, it was pillaged by hostile Indians in 1872. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it conducted a thriving trade in mahogany. The town declined after demand for mahogany lessened. Sugarcane and citrus fruit cultivation and rum distilling are the main economic

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Neoteros

Plural �Neoteroi, � any of a group of poets who sought to break away from the didactic-patriotic tradition of Latin poetry by consciously emulating the forms and content of Alexandrian Greek models. The neoteroi deplored the excesses of alliteration and onomatopoeia and the ponderous metres that characterized the epics and didactic works of the Latin Ennian tradition. They wrote

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Signoret, Simone

Born in Germany to French nationals, Signoret was reared from the age

Friday, December 17, 2004

Azerbaijan, Industry

Azerbaijan has a diversified industrial base, with the leading branches of heavy industry - power, manufacturing, and chemical production - predominating. Branches of the processing industry, producing mineral fertilizers, gasoline, kerosene, herbicides, industrial oils, synthetic rubber, and plastics, have developed, and Sumqayit has emerged as the major centre

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Gray, Simon

Gray alternately lived in Canada and England, attending Westminster School in London; Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (B.A., 1957); and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A.,

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Europa

Also called �Jupiter II, � fourth largest satellite of the planet Jupiter. One of the four Galilean satellites, it was discovered by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610 and was named by the German astronomer Simon Marius after a figure in Greek mythology. Europa has a diameter of 3,138 km (1,946 miles), and it orbits Jupiter at a distance of approximately 670,900 km (416,900 miles). The satellite has a density of 3.03 grams

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Chase, Mary Ellen

Chase grew up in Maine, graduating from the University of Maine in 1909. Three autobiographical works describe her background and early experiences: A Goodly Heritage (1932), A Goodly Fellowship (1939), and The White Gate:

Monday, December 13, 2004

Ealing

Outer borough of London, part of the historic county of Middlesex, midway between central London and the western periphery. The borough was established in 1965 by the amalgamation of the former municipal boroughs of Ealing, Acton, and Southall, all in the former county of Middlesex. It includes the districts and neighbourhoods of (from west to east) West End, Northolt, Southall,

Sunday, December 12, 2004

K�rner, (karl) Theodor

His father, Christian Gottfried K�rner, was a friend of Friedrich Schiller. K�rner grew up in a house frequented by writers and scientists. He studied philosophy in Berlin, where he attended

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Athabaska, District Of

Part of the original Northwest Territories in Canada. The district was created in 1882 and enlarged by an eastward extension in 1895. It was abolished in 1905. Its area comprised the northern parts of present Alberta and Saskatchewan and a small portion of northwestern Manitoba.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Tasmania

J.L. Davies (ed.), Atlas of Tasmania (1965), offers comprehensive map coverage with detailed commentary. The Tasmanian Year Book (biennial) is the most comprehensive single reference. C.F. Burrett and E.L. Martin (eds.), Geology and Mineral Resources of Tasmania (1989), is also useful. Margaret Stones and Winifred Curtis, The Endemic Flora of Tasmania, 6 pt. (1967 - 76), is a definitive study, beautifully illustrated. W.A. Townsley, The Government of Tasmania (1976), is a good political guide. The great 19th-century history is by John West, The History of Tasmania, 2 vol. (1852, reissued in 1 vol., 1971); its successor is by Lloyd Robson, A History of Tasmania, 2 vol. (1983 - 91), who has also written A Short History of Tasmania (1985). Outstanding historical monographs include Peter Bolger, Hobart Town (1973); Geoffrey Blainey, The Peaks of Lyell, 4th ed. (1978), on copper mining; and Marilyn Lake, A Divided Society: Tasmania During World War I (1975). P. Conrad, Down Home: Revisiting Tasmania (1988, also published as Behind the Mountain: Return to Tasmania, 1989), is an account by an intellectual aghast at the oddities of his native spot.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Metal Carbonyl

Any coordination or complex compound consisting of a heavy metal such as nickel, cobalt, or iron surrounded by carbonyl (CO) groups. Some common metal carbonyls include: tetracarbonylnickel Ni(CO)4, pentacarbonyliron Fe(CO)5, and octacarbonyldicobalt Co2(CO)8. In general, the metal carbonyls are produced by direct action of carbon monoxide on the finely divided metal. They

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Weltschmerz

(German: �world grief�), the prevailing mood of melancholy and pessimism associated with the poets of the Romantic era that arose from their refusal or inability to adjust to those realities of the world that they saw as destructive of their right to subjectivity and personal freedom - a phenomenon thought to typify Romanticism. The word was coined by Jean Paul in his

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Durand, Guillaume

After receiving a doctorate in canon law at Bologna, Italy, Durand taught briefly there and later at Modena, Italy. Some time after 1260 he was appointed auditor (a judge commissioned to hear cases of appeal brought to the Holy See). At the second Council of Lyon (1274), he helped draft the statutes

Monday, December 06, 2004

Teratology

Branch of the biological sciences dealing with the causes, development, description, and classification of congenital malformations in plants and animals and with the experimental production, in some instances, of these malformations. Congenital malformations arise from interruption in the early development of the organism. Malformations in human infants,

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Qeshm

Also spelled �Qishm, �Persian �Jazireh-e-qeshm, �Arabic �Jazirat At-tawilah, � largest island in the Persian Gulf, belonging to Iran. The Arabic name means �long island.� It lies parallel to the Iranian coast, from which it is separated by Clarence Strait. With an area of 460 square miles (1,200 square km), it has an irregular outline and a generally rocky coast except for sandy bays and mud flats fringing the northwest. Irregular table-topped hills almost cover

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Estampie

Proven�al �estampida� courtly dance of the 12th - 14th century. Mentioned in trouv�re poetry, it was probably danced with sliding steps by couples to the music of vielles (medieval viols); its afterdance was the saltarello. In musical form the estampie derives from the sequence, a medieval genre of Latin hymn. Like the sequence it has a series of repeated melodic phrases (aa, bb, cc, . . . ); phrase endings in

Friday, December 03, 2004

Y�eh-yang

It was a fortified place called

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Aluminum Processing

Aluminum, or aluminium (Al), is a silvery white metal with a melting point of 660� C (1,220� F) and a density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimetre. The most abundant metallic element, it constitutes 8.1 percent of the Earth's crust. In nature it occurs chemically combined with oxygen and other elements. In the pure state it is soft and ductile, but

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Coral-bells

(Heuchera sanguinea), hardy garden perennial, of the saxifrage family (Saxifragaceae), native to North America from Mexico to the Arctic. Coral-bells is a compact, bushy plant growing in tufts, with flower stems about 45 centimetres (18 inches) tall. It has spikes covered with pendant coral-coloured flowers about the size of lily of the valley bells. The leaves