Saturday, July 31, 2004

John, Sir Elton

A child prodigy on the piano, John was awarded a scholarship

Friday, July 30, 2004

Cracking

Cracking of petroleum yields light oils (corresponding to gasoline), heavier oils, and such gases as methane, ethane,

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Papaya

Also called �papaw�, or �pawpaw� succulent fruit of a large plant (Carica papaya) of the family Caricaceae that is considered a tree, though its palmlike trunk, up to 8 m (26 feet) tall, is not as woody as the designation generally implies. The plant is crowned by deeply lobed leaves, sometimes 60 cm (2 feet) across, borne on hollow petioles 60 cm long. Normally, the species is dioecious, male and female flowers

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Gable

The architectural treatment of a gable results from the effort to find an aesthetically pleasing solution to the problem of keeping water out of the intersection of walls and roof. This is accomplished either by

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Gatineau

City, Outaouais region, southwestern Quebec province, Canada. It is situated on the north bank of the Ottawa River, opposite Ottawa and adjacent to Hull, near the mouth of the Gatineau River. The city derives its name from the river, which itself was named for Nicolas Gatineau, a fur trader who reportedly drowned in its waters about 1683. Gatineau was originally a part of Templeton

Monday, July 26, 2004

Spock, Benjamin

Spock received his medical degree in 1929 from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and trained for six years at the New York

Sunday, July 25, 2004

Jet Engine

Any of a class of internal-combustion engines that propel aircraft by means of the rearward discharge of a jet of fluid, usually hot exhaust gases generated by burning fuel with air drawn in from the atmosphere.

Saturday, July 24, 2004

Malachite

A minor ore but a widespread mineral of copper, basic copper carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2. Because of its distinctive bright green colour and its presence in the weathered zone of nearly all copper deposits, malachite serves as a prospecting guide for that metal. Notable occurrences are Nizhne-Tagilsk, Siberia; Chessy, Fr.; Tsumeb, Namibia; and Bisbee, Ariz., U.S. Malachite has been

Friday, July 23, 2004

Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel

A precocious musician who remained successful, C.P.E. Bach was his father's true successor and an important figure in his own right. In his autobiography he writes: �For composition and keyboard-playing, I have never had

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Leahy, William D.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. (1897), Leahy saw service in the Spanish-American War (1898), the Philippine insurrection (1899 - 1901), and the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900). In command of a navy transport during World War I, he formed

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Hay, Oliver Perry

While serving as professor of biology and geology at Butler University, Indianapolis, Ind. (1879 - 92), he helped organize the Indiana Academy of Science (1890) and embarked on

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Hypoparathyroidism

Inadequate secretion of parathyroid hormone, usually caused by accidental surgical removal of large amounts of parathyroid tissue (during thyroid surgery) or, less frequently, by defective action of the parathyroid gland. This deficiency results in low calcium and high phosphorus levels in the blood, often causing tetany (increased nervous and muscular excitability,

Monday, July 19, 2004

Tigris-euphrates River System

Great river system of Southwest Asia, comprising the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which have their sources within 50 miles (80 km) of each other in eastern Turkey and travel southeast through northern Syria and Iraq to the head of the Persian Gulf. The lower portion of the region that they define, known as Mesopotamia (Greek: �Land Between the Rivers�), was one of the cradles of

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Mosaic Rhyme

A type of multiple rhyme in which a single multisyllabic word is made to rhyme with two or more words, as in the end rhymes of the following two lines from W.S. Gilbert's song �The Modern Major-General�: About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, With interesting facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

Saturday, July 17, 2004

Haleakala

The name Haleakala (Hawaiian: �House of the

Friday, July 16, 2004

Venlo

Gemeente (commune), Limburg provincie, southeastern Netherlands. It lies along the Maas (Meuse) River, near the German border. Chartered in 1343, it joined the Hanseatic League in 1364 and was a medieval fortress and trade centre. Venlo is now the centre of �greenhouse� market gardening; vegetables are exported to the Rhineland. The municipality also manufactures electric bulbs,

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Aratus

He resided at the courts of Antigonus II Gonatas, king of Macedonia, and Antiochus I of Syria. The Phaenomena, a didactic poem in hexameters, is his only completely extant work. Lines 1 - 757 versify a prose work on astronomy by Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 390 - c. 340), while lines 758 - 1154 treat of weather signs

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Bhagalpur

City, eastern Bihar state, northeastern India, just south of the Ganges River. The city has major road and rail connections and trades in agricultural produce and cloth. Major industries include rice and sugar milling and woolen weaving. Bhagalpur is also noted for its silk production. A sericulture institute and an agricultural-research station have been established,

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Egypt, Arabization

The Arabization of Egypt continued at a gradual pace. The early Fatimids' reliance on Berber troops was soon balanced by the importation of Turkish, Sudanese, and Arab contingents. The Fatimids are said to have used thousands of nomadic Arabs in the Egyptian cavalry and to have further stimulated Arabization by settling large numbers of Arabian tribesmen in Upper Egypt

Monday, July 12, 2004

Furniture, Greece and Rome

The typical Greek chair, the klismos, is known not from any ancient specimen still extant, but from a wealth of pictorial material. The best known is the klismos depicted on the Hegeso Stele at the Dipylon burial place outside Athens (c. 410 BC). It is a chair with a backward-sloping, curved backboard and four curving legs, only two of which are shown. These unusual legs were presumably

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Alligator

(genus Alligator), either of two longsnouted, crocodilian reptiles usually placed with the South American caimans in the family Alligatoridae. Alligators, like other crocodilians, are large, lizardlike animals with powerful tails that are used both in defense and in swimming. Their eyes, ears, and nostrils are placed on top of their long

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Porcupine

Any of 25 species of large, herbivorous, quill-bearing rodents active from early evening to dawn. All have short, stocky legs, but their tails range from short to long, with some being prehensile. The quills, or spines, take various forms depending on the species, but all are modified hairs embedded in skin musculature. Old World porcupines (Hystricidae)

Friday, July 09, 2004

Outer Space Treaty

Formally �Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies� (1967), international treaty binding the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes. In June 1966 the United States and the Soviet Union submitted draft treaties on the uses of space to the United Nations. These were reconciled during several months of negotiation in the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the resulting

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Caruaru

City, eastern Pernambuco estado (�state�), northeastern Brazil, on the Ipojuca River at 1,804 feet (550 m) above sea level. Caruaru originated as a weekly market centre; it was elevated to city status in 1857. Agriculture, livestock, and food processing are the principal sources of income, and there is some light manufacturing. The city has many fairs and religious festivals. It is accessible

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Hydaspes, Battle Of The

(326 BC), fourth and last pitched battle fought by Alexander the Great during his campaign of conquest in Asia. It took place after Alexander's conquest of the Achaemenidian Empire and immediately before his army began the journey homeward to Macedonia. Porus, the Indian ruler of the territory between the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers (in modern Pakistan), was his opponent. After

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Cumberland

Cumberland lies along the northwest coast of England, facing the Solway

Monday, July 05, 2004

Vadakalai

Sanskrit �Uttara-kalarya, � one of two Hindu subsects of the Srivaisnava, the other being the Tenkalai. Though the two groups use both Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures, the Vadakalai relies more on Sanskrit texts, such as the Vedas (earliest sacred scriptures of India), the Upanisads (early religiophilosophic texts), and the religious poem the Bhagavadgita. Their main point of disagreement, however, is on the

Sunday, July 04, 2004

Duarte, Juan Pablo

Duarte, who was sent to Europe for his education (1828 - 33), became determined to free the eastern part of Hispaniola from Haitian domination. On his return to the island he and several other patriots

Saturday, July 03, 2004

Dandenong Ranges

Mountain ranges, part of the Eastern Highlands, east of Melbourne in southern Victoria, Australia. Several peaks exceed 1,600 ft (500 m), the highest of which is Mt. Dandenong (2,077 ft). With nearly twice as much rainfall as the nearby coastal plain and with fertile volcanic soils, the mountains have dense vegetative cover. The name is derived from an Aboriginal word, tanjenong, meaning

Friday, July 02, 2004

Abu'l-wafa'

Abu'l-Wafa' worked in a private observatory in Baghdad, where he made observations to determine, among other astronomical parameters, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the length of the seasons, and the latitude of the city.

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Gamagori

City, Aichi Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, facing Mikawa-wan (Mikawa Bay). The city has been well known for the manufacture of cotton textiles since the Tokugawa era (1603 - 1867). Mandarin orange orchards grace the mountain slopes behind Gamagori, which also serves as a seaside resort. There are hot-spring spas nearby. The city is connected by bridge to offshore Take-shima (Take Island),