Monday, February 28, 2005

Earthquake, Tokyo - Yokohama

A great earthquake struck the Tokyo - Yokohama metropolitan area near noon on Sept. 1, 1923. The death toll from this shock was estimated at more than 140,000. Fifty-four percent of the brick buildings and 10 percent of the reinforced concrete structures collapsed. Many hundreds of thousands of houses were either shaken down or burned. The shock started a tsunami that reached a height

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Pig Iron

Crude iron obtained directly from the blast furnace and cast in molds. See cast iron.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Swallowtail Butterfly

Any member of the insect subfamily Papilioninae of the cosmopolitan family Papilionidae (order Lepidoptera). The swallowtail butterflies (Papilio), found worldwide except in the Arctic, are named for the characteristic taillike extensions of the hindwings, although many species are tailless. Colour patterns vary; many species have yellow,

Friday, February 25, 2005

Elisha Ben Abuyah

Byname �Aher� Jewish scholar who renounced his faith and who came to be regarded in later ages as a prototype of the heretic whose intellectual pride leads him to infidelity to Jewish laws and morals. In the Talmud, Elisha is not mentioned by name but is usually referred to as Aher (�the Other,� or �Another�). His renunciation of Judaism was considered doubly heinous because he was a tanna

Thursday, February 24, 2005

X�nthi

Though the city's origins are obscure, it grew up beneath the Byzantine fortress of Xanthea and later became a summer colony of

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Papandreou, Georgios

Papandreou studied at the University of Athens (L.L.D., 1911) and in Germany. He began his political career in 1915, served as governor of the Aegean Islands (1917 - 20), and was minister of education (1929 - 33) in the liberal antimonarchist government of Eleuth�rios Veniz�los. He broke away from

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Biblical Literature, Leviticus

The cultic and priestly laws presented in Exodus are expanded to take up virtually the whole of Leviticus, the Latin Vulgate title for the third of the Five Books of Moses, which may be translated the Book (or Manual) of Priests. With one exception (chapters 8 - 10), the narrative portions are brief connective or introductory devices to give an ostensibly narrative framework

Monday, February 21, 2005

Carnival

The merrymaking and festivity that takes place in many Roman Catholic countries in the last days and hours before the Lenten season. The derivation of the word is uncertain, though it possibly can be traced to the medieval Latin carnem levare or carnelevarium, which means to take away or remove meat. This coincides with the fact that carnival is the final festivity

Sunday, February 20, 2005

O'higgins, Bernardo

Bernardo O'Higgins was born in Chill�n, a town in southern Chile, then a colony of Spain. As noted in his certificate of Baptism, he was the illegitimate

Saturday, February 19, 2005

China, The Tangut

In the northwest the Tangut, a Tibetan people, inhabited the region between the far end of the Great Wall in modern Kansu and the Huang Ho bend in Inner Mongolia. Their semioasis economy combined irrigated agriculture with pastoralism. Their control over the terminus of the famous Silk Road made them middlemen in trade between Central Asia and China. They adopted

Friday, February 18, 2005

Beyers, C.f.

A graduate of Victoria College (now Stellenbosch University), Beyers migrated to the Transvaal, where he was naturalized and practiced as a lawyer. Joining the Boer forces in 1899, he rose

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Melanesian Culture

The beliefs and practices of those indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands grouped as Melanesia. The islands include (generally from west to east) the island of New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and the Bismarck and Louisiade archipelagoes; the Solomon Islands and the Santa Cruz Islands; New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands; Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides); Fiji;

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Anicca

Sanskrit �Anitya, � in Buddhism, the doctrine of impermanence, one of the basic characteristics of all existence. Anicca, anatta (the absence of a self), and dukkha (�suffering�) together make up the ti-lakkhana, or three characteristics of all phenomenal existence. That the human body is subject to change is empirically observable in the universal states of childhood, youth, maturity, and old

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Aerospace Engineering

The aerospace engineer is armed with an extensive background suitable for employment in most positions traditionally occupied by mechanical engineers as well as limited positions in the other various engineering disciplines. The transportation, construction, communication, and energy industries provide the most opportunities for non-aerospace

Monday, February 14, 2005

Pittacus Of Mytilene

Statesman and sage who is known as one of the Seven Wise Men of ancient Greece. He collaborated with the brothers of the poet Alcaeus in the overthrow of the tyrant Melanchrus (612/611?) and distinguished himself as a commander in the war against Athens for Sigium, killing the Athenian commander, Phrynon, single-handedly. He was elected aisymnetes (dictator appointed during

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Cohoes

City, Albany county, eastern New York, U.S. It lies at the Cohoes Falls (locally called the Great Falls; 70 feet [21 metres] high) of the Mohawk River, where it tumbles into the Hudson River. Settled in 1665 by the Dutch Van Schaick family on the colonial military road between Albany (10 miles [16 km] south) and Lake George, its name is of Algonquian origin and means �pine tree.� Growth was influenced

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Gullstrand, Allvar

Gullstrand studied in Uppsala, Vienna, and Stockholm, earning a doctorate in 1890. He became professor of diseases of the eye at Uppsala in 1894 and in 1913 was appointed professor of physiological

Friday, February 11, 2005

Flood

High-water stage in which water overflows its natural or artificial banks onto normally dry land, such as a river inundating its floodplain. The effects of floods on human well-being range from unqualified blessings to catastrophes. The regular seasonal spring floods of the Nile River prior to construction of the Aswan High Dam, for example, were depended upon to

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Han Hsiang

Pinyin �Han Xiang, � in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism. He desired to make flowers bloom in an instant and to produce fine-tasting wine without using grain. When his uncle scoffed at the idea, Han Hsiang performed the impossible before his uncle's eyes: flowers suddenly appeared in bloom from a clod of earth. In addition, a mysterious poem of 14 golden characters

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

'ali Ar-rida

In full �Abu Al-hasan Ibn Musa Ibn Ja'far 'ali Ar-rida� eighth imam of the Twelver Shi'ites, noted for his piety and learning until 817, when the caliph al-Ma'mun, in an attempt to heal the division between the majority Sunnites and the Shi'ites, appointed him his successor. The appointment aroused varying reactions - few of them, even among the Shi'ites, wholly favourable - and Iraq, already irritated

Monday, February 07, 2005

Industrial Design

Design of products made by large-scale industry for mass distribution. Designing such products means, first, planning their structure, operation, and appearance and then planning these to fit efficient production, distribution, and selling procedures. Clearly, appearance is but one factor in such a complex process. Nevertheless, in consumer goods especially, appearance

Friday, February 04, 2005

Gonfalonier

In Florence the gonfaloniers of the companies (gonfalonieri di compagnia) originated during the 1250s as commanders of the people's militia. In the 1280s a new office called the gonfalonier of justice (gonfaloniere di giustizia) was instituted to protect the interests of the people against

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Monel

Any of a group of nickel-copper alloys, first developed in 1905, containing about 66 percent nickel and 31.5 percent copper, with small amounts of iron, manganese, carbon, and silicon. Stronger than pure nickel, Monel alloys are resistant to corrosion by many agents, including rapidly flowing seawater. They can be fabricated readily by hot- and cold-working, machining, and welding.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Ts�vi�

Town, southern Togo, West Africa. It is located about 20 miles (32 km) north of Lom�, the national capital. The town constitutes an important centre for palm oil processing and a major market for commercial trade among Togo's r�gions. Ts�vi� has road and railway links with Nots�, Atakpam�, and Blitta to the north and with Lom� to the south. The Ewe people inhabit Ts�vi� and the surrounding

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Ts�vi�

Town, southern Togo, West Africa. It is located about 20 miles (32 km) north of Lom�, the national capital. The town constitutes an important centre for palm oil processing and a major market for commercial trade among Togo's r�gions. Ts�vi� has road and railway links with Nots�, Atakpam�, and Blitta to the north and with Lom� to the south. The Ewe people inhabit Ts�vi� and the surrounding