Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Intelligence

In government and military operations, evaluated information concerning the strength, activities, and probable courses of action of foreign countries or nonstate actors that are usually, though not always, enemies or opponents. The term also is used to refer to the collection, analysis, and distribution of such information and to secret intervention in the political

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

South Africa, The arts

The many languages spoken by South Africa's people reflect the country's cultural diversity. The Africans have adopted a host of Western ways, but a core of African cultural traditions of language, music, and dance retains its vitality and has contributed to a distinctly South African fusion of cultural forms. Some of the better-known features of that fusion appear

Monday, June 28, 2004

Asturias, Miguel ángel

In 1923, after receiving

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Drug Use, Amphetamines

These stimulants are of three types having closely related actions on the nervous system: amphetamine proper (Benzedrine), one of its isomers (Dexedrine), and methamphetamine (Methedrine). The amphetamines have been used to alleviate depression, fatigue, the hyperkinetic behaviour disturbances of children, postencephalitic Parkinsonism, enuresis, nausea of pregnancy,

Saturday, June 26, 2004

Skandha

Pali  Khandha  according to Buddhist thought, the five elements that sum up the whole of an individual's mental and physical existence. The self (or soul) cannot be identified with any one of the parts, nor is it the total of the parts. They are: (1) matter, or body (rupa), the manifest form of the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water; (2) sensations, or feelings (vedana); (3) perceptions of sense objects (Sanskrit:

Friday, June 25, 2004

Zion National Park

The park's principal feature is Zion Canyon, which received its name from the Mormons who discovered it (1858) and settled there in the early 1860s. A portion of the area was first set aside as the Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. The monument was enlarged and

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Robinson, (esmé Stuart) Lennox

When still young Robinson became devoted to the cause of Irish nationalism through seeing performances of the Abbey Theatre Company in Cork, and his country's troubles were

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Hancock, Winfield Scott

A West Point graduate (1844), he served with distinction in the Mexican War (1846–48). Hancock was appointed a

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Fisher (of Kilverstone), John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron

Fisher entered the navy at age 13. He was a midshipman in the Crimean War and in China (1859–60), where he took part in the capture of Canton. Promoted to captain (1874), he commanded various ships and the gunnery school and took a prominent

Monday, June 21, 2004

Outlaw Music

Movement of American country music in the 1970s spearheaded by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings (b. June 15, 1937, Littlefield, Texas, U.S.—d. February 13, 2002, Chandler, Arizona). Sometimes called progressive country, outlaw music was an attempt to escape the formulaic constraints of the Nashville Sound (simple songs, the use of studio musicians, and lush production), country's dominant style

Sunday, June 20, 2004

Catherine Of Sweden, Saint

Catherine was married to Egard Lydersson von Kyren, who died shortly after she left for Rome (1350) to join Bridget as her constant companion. She did not return to Sweden until after Bridget's death in 1373. She took part in the ecclesiastical controversies

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Ray Spider

Any spider of the family Theridiosomatidae (order Araneida), known for their conelike webs. Most ray spiders are less than 3 mm (0.125 inch) in body length and are usually found near streams or in damp areas. The strands of the ray spider's web extend outward in raylike groups of three or four. The web is pulled into a cone shape by a strand attached from the web centre to a nearby twig.

Friday, June 18, 2004

Mittelfranken

English  Middle Franconia  Regierungsbezirk (administrative district), west-central Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany. Mittelfranken is bordered by Baden-Württemberg Land to the west and the Regierungsbezirke of Unterfranken (Lower Franconia) and Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) to the north, Oberpfalz (Upper Palatinate) to the east, and Oberbayern (Upper Bavaria) and Schwaben (Swabia) to

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Monasticism

An institutionalized religious movement whose members attempt to practice works that are above and beyond those required of both the laity and the spiritual leadership of their religions. Generally celibate and universally ascetic, the monastic individual separates himself or herself from general society either by living as a hermit or anchorite (religious

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Cabaiguán

City, northern Sancti Spíritus province, central Cuba. It is an important manufacturing and commercial centre for surrounding agricultural and pastoral lands known primarily for their sugarcane, although tobacco and fruits are grown and cattle are raised. Sugar refining is the principal industrial activity in the city, which lies on the central highway and

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Arishtanemi

While the last two Tirthanakaras may be considered historical personages, Arishtanemi is a legendary figure. Said to have lived 84,000 years before the coming of the next Tirthankara, Parshvanatha, he is believed to have been the contemporary and cousin of the Hindu god Krishna

Monday, June 14, 2004

Gwadar Bay

Persian  Khalij-e Gavater,   inlet of the Arabian Sea indenting the sandy Makran coast at the Iran–Pakistan border. It is about 20 miles (32 km) long and 10 miles (16 km) wide. The Dashtiari River flows into it from the northwest, and the Dasht from the northeast. The town of Gwadar, Pak., lies on the Arabian Sea coast about 30 miles (48 km) to the east of Gwadar Bay.

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Esdraelon, Plain Of

The plain, roughly triangular in shape, is oriented northwest-southeast with the apex at

Saturday, June 12, 2004

Gobi, Physiography

The Ka-shun Gobi is bounded by the spurs of the Tien Shan to the west and the Pei Mountains to the south and rises to elevations as high as 5,000 feet (1,524 metres). It is gently corrugated, with a complex labyrinth of wide

Friday, June 11, 2004

Snowdrop

Several species, including common snowdrop (G. nivalis) and giant snowdrop (G. elwesii), are cultivated as ornamentals for their nodding, sometimes fragrant flowers. They

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Gateleg Table

Type of table first used in England in the 16th century. The top had a fixed section and one or two hinged sections, which, when not in use, folded back onto the fixed section or were allowed to hang vertically. The hinged section, or flap, was supported on pivoted legs joined at the top and bottom by stretchers and so constituting a gate. Large flaps had two supports,

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Cosmopolitanism

In Stoic philosophy, position taken by the Stoics against the traditional (Greek) distinction between Greeks and barbarians, made by applying to themselves the term cosmopolitans, thereby implying that their polis, or city-state, was the entire cosmos, or the whole world. Alexander the Great discouraged this distinction by allowing his generals to marry women native

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Lapse, Doctrine Of

In Indian history, formula devised by Lord Dalhousie, governor-general of India (1848–56), to deal with questions of succession to Hindu Indian states. It was a corollary to the doctrine of paramountcy, by which Great Britain, as the ruling power of the Indian subcontinent, claimed the superintendence of the subordinate Indian states and so also the regulation of their

Monday, June 07, 2004

Adobe Systems Incorporated

The company was founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke. While employed at Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto (California) Research Center (PARC), the two computer scientists had developed a programming language specially designed to describe the precise position, shape, and size of objects on a computer-generated page. This page description language, later known

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Orange

City, Orange county, southern California, U.S. It lies along the Santa Ana River. Part of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, it was founded as Richland in 1868, laid out in 1871, and renamed in 1875 for its orange groves. Orange was initially a citrus-packing centre. It subsequently developed with the Los Angeles metropolitan area and acquired some light manufacturing. The city is the site of

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Hadley Cell

Simple model of the Earth's atmospheric circulation that was proposed by George Hadley (1735). It consists of a single wind system in each hemisphere, with westward and Equatorward flow near the surface and eastward and poleward flow at higher altitudes. The tropical regions receive more heat from solar radiation than they radiate back into space, and the polar regions

Friday, June 04, 2004

Chassériau, Théodore

As a boy, Chassériau entered the studio of Ingres, following his master to Rome in 1834. Chassériau's immediate success at the Paris Salon of 1836 was confirmed three

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Race, The Germanic myth and English constructions of an Anglo-Saxon past

In England, from the time that Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic church and Protestant sects emerged on the horizon, historians, politicians, and philosophers had been wrestling with the creation of a new English identity. Indeed, European powers were soon to be caught up in the ethnic rivalries, extreme chauvinism, and intolerance out of which all the nation-states

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Price, Reynolds

Price grew up in small towns and attended Duke University in Durham, N.C. (A.B. 1955), where the works of Eudora Welty became a primary influence on his writing. After receiving a B.Litt. degree in 1958 from the University of Oxford in England, he began his

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Antiope

In Greek legend, the mother, by the god Zeus, of the twins Amphion and Zethus. According to one account, her beauty attracted Zeus, who, assuming the form of a satyr, took her by force. Pregnant, she escaped the threats of her father by running away and marrying Epopeus, king of Sicyon; she was later brought back and imprisoned by her uncle Lycus. On the way back from Sicyon, or after