Monday, May 31, 2004

Cummingtonite

The tree has a straight but often buttressed stem (i.e., thickened at the base), a spreading crown, and four-sided branchlets with large quadrangular pith. The leaves are opposite

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 2:09 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 30, 2004

La Fontaine, Jean De

The Fables unquestionably represent the peak of La Fontaine's achievement. The first six books, known as the premier recueil (�first collection�), were published in 1668 and were followed by five more books (the second recueil) in 1678 - 79 and a twelfth book in 1694. The Fables in the second collection show even greater technical skill than those in the first and are longer, more reflective,

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 2:32 AM 0 comments

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Alchevsk

Formerly (1931 - 61) �Voroshilovsk�, or (1961 - 92) �Kommunarsk� city, Luhansk oblast (province), eastern Ukraine. It lies along the railway from Luhansk to Debaltsevo. Alchevsk was founded in 1895 with the establishment of the Donetsko-Yuryevsky ironworks. The plant has developed into a large, integrated ironworks and steelworks, which was expanded greatly in the 1950s and '60s. The city is a major bituminous-coal mining centre, and there are

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 2:46 PM 0 comments

Friday, May 28, 2004

Shamanism, Gods, spirits, and souls

All three worlds are inhabited by spirits. Among the Mongolian and Turkish peoples, �lgen, a benevolent deity and the god of the Upper World, has seven sons and nine daughters. Among the Buryat of southern Siberia, Tengri (often identified with �lgen) also has children, the Khat's - the western ones being good and the eastern ones wicked. The gods of the Buryats number 99 and

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 7:11 AM 0 comments

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Abakan

Formerly (until 1931) �Ust-Abakanskoe� city and administrative centre of the republic of Khakassia, south-central Russia. The city lies on the left bank of the Abakan River near its confluence with the Yenisey River. The starting point of a southern Siberian railway line (opened in 1960), Abakan is connected with Novokuznetsk and thence to Barnaul, Akmolinsk, and Magnitogorsk. The city has metalworking, footwear,

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Christian Iii

The eldest son of Frederick I, king of Denmark and Norway, Christian was educated as a Lutheran and showed Protestant

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 4:27 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Frampton, Sir George James

Frampton studied under W.S. Frith and at the Royal Academy schools, where he won a traveling studentship. In 1888 - 90 he studied in Paris under A. Merci�, by whom he was much influenced. At the beginning of the 1890s he was attracted by the Arts and Crafts Movement and experimented

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 7:49 PM 0 comments

Monday, May 24, 2004

Dwight, John

After taking the degree of bachelor of civil law at Christ Church, Oxford, Dwight was appointed registrar and scribe to the diocese of Chester. In 1665 he moved to Wigan and sometime between 1671 and 1674 moved to Fulham, London. In 1671 Dwight took out a patent for �transparent earthenware, commonly knowne

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 1:31 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Cosmology

Three great ages of scientific cosmology can be distinguished. The first began in Greece in the 6th century BC when the Pythagoreans introduced the concept of a spherical Earth and, unlike the Babylonians

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 3:14 PM 0 comments

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Mahanadi River

River in central India, rising in the hills of southeastern Madhya Pradesh state. Its upper course runs north as an insignificant stream, draining the eastern Chhattisgarh Plain. After receiving the Seonath River, below Baloda Bazar, it turns east and enters Orissa state, its flow augmented by the drainage of hills to the north and south. At Sambalpur the Hirakud Dam on the

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 3:56 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 21, 2004

Valdemar Birgersson

King of Sweden (1250 - 75) who governed jointly with his father Birger Jarl (q.v.) until the latter's death in 1266 and then reigned alone. Because of an extramarital affair with his wife's sister, a postulant nun, by whom he had a child, Valdemar in 1274 made a pilgrimage to Rome to gain forgiveness. Pope Gregory X exacted concessions, whereby Valdemar acknowledged papal overlordship and

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 4:45 PM 0 comments

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Eadric Streona

Little is known of Eadric's origins. His appointment to the office of ealdorman was probably an attempt by Ethelred to unite south-central England under one command. He is generally considered

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 11:52 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Eagle Pass

City, seat (1856) of Maverick county, southwestern Texas, U.S., on the Rio Grande, bridged to Piedras Negras, Mexico, 130 miles (210 km) southwest of San Antonio. It evolved as a garrison town laid out as El Paso de Aguila (Spanish: �Eagle Pass�), so named for the area's abundant birds of prey, near Camp California (on the Gold Rush Trail) and Fort Duncan (1849, now restored in a city park). During the Civil War

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 4:31 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

British Indian Ocean Territory

Colony of the United Kingdom in the central Indian Ocean, established Nov. 8, 1965, by the amalgamation of the Aldabra Islands and the Farquhar and Desroches islands (all purchased from the Seychelles) with the Chagos Archipelago (formerly a dependency of Mauritius). On June 28/29, 1976, the islands purchased from the Seychelles were returned to the newly independent Republic of Seychelles.

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 10:16 AM 0 comments

Monday, May 17, 2004

British Indian Ocean Territory

Set of multilateral trade agreements aimed at the abolition of quotas and the reduction of tariff duties among the contracting nations. When GATT was concluded by 23 countries at Geneva, in 1947 (to take effect on Jan. 1, 1948), it was considered an interim arrangement pending the formation of a United Nations agency to supersede it. When such an agency failed to emerge, GATT was amplified

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 7:27 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 16, 2004

India, Rebellion of Khurram (Shah Jahan)

After failing to take Fatehpur Sikri in April 1623, Khurram retreated to the Deccan, thence to Bengal, and from Bengal back again to the Deccan, pursued all the while by an imperial force under Mahabat Khan. His plan to seize Bihar, Ayodhya, Allahabad, and even Agra failed. At last, Khurram submitted to his father unconditionally (1626). He was forgiven and appointed governor of Balaghat, but the

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 5:15 AM 0 comments

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Empoli

Town, Firenze (Florence) provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, north-central Italy, on the lower Arno River. During the medieval Florentine wars, Empoli was the scene of the Ghibelline congress of 1260, where Farinata degli Uberti successfully opposed the destruction of defeated Florence, an episode referred to in Dante's Inferno. The painter Iacopo Chimenti da Empoli and

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 5:22 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 14, 2004

Puebla

Inland state, east central Mexico. It is bounded on the east by Veracruz; on the south by Oaxaca; on the west by Guerrero, Morelos, and the Federal District; and on the northwest by Tlaxcala and Hidalgo. Its northeast tip reaches into the Gulf lowlands between Veracruz on the east and Tlaxcala and Hidalgo on the west and north. Its 13,090-sq-mi (33,902-sq-km) territory occupies the southeastern

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 10:14 PM 0 comments

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Ezekiel

Also spelled �Ezechiel, �Hebrew �Yehezqel� prophet-priest of ancient Israel and the subject and in part the author of an Old Testament book that bears his name. Ezekiel's early oracles (from c. 592) in Jerusalem were pronouncements of violence and destruction; his later statements addressed the hopes of the Israelites exiled in Babylon. The faith of Ezekiel in the ultimate establishment of a new covenant

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 3:20 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Heuss, Theodor

After receiving a political science degree from the University of Munich (1905), Heuss was an editor on several newspapers

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 11:14 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

North Germanic Languages

The six standard languages of today, in the order of their emergence as languages of culture and prestige, are Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese, New Norwegian (Nynorsk), and Dano-Norwegian.

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 2:54 PM 0 comments

Monday, May 10, 2004

Vietnamese Language

Official language of Vietnam, spoken in the late 20th century by more than 66 million people. It belongs to the Viet-Muong subbranch of the Vietic branch of the Mon-Khmer family, which is itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. Except for a group of divergent rural dialects spoken between Hue and Vinh, most of the dialects of Vietnamese differ from each other to about the

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 1:07 AM 0 comments

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Domr�my-la-pucelle

Village, Vosges d�partement, Lorraine r�gion, northeastern France. It lies on the banks of the Meuse River, 38 miles (61 km) southeast of Bar-le-Duc. Domr�my was where St. Joan of Arc (�la Pucelle�) was born about 1412. The village still has several medieval buildings, including St. Joan's birthplace, now a museum. Nearby is the church containing the font at which she was baptized. Pop. (1990) 190.

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 6:19 AM 0 comments

Saturday, May 08, 2004

Ascanius

In Roman legend, son of the hero Aeneas and traditional founder of Alba Longa, probably the site of the modern Castel Gandolfo, near Rome. In different versions, Ascanius is placed variously in time. Those set earlier cite the Trojan Creusa as his mother. After the fall of Troy, Ascanius and Aeneas escaped to Italy, where Aeneas subsequently founded Lavinium, the parent

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 8:50 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 07, 2004

Fish Poisoning

Ciguatera poisoning is one of the most common forms of fish poisoning in the Caribbean. It is caused by fishes that in other parts of the world constitute food items (e.g., sea bass, snapper). The conditions under which these fishes become toxic in the Caribbean waters are not clear. Symptoms,

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 1:48 PM 0 comments

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Aeschylus

Studies of special topics relating to Aeschylus' plays include Anthony J. Podlecki, The Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy (1966); A.F. Garvie, Aeschylus' �Supplices�: Play and Trilogy (1969); George Thomson, Aeschylus and Athens: A Study in the Social Origins of Drama, 4th ed. (1973), a Marxist study; Anne Lebeck, The Oresteia: A Study in Language and Structure (1971), on the significant connections of imagery; R.P. Winnington-Ingram, Studies in Aeschylus (1983), a collection of insightful essays; Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, The Art of Aeschylus (1982), a critical study; D.J. Conacher, Aeschylus' �Prometheus Bound�: A Literary Commentary (1980); Mark Griffith, The Authenticity of �Prometheus Bound� (1977), a powerful attack on authenticity; and Oliver Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: The Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy (1978), on dramatic techniques and meanings.

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 5:41 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Blood Money

Among the Anglo-Saxon tribes, members of the killer's

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 3:47 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Uterine Cancer

A disease characterized by the abnormal growth of cells in the uterus. Cancers affecting the lining of the uterus (endometrium) are the most common cancers of the female reproductive tract. Other uterine cancers, called uterine sarcomas, develop from underlying muscle or connective tissue; they are much rarer. This article focuses on the development, diagnosis,

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 12:35 AM 0 comments

Monday, May 03, 2004

Uterine Cancer

Any member or relative of the dinosaur genus Brachiosaurus, which lived 150 million to 130 million years ago from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous Period. Brachiosaurs were the heaviest and tallest sauropod dinosaurs for which complete skeletons exist; larger fossil bones belonging to other (and possibly related) sauropods have been found, but these specimens

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 10:12 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 02, 2004

Kahn, Reuben Leon

While serving with the U.S. Army (1917 - 19) and the Michigan State Department of Health (1920 - 28), Kahn found that, under carefully controlled conditions, the mixing of an infected blood sample, beef heart

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 7:14 AM 0 comments

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Yukon River

Major North American river that flows through the central Yukon Territory of Canada and central Alaska. It measures 1,980 miles (3,190 kilometres) from the headwaters of the McNeil River (a tributary of the Nisutlin River). The Yukon discharges into the Bering Sea after flowing northwestward and then generally southwestward through a low plateau that slopes down across Alaska.

posted by PoliticalCushion @ 9:40 AM 0 comments