WiseBee: February 2004

Sunday, February 29, 2004

Prickly Heat

A noncontagious skin eruption of red pimples with intense itching and tingling caused by inflammation around the sweat glands. It is a form of miliaria (q.v.).

Saturday, February 28, 2004

Ptolemy Xii Auletes

Following the sudden, violent deaths of the last two fully legitimate members of the Ptolemaic family in Egypt, the people of Alexandria in 80 invited Ptolemy

Friday, February 27, 2004

Saint-gaudens, Augustus

Saint-Gaudens was born to a French father and an Irish mother. His family moved to New York City when he was an infant and at age 13 he was apprenticed

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Smith, Dean Edwards

The 1982 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship game between the University of North Carolina and the University of Virginia featured some of the greatest players in college basketball--among them North Carolina guard Michael Jordan and Virginia centre Ralph Sampson. As a national television audience watched, however, Dean Smith, the North Carolina coach, instructed

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

John George I

An easygoing, indolent drunkard whose chief wish was �to drink his beer in peace,� he was a faithful adherent of the house of Habsburg. As a result of his inability

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Muktafi, Al-

The son of al-Mu'tadid, al-Muktafi ascended to the throne in 902 with somewhat more popular support than his predecessors, thanks to his liberal rule and abolition of dungeons in Baghdad. He immediately faced battle with the Qarmatians, a schismatic

Monday, February 23, 2004

Bhagavata-purana

(Sanskrit: �Ancient Stories of the Lord�), the most celebrated text of a variety of Hindu sacred literature in Sanskrit that is known as the Puranas, and the specific text that is held sacred by the Bhagavata sect. Scholars are in general agreement that the Bhagavata-Purana was probably composed about the 10th century, somewhere in the Tamil country of South India;

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Gabes, Gulf Of

Arabic �Khalij Qabis, �French �Golfe De Gab�s, �Latin �Syrtis Minor, � inlet, on the east coast of Tunisia, northern Africa. It is 60 miles (100 km) long and 60 miles wide and is bounded by the Qarqannah (Kerkena) Islands on the northeast and by Jarbah (Djerba) Island on the southeast. Except for the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Venice, it is the only part of the Mediterranean with a substantial tidal range (about 8 feet [2 1/2 m] at spring tides), causing the uncovering

Saturday, February 21, 2004

China, Religious and intellectual life

The Mongols did not try to impose their own religion (a cult of Heaven, the forces of nature, and shamanistic practices) on their subjects. This gave comparative freedom to the existing religions in China. These included what the Mongol rulers considered to be the san chiao (�three teachings�): Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Both Taoism and Buddhism retained their

Friday, February 20, 2004

Y�

Pinyin �Yue, � aboriginal people of South China who in the 5th - 4th century BC formed a powerful kingdom in present-day Chekiang and Fukien provinces. The name Vietnam means �south of the Y�eh,� and some Chinese scholars consider the Vietnamese to be descendants of the Y�

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Insurance, Rate making

The rate is the price per unit of exposure. In fire insurance, for example, the rate may be expressed as $1 per $100 of

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Barari Ghat, Battle Of

(Jan. 9, 1760), in Indian history, one of a series of Afghan victories over the Marathas in their war to gain control of the decaying Mughal Empire, which gave the British time in which to consolidate their power in Bengal. At the Barari Ghat (Ferry Station) of the Jumna (now Yamuna) River, 10 miles (16 km) north of Delhi, the Maratha chief Dattaji Sindhia, retreating from the Punjab before the Afghan

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Adam, Adolphe

Adam wrote 71 operas, the best of which are generally considered to be Le Postillon de Longjumeau (1836) and Giralda (1850). In his ballets - which he composed for production in London, Berlin,

Monday, February 16, 2004

Salado River

Spanish �R�o Salado, � river in northeastern Mexico. It rises in the Sierra Madre Oriental in Coahuila state and flows generally east-northeastward for some 175 miles (280 km) into the lake created by the Venustiano Carranza Dam at Don Mart�n. Leaving the reservoir, the Salado, joined by the Sabinas River, winds southeastward for 110 miles (175 km) through northern Nuevo Le�n and northwestern Tamaulipas

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Zunzunegui, Juan Antonio De

In full �Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui y Loredo� Spanish novelist and short-story writer whose straightforward narrative technique was rooted in the 19th century. His subject was chiefly social criticism of modern life in Bilbao and Madrid. A member of the Spanish Academy from 1957, Zunzunegui received the National Prize for Literature for El premio (1961; �The Prize�), which, ironically, was

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Sosa, Sammy

As a child, Sosa worked at a number of jobs, including shining shoes, to help support his family following his father's death. At the age

Friday, February 13, 2004

Walsingham, Sir Francis

English statesman and the principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I from 1573 to 1590. He was a skilled diplomat whose knowledge of languages and capacity to organize espionage activities made him invaluable in the execution of Elizabeth's foreign policy. In addition, he was a staunch Puritan who uncovered a number of dangerous

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Costa Mesa

City, Orange county, southern California, U.S., on a coastal plateau overlooking the Pacific, at the mouth of the Santa Ana River. With Newport Beach it forms Orange county's �Harbor Area.� The site, once part of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana and the Irvine Ranch, became the hot springs resort of Fairview. Laid out as the town of Harper in 1906, it was renamed in 1921 for its coastal location.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Kiarostami, Abbas

Kiarostami was hired in 1969 by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults to establish its film division. The institute produced his first film as a director, the lyrical short Nan va kucheh (1970; �Bread and Alley�), which featured

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Harpy

In Greco-Roman classical mythology, a fabulous creature, probably a wind spirit. The presence of harpies as tomb figures, however, makes it possible that they were also conceived of as ghosts. In Homer's Odyssey they were winds that carried people away. Elsewhere, they were sometimes connected with the powers of the underworld. Homer mentions one Harpy called Podarge

Monday, February 09, 2004

Pemba Island

Arabic �Jazirat Al-khudrah, � island in the Indian Ocean, lying 35 miles (56 km) off the coast of East Africa, opposite the port of Tanga, Tanzania. The island embraces 380 square miles (984 square km) and is 42 miles (67 km) long and 14 miles (22 km) wide. As the Arabic name, which means �Green Island,� suggests, it is more fertile than its sister island, Zanzibar, which lies 30 miles (48 km) to the southwest. Pemba is the world's leading producer

Sunday, February 08, 2004

Tintern Abbey

Ecclesiastical ruin in Monmouthsire, Wales, on the west bank of the River Wye. Founded for Cistercian monks in 1131, Tintern Abbey was almost entirely rebuilt and enlarged between 1220 and 1287. The building was finally completed, except for minor additions, in the early 14th century. The abbey was dissolved in 1537, and its property was granted to the lord of Chepstow; the crown bought it

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Ancud

Town and commune in Los Lagos regi�n, Chilo� provincia, southern Chile. It lies on the northern coast of Chilo� Island, across the Straits of Chacao from the mainland. Founded in 1769 as San Carlos de Ancud, it was one of the last strongholds of royalist forces during Chile's struggle for independence from Spain in the first quarter of the 19th century. It was the provincial capital

Friday, February 06, 2004

Avoidance Relationship

In human societies, the institutionalized, formal avoidance of one individual by another, usually involving persons of opposite sexes standing in definite kinship relationship to one another. A classic example - and one found in numerous and diverse societies - is the culturally prescribed avoidance of a mother-in-law by her son-in-law. Similar patterns of avoidance

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Hamburg, Climate

Hamburg has mild winters, late springs, relatively cool summers, high humidity, and frequent fog. The mean winter temperature is 34.2� F (1.2� C), and the mean summer temperature is 62.4� F (16.9� C).

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Ashikaga Tadayoshi

When in 1333 Takauji joined forces with the emperor Go-Daigo, Tadayoshi accompanied him, becoming a leading commander of the

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Beachy Head

Prominent headland on the English Channel coast in the administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, in the borough of Eastbourne. Its chalk cliffs, more than 500 ft (150 m) high, represent the seaward extension of the South Downs. The cliffs face southward and are therefore subjected to severe gales from the southwest. Erosion is concentrated along

Monday, February 02, 2004

Nicholas Iii

In matters of the church, Nicholas issued the important

Sunday, February 01, 2004

Allison, William B.

Allison practiced law in his hometown of Ashland, Ohio, and (from 1857) in Dubuque, Iowa. In the House of Representatives he was a partisan of railroad interests,

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