Friday, December 31, 2004

Water Purification

The first treatment plant was built in 1829 to purify Thames River water by filtration. After the London cholera epidemic of 1854 was traced to a public well,

posted by WiseBee @ 1:28 AM 0 comments

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Visual-field Defect

A blind spot (scotoma) or blind area within the normal bounds of vision. In most cases the blind spots or areas are persistent, but in some instances they may be temporary and shifting, as in the scotomata of migraine headache. Narrowing of the fields of vision may be due to syphilitic inflammation of the optic nerves or to glaucoma. In this type of defect the field of vision

posted by WiseBee @ 8:36 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Iran, Ancient, Mithradates II

The reign of Mithradates II, from 123 to 88 BC, constitutes the most glorious chapter of Parthian history. It put an end to the ambitions of Artabanus's son Himerus, left by his father as governor of Mesopotamia, and brought Hyspaosines, king of Mesene (Characene), who had extended his possessions too far toward the north, back into submission. In the east the Saka were on the move - soon

posted by WiseBee @ 9:07 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Ireland

The republic of Ireland, separated from Great Britain by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St. George's Channel, shares its island with Northern Ireland to the northeast. Area: 70,285 sq km (27,137 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 3,512,000. Cap.: Dublin. Monetary unit: Irish pound (punt), with (Oct. 7, 1994) a free rate of �Ir 0.64 to U.S. $1 (�Ir 1.01 = �1 sterling). President in 1994, Mary Robinson; prime ministers, Albert Reynolds and, from December 15, John

posted by WiseBee @ 1:16 PM 0 comments

Monday, December 27, 2004

P�rec, Marie-jos�

P�rec grew up on the West Indian island of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe, an overseas administrative district of France. In 1984 she was recruited by a visiting French coach who took her to the mainland, where she placed second in the 200-metre dash at the

posted by WiseBee @ 5:56 PM 0 comments

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Andrew Of Carniola

From the scant data available on Andrew's life, it appears that he was

posted by WiseBee @ 11:33 PM 0 comments

Friday, December 24, 2004

Abdul Rahman, Tuanku (king)

The son of Tuanku Mohammed,

posted by WiseBee @ 5:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Indigestion

Also called �dyspepsia� any or all of the symptoms - abdominal discomfort, belching, flatulence, aversion to eating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, heartburn - associated with the malfunctioning of the digestive system. Indigestion may be caused by disease, but it primarily occurs because of stress, improper eating habits, excessive smoking, exorbitant consumption of coffee or

posted by WiseBee @ 1:35 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Durfort Family

The family, which can be traced back to the 11th century, claims as a member Guy Aldonce I de Durfort (1605 - 65), Marquis de Duras, who raised three famous sons: Jacques Henri I (1625 - 1704), marshal of France (1675) and Duke de Duras (1689); Guy Aldonce II (1630 - 1702), marshal of France (1676) and Duke de Quintin (1691); and Louis (1638 - 1709), who went to England and became 2nd Earl of Feversham

posted by WiseBee @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Tu-16

The TU-16 carried a crew of six and

posted by WiseBee @ 7:33 PM 0 comments

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Osage

North American Indian tribe of the Dhegiha branch of the Siouan linguistic stock. They are now concentrated on a reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. Like other members of this subgroup (the Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, and Quapaw), the Osage migrated westward from the Atlantic coast, settling first in the Piedmont Plateau between the James and Savannah rivers in Virginia

posted by WiseBee @ 5:43 AM 0 comments

Friday, December 17, 2004

Eliade, Mircea

Eliade took an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Bucharest

posted by WiseBee @ 5:47 PM 0 comments

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Aesthetics, Expressionism

After Kant and Hegel, the most important influence on modern aesthetics has been Croce. His oft-cited Estetica come scienza dell' espressione e linguistica generale (1902; Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistics, or Aesthetic) presents, in a rather novel idiom, some of the important insights underlying the theories of his predecessors. In this work,

posted by WiseBee @ 1:37 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Farandole

Lively and popular chain dance of Provence and Catalonia. It was mentioned as early as the 14th century and, according to tradition, was taken to Marseille from Greece by Phoenician sailors. Performed on feast days, the farandole is danced by men and women holding hands in a chain. The dancers, following the steps introduced by the chain leader, wind through the streets

posted by WiseBee @ 7:30 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Perfume

Fragrant product that results from the artful blending of certain odoriferous substances in appropriate proportions. The word is derived from the Latin per fumum, meaning �through smoke.� The art of perfumery was apparently known to the ancient Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, Israelites, Carthaginians, Arabs, Greeks, and Romans. References to perfumery materials and

posted by WiseBee @ 3:11 PM 0 comments

Monday, December 13, 2004

Argentina, Oil, steel, and motor vehicles

The steel industry in Argentina

posted by WiseBee @ 11:53 PM 0 comments

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Medicine, The industrial and the personal physician

When a worker also has a personal physician, there may be doubt, in some cases, as to which physician bears the main responsibility for his health. When someone has an accident or becomes acutely ill at work, the first aid is given or directed by the industrial physician. Subsequent treatment may be given either at the clinic at work or by the personal physician. Because

posted by WiseBee @ 1:04 AM 0 comments

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Heterogeneous Reaction

Any of a class of chemical reactions in which the reactants are components of two or more phases (solid and gas, solid and liquid, two immiscible liquids) or in which one or more reactants undergo chemical change at an interface, e.g., on the surface of a solid catalyst. The reaction of metals with acids, the electrochemical changes that occur in batteries and electrolytic

posted by WiseBee @ 7:35 AM 0 comments

Friday, December 10, 2004

Neo-volc�nica, Cordillera

Also called �Eje Volc�nico� (Spanish: �Volcanic Axis�), volcanic mountain range traversing central Mexico from Cape Corrientes on the west coast, southeast to Jalapa and Veracruz on the east coast. The nation's cultural - historical centre, the Cordillera forms the southern boundary of Mexico's Mesa Central and contains such volcanic peaks as Citlalt�petl (Orizaba; 18,406 feet [5,610 m]), Popocat�petl (17,930 feet [5,465 m]), and

posted by WiseBee @ 2:46 PM 0 comments

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Neo-volc�nica, Cordillera

The first regionwide Asia-Pacific multilateral forum for official consultations on peace and security issues. An outgrowth of the annual ministerial-level meeting of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the states serving as ASEAN's �dialogue partners,� the ARF provides a setting for discussion and diplomacy and the development of

posted by WiseBee @ 4:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Racerunner

Racerunners may be diversely marked, even within a species, being

posted by WiseBee @ 2:50 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Ithaca College

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Ithaca, New York, U.S. It comprises the Roy H. Park School of Communications and schools of business, health sciences and human performance, humanities and sciences, and music. In addition to undergraduate studies, the college offers master's degree programs in communication, health sciences, and music. Students

posted by WiseBee @ 2:28 AM 0 comments

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Stedman, Edmund Clarence

Stedman attended Yale, from which he was expelled, and became successively a newspaper proprietor and a stockbroker, writing all the while. As a critic Stedman wrote of contemporary authors in Victorian Poets (1875) and Poets of America (1885); he

posted by WiseBee @ 8:34 PM 0 comments

Saturday, December 04, 2004

House

Style of high-tempo, electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s and spread internationally. Born in Chicago clubs that catered to gay, predominantly black and Latino patrons, house fused the symphonic sweep and soul diva vocals of 1970s disco with the cold futurism of synthesizer-driven Eurodisco. Invented by deejay-producers such as Frankie Knuckles

posted by WiseBee @ 8:25 PM 0 comments

Friday, December 03, 2004

Hardin, John Wesley

Reaching adolescence as the defeated South entered the Reconstruction period, Hardin was virulently antiblack and anti-Yankee and, in 1868 at the age of 15, killed his first man, an ex-slave. From then on

posted by WiseBee @ 11:18 AM 0 comments

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Amistad Mutiny

(July 2, 1839), slave rebellion that took place on the slave ship Amistad near the coast of Cuba and had important political and legal repercussions in the American abolition movement. The mutineers were captured and tried in the United States, and a surprising victory for the country's antislavery forces resulted in 1841 when the U.S. Supreme Court freed the rebels. A committee

posted by WiseBee @ 7:50 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Gainsborough Chair

Type of English armchair made in the mid-18th century. A wide chair with a high back, it was normally upholstered in leather. The sides are open, and the short, upholstered arms are set well back from the seat, to which they are connected by a concave curving support. The arm supports and front legs are usually fluted or carved on the front face. The contemporary name was �French

posted by WiseBee @ 2:28 AM 0 comments