WiseBee: February 2005

Monday, February 28, 2005

Subarkose

Variety of sandstone in which 5 - 25 percent of the sand grains are composed of feldspar. See arkose.

Sunday, February 27, 2005

World Water Crisis: Is There A Way Out?

In 1995 Swedish hydrologist Malin Falkenmark made a revolutionary contribution to hydrologic studies by distinguishing blue water, by which she meant all precipitation that contributes to stream runoff and groundwater and is readily withdrawn for human use, from green water, which is all precipitation that is transpired by vegetation or evaporated from the soil

Friday, February 25, 2005

Graz

City, capital of Bundesland (federal state) Steiermark, southeastern Austria. The country's second largest city, it lies on the Mur River between the Styrian Alps and a wide, fertile valley, the Grazerfeld. In the 9th century there was probably a fortress on the Schlossberg, a rocky cone (1,552 feet [473 m]) that dominates the city. The name Graz is derived from gradec, a Slavic word meaning

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Puente-genil

Town, Cordova province, in the comunidad aut�noma (�autonomous community�) of Andalusia, southern Spain, located south of Cordova city, on the Cordova - M�laga railway. An agricultural centre, Puente-Genil produces olive oil, quince and other fruit jellies, linen, and insecticides. It takes its name from the bridge (puente) over the Genil River connecting the two sections

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Manet, �douard

French painter who broke new ground by defying traditional techniques of representation and by choosing subjects from the events and circumstances of his own time. His D�jeuner sur l'herbe (�Luncheon on the Grass�), exhibited in 1863 at the Salon des Refus�s, aroused the hostility of critics and the enthusiasm of the young painters who

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Rabat

The history of Rabat is closely connected to that of neighbouring Sal�, the site of which was first occupied by the Roman settlement of Sala (Shella). During the 10th century, Sal� was established by the Zenata Berbers, who were orthodox

Monday, February 21, 2005

Lodge, Henry Cabot

Lodge received in 1876 the first Ph.D. in political science to be granted by Harvard University. He remained at Harvard for the next three years as instructor in American

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Spoonbill

Also called �Spoonbill Cat, � primitive North American fish, a species of paddlefish (q.v.).

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Walter Of Coventry

Walter was not a historian or chronicler in his own right; he merely brought together the works of Marianus Scotus, Florence of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Roger of Hoveden, and

Friday, February 18, 2005

Lutheran Church In W�rttemberg

Independent Lutheran church established in the duchy of W�rttemberg in 1534 during the Protestant Reformation in Germany. A strong Lutheran church throughout the centuries, it was influenced in the 17th and 18th centuries by Pietism, the Lutheran-based movement that emphasized personal religious experience and reform. It became independent of the state after Germany

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Shadwell, Thomas

Educated at Cambridge and at the Middle Temple, London, after the Restoration (1660) Shadwell became one of the court wits and an acquaintance of Sir Robert Howard and his brother, Edward, both of whom he satirized in The Sullen

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Masaoka Shiki

Masaoka was born into a samurai (warrior) family. He went to Tokyo to study in 1883 and began to write poetry in 1885. After studying at Tokyo Imperial University from 1890 to 1892, he joined a publishing firm. During his brief service with the Japanese army as a correspondent

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Xiaozhuan

Wade-Giles romanization �hsiao-chuan� in Chinese calligraphy, a standardized and simplified form of the earlier dazhuan script, in which all lines are of even thickness and curves and circles are relatively predominant. Its development during the Qin dynasty (221 - 206 BC) is traditionally attributed to Li Si, a minister of that dynasty. The Qin dynasty created the first Chinese empire, under which customs, laws, and

Monday, February 14, 2005

Sea Snake

Any of more than 50 species of venomous marine snakes of the family Hydrophiidae. In adaptation to marine life, sea snakes have oarlike tails and flattened bodies. Their nostrils have valvelike closings and are usually on top of the snout. Several sea snakes have bodies much thicker than their heads and necks affording them greater stability

Sunday, February 13, 2005

France, History Of, France from 1490 to 1715

David Buisseret and Bernard Barbiche (eds.), Les ��conomies Royales� de Sully (1970), offers an excellent analysis of Sully's political history of the reign of Henry IV; Roger Dou�et, Les Institutions de la France au XVIe si�cle, 2 vol. (1948), examines central, local, and religious bodies; and A.D. Lublinskaya, French Absolutism: The Crucial Phase, 1620 - 1629 (1968; originally published in Russian, 1965), discusses the economic crisis of the 17th century. Political corruption is studied in Roland Mousnier, La V�nalit� des offices sous Henri IV et Louis XIII, 2nd rev. ed. (1971); and Roland Mousnier (ed.), Lettres et m�moires adress�s au Chancelier S�guier, 1633 - 1649, 2 vol. (1964), the introduction to which also contains Mousnier's conclusions on the controversial subject of popular uprisings during this period. For more on this subject, see Boris Porchnev, Les Soul�vements populaires en France de 1623 � 1648 (1963, reissued 1972). Orest Ranum, Richelieu and the Councillors of Louis XIII (1963, reprinted 1976), is important for an understanding of Richelieu's real position; see also Joseph Bergin, Cardinal Richelieu: Power and the Pursuit of Wealth (1985). Detailed analyses of political forces include J.H. Shennan, The Parlement of Paris (1968); A. Lloyd Moote, The Revolt of the Judges: The Parlement of Paris and the Fronde, 1643 - 1652 (1972); N.M. Sutherland, The French Secretaries of State in the Age of Catherine de Medici (1962, reprinted 1976); Richard Bonney, The King's Debts: Finance and Politics in France, 1589 - 1661 (1981), and Society and Government in France Under Richelieu and Mazarin, 1624 - 61 (1988); and Mark Greengrass, France in the Age of Henri IV: The Struggle for Stability (1984). A survey of constitutional history is offered in Sarah Hanley, The Lit de Justice of the Kings of France: Constitutional Ideology in Legend, Ritual, and Discourse (1983). Robert R. Harding, Anatomy of a Power Elite: The Provincial Governors of Early Modern France (1978), examines local governments. Decentralization in government is discussed in Sharon Kettering, Patrons, Brokers, and Clients in Seventeenth-Century France (1986); and political representation in J. Russell Major, Representative Government in Early Modern France (1980). See also R.J. Knecht, Francis I (1982); and David Parker, The Making of French Absolutism (1983). Donald R. Kelley, The Beginning of Ideology: Consciousness and Society in the French Reformation (1981), is a study of political thought; see also Jean Orcibal, Saint-Cyran et le jans�nisme (1961). On social conditions, see Robert Mandrou, Classes et luttes de classes en France au d�but du XVIIe si�cle (1965); James R. Farr, Hands of Honor: Artisans and Their World in Dijon, 1550 - 1650 (1988); and Georges Vigarello, Concepts of Cleanliness: Changing Attitudes in France Since the Middle Ages (1988; originally published in French, 1985).

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Gabelle

In the 14th century the gabelle denoted any tax on the sale of consumer goods; an ordinance of 1360 made it a permanent tax. In the 15th century the gabelle began to mean specifically the salt tax, that is, a tax on consumption of salt. The nobility, the clergy, and certain other privileged

Friday, February 11, 2005

Clapperton, Hugh

The first European explorer in West Africa to return with a firsthand account of the region now known as northern Nigeria. Following service in the Royal Navy, he joined explorers Dixon Denham and Walter Oudney in a British government expedition that journeyed southward from Tripoli across the Sahara. Early

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Pie

Hungarian �P�sty�n, � town, Z�padn� Slovensko kraj (region), Slovakia, on the V�h River, approximately 48 miles (77 km) northeast of Bratislava. Pie

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Biblical Literature, Jewish versions

Though Jews in English-speaking lands generally utilized the King James Version and the Revised Version, the English versions have presented great difficulties. They contain departures from the traditional Hebrew text; they sometimes embody Christological interpretations; the headings were often doctrinally objectionable and the renderings in the legal

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

La Grande River

Formerly �Fort George River, � river in Nord-du-Qu�bec region, north-central Quebec province, Canada. Rising from Nichicun Lake in the Otish Mountains of central Quebec, it descends 1,737 feet (529 m) in its westward journey to James Bay, which forms part of Hudson Bay. For most of the river's course of 555 miles (893 km), its valley is almost uninhabited.

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Lipton, Seymour

Lipton attended City College of New York, studied dentistry at Columbia University (1923 - 27), and had no formal art training. He embarked on his artistic career in 1932 as a figurative sculptor, primarily in wood; when he shifted to abstract work after 1945, his major

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Tar-baby

In Harris' version,

Friday, February 04, 2005

Biblical Literature, Other Pentateuchal theories

This documentary theory of the composition of the Pentateuch has been challenged by eminent 20th-century scholars who have offered alternative or additional methods of analysis and interpretation. Form criticism, for example, has stressed particular literary forms and the historical setting out of which they arose: the sagas, laws, legends, and other forms and

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Cort�s, Hern�n, Marqu�s Del Valle De Oaxaca

Cort�s was the son of Mart�n Cort�s de Monroy and of Do�a Catalina Pizarro Altamarino - names of ancient lineage. �They had little wealth, but much honour,� according to Cort�s's secretary,

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

R�ma

One of three genres of popular early Icelandic poetry (the other two being dances and ballads), r�mur were produced from the 14th to the 19th century. They combine an end-rhymed metrical form derived from Latin hymns with the techniques of syllable counting, alliteration

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Jackson, Andrew

Jackson retired to his home, the Hermitage. For decades in poor health, he was virtually an invalid during the remaining eight years of his life, but he continued to have a lively interest in public affairs.

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