Friday, December 31, 2004

Hancock, John

After graduating from Harvard (1754), Hancock entered a mercantile house in Boston owned by his uncle Thomas Hancock, who later left him a large fortune. In 1765 he became a selectman of Boston and from 1769 to 1774 was a member of the Massachusetts

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Earth, Characteristics of the Earth's magnetic field

To a first approximation the magnetic field observed at the surface of the Earth is like that of a magnet aligned with the planet's rotation axis. Figure 6 shows such a field for a bar magnet located at the centre of a sphere. If the sphere is taken to be the Earth with the north geographic pole at the top of the diagram, the magnet must be oriented with its north magnetic pole

Kiangsi, Climate

Situated in the subtropical belt, Kiangsi has a hot and humid summer lasting more than four months, except in spots of high elevation, such as Lu-shan. High temperatures in Nan-ch'ang in July and August average 95° F (35° C). In winter temperature variations between north and south are greater. January temperatures in the north at times fall to 25° F (-4° C), while those in the south average

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Grable, Betty

Grable was set on the road to stardom by her mother,

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Western Africa, History Of, Francophone countries

In Senegal, Léopold Senghor, with strong French support, maintained power until his resignation in 1980 by balancing conflicting factions and promising controlled political liberalization. His nominated successor, Abdou Diouf, continued these general policies together with the link to France. In the 1980s Senegal experienced budget deficits and agreed to a program

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Farad

Unit of electrical capacitance (ability to hold an electric charge), in the metre–kilogram–second system of physical units, named in honour of the English scientist Michael Faraday. The capacitance of a capacitor is one farad when one coulomb of electricity changes the potential between the plates by one volt. In terms of ordinary electric and electronic equipment,

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Marsala

Latin  Lilybaeum,   town, Trapani province, western Sicily, Italy. It is situated on the Boeo Cape, also called Lilibeo, south of Trapani. It originated as Lilybaeum, which was founded by the Carthaginians in 397–396 BC after the destruction of the offshore island of Motya (modern San Pantaleo) by Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse. Serving as the Carthaginians' principal stronghold in Sicily,

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Tyr

Old Norse  Týr , Old English  Tiw , or  Tiu  one of the oldest gods of the Germanic peoples and a somewhat enigmatic figure. He was apparently the god concerned with the formalities of war—especially treaties—and also, appropriately, of justice. It is in his character as guarantor of contracts, guardian of oaths, that the most famous myth about him may be understood: as a guarantee of good faith, he placed his hand

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Africa

Africa's total land area is approximately 11,724,000 square

Friday, December 17, 2004

Howard, Jean

American actress and celebrity photographer (b. Oct. 13, 1910, Longview, Texas—d. March 20, 2000, Beverly Hills, Calif.), was an actress in films of the 1930s and '40s and later became a prominent socialite and a noted photographer of Hollywood's glamour set. She started in show business as a chorus girl, appearing in Florenz Ziegfeld's Broadway musical Whoopee in 1930 and Ziegfeld's last Follies (1931). A screen

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Leadbelly

Musical from childhood, Leadbelly played accordion, 6- and 12-string guitar, bass, and harmonica. He led a wandering life, learning songs by absorbing oral tradition.

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint

Thomas was born to parents who were in possession of a modest feudal domain on a boundary constantly disputed by the emperor and the pope. His father was of Lombard origin; his mother was of the later invading Norman strain. His people were distinguished in the service of Emperor Frederick II during the civil strife in southern Italy between the papal and imperial

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Legal Ethics, Advertising and solicitation

Traditionally, advertising by lawyers was forbidden almost everywhere. It has been a long-standing principle of professional ethics in Anglo-American countries that an attorney must not seek professional employment through advertising or solicitation, direct or indirect. The reasons commonly given have been that seeking employment through these means

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Iambe

French satiric verse form consisting of alternating lines of 8 and 12 syllables. The total number of lines is variable. Greek writers, especially Archilochus, used iambics as a vehicle for satire, but the name came into use as a French form in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when André Chénier's Ïambes and Auguste Barbier's Les Ïambes were published.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Furniture, The American colonies

Information in inventories and

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Margarine

Food product made principally from one or more vegetable or animal fats or oils in which is dispersed an aqueous portion containing milk products, either solid or fluid, salt, and such other ingredients as flavouring agents, yellow food pigments, emulsifiers, preservatives, vitamins A and D, and butter. It is used in cooking and as a spread. Nutritionally, margarine

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Earth

Helical fluid motions in the Earth's electrically conducting liquid outer core have an electromagnetic dynamo effect, giving rise to the Earth's magnetic field. The Earth's sizable, hot core, along with the planet's rapid spin, probably accounts for the exceptional strength of the magnetic field of the Earth as compared with those of the other terrestrial

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Earth

Negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union that were aimed at reducing those two countries' arsenals of nuclear warheads and of the missiles and bombers capable of delivering such weapons. The START negotiations were successors to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks of the 1970s. In resuming strategic-arms negotiations with the Soviet Union in