ChiefBell: December 2004

Friday, December 31, 2004

Dube, John Langalibalele

After studying at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, U.S., and being ordained a minister, Dube returned to Natal with the goal

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Uccello, Paolo

In 1436 in the Florence cathedral, Uccello completed a monochrome fresco of an equestrian monument to Sir John Hawkwood, an English mercenary who had commanded Florentine troops at the end of the 14th century. In the Hawkwood fresco, a single-point perspective scheme, a fully sculptural treatment of the horse and rider, and a sense of controlled potential energy within

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Pyrolite

Rock consisting of about three parts peridotite and one part basalt. The name was coined to explain the chemical and mineralogic composition of the upper mantle of the Earth. The relative abundances of the principal metallic element components (except iron) are similar to those in chondritic meteorites and in the solar photosphere. Accordingly, it is reasonable

Monday, December 27, 2004

Luria, Salvador

Luria graduated from the University of Turin in 1935 and became a radiology specialist. He fled Italy for France in 1938 and went to the United States

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Denakil Plain

Also spelled �Danakil, �also called �Dankali, � arid lowland of northern Ethiopia and southeastern Eritrea, bordering Djibouti. It lies at the northern extreme of the Great Rift Valley and the Awash River. Live volcanoes (often called the Denakil Alps) separate it from the Red Sea. Any water that comes into the plain evaporates there; no streams flow out from it. The Kobar Sink, a huge basin in the northern part of the

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Semiconductor

If an abrupt change in impurity type from acceptors (p-type) to donors (n-type) occurs within a single crystal structure, a p-n junction is formed (see parts B and C of the figure). On the p side, the holes constitute the dominant carriers and so are called majority carriers. A few thermally generated electrons will also exist in the p side; these are termed minority carriers. On the n side,

Friday, December 24, 2004

U.s. News

Weekly news magazine published in Washington, D.C., one of the most influential of its kind and the first to successfully imitate the general format pioneered by Time. It was established in 1933 by David Lawrence as U.S. News and won general note for its thorough coverage of major news events in Washington, D.C., and the United States, often carrying the complete text of major

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Pachacamac

Creator deity worshipped by the pre-Inca maritime population of Peru; it was also the name of a pilgrimage site in the Lur�n Valley (south of Lima) dedicated to the god and revered for many centuries. After the Incas conquered the coast, they did not attempt to replace the ancient and deeply rooted worship of Pachacamac but instead incorporated him into their own pantheon.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Feline Distemper

Also called �Panleukopenia, or Infectious Enteritis, � viral disease of cats, kittens two to six months old being most susceptible. About 3 to 10 days after exposure to the disease, infected kittens cough and sneeze, have running eyes and nose, are feverish, lose their appetites, vomit, and have diarrhea. The number of white cells in the blood drops severely. The disease rarely lasts more than a week, but the mortality rate is high.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Daikoku

In Japanese mythology, one of the Shichi-fuku-jin (Seven Gods of Luck); the god of wealth and guardian of farmers. He is depicted in legend and art as dark-skinned, stout, carrying a wish-granting mallet in his right hand, a bag of precious things slung over his back, and sitting on two rice bags. Rats are sometimes shown nibbling at the rice, further emphasizing the theme of

Monday, December 20, 2004

Aladura

(Yoruba: �Owners of Prayer�), religious movement among the Yoruba peoples of western Nigeria, embracing some of the independent prophet-healing churches of West Africa. The movement, which in the early 1970s had several hundred thousand adherents, began about 1918 among the younger elite in the well-established Christian community. They were dissatisfied with Western religious

Sunday, December 19, 2004

I Li

Pinyin �Yi li� collection of Chinese rituals probably compiled during Western Han times (206 BC - AD 8) and listed, along with two other ritual texts (Li chi, �Collection of Rituals�; Chou li, �Rites of Chou�), among the Nine, Twelve, and Thirteen Classics of Confucianism. Its subject matter is somewhat different from the other ritual classics in that it gives special emphasis to such events as weddings,

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Frederick Augustus I

Succeeding his father in 1763 as the elector Frederick Augustus III, he brought order and efficiency to his country's finances and administration. In foreign policy, he was neutralist but

Friday, December 17, 2004

Hawthorne Research

Also called �Hawthorne effect� socioeconomic experiments conducted by Elton Mayo in 1927 among employees of the Hawthorne Works factory of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. For almost a year, a group of female workers were subjected to measured changes in their hours, wages, rest periods, lighting conditions, organization, and degree of supervision and consultation in order to determine

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Staghead

Progressive slow death of tree branches from the top down. See dieback.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

'isa Ibn Musa

The caliph as-Saffah nominated his brother al-Mansur and, after him, 'Isa, as heirs. On the accession of al-Mansur, 'Isa was governor of Kufah. The new caliph sent him to lead an army against an 'Alid revolt in Medina, apparently with the hope that he might be killed. In a series of battles,

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Balasore

Also called �Baleshwar, � town, northeastern Orissa state, eastern India. Balasore lies on the Burhabalang River, 7 miles (11 km) from the Bay of Bengal. It was the site of a British settlement in 1633; Dutch, Danish, and French merchants followed later in the 17th century. The Dutch and Danish settlements were ceded to the British in 1846, but the French holding remained until 1947. In the 18th century Balasore became important

Monday, December 13, 2004

Cilea, Francesco

While studying at the Naples Conservatory, Cilea produced an opera, Gina, which secured for him a commission from a publisher. His first important work, L'Arlesiana (1897), after Alphonse Daudet, was the vehicle for the tenor Enrico Caruso's first success. Cilea's

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Scylla And Charybdis

In Greek mythology, two immortal and irresistible monsters who beset the narrow waters traversed by the hero Odysseus in his wanderings (later localized in the Strait of Messina). Scylla was a supernatural creature, with 12 feet and 6 heads on long, snaky necks, each head having a triple row of sharklike teeth, while her loins were girt with the heads of baying dogs. From her

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Olmaliq

Formerly �Almalyk,� city, eastern Uzbekistan. It is situated 35 miles (55 km) southeast of the city of Tashkent on the northern slopes of the Qurama Mountains and on the left bank of the Ohangaron River. Olmaliq was founded in 1951 from several settlements exploiting the rich nonferrous-metal resources of the Qurama Mountains. The city has become an important centre of nonferrous metallurgy and

Friday, December 10, 2004

Alabama, European rivalry, settlement, and growth

The first known European explorers were of Spanish descent and arrived at Mobile Bay in 1519. The main thrust of exploration came in 1540, when Hernando de Soto and his army of about 500 men entered the interior from the valley of the Tennessee River to search for gold. His expedition, which extensively crisscrossed the area, was important because of his discovery of the Mississippi

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Hypersensitivity

Acquired bodily state in which the reaction to a stimulus (e.g., a substance causing allergy or a physical agent such as light) is unusually prompt or excessive. The term hypersensitivity is often used as a synonym for allergy.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Buteshire

Excavations in the islands have revealed evidence of human habitation

Monday, December 06, 2004

Henri Pittier National Park

Also called �Rancho Grande National Park, � park in the Cordillera de la Costa, Aragua state, Venezuela, occupying an area of 350 sq mi (900 sq km) between Lago (lake) de Valencia and the Caribbean. It was established in 1937, largely through the efforts of Henri Pittier, a Venezuelan naturalist, who convinced his government that the destruction of mountain forests would create droughts in the Aragua Valley and hasten the drying

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Abbey

Group of buildings housing a monastery or a convent, centred on an abbey church or a cathedral and under the direction of an abbot or an abbess. In this sense, an abbey consists of a complex of buildings serving the needs of a self-contained religious community. The term abbey is also used loosely to refer to priories, smaller monasteries under a prior. In England, since

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Glacial Landform, Permafrost, patterned ground, solifluction deposits, and pingos

Permafrost is ground that remains perennially frozen (see permafrost). It covers about 20 - 25 percent of the Earth's land surface today. The �active layer� of soil close to the surface of permafrost regions undergoes many seasonal and daily freeze-thaw cycles. The constant change in the volume of water tends to move the coarser particles in the soil to the surface. Further

Friday, December 03, 2004

Barcelona, Climate

Although Barcelona is sometimes windy, its protective semicircle of mountains shields it from the harsh, cold winds that blow out of the north and west. The average annual temperature is 61 �F (16 �C); January is the coldest month, averaging 49 �F (9 �C), and August is the hottest, at 76 �F (24 �C). Precipitation amounts to about 23 inches (600 mm) per year.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Asylum

In international law, the protection granted by a state to a foreign citizen against his own state. The person for whom asylum is established has no legal right to demand it, while the sheltering state, which has the legal right to grant asylum, is under no obligation to give it. Asylum is thus a right of the state, not of the individual. The right of asylum falls into three

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Homophony

Homophony does

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