BrokenCup

Argentina, The Gran Chaco

2005-11-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

The western sector of the North region, the Gran Chaco, extends beyond the international border at the Pilcomayo River into Paraguay, where it is called the Chaco Boreal (“Northern Chaco”) by Argentines. The Argentine sector between the Pilcomayo River and the Bermejo River is known as the Chaco Central. Argentines have named the area southward to latitude 30° S, where the

Mind Reading

2005-10-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

A magician's trick involving various silent or verbal signals that cue a conjurer to answer a question as though with second sight. Philip Breslaw, the first magician of note to feature mind reading, played in 1781 at the Haymarket Theatre in London to appreciative audiences. In 1784 the Pinettis, a husband-and-wife team, advertised Mrs. Pinetti as able to guess the thoughts of

Medicine, Russia

2005-07-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Teams of physicians with experience in varying specialties work from polyclinics or outpatient

Einstein's Massenergy Relation

2005-07-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

In physical theories prior to that of special relativity, mass and energy were viewed as distinct entities. Furthermore, the energy of a body at rest could be assigned an arbitrary

Uighur

2005-07-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

The Uighur language is part of the

Habitat

2005-07-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

Place where an organism or a community of organisms lives, including all living and nonliving factors or conditions of the surrounding environment. A host organism inhabited by parasites is as much a habitat as a terrestrial place such as a grove of trees or an aquatic locality such as a small pond. The smallest topographic unit of a habitat with a characteristic

Spruce Knob

2005-07-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Highest point in West Virginia, U.S., located in the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern part of the state, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Elkins. Spruce Knob lies at an elevation of 4,863 feet (1,482 metres) at the southern end of Spruce Mountain, a ridge extending northeast-southwest along the western edge of Pendleton county. The peak, accessible by road from nearby Judy Gap, is within

Kirov

2005-06-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

Oblast (province), western Russia. The oblast covers an area of 46,650 square miles (120,800 square km) and occupies almost the entire basin of the Vyatka River. It is a rolling morainic plain rising from the broad, central valley of the Vyatka to the dissected limestone uplands of the Severnye Hills in the north and the Vyatsky Hills and Verkhne (Upper) Kama upland in the east. Nearly all

Essexite

2005-06-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Dark gray to black, fine-grained, intrusive igneous rock that occurs in Essex County, Mass.; at Mount Royal, near Montreal; near Oslo, Nor.; at Roztoky, Czech Republic; and at Carclout, Scot. It contains plagioclase as the dominant feldspar, as well as orthoclase feldspar, augite, biotite, hornblende, olivine, and nepheline. As the proportion of nepheline increases, essexite

Abbeville

2005-06-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

City, seat of Abbeville county, northwestern South Carolina, U.S. French Huguenots in 1764 settled the site, which was named for Abbeville, France, by John de la Howe. The city is regarded by some as the “Cradle and the Grave of the Confederacy”; it was there that a secessionist meeting was held (November 22, 1860, on what is now Secession Hill) and there that the Confederate president, Jefferson

Amora

2005-06-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

(Hebrew and Aramaic: “interpreter,” or “reciter”), plural Amoraim, in ancient times, a Jewish scholar attached to one of several academies in Palestine (Tiberias, Sepphoris, Caesarea) or in Babylonia (Nehardea, Sura, Pumbedita). The amoraim collaborated in writing the Gemara, collected interpretations of and commentaries on the Mishna (the authoritative code of Jewish oral laws) and on its critical marginal notes, called Tosefta (Addition).

Bream, Julian Alexander

2005-05-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

After studying with his father and performing locally from age 14, Bream attended the Royal College of Music while pursuing private extracurricular study of the guitar. He was much influenced by the styles of Andrés Segovia and

United Nations

2005-05-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

Kofi Annan of Ghana(see BIOGRAPHIES) took office on Jan. 1, 1997, as the new secretary-general of the United Nations, and change was in the air throughout the year. Annan's reforms were controversial, but the General Assembly approved most of them. In other major developments, the UN's authority was seriously challenged by Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo

Aureole

2005-05-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

Brightly illuminated area surrounding an atmospheric light source, such as the Sun, when the light is propagated through a medium containing many sizes of particles or droplets that are large compared to the wavelength of the light. Because the wavelength of visible light is about 0.00005 cm (0.5 micrometre), particles of size greater than about 0.0001 cm (1 micrometre) will give rise

Perry, Lilla Cabot

2005-03-15T21:47:00.000-08:00

Lilla Cabot was a descendant not only of the Boston Brahmin Cabot family but also of the equally distinguished Lowells. In 1874 she married Thomas Sergeant

Azerbaijan, Industry

2005-03-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

Azerbaijan has a diversified industrial base, with the leading branches of heavy industry - power, manufacturing, and chemical production - predominating. Branches of the processing industry, producing mineral fertilizers, gasoline, kerosene, herbicides, industrial oils, synthetic rubber, and plastics, have developed, and Sumqayit has emerged as the major centre

Wright, James

2005-03-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, Wright studied under John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon College in Kenya. he was a brave troop, full of lasting information on life. I do wander how he would have coped int he decadent london years of the 1970's. These were fun times.... we drank all day in Soho and screamed our thoughts outloud in wild streets of tumeric.... they were good days... of that I am sure. A lot of London was bombed in the war and afterwards Lord Winkworth bought up much of the land and rebuilt it for selling in the latter years.

Later on, old Crowe caught up with his old war time mates who were damn old at this time. They used to wander down to covent Garden and sit in the Cornish pub above the Pasty shop spitting beef at eachother and gargling ale. They were fun times for the toothless terrors.

Venericardia

2005-03-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

Genus of pelecypods (clams) abundant during the Eocene Epoch (the Eocene Epoch began 57.8 million years ago and ended 36.6 million years ago). The shell, composed of two halves (valves), is distinctive in form and generally large. Transverse ribs radiate from the apex of the valves and are broken by a series of concentric growth rings. Internally, the valves

Lens

2005-03-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

In anatomy, a colourless, nearly transparent biconvex structure suspended behind the iris of the eye, the sole function of which is to focus light rays onto the retina. The lens is made up of unusual elongated cells that have no blood supply but obtain nutrients from the surrounding fluids, the aqueous humour in front and the vitreous behind. The shape of the lens - essentially

Arabia, History Of, Dedan and Al-Hijr

2005-03-04T11:47:00.000-08:00

It is possible that the Minaean settlement at Dedan (see above) coexisted with a native Dedanite town. But only one �king of Dedan� is recorded. This kingdom seems to have been replaced quite soon by a kingdom of Lihyan (Greek: Lechienoi). The entire area, however, was not long in coming under the rule of the Nabataean kings of a dynasty (centred at Petra) covering the 1st century BC and

Computers, Grace Murray Hopper

2005-03-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

While the high cost of computer resources placed a premium on fast hand-coded machine-language programs, one individual worked tirelessly to promote high-level programming languages and their associated compilers. Grace Murray Hopper taught mathematics at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, from 1931 to 1943 before joining the United States Naval Reserve. In 1944 she

Biblical Literature, Commutation of vows and tithes

2005-03-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

In the final chapter of Leviticus (27), the P material is resumed with a presentation of the rules for the commutation of votive gifts and tithes. It provides for the release from vows (of offerings of persons, animals, or lands to God) through specified money payments. Some commentators understand the vow to offer persons to refer originally to human sacrifice, others as

Biblical Literature, Analogical interpretation

2005-03-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

Analogical interpretation traditionally includes not only interpretation according to the analogy of Scripture (parallelism, in other words) but also interpretation according to the �analogy of faith� - an expression that misapplies the language of Rom. 12:6 in the King James Version of 1611. It has at times been pressed to mean that no biblical interpretation is valid unless

Paullus Macedonicus, Lucius Aemilius

2005-02-28T02:20:00.000-08:00

Paullus' father, a consul of the same name, had been killed fighting the Carthaginians at Cannae in 216. Praetor in 191 and consul in 182, Paullus campaigned against the Lusitanians in Spain (191 - 189) and the Ingauni in Liguria (181). As consul again in 168, he decisively defeated the Macedonian king Perseus

Bri�onnet, Guillaume

2005-02-27T06:08:00.000-08:00

Bri�onnet was the son of King Charles VIII's counsellor Guillaume Bri�onnet (1445 - 1514), who after his wife's death took holy orders and became bishop of Saint-Malo, archbishop of Reims, archbishop of Narbonne,