WiseFarm

Friday, April 30, 2004

Vajiravudh

Vajiravudh was educated at Oxford University, where he read history and law; he also received military training at Sandhurst and served briefly with the British Army. Having been named heir apparent in 1895, he returned to Siam in 1903 and succeeded

Thursday, April 29, 2004

Basel Zoological Garden

German �Zoologischer Garten Basel, �also called �Zolli, � privately owned zoological garden in Basel, Switz., noted for its outstanding work in the breeding of the Indian rhinoceros and the pygmy hippopotamus. The zoo was founded in 1874 for the purpose of exhibiting local wildlife. (It opened with about 100 mammals and perhaps 400 birds, mostly European.) Financial difficulties, however, forced zoo administrators to obtain exotic animals

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Basel Zoological Garden

German �Zoologischer Garten Basel, �also called �Zolli, � privately owned zoological garden in Basel, Switz., noted for its outstanding work in the breeding of the Indian rhinoceros and the pygmy hippopotamus. The zoo was founded in 1874 for the purpose of exhibiting local wildlife. (It opened with about 100 mammals and perhaps 400 birds, mostly European.) Financial difficulties, however, forced zoo administrators to obtain exotic animals

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Water Hen

Bird species also called common gallinule. See gallinule.

Monday, April 26, 2004

Infection, Rabies

Rabies virus is associated with dogs, foxes, jackals, and wolves, among other smaller animals, and has an odd association with vampire bats. In the plains of South America, these bats feed on the blood of cattle, and the death of cattle from paralytic rabies is a serious economic problem there. The bats themselves become rabid and bite other bats, but the spread of rabies

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Parable

Parables do not analyze social systems so much as they remind the listener of his beliefs. The moral and spiritual stress of the form falls upon memory rather than on the critical faculty. The audience hearing the parable is assumed to share a communal truth but perhaps to have set it aside or forgotten it. The rhetorical appeal of a parable is directed primarily toward

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Silky Terrier

Australian breed of toy dog, first shown in 1907. It originated in Sydney and was once known as the Sydney Silky. A rather low-set dog, the silky terrier stands 9 to 10 inches (23 to 25.5 centimetres) and weighs 8 to 10 pounds (3.5 to 4.5 kilograms). Its silky, fine coat is glossy blue-gray and tan, with a silver-gray or tan topknot. Developed as a companion dog, the silky is generally friendly and responsive,

Friday, April 23, 2004

Argentina, Climate

Argentina lies almost entirely within the temperate zone of the Southern Hemisphere, unlike the rest of the continent to the north, which lies within the tropics. Tropical air masses only occasionally invade the provinces of Formosa and Misiones in the extreme north. The southern extremes of Argentina, which extend to 55� S, also have predominantly temperate conditions,

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Burgos

City, capital of Burgos province, in the Castile-Le�n comunidad aut�noma (�autonomous community�), northern Spain. It is located on the lower slopes of a castle-crowned hill overlooking the Arlanz�n River, about 2,600 feet (800 m) above sea level. Founded in 884 as an eastern outpost of the Asturian kingdom by the Castilian count Diego Rodr�guez Porcelos, it became the capital of the

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Encyclopedia Americana, The

First published in 1829 - 33, with subsequent editions in 1911 (20 volumes) and 1918 - 20 (30 volumes), and thereafter continuously revised, Americana is international in scope and is known for its

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb's reign falls into two almost equal parts. In the first, which lasted until about 1680, he was a capable Muslim monarch of a mixed Hindu-Muslim empire and as such was generally disliked for his ruthlessness but feared and respected for his vigour and skill. During this period he was much occupied with safeguarding the northwest from Persians and Central Asian

Monday, April 19, 2004

Arts, Islamic

The literary, performing, and visual arts of the vast populations of the Middle East and elsewhere that adopted the Islamic faith from the 7th century onward. These adherents of the faith have created such an immense variety of literatures, performing arts, visual arts, and music that it virtually defies any comprehensive definition. In the narrowest sense, the arts

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Furniture, The American colonies

While the Southern planter still depended largely upon London for his fine furnishings, the

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Ferreira, Ant�nio

Ferreira was a disciple of the poet Francisco de S� de Miranda, who had introduced Renaissance styles of poetry into Portugal, and Ferreira did more

Friday, April 16, 2004

Argentina

The population of the area now called Argentina may have totaled 300,000 before

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Argentina

Nitric oxide is formed from

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Ulam, Stanislaw Marcin

Ulam received a doctoral degree (1933) at the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov (now Lviv). At the invitation of John von Neumann, he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Gandak River

Also called �Narayani River, � river in central Nepal and northern India. It is formed by the union of the Kali and Trisuli rivers, which rise in the Great Himalaya Range in Nepal; from this junction to the Indian border the river is called the Narayani. It flows southwest into India and then turns southeast along the Uttar Pradesh - Bihar state border and across the Gangetic Plain. It enters the Ganges River

Monday, April 12, 2004

Creativity

Studies of known living creative people and research gleaned from biographies of recognized past creative geniuses have yielded some ideas about the characteristics of the creative process. The single most important element in the creative process, however, is believed to be originality, or uniqueness. A great deal of research has been carried out on the nature,

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Minatitl�

City and river port, southeastern Veracruz state, south central Mexico. It is on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on the R�o Coatzacoalcos, 20 mi (32 km) from its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico and 210 ft (64 m) above sea level. When founded in 1822 as Paso de la Fabrica, the settlement's inhabitants included North Americans, French, and Germans. The colony did not prosper until oil was discovered in the

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Chagall, Marc

Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer. He composed his images based on emotional and poetic associations, rather than on rules of pictorial logic. Predating Surrealism, his early works, such as I and the Village (1911), were among the first expressions of

Friday, April 09, 2004

Dubos, Ren�

In full �Ren� Jules Dubos� French-born American microbiologist, environmentalist, and author whose pioneering research in isolating antibacterial substances from certain soil microorganisms led to the discovery of major antibiotics. Dubos is also known for his research and writings on a number of subjects, including antibiotics, acquired immunity,

Thursday, April 08, 2004

Gwynn, Tony

Gwynn attended San Diego (California) State University on a basketball scholarship, where he set a school record for assists as the team's point guard. He also excelled at baseball and was drafted in 1981 by

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Stalin, Joseph

During the quarter of a century preceding his death, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Stalin, Joseph

During the quarter of a century preceding his death, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin

Monday, April 05, 2004

Masefield, John

Educated at King's School,

Sunday, April 04, 2004

Quantitative Chemical Analysis

Branch of chemistry that deals with the determination of the amount or percentage of one or more constituents of a sample. A variety of methods is employed for quantitative analyses, which for convenience may be broadly classified as chemical or physical, depending upon which properties are utilized. Chemical methods depend upon such reactions as precipitation,

Saturday, April 03, 2004

Sennacherib

Sennacherib's most enduring work was the rebuilding of Nineveh, his official residence as crown prince. On his accession he made it his capital, building a splendid new palace, Shanina-la-ishu (�Nonesuch�). Using prisoners of war for labour, he extended and beautified the city, laying out streets, restoring and extending public buildings, and erecting a great inner wall,

Friday, April 02, 2004

Insurance, Perils insured

In homeowner's policies, of which there are several types, coverage can be �all risk� or �named peril.� All-risk policies offer insurance on any peril except those later excluded in the policy. The advantage of these contracts is that if property is destroyed by a peril not specifically excluded the insurance is good. In named-peril policies, no coverage is provided unless

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Aalen

City, Baden-W�rttemberg Land (state), southern Germany, on the Kocher River, at the northern foot of the Schw�bische Alb (Swabian Alps), 30 miles (48 km) north of Ulm. It originated around a large Roman fort, much of which remains; nearby are the remains of the Roman limes (frontier wall). It became a free imperial city in 1360 and was severely damaged by fire in 1634. It passed to W�rttemberg in