Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Lattre De Tassigny, Jean De

After service in World War I and Morocco (1921–26), de Lattre held a staff commission early

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Protein, Results of X-ray diffraction studies

Most knowledge concerning secondary and tertiary structure of globular proteins has been obtained by the examination of their crystals using X-ray diffraction. In this technique X rays are allowed to strike the crystal; the X rays are diffracted by the crystal and impinge on a photographic plate, forming a pattern of spots. The measured intensity of the diffraction

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Liggett Group Inc.

In 1849 J.E. Liggett and Brother was established in St. Louis, Mo., by John Edmund Liggett (1826–97) as an outgrowth of a family concern dating to 1822. George S. Myers entered the business in 1873, and in 1878 the company was incorporated as Liggett & Myers Company. By 1885 it was the

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Rogers, Samuel

Rogers attained eminence with the publication of his discursive poem The Pleasures of Memory (1792). On his father's death (1793) he inherited a banking firm, and for the next half century he maintained an influential position as a leading figure

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Switzerland, The postwar period

Switzerland's wartime relations with Germany compromised its postwar standing. In a 1946 agreement, the Western Allies, especially the United States, compelled Switzerland to compensate the looted Western central banks. Because Switzerland would have received no special recognition of its neutrality, the Federal Council decided not to join the United

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Hylozoism

(from Greek hyle, “matter”; zoe, “life”), in philosophy, any system that views all matter as alive, either in itself or by participation in the operation of a world soul or some similar principle. Hylozoism is logically distinct both from early forms of animism, which personify nature, and from panpsychism, which attributes some form of consciousness or sensation to all

Friday, March 18, 2005

Argentia

Formerly a herring- and salmon-fishing port known as Little Placentia, it was renamed Argentia (derived from argentum, Latin for “silver”) when silver was discovered in the vicinity. Most

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Arena Chapel

Also called  Scrovegni Chapel  (consecrated March 25, 1305) small chapel built in the first years of the 14th century in Padua, Italy, by Enrico Scrovegni and containing frescoes by the Florentine painter Giotto (see photograph). A “Last Judgment” covers the entire west wall. The rest of the chapel is covered with frescoes in three tiers representing scenes from the lives of Saints Joachim and Anna,

Gauss

Unit of magnetic induction in the centimetre-gram-second system of physical units. One gauss corresponds to the magnetic flux density that will induce an electromotive force of one abvolt (10-8 volt) in each linear centimetre of a wire moving laterally at one centimetre per second at right angles to a magnetic flux. One gauss corresponds to 10-4 tesla (T), the International

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Lipset, Seymour Martin

After receiving his B.S. from City College of New York (1943), Lipset was a lecturer at the University of Toronto (1946–48) and then an assistant professor at the University of California,

Monday, March 14, 2005

North Lincolnshire

Unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Lincolnshire, England, comprising a low plain on the south shore of the River Humber estuary that extends inland to the northernmost Lincolnshire Wolds and the reclaimed wetlands of the Isle of Axholme along the River Trent. The unitary authority covers a largely rural and agricultural area. Its fertile lands

Atmospheric Sciences, Elements of cloud formation

The formation of cloud droplets and cloud ice crystals occurs associated with suspended aerosols of natural and anthropogenic origin, which are ubiquitous in the Earth's atmosphere. In the absence of such aerosols, relative humidities much greater than 100 percent with respect to a flat surface are required for water vapour to condense spontaneously into liquid

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Welles, Gideon

Born into a wealthy family, Welles was educated at private schools. He studied law but in 1826 became cofounder and editor of the Hartford Times. The next year, he became the youngest member of the Connecticut legislature and served there until 1835. An ardent

France, History Of, Urban prosperity

Town life continued to flourish. A few places, favoured by political and ecclesiastical as well as by economic circumstances, grew far larger than the rest. Paris could probably count more than 100,000 inhabitants by the late 13th century, possibly many more than that; some great provincial centres—e.g., Toulouse, Bordeaux, Arras, Rouen—may have surpassed 25,000, but most of the older cities

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Great Fish River

Afrikaans  Groot-Vis   river in the Cape Midlands, Eastern province, southern South Africa. The Great Fish River has a length of 430 miles (692 km) and a drainage area of 11,900 square miles (30,800 square km). Its main northern tributary, the Great Brak River, rises in 7,000-foot- (2,100-metre-) high mountains 30 miles (48 km) south of the Orange River and northeast of Middelburg. The Tarka River, coming from the northeast, and the Baviaans

Lean, Sir David

Lean was the son of strict Quaker parents and did not see his first film until age 17. He began his film career in 1928 as a teaboy for Gaumont-British studios, where he soon was promoted to clapboard boy, and finally to editor,

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Chandler, Norman

Chandler was the son of Harry Chandler, who owned the Los Angeles Times. After attending Stanford University, Norman joined the Times in 1922 as secretary

Monday, March 07, 2005

Minamoto Yoshiie

The son of Minamoto Yoriyoshi, Yoshiie aided his father in the battles known as the Earlier Nine Years' War (1051–62), which ultimately resulted in

Paul

The third son of King Constantine I of Greece, Paul left Greece with his father following Constantine's deposition in 1917. He refused the crown after the death of his brother, King Alexander (October 1920), but returned home in December 1920 upon Constantine's restoration

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Shih Tzu

Tibetan dog breed developed from the Pekingese and the Lhasa apso. Listed in the toy group by the American Kennel Club, the Shih tzu, called in Chinese Shih-tzu kou (“lion dog”), is a long-haired, characteristically active and alert little dog standing about 10 inches (26 cm) and weighing 18 pounds (8 kg) or less. It is longer than it is tall, sturdily built and short-legged, with a short muzzle,

Friday, March 04, 2005

Community Ecology, Climatic effects

The maximum development of greenhouse conditions occurred in the Cretaceous and was probably associated with an increase of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (see geochronology: Cretaceous environment: Paleoclimate). There were no polar ice caps during this time, and land within both the Arctic and Antarctic circles was able to support

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Boucher, François

Trained by his father, a lace designer, Boucher won the Prix de Rome in 1723. He was influenced by the works of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Peter Paul Rubens, and his teacher François Le Moine (Le Moyne). Boucher's first major commission

Rhynchophthirinan

The elephant louse (H. elephantis) is found on African and Indian elephants, and H.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Leucothea

(Greek: White Goddess [of the Foam]), in Greek mythology, a sea goddess first mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, in which she rescued the Greek hero Odysseus from drowning. She was customarily identified with Ino, daughter of the Phoenician Cadmus; because she cared for the infant god Dionysus, the goddess Hera drove Ino (or her husband, Athamas) mad so that she and her son, Melicertes,