Monday, April 04, 2005

Cadman, Charles Wakefield

By age 13 Cadman was studying the piano and organ. At about age 19 he met Nellie Richmond Eberhart, who would write most of his song lyrics and opera librettos. In his early 20s he held various jobs, pursuing music studies as he could.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Saint Bernard

Working dog credited with saving the lives of some 2,500 people in 300 years of service as pathfinder and rescue dog at the hospice founded by St. Bernard of Montjoux in Great St. Bernard Pass in the Pennine Alps. Probably descended from mastifflike dogs that were introduced from Asia to Europe by the Romans, the St. Bernard appears to have been brought to the hospice in the late

Chuuk Islands

Formerly  Truk Islands, or Hogoleu,   cluster of 14 much-eroded high volcanic islands in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia, in the western Pacific Ocean. Forming part of the eastern Caroline Islands, the Chuuk Islands are enclosed within an encircling barrier bank composed of some 69 sand and coral islets. The bank (often referred to as a reef) encloses a lagoon of 822 square miles (2,129 square km) in area and

Saturday, April 02, 2005

New Delhi

The capital of India, constituting part of the city and union territory of Delhi (q.v.).

Mason, James Murray

Although raised a Tidewater aristocrat, Mason graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and, after studying law at the College of William and Mary, set up his practice in the Virginia back country. He served in

Iron Meteorite

Any meteorite consisting mainly of iron, usually combined with small amounts of nickel. When such meteorites, called irons, fall through the atmosphere, a thin, black crust of iron oxide may form that quickly weathers to rust. Though irons constitute only about 5 percent of meteorite falls, they are relatively easy to distinguish from terrestrial rock and last longer

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Aegirine

A pyroxene mineral, sodium and iron silicate (NaFe+3Si2O6), that is commonly found in alkaline igneous rocks, particularly in syenites and syenite pegmatites. It also occurs in crystalline schists. Aegirine forms a continuous chemical series with aegirinaugite, in which calcium replaces sodium, and magnesium and aluminum replace iron. In this series, the name acmite

Essen, Louis

Essen studied physics at Nottingham University College, where he earned a University of London physics degree

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Mueller, Sir Ferdinand Von

After an apprenticeship as pharmacist, Mueller began the study of botany at the University of Kiel. Soon after receiving his Ph.D., he left Germany for Adelaide, South Australia (1847), where

John Birch Society

Private organization founded in the United States on Dec. 9, 1958, by Robert H.W. Welch, Jr. (1899–1985), a retired Boston candy manufacturer, for the purpose of combating Communism and promoting various ultraconservative causes. The name derives from John Birch, an American Baptist missionary and U.S. Army intelligence officer who was killed by Chinese Communists on Aug. 25, 1945, making him, in

Monday, March 28, 2005

Probus, Marcus Aurelius

The son of a Balkan military officer, Probus served with distinction in the army and apparently was eastern praetorian prefect when his troops proclaimed him emperor in opposition to Florian, who was soon killed by his own men. Probus' reign was spent in continual frontier warfare against hostile tribes on the Rhine and Danube, complicated

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Integration

With a and b called the limits of integration, is