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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down from his post on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses. President Bush nominated Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. Military officials and politicians dissatisfied with the course of the war had called for Rumsfeld's resignation in the months leading up to the election.

DEFINITION: (noun) Acting like a clown or buffoon. SYNONYMS: clowning, harlequinade, prank, frivolity. USAGE: Mrs. Williams had little patience for the class clown's buffoonery, and she would often send him to the principal's office.

Weyl was a German physicist and mathematician and one of the first scientists to combine general relativity with the laws of electromagnetism. He researched topographical space and geometry, and his findings were instrumental to the understanding of weak interactions between subatomic particles. He said of himself, "My work always tried to unite the truth with the beautiful, but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful." His approach was based on what philosophy?

During this coup d'état, General Bonaparte overthrew the weakened government of the Directory and replaced it with the Consulate, with himself as First Consul. This marked a major turning point in the history of the French Revolution, replacing earlier experiments in democracy with a more stable but autocratic rule. The coup was originally prepared by Abbé Sieyès, attempting to head off a return to Jacobinism, but with Napoleon's involvement it turned into a "coup within a coup." Why?

Endowed with an uncanny sense of direction, the St. Bernard was originally used primarily to guide Swiss monks over trails that had been obliterated by windblown snow. One St. Bernard is said to have rescued up to 40 people from harsh Alpine conditions. A full-grown male St. Bernard can weigh up to 200 lb (90 kg), yet despite their size, the dogs are gentle by nature and fond of children. Why do depictions of St. Bernards often include a small cask of brandy tied around the dogs' necks?