November 15, 2007
exigent
DEFINITION: (adjective) Requiring much effort or expense; demanding attention.
SYNONYMS: crying, insistent, clamant, instant.
USAGE: The professor regarded literary questions as exigent and momentous.
Georgia O’Keeffe
One of the best known US painters of the 20th century, O'Keeffe is known chiefly for her large, semi-abstract studies of flowers, bones, and other imagery. Immaculate, sculptural, organic forms painted in strong, clear colors predominate in O'Keeffe's works, and her pristine abstract designs carry strong elements of sexual symbolism. Her work was first exhibited in 1916 at the 291 Gallery of Alfred Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. In 1928, a group of O'Keeffe's paintings sold for what price?Brazil Becomes a Republic
On Nov. 15, 1889, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca deposed the emperor Dom Pedro II, declared Brazil a republic, and reorganized the country's government. The republicans named Fonseca president, but his government was divided by the animosity between Fonseca and his vice president, Floriano Peixoto, and public opinion of the president soon soured. Instability and violence characterized the decade that followed. What export crop led to significant developments in Brazil's economy during this period?The Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty ruled China from 202 BCE to 220 CE. During the period of civil strife that followed the fall of the Ch'in dynasty, Liu Pang, a farmer and guerilla fighter, defeated his rivals for the throne and established himself as the first Han emperor. Under Han rule, the harsh laws of the Ch'in were repealed, taxes were lightened, and the absolute autocracy of the emperor was lessened. Which emperor is credited with China's shift from the Taoist system to the Confucian ideal?Plague Blamed for Arizona Biologist’s Death
Eric York, a wildlife biologist at Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park, has died after performing a necropsy, or post-mortem examination, on a mountain lion. Officials believe that York contracted the pneumonic plague from the infected animal and succumbed to the disease just days after showing symptoms. On average, only 13 cases of the plague are reported in the US each year and 14 percent prove fatal. It is transmitted primarily by fleas that have had direct contact with an infected animal, but when it causes pneumonia, it can then be passed along by airborne cough droplets.November 14, 2007
sophistry
DEFINITION: (noun) A plausible but misleading or fallacious argument.
SYNONYMS: sophism, sophistication.
USAGE: Though they had all been taken in by the argument, they later claimed to have secretly known that it was pure sophistry.
Melville’s Published in the US
Herman Melville, inspired by his whaling experiences on the South Seas, penned Moby Dick, the now famed tale of a deranged whaling captain's obsessive voyage to find and destroy the great white whale to whom he lost his leg. The novel is at once an exciting sea story, a sociological critique of American prejudices, a repository of information about whaling, and a philosophical inquiry into the nature of good and evil. What may have inspired Melville to name his whale Moby-Dick?Ulster Militant Group Renounces Violence
On Sunday, the Ulster Defence Association, the largest Protestant paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, announced plans to disband its armed units. While the group intends to "put arms beyond use," leaders are refusing to hand the weapons over to international disarmament officials. The group is believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 400 people during the period Britain describes as "The Troubles." Since 1997, when an international commission was formed to oversee decommissioning of paramilitary weapons in Ireland, only the IRA has surrendered its stockpile of arms.What is Light?
Light is any wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, though the word is commonly used to refer to the visible light spectrum. The human eye typically perceives electromagnetic wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers, interpreting them as a range of colors from red to violet. Light is understood to exhibit both particle and wave properties, and the fundamental particle, or quantum, of light is called the photon. Who received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on this wave-particle duality?November 13, 2007
sloven
DEFINITION: (noun) One who is habitually careless in personal appearance or work.
SYNONYMS: slob, pig.
USAGE: I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws than with a sloven and unpresentable person.
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