106 résultats pour "ago"

• Ice Ages.

  B Future Ice Ages The record of previous glacial activity is the best indicator for future ice ages. Scientists examine the evidence for the numerous 100,000-year glacial-interglacial cycleswithin the present ice age to attempt a forecast of future ice ages. Since all previous ice ages lasted tens of millions of years, our present ice age will likely continue fora considerable amount of time. Each glaciation begins slowly and may take 80,000 years or more to reach its maximum extent. A rapid me...

• China - country.

  North China lies between the Mongolian Steppe on the north and the Yangtze River Basin on the south. It stretches west from the Bo Hai gulf and the Yellow Sea to theeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Administratively, North China includes Beijing and Tianjin municipalities; Shandong and Shanxi provinces; most of Hebei, Henan,and Shaanxi provinces; and portions of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Gansu provinces. Humans have lived in the agriculturally rich region of Nor...

• Sujet 2 ♦ Amérique du Sud, septembre 2005, série L, LVI Ten years ago this month I got a phone...

  Sujet 2 ♦ Amérique du Sud, septembre 2005, série L, LVI Ten years ago this month I got a phone call from an American publisher telling me that they had just bought one of my books and were going to send me on a three-week, sixteen-city publicity tour. "We're going to make you a media star," he said brightly. s "But l've never been on TV, I protested in mild panic. 11 "Oh. it's easy. You'll love it," he said with the blithe assurance of someone who doesn't have to do it himself. "No, 1'11 be te...

• Memory (psychology).

  memory span —how many items people can correctly recall in order. Researchers would show people increasingly long sequences of digits or letters and then ask them to recall as many of the items as they could. In 1956 American psychologist George Miller reviewed many experiments on memory span and concluded that peoplecould hold an average of seven items in short-term memory. He referred to this limit as “the magical number seven, plus or minus two” because the results of thestudies were so consi...

• Paleolithic Art I INTRODUCTION Cave Painting, Lascaux This portion of a cave painting in what is now Lascaux, France, was done by Paleolithic artists about 13,000 bc.

  Venus of WillendorfThis so-called Venus figurine from the area of Willendorf, Austria, is one of the earliest known examples of sculpture,dating from about 23,000 bc. The figure, which is carved out of limestone, is only 11.25 cm (4.5 in) high, and wasprobably designed to be held in the hand. It is believed the Venus may be a fertility symbol, which would explain theexaggerated female anatomy.Ali Meyer/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York Paleolithic art usually is classified as either figura...

• Culture.

  form of knowledge, such as scientific discoveries; objects, such as works of art; and traditions, such as the observance of holidays. C1 Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism Self-identity usually depends on culture to such a great extent that immersion in a very different culture—with which a person does not share common ways of life orbeliefs—can cause a feeling of confusion and disorientation. Anthropologists refer to this phenomenon as culture shock. In multicultural societies —societies s...

• Cheetah - biology.

  animals such as zebras. Unlike most cats, cheetahs hunt during the day, when lions and hyenas that compete with them for prey are less likely to be active. Still,scientists in Tanzania have observed that cheetahs lose 10 to 13 percent of their kills to lions and hyenas. Alerted by the panic of a gazelle herd or by the circling ofvultures, lions and hyenas close in and easily drive the more timid cheetah away from a fresh kill. A cheetah usually stalks prey to within about 10 m (about 33 ft) and...

• Illinois - geography.

  the state before joining the Mississippi River at Grafton. The Illinois has been deepened and straightened and forms part of the Illinois Waterway. The watershed between rivers that flow into the Mississippi river system and rivers that flow into the Great Lakes is low and in many places is not easily discernible. Inwhat is now the Chicago area, explorers had little difficulty portaging, or carrying, their canoes over the low watershed between the Des Plaines River, which flows intothe Illinois,...

• Illinois - USA History.

  the state before joining the Mississippi River at Grafton. The Illinois has been deepened and straightened and forms part of the Illinois Waterway. The watershed between rivers that flow into the Mississippi river system and rivers that flow into the Great Lakes is low and in many places is not easily discernible. Inwhat is now the Chicago area, explorers had little difficulty portaging, or carrying, their canoes over the low watershed between the Des Plaines River, which flows intothe Illinois,...

• Chinatown (motion picture) Chinatown (motion picture), motion picture about a Los Angeles, California, detective uncovering a major political scandal.

  they are capable of anything.”J. J. Gittes (discovering the land fraud): “He passed away two weeks ago and he bought the land a week ago. That’s unusual.” Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

• Effet lotus

  rights activist Al Sharpton, King's son Martin Luther King III, Trayvon Martin's family, etc... Sharpton and other speakers paid tribute to King and other civil rights leaders for progress over the past five decades that led to significant gains, including Barack Obama's election as the first black U.S. president. But the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida last year and the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down a portion of the nation's voting rights law...

• Prokaryote - biology.

  earliest organisms to evolve, an estimated 3.4 billion to 3.5 billion years ago. The environment of the early Earth lacked oxygen, and cyanobacteria probably usedfermentation (a chemical process performed without the presence of oxygen) to produce the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Cyanobacteria introduced oxygen into the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. As the oxygen content in the atmosphere increased over the centuries, bacteria evolved that usedthis oxygen in...

• Debating Sports Records Mark Purdy, sports columnist for the San Jose Mercury News in California, compiles a list of sports records that he believes will never be broken and a separate list of records that he thinks are soon to be eclipsed.

  UCLA’s dominance of NCAA men’s college basketball in the late 1960s and early 1970s will never be matched. With John Wooden as coach, the Bruins went from1967 to 1973 without losing a tournament game. Wooden built a dynasty around a system that stressed team play and solid defense, anchored by standout centersLew Alcindor (who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton. The Bruins’ ten straight appearances in the Final Four (1967-1976) will alsobe tough to top, given that tod...

• Debating Sports Records Mark Purdy, sports columnist for the San Jose Mercury News in California, compiles a list of sports records that he believes will never be broken and a separate list of records that he thinks are soon to be eclipsed.

  UCLA’s dominance of NCAA men’s college basketball in the late 1960s and early 1970s will never be matched. With John Wooden as coach, the Bruins went from1967 to 1973 without losing a tournament game. Wooden built a dynasty around a system that stressed team play and solid defense, anchored by standout centersLew Alcindor (who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton. The Bruins’ ten straight appearances in the Final Four (1967-1976) will alsobe tough to top, given that tod...

• what did you do?

  ceilings, theplates, thewindows, thelampshades! Wasitan act ofrebellion! Anact ofexpression! Werethepaintings good, orwas that beside thepoint! Ineeded tosee itfor myself, andIneeded totell the world about it!Iused tolive for reporting likethat! Stalin found outabout thecommunity andsent histhugs in,just afew days before Igot there, to break alloftheir arms! Thatwasworse thankilling them! Itwas ahorrible sight,Oskar: theirarms incrude splints, straight infront ofthem likezombies! Theycouldn't fe...

• WHY I'M NOT WHERE YOU ARE 5/21/63   Your mother and I never talk about the past, that's a rule.

  under theNothing doorandstained theSomething hallway,there'snothing tosay. Itbecame difficulttonavigate from Something toSomething withoutaccidentally walkingthrough Nothing, andwhen Something—a key,apen, a pocketwatch—was accidentallyleftinaNothing Place,itnever couldberetrieved, thatwasanunspoken rule,likenearly all ofour rules havebeen. There cameapoint, ayear ortwo ago, when ourapartment wasmore Nothing than Something, thatinitself didn't havetobe aproblem, itcould havebeen agood thing, itco...

• Dog Family - biology.

  muzzles, long and bushy tails, and large ears. Many foxes hunt by stalking prey and then leaping on it with a distinctive, stiff-legged pounce. Once thought to besolitary animals, foxes are now known to live in groups of up to six individuals. The remaining canids are each highly distinctive. Raccoon dogs and bush dogs are the least doglike canids in appearance. Raccoon dogs, found in eastern Asia, havestubby legs, a stout body, short ears, shaggy fur, and a black face mask that resembles a racc...

• Djibouti (country) - country.

  l’Unité et de la Démocratie (FRUD; Front for the Renewal of Unity and Democracy) represents the Afar minority. The Parti National Démocratique (PND; Democratic National Party) and the Parti du Renouveau Démocratique (PRD; Democratic Renewal Party) are both small opposition parties favoring democratic reforms. VI HISTORY Djibouti lies at a major global crossroads where, some 100,000 years ago, early humans migrated from Africa to the Middle East. Livestock herding, which remainsimportant...

• Martial Arts.

  These movements are based on stylized renditions of ancient kung fu arm and foot blows. C Tae Kwon Do Tae kwon do (Korean for 'way of hands and feet') was founded in 1955 by a group of masters led by Korean general Choi Hong Hi. It is the national sport and pastimeof Korea and is also popular throughout the world. Often referred to as Korean karate, tae kwon do is reputedly based on ancient Korean and modern Japanesemethods of combat. Basic to tae kwon do are many spectacular kicks, particularl...

• Giant Panda - biology.

  In 2007 conservationists announced that a parasitic roundworm was responsible for a significant number of the panda deaths reported in the wild since 1990. Theparasite Baylisascaris schroederi causes the disease visceral larval migrans, which results in bleeding in the lungs, the liver, and the intestines, and can also affect the brain. It is not known if other recent pandas deaths were caused by the same parasite or by a different contagious disease. Loss of habitat from deforestation is forc...

• Seal (mammal) - biology.

  remote lakes by swimming thousands of kilometers up rivers from the Arctic Ocean. A few other species such as ringed seals and harbor seals have been found livingyear-round in lakes and rivers near the coasts of Russia, Canada, and Alaska. IV DIET OF SEALS Most seals eat fish and sometimes squid. The leopard seal, an Antarctic species, may have the most diverse diet of all, commonly hunting penguins and other seabirds,smaller seals, as well as fish, squid, krill (small shrimplike crustaceans),...

• Europe - geography.

  movement of a segment of the Earth’s crust against the stable shield during the Caledonian orogeny (about 500 to 395 million years ago) raised the mountains of Ireland,Wales, Scotland, and western Norway. Subsequent erosion has rounded and worn down these mountains in the British Isles, but the peaks of Norway still reach 2,472 m(8,110 ft). The second major geological region, a belt of sedimentary materials, sweeps in an arc from southwestern France northward and eastward through the Low Countri...

• Venus (planet) - astronomy.

  level winds circle the planet at 360 km/h (225 mph), making a complete rotation in only four days. These winds are said to super-rotate because they travel muchfaster than the rotation of the planet itself. These high-speed winds cover the planet completely, blowing toward the west at virtually every latitude from equator topole. The motions of descending probes, however, have shown that the bulk of Venus’s tremendously dense atmosphere, closer to the planet’s surface, is almoststagnant. From th...

• Rhinoceros - biology.

  Male and female rhinos have a similar physical appearance, although male rhinos are usually larger than females, with the size difference varying between species. Inthe wild, some rhinos probably live into their late 40s, and they have survived into their 30s in captivity. IV TYPES OF RHINOCEROSES Until recently, mammalogists divided the rhinoceros family into three subfamilies, each with different characteristics. Scientists now believe that living rhinos belong to asingle subfamily, although...

• Criminal Law.

  for rehabilitative treatment for the offender. On the other hand, the goals of punishment may at times conflict. The retributive and deterrence theories call for theinfliction of unpleasant experiences upon the criminal, including harsh prison treatment; but the prison environment may not be conducive to, or may even defeat,rehabilitation. No one theory of punishment addresses all the goals of criminal law. A combination of theories and goals plays a part in the thinking of the legislators who e...

• Sun - astronomy.

  A The Sun’s Place in the Milky Way The Milky Way Galaxy contains about 400 billion stars. All of these stars, and the gas and dust between them, are rotating about a galactic center. Stars that arefarther away from the center move at slower speeds and take longer to go around it. The Sun is located in the outer part of the galaxy, at a distance of 2.6 × 10 17 km (1.6 × 10 17 mi) from the center. The Sun, which is moving around the center at a velocity of 220 km/s (140 mi/s), takes 250 million y...

• Anthropology.

  humans, such as tools, pottery, and buildings) and human fossils (preserved bones). They also examine past environments to understand how natural forces, such as climate and available food, shaped the development of human culture. Some archaeologists study cultures that existed before the development of writing, a time knownas prehistory . The archaeological study of periods of human evolution up to the first development of agriculture, about 10,000 years ago, is also called paleoanthropology....

• Nevada - geography.

  The Truckee, Carson, and Walker rivers flow out of the Sierra Nevada, thread their way around several of the desert ranges, and also end in closed basins. The Walkerflows into Walker Lake, the Carson into Lahontan Reservoir. The major part of the Truckee’s flow is now diverted to Lahontan Reservoir, although as required by lawsome of it empties into Pyramid Lake. Because these three streams flow constantly, the lakes into which they empty never dry up. Winnemucca Lake formerly receivedoverflow w...

• Nevada - USA History.

  The Truckee, Carson, and Walker rivers flow out of the Sierra Nevada, thread their way around several of the desert ranges, and also end in closed basins. The Walkerflows into Walker Lake, the Carson into Lahontan Reservoir. The major part of the Truckee’s flow is now diverted to Lahontan Reservoir, although as required by lawsome of it empties into Pyramid Lake. Because these three streams flow constantly, the lakes into which they empty never dry up. Winnemucca Lake formerly receivedoverflow w...

• Doping and drugs are unavoidable in sports

              Let's not generalize this drugs problem to all athletes. Sometimes ago, sports used to be a way of having fun, but now since it has become a business and because of all the pressure, the field had damaged: sport is became a racial and cultural competition, but also a mean to show who is superior. 

• Earth (planet).

  Milky Way to complete one revolution around the Galaxy’s center. Earth’s axis of rotation is inclined (tilted) 23.5° relative to its plane of revolution around the Sun. This inclination of the axis creates the seasons and causes the height of the Sun in the sky at noon to increase and decrease as the seasons change. The Northern Hemisphere receives the most energy from the Sun when it is tiltedtoward the Sun. This orientation corresponds to summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the S...

• Earth (planet) - astronomy.

  Milky Way to complete one revolution around the Galaxy’s center. Earth’s axis of rotation is inclined (tilted) 23.5° relative to its plane of revolution around the Sun. This inclination of the axis creates the seasons and causes the height of the Sun in the sky at noon to increase and decrease as the seasons change. The Northern Hemisphere receives the most energy from the Sun when it is tiltedtoward the Sun. This orientation corresponds to summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the S...

• bbb

  "Look lively, Miss Hill, please." She would not cry many tears at leaving the Stores. But in her new home, in a distant unknown country, it would not be like that. Then she would be married--she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been. Even now, though she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence. She knew it was that that had given her the palpitations. When they were growing up he had never gone...

• Dubliners

  "Look lively, Miss Hill, please." She would not cry many tears at leaving the Stores. But in her new home, in a distant unknown country, it would not be like that. Then she would be married--she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been. Even now, though she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence. She knew it was that that had given her the palpitations. When they were growing up he had never gone...

• Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe - anthology.

  Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door—Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,With such name as “Nevermore.” But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke onlyThat one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.Nothing further then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered—Till I scarcely more than muttered, “other friends have flown before—On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.' Then the bird said, “Nevermo...

• No. I shook his hand... "And then I came straight here,

  crawl down theoutside ofthe building, whichIsaw avideo ofone person doingonaPolish site,ortrying touse a tablecloth asaparachute, likesome ofthe people whowere inWindows onthe World actually did.There weresomany different waystodie, and Ijust need toknow which washis." He held outhishands likehewanted metotake them. "Arethose tattoos?" Heclosed hisright hand. Iflipped backand pointed at"Why?" Hetook back hishands andwrote, "It'smade things easier. Instead ofwriting yesand noallthe time, I can sh...

• Puppets I INTRODUCTION Punch and Judy Punch and Judy are characters in an English hand puppet show that first appeared in 1662.

  Rod puppets are controlled by rods attached to their limbs, heads, and bodies. Although the traditional rod puppets of Belgium and Sicily are worked from above, likemarionettes, most contemporary rod figures are operated from below. In theaters, rod puppeteers are frequently concealed from view by drapery or stage flats (fabric stretched across frames). On television and in films, rod and hand puppeteers usually hold their figures either above their heads or in front of their faces. In the lat...

• Dark Matter - astronomy.

  observed, and the measured frequency of such events has placed limits on how much dark matter can take the form of MACHOs. From the observations that have beenmade by astronomers, it is now known that MACHOs cannot be the dominant constituent of dark matter. There are simply not enough such gravitational lenses. Physicists suspect that a more exotic form of cold dark matter must exist. This form is not baryonic. Like neutrinos, this form barely interacts with ordinary matter, butis some type of...

• Hippopotamus - biology.

  hippo backs up to its droppings and uses its tail as a paddle, flicking the dung through the air. This creates a pile that can become several meters wide over time. Male river hippos start to establish territories when they are in their early 20s, and they may eventually control more than 250 m (820 ft) of the water's edge.Subordinate males come and go freely, but a rival male will spark a confrontation if it tries to intrude. The territory owner and intruder face each other open-mouthedand, if...

• Beijing - geography.

  other polluting materials contributes to the city’s severe air and water pollution. V EDUCATION AND CULTURE Beijing has more colleges and universities than any other Chinese city. The most prominent institutions are Peking University, founded in 1898; and Tsinghua University,founded in 1911, which is the most prestigious scientific and technical institution in the country. Both institutions are located in the northwest suburbs, an areaassociated with higher education and research. Also in this...

• Dinosaur - biology.

  The behavior of dinosaurs was governed by their metabolism and by their central nervous system. The dinosaurs’ metabolism—the internal activities that supply thebody’s energy needs—affected their activity level. It is unclear whether dinosaurs were purely endothermic (warm-blooded), like modern mammals, or ectothermic (cold-blooded), like modern reptiles. Endotherms regulate their body temperature internally by means of their metabolism, rather than by using the temperature oftheir surroundin...

• Easter.

  Many Easter traditions originated long before the beginning of the Christian era. Like Christmas, which is related to pre-Christian winter festivals, Easter is connected inmany ways with early pagan rituals that accompanied the arrival of spring. Easter is also associated with the Jewish festival of Passover. A Easter Eggs The Easter egg is associated with beliefs of particularly ancient origin. The egg was an important symbol in the mythologies of many early civilizations, including those ofIn...

• "Which was this.

  was good. It'seasy tobe emotional. Youcanalways makeascene. Remember meeight months ago?Thatwaseasy." "It didn't sound easy.""Itwas simple. Highsandlows make youfeel that things matter, butthey're nothing." "Sowhat's something?" "Beingreliable issomething. Beinggood." "And what about thekey?" "Atthe end ofhis letter hewrote, 'Ihave something foryou. Inthe blue vase, onthe shelf in the bedroom, isakey. Itopens asafe-deposit boxatour bank. Ihope you'll understand whyIwanted youtohave it.'" "And? W...

• Radio Astronomy - astronomy.

  equivalent to the apparent angular dimensions of a basketball at the distance of the moon. In 1984, the U.S. government appropriated funds for the construction of aninstallation called the very long baseline array (VLBA), a network of 10 radio antennas spread from the U.S.-Canadian border to Puerto Rico and from Hawaii to the U.S.Atlantic coast. The VLBA is expected to provide angular resolutions in the range of 200-millionths of an arc second. Canada and Australia are both planning similarprogr...

• Native Americans of Middle and South America.

  A line that snakes across central Mexico near the Tropic of Cancer forms the northern boundary of Mesoamerica; north of this line rainfall sharply declines and theclimate is much drier. The ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica all arose and developed in the area between this line and the Guatemalan highlands far to the south. Richvolcanic soils are found throughout much of the region. A2 People and Languages Mesoamerica was a great melting pot, home to many peoples and interrelated cultures. In...

• Fossil Fuels.

  water molecules. This crystalline solid is known as gas hydrate. Because technology for the commercial extraction of gas hydrates has not yet been developed, this typeof fossil fuel is not included in most world energy resource estimates. However, in February 2007 the U.S. Department of Energy completed the drilling of a well toretrieve core samples of gas hydrates found in the Prudhoe Bay region of Alaska’s North Slope. By identifying the nature of these gas hydrates, the Energy Departmenthoped...

• Hong Kong - geography.

  higher than China’s average standard of living. In 2006 Hong Kong’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was $27,679.20, although much of the wealth isconcentrated into relatively few hands. IV ECONOMY Hong Kong’s position as one of the world’s most important economic centers is based on several factors. It is located midway between Japan and Singapore, and it liesastride the main shipping and air routes of the western Pacific. It also has long served as a major port of entry and trade for...

• Toys. I INTRODUCTION Toys, objects that serve as playthings for children. Although the

  clay. These readily available elements were also used to make more elaborate toys as human society advanced. Archaeologists have found primitive, handmade toys such as wooden or cloth dolls, clay marbles, and terracotta figures that date back thousands of years. In ancientEgypt, Greece, and Rome, people placed dolls or clay figures in the graves or tombs of children for them to play with in the afterlife. The yo-yo may seem like a 20th-century fad, but it actually dates back at least 2,500 years...

• Midnighters

• Geology.

  terminology. Today the geologic time scale is generally agreed upon and used by scientists around the world, dividing time into eons, eras, periods, and epochs. Everyfew years, the numerical time scale is refined based on new evidence, and geologists publish an update. Geologists use several methods to determine geologic time. These methods include physical stratigraphy, or the placement of events in the order of their occurrence,and biostratigraphy, which uses fossils to determine geologic time...