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Sapphire

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:05:16 -0500

Sapphire is is a name given to all gem varieties of corundum except those of reddish color, which are called ruby. The word sapphire used alone always refers to the blue gemstone. Those of other colors are called, for example, yellow sapphire or pink sapphire, and when colorless are called white sapphire. Stones that show a starlike optical effect when cut in a convex shape are called star sapphires. The effect is produced by reflections from tiny needle-shaped inclusions of the mineral rutile in the sapphire's crystal structure.
Sapphires other than those of blue color are often sold under the names of other gems with the word oriental as a prefix. Thus, oriental emerald is a name that has been given to green sapphire, and oriental topaz is called yellow sapphire. In the literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages, colorless sapphire was often referred to as a form of diamond, and other gem-stones, now given specific names of their own, were often called sapphires.

Sapphire is best known as a gem, but because of its hardness (9 on the Mohs scale) it is also used industrially as thread guides, orifices in oil furnaces, and small spheres in ball-point pens. Because of its unusual dielectric properties it is used in electrical instruments, and because of its transparency and resistance to heat it is used as windows in high-temperature furnaces. Its transparency to ultraviolet and infrared radiation also makes the stone of use in optical instruments.

The finest sapphires come from Kashmir, and their color is described as Kashmir blue. Occasional fine stones of the same quality from other sources are also called Kashmir sapphires. Most mines produce a variety of colors. Other important producing districts are near Bangkok in Thailand, near Mogok in Upper Burma, Ceylon, Afghanistan, and central Queensland, Australia. The best star sapphires come from Ceylon. Some fine sapphires have also been mined in the United States in an area south of the Missouri River in central Montana.

Although a few sapphires have been mined from crystalline rocks, the great majority have come from placer deposits in stream beds. Prior to World War I they were extensively mined for use as jewel bearings in watches and in electrical measuring instruments such as household meters. The finer stones were sold as gems, but most of the income from the mining operations came from the sale of industrial-quality stones. Then, in the mid-1920's, synthetics supplanted natural stones as jewel bearings. However, a few natural stones are still produced today from irregularly operated mines in East Asia and in Australia. Natural sapphire as a gemstone has not been completely replaced, however, because the fine blue Kashmir sapphires have never been duplicated artificially.

In 1902, Auguste Verneuil, a French scientist, developed the process for making synthetic gem sapphires. The basic material is powdered corundum, which gives carrot-shaped crystals called boules when fused. A small amount of iron and titanium imparts a blue color, a cobalt a green color, nickel and magnesium a yellow color, and more than 5% of chromic oxide a deep red color. The process has been called the flame-fusion method because an oxyhydrogen flame is used, the oxygen carrying the powder into the center of the flame. Crystallographic orientation may be controlled by using small seed crystals onto which the fused droplets fall. Star sapphires were first manufactured in 1947 by adding about 1% of titanium dioxide.

Snowshoe

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 06:39:54 -0500

A snowshoe consists of a lightweight wood framework that is interlaced with strips of animal hide and attached to the foot for travel over deep snow. Once common only to Eskimos and Indians of the far North, snowshoes are now available commercially and are used by trappers, lumbermen, and sportsmen.
The frame is made by bending a single piece of tough wood, often hickory or ash, into a long oval, which is then fastened at the ends and strengthened with a crossbar. A strong webbing, usually of moose-hide or dressed caribou, fills the space within. Traditionally, a leather or rawhide harness attaches the snowshoe to the foot, but many people prefer a hitch of one-inch common lampwick for its durability. Buckskin moccasins are standard footwear with snowshoes, but in areas of heavy, wet snowfall, rubber-soled boots with leather tops are used.

Most snowshoes are at least 3 feet long. Long, thin snowshoes are more efficient in open terrain, and shorter, broader models are best for brushy areas.

Parody

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:26:25 -0500

A parody is an imitation of a serious author or literary work designed for comic effect or ridicule. A parody humorously reveals the peculiarities or excesses of the original work. It often takes a serious style of writing and uses it for a trivial subject. A parody sometimes ridicules its subject as a typical example of absurd or sentimental attitudes.
It may also implicitly criticize the ideas or ideals of a given age or society. Parodies can be written in verse or prose, and they may take the form of plays. Their humorous effect depends largely on the reader's knowledge of the style or particular work being ridiculed. Some parodies have achieved the status of independent works of art, and they have 'become better known than the works they intended to ridicule. A notable example is Henry Fielding's novel Joseph Andrews (1742), which is more famous than the work it parodied, Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela (1740).

The earliest surviving literary parody is Battle of the Frogs and Mice, a mock-heroic Greek poem in the style of Homer. The Athenian playwright Aristophanes deftly parodied his contemporary poets and dramatists. Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century masterpiece Don Quixote is partly a parody of medieval romances. In modern times the English author Max Beerbohm was a master of parodies in prose. Noted 20th-century American parodists include Robert Benchley, Ogden Nash, S. J. Perelman, and E. B. White.

Roulette

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:29:18 -0500

Roulette is a game played in casinos. A roulette wheel is divided into 37 or 38 small sections, which are numbered from 00 to 36 on American wheels and from 0 to 36 on European wheels. The sections are colored alternately red and black, except for the 00 and 0, which are either white or green. The wheel is contained in a wooden dish and is spun by an employee of the casino called a croupier.
The croupier also rolls a small white ball in the opposite direction on the spinning wheel. The ball finally rests on one of the numbers and determines the winning bettors. Bets may be made by any number of players, who place chips on a layout corresponding to the numbers and colors on the wheel. The layout is so arranged that bets may be placed on individual numbers, including 0 and 00, or on categories of numbers, with the odds varying according to the size of the category. The odds against a player who bets a single number are 37 to 1 when both 0 and 00 are on the wheel, and the house pays 35 to 1.

Amber

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:21:19 -0500

Amber is a fossilized resin from prehistoric trees, particularly the pine tree Pinus succinifera. Specimens of amber may be as much as 40 million years old. Evidence of the vegetable origin of the substance is provided by its occurrence in coal and fossil wood deposits. The soft and sticky nature of the original material is indicated by specimens that occasionally are found containing perfectly preserved insects that were trapped by the resin. Such specimens were long prized for their intriguing appearance and are valued by scientists for the record they provide of ancient insect life.
Amber is easily carved and polished and is characterized by a resinous luster. It is transparent to translucent and ranges from white or yellowish to red or brown. Specimens often are clouded or streaked. Amber softens at the relatively low temperature of 300� F (150� C).

The substance occurs abundantly and is mined on the Baltic coast of Germany and Poland as well as on the coasts of Denmark, Sweden, and the Soviet Union. It also is found on those shores when it is washed up by the waves after a storm. Fossil resins are found in Sicily and Burma and on the Atlantic coast of the United States, as well.

Amber has been used as a gem since the days when it was worn in strings of beads by prehistoric man. It also was employed by ancient man as a means of exchange in commerce. Medical properties were ascribed to it, and it was used as a talisman. The Greeks were familiar with amber and called it elektron, from which the word electricity is derived. (A negative electric charge is built up on a piece of amber when it is rubbed by cloth.) For the ancient Greek poets, amber represented the tears shed by the Heliades after their grief over the death of their brother Phaeton had changed them into poplars. Amber still is valued as an ornamental material and is used in certain lacquers and varnishes.

Many hardened resinous tree gums, such as the Kauri gum from New Zealand and the copal gum from Africa, sometimes are misrepresented as amber. These gums, however, will float in a brine (a solution of salt and water) whereas real amber will sink because of its higher density. Because Baltic amber has a relatively low melting point, scraps of the material are fused into cakes. These cakes, called amberoid, are very difficult to distinguish from natural specimens of solid amber. Other, more readily distinguished amber substitutes are easily manufactured from celluloid, bakelite, Canada balsam, or a number of modern plastics.

Dandruff

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:15:29 -0500

Dandruff is a common condition among men and women of all ages. It is usually only annoying, not an indication of poor health. In some people, the outer layers of the epidermis of the scalp are shed unusually often and in relatively large scales that are easily seen. When there is insufficient secretion of oil from the sebaceous glands, the flakes are white, while yellow scales are produced if the secretion is excessive. The treatment usually consists of shampooing the hair several times a week using a germicidal lotion, but since the cause does not appear to be an infection, this treatment may help the condition but rarely cures it.

Lice

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:14:35 -0500

These wingless, exopterygote insects belong to the order Phthiraptera of which there are about 250 known species in Australia. Several of these have been introduced with domestic stock and man. Lice are small, flattened insects with large claws for clinging to feathers or hairs. They spend their entire lives as parasites on the surfaces of mammals or birds. Two suborders are represented in Australia, the Mallophaga and the Anoplura.
Lice transfer to new host individuals on contact. The human body and head louse can be transferred with clothing, and some biting lice, which are, in general, more active, may disperse to new hosts by hitch-hiking on flies such as mosquitoes. This phenomenon is called pheresy. Lice hatch from eggs (nits) cemented to hairs, feathers or clothing fibres. The nymphs closely resemble the adults.

Lice harm their hosts by their direct attacks and also by transmitting diseases such as human typhus. Most species are specific to their hosts and die within a few hours of being taken from them. Some are also restricted in the area of the body that they infest (for example, the face louse and the foot louse of sheep). Mallophaga The Mallophaga consists of the biting lice or bird lice which have biting and chewing mouthparts. Most parasitise birds but several live on mammals. They feed on fragments of hair, feathers and skin, and, to some extent, blood and sebaceous products. Birds, monotremes (platypus and spiny anteater), marsupials and bats are believed not to be parasitised by sucking lice, therefore most native lice of Australia belong to the Mallophaga. Most are endemic species found on endemic hosts. The family Boopiidae is almost confined to the marsupials but one of the 35 known species has recently transferred to dogs. This species, Heterodoxus spiniger, has subsequently been carried to Africa, Asia and the Americas. The remaining 160 or so native species belong to two widespread families that attack birds. The Trichodectidae is represented by six biting lice that have been introduced and which attack cattle, sheep, goats, horses, dogs, dingoes and cats.

Anoplura The Anoplura are the sucking lice, parasites with piercing and sucking mouth-parts, which live on the blood of mammals. Many of the 20 or so Australian species are introduced; only six found on native rodents are native species. The Pediculidae is a small family of sucking lice restricted to primate hosts.

Damages

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:52:20 -0500

Damages are sums of money, awarded by civil courts to persons found to be victims of wrongful acts, which must be paid to the victim by the person or persons proven to be legally responsible. Compensatory damages are intended simply to compensate the victim for losses resulting from wrongful conduct. But there are also punitive damages, awarded not merely to compensate the victim but to punish a particularly outrageous wrongdoer. Money damages are the primary form of relief given by the American and English courts. The reason for the predominance of money damages lies in the historical division of Anglo-American courts into courts of laws and courts of equity. The law courts, which existed before courts of equity, had power only to award money damages. Courts of equity were later established to supplement the law courts, and they dealt only with cases in which adequate relief could not be obtained from a court of law. The relief given by courts of equity, or equitable relief, includes specific performance, a remedy that requires a person to perform the obligations that he agreed to perform by the terms of a contract, and injunctions, orders to compel a person to do or to refrain from doing particular acts. Although, in the United States, the two sets of courts have now been merged, the distinction between relief at law and relief in equity continues. Equitable relief is available only if money damages would be inadequate.

Compensatory Damages

Damages in tort cases (cases involving wrongful acts resulting in injury to a person or property) are usually calculated to put the victim into as good a position as he would have been in had the wrong not been committed. Such items as medical expenses, loss of income due to inability to work as the result of an injury, and compensation for pain and suffering, are taken into account in damages awarded to a tort victim who suffers a personal injury. Where the injury is to property, damages may be based on value of the property, if it is destroyed, or cost of repairs, if damaged.

Where the wrong involved is a breach of contract, damages are based on what the victim would have received had the contract been performed. Where a person who agreed to sell certain goods at a stated price fails to do so, the would-be buyer is entitled to damages in an amount that would permit him to buy the goods on the open market without having to spend more than the price stipulated in the contract. Thus, the damages in breach of contract cases represent the value of the contractual bargain lost, rather than compensation for personal injuries or an actual loss of property as in tort cases.

Roles of Judge and Jury

In both tort and contract cases, when the trial is before a jury, damages are assessed by the jury in accord with directions from the judge as to the proper measure of damages. Thus, the judge will instruct the jury to follow a particular formula and will also tell it what items of loss to take into account. The jury, if it finds the defendant liable, decides on the actual dollar amount to be awarded. When the jury's decision as to damages is grossly inadequate or excessive, the judge may set it aside and either order a new trial or give the parties an opportunity to accept an amount set by him instead.

Damages do not include compensation for items of loss that are highly speculative or not directly related to the injury. Also, a victim of a wrongful act is under a duty to take all reasonable steps to keep his losses to a minimum. Therefore, he will not be awarded damages for losses he could have prevented by reasonable action taken after the initial wrong occurred.

Punitive Damages

In certain tort cases where the wrongdoer has acted in a particularly wanton manner, a victim will be awarded punitive or "exemplary" damages, in addition to damages sufficient to compensate him for the injury. Punitive damages are awarded to punish the wrongdoer rather than just to compensate the victim.

Treble Damages

Some regulatory statutes, such as the U. S. antitrust laws, stipulate that a victim of a violation of these statutes is entitled to three times the amount of his loss, or treble damages. Here the purpose of the additional damages is not only to punish the person who violates the statutes but also to encourage private individuals to bring law suits based on such violations, thereby serving the public interest.

Espionage

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:50:14 -0500

Espionage, the organized employment of secret agents by governments to obtain information concerning other countries which cannot be obtained by open methods. It also includes the dissemination of false information intended to deceive other countries. As the essence of espionage is secrecy, it follows that any treatise upon the subject, purporting to give details of the inner workings of any particular current system, must be regarded with doubt. Secret information has immense value, especially for military commanders.
In Britain the organization entrusted with the security of the state is Military Intelligence No. 5 (MI5), part of the Ministry of Defence. Its task is to stop agents of foreign powers, or even British subjects, from knowingly or unknowingly transmitting the secrets of Britain to any country abroad, whether that country be hostile or friendly. The chief function of MIS is counter-espionage and it is supported in this activity by the Special Branch of the police force.

Trial

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:48:52 -0500

A trial, in law, a hearing in court before an impartial judge and often before a jury, at which all the facts relevant to the solution of a legal dispute are developed. The right to a fair trial is guaranteed by the due process clauses of the 5th and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
In civil cases the person bringing the suit is called the plaintiff and the person sued is called the defendant. In criminal cases the state is the plaintiff and the accused is called the defendant. Each of the parties, who are almost always represented by lawyers^presents evidence in the form of documents and also presents the testimony of witnesses to substantiate his case. Each party, through cross-examination and the introduction of contradictory evidence, seeks to discredit the evidence of the other. At the conclusion of a jury trial the judge instructs the jurors as to the proper law to apply to the true facts as they, in their deliberation, shall find them. In criminal cases the verdict must be unanimous. In civil cases some states permit a verdict to be reached by 9 or 10 of the 12 members of the jury.