Miscellaneous for June 2015

I've got quite a few miscellaneous topics that don't warrant full posts, so I'll just group them into one post. Previously I put them at the end of articles, but that was kind of confusing. I'll group them into one monster post each month. Go ahead and skip to the next post if this sort of trivia isn't interesting to you.

• Delvaux, Paul
• 1897-1994  Belgian surrealist painter. Skeletons bury skeletons.
• Delvigne, Henri-Gustave
• 1800's Helped introduce cylindrical bullet.
• dema deity
• ancestral beings of souther New Guinea. People are like tubers. They are cut up and planted to grow new things.
• Demades
• 380-319 BC. Athenian orator. Shrewd speaker. Liked by Alexander the Great. Convinced citizens to put Demosthenes to death. Put to death in Macedonia.
• demand curve
• reason by Britannica was so expensive
• Demavend, Mount
• volcanic peak in Elburz Mountains in Iran. 3000-8000ft taller than nearby mountains.
• deme
• Greek village council of all 18+ males.
• Demeter
• Greek daughter of Cronus & Rhea. Sister & consort of Jupiter. Goddess of grain & vegetation except beans. Triptolemus was her 1st priest & inventor of agriculture.
• December
• Month of Poseideon.
• Democracy
• Began in Greece, but that had little direct influence on future democracies. 200 years later saw beginning of constitutional democracy. Numerous nations adopt democratic governments that are really dominated by a single dominating party.
• Democratic Party (US)
• Donkey logo never officially adopted by the party. Parties changed names a lot. The party names went from "Republican" to "Democratic-Republican" then split into current parties (sort of).
• Dempsey, Jack
• 1895-1983 Boxer who held title from 1919-1926. Forfeited knockout by standing over Tunney rather than going to a neutral corner.
• demurrer
• In criminal law one party admits facts are true but denies that the opponent has cause for redress.
• Denakil Plain
• Lowland in Ethiopia where water flows in and stays. Mined for salt.
• Denali National Park & Preserve
• Alaskan park with Mt. McKinley. Highest mountain in North America at 6194m.
• Dench, Dame Judi
• Dame is the female version of sir. It's like being knighted.
• Deneb
• One of the brightest stars. It's in the constellation Cygnus.
• dengue
• Fever with 4 serotypes. Each is separately infectious. Passed by mosquitoes.
• Denis, Maurice
• 1870-1943  French painter. Famous quote about painting being colors assembled in a specific order. (Seems trivial to someone who knows about pixels on a monitor, but it was probably more profound before the advent of modern screens.)
• Dennis, John
• 1657-1734 English dramatist who quarreled with Alexander Pope about importance of passion in poetry. Long angry feud. English bishop tried to stop in 1698.
• Dennison, Aaron Lufkin
• 1812-1895 Father of American watchmaking. Pioneer of interchangeable parts for mass production of watches.
• Denon, Dominique Vivant, Baron
• Helped develop Louvre collection. Sketched ancient monuments while under fire from enemy. (like that episode of Black Adder)
• densitometer
• measures density or degree of darkening of photographic film or plate or any semitransparent material like sunglasses.
• density current
• Water currents created by cold water or sediment or salinity which is pulled down by gravity displacing water. Large amounts of pollution can cause currents. Sediment also decreases reservoir capacity.
• Dent, Edward John
• Clockmaker who made Big Ben. Died before completion. Sons completed it in 18543.
• Dentatus, Manius Curius
• Died 270 BC. Roman general, victor against Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.
• Denver
• Largest city between Missouri River & Pacific states. (doesn't include any state south of the southern points of those rivers)
• Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad aka. The Rio Grande
• Founded 1870. Absorbed in 1988 by Southern Pacific Rail Corp.
• deontological ethics
• Ethical theories that place emphasis on duty of morality.
• depersonalization
• Feeling that one's body is dissociated from mind. See oneself from distance.
• depletion allowance
• Like depreciation tax deduction but for mining. Now eliminated for large companies.
• deportation
• England ended criminal deportation in 1850's due to inhuman treatment in US & Australia.
• depressant
• A drug or other agent that slows activity of vital organs. Ones acting on central nervous system: general anesthetics, opiates, alcohol, hypnotics. Tranquilizing drugs (ataractics) act on lower levels of brain. Relieve tension without reducing mental sharpness.
• depth finder
• Modern systems use electrical pulse or audible frequencies below 15kHz.
• Derby
• English horse race named for Edward Stanley 12th earl of Derby. Other horse races like Kentucky Derby named after it (although they are pronounced differently).
• Derby, * Stanley earls
• Family of earls who generally betrayed their rulers. "Strange" was held hostage but escaped an execution order.
• Derbyware
• Porcelain figures made in Derby central England.
• Deringer, Henry
• Made pistol used by John Wilkes Booth. Reporter incorrectly wrote "Derringer" in papers. This mistake was widely copied to other reports, so the name of that pistol was eventually changed to match the misspelling.
• dermestid beetle
• Any of 700 species of insect family Dermestidae. They are household pests, usually brown or black.
• dermis
• Thicker layer of skin under epidermis.
• Derrida, Jacques
• 1930-2004 French philosopher, very influential.
• Deruta ware
• Tin glazed earthenware. Early 1500's from Deruta Italy.
• dervish
• Any member of ṣūfī Muslim mystic fraternity.
• Derzhavin, Gaurila Romanovich
• 1743-1816 Russia's greatest 18th century poet.
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Possible corruption of French "de moyen" which means "middle" because it is halfway between Missouri and Mississippi rivers. (Britannica mentions this, but wikipedia doesn't.)
• Des Moines Register
• Paper that started the Gallup poll.
• des Périers, Bonaventure
• French storyteller & freethinker & humanist.
• Des Plaines River
• completion of drainage canal to Chicago river reversed flow of Chicago river & allowed traffic from Mississippi river to the Great Lakes.
• desalination aka. desalting
• Generally involves one or more of: decrease pressure, increase heat, use membranes to filter.
• Desargues, Girard
• 1591-1661 Introduced principals of projective geometry. Used unique terms based on botanical names & didn't use Cartesian symbolism, so was forgotten for 2 centuries. Tech adviser to Cardinal Richelieu. He knew Rene Descartes and Marin Mersenne. Poncelet in 1639 created projective Euclidean space (Euclidean space with points at infinity where parallel lines meet.) This simplified many theories.
• Desbordes-Valmore, Marceline
• 1786-1859 Paul Verlaine put her in his 1884 Damned Poets (Poetes maudits)
• descant
• Countermelody composed or improvised above a familiar melody.
• Descartes, Rene
• 1596-1650 Cogito ergo sum. Father of modern philosophy.
• descent
• Patrilineal, matrilineal, or ambilateral (or ambilineal). Mean you are kin with father's side, mother's side, or both. Double unilineal have 2 separate lines that both operate at the same time.
• desensitization
• Injections under the skin can cure hay fever and asthma.
• desert
• Britannica has a list of total square miles for all deserts in the world. These would make good MyMindBlewUp.com objects.
• desert cultures
• People were in Nevada, Utah, Arizona from 8000 BC to 2000 BC.
• desert fathers
• Christian desert hermits in Egypt in early 200's who formed basis of Christian monasticism.
• Desiderio Da settignano
• 1430-1464 Sculptor in Florence Italy
• Deslandres, Henri-Alexandre
• 1853-1948 Invented spectroheliograph
• desmid
• Microscopic green algae.
• Desmoulins, Lucie-Simplice Camille-Benoist
• 1760-1794 Moderate French democrat who was one of the most influential journalists of the French revolution. His friend Robespierre guillotined him because of his articles against the powerful Committee of Public Safety.
• Dessalines, Jean-Jacques
• 1758-1806 Started as slave until 1791 when he joined a rebellion. Eventually became emperor of Haiti in 1804 when he declared independence. Massacred whites and powerful mulattoes in order to ensure black dominance. Killed in a revolt comprised mostly of mulattoes.