Minch, the Sea channel between the Outer Hebrides islands and the northwestern coast of Scotland. Its width varies from 25 to 45 mi (40 to 70 km), and it has great depth and a rapid current. Little Minch, its south¬ ern extension, lies between the island groups of the Outer and Inner Hebrides.
mind, philosophy of Branch of philosophy that studies the nature of mind and its various manifestations, including intentionality, sensation and sense perception, feeling and emotion, traits of character and person¬ ality, the unconscious, volition, thought, memory, imagination, and belief. It is distinguished from empirical studies of the mind (e.g., psychology, biology, physiology, sociology, and anthropology) by its method, which emphasizes the analysis and clarification of concepts. See also cognitive SCIENCE.
mind-body problem Metaphysical problem of the relationship between mind and body. The modern problem stems from the thought of Rene Descartes, who is responsible for the classical formulation of dual¬ ism. Descartes’s interactionism had many critics even in his own day. Tho¬ mas Hobbes denied the existence of mental substance. Materialism of a sort was also supported by Descartes’s correspondent Pierre Gassendi (1592- 1655). Benedict de Spinoza posited a single substance of which the mental and the material are attributes; his theory is known as psycho-physical parallelism. More recent views include the double-aspect theory, identity theory, eliminative materialism (which denies the reality of the familiar categories of mental state posited in so-called folk psychology), and theo¬ ries Of SUPERVENIENCE.
Mindanao V.min-do-'na-.o, .min-do-'nauV Island (pop., 2000: 16,136,921), southern Philippines. The second largest island in the Phil¬ ippines, it has an area of 36,537 sq mi (94,630 sq km); it is 324 mi (521 km) long and 293 mi (471 km) wide. It is mountainous and contains active volcanoes, including Mount Apo, the highest peak in the Philippines. The rare monkey-eating eagle is unique to the island. Islam spread through¬ out Mindanao in the 16th century. It was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. It was later claimed by Spain, but the resistance of its Muslim inhabitants kept it largely independent of Spanish authority. The autono¬ mous region of Muslim Mindanao, in the western and southwestern por¬ tions of the island, was created in 1990.
Mindanao River formerly Cotabato River \,ko-ta-'ba-to\ Main river of central Mindanao, Philippines. It meanders northwest to enter Illana Bay in two tributaries, the Cotabato and Tamentaka, after a 200-mi (320-km) course. The river system waters a fertile basin and is a major inland-transportation artery.
Mindon Vmin-'donN (b. 1814, Amarapura, Myanmar—d. Oct. 1, 1878, Mandalay) King of Myanmar (Burma; r. 1853-78). He came to power after the Second Anglo-Burmese War. He was unable to persuade the Brit¬ ish to return Pegu (in southern Myanmar) and was also forced to make large economic concessions. Domestically, his reign was a time of numer¬ ous reforms and great cultural and religious flowering. In 1857 he built the new capital, Mandalay, with palaces and monasteries that are master¬ pieces of traditional Myanmar architecture. He held the Fifth Buddhist Council there in 1871 in an effort to revise and purify the Pali scriptures.
Mindoro Island (pop., 2000: 1,062,068), west-central Philippines. It is separated from Luzon on the north by the Verde Island Passage. It is 80 mi (130 km) long and 50 mi (80 km) wide, with an area of 3,759 sq mi (9,735 sq km). First visited by the Spanish in 1570, it came under U.S. rule in 1901. It was occupied by the Japanese during World War II. The tamaraw, a small water buffalo, is unique to the island.
Mindszenty \mend-'shen-te\, Jozsef orig. Pehm Jozsef (b. March 29, 1892, Csehimindszent, near Szombathely, Austria-Hungary—d. May 6, 1975, Vienna, Austria) Hungarian cardinal who opposed fascism and communism. Ordained a priest in 1915, he was arrested as an enemy of totalitarian governments in 1919 and again in 1944. He was appointed primate of Hungary in 1945 and made a cardinal in 1946. Refusing to permit Hungary’s Roman Catholic schools to be secularized by the com¬ munists, he was arrested in 1948 and convicted of treason the next year. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he was freed in the Hungarian Revolu¬ tion (1956). When the communists regained control, he sought asylum in the U.S. embassy in Budapest and lived there for 15 years, refusing Vat¬
ican requests to leave Hungary. He relented in 1971, settled in Vienna, and was retired as primate of Hungary in 1974.
mine See land mine, submarine mine
Miner, Jack orig. John Thomas Miner (b. April 10, 1865, Dover Centre, Ohio, U.S.—d. Nov. 3, 1944, Kingsville, Ont., Can.) Canadian naturalist. After moving to Canada in 1878, he established a bird sanc¬ tuary in 1904 on his farm in Kingsville, Ont. Banding more than 50,000 ducks between 1910 and 1915, he made the first complete banding records of North American birds. In 1931 his friends established the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Foundation to ensure the continuation of his work. He received the Order of the British Empire in 1943.
mineral Any naturally occurring homogeneous solid that has a definite (but not fixed) chemical composition and a distinctive internal crystal structure. Minerals are usually formed by inorganic processes. Synthetic equivalents of various minerals, such as emeralds and diamonds, are manufactured for commercial purposes. Although most minerals are chemical compounds, a small number (e.g., sulfur, copper, gold) are ele¬ ments. Minerals combine with each other to form rocks. For example, granite consists of the minerals feldspar, quartz, mica, and amphibole in varying amounts. Rocks are generally, therefore, an intergrowth of vari¬ ous minerals.
mineral processing or ore dressing Mechanical treatment of crude ores to separate the valuable minerals. Mineral processing was at first applied only to ores of precious metals but later came to be used to recover other metals and nonmetallic minerals. It is also used during coal preparation to enrich the value of raw coal. The primary operations are comminution and concentration. Comminution is carried out by large jaw crushers and by smaller cylindrical grinding mills. Common methods of concentration are gravity separation and flotation separation. Gravity methods include jigging (ground ore is fed into a pulsating body of water so that the heavier mineral fractions settle out, leaving lighter wastes at the top) or washing the ore down inclined planes, spirals, or shaking tables so that mineral and waste fractions settle in different areas. See also ben¬ efication; MINING.
mineralogy Scientific study of minerals, including their physical prop¬ erties, chemical composition, internal crystal structure, occurrence and distribution in nature, and origins or conditions of formation. Mineralogic studies range from description and classification of new or rare minerals to analysis of crystal structure and laboratory or industrial synthesis of mineral species. The methods employed include physical and chemical identification tests, determination of crystal symmetry and structure, opti¬ cal examination, X-ray diffraction, and isotope analysis.
Minerva In Roman reugion, the goddess of handicrafts, the professions, the arts, and, later, war. She was commonly identified with the Greek Athena. Some scholars believe that worship of Minerva began when Ath¬ ena’ s cult was introduced at Rome from Etruria. Minerva was one of the Capitoline triad, along with Jupiter and Juno, and her shrine in Rome was a meeting place for craftsmen’s guilds. The worship of Minerva attained its greatest vogue under the emperor Domitian, who claimed her special protection.
minesweeper Naval vessel used to clear submarine mines from an expanse of water. In naval warfare, they are used to clear mines from sea- lanes to protect merchant shipping as well as to clear paths for warships to engage in battle or amphibious warfare. The earliest examples used sweeping wires with sawlike projections to cut the cables anchoring sub¬ marine mines and allow them to rise to the surface, where they would be destroyed by gunfire. The wide use of magnetic mines (set off by the magnetic field of steel ships) in the Korean War led to wood-hulled mine¬ sweepers.