SlowBasket

Afghanistan, The 7th18th centuries

2005-04-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

Under the Hephthalites and Sasanids, many of the Afghan princedoms were influenced by Hinduism. The Hindu kings of the Shahi family were concentrated in the Kabul and Ghazni areas. Excavated sites of the period include a major Hindu Shahi temple north of Kabul and a chapel in Ghazni that contains both Buddhist and Hindu statuary, indicating that there was a mingling of these

Telephone And Telephone System, Analog telephone facsimile

2005-04-04T03:45:00.000-07:00

Further deployment of fax transmission had to await the development of improved long-distance telephone service. Between 1920 and 1923 the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) worked on telephone facsimile technology, and in 1924 the telephotography machine was used to send pictures from political conventions in Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago to New York City for publication

Turfan Depression

2005-04-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

The basin lies between

Wolf-ferrari, Ermanno

2005-04-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

The son of a German father and an Italian mother, Wolf-Ferrari studied music in Munich and then returned to Venice, where he became director of the Liceo Benedetto Marcello in 1902. He wrote Italian operas, of which five are based on the comedies of Carlo Goldoni.

Baracoa

2005-03-31T13:06:00.000-08:00

In December 1492 Christopher Columbus stopped at what is now

Juárez, Benito (pablo)

2005-03-31T11:42:00.000-08:00

National hero of Mexico, president of Mexico (1861–72), who, for three years (1864–67), fought against foreign occupation under the emperor Maximilian and who sought constitutional reforms to create a democratic federal republic.

Grafton

2005-03-30T10:10:00.000-08:00

County, western New Hampshire, U.S. It is bounded to the west by Vermont (the Connecticut River constituting the entire border) and consists of a mountainous region, with the White Mountains and a large portion of White Mountain National Forest occupying the northeastern part of the county. It is drained by the Ammonoosuc, Baker, Mascoma, and Pemigewasset rivers. Other

Art And Architecture, Oceanic, Australia

2005-03-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

The Australian continent is liberally dotted with thousands of rock-art sites. They include rock shelters, outcrops of rock, and surface sheets of rock and are decorated with painted, pecked, or engraved figurative and nonfigurative forms in a wealth of styles. These are the main testimonials to the prehistoric art of the Aborigines; the only portable works from

San Francisco

2005-03-28T23:41:00.000-08:00

City, northeastern Córdoba provincia, north-central Argentina, on the border of Santa Fé provincia at the northern edge of the Pampa. Founded in 1886 and given city status in 1915, it has been a railroad centre since the 19th century and is a commercial and manufacturing centre for an agricultural (grain and flax) and pastoral area. Light manufacturing is important, as are dairy

Biblical Literature, Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

2005-03-28T02:38:00.000-08:00

New literary documents from the intertestamental period were found in the caves of Qumran in the vicinity of the Dead Sea in the 1940s, but only a portion of them has yet been published. All the Dead Sea Scrolls were written before the destruction of the Second Temple; with the exception of small Greek fragments, they are all in Hebrew and Aramaic. The scrolls formed the library

Czetwertynski Family

2005-03-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

Also called Swietopelk-Czetwertynski Polish princely family descended from the Kievan grand prince Svyatopolk II Izyaslavich (d. 1113) of the house of Rurik. Among its prominent members was Antoni Czetwertynski (1748–94), the castellan of Przemysl and last leader of the pro-Russian Confederation of Targowica that opposed the Polish constitution of 1791; he was finally hanged as a traitor to Poland during Tadeusz Kosciuszko's

Obama, Barack, Jr.

2005-03-26T02:12:00.000-08:00

American politician who became the third African American, and the first African American male Democrat, to be elected to the U.S. Senate after the end of Reconstruction (1877). Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., was originally a goatherd in Kenya; he won a scholarship to study in the United States and eventually became a senior economist in the Kenyan

Sexton, Anne

2005-03-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

Anne Harvey attended Garland Junior College for a year before her marriage in 1948 to Alfred M. Sexton II. She studied with the poet Robert Lowell at Boston University and also worked as a model and a librarian. Although she had written some

Cheng Ch'eng-kung

2005-03-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

Cheng Ch'eng-kung was born in a small Japanese coastal town to a Japanese mother and a Chinese father, Cheng Chih-lung, a maritime adventurer who made a fortune through trade and piracy in the Taiwan Straits. Cheng

Baal

2005-03-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

God worshiped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, especially among the Canaanites, who apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon. As a Semitic common noun baal (Hebrew ba'al) meant “owner” or “lord,” although it could be used more generally; for example, a baal of wings was a winged creature, and, in the plural, baalim

Quincy

2005-03-20T15:14:00.000-08:00

City, Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on Boston Harbor, just southeast of Boston. In 1625 the site, which was settled by Captain Wollaston, was given the name Mount Wollaston, and a short time afterward, under the leadership of Thomas Morton, it was renamed Merry Mount; in 1627 Morton, an anti-Puritan, was exiled for celebrating May Day. Set off from Braintree and incorporated

Rabin, Yitzhak

2005-03-19T00:50:00.000-08:00

Robert Slater, Rabin of Israel: Warrior for Peace (1996), is a biography.

Priesthood

2005-03-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

In recent years, in Christianity especially, notwithstanding the doctrinal divergencies and modes of expression in the nature and function of the priesthood, new approaches have been made by both Catholic and Protestant theologians, liturgical scholars, and laypersons. This is particularly apparent in the ecumenical and liturgical movements in Western Christendom,

New Guinea

2005-03-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

Indra

2005-03-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

His weapons are lightning and the thunderbolt, and he is strengthened for these feats by drinks of the elixir soma, the offering of the sacrifice. Among his allies

Bruant, Libéral

2005-03-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

Libéral Bruant was the most notable of a family that produced a series of architects active in France from the 16th to the 18th century. He was the son of Sébastien and brother of Jacques, who designed the Hall of the Corporation des Drapiers,

Atkinson, Sir Harry

2005-03-16T03:47:00.000-08:00

Atkinson left England for Taranaki province, N.Z., in 1853 and attained distinction as a soldier in the wars of 1860 and 1863 against the native Maoris. As minister of defense (1864–65) in the administration

Ethiopia, The Zagwe and Solomonid dynasties

2005-03-15T02:30:00.000-08:00

As Christian shipping disappeared from the Red Sea, Aksum's towns lost their vitality. The Aksumite state turned southward, conquering adjacent, grain-rich highlands. Monastic establishments moved even farther to the south—for example, a great monastery was founded near Lake Hayk in the 9th century. Over time, one of the subject peoples, the Agew, learned Ge'ez, became

Yale School

2005-03-14T17:33:00.000-08:00

Group of literary critics at Yale University, who became known in the 1970s and '80s for their deconstructionist theories. The Yale school's skeptical, relativistic brand of criticism drew inspiration from the work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Its most prominent members were Paul de Man and J. Hillis Miller. De Man, a professor of comparative literature and author

Trachyte

2005-03-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

Light-coloured, very fine-grained extrusive igneous rock that is composed chiefly of alkali feldspar with minor amounts of dark-coloured minerals such as biotite, amphibole, or pyroxene. Compositionally, trachyte is the volcanic equivalent of the plutonic (intrusive) rock syenite. Most trachytes show porphyritic texture in which abundant, large, well-formed crystals

Canadian Rockies

2005-03-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

Segment of the Rocky Mountains, extending southeastward for about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from northern British Columbia, Canada, and forming to the south nearly half of the 900-mile (1,500-kilometre) border between the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. The Mackenzie and Selwyn mountains farther north along the border between the Northwest and Yukon territories are often included

Haas, Walter A.

2005-03-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

Haas's association with Levi Strauss & Co. began in 1914 with his marriage

China, Trade

2005-03-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

Trade constitutes a fairly small portion of China's overall economy. It became important, however, in the country's attempt to modernize its economy, especially before 1985, when China consistently ran trade surpluses. The direction of China's foreign trade has undergone marked changes since the early 1950s. In 1950 more than 70 percent of the total was accounted for by trade with

Jouvet, Louis

2005-03-11T04:12:00.000-08:00

Beginning as a pharmacist at his parents' wishes, he soon turned to his real interest, the theatre, and, after being refused admission several times to the Conservatoire in Paris because of his stuttering, made his Paris debut in

Biblical Literature

2005-03-11T03:35:00.000-08:00

History is a central element of the Old Testament. It is the subject of narration in the specifically historical books and of celebration, commemoration, and remonstration in all of the books. History in the Old Testament is not history in the modern sense; it is the story of events seen as revealing the divine presence and power. Nevertheless, it is the account of an

Tombolo

2005-03-09T22:50:00.000-08:00

One or more sandbars or spits that connect an island to the mainland. A single tombolo may connect a tied island to the mainland, as at Marblehead, Mass. A double tombolo encloses a lagoon that eventually fills with sediment; fine examples of these occur off the coast of Italy. The shallower waters that occur between an island and the mainland are the loci of such features

Ryukyu Islands

2005-03-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

Also called Nansei Islands , Japanese Ryukyu-Shoto , or Nansei-Shoto , Ryukyuan Okinawa archipelago, extending almost 400 miles (650 km) southwest from Kyushu, southern Japan, to the northern tip of Taiwan bordering the Philippine Sea (east) and the East China Sea (west). Since 1972 the islands have comprised Okinawa ken (prefecture), Japan. With a total land area of 870 square miles (2,254 square km), they consist of 55 islands and islets divided into three major groups: the Amami island

Mithra

2005-03-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Mithras, Sanskrit Mitra, in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology, the god of light, whose cult spread from India in the east to as far west as Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. (See Mithraism.) The first written mention of the Vedic Mitra dates to 1400 BC. His worship spread to Persia and, after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great, throughout the Hellenic world. In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the cult of

Zambezi River, Animal life

2005-03-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

The tiger fish is one of the few species found both above and below the Victoria Falls. Pike is predominant in the upper course of the river, as are yellowfish and barbel. Bream are now common both above and below the falls. Crocodiles abound in the Zambezi, though they generally avoid stretches of fast-running water. Hippopotamuses are also found in the upper and lower

Perry, Lilla Cabot

2005-03-08T07:13:00.000-08:00

Lilla Cabot was a descendant not only of the Boston Brahmin Cabot family but also of the equally distinguished Lowells. In 1874 she married Thomas Sergeant

Dabbling Duck

2005-03-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

Also called Dipping, Surface-feeding, Pond, River, or Freshwater Duck, any of about 38 species of Anas and about 5 species in other genera, constituting the tribe Anatini, subfamily Anatinae, family Anatidae (q.v.; order Anseriformes). They feed mainly on water plants, which they obtain by tipping-up in shallows—uncommonly by diving (with opened wings); they often forage near the shore for seeds and insects. The bill is flat and broad, the

Legaspi

2005-03-06T03:31:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Legazpi, chartered city, capital of Albay province, southeastern Luzon, Philippines, near an inlet on Albay Gulf. Founded c. 1639, it was named for Miguel López de Legazpi, conquistador and first Spanish governor general of the Philippines. The city lies at the southern base of the active volcanic Mt. Mayon, the 1815 eruption of which killed more than 1,000 people and levelled nearby Cagsawa.

Sokoto

2005-03-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

State, northwestern Nigeria. Bordering the Republic of Niger to the north, it also shares boundaries with Kebbi state to the west and south, Niger and Kaduna states to the southeast, and Katsina state to the east. Sokoto state occupies an area of short-grass savanna vegetation in the south and thorn scrub in the north. A generally arid region that gradually merges into

Water Softener

2005-03-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

Device for removing calcium and magnesium from water; water so treated will not form insoluble scale in pipes and tanks and will not form a precipitate with soaps or interfere with other cleaners. Water softeners usually consist of zeolite or an ion-exchange resin (q.v.) in a tank connected directly into the water system. The zeolite or resin contains sodium ions that

Dynamical Time

2005-03-04T22:47:00.000-08:00

The time scale of dynamical astronomy (celestial mechanics). The orbital motions of celestial bodies subject only to Newton's laws of motion and law of gravitation, as modified by relativity, proceed as a function of dynamical time. In 1952 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined a dynamical time scale named Ephemeris Time (ET), which is based on the Earth's orbital

Biblical Literature, Deliberate changes

2005-03-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

Apart from mechanical alterations of a text, many variants must have been consciously introduced by scribes, some by way of glossing—i.e., the insertion of a more common word to explain a rare one—and others by explanatory comments incorporated into the text. Furthermore, a scribe who had before him two manuscripts of a single work containing variant readings, and unable

Clapp, Cornelia Maria

2005-03-03T00:34:00.000-08:00

Clapp graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1871, and after a year of teaching elsewhere she returned to Mount Holyoke as an instructor in mathematics. Later she also taught

Ritchie, Michael

2005-03-02T01:46:00.000-08:00

American film director (b. Nov. 28, 1938, Waukesha, Wis.—d. April 16, 2001, New York, N.Y.), directed a number of notable films, including The Candidate (1972), Prime Cut (1972), and Smile (1975). Ritchie achieved prominence with his first feature film, Downhill Racer (1969), which starred Robert Redford. Redford later played the title role in The Candidate. Among Ritchie's other films were The Bad News Bears (1976), Fletch (1985), and The

Shanghai, Climate

2005-03-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

The city's maritime location fosters a mild climate characterized by minimal seasonal contrast. The average annual temperature is about 58° F (14° C); the July maximum averages about 80° F (27° C), and the average January minimum is about 37° F (3° C). About 45 inches (1,140 millimetres) of precipitation fall annually, with the heaviest rainfall in June and the lightest in December.

Wiener, Norbert

2005-02-27T02:21:00.000-08:00

Wiener, a child prodigy whose education was controlled by his father, a professor of Slavonic languages and literature

Paleocene Epoch

2005-02-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Palaeocene Epoch, major worldwide division of Early Tertiary rocks and time that began 66.4 million years ago and ended 57.8 million years ago. The earliest division of the Tertiary Period, it precedes the Eocene Epoch and follows the Cretaceous Period. Because marine rocks of the Paleocene Epoch are limited in occurrence, much of the information about the Paleocene comes from terrestrial

Fibroma

2005-02-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

Any benign tumour of fibrous tissue. Specific fibromas include nonossifying fibroma, found in the large long bones; it is relatively common in older children and young adults. Fibromas can occur in many areas of the body and may remain symptomless throughout life.

Finsen, Niels Ryberg

2005-02-26T03:12:00.000-08:00

Finsen was born into a prominent Icelandic family that was involved in the administration of

Spraying And Dusting

2005-02-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

In agriculture, the standard methods of applying pest-control chemicals and other compounds. In spraying, the chemicals to be applied are dissolved or suspended in water or, less commonly, in an oil-based carrier. The mixture is then applied as a fine mist to plants, animals, soils, or products to be treated. In dusting, as an alternative method, dry, finely powdered chemicals

Ba

2005-02-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

In ancient Egyptian religion, with ka and akh, a principal aspect of the soul; the ba appears in bird form, thus expressing the mobility of the soul after death. Originally written with the sign of the jabiru bird, and thought to be an attribute of only the god-king, the ba was later represented by a man-headed hawk, often depicted hovering over the mummies of king and populace

Cabbage

2005-02-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Vegetable and fodder plant the various forms of which are said to have been developed by long cultivation from the wild, or sea, cabbage (Brassica oleracea) found near the seacoast in various parts of England and continental Europe. The common horticultural forms of Brassica oleracea may be classified according to the plant parts used for food and the structure

Ito Jinsai

2005-02-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

Sinologist, philosopher, and educator who helped found the Kogaku (“Study of Antiquity”), which opposed the official Neo-Confucianism of Tokugawa Japan (derived essentially from the writings of the Chinese thinker Chu Hsi). He advocated a return to classical Confucian teaching. Through his hundreds of students, he exerted a powerful influence

Pigot (of Patshul), George Pigot, Baron, 1st Baronet

2005-02-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

At 17 Pigot entered the East India Company service, becoming governor and commander in chief of Madras in 1755. He stoutly defended Madras against the French in 1758–59, and, after the capture of Pondicherry (a former French enclave on the southeast

Scandinavian Literature, Development of lyric poetry

2005-02-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

Several of the best Swedish writers were connected with the development of lyric poetry. One of the most notable, Vilhelm Ekelund, was in his youth the chief exponent of Symbolism in Sweden and later, as an author of aphorisms, exerted much influence on the development of literary modernism. Among the most popular poets were Dan Andersson, Birger Sjöberg, and Hjalmar

Amapá

2005-02-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

Estado (“state”), northern Brazil. It is bounded on the north by a small portion of Suriname and by French Guiana, on the northeast by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south and west by the Brazilian state of Pará, and on the southeast by the Amazon River. Formerly a part of Pará state, Amapá was created a territory in 1943 and became a state in 1990, with its capital at Macapá (q.v.). Most of its 54,161 square

Smith, Seba

2005-02-22T04:40:00.000-08:00

A graduate of Bowdoin College, Smith founded (1829) the Portland Courier, in which the Major's fictional letters first appeared in January 1830, continuing later in the National Intelligencer until July 1853. Major Jack was a common man magnified as oracle, a Yankee

Essential Oil

2005-02-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

Distillation is the most common method

Subjective Idealism

2005-02-21T04:21:00.000-08:00

A philosophy based on the premise that nothing exists except minds and spirits and their perceptions or ideas. A person experiences material things, but their existence is not independent of the perceiving mind; material things are thus mere perceptions. The reality of the outside world is contingent on a knower. The 18th-century Anglo-Irish philosopher George

Sicilian Octave

2005-02-21T03:34:00.000-08:00

An Italian stanza or poem having eight lines of 11 syllables (hendecasyllables) rhyming abababab. The form may have originated in Tuscany about the 13th century, though little is known about its origins. The Sicilian octave was in use until the 16th century, when the madrigal overtook it in popularity.

Olympia

2005-02-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

Gambling

2005-02-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

Gambling games may vary in complexity from betting on the outcome of the toss of a coin, in which the

Jewish Religious Year

2005-02-19T11:13:00.000-08:00

Scholars have not succeeded in tracing the origin of the seven-day week, nor can they account for the origin of the Sabbath.

Mountain

2005-02-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

Landform that rises prominently above its surroundings, generally exhibiting steep slopes, a relatively confined summit area, and considerable local relief. Mountains generally are understood to be larger than hills, but the term has no standardized geological meaning. Very rarely do mountains occur individually. In most cases, they are found in elongated ranges

Adams, Léonie

2005-02-18T04:44:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Barnard College (A.B., 1922), Adams became editor of The Measure, a literary publication, in 1924. She was persuaded to publish a volume of poetry, Those Not Elect, in 1925. While living in France from 1928 to

Marketing, Packaging and branding

2005-02-17T18:36:00.000-08:00

Packaging and branding are also substantial components in the marketing of a product. Packaging in some instances may be as simple as customers in France carrying long loaves of unwrapped bread or small produce dealers in Italy wrapping vegetables in newspapers or placing them in customers' string bags. In most industrialized countries, however, the packaging

Tyrwhitt, Thomas

2005-02-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

English scholar especially notable for his work on the medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. In classical and English scholarship alike, Tyrwhitt showed the same qualities of balance, wide knowledge, and critical acumen. (He was the one man able, on linguistic grounds alone, to denounce as a forgery the poems by Thomas Chatterton purporting

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur

2005-02-16T18:47:00.000-08:00

Of Icelandic descent, Stefansson lived for a year among the Eskimo in 1906–07, acquiring an intimate knowledge of their language and culture and forming the belief that

Ray, James Earl

2005-02-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

Ray had been a small-time crook, a robber of gas stations and stores, who had served time in prison, once in Illinois and twice in Missouri, and received a suspended sentence in Los Angeles. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary on April 23, 1967; and in Memphis,

Viganò, Salvatore

2005-02-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

Viganò was born of a family of dancers and was the nephew

Barakzay Dynasty

2005-02-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

Ruling family in Afghanistan in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Barakzay brothers seized control of Afghanistan and in 1826 divided the region between them. Dost Mohammad Khan gained preeminence and founded the dynasty about 1837. Thereafter his descendants ruled in direct succession until 1929, when the reigning monarch abdicated and his cousin Mohammad Nader Khan was elected

China, Five Dynasties, Ten Kingdoms, and Sung periods

2005-02-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

Further general information is available in the following: Edward A. Kracke, Jr., Civil Service in Early Sung China, 960–1067 (1953), a monumental work; James T.C. Liu, Ou-yang Hsiu, an Eleventh-Century Neo-Confucianist, trans. from the Chinese (1967), and Reform in Sung China: Wang An-shih (1021–1086) and His New Policies (1959), both works attempting to relate general trends through historical figures; and Brian E. McKnight, Village and Bureaucracy in Southern Sung China (1971), an account coming down to the later period as well as the local scene. Jacques Gernet, Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276 (1962; originally published in French, 1959), provides vivid descriptions. See also Patricia Buckley Ebrey (ed. and trans.), Family and Property in Sung China: Yüan Ts'ai's Precepts for Social Life (1984), an excellent picture of family relations as studied in the 12th-century work by Yüan Ts'ai; Thomas H.S. Lee, Government Education and Examinations in Sung China (1985), a description of education and its relationship to the civil service; and Brian E. McKnight (trans.), The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in Thirteenth-Century China (1985), a translation of an early work on the topic.

Pembroke, William Herbert, 1st Earl Of, Baron Herbert Of Cardiff

2005-02-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

Also called (until 1551) Sir William Herbert the Earl of Pembroke of the second Herbert creation, a leading figure in the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I of England. His father, Sir Richard Herbert, was an illegitimate son of William, the 1st Earl of Pembroke of the first creation. Sir William's first wife, Anne Parr, was a sister of Catherine Parr, who married Henry VIII

Ch'i

2005-02-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

In the 7th and 6th centuries BC, Ch'i, which was located on the extreme eastern edge of the North China Plain in what is now Shantung and Hopeh provinces, began to increase in size, expanding at least sixfold by incorporating many previous “barbarian” areas into its realm.

Ariel

2005-02-13T03:50:00.000-08:00

The first international cooperative Earth satellite, launched April 26, 1962, as a joint project of agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom. Design, construction, telemetry, and launching of the 14.5-kilogram (32-lb) satellite was handled in the United States by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The United Kingdom was responsible for designing the

Graveyard School

2005-02-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

Genre of 18th-century British poetry that focused on death and bereavement. The graveyard school consisted largely of imitations of Robert Blair's popular long poem of morbid appeal, The Grave (1743), and of Edward Young's celebrated blank-verse dramatic rhapsody Night Thoughts (1742–45). These poems express the sorrow and pain of bereavement, evoke the horror of death's physical

Alizarin

2005-02-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Alizarine, a red dye originally obtained from the root of the common madder plant, Rubia tinctorum, in which it occurs combined with the sugars xylose and glucose. The cultivation of madder and the use of its ground root for dyeing by the complicated Turkey red process were known in ancient India, Persia, and Egypt; the use spread to Asia Minor about the 10th century and was introduced

Crab Apple

2005-02-11T10:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Crab, any of several small trees of the genus Malus, in the rose family (Rosaceae), native to North America and Asia. Crabs are widely grown for their attractive growth habit, spring flower display, and decorative fruit. The fragrant five-petaled, white, pink, carmine, or purplish flowers appear early in showy masses. The fruits are much smaller and more tart than the common

Stephen

2005-02-11T00:08:00.000-08:00

When

Aqa Mirak

2005-02-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

A descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and a native of Esfahan, he worked mostly in Tabriz, the capital of the Safavid empire. He knew the Persian painter Behzad, who was director of the royal library and its manager of manuscript illustration. Aqa Mirak, as one of the senior

Lithuania

2005-02-10T11:23:00.000-08:00

In the second round of voting in the presidential elections on Jan. 5, 2003, Rolandas Paksas (see Biographies), the leader of Lithuania's new populist Liberal Democratic Party, emerged the victor. The young and aggressive Paksas received 54.7% of votes, defeating the much more experienced centre-right incumbent, Pres. Valdas Adamkus, with 45.3%. Voter turnout was 52.6%. Late in the year, though,

Algebraic Geometry, Definition of a field

2005-02-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

A set of elements (e.g., a, b, and c) with two laws of composition, addition and multiplication, that obey the rules A, B, and C is called a field. Other examples of fields are the rational numbers (integers as well as all numbers obtainable as ratios of integers that are not zero, together with field properties, constituting the field Q), and the integers modulo a prime number p (the integers

France, History Of, Germans and Gallo-Romans

2005-02-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

The settlement of Germanic peoples in Roman Gaul brought people from two entirely different backgrounds into contact. Linguistic barriers were quickly overcome, for the Germans adopted Latin. At the same time, German names were preponderant. Although there were religious difficulties in those regions settled by peoples converted to Arianism (Visigoths, Burgundians),

Jackson, Andrew

2005-02-09T00:05:00.000-08:00

In 1828 Jackson defeated Adams by an electoral vote of 178 to 83 after a campaign in which personalities and slander played a larger part than in any previous U.S. national election. Jackson and his wife, Rachel, despite their long marriage, had been vilified in campaign pamphlets as adulterers. The basis was that Rachel Jackson was not legally divorced from her first husband at the time she and Jackson were wed. When they discovered their mistake they remarried, but the damage had been done. Jackson's hour of triumph was soon overshadowed by personal tragedy—his wife died at the Hermitage on December 22, 1828. Retiring and religious, she had avoided the public eye, and the scabrous attacks had hurt her deeply. Jackson had these words inscribed on her tombstone: “A being so gentle and yet so virtuous, slander might wound, but could not dishonor.” She had dreaded becoming the hostess of the President's House, saying that she would “rather be a doorkeeper in the House of God than live in that palace.” Rachel Jackson's niece, Emily Donelson, the wife of Andrew Jackson Donelson, served as the president's hostess until 1836. At times, Sarah Yorke Jackson, the wife of Andrew Jackson's adopted son, also served as his hostess.

Cosmati Work

2005-02-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

Type of mosaic technique that was practiced by Roman decorators and architects in the 12th and 13th centuries, in which tiny triangles and squares of coloured stone (red porphyry, green serpentine, and white and other coloured marbles) and glass paste were arranged in patterns and combined with large, stone disks and strips to produce geometric designs. Cosmati work

Zion

2005-02-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

City, Lake county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies along Lake Michigan, near the Wisconsin border. Zion was founded in 1901 by John Alexander Dowie as the headquarters of his Christian Catholic Church. Until 1935 it was theocratically governed, and the church controlled all business activities. The church schools were closed in 1939, after which a modern educational system was

Elgin

2005-02-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

City, Cook and Kane counties, northeastern Illinois, U.S., on the Fox River. Founded in 1835, its name derived from the Scottish hymn “The Song of Elgin.” It is located in the centre of a dairying region where Gail Borden developed condensed milk (patented 1856). Industrial growth began in 1837 with the building of a millrace and dam on the river. Diversified manufactures now include machine

Black Knot

2005-02-07T06:58:00.000-08:00

Disease of wild and cultivated plums, cherries, and apricots in North America caused by the fungus Dibotryon morbosum. Infected twigs, branches, and fruit show light brown swellings that turn velvety olive-green in late spring. By autumn, hard, rough, coal-black knots girdle and kill affected parts. Older knots, often riddled by insects, stunt and kill the tree. Black knot

Building Construction, Concrete

2005-02-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

Reinforced concrete is also a major structural material in these buildings. Indeed, outside of North America and western Europe, it is the dominant industrialized building material. Its component parts are readily available throughout the world at fairly low cost. Portland cement is easily manufactured by burning shale and limestone; aggregates such as sand

Argentina, Colonial centres

2005-02-05T18:44:00.000-08:00

San Miguel de Tucumán's leadership lasted from the latter

Levallois-perret

2005-02-04T23:51:00.000-08:00

City, Hauts-de-Seine département, Paris région, France. The city is a northwestern industrial and residential suburb of Paris and is located on the right bank of the Seine River, 4 miles (6.5 km) northwest of Notre Dame cathedral. With an area of less than 1 square mile (2.5 square km), it is connected to Paris by subway and has important automobile-manufacturing plants. Most of the garages

Ear, Human, Nerves

2005-02-04T07:49:00.000-08:00

The seventh cranial nerve, called the facial nerve, passes by a somewhat circuitous route through the facial canal in the petrous portion of the temporal bone on its way from the brain stem to the muscles of expression of the face. A small but important branch, the chorda tympani nerve, emerges from the canal into the middle ear cavity and runs forward along the inner

Heinesen, William

2005-02-04T04:30:00.000-08:00

In 1921, while studying in Copenhagen, Heinesen published a volume of lyric poetry, Arktiske Elegier (“Arctic Elegies”). He wrote three more

Ruysdael, Salomon Van

2005-02-03T23:05:00.000-08:00

Originally named de Goyer, as was his brother Isaak (also a painter and the father of Jacob van Ruisdael), Salomon entered the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke in 1628. His first dated pictures are from 1627. He spent his whole life in Haarlem,

Cubism

2005-02-03T05:29:00.000-08:00

Highly influential visual arts style of the 20th century that was created principally by the artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro, and refuting time-honoured

Ramiro Ii

2005-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

Byname Ramiro The Monk, Spanish Ramiro El Monje king of Aragon from 1134 to 1137. He was the third son of Sancho V Ramirez. His elder brother, Alfonso I the Battler, left no issue and bequeathed his kingdom to the military orders. Ramiro, who had entered a monastery and was bishop-elect of Barbastro, renounced his vows, married, and received the crown. His daughter Petronila was betrothed to the son of Count Ramón Berenguer IV of

Scandinavian Literature, Icelandic

2005-02-01T18:34:00.000-08:00

Modern Icelandic prose writing did not really develop until the late 1870s, when a group of young men, influenced by the theories of the Danish critic Georg Brandes, began their literary careers. Unfortunately, they had absorbed Brandes' ideas uncritically, which resulted in introspective, self-pitying works believed by their authors to be realistically written. The

Haliburton, Thomas Chandler

2005-02-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

Haliburton was admitted to the bar in 1820 and, as a member of the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly (1826–29), led

Sanlúcar De Barrameda

2005-02-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

Port city, Cadiz provincia, in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It lies on the south bank of the Guadalquivir River estuary, north of Cádiz city. Built on the site of Luciferi-Fani, a Roman settlement, the town was taken from the Moors in 1256 and given to the soldier Alonso Pérez de Guzmán the Good, who was its first lord and builder

Naga

2005-01-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

Sanskrit Naga (“serpent”), in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, a member of a class of semidivine beings, half human and half serpentine. They are considered to be a strong, handsome race who can assume either human or wholly serpentine form. They are regarded as being potentially dangerous but in some ways are superior to humans. They live in an underground kingdom called Naga-loka, or Patala-loka,

Scharnhorst, Gerhard Johann David Von

2005-01-30T21:19:00.000-08:00

Prussian general who developed the modern general staff system. With another reformer of army procedures, August von Gneisenau, he devised the “shrinkage system” (Krümpersystem), in which army recruits were quickly trained and sent into the reserves so that more men could be trained. This system increased the actual number of trained