FalseWhistle

Sudbury

2005-04-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

Town (“parish”), Babergh district, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour. An important wool town during the Middle Ages, it has many half-timbered houses and three Perpendicular-style churches. Sudbury was first incorporated in 1554. As the worsted industry declined, silk weaving and coconut matting were introduced. Milling and brewing

Quadrille

2005-04-05T03:29:00.000-07:00

Fashionable late 18th- and 19th-century dance for four couples in square formation. Imported by English aristocrats in 1815 from elite Parisian ballrooms, it consisted of four, or sometimes five, contredanses; like the contredanse (q.v.), the quadrille depended more on the cooperative execution of intertwining figures, or floor patterns, than on intricate stepwork. Each of the

Isomerase

2005-04-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Any one of a class of enzymes that catalyze reactions involving a structural rearrangement of a molecule. Alanine racemase, for example, catalyzes the conversion of L-alanine into its isomeric (mirror-image) form, D-alanine. An isomerase called mutarotase catalyzes the conversion of a-d-glucose into b-d-glucose. cf. ligase, lyase.

Fighter Aircraft

2005-04-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Aircraft designed primarily to secure control of essential airspace by destroying enemy aircraft in combat. The opposition may consist of fighters of equal capability or of bombers carrying protective armament. For such purposes fighters must be capable of the highest possible performance in order to be able to outfly and outmaneuver opposing fighters. Above

Cardiovascular Disease, Cardiac pacemakers

2005-04-02T13:54:00.000-08:00

The normal rhythm of the heart is generated by spontaneous electrical activity in cells in an area of the heart called the sinoatrial node. The electrical activity is usually at a rate of about 70 beats per minute at rest and is transmitted to the pumping chambers of the heart, the atria, and the ventricles through a specialized conducting system. The electrical activity

Chess, Morphy and the theory of attack

2005-04-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

From 1750 to 1769 a group of masters from Modena, Italy—Ercole del Rio, Giambattista Lolli, and Domenico Ponziani—criticized Philidor's ideas. They believed that he had exaggerated the importance of the pawns at the expense of the other pieces and had minimized the power of a direct attack on the enemy king. By analyzing the play of 16th-century Italian masters, the Modena school

Gentil, émile

2005-04-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

A naval officer, Gentil led an expedition from the French Congo down the Chari (Shari) River to Lake Chad in 1895–97, establishing a French protectorate

Lead Processing

2005-04-01T05:19:00.000-08:00

Once the ore is removed from veins (narrow channels) or lodes (roughly spherical deposits) in the Earth, usually at depths of about 60 metres, the ore is treated at concentrating mills. Here the ore is finely crushed, sometimes to particle diameters of less than 0.1 millimetre (0.004 inch), and then treated by one of several mineral concentration processes. Such processes are designed

Jacana

2005-03-31T00:48:00.000-08:00

The seven or eight species of the genus Jacana include the American jacana (Jacana

Awdl

2005-03-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

Plural Awdlau, in Welsh verse, a long ode written in cynghanedd (a complex system of alliteration and internal rhyme) and in one or more of the 24 strict bardic metres, though only 4 bardic metres are commonly used. The awdl was, by the 15th century, the vehicle for many outstanding Welsh poems. It remains the predominant form in the annual national eisteddfod (bard and minstrel competition);

Nagercoil

2005-03-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

City, southernmost Tamil Nadu state, southern India. Nagercoil lies west of the Aramboli Gap in the Western Ghats. It controls the major routes between Madras and Trivandrum and is a commercial centre for a rich agricultural area. Its name, meaning “snake temple,” indicates the early significance of the town's Saiva temple. Although historically a part of the Hindu kingdom

Earth Sciences

2005-03-29T07:50:00.000-08:00

Great Dyke

2005-03-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

Narrow series of long, low ridges and hills in Zimbabwe, trending for about 320 miles (515 km). Consisting of four igneous complexes, they increase in height northward to about 1,500 feet (460 m) above the plateau surface in the Umvukwe Range, west of Harare (formerly Salisbury), the Zimbabwean capital. Minerals found in the Great Dyke include gold, silver, chromium, platinum, and nickel. Mica,

Gaines, William Maxwell

2005-03-28T04:41:00.000-08:00

Gaines served in the U.S. Army during World War II, which interrupted his studies at New York University (B.S., 1948). He inherited EC (Educational Comics)

Nordenskiöld, Erland

2005-03-27T04:43:00.000-08:00

Son of the scientist-explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld and cousin of explorer-geographer

Nephroblastoma

2005-03-25T11:58:00.000-08:00

Also called embryoma , or Wilms' tumour malignant renal (kidney) tumour of early childhood. In 75 percent of the cases, the tumour grows before the age of five; about two-thirds of the instances are apparent by two years of age. The tumour grows rapidly and can approach the weight of the rest of the body. It rarely appears in adults. In its early stages the nephroblastoma causes no symptoms. Later, symptoms may indicate

Tseng-tzu

2005-03-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

Tseng-tzu was highly influential in reaffirming the Confucian emphasis on the virtue of hsiao

Frederick V

2005-03-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

King of Denmark and Norway (1746–66) from the death of his father, Christian VI. The reign of this likable but ineffective king was marked by Danish neutrality in the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and a consequent improvement in the nation's foreign trade; by a narrow escape from war with Russia (1762); and by government-sponsored reforms in farming methods (from

Boufflers, Louis-françois, Duc De (duke Of)

2005-03-23T23:03:00.000-08:00

Born into an ancient Picard family, he entered the French army in 1662 and distinguished himself as a commander of the royal dragoons during the Dutch War (1672–78). Boufflers became a marshal of France in 1693 during the War of the Grand Alliance (1689–97) between France and other major European

Furniture, The American colonies

2005-03-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

Information in inventories and

Dynamite

2005-03-23T03:05:00.000-08:00

Blasting explosive, patented in 1867 by the Swedish physicist Alfred Nobel. Dynamite is based on nitroglycerin but is much safer to handle than nitroglycerin alone. By mixing the nitroglycerin with kieselguhr, a porous siliceous earth, in proportions that left an essentially dry and granular material, Nobel produced a solid that was resistant to shock but readily

Gielgud, Sir John

2005-03-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

In full Sir Arthur John Gielgud English actor, producer, and director, who is considered one of the greatest performers of his generation on stage and screen, particularly as a Shakespearean actor. He was knighted in 1953 for services to the theatre. (Click here to hear Gielgud reading from “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and “The

North Germanic Languages, Reformation and Renaissance

2005-03-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

The many local dialects that exist today developed in the late Middle Ages, when the bulk of the population was rural and tied to its local village or parish, with few opportunities to travel. The people of the cities developed new forms of urban speech, coloured by surrounding rural dialects, by foreign contacts, and by the written languages. The chanceries in which

Biblical Literature, The Letter of Paul to the Philippians

2005-03-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

In its present canonical form Philippians is, according to several scholars, a later collection of fragments of the correspondence of Paul with the congregation in Philippi that was founded by Paul himself. The first of the two major difficulties leading to this conclusion concerning redaction of the letter is created by a discrepancy between chapters 2 and 3—i.e.,

Cabrera, Ramón

2005-03-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

After the death (1833) of Ferdinand VII, those who supported the claim to the throne of Ferdinand's brother, Don Carlos, against that of Ferdinand's daughter, Queen Isabella II, rose in rebellion; Cabrera became a leading insurgent, soon dominating the

Daily Express

2005-03-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

Since its founding in 1900, the Express aggressively appealed to a mass readership; it is a perennial competitor with other popular dailies for circulation leadership, which it not infrequently claims. Its determination

Apport

2005-03-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

In occultism, a material object that arrives suddenly and mysteriously through the powers of a medium. Often the arrival of an apport may require its passage through other material objects. Apports usually occur during a séance (q.v.) and may involve living or inanimate objects. The apporting of human beings is sometimes called transportation. Spiritualists explain

Alabama, Drainage

2005-03-18T23:41:00.000-08:00

The Cumberland Plateau region drains to the northwest through the Tennessee River and the often deep valleys of its tributaries, with much water retained in three large, scenic lakes formed in the 1930s by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The rest of the state is drained southward through broader, lazier valleys. The Coosa and the Tallapoosa rivers join north of Montgomery

Nation

2005-03-18T02:22:00.000-08:00

In medieval universities, a group of students from a particular region or country who banded together for mutual protection and cooperation in a strange land. In some universities nations were responsible for educating and examining students. Each one was governed by its own proctor, who was elected for terms varying from one month (at the University of Paris) to

Angiolini, Gasparo

2005-03-18T00:02:00.000-08:00

In 1757 he became ballet master of the Vienna court opera house, where his first ballet dramas frequently relied upon gesture to convey plot. In 1761, however, Angiolini collaborated with the composer Cristoph Gluck to produce Don

Sabine, Wallace Clement (ware)

2005-03-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Ohio State University in 1886, Sabine did graduate work at Harvard University, where he later joined the faculty. A brilliant researcher, he enjoyed teaching and never bothered to get his doctorate; his papers were modest in number but exceptional

Black Humour

2005-03-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

Also called Black Comedy, writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones. Though in 1940 the French Surrealist André Breton published Anthologie de l'humour noir (“Anthology of Black Humour,” frequently enlarged and reprinted), the term did not come into common use until the 1960s. Then it was applied to the works of the novelists Nathanael West, Vladimir Nabokov, and Joseph Heller.

Amati Family

2005-03-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

Andrea (c. 1520–c. 1578), the founder of the Cremona school of violin making, was perhaps originally influenced by the work of slightly earlier makers from Brescia. His earliest-known violins are dated about 1564. In essentials, they set the style for all the models made by later members of the family and,

Visconti, Matteo I

2005-03-16T07:38:00.000-08:00

Installed as captain of the people in 1287 with the help of his great-uncle Ottone Visconti, archbishop of Milan, Matteo succeeded in extending his six-month term to five years and in being several times reelected. In 1294 the German king Adolf of Nassau

San Antonio

2005-03-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

San Antonio was founded May 1, 1718, when a Spanish military expedition from Mexico established

Gracias

2005-03-15T02:33:00.000-08:00

City, southwestern Honduras. It lies in the valley of the Mejocote River, at the foot of Las Minas Hill in the Celaque Mountains. Founded in 1536, it is one of the oldest cities in Honduras. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was a major mining and administrative centre, but it declined in the 18th century. Destroyed in 1915 by an earthquake, it has been rebuilt. Gracias is now the commercial

Binchy, Maeve

2005-03-13T14:21:00.000-08:00

Educated at University College, Dublin (B.A., 1960), Binchy taught school in Dublin from 1961 to 1968, when she began her career as a reporter for the daily

Arhat

2005-03-13T02:15:00.000-08:00

The state of an arhat is considered in the Theravada tradition to be the proper goal of a Buddhist. Four stages of attainment are described in

Sangallo Family

2005-03-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Giuliano da Sangallo (1445?–1516) was an architect, sculptor, and military

Mills, Florence

2005-03-11T08:08:00.000-08:00

Born into poverty, Mills early demonstrated a talent for singing and dancing. Under the name “Baby Florence,” she

Lord Howe Island

2005-03-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

Island dependency of New South Wales, Australia, situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, 436 miles (702 km) northeast of Sydney. Volcanic in origin, it has an area of 7 square miles (17 square km). The island is well wooded but has little arable land. National parks cover 70 percent of the island, which harbours rare vegetation and bird life. It was discovered in 1788 and named after Admiral

Antarctica, Climate

2005-03-11T06:03:00.000-08:00

The unique weather and climate of Antarctica provide the basis for its familiar appellations—Home of the Blizzard and White Desert. By far the coldest continent, Antarctica has winter temperatures that range from -128.6° F (-89.2° C), the world's lowest recorded temperature, measured at Vostok Station (Russia) on July 21, 1983, on the high inland ice sheet to -76° F (-60° C) near sea level. Temperatures

Quantum Mechanics

2005-03-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

Science dealing with the behaviour of matter and light on the atomic and subatomic scale. It attempts to describe and account for the properties of molecules and atoms and their constituents—electrons, protons, neutrons, and other more esoteric particles such as quarks and gluons. These properties include the interactions of the particles with one another and

Haakon Vi Magnusson

2005-03-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

Byname Haakon Magnusson The Younger, Norwegian Håkon Magnusson Den Yngre king of Norway (1355–80) whose marriage to Margaret, daughter of the Danish king Valdemar IV, in 1363 paved the way for the eventual union (1397) of the three major Scandinavian nations—Denmark, Norway, and Sweden—the Kalmar Union. Haakon was deeply embroiled throughout his reign in political conflicts with Sweden, Denmark, and the cities of the north German trading confederation,

Cagayan De Oro

2005-03-09T10:05:00.000-08:00

City, northern Mindanao, Philippines. It lies along the Cagayan River near the head of Macajalar Bay. After its establishment as a mission station in the 17th century, it was fortified by the Spaniards. Cagayan de Oro was chartered as a city in 1950 and has become the transportation and commercial hub of northern Mindanao. Its international airport is a major stopover for

Hebrew Literature

2005-03-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

In the 18th century the conservative mystical movement of Hasidism spread rapidly over all eastern Europe except Lithuania. There, Elijah ben Solomon of Vilna, a writer of unusually wide scope, advocated a better graded course of Talmudic training. Shneur Zalman of Ladi created the highly systematized Habad Hasidism, which was widely accepted in Lithuania. The Musar

Pyryatyn

2005-03-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

Russian Piryatin , also spelled Piriatin city and centre of a rayon (sector), Poltava oblast (province), Ukraine, on the Uday River. Pyryatyn dates at least from 1155, when it is first documented, and was incorporated in 1781. Before the Revolution of 1917 it was an administrative centre and later became a railway junction. Today it has varied industries, including furniture, building materials, and foodstuffs. Pop. (1991 est.) 18,300.

Cosmic Ray

2005-03-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

A high-speed particle—either an atomic nucleus or an electron—that travels throughout the Milky Way Galaxy, including the solar system. Some of these particles originate from the Sun, but most come from sources outside the solar system and are known as galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Cosmic-ray particles that arrive at the top of the Earth's atmosphere are termed primaries;

Alipore

2005-03-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Alipur town, West Bengal state, northeastern India. A southern suburb of Calcutta included within the city municipality, it has major industries, including printing and bookbinding, cement manufacture, oilseed milling, and general engineering works. Alipore is the site of zoological-horticultural gardens and of Belvedere House, onetime residence of the former British

Jacob, François

2005-03-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

Jacob received his M.D. degree (1947) and a doctorate in science (1954) from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Science, respectively, in Paris. Most of the work of Jacob,

Benda, Frantiek

2005-03-06T14:17:00.000-08:00

The eldest son of Jan Jirí Benda and his wife Dorota Brixi, both talented musicians, Benda studied under Johann Gottlieb Graun and joined the orchestra of Frederick II the Great (then crown prince). On Frederick's accession (1740) to the Prussian

Ae

2005-03-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

After attending the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, where he met the poet William Butler Yeats, Russell

La Fontaine, Jean De

2005-03-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

La Fontaine's many miscellaneous writings include much occasional verse in a great variety of poetic forms and dramatic or pseudodramatic pieces such as his first published work, L'Eunuque (1654), and Climène (1671), as well as poems on subjects as different as Adonis (1658, revised 1669), La Captivité de saint Malc (1673), and Le Quinquina (1682). All these are, at best, works of uneven quality. In relation

Insurance, Group annuities

2005-03-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

An annuity in the literal sense is a series of annual payments. More broadly it may be defined as a series of equal payments over equal intervals of time. A life annuity, a subclass of annuities in general, is one in which the payments are guaranteed for the lifetime of one or more individuals. A group annuity differs from an individual annuity in that the annuity payments

Ulanova, Galina Sergeyevna

2005-03-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

Russian ballet dancer (b. Jan. 8, 1910, St. Petersburg, Russia--d. March 21, 1998, Moscow, Russia), was considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. She possessed an excellent technique, a lyrical grace, and the ability to submerge herself in the characters she portrayed and communicate their humanity to audiences. Ulanova, the daughter of dancers, was taught first by her mother

Brooks, Louise

2005-03-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

Brooks was the daughter of a lawyer, and she danced with the Denishawn company in 1922–24 and appeared in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies on Broadway in 1925. She made her film debut that same year,

Education, History Of, Other German theorists

2005-03-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

In the history of pedagogy there is no period of such fruitfulness as the 19th century in Germany. In addition to Herbart, Froebel, Pestalozzi (in German Switzerland), and their followers, there were scores of the most important writers, philosophers, and theologians contributing their ideas on education—including Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, G.W.F.

Ahmad Musa

2005-03-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

Painter active at the court of the Il Khans at Tabriz. He is said to have learned painting from his father and to have “drawn the veil from the face of painting and invented the art of the Persian miniature.” He was active under Abu Sa'id (ruled 1316–35), the last of the Mongol sultans in fact as well as name. He illustrated a Kalila wa Dimna (book of animal fables)

Ando Shoeki

2005-03-02T01:20:00.000-08:00

Ando was a native of Akita. He practiced medicine at Hachinohe, in the present Aomori prefecture, but became prominent as a social thinker in the 1750s. Ando was critical of the feudal society

Escrivá De Balaguer, Josemaría, Saint

2005-03-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

In full Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás Spanish prelate of the Roman Catholic church, founder in 1928 of Opus Dei, a Catholic organization of laymen and priests claiming to strive to live Christian lives in their chosen professions. By the time of Escrivá's death in 1975, its members numbered some 60,000 in 80 countries, and its critics charged it with

Alimentary Paste

2005-03-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

A shaped and dried dough prepared from semolina, farina, wheat flour, or a mixture of these with water or milk and with or without egg or egg yolk. See pasta.

Ibn Ishaq

2005-03-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

Ibn Ishaq was the grandson of an Arab prisoner captured by Muslim troops in Iraq and brought to Medina, where he was freed after accepting Islam. Ibn Ishaq's father and two uncles

Armstrong, Louis

2005-02-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

Armstrong grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz was very young. As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in a boys quartet. In 1913 he was sent to the Colored

Gafencu, Grigore

2005-02-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

Educated at Geneva and Paris, Gafencu entered journalism after World War I. In 1924 he became editor and publisher of Argus, a leading economic periodical, and during the 1930s founded Timpul, which soon became

Tung Chung-shu

2005-02-27T16:39:00.000-08:00

As a chief minister to the emperor Wu (c. 140–87) of the Han dynasty, Tung was chiefly responsible for the

Cultural Revolution

2005-02-26T19:17:00.000-08:00

In full Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Wade-Giles romanization Wu-ch'an Chieh-chi Wen-hua Ta Ke-ming, Pinyin Wuchanjieji Wenhua Dageming, upheaval launched by Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong during his last decade in power (1966–76) to renew the spirit of the Chinese revolution. Fearing that China would develop along the lines of the Soviet model and concerned about his own place in history, Mao threw China's cities into turmoil in a monumental effort to reverse the historic processes

Arunachal Pradesh, Climate

2005-02-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

The climate of Arunachal Pradesh varies with topography and altitude. The foothill zone is subtropical and has a hot and humid climate; in the lower valleys, maximum summer temperatures reach 95° F (35° C), while winter minimums drop below 57° F (14° C). Annual rainfall in the state averages about 80 inches (2,000 millimetres), falling mostly between April and September; in East and West Siang districts

Molcho, Solomon

2005-02-26T05:33:00.000-08:00

The son of Marrano parents (Portuguese or Spanish Jews forced to become Christians), Pires attained the position of royal secretary in a Portuguese high court of justice. When an Arabian adventurer, David Reubeni, arrived in Portugal, Pires became possessed by mystic

Crowe, Dame Sylvia

2005-02-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

British landscape architect who created designs for gardens at nuclear power stations, colleges, churchyards, reservoirs, office buildings, and new towns and wrote a number of books on the subject; she was created C.B.E. in 1967 and advanced to D.B.E. in 1973 (b. Sept. 15, 1901--d. June 30, 1997).

Christian, William

2005-02-24T23:22:00.000-08:00

Christian was the third son of Ewan Christian, one of the deemsters (judges) of the Isle of Man. In 1648 Christian was appointed to the post of receiver general by the 7th Earl of Derby, lord of the Isle of Man. In 1651 Derby left for England to fight with the armies of Charles II against the forces

Epistemology, Perception and knowledge

2005-02-24T00:11:00.000-08:00

To a great extent the epistemological interests of analytic philosophers in the 20th century have been concentrated upon the relationship between knowledge and perception. The major figures in this development have been Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, H.H. Price, C.D. Broad, A.J. Ayer, and H.P. Grice. Although their views differed considerably—Russell, Broad, and Ayer were phenomenalists,

Cetacean, Feeding adaptations

2005-02-23T21:24:00.000-08:00

Before cetaceans evolved aquatic adaptations, they had a fully differentiated set of teeth (heterodont dentition), including incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. As the animals became more adapted to aquatic locomotion and lost the ability to manipulate food with their forelimbs, they started grabbing their food and swallowing it whole. In toothed

Selayar

2005-02-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Salayar, or Selajar, also called Kabia, largest of an island group off the southwestern tip of Celebes (Sulawesi), constituting Selayar kabupaten (regency), administered from Makasar as part of Sulawesi Selatan provinsi (“province”), Indonesia. The other islands are Pasi, Bahuluang, Pulasi, and Tambulongang. The islands are mountainous, but fertile lowlands exist on Selayar and cover 259 square miles (671 square km)

Radar, Antennas

2005-02-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

A widely used form of radar antenna is the parabolic reflector, the principle of which is shown in cross section in Figure 4 (A). A horn antenna or other small antenna is placed at the focus of the parabola to illuminate the parabolic surface of the reflector. After being reflected by this surface, the electromagnetic energy is radiated as a narrow beam. A paraboloid, which

Sackville

2005-02-21T22:31:00.000-08:00

Town, Westmorland county, southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It lies near the Nova Scotia border, 27 miles (43 km) southeast of Moncton. Three French villages occupied the site about 1720, but these were destroyed with the capture of nearby Fort Beauséjour (Fort Cumberland) and the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755. Resettled in 1761 by New England immigrants, the community was named after

Performing Arts, Iberia.

2005-02-21T19:37:00.000-08:00

Spain's major international success was Pedro Almodóvar's Hable con ella (Talk to Her), an idiosyncratic reflection on solitude and communication. Spanish directors showed a new concern for social subjects, exemplified in Chus Gutiérrez's Poniente, about the exploitation of immigrant agricultural workers, and Fernando León de Aranoa's Los lunes al sol (Mondays

Asceticism

2005-02-21T11:54:00.000-08:00

In all strictly ascetic movements, celibacy (q.v.) has been regarded as the first commandment. Virgins and celibates emerged among the earliest Christian communities and came to occupy a prominent status. Among the earliest Mesopotamian Christian communities, only the celibates were accepted as full members of the church, and in some religions only celibates have

Roman à Clef

2005-02-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

(French: “novel with a key”), novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly disguised as fictional characters. The tradition goes back to 17th-century France, when fashionable members of the aristocratic literary coteries, such as Mlle de Scudéry, enlivened their historical romances by including in them fictional

Sea Spider

2005-02-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

Most pycnogonids have four pairs of long legs attached to four trunk segments. The body size ranges from 3 millimetres ( 1/8 inch) in

Kean, Charles (john)

2005-02-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

The son of the famed actor Edmund Kean, he was educated at Eton and made his debut as Young Norval in Douglas in London in 1827. He toured the provinces extensively but first won general acceptance during an American tour in 1830. Returning to

Earth

2005-02-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

The works by William K. Hartmann and Ron Miller, The History of Earth: An Illustrated Chronicle of an Evolving Planet (1991), lavishly illustrated; Preston Cloud, Oasis in Space: Earth History from the Beginning (1988); and Jonathan Weiner, Planet Earth (1986), the companion volume to a PBS television series, are good introductions to the planet for the general reader. An older but excellent summary of the historical development of plate tectonics is the book by Ursula B. Marvin, Continental Drift: The Evolution of a Concept (1973). Virgil L. Sharpton and Peter D. Ward (eds.), Global Catastrophes in Earth History: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Impacts, Volcanism, and Mass Mortality (1990), is a technical but definitive collection of papers on the role of giant impacts in the Earth's history. Earth (bimonthly), published in Waukesha, Wis., is for the general reader.

Kadamba Family

2005-02-18T07:28:00.000-08:00

Their chroniclers claim that the family migrated from northern India, but other records suggest that they were indigenous to Kuntala (Northern Kanara). An early inscription, the accuracy of which is unknown, describes the dynastic

Fylde

2005-02-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

Borough (district), administrative and historic county of Lancashire, England. It lies on the north bank of the estuary of the River Ribble at the Irish Sea, just east of the resort of Blackpool. Fylde borough is part of the Fylde geographic region, a low coastal plain 18 miles (29 km) wide between the Ribble and Morecambe Bay to the north. It is an area of undulating terrain containing

Paulo Afonso Falls

2005-02-17T08:01:00.000-08:00

Portuguese Cachoeira De Paulo Afonso, series of rapids and three cataracts in northeastern Brazil on the São Francisco River along the Bahia-Alagoas border. Lying 190 miles (305 km) from the river's mouth, the falls have a total height of 275 feet (84 m) and a width of less than 60 feet (18 m). With an average water discharge of 100,000 cubic feet (3,000 cubic m) per second, the falls are the site of a large hydroelectric station.

Denmark

2005-02-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

Officially Kingdom of Denmark , Danish Kongeriget Danmark , Faroese Kongaríkidh Danmark , Greenlandic Danmarkip Nâlagauvfia country occupying the peninsula of Jutland, which extends northward from the centre of continental western Europe, and an archipelago of more than 400 islands to the east of the peninsula. Of the country's total land area of 16,639 square miles (43,094 square km), the largest part, 11,497 square miles (29,777 square km), is Jutland; the largest of the islands are Zealand (Sjælland; 2,876 square miles [7,449 square

Anthem

2005-02-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

At first, unaccompanied choral writing, or

Morocco, Decline of traditional government (18301912)

2005-02-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

During the French invasion of Algeria in 1830, the sultan of Morocco, Moulay (Mawlay) Abd ar-Rahman (1822–59), briefly sent troops to occupy Tlemcen but withdrew them after French protests. The Algerian leader Abdelkader in 1844 took refuge from the French in Morocco. A Moroccan army was sent to the Algerian frontier; the French bombarded Tangier on August 4, 1844, and Essaouira (Mogador) on August

Ukemochi No Kami

2005-02-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

According to the legend recounted in the Nihon shoki (“Chronicles of

Tegal

2005-02-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

Kotamadya (municipality) and port Jawa Tengah provinsi (“province”), central Java, Indonesia, located on the Java Sea about 160 miles (257 km) east-southeast of Jakarta. Roads and railway link it with Cirebon on the west, Semarang on the east, and Kroya and Yogyakarta on the south and southeast. Its population is mostly Javanese, and Islam is the dominant religion. Tegal is a centre for

Caucasian Languages, Linguistic characteristics

2005-02-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

Correspondences between sounds and meanings in words and word elements provide a basis for considering the Kartvelian languages as being closely related and descended from a common ancestral language (a protolanguage).

Shabonee

2005-02-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

By birth an Ottawa Indian, Shabonee married the daughter of a Potawatomi chief and succeeded him as tribal leader. Although an adherent

Amnesia

2005-02-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

The condition also may be traced to severe

Kodaira

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

City, Tokyo Metropolis (to), Honshu, Japan, in the Musashino Plateau, on the Shinjuku Line (railway). The surrounding area was developed as an agricultural region after the construction of a water supply system in the mid-1600s. The long, rectangular fields were planted with mulberry trees (for silk production) in the early 20th century, and Kodaira grew as a residential suburb

Earth Sciences, Foundations of oceanography

2005-02-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

In 1807 Thomas Jefferson ordered the establishment of the U.S. Coast Survey (later Coast and Geodetic Survey and now the National Ocean Survey). Modeled after British and French agencies that had grown up in the 1700s, the agency was charged with the responsibilities of hydrographic and geodetic surveying, studies of tides, and preparation of charts. Beginning in 1842 the U.S. Navy

Daniel Romanovich

2005-02-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

Son of Prince Roman Mstislavich, Daniel was only four years old when his father, who had united Galicia and Volhynia, died in a battle against the Poles (1205). Not until 1221 did Daniel begin to overthrow other pretenders

Rhythm

2005-02-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

Attempts to define rhythm in music have produced much disagreement,

Tzu-jan

2005-02-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

(Chinese: “naturalness”), in Chinese Taoism, an ideal state of human existence that results from living in complete harmony with the forces of nature. Taoists, observing that everything in the world has its natural state, strive to attain a state of complete spontaneity in order to become what nature intended them to be. As a consequence, life becomes exceedingly simple;

Eakins, Thomas

2005-02-10T23:59:00.000-08:00

Lloyd Goodrich, Thomas Eakins: His Life and Work (1933), is the principal monograph on Eakins. Other books of interest on the subject are Fairfield Porter, Thomas Eakins (1959); and Sylvan Schendler, Eakins (1967). The largest collection of works by Thomas Eakins is to be found in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There are also substantial collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Ben Tre

2005-02-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

The surrounding region is devoted largely to irrigated rice and coconuts. Other crops include dates, corn

Epistemology, Philosophy of mind and epistemology

2005-02-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

In the late 1970s a series of developments occurred in a variety of intellectual fields that promise to cast new light on the nature of the human mind. There have been explosive advances in neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, neurobiology, artificial intelligence, and computer studies. These have resulted in a new understanding of how seeing works, how the mind