MarriedStreet

Huygens' Principle

2005-03-18T22:14:00.000-08:00

A surface

Biblical Literature, Late-2nd-century canons

2005-03-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

By the end of the 2nd century, Irenaeus used the four canonical Gospels, 13 letters of Paul, I Peter, I and II John, Revelation, Shepherd of Hermas (a work later excluded from the canon), and Acts. Justin Martyr (died c. 165), a Christian apologist, wrote of the reading of the Gospels, “the memoirs of the Apostles,” in the services, in which they were the basis for sermons. In his writings he quoted

Võrtsjärv

2005-03-15T02:17:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Võrts-järv, or Virtsjärv, Russian Ozero Vyrts-yarv, lake (järv) in south-central Estonia, with an area of about 110 square miles (280 square km). Võrtsjärv forms part of the 124-mile (200-kilometre) course of the Ema River (German Embach, Lithuanian Emajõgi), which enters the lake from the south and drains it north and east into Peipsi Lake on the Estonia–Russia border. The Võrtsjärv is navigable, as is the lower course of the Ema. The lake and river

Skiing

2005-03-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

The 15th Nordic World Cup overall title for men's cross-country racing was clinched by Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan, the previous season's runner-up. Defending champion Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway was second, and Jari Isometsae of Finland placed third. The women's crown was won by Manuela Di Centa of Italy, followed by two Russians, Lyubov Yegorova (see BIOGRAPHIES) and Yelena

Talking Heads

2005-03-11T09:06:00.000-08:00

In 1974 three classmates from the Rhode Island School of Design moved to New York City and declared themselves Talking Heads. Singer-guitarist Byrne, drummer

Switzerland, Social welfare

2005-03-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

Public welfare services have developed in a typically federalistic way: first in the communes, then in the cantons, and later in the confederation. Support for the indigent remains mainly a communal task, sometimes in cooperation with the cantons; this poses particular budgetary problems for cities and small rural communities, which have the highest poverty rates.

Abyssal Plain

2005-03-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

Flat seafloor area at an abyssal depth (3,000 to 6,000 m [10,000 to 20,000 feet]), generally adjacent to a continent. These submarine surfaces vary in depth only from 10 to 100 cm per kilometre of horizontal distance. Irregular in outline but generally elongate along continental margins, the larger plains are hundreds of kilometres wide and thousands of kilometres long. In the North Atlantic the Sohm

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Parable

2005-03-05T01:59:00.000-08:00

Like fable, the parable also tells a simple story. But, whereas fables tend to personify animal characters—often giving the same impression as does an animated cartoon—the typical parable uses human agents. Parables generally show less interest in the storytelling and more in the analogy they draw between a particular instance of human behaviour (the true neighbourly

Blood Transfusion

2005-03-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

The transfer of blood into the vein of a human or animal recipient. The blood is either taken directly from a donor or is obtained from a blood bank. Blood transfusions are a therapeutic measure used to restore blood or plasma volume after extensive hemorrhage, burns, or trauma; to increase the number and concentration of red blood cells in persons with anemia in order

Parakou

2005-03-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

Town and administrative capital of Borgou province, central Benin (formerly Dahomey), West Africa. It is the terminus of the so-called Benin–Niger Railway, which was originally planned to extend to the Niger River. The railway runs northward from Cotonou, Benin's major port and commercial centre on the Gulf of Guinea, to Parakou, whence goods must be transported by road

Flodden, Battle Of

2005-02-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

(Sept. 9, 1513), English victory over the Scots, fought near Branxton, Northumberland. To honour his alliance with France (1512) and divert troops from the main English army, which was then in France under Henry VIII, James IV of Scotland crossed the border (Aug. 22, 1513) with an army of about 30,000 men supported by artillery. Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, Henry's lieutenant in the north, gathered an army

Argentina, The Pampas

2005-02-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

The principal Pampas vegetation is monte forest in the Dry Pampa and grassland in the Humid Pampa. The boundary between the Dry and Humid Pampas lies approximately along longitude 64° W. Knee-high grasses are found in the most humid areas, whereas to the north, west, and south, where precipitation decreases, tougher grasses give way to the monte of the Dry Pampa. Planted

Gandhi, Rajiv

2005-02-22T17:07:00.000-08:00

Rajiv and his younger brother Sanjay (1946–80), the sons of Feroze and Indira Gandhi, were educated at the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun. Rajiv then

Chagall, Marc

2005-02-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer. He composed his images based on emotional and poetic associations, rather than on rules of pictorial logic. Predating Surrealism, his early works, such as I and the Village (1911), were among the first expressions of

Asia, Rivers

2005-02-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

Asia is a land of great rivers. The Ob, Irtysh, Yenisey with the Angara, Lena (with the waters of the Aldan and the Vilyuy), Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma rivers all flow into the Arctic Ocean. Among rivers draining into the Pacific Ocean are the Anadyr, Amur (combined with the Sungari and the Ussuri), Huang He, Yangtze (Chang), Xi, Red, Mekong, and Chao Phraya. The Salween, Irrawaddy, Brahmaputra

Earth, Areas of glacial depression and postglacial rebound

2005-02-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Prominent negative areas of the geoid include Antarctica and northern North America centred over Hudson Bay. Both of these regions were covered with ice sheets during Pleistocene time (about 10,000 to 1,700,000 years ago), and it is believed the negative anomalies are related to a residual depression of the lithosphere that remained after the ice retreat. When an ice sheet develops

Dandolo, Enrico

2005-02-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

Dandolo's father, Vitale, had held important public positions; and during Enrico Dandolo's public life he was sent on many important missions for the Venetian government.

Cambridge Critics

2005-02-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

Group of critics who were a major influence in English literary studies from the mid-1920s and who established an intellectually rigorous school of critical standards in the field of literature. The leaders were I.A. Richards and F.R. Leavis of the University of Cambridge and Richards' pupil William Empson. In the 1920s the University of Cambridge was distinguished in many

Heilungkiang, Relief

2005-02-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

The province of Heilungkiang occupies about half of the huge Manchurian Plain, surrounded on three sides by old mountain ranges of medium elevation. Its central part is the Sungari–Nen river plain, delimited by the Greater Khingan (Ta-hsing-an) Range of Inner Mongolia on the west, the Lesser Khingan (Hsiao-hsing-an) Range on the north, and the Chang-kuang-ts'ai and Lao-yeh

Discrimination

2005-02-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

Application of discrimination procedures permits description of the sensory acuities of laboratory

Mesopotamia, History Of, The last kings of Babylonia

2005-02-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

Awil-Marduk (called Evil-Merodach in the Old Testament; 561–560), the son of Nebuchadrezzar, was unable to win the support of the priests of Marduk. His reign did not last long, and he was soon eliminated. His brother-in-law and successor, Nergal-shar-usur (called Neriglissar in classical sources; 559–556), was a general who undertook a campaign in 557 into the “rough” Cilician land, which may have

Moscoso, Mireya

2005-02-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

Moscoso was born to a poor family in a rural town. After graduating from high school, she worked as a secretary and in the early 1960s met Arnulfo Arias, a former president of Panama. She began working on his political campaigns, and on October 1, 1968, he was reelected. When he was deposed nine days later

Bourne, Francis

2005-02-03T01:01:00.000-08:00

Educated at St. Sulpice, Paris, and Louvain University, Bourne was ordained in 1884 and was appointed (1889) rector of St. John's Seminary, Wonersh, Surrey. In 1895 he became a monsignor

Smith, Kate

2005-02-01T18:24:00.000-08:00

Smith started singing before audiences as a child, and by age 17 she had decided on a career in show business. She went to New York City in 1926 and landed a role in a Broadway musical, Honeymoon Lane, the same year. In a succession of Broadway shows she had little chance

Bradbury, Ray

2005-01-29T18:50:00.000-08:00

Bradbury published his first story in 1940 and was soon contributing widely to magazines. His first book of short stories, Dark Carnival (1947), was followed by The Martian

Houston, Sam

2005-01-27T11:23:00.000-08:00

In his youth Houston moved with his family to a farm in rural Tennessee after the death of his father in 1807. He ran away in his mid-teens and lived for nearly three years with

Aesthetics, Emotion, response, and enjoyment

2005-01-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

It is natural to suppose that a spectator's response to King Lear is at least in part emotional, and that emotion plays a crucial role both in the enjoyment of art and in establishing the value of art. Moreover, it is not only art that stirs our emotions in the act of aesthetic attention: the same is or may be true of natural beauty whether that of a face or of a landscape. These

Harbour Seal

2005-01-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

Also called Common Seal, Hair Seal, or Spotted Seal (Phoca vitulina), nonmigratory, earless seal (family Phocidae) found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The harbour seal is whitish or grayish at birth and as an adult is generally gray with black spots. The adult male may attain a length and weight of about 1.8 m (6 feet) and 130 kg (290 pounds); the female is somewhat smaller. Found along coastlines and in a few freshwater lakes in Canada

Daily Mirror

2005-01-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

The Daily Mirror was founded by Alfred Harmsworth, later Viscount Northcliffe, in 1903 as a picture tabloid. It has consistently stressed the sensational, the human-interest, and the personal types of stories. Its independent stance

Respighi, Ottorino

2005-01-18T02:23:00.000-08:00

Italian composer who introduced Russian orchestral colour and some of the violence of Richard Strauss's harmonic techniques into Italian music. He studied at the Liceo of Bologna and later with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg, where he was first violist in the Opera Orchestra. From his foreign masters Respighi acquired

Morgan City

2005-01-15T22:41:00.000-08:00

Port on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, in St. Mary parish, southeastern Louisiana, U.S. It lies along Berwick Bay (bridged to Berwick) of the Atchafalaya River (there widened into Six Mile Lake), about 30 miles (50 km) west of Houma. Founded in 1850, it was incorporated (1860) as Brashear City but was renamed in 1876 for Charles Morgan, then president of the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western

Ramses Ii

2005-01-13T18:47:00.000-08:00

One measure of Egypt's prosperity is the amount of temple building the kings could afford to carry out, and on that basis the reign of Ramses II is the most notable in Egyptian history, even making allowance for its great length. It was that, combined with his prowess in war as depicted in the temples, that led the Egyptologists of the 19th century to dub him “the Great,” and that,

Forbes' Disease

2005-01-12T02:45:00.000-08:00

Also called Cori's disease , or glycogenosis type III rare hereditary disease in which the the metabolic breakdown of glycogen to the simple sugar glucose is incomplete, allowing intermediate compounds to accumulate in the cells of the liver. Affected persons lack the enzyme amylo-1,6-glucosidase, one of several enzymes involved in glycogen breakdown. Children with the disease have enlarged livers (which usually

Optical Interferometer

2005-01-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

Instrument for making precise measurements for beams of light of such factors as length, surface irregularities, and index of refraction. It divides a beam of light into a number of beams that travel unequal paths and whose intensities, when reunited, add or subtract (interfere with each other). This interference appears as a pattern of light and dark bands called

Ambrosiaster

2005-01-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

In 1527 Erasmus expressed doubts that the work was written by Ambrose. His judgment was eventually accepted by scholars, and the author is generally called Ambrosiaster

Air Law, Criminal jurisdiction

2005-01-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

Although some systems of national law still adhere to the view that ships and aircraft are part of the territory of the state the nationality of which they possess, this is merely a crude metaphor. In international law, a distinction has to be made between three types of state jurisdiction: territorial jurisdiction over national territory and all persons and things

Alizarin

2004-12-30T23:20:00.000-08:00

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

Bent, Charles

2004-12-29T16:06:00.000-08:00

After moving from Charleston, Va., to Marietta, Ohio, in 1805, the Bent family settled in St. Louis the following year. Charles and his brother William developed an interest in the fur trade, and they probably worked for John

'ayn

2004-12-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

Many a'yan during the 17th century acquired lifelong leases on tax farms and prospered financially. During

Tlaquepaque

2004-12-24T16:07:00.000-08:00

City, north-central Jalisco estado (“state”), west-central Mexico. Formerly known as San Pedro Tlaquepaque, the city lies in the temperate Guadalajara valley, approximately 5,400 feet (1,650 m) above sea level. A suburb of Guadalajara, the state capital, 7 miles (11 km) southeast, Tlaquepaque is primarily a handicrafts centre, known especially for its pottery, textiles, and hand-blown glass.

Alakol, Lake

2004-12-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

Kazak Alaköl , Russian Ozero Alakol , also called Ozero Ala-Kul salt lake in Kazakstan, 110 miles (180 km) east of Lake Balqash, near the border with the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. Lake Alakol has a drainage basin of about 26,500 square miles (68,700 square km), an area of 1,025 square miles, reaches a depth of about 148 feet (45 m), and receives the Urdzhar River (north).

Amtrak

2004-12-21T20:54:00.000-08:00

Formally National Railroad Passenger Corporation federally supported corporation that operates nearly all intercity passenger trains in the United States. It was established by Congress in 1970 and assumed control of passenger service from the nation's private rail companies the following year. Virtually all railways, with the exception of a small handful, signed contracts with Amtrak. The corporation pays the

Amadeus Vi

2004-12-19T07:45:00.000-08:00

Son of Aimone the Peaceful, count of Savoy, Amadeus ascended the throne at the age of nine. He crossed the Alps in 1348 to put down a revolt of Piedmontese cities and won a victory over rebellious inhabitants of the Valais (east of Geneva) in 1352. In 1355 he married

Soho

2004-12-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

It was an area of farmlands in the Middle Ages and was acquired by the crown in the 1530s. The community's development stems from the activities

Alamein, El-

2004-12-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

Coastal town in northwestern Egypt, about 60 miles (100 km) west of Alexandria, that was the site of two major battles between British and Axis forces in 1942 during World War II. El-Alamein is the seaward (northern) end of a 40-mile-wide bottleneck that is flanked on the south by the impassable Qattara Depression. This crucial east-west corridor became a vital defensive line held by

Argentina, The Gran Chaco

2004-12-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

The western sector of the North region, the Gran Chaco, extends beyond the international border at the Pilcomayo River into Paraguay, where it is called the Chaco Boreal (“Northern Chaco”) by Argentines. The Argentine sector between the Pilcomayo River and the Bermejo River is known as the Chaco Central. Argentines have named the area southward to latitude 30° S, where the

Biblical Literature, The Vulgate

2004-12-11T23:37:00.000-08:00

Jerome produced three revisions of the Psalms, all extant. The first was based on the Septuagint and is known as the Roman Psalter because it was incorporated into the liturgy

Esquire

2004-12-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

In England in the later Middle Ages, the term esquire (armiger) was used to denote holders of knights' estates who had not taken up their knighthood, and from this practice it became usual

Gruffydd, William John

2004-12-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Educated at the University of Oxford, Gruffydd was appointed professor of Celtic at University College in Cardiff, Wales, a position

Gyarmati, Deszö

2004-12-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

Gyarmati's first Olympic appearance came at the 1948 Games in London,

Masson, André

2004-12-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

Masson studied painting in Brussels and then in Paris. He fought in World War I and was severely wounded. He joined the emergent Surrealist group in the mid-1920s after one of his paintings had attracted the attention of the movement's leader, André Breton. Masson soon became the foremost

Oberth, Hermann (julius)

2004-11-30T00:42:00.000-08:00

The son of a prosperous physician, Oberth studied medicine in Munich, but his education was interrupted by service in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I. After being wounded in the war, he found time to pursue

China, War between Nationalists and Communists

2004-11-29T16:46:00.000-08:00

In the meantime, the Communists had created 15 rural bases in central China, and they established a soviet government, the Kiangsi Soviet, on Nov. 7, 1931. Within the soviet regions the Communist leadership expropriated and redistributed land and in other ways enlisted the support of the poorer classes. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria and an ancillary localized war

Music, Music and world view

2004-11-27T02:52:00.000-08:00

Again, music proves its protean susceptibilities in the service of disparate world views. Among humanist psychologists (such as the Americans Gordon Allport and Abraham Maslow) music may be one among other means toward self-fulfillment, integration, self-actualization; for aesthetic Existentialists (such as the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre) it is yet another

Devrient, Emil

2004-11-24T05:07:00.000-08:00

Nephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig Devrient, he made his debut in Brunswick in 1821. By way of Bremen, Leipzig, and Hamburg, he reached Dresden in 1831, where he remained associated with the court theatre there until his retirement in 1868. Devrient's greatest successes

Talara

2004-11-23T01:04:00.000-08:00

Community, Piura departmento, northwestern Peru, on the Pacific Ocean. Rebuilt and developed by the International Petroleum Company (which provided workers' housing, hospitals, and schools), it is a refining and shipping port for Peru's main oil-producing region. To the southwest, near the foot of the La Brea Mountains, is the site of the pits (where Spaniards boiled tar

Kitami-sammyaku

2004-11-18T03:03:00.000-08:00

(Japanese: Kitami Range), mountain range, northeastern Hokkaido, Japan, extending 180 mi (290 km) along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The range is basically an upwarped block except in the west, where it drops abruptly to the Teshio-gawa (Teshio River) valley. Elevations are generally between 2,500 and 3,100 ft (750 and 950 m). In the south central part of the range, however, the Wenshiri horst (block of

Korolyov

2004-11-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Korolev , formerly (1938–96) Kaliningrad city, Moscow oblast (province), Central federal district, western Russia. It lies just northeast of the city of Moscow. The area, known as Kalininsky, developed after 1928 as an industrial satellite, particularly for weapons manufacture, and dormitory town of the capital. It achieved city status and was renamed Kaliningrad in 1938. In 1996 the city was renamed in honour of the scientist

Yung-lo

2004-11-14T01:33:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Yonglo (reign name), temple name (ming) Ch'eng Tsu , or (ming) T'ai Tsung , posthumous name, or shih, Wen Ti , personal name Chu Ti third emperor (1402–24) of China's Ming dynasty, which he raised to its greatest power. He moved the capital from Nanking to Peking, which was rebuilt with the Forbidden City.

Colosseum

2004-11-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

Originally called Flavian Amphitheatre giant amphitheatre built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. Construction of the Colosseum was begun sometime between AD 70 and 72 during the reign of Vespasian; the structure was officially dedicated in AD 80 by Titus in a ceremony that included 100 days of games. Later, in AD 82, Domitian completed the work by adding the uppermost story. Unlike earlier amphitheatres, which were nearly

Boucher, François

2004-11-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

Trained by his father, a lace designer, Boucher won the Prix de Rome in 1723. He was influenced by the works of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Peter Paul Rubens, and his teacher François Le Moine (Le Moyne). Boucher's first major commission

Arsenate Mineral

2004-11-08T08:59:00.000-08:00

Any of a group of naturally occurring compounds of arsenic, oxygen, and various metals, most of which are rare, having crystallized under very restricted conditions. At the mineralogically famous Långban iron and manganese mines in central Sweden, more than 50 species of arsenate minerals have been described, many peculiar to the locality. Such compounds occur in

A Moving Habitat:

2004-11-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

About once a week the three-toed sloth of Central and South America (Bradypus variegatus) descends from the trees, where it lives among the branches. For this slow-moving mammal, the journey is a dangerous and laborious undertaking, but it is one of great importance to members of the community among and aboard the sloth. Once the sloth has reached

Dominant

2004-11-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

Chords based on the dominant had a strong tendency to move to the tonic chord, and the key built

Haley, Margaret Angela

2004-11-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

Haley attended public and convent schools and from 1876 taught in a succession of schools around Chicago. She was an early member of the Chicago Teachers' Federation, formed in March 1897, and rose quickly in the organization to become

Niue

2004-11-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

Internally self-governing island state in free association with New Zealand. It is the westernmost of the Cook Islands but is administratively separate from them. Niue lies 1,340 miles (2,156 km) northeast of Auckland and 240 miles (385 km) east of Vava'u, Tonga, in the south-central Pacific. The capital is Alofi. Area 100 square miles (260 square km). Pop. (1994 est.) 2,200.

Aldrich, Nelson W.

2004-10-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

Aldrich rose from the Providence Common Council through the Rhode Island legislature to the U.S. Congress (representative 1879–81; senator 1881–1911). Meanwhile,

Libertarianism, Nonaggression axiom

2004-10-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

According to the principle that libertarians call the nonaggression axiom, all acts of aggression against the rights of others—whether committed by individuals or by governments—are unjust. Indeed, libertarians believe that the primary purpose of government is to protect citizens from the illegitimate use of force. Accordingly, governments may not use force

Metabolism, ATP yield of aerobic oxidation

2004-10-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

The loss of the two molecules of carbon dioxide in steps [41] and [42] does not yield biologically useful energy. The substrate-linked formation of ATP accompanies step [43], in which one molecule of of ATP, is formed during each turn of the cycle. The hydrogen ions and electrons that result from steps [40], [42], [44], and [46] are passed down the chain of respiratory carriers to oxygen, with the concomitant

Sucking Louse

2004-10-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

Any small, wingless, flat insect of the suborder Anoplura, with more than 400 described species and worldwide distribution. The sucking louse has piercing and sucking mouthparts and lives on blood and tissue fluids of mammals as an ectoparasite (external parasite). The adult sucking louse, or true louse, glues her eggs, or nits, to the host's hair. The young, which resemble

Pacific Ocean, Minerals from seawater and alluvial deposits

2004-10-19T02:09:00.000-07:00

Common salt (sodium chloride) is the most important mineral obtained directly from seawater. Mexico leads the Pacific nations in salt extraction from the sea, mostly by solar evaporation. Bromine extracted from seawater is used in the food, dye, pharmaceutical, and photo industries. The United States and Japan lead in its production among Pacific riparian nations.

Jackson, Marjorie

2004-10-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

Jackson, known as the “Lithgow Flash” after her home town, was just 17 years old when she twice outran the great Dutch

Arinos River

2004-10-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

Portuguese Rio Arinos, river, west-central Brazil. It rises in the Araporé Mountains northeast of Diamantino and flows west for a short distance and then north-northwest across the Mato Grosso Plateau to its junction with the Juruena River, which is a major headstream of the Tapajós River.

'abbas I

2004-10-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

The third son of Soltan Mohammad Shah, 'Abbas came to the throne in October 1588, at a critical moment in the fortunes of the Safavid dynasty. The weak rule of his semiblind father had allowed usurpation by the amirs, or chiefs, of the Turkmen tribes, who had brought the Safavid to power and still constituted the backbone of Safavid military strength. Moreover, the intertribal factionalism

Saidpur

2004-10-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

Town, northwestern Bangladesh. A jute-processing and export centre, it is a major railway terminus containing large railway workshops. It has a college affiliated with the University of Rajshahi. Pop. (1981 prelim.) 128,085.

Arabian Desert, Resources

2004-10-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

The greatest natural resource of the Arabian Desert is its underground water supply, which—as it remains virtually unreplenished because of low rainfall—in effect consists of Pleistocene-age waters that are now being tapped. Modern techniques have been used by the governments of Arab countries to develop water sources and to irrigate soils for farming. Desalinization

Chemical Compound, Aromatics

2004-10-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

A distinctive set of physical and chemical properties is imparted to molecules that contain a functional group composed of three pairs of doubly bonded atoms (usually all carbon atoms) bonded together in the shape of a regular, planar (flat) hexagon. The hexagonal ring is usually drawn with an alternating sequence of single and double bonds. The molecule benzene

Xylene

2004-10-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

Any of three isomeric dimethylbenzenes [which have the same chemical formula, C6H4(CH3)2, but different molecular structure], used as solvents, as components of aviation fuel, and as raw materials for the manufacture of dyes, fibres, and films. The three isomers, designated ortho (o), meta (m), and para (p), differ structurally only in the location of the methyl groups. All three are

Shelepin, Aleksandr Nikolayevich

2004-10-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Shelepin joined the Communist Party in 1940 and rose rapidly in both the party and the Soviet government.

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Japan

2004-10-02T03:05:00.000-07:00

In Japan the Koji-ki (712; “Records of Ancient Matters”) and the Nihon-shoki (8th century; “Chronicles of Japan”), both of them official histories of Japan, were studded with fables, many of them on the theme of a small intelligent animal getting the better of a large stupid one. The same is true of the fudoki (local gazetteers dating from 713 and later). The form reached its height in the Kamakura

Nicaea, Council Of

2004-09-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

(325), the first ecumenical council of the Christian church, meeting in ancient Nicaea (now Iznik, Tur.). It was called by the emperor Constantine I, an unbaptized catechumen, or neophyte, who presided over the opening session and took part in the discussions. He hoped a general council of the church would solve the problem created in the Eastern church by Arianism, a heresy first

Cacops

2004-09-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

Extinct amphibian genus found as fossils in Early Permian rocks in North America (the Early Permian Epoch lasted from 286 to 258 million years ago). Cacops reached a length of about 40 cm (16 inches). The skull was heavily constructed, and the otic notch, the region in the hind part of the skull that housed the hearing mechanism, was extremely large and closed behind by a bony bar, indicating

Maccready, Paul Beattie

2004-09-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

MacCready was a national champion model-plane builder in the 1930s and received his pilot's license at the age of 16. He graduated with a B.S. degree in physics from

Hugh Iii

2004-09-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Succeeding his cousin Hugh II as king of Cyprus in 1267, he obtained the disputed crown of the dwindling crusader kingdom of Jerusalem two years later. The efforts of his rival, Charles I of Anjou, king of Sicily, who also claimed his rights to be a king of Jerusalem, and the resistance

Dome

2004-09-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

In architecture, hemispherical structure evolved from the arch, usually forming a ceiling or roof. Domes first appeared as solid mounds and in techniques adaptable only to the smallest buildings, such as round huts and tombs in the ancient Middle East, India, and the Mediterranean. The Romans introduced the large-scale masonry hemisphere. The dome exerts thrusts

Rome, Emergence of the Roman commune

2004-09-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

The Roman revolution in 1143 had fundamentally the same goals as other contemporaneous communal movements in northern Italy: freedom from episcopal (in Rome's case, papal) authority and control of the surrounding countryside. The revival of the Roman Senate and other echoes of the Classical past perhaps owed something to the preaching of Arnold of Brescia, a priest

Turban

2004-09-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

Early Persians wore a conical cap sometimes encircled by bands of cloth, which perhaps may be considered one of the origins of the turban. The turban did not become common among the Turks, however, until after the capture of Constantinople in 1453, when the Ottoman sultan

Glissant, édouard

2004-09-13T08:14:00.000-07:00

Glissant was a disciple and fellow countryman of the poet Aimé Césaire, who founded the Negritude movement to promote an African culture free of all colonial influences. Glissant recorded the awakening of colonized peoples

Seattle

2004-09-10T18:24:00.000-07:00

Chief city of Washington, U.S., on a neck of land between Elliott Bay (Puget Sound) and Lake Washington (a 24-mile [39-kilometre] stretch of freshwater), seat (1853) of King county and the largest metropolis of the Pacific Northwest. A port of entry and gateway to the Orient and Alaska, it is surrounded by areas of great natural beauty; to the west, the Olympic Mountains provide protection

Stephen F. Austin State University

2004-09-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

Public, coeducational institution of higher education in Nacogdoches, Texas, U.S. It comprises the Graduate School, the Arthur Temple College of Forestry, and colleges of applied arts and sciences, business, education, fine arts, liberal arts, and sciences and mathematics. Bachelor's and master's degrees are offered in a range of fields, and doctoral degrees are available

Haber, Fritz

2004-09-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

German physical chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1918) for his development of a method of synthesizing ammonia. With Carl Bosch, he invented a process for the large-scale production of ammonia for use in nitrogen fertilizer.

Aaron

2004-09-03T06:02:00.000-07:00

Scholars have long been aware that the figure of Aaron as it is now found in the Pentateuch, or first five books of the Old Testament, is built up from several sources or layers of traditions. According to Julius Wellhausen, a German biblical scholar, and his followers, the Yahwist source was the oldest one, followed in order by the Elohist, Deuteronomist, and Priestly

Dôn

2004-09-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

In Celtic mythology, leader of one of two warring families of gods; according to one interpretation, the Children of Dôn were the powers of light, constantly in conflict with the Children of Llyr, the powers of darkness. In another view, the conflict was a struggle between indigenous gods and those of an invading people. Although Dôn and other Welsh deities had Irish

Uberlândia

2004-08-30T04:59:00.000-07:00

City, western Minas Gerais estado (“state”), Brazil. It lies along the Bom Jardim River, which is a tributary of the Araguari River (also known as the Velhas River), at 2,802 feet (854 m) above sea level. It was given city status in 1892. Uberlândia is a trade centre for a primarily agricultural and pastoral hinterland whose chief crops include cotton, corn (maize), rice, and feijão (beans). The city

Antelope

2004-08-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

Antelopes are even-toed, hoofed mammals that

Elizabeth I

2004-08-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth's early years were not auspicious. She was born at Greenwich Palace, the daughter of the Tudor king Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry had defied the pope and broken England from the authority of the Roman Catholic church in order to dissolve his marriage with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had borne him a daughter, Mary. Since the king

Tiel

2004-08-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Formerly Thiel, gemeente (commune), Gelderland provincie, central Netherlands, on the Waal River, west-southwest of Arnhem. Chartered in 1200, Tiel developed as a medieval port and market town and became a member of the Hanseatic League. The town now has a horticultural school, serves a fruit-growing (cherries, apples, and pears) region, and has some light industries. Pop. (1992 est.) 32,643.

Antigone

2004-08-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

In Greek legend, the daughter born of the unwittingly incestuous union of Oedipus (q.v.) and his mother, Jocasta. After her father blinded himself upon discovering that Jocasta was his mother and that, also unwittingly, he had slain his father, Antigone and her sister Ismene served as Oedipus' guides, following him from Thebes into exile until his death near Athens. Returning

Mahar

2004-08-21T03:57:00.000-07:00

A caste-cluster, or group of many endogamous castes, living chiefly in Maharashtra state, India, and in adjoining states. They mostly speak Marathi, the official language of Maharashtra. In the early 1980s the Mahar community was believed to constitute about 9 percent of the total population of Maharashtra—by far the largest, most widespread, and most important of all the officially

Yersin, Alexandre

2004-08-19T03:57:00.000-07:00

Yersin studied medicine at the universities of Marburg and Paris and bacteriology with Émile Roux in Paris and Robert Koch in Berlin. In 1888 he and