SeriousCurtain

Estate Agent London

2006-10-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Robert Irving Burns specialise in London Commercial and Residential property services, including estate agent london and estate agent central london. Their centrally located ground floor offices, minutes from Oxford Circus offer an ideal marketing base for your property.

Skelmersdale

2005-03-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

Town, West Lancashire district, administrative and historic county of Lancashire, England, on the western periphery of the older industrial town of Wigan. During the early 10th century Scandinavians settled in the area, naming it Skjalmar's Dale. In Domesday Book (1086) it was noted as a small agricultural hamlet. Between 1861 and 1881 coal mining began, and the town grew in importance.

Derbyshire Dales

2005-03-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

The Romans mined lead in the area between Wirksworth and Castleton, and lead mining continued until the 19th century. Cotton textiles became important when Sir Richard Arkwright built the first water-powered cotton-spinning

Fuchs, Sir Vivian Ernest

2005-03-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

In 1929 and 1930–31 Fuchs participated in expeditions to East Greenland and the East African lakes, respectively, serving as a geologist. Between 1933 and 1934 he led the Lake Rudolf–Rift Valley Expedition

Kohat

2005-03-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

Town, south-central North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The town lies just north of the Kohat Toi River at the entrance to the Kohat Pass, through which a military road was opened in 1901. The new town lies at some distance from the original 14th-century town, traditionally said to have been founded by the Buddhist raja Kohat. It is connected by rail with Thal and the main rail

Chan I

2005-03-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

Chan succeeded his uncle, King Dharmarajadhiraja (Thommoreachea). After quelling rebellions inspired by a pretender to the throne, he was crowned

Crusca Academy

2005-03-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

Founded by five members of the

Puerto De San José

2005-03-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

Port town, south-central Guatemala, situated along the Pacific Ocean. Opened in 1853 and now the nation's third largest port, it is a roadstead with a long wharf; passengers and cargo are transferred from ships anchored 1 mile (1.6 km) offshore. San José handles a considerable portion of Guatemala's imports, especially petroleum; the port's chief exports are molasses, coffee, cotton,

East Aurora

2005-03-01T00:06:00.000-08:00

Village, Erie county, western New York, U.S. It lies 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Buffalo and, oddly enough, 90 miles (145 km) west of Aurora. Settled in 1804, it was incorporated as Willink in 1849 and as East Aurora in 1874. Inspired by the English designer William Morris and his communal Kelmscott Press, the editor and publisher Elbert Hubbard established the Roycroft Press in East Aurora in 1893; he later

Samarkand Rug

2005-02-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

Handwoven floor covering that was once marketed through the ancient city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan but is actually produced by Kyrgyz or Uzbek tribeswomen or in the towns of Khotan (Ho-t'ien), Kashgar, and Yarkand in Sinkiang, China. Except for their colouring, the general effect of these rugs is more Chinese than Middle Eastern. See Kashgar rug; Khotan rug.

Henle, Friedrich Gustav Jacob

2005-02-24T04:10:00.000-08:00

While a student of the German physiologist Johannes Müller at the universities of Bonn (M.D., 1832) and Berlin (1832–34), Henle

Hadron

2005-02-23T04:56:00.000-08:00

In physics, any of the subatomic particles that are built from quarks and thus react through the agency of the strong nuclear force. The hadrons embrace mesons (e.g., pions and kaons), baryons (e.g., protons, neutrons, and sigma particles), and their many resonances. All observed subatomic particles except bosons (e.g., photons, W particles, and Z particles) and leptons (e.g., electrons,

Fishhook Cactus

2005-02-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

Mammillaria, native from southwestern North America to the Caribbean, Colombia, and Venezuela, is a large and complex genus of about 150 species. Its species are

Itapicuru River

2005-02-19T02:17:00.000-08:00

River, Maranhão estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil. The river rises in several headstreams in the Itapicuru mountain range. It arches northeastward to Caxias and thence northwestward, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean through São José Bay, southeast of São Luís Island. The river's total length is approximately 750 miles (1,200 km), of which about 400 miles (640 km) are navigable.

Steinhart Aquarium

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

Public aquarium in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, noted for its innovative displays. The facility was opened in 1923 and is administered by the California Academy of Sciences. Besides having about 5,000 specimens of some 350 species of fish, the aquarium maintains a collection of more than 200 kinds of reptiles and amphibians, along with 3 species of marine mammals and 60 species of

Andean Community

2005-02-14T02:59:00.000-08:00

CAN's Andean

Argonaut

2005-02-12T01:50:00.000-08:00

First submarine to navigate extensively in the open sea, built in 1897 by the American engineer and naval architect Simon Lake. Designed to send out divers rather than to sink ships, the Argonaut was fitted with wheels for travel on the bottom of the sea and had an airtight chamber with a hatch that could be opened to the sea when the air pressure of the chamber and of the water

Fabricius Luscinus, Gaius

2005-02-11T22:48:00.000-08:00

Originally from Aletrium in Latium, Fabricius settled in Rome and c. 285 negotiated a dispute for the Romans with the people of Tarentum. He was consul in 282 and 278 and censor in 275. During the first consulship he rescued Thurii from defeat

Block And Tackle

2005-02-08T01:22:00.000-08:00

Combination of a flexible rope, or cable, and pulleys commonly used to augment pulling force; it can be used to lift heavy weights or to exert large forces in any direction. In the Figure there are four freely rotating pulleys, two on the upper block, which remains fixed, and two on the lower block, which moves up as the load W is lifted; one end of the rope is anchored to the upper

Christian Reformed Church In North America

2005-02-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

Protestant denomination that developed in the United States from a group that separated in 1857 from the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church (now the Reformed Church in America) and called itself the True Holland Reformed Church. It was strengthened in 1882 when joined by other dissenters from the Reformed Church in America who believed that the parent church should reject

Hancock, Joy Bright

2005-02-05T01:39:00.000-08:00

Joy Bright enlisted in the Naval Reserve after graduating from the Pierce School of Business Administration in Philadelphia in 1918. From 1919 she worked as a civilian for the U.S. Navy at various stations and at the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C.

Zacatecas

2005-02-02T02:48:00.000-08:00

Estado (“state”), north-central Mexico. It is bordered by Coahuila on the north, San Luis Potosí on the east, Aguascalientes and Jalisco on the south, and Durango on the west. Its territory lies wholly within the central plateau and is traversed by several mountain ranges. The average elevation in the state is about 7,700 feet (2,350 m), and the climate is dry and generally healthful, being

Eichler, August Wilhelm

2005-01-31T18:25:00.000-08:00

Eichler studied mathematics and natural science at the University of Marburg (Ph.D., 1861). He then went to Munich, where he became a private assistant to the naturalist Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, with whom he edited Flora

Babashoff, Shirley

2005-01-29T22:28:00.000-08:00

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Babashoff won silver medals in the 100- and 200-metre freestyle events and competed on the gold-medal-winning U.S. team in the 400-metre freestyle relay. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, she again

Biblical Literature, On the modern secular age

2005-01-27T22:26:00.000-08:00

The assumption of many people is that the Bible has lost much of its importance in a secularized world; that is implied whenever the modern period is called the post-Judeo-Christian era. In most ways the label is appropriate. The modern period seems to be a time in which unprecedented numbers of people have discarded traditional beliefs and practices of both Judaism

Tractor

2005-01-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

High-power, low-speed traction vehicle and power unit mechanically similar to an automobile or truck but designed for use off the road. The two main types are wheeled, which is the earliest form, and continuous track. Tractors are used in agriculture, construction, road building, etc., in the form of bulldozers, scrapers, and diggers. A notable feature of tractors in many

Mclean, Jackie

2005-01-23T08:26:00.000-08:00

From a musical family, McLean became known as a fine altoist in his teens and first recorded in 1951, with Miles Davis, playing “Dig” (also called “Donna”), a McLean theme that became a jazz standard. McLean played in Charles Mingus' and Art Blakey's groups, then

Einsiedeln

2005-01-21T21:55:00.000-08:00

French Notre-dame-des-ermites, town, Schwyz canton, northeast central Switzerland, on the right bank of the Alp stream, northeast of Schwyz city. It developed around the Benedictine abbey, founded in 934. The abbey became a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in 1274 and belonged to Schwyz after 1386. Its wooden statue, the “Black Virgin” (which owes its name to the discoloration caused by the candles burned before

Smith Sound

2005-01-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

The sound was discovered in 1616 by William Baffin and named for Sir Thomas Smythe (Smith), promoter of voyages to find a Northwest Passage. It was not until the mid-19th century that any explorer reached

Gobi

2005-01-17T00:12:00.000-08:00

Information on the Gobi is available in surveys of explorations in the area: Jack Autrey Dabbs, History of the Discovery and Exploration of Chinese Turkestan (1963), a comprehensive introduction with a bibliography; and Sven Hedin, Central Asia and Tibet, trans. from Swedish, 2 vol. (1903, reissued 1969), and Across the Goby Desert (1931, reprinted 1968; originally published in Swedish, 1928). Other records of archaeological and geographic explorations in the area include Aurel Stein, Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China, 2 vol. (1912, reprinted 1987), and On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks: Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia and North-Western China (1933, reissued 1971); Owen Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China (1940, reprinted 1988); Paul Pelliot, Les Grottes de Touen-Houang: peintures and sculptures bouddhiques des époques des Wei, des T'ang, et des Song, 6 vol. in 4 (1914–24); Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia (1980); and Basil Davidson, Turkestan Alive: New Travels in Chinese Central Asia (1957). Specific treatments of the Gobi are Mildred Cable, The Gobi Desert (1942, reprinted 1987); and Alonzo W. Pond, Climate and Weather in the Central Gobi of Mongolia (1954). An overview of the contemporary economic and social situation is presented in Terry Cannon and Alan Jenkins (ed.), The Geography of Contemporary China: The Impact of Deng Xiaoping's Decade (1990).

Earth Sciences

2005-01-15T17:25:00.000-08:00

The broad aim of the Earth sciences is to understand the present features and the past evolution of the Earth and to use this knowledge, where appropriate, for the benefit of humankind. Thus the basic concerns of

Rivière, Jacques

2005-01-13T04:50:00.000-08:00

Writer, critic, and editor who was a major force in the intellectual life of France in the period immediately following World War I. His most important works were his thoughtful and finely written essays on the arts. In 1912 a collection of these essays was published as Études; a second such collection, entitled Nouvelles études (“Further

Acriflavine

2005-01-11T05:54:00.000-08:00

Dye obtained from coal tar, introduced as an antiseptic in 1912 by the German medical-research worker Paul Ehrlich and used extensively in World War I to kill the parasites that cause sleeping sickness. The hydrochloride and the less irritating base, neutral acriflavine, both are odourless, reddish-brown powders used in dilute aqueous solutions primarily as topical

Diplomacy, New styles of diplomacy

2005-01-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

One result of the breakdown of old premises, mainly in new states, was that diplomatic immunity was breached, and diplomacy became a hazardous career. Disease was no longer the chief killer of diplomats, nor was overindulgence at court; the new hazards were murder, maiming, and kidnapping. Diplomats were a target because they represented states and symbolized privileged

Bradley, Omar N(elson)

2005-01-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

Bradley graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1915. He served as commandant of the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Ga.,

Levine, Jack

2005-01-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

Trained first at the Jewish Welfare Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and later at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Levine also studied at Harvard University from 1929 to 1931. From 1935 to 1940 he was intermittently part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Kikuyu

2005-01-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

The Kikuyu moved into their modern territory from the northeast in the 17th–19th

Alexander Iii

2005-01-02T22:49:00.000-08:00

Russian in full Aleksandr Aleksandrovich emperor of Russia from 1881 to 1894, opponent of representative government, and supporter of Russian nationalism. He adopted programs, based on the concepts of Orthodoxy, autocracy, and narodnost (a belief in the Russian people), that included the Russification of national minorities in the Russian Empire

Theobromine

2005-01-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

Diuretic drug and major alkaloidal constituent of cocoa. Theobromine is a xanthine alkaloid, a methylxanthine, as are caffeine and theophylline, but it differs from them in having little stimulatory action upon the central nervous system. The stimulant effect of cocoa results from the caffeine that it contains rather than from the theobromine.

Jabiru

2004-12-31T01:18:00.000-08:00

(species Jabiru mycteria), a typical stork of the New World, ranging from Mexico to Argentina. The jabiru belongs to the stork family, Ciconiidae (order Ciconiiformes). It is mostly white, with the naked skin of the head and upper neck black and red. The unusually heavy bill is slightly upturned. The jabiru is one of the largest American flying birds, reaching a length of 140 cm

Goncharova, Natalya

2004-12-31T00:23:00.000-08:00

The daughter of an aristocratic family, Goncharova studied painting and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow. After an early preoccupation

Kubovy, Aryeh Leon

2004-12-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

After settling in Israel (1948), Kubovy served that country in diplomatic posts in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and several South American countries. He was chairman of Yad Vashem (Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority)

Quicksand

2004-12-29T06:12:00.000-08:00

State in which saturated sand loses its supporting capacity and acquires the character of a liquid. Quicksand is usually found in hollows at the mouths of large rivers or along flat stretches of streams or beaches where pools of water become partially filled with sand and an underlying layer of stiff clay or other dense material prevents drainage. Mixtures of

Gelada

2004-12-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

(Theropithecus gelada), large baboon-like monkey, family Cercopithecidae, differing from true baboons (Papio) in having the nostrils some distance from the tip of the muzzle. The gelada, or lion baboon, is a stocky animal with white eyelids, brown fur, a tufted tail, and a naked pink chest. The male bears a long, heavy mane and may be more than 70 centimetres (28 inches) long, excluding

Wild Ginger

2004-12-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

Canadian wild ginger,

Papeete

2004-12-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

Commune, capital of French Polynesia, lying on the northwest coast of Tahiti. A gracious tropical city with tall palms and abundant flowers, Papeete is one of the largest urban centres in the South Pacific. Its excellent harbour made it, by 1829, a place of trade and a favourite port of call for whalers. After annexation by the French (1880), it was made the seat of the governor, and in

Mondrian, Piet

2004-12-24T17:57:00.000-08:00

Original name Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan painter who was an important leader in the development of modern abstract art and a major exponent of the Dutch abstract-art movement known as De Stijl (“The Style”). In his mature paintings, Mondrian used the simplest combinations of straight lines, right angles, primary colours, and black, white, and gray.

Kamenshek, Dorothy

2004-12-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

Kamenshek showed promise as an outfielder with a local softball league by the time she was 17. A scout for the newly created All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) persuaded her to try out in Chicago.

O'brien, Fitz-james

2004-12-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

O'Brien was the son of a lawyer. He ran through his inheritance in two years in London, where he began to work in journalism. In 1852 he moved

Rovigo

2004-12-21T03:24:00.000-08:00

Landmarks include the octagonal Church of the Beata Vergine del Soccorso (1594), called La Rotonda, with paintings

Libya, Settlement patterns

2004-12-19T23:53:00.000-08:00

Libya is divided into three regions—the western region (formerly Tripolitania province), the eastern region (formerly Cyrenaica province), and the southern region (formerly Fezzan province). Two-thirds of the population lives in the western region, the majority in Tripoli and other cities along the coast and on the Nafusah Plateau. About 20 percent of the people live in

Mckenzie, Robert (trelford)

2004-12-19T05:56:00.000-08:00

Canadian-born British political scientist and television commentator on electoral politics. In the latter role, McKenzie popularized to the British public the word psephology (the study of votes) and the idea of “swing” votes, using a device he called a “swingometer” to show the shifting fortunes of the major parties during the announcement

Awacs

2004-12-18T16:56:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation of Airborne Warning And Control System, a mobile, long-range radar surveillance and control centre for air defense. The system, as developed by the U.S. Air Force, is mounted in a specially modified Boeing 707 aircraft. Its main radar antenna is mounted on a turntable housed in a circular rotodome 9 m (30 feet) in diameter, elliptical in cross-section, and 1.8 m deep at its centre. The radar system can detect, track, and identify

Carnatic Music

2004-12-16T09:37:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Karnatic Music, music of southern India (generally south of the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh state) that evolved from ancient Hindu traditions and was relatively unaffected by the Arabic and Iranian influences that, since the late 12th and early 13th centuries, as a result of the Islamic conquest of the north, have characterized the Hindustani music of northern India. In contrast

Oak

2004-12-15T23:44:00.000-08:00

Many plants commonly called “oak” are not Quercus species—e.g., African oak, Australian oak, bull oak, Jerusalem oak, poison oak, river oak, she-oak,

Insurance, Suretyship

2004-12-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

Surety contracts are designed to protect businesses against the possible dishonesty of their employees. Surety and fidelity bonds fill the gap left by theft insurance, which always excludes losses from persons in a position of trust. A bond involves three contracting parties instead of two. The three parties are the principal, who is the person bonded; the obligee,

Chicago Defender

2004-12-14T03:33:00.000-08:00

Founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott, the Chicago Defender originally was a four-page weekly newspaper. Like

Mitral Insufficiency

2004-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Also called Mitral Regurgitation, inability of the mitral valve to prevent the flow of blood back from the left ventricle, or lower chamber of the heart, into the left atrium, or upper chamber. Normally, the valve permits blood to flow from the atrium to the ventricle but prevents its return. Most often, the inability of the mitral valve to close adequately is caused by scarring from rheumatic heart disease;

Vreeland, Diana Dalziel

2004-12-11T22:29:00.000-08:00

Diana Dalziel was the daughter of a Scottish father and an American mother in whose home the leading artists of the day were frequent guests. In 1914 the

Saint

2004-12-11T18:05:00.000-08:00

A holy person believed to have a special relationship to the sacred as well as moral perfection or exceptional teaching abilities. The phenomenon is widespread in the religions of the world, both ancient and contemporary. Various types of religious personages have been recognized as saints, both by popular acclaim and official pronouncement, and their influence

Sorrento

2004-12-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Latin Surrentum, town and archiepiscopal see, Napoli provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies on a peninsula separating the Bay of Naples, which it faces, from the Gulf of Salerno, south-southeast of Naples. The backbone of the peninsula is formed by the Lattari Mountains, which culminate in Mount Sant'Angelo (4,734 feet [1,443 m]). Probably of Greek origin, the town was the ancient Surrentum,

Henle, Friedrich Gustav Jacob

2004-12-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

While a student of the German physiologist Johannes Müller at the universities of Bonn (M.D., 1832) and Berlin (1832–34), Henle

Latitudinarian

2004-12-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

Any of the 17th-century Anglican clerics whose beliefs and practices were viewed by conservatives as unorthodox or, at best, heterodox. After first being applied to the Cambridge Platonists, the term was later used to categorize churchmen who depended upon reason to establish the moral certainty of Christian doctrines rather than argument from tradition. Limiting

Ibn Al-'arabi

2004-12-06T23:48:00.000-08:00

Ibn al-'Arabi was born in the southeast of Spain, a man of pure Arab

Business And Industry Review

2004-12-05T19:27:00.000-08:00

The buoyant economy and the continued growth in consumer confidence contributed to strong gains in advertising spending in 1997. Worldwide advertising on all media, including direct mail and the Yellow Pages in telephone directories, was expected to climb 6.2% to $411.5 billion in 1997, according to Robert J. Coen, McCann-Erickson Worldwide's senior vice president in charge of forecasting.

Tsonga

2004-12-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Tsonga were formerly organized as independent peoples, each occupying its own territory and named for a powerful, dominant patrilineage. Early

Mito

2004-12-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

Capital, Ibaraki Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, on the left bank of the Naka-gawa (Naka River). During the Heian era (794–1185) Mito developed around a Yoshida shrine, and its first castle was built during the Kamakura era (1192–1333). The city changed hands several times during the 15th and 16th centuries; in 1609 it became a fief of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa family, one of the three branches of that

Cyrankiewicz, Józef

2004-12-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

Cyrankiewicz attended Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he became secretary of the local branch of the Polish Socialist Party (PSP) in 1935. During World War II he was captured by German forces (1939), but he escaped and worked

Ataturk Dam

2004-11-30T22:38:00.000-08:00

Dam on the Euphrates River in southeastern Turkey, the centrepiece of the Southeastern Anatolia Project. The Ataturk Dam is the largest in a series of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric stations built on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the 1980s and '90s in order to provide irrigation water and hydroelectricity to arid southeastern Turkey. Completed in 1990, the Ataturk Dam is one of

Hertfordshire

2004-11-29T19:58:00.000-08:00

Administrative and historic county of southern England, adjoining Greater London to the south. The administrative county and the historic county cover slightly different areas. The administrative county comprises 10 districts: East Hertfordshire, North Hertfordshire, Three Rivers, and Welwyn Hatfield; the boroughs of Broxbourne, Dacorum, Hertsmere, Stevenage

Ithna 'ashariyah

2004-11-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

Each of the imams—'Ali, his sons Hasan and Husayn, 'Ali Zayn al-'Abidin, Muhammad al-Baqir, Ja'far as-Sadiq, Musa al-Kazim, 'Ali ar-Rida, Muhammad al-Jawad, 'Ali al-Hadi, Hasan al-'Askari, and Muhammad

Adwa

2004-11-27T09:46:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Adowa , Italian Adua town, northern Ethiopia. Adwa lies on the east-west highway between Aksum and Adi Grat at its junction with the road north to Asmara (Asmera), in Eritrea. Adwa is a market centre (grains, honey, hides, coffee) for the Tigray people. The town is located 10 miles (16 km) west of an area of fantastic volcanic formations. On March 1, 1896, Emperor Menilek II defeated an Italian force there. Nearby

Daguerreotype

2004-11-26T04:02:00.000-08:00

First successful form of photography, named for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre of France, who invented the technique in collaboration with Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce in the 1830s. Daguerre and Niepce found that if a copper plate coated with silver iodide was exposed to light in a camera, then fumed with mercury vapour and fixed (made permanent) by a solution of common salt,

Cohesion

2004-11-26T03:11:00.000-08:00

In physics, the intermolecular attractive force acting between two adjacent portions of a substance, particularly of a solid or liquid. It is this force that holds a piece of matter together. Intermolecular forces act also between two dissimilar substances in contact, a phenomenon called adhesion. These forces originate principally because of coulomb (electrical)

Watanabe Osamu

2004-11-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

Watanabe won his first national championship at the age of 19 and defended this title four times (1960–64) while attending Chuo University in Tokyo. He startled observers

Rowan

2004-11-23T07:01:00.000-08:00

A deciduous tree, Sorbus aucuparia; it is also called the European mountain ash, or quickbeam. See mountain ash.

Resia Pass

2004-11-23T05:51:00.000-08:00

Italian Passo Di Resia, German Reschenpass, or Reschenscheideck, pass south of the Austrian-Italian border and just east of the Swiss frontier. It is 4,934 feet (1,504 m) high and about 1 mile (1.6 km) long and separates the Unterengadin section of the Inn River valley, Austria, from the Venosta Valley or Adige River valley, Italy. The pass marks the divide between the watersheds of the Adriatic and Black seas and between the Rhaetian and Ötztal Alps. Just

Tzu-kung

2004-11-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Zigong, city in central Szechwan Province (sheng), China. Tzu-kung is a prefecture-level municipality (shih), which was formed in 1939 by the merger of Kung-ching—a great salt-producing district with a history dating to the 7th century AD—and the rapidly developing town of Tzu-liu-ching. The city is situated on the Ching Ho (river), a tributary of the T'o Chiang (river), and the area is connected

Capsian Industry

2004-11-21T02:28:00.000-08:00

A Mesolithic (8000 BC–2700 BC) cultural complex prominent in the inland areas of North Africa. Its most characteristic sites are in the area of the great salt lakes of what is now southern Tunisia, the type site being Jabal al-Maqta', near Qafsah (Capsa, French Gafsa). Although the tool kit of the Capsian is a classic example of the industries of the late Würm Glacial Period, and, while it is apparently

Deva

2004-11-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Hunedoara judet (county), west-central Romania, on the banks of the Mures River, at an elevation of 590 feet (180 m). The town is dominated by Citadel Hill (1,217 feet), shaped like a truncated cone, which affords a commanding view of the Mures valley. Atop the hill are the ruins of a citadel, built in the 13th century at the time of the Mongol invasions. The city grew in the protective

Zambezi River, Physiography

2004-11-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Zambezi rises out of a marshy bog near Kalene Hill, Zambia, about 4,800 feet (1,460 metres) above sea level, and flows some 20 miles before entering Angola, through which it runs for more than 175 miles. In this first section of its course, the river is met by more than a dozen tributaries of varying sizes. Shortly after reentering Zambia, the river flows over the Chavuma Falls and enters

Illinois Institute Of Technology

2004-11-17T19:05:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Chicago, Ill., U.S. It comprises the Armour College of Engineering and Science, the Lewis College of Liberal Arts, the Institute of Design, the Stuart School of Business, the Chicago-Kent College of Law, the Graduate School, and the College of Architecture. In addition to undergraduate studies, the institute offers

Encyclopaedia, China

2004-11-17T01:51:00.000-08:00

The contribution from the East to the history of encyclopaedias is distinctive and covers a longer period than that of the West. The Chinese have produced encyclopaedias for approximately 2,000 years, but traditionally they differ from the modern Western encyclopaedia in that they are mainly anthologies of significant literature with some elements of the dictionary.

Levi Ben Gershom

2004-11-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

In 1321 Levi wrote his first work, Sefer ha-mispar (“Book of the Number”), dealing with arithmetical operations, including extraction of roots. In De sinibus, chordis et arcubus (1342; “On Sines, Chords, and Arcs”) he presented an original derivation of the sine theorem for plane triangles

Spain, Literature

2004-11-12T05:12:00.000-08:00

In the 9th century there flourished such court poets as 'Abbas ibn Nasih, 'Abbas ibn Firnas, Yahya al-Ghazal, and the knight Sa'id ibn Judi. Towering above all these, however, was Muhammad ibn Hani', nicknamed the “Mutanabbi of the West” (Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi was a 10th-century poet of Iraq), who by virtue of his religious ideas was obliged to forsake his native land and enter into the service of the

Peter The Hermit

2004-11-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

Peter reputedly visited the Holy

Arabian Desert

2004-11-09T03:34:00.000-08:00

Great desert region occupying almost the entire Arabian Peninsula. Covering an area of about 900,000 square miles (2,300,000 square km), it is bordered on the north by the Syrian Desert, on the northeast and east by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the southeast and south by the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and on the west by the Red Sea. A large part of the Arabian Desert lies within

Altman, Robert

2004-11-07T18:41:00.000-08:00

Unconventional and independent American motion-picture director whose works emphasize character and atmosphere over plot in exploring themes of innocence, corruption, and survival. Perhaps his best-known film was his first and biggest commercial success, the antiwar comedy M*A*S*H (1970), set in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during

Chancellorsville, Battle Of

2004-11-04T05:54:00.000-08:00

(May 1–5, 1863), in the American Civil War, bloody assault by the Union army in Virginia that failed to encircle and destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Following the “horror of Fredericksburg” (December 13, 1862), the Confederate army of General Robert E. Lee and the Union force under General Joseph Hooker had spent the winter facing each other across the Rappahannock River

Radiation

2004-11-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

Either the process by which energy is emitted from a source and propagated through the surrounding medium or the energy involved in this process. Familiar examples of radiant energy include light (a form of electromagnetic radiation) and sound (a form of acoustic radiation). Both electromagnetic and acoustic radiations are commonly described as waves that can

Diffraction

2004-10-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

The spreading of waves around obstacles. Diffraction takes place with sound; with electromagnetic radiation, such as light, X-rays, and gamma rays; and with very small moving particles such as atoms, neutrons, and electrons, which show wavelike properties. One consequence of diffraction is that sharp shadows are not produced. The phenomenon is the result of interference

Philanthropic Foundation

2004-10-30T02:18:00.000-07:00

A nongovernmental, nonprofit organization, with assets provided by donors and managed by its own officials and with income expended for socially useful purposes. Foundation, endowment, and charitable trust are terms used interchangeably to designate these organizations, which can be traced far back in history. They existed in the ancient civilizations of the

East Indiaman

2004-10-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

Large sailing vessel of the type built from the 16th to the 19th century for the trade between Europe and southern Asia. The first were Portuguese and Dutch; English Indiamen appeared late in the 16th century and eventually came to dominate the trade. The ships varied in size from about 400 to 1,500 tons and more; often they were larger than contemporary men-of-war. They were three-masted

Fracture

2004-10-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

In mineralogy, appearance of a surface broken in directions other than along cleavage planes. There are several kinds of fractures: conchoidal (curved concavities resembling shells—e.g., flint, quartz, glass); even (rough, approximately plane surfaces); uneven (rough and completely irregular surfaces, the commonest fracture type); hackly (sharp edges and jagged points

Biblical Literature, The Gothic version

2004-10-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

The Gothic version was produced in the mid-4th century by Ulfilas, a Christian missionary who also invented the Gothic alphabet. It constitutes practically all that is left of Gothic literature. The translation of the Old Testament has entirely disappeared except for fragments of Ezra and Nehemiah. Though a Greek base is certain, some scholars deny the attribution

France, History Of, The conquest of Burgundy

2004-10-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

In spite of these partitions, the Frankish kings continued their conquests. One of their primary concerns was to extend their dominion over the whole of Gaul. It took two campaigns to overcome the Burgundian kingdom. In 523 Clodomir, Childebert I, and Chlotar I, as allies of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, moved into Burgundy, whose king, Sigismund, Theodoric's son-in-law,

Florian

2004-10-18T01:52:00.000-07:00

Latin in full Marcus Annius Florianus Roman emperor from June to September 276. The brother, by a different father, of the emperor Tacitus, he at once seized power on the death of his brother. Although his action was tolerated by the Senate and the armies of the West, the legions in Syria promoted their own general, Probus. A civil war broke out but ended in the sudden death of Florian, either at the hands of

Aesthetics, India

2004-10-15T03:47:00.000-07:00

The disparagement of the sensory realm as mere illusion (“the veil of Maya”), characteristic of much Indian religion, went hand in hand with a philosophy of embodiment (karma), which gave a distinctive role to art both as an instrument of worship and as an earthly delight. The legends of the great god Krishna abound in exaggerated fantasies of erotic and physical power;

France, History Of, The abolition of feudalism

2004-10-13T17:57:00.000-07:00

Of course the violence of peasant insurgency worried the deputies of the National Assembly; to some it seemed as if the countryside were being engulfed by anarchy that threatened all property. But the majority was unwilling to turn against the rebellious peasants. Instead of denouncing their violence, they tried to appease peasant opinion. Liberal nobles and

Thompson, Kay

2004-10-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

Thompson early displayed a considerable talent for the piano, and at the age of 16 she appeared as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony. The following