RegularSkirt

Saigyo

2005-04-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Also called Sato Norikiyo Japanese Buddhist priest-poet, one of the greatest masters of the tanka (a traditional Japanese poetic form), whose life and works became the subject matter of many narratives, plays, and puppet dramas. He originally followed his father in a military career, but, like others of his day, he was oppressed by the sense of disaster that overwhelmed Japan as

Saint Anthony

2005-04-02T04:40:00.000-08:00

Town, north of the entrance to Hare Bay, on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada, 306 miles (492 km) northeast of Corner Brook. An old fishing settlement with dry docks, ship-repair yards, and cold-storage plants, it is the home of the International Grenfell Association (a charity organization established in 1912 by Sir Wilfred Grenfell, the medical missionary) and is known

Kuznets, Simon

2005-03-31T05:52:00.000-08:00

Kuznets immigrated to the United States in 1922, 15 years after the arrival there of his father (who changed the family name to Smith, though the young Kuznets preferred the original

Pachaimalai Hills

2005-03-30T04:55:00.000-08:00

Range of hills in Tamil Nadu state, southern India, an eastward extension of the Eastern Ghats in the northeastern Tamilnad Uplands. The Pachaimalai Hills, together with the Javadi, Shevaroy, and Kalrayan hills, separate the Cauvery River basin in the south from the Palar River basin in the north. Extending over approximately 5,200 sq mi (13,500 sq km), they form a discontinuous line of highlands

Jackson, Andrew

2005-03-28T16:12:00.000-08:00

(For an additional writing by Jackson, see First Annual Message to Congress.)

Literature, United States.

2005-03-25T01:32:00.000-08:00

One might wonder, however,

Poxvirus

2005-03-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

Any of a group of viruses constituting the family Poxviridae, responsible for a wide range of pox diseases in human beings and other animals. Poxvirus was the cause in human beings of smallpox (q.v.), which was declared eradicated worldwide in 1977. (Chicken pox of human beings is caused by a herpesvirus; see herpes zoster.) The virus particle is somewhat brick-shaped, with the

Dandolo, Vincenzo

2005-03-23T21:30:00.000-08:00

Of modest origins, Dandolo, after studying chemistry at the University of Padua, became a champion of new scientific

Edward V

2005-03-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

The eldest surviving son of King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth (Woodville), Edward was born at Westminster Abbey while his father, momentarily deposed, was in exile in Holland. In June 1471, after Edward IV had crushed his foes and reclaimed his crown, young Edward was made

Earring

2005-03-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

A personal ornament worn pendent from the ear, usually suspended by means of a ring or hook passing through a pierced hole in the lobe of the ear or, in modern times, often by means of a screwed clip on the lobe. The impulse to decorate or to modify the appearance of the ear seems to be almost universal. In general, usage appears to call for wearing earrings in pairs, the two

Smilax

2005-03-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

Genus of plants in the family Smilacaceae, consisting of about 300 species of woody or herbaceous vines, variously known as catbriers and greenbriers, native to tropical and temperate parts of the world. The stems of many species are covered with prickles; the lower leaves are scalelike; and the leathery upper leaves have untoothed blades with

Gainsborough, Thomas

2005-03-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

Portrait and landscape painter, the most versatile English painter of the 18th century. Some of his early portraits show the sitters grouped in a landscape (“Mr. and Mrs. Andrews,” c. 1750). As he became famous and his sitters fashionable, he adopted a more formal manner that owed something to Anthony Van Dyck (“The Blue

Ray, Jean

2005-03-18T00:34:00.000-08:00

De Kremer worked as a city employee, from 1910 to 1919, before working as a journalist (1919–40). He began to publish fiction in 1925, with the short-story collection, Les Contes du whisky (1925; “Whisky's

Bratteli, Trygve (martin)

2005-03-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

Entering the Labour Party's youth organization in 1928, Bratteli became editor of the newspaper Arbeiderungdommen (“Labour Youth”) in the 1930s and served as secretary of the organization until 1940 and as its chairman in 1945–46. From 1940 to 1942, during the early years of the German occupation

Ghent, Pacification Of

2005-03-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

(Nov. 8, 1576), declaration by which the northern and southern provinces of the Low Countries put aside their religious difference and united in revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs. The declaration was the first major expression of the Netherlands' national self-consciousness. The Pacification of Ghent called for the expulsion of Spanish troops from the Low Countries,

Ploce

2005-03-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

The emphatic repetition of a word, with particular reference to its special significance (as in “a wife who was a wife indeed”). In rhetoric the term signifies the repetition of a word in an altered grammatical function, as in the line “Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death?” from William Blake's poem Jerusalem (1804), in which the word sleep is used as both a verb and a noun. The term

China

2005-03-14T19:51:00.000-08:00

The People's Republic of China is situated in eastern Asia, with coastlines on the Yellow Sea and the East and South China seas. Area: 9,572,900 sq km (3,696,100 sq mi), including Tibet and excluding Taiwan. (See Taiwan, below.) Pop. (1994 est., excluding Taiwan): 1,192,300,000. Cap.: Beijing (Peking). Monetary unit: renminbi yuan, with (Oct. 7, 1994) an interbank rate of 8.53 yuan to U.S. $1 (13.57 yuan = £ 1 sterling). President in 1994, Jiang Zemin (Chiang Tse-min); premier,

Aegean Civilizations

2005-03-13T22:25:00.000-08:00

The area consists of Crete, the Cyclades and some other islands, and the Greek mainland, including the Peloponnese, central Greece, and Thessaly. The first high civilization on European soil, with stately palaces, fine craftsmanship,

Industrial Glass, Annealing

2005-03-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

During the glass-forming process, glasses often develop permanent stresses because various regions of the material pass through the glass transition range at varying cooling rates and at varying times. In order to ensure dimensional stability (for instance, for space-based telescope mirrors) and to avoid the development of excessive tension in critical regions,

Ghent-bruges School

2005-03-11T02:10:00.000-08:00

Group of manuscript illuminators and scribes active during the last quarter of the 15th and first part of the 16th centuries, principally in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. Credit for founding the tradition that included such masters as Nicolas Spierinc, Liévin van Lathem, Alexander and Simon Bening, and Gerard Horenbout was formerly given to the Master of Mary

Torfaen

2005-03-10T00:16:00.000-08:00

Pontypool was an early metalworking centre, with iron smelting dating back to 1577, and immigrants from Pontypool reputedly

League

2005-03-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

Any of several European units of measurement ranging from 2.4 to 4.6 statute miles (3.9 to 7.4 km). In English-speaking countries the land league is generally accepted as 3 statute miles (4.83 km), although varying lengths from 7,500 feet to 15,000 feet (2.29 to 4.57 km) were sometimes employed. An ancient unit derived from the Gauls and introduced into England by the Normans, the league was estimated by the Romans

Insurance, United States

2005-03-08T01:34:00.000-08:00

The first American insurance company was organized by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 as the Philadelphia Contributionship. The first life insurance company in the American colonies was the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund, organized in 1759. By 1820 there were 17 stock life insurance companies in the state of New York alone. Many of the early property insurance companies failed from

Turbat

2005-03-07T07:18:00.000-08:00

Town, Balochistan province, Pakistan. The town is located on the left bank of the Kech River, which is a tributary to the Dasht River. The area in which Turbat is situated is drained to the south by the Dasht River; the Makran Range to the north and east descends to coastal plains in the south. The town is a marketplace for dates grown in the surrounding region and has a date-processing

Ribble Valley

2005-03-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

Borough (district), administrative county of Lancashire, northwestern England, along the county's eastern border, extending into the western Pennine uplands. The southern part of the borough, including the lower Ribble valley and the two largest towns, Clitheroe and Longridge, lies in the historic county of Lancashire. The remainder of the mostly rural borough, including

Pachacamac

2005-03-05T01:52:00.000-08:00

Creator deity worshipped by the pre-Inca maritime population of Peru; it was also the name of a pilgrimage site in the Lurín Valley (south of Lima) dedicated to the god and revered for many centuries. After the Incas conquered the coast, they did not attempt to replace the ancient and deeply rooted worship of Pachacamac but instead incorporated him into their own pantheon.

Ariobarzanes

2005-03-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

Persian satrap (provincial governor) of Phrygia after about 387. The son of a nobleman, he cultivated the friendship of Athens and Sparta and, about 366, led the unsuccessful revolt of the satraps of western Anatolia against the Persian king Artaxerxes II (reigned 404–359/358 BC).

Epistle

2005-03-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

In literature there are two basic traditions of verse epistles, one derived from Horace's Epistles and the other from Ovid's Epistulae heroidum (better known as Heroides). The tradition based on Horace addresses moral and philosophical themes and has been the most popular

Agostino Di Duccio

2005-03-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

Agostino's name is associated mainly with the wealth of sculptured decoration for the Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini, a building

Ariobarzanes

2005-03-01T08:57:00.000-08:00

Any of more than a dozen species of small to medium-sized rodents characterized by the harsh, inflexible spiny hairs of their upperparts. African spiny mice have large eyes and ears and scaly, nearly bald tails that are shorter than or about as long as the body. The tail is brittle and breaks off readily either as a whole or in part. The golden spiny mouse (Acomys

Epistemology, Perception and knowledge

2005-02-28T01:54:00.000-08:00

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,

Ibn Tumart

2005-02-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

In full Abu 'abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Tumart Berber spiritual and military leader who founded the al-Muwahhidun confederation in North Africa (see Almohads). The doctrine he taught combined a strict conception of the unity of God with a program of juridical and puritanical moral reform, based on a study of the Qur'an and of tradition.

Henry I

2005-02-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

Henry was the son of Alfonso VIII of Castile and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Henry II of England, after whom he was named. He was killed, while still a boy, by the fall of a tile from a roof. Sovereignty over Castile was then assumed by Alfonso VIII's cousin, Alfonso IX, king of Leon.

Overbury, Sir Thomas

2005-02-25T02:16:00.000-08:00

Overbury was educated at Oxford and entered the Middle Temple, London, in 1598. Having

David, Saint

2005-02-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Little is known of his life. According to the hagiography (c. 1090) by the Welsh scholar Rhygyfarch, he was the son of the chieftain Sant, who raped David's mother, St. Non. Educated at Henfynyw, Cardigan, he seemingly took a prominent part in the synod of Llanddewi-Brefi (in Cardigan) to suppress

Beartooth Range

2005-02-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

Segment of the northern Rocky Mountains in the United States, extending east-southeastward for 50 miles (80 km) from the Stillwater River, in southern Montana, to the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River, in northwestern Wyoming. Many peaks rise to more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m), including Granite Peak (12,799 feet [3,901 m]), the highest point in Montana. It was through these mountains that Chief Joseph

F-117

2005-02-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

Also called Nighthawk, single-seat, twin-engine jet fighter-bomber built by the Lockheed Corporation (now part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation) for the U.S. Air Force. It was the first stealth aircraft—i.e., an aircraft designed entirely around the concept of evading detection by radar and other sensors. After a difficult development period, during which several prototypes crashed during

Sanibel Island

2005-02-20T02:59:00.000-08:00

Sanibel Island

Chang Hsüeh-liang

2005-02-20T01:15:00.000-08:00

Chang Hsüeh-liang was the oldest son of the warlord Chang Tso-lin, who dominated Manchuria and parts of North China. The younger Chang was

Integument, Annelids

2005-02-18T22:39:00.000-08:00

Annelids have a thin, horny cuticle pierced by pores through which epidermal glands secrete mucus. In some marine annelids, glands are also present that secrete materials constituting a parchmentlike or calcareous tube within which the worm dwells. Earthworms and leeches secrete cocoons from a specialized epidermis in a region of the body known as the clitellum.

Conservatory

2005-02-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

In music, institution for education in musical performance and composition. The term and institution derive from the Italian conservatorio, which in the Renaissance period and earlier denoted a type of orphanage often attached to a hospital (hence the term ospedale also applied to such institutions). The foundlings (conservati) were given musical instruction

Piciform, Vocalizations

2005-02-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

The voices of Piciformes are rarely melodious and are often harsh or strident. The vocalizations of jacamars are squeaky, the notes sometimes being run together into a trill. Whistles or trills may be alternated or mixed, forming a simple song. Puffbirds are relatively quiet, producing thin whistles, peeps, and twitters. The vocalizations of toucans are loud and often

Abrams, M.h.

2005-02-15T06:34:00.000-08:00

Following his graduation from Harvard University in 1934, Abrams studied for a year at the University of Cambridge before returning to his alma mater to earn an M.A. (1937) and a Ph.D. (1940). He joined the faculty of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., in 1945, becoming a full professor

World War I, Italy and the Italian front, 191516

2005-02-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

Great Britain, France, and Russia concluded on April 26, 1915, the secret Treaty of London with Italy, inducing the latter to discard the obligations of the Triple Alliance and to enter the war on the side of the Allies by the promise of territorial aggrandizement at Austria-Hungary's expense. Italy was offered not only the Italian-populated Trentino and Trieste but also South

Salamá

2005-02-12T00:31:00.000-08:00

City, central Guatemala. It lies between the Chuacús Mountains and the Minas Mountains on the Salamá River, a tributary of the Chixoy, at 3,084 feet (940 m) above sea level. Salamá is a commercial and manufacturing centre for its agricultural and pastoral hinterland. The city suffered serious damage from an earthquake in 1976. Salamá is accessible by road from San Cristóbal Verapaz

Sundman, Per Olof

2005-02-10T14:00:00.000-08:00

Per Olof Sundman spent much of his life in the northern province of Jämtland and used that isolated area as a locale for his first book, Jägarna (1957; “The Hunters”), a collection of short stories. It is not incidents or human relationships

Andrew, Saint

2005-02-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Peter and Andrew—whose Greek name means “Manly”—were called from their fishing by Jesus to follow him, promising that he would make them fishers of men. With Saints Peter, James, and John,

Furniture, Kinds of accessory furnishings

2005-02-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

Besides the aforementioned kinds of furniture and all the many special forms (which it would be almost impossible to list), there is an extensive group of accessory furnishings that is not furniture in the strict sense but, nevertheless, constitutes an important element in the furnishing of interiors. Included here are clocks and other mechanical works, mirrors,

Alcalde

2005-02-04T07:32:00.000-08:00

(from Arabic al-qadi, “judge”), the administrative and judicial head of a town or village in Spain or in areas under Spanish control or influence. The title was applied to local government officials whose functions were various but always included a judicial element. Types of alcaldes were differentiated according to the specialized nature of their judicial functions:

Martyr

2005-02-02T03:19:00.000-08:00

The universality of persecution throughout its history has engendered in Judaism an explicit ideal of martyrdom. It begins with Abraham, who according to legend was cast into a lime kiln and saved from the fire by divine grace. The tradition was continued by Isaac, who consented to be sacrificed by his father, and by Daniel, whose example compelled the popular imagination.

Seleucus Ii Callinicus

2005-01-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

Antiochus II repudiated his wife Laodice (Seleucus' mother) and married Ptolemy's daughter Berenice, but by 246 BC Antiochus had left Berenice in order to live again with Laodice and Seleucus in Asia Minor. Laodice poisoned him and proclaimed her son as King Seleucus II, while her partisans at Antioch

Marie, Pierre

2005-01-28T02:20:00.000-08:00

A student of the neurologist Jean Charcot at the Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris (1885), Marie published the first description of acromegaly (1886), a condition characterized by overgrowth of bone tissue such

Callahan, Harry Morey

2005-01-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

American photographer (b. Oct. 22, 1912, Detroit, Mich.—d. March 15, 1999, Atlanta, Ga.), experimented with the use of light, line, and space to produce images that portray ordinary scenes and objects in innovative, abstract ways. He felt that photographs had to have more significance than was apparent at first look; he focused on such favourite themes as his wife and daughter, landscapes, and

Anquetil-duperron, A(braham)-h(yacinthe)

2005-01-24T00:36:00.000-08:00

At the University of Paris, Anquetil mastered Hebrew as his first Eastern language; later, he added Persian and

Duck

2005-01-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

The fabric, in its various qualities and colours, is used for an enormous variety

Forbes (of Culloden), Duncan

2005-01-20T03:51:00.000-08:00

Trained in law, Forbes entered local politics and in 1715 aided the Hanoverian cause during the unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion of that year. Forbes was elected

Moravia

2005-01-18T20:58:00.000-08:00

Traditional region in central Europe that served as the centre of a major medieval kingdom, known as Great Moravia, before it was incorporated into the kingdom of Bohemia in the 11th century. In the 20th century Moravia became part of the modern state of Czechoslovakia and subsequently of the Czech Republic. The region is bounded by Bohemia on the west and northwest, by

Niger-congo Languages

2005-01-17T17:51:00.000-08:00

In the 19th century, scholars began to attempt classification of the various Niger-Congo languages. Sigismund W. Koelle, a German missionary of the Church Missionary Society working among freed slaves in Freetown (now in Sierra Leone), produced his monumental work, Polyglotta Africana, in 1854. He obtained lists of 283 words in 156 languages and grouped them so as to reflect what

Peresvetov, Ivan Semenovich

2005-01-15T16:29:00.000-08:00

In 1549 he presented his Two Books (Dve Knigi) to Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. These works were ostensibly an account of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople

Europa

2005-01-12T01:20:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, the daughter either of Phoenix or of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. The beauty of Europa inspired the love of Zeus, who approached her in the form of a white bull and carried her away from Phoenicia to Crete. There she bore Zeus three sons: King Minos of Crete, King Rhadamanthus of the Cyclades Islands, and, according to some legends, Prince Sarpedon of Lycia.

Latin Alphabet

2005-01-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

Also called Roman alphabet most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and the languages of most of Europe and those areas settled by Europeans. Developed from the Etruscan alphabet at some time before 600 BC, it can be traced through Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician scripts to the North Semitic alphabet used in Syria and Palestine about 1100 BC. The

Ogburn, William Fielding

2005-01-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

Ogburn was a professor at Columbia University (1919–27) and the University of Chicago (1927–51). He frequently served as a labour mediator

X Club

2005-01-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

Ruth Barton, “ ‘Huxley, Lubbock, and Half a Dozen Others': Professionals and Gentlemen in the Formation of the X Club, 1851–1864,” Isis, 89(3):410–444 (September 1998), discusses the interests and purposes that brought the group together. Two articles survey the importance of the club: Roy MacLeod, “The X-Club: A Social Network of Science in Late-Victorian England,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 24(2):305–322 (April 1970), is the fuller account; J. Vernon Jensen, “The X Club: Fraternity of Victorian Scientists,” The British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 5, part 1, no. 17, pp. 63–72 (June 1970), is also useful. Ruth Barton, “ ‘An Influential Set of Chaps': The X-Club and Royal Society Politics 1864–85,” The British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 23, part 1, no. 76, pp. 53–81 (March 1990), details how club members achieved and used power within the Royal Society.

Music, Western, The sonata and concerto

2005-01-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

The major new categories of instrumental music during the Baroque period were the sonata and the concerto. Originally applied to instrumental ensemble pieces derived from the canzona, the term sonata became the designation for a form that was to dominate instrumental music from the mid-18th until the 20th century. In its keyboard manifestation, it was a binary (two-part)

Anne And Joachim, Saints

2005-01-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

The parents of the Virgin Mary, according to tradition derived from certain apocryphal writings. Information concerning their lives and names is found in the 2nd-century-AD Protevangelium of James (“First Gospel of James”) and the 3rd-century-AD Evangelium de nativitate Mariae (“Gospel of the Nativity of

Mandel, Georges

2005-01-01T17:16:00.000-08:00

A member of a prosperous Jewish family, though not related to the Rothschild banking dynasty, Mandel served on the personal staff of Premier Georges Clemenceau from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 to 1920. He also served as a deputy in the National Assembly from 1919 to 1924 and from 1928 to

Tectonic Landform

2004-12-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

Whereas erosion shapes landforms, their origins lie in tectonic processes that build the major structures of the Earth. The word tectonic is derived from the Greek word tekton, which

Cumberland Gap

2004-12-28T08:13:00.000-08:00

Natural pass (elevation 1,640 feet [500 metres]) that was cut through the Cumberland Plateau in the eastern United States by former stream activity. It is located near the point where Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee meet between Middlesboro, Kentucky, and the town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. The pass was discovered in 1750 by Thomas Walker, and the Wilderness Road blazed by Daniel

Furniture, Bookcases

2004-12-26T06:37:00.000-08:00

Bookcases or bookshelves are a less interesting form of storage furniture from the viewpoint of furniture history. Perhaps the most significant innovation appeared in 18th-century England in the bookcase with adjustable shelves and a closed-off lower section for folio files. The shelves were protected by glass doors consisting of an ingenious trelliswork of

Amadeus, Lake

2004-12-23T11:25:00.000-08:00

Salty mud basin in southwestern Northern Territory, Australia. The lake occupies a shallow trough filled with sediments washed from the MacDonnell (north) and Musgrave (south) ranges. It intermittently contains a few inches of water and at such times may measure as much as 90 miles (145 km) long and 12 miles (20 km) wide, covering some 340 square miles (880 square km). When dry, it is a playa, or salt

Ligament

2004-12-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

Tough fibrous band of connective tissue that serves to support the internal organs and hold bones together in proper articulation at the joints. A ligament is composed of dense fibrous bundles of collagenous fibres and spindle-shaped cells known as fibroblasts, with little ground substance (a gel-like component of the various connective tissues). Ligaments may

Lateral Line System

2004-12-20T18:37:00.000-08:00

Network of sensory receptors located along the head and sides of fishes and amphibians. The system serves to detect movements and pressure changes in the surrounding water. The individual receptor, called a lateral line organ, or neuromast, consists of a cluster of innervated hairs surrounded by a jellylike projection (cupula) that bends in response to water movements.

Lateral Line System

2004-12-18T01:27:00.000-08:00

Anatosaurus grew to a length of 9–12 metres (30–40 feet) and was heavily built. The skull was long and the beak

Gaultier, Denys

2004-12-15T01:33:00.000-08:00

Gaultier came from a renowned family of lutenists that also included Jacques and Ennemond Gaultier. Little is known of his life except that he resided for many years in Paris. He was the last great representative of the Parisian school of

Yhwh

2004-12-14T14:54:00.000-08:00

In Hebrew, the name of God as revealed to Moses. Because of its four letters, it is also known as the Tetragrammaton. See Yahweh.

Elision

2004-12-12T01:59:00.000-08:00

(Latin: “striking out”), in prosody, the slurring or omission of a final unstressed vowel that precedes either another vowel or a weak consonant sound, as in the word heav'n. It may also be the dropping of a consonant between vowels, as in the word o'er for over. Elision is used to fit words into a metrical scheme, to smooth the rhythm of a poem, or to ease the pronunciation of words.

Bert, Paul

2004-12-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

French physiologist, politician, and diplomat, founder of modern aerospace medicine, whose research into the effects of air pressure on the body helped make possible the exploration of space and the ocean depths. While professor of physiology at the Sorbonne (1869–86), he found that the illness suffered by animals at high altitudes is caused

Bomu River

2004-12-07T00:39:00.000-08:00

Also called Mbomou, in the Central African Republic, headstream of the Ubangi River. The Bomu River rises 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Doruma, Congo (Kinshasa), and flows 450 miles (725 km) west, forming, together with the Ubangi, the frontier between Congo and the Central African Republic. Its course takes it in a wide curve through savannas, past Bangassou, to join the Uele River at Yakoma, where it forms the

Kresge, S.s.

2004-12-05T16:41:00.000-08:00

Kresge worked as a traveling salesman before going into business with one of his customers, John G. McCrory, the owner of several department and five-and-ten-cent stores. They became partners in 1897 in two new five-and-dime

Penal Laws

2004-12-03T03:19:00.000-08:00

Laws passed against Roman Catholics in Britain and Ireland after the Reformation that penalized the practice of the Roman Catholic religion and imposed civil disabilities on Catholics. Various acts passed in the 16th and 17th centuries prescribed fines and imprisonment for participation in Catholic worship and severe penalties, including death, for Catholic

Nitromersol

2004-12-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

Synthetic mercury-containing organic compound used as an antiseptic for the skin and mucous membranes and as a disinfectant for sterilizing surgical instruments. It is related to merbromin (Mercurochrome) and thimerosal (Merthiolate). Nitromersol disinfects by the action of the mercury in the molecule, which disrupts the enzymatic metabolism of the microorganism.

Rocky Mountains

2004-11-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

The Rocky Mountains were one of the last regions in North America to be explored by Europeans, because of the inaccessibility and ruggedness of the terrain. Roman Catholic missionaries worked their way northward from Mexico into New Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1776–77 Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and his party explored and documented their travels into what

New Delhi

2004-11-28T03:56:00.000-08:00

The capital of India, constituting part of the city and union territory of Delhi (q.v.).

Sacrifice, Religions of India

2004-11-25T02:37:00.000-08:00

Speculations regarding sacrifice and prescribed rituals seem to have been worked out more fully in the Vedic and later Hindu religion in India than anywhere else. These rites, laid down in a complicated system known mainly from the Brahmana texts, included obligatory sacrifices following the course of the year or the important moments in the life of an individual

Merchant Guild

2004-11-24T14:44:00.000-08:00

A European medieval association composed of traders interested in international commerce. The privileged fraternity formed by the merchants of Tiel in Gelderland (in present-day Netherlands) about 1020 is the first undoubted precursor of the merchant guilds, and the statutes of a similar body at St. Omer, France, actually use the term gilda mercatoria before the end

Kamikaze

2004-11-21T21:45:00.000-08:00

Any of the Japanese pilots who in World War II made deliberate suicidal crashes into enemy targets, usually ships. The term also denotes the aircraft used in such attacks. The practice was most prevalent from the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 1944, to the end of the war. The word kamikaze means “divine wind,” a reference to a typhoon that fortuitously dispersed a Mongol invasion

Cypriot Syllabary

2004-11-19T21:38:00.000-08:00

System of writing used on the island of Cyprus, chiefly from the 6th to the 3rd century BC. The syllabary consists of 56 signs, each of which represents a different syllable. Most inscriptions written with this syllabary are in the Greek language, although the syllabary was originally designed for writing the earlier non-Greek language of Cyprus. The classical Cypriot syllabary

Grubenmann, Hans Ulrich; And Grubenmann, Johannes

2004-11-17T22:53:00.000-08:00

Swiss carpenters and bridge builders whose bridge (1758) over the Limmat River at the town of Wettingen, near Zürich, is believed to be the first timber bridge to employ a true arch in its design. The brothers' ingenious combination of the arch and truss principles made it possible to construct longer and better timber bridges

Biblical Literature, Legislation

2004-11-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

The book of Exodus includes not only the narrative and celebration of God's redemptive action in the Exodus and wanderings and his revealing presence at Mt. Sinai but also a corpus of legislation, both civil and religious, that is ascribed to God and this revelation event. The Covenant Code, or Book of the Covenant, presented in chapters 20–23, immediately following the Decalogue

Animal

2004-11-13T21:45:00.000-08:00

(kingdom Animalia), any of a group of multicellular eukaryotic organisms (i.e., as distinct from bacteria, their deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is contained in a membrane-bound nucleus). They are thought to have evolved independently from the unicellular eukaryotes. Animals differ from members of the two other kingdoms of multicellular eukaryotes, the plants (Plantae)

Basil Ii

2004-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

The reign of Basil II, widely acknowledged to be one of the outstanding Byzantine emperors, admirably illustrates both

Nephrology

2004-11-07T08:36:00.000-08:00

Branch of medicine concerned with the study of kidney functions and the treatment of kidney diseases. The first scientific observations of the kidney were made by Lorenzo Bellini and Marcello Malpighi in the middle of the 17th century, but true physiological understanding of the kidney began with Carl Ludwig's 1844 hypothesis that blood pressure forces waste fluids

Abenaki

2004-11-05T16:43:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Abnaki or Wabanaki a confederacy of Algonkian-speaking Indian tribes in northeastern North America, which was organized to furnish resistance and protection against the Iroquois Confederacy, especially the Mohawk, of what is now northern New York state. In its earliest known organization it consisted of tribes east and northeast of present New York: Malecite in present New Brunswick;

Hetman

2004-11-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

Military title used in the Polish–Lithuanian state (16th–18th century); the hetman wielki (“great hetman”) was the chief of the armed forces and the commander in the field when the king was not present. In Ukraine a variation of the term, ataman, was used to designate the military leader of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (16th century) and the prince of the area east of the Dnieper River

Pacific Ocean, Islands

2004-11-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

A geologically important boundary

Biblical Literature, Literary criticism

2004-10-31T05:14:00.000-08:00

Literary criticism endeavours to establish the literary genres (types or categories) of the various documents and to reach conclusions about their structure, date, and authorship. These conclusions are based as far as possible on internal evidence, but external evidence is also very helpful, especially where date is concerned. If the document under consideration

Aurora

2004-10-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

Auroras are caused by the interaction of energetic particles (electrons and protons) from outside the atmosphere

Bondfield, Margaret (grace)

2004-10-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Bondfield had little schooling. Starting as a draper's assistant at 14, she found conditions miserable and joined the National Union of Shop Assistants at its formation. In 1899 she was the only woman delegate to the Trades Union Congress, and

Disaccharide

2004-10-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Also called Double Sugar, any substance that is composed of two molecules of simple sugars (monosaccharides) linked to each other. Sucrose, which is formed following photosynthesis in green plants, consists of one molecule of glucose and one of fructose; lactose (milk sugar), found in the milk of all mammals, consists of glucose and galactose; and maltose, a product of the breakdown of starches

Argentina, Diet

2004-10-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

The combination of Old and New World cultures is also seen in the Argentine diet. Southern European influences appear especially in the cities, where breakfast is generally a serving of three sweet rolls (medialunas) and coffee, and supper is taken, in the Spanish tradition, after 9:00 PM. The Italian influence is seen in the popularity of pasta dishes. But the New World asserts

RegularSkirt

Saigyo

Saint Anthony

Kuznets, Simon

Pachaimalai Hills

Jackson, Andrew

Literature, United States.

Poxvirus

Dandolo, Vincenzo

Edward V

Earring

Smilax

Gainsborough, Thomas

Ray, Jean

Bratteli, Trygve (martin)

Ghent, Pacification Of

Ploce

China

Aegean Civilizations

Industrial Glass, Annealing

Ghent-bruges School

Torfaen

League

Insurance, United States

Turbat

Ribble Valley

Pachacamac

Ariobarzanes

Epistle

Agostino Di Duccio

Ariobarzanes

Epistemology, Perception and knowledge

Ibn Tumart

Henry I

Overbury, Sir Thomas

David, Saint

Beartooth Range

F-117

Sanibel Island

Chang Hsüeh-liang

Integument, Annelids

Conservatory

Piciform, Vocalizations

Abrams, M.h.

World War I, Italy and the Italian front, 191516

Salamá

Sundman, Per Olof

Andrew, Saint

Furniture, Kinds of accessory furnishings

Alcalde

Martyr

Seleucus Ii Callinicus

Marie, Pierre

Callahan, Harry Morey

Anquetil-duperron, A(braham)-h(yacinthe)

Duck

Forbes (of Culloden), Duncan

Moravia

Niger-congo Languages

Peresvetov, Ivan Semenovich

Europa

Latin Alphabet

Ogburn, William Fielding

X Club

Music, Western, The sonata and concerto

Anne And Joachim, Saints

Mandel, Georges

Tectonic Landform

Cumberland Gap

Furniture, Bookcases

Amadeus, Lake

Ligament

Lateral Line System

Lateral Line System

Gaultier, Denys

Yhwh

Elision

Bert, Paul

Bomu River

Kresge, S.s.

World War I, Italy and the Italian front, 191516