CertainAnt

China, Readjustment and recovery

2005-04-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

Mao's death and the purge of the Gang of Four left Hua Guofeng (Hua Kuo-feng), a compromise candidate elevated by Mao in the wake of the purge of Deng Xiaoping, as the official leader of China. Hua tried to consolidate his position by stressing his ties to Mao and his fidelity to Mao's basic ideas, but many others in the top leadership wanted to move away from precisely these

Ellensburg

2005-04-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

City, seat (1883) of Kittitas county, central Washington, U.S., on the Yakima River, 28 miles (45 km) north of Yakima. The first white man settled there in 1867, and three years later the valley's first trading post, called Robbers Roost, was opened. The community bore that name until 1875, when John Shoudy platted a town site and named it for his wife, Ellen. The building of the Northern Pacific Railway

Hillery, Patrick J(ohn)

2005-04-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hillery attended Rockwell College and University College, Dublin, studying sciences and medicine. His practice of medicine yielded to politics in 1951, when as a member of the Fianna Fáil party he won election to Parliament.

Frederick Henry, Prince Of Orange, Count Of Nassau

2005-03-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

Dutch Frederik Hendrik, Prins Van Oranje, Graaf Van Nassau the third hereditary stadholder (1625–47) of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or Dutch Republic, the youngest son of William I the Silent and successor to his half-brother Maurice, prince of Orange. Continuing the war against Spain, Frederick Henry was the first of the House of Orange to assume semimonarchical powers in foreign as

Beecher, Lyman

2005-03-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

A graduate of Yale in 1797, he held pastorates at Litchfield, Conn., and at Boston, during which he opposed rationalism, Catholicism, and the liquor traffic. Turning his attention to evangelizing the West, he became president of the newly founded Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati,

Kerguelen Cabbage

2005-03-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

(species Pringlea antiscorbutica), plant resembling the common cabbage and belonging to the same family (Brassicaceae). It was named for Kerguelen Island. The leaves of the plant contain a pale-yellow, highly pungent essential oil rich in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), for which reason it was a useful dietary supplement against scurvy. It was discovered by the British explorer

Struve, Pyotr Berngardovich

2005-03-24T08:23:00.000-08:00

While studying economic theory and history at the University of St. Petersburg, Struve became a Marxist. The Marxist analysis of Russian capitalism that he presented in 1894 in his Kriticheskiye zametki k voprocy ob ekonomicheskom razviti rossi (“Critical Remarks on

Cozzi Porcelain

2005-03-22T16:20:00.000-08:00

Soft-paste porcelain made in Venice by Geminiano Cozzi from about 1764 to 1812. Cozzi products, often freely adapted versions of Meissen porcelain, consisted mainly of figures, vases, and tablewares with Rococo decoration that was frequently distinguished by an imaginative interpretation wholly Italian in style. Rich colours, including red, bluish purple, and emerald

Sacheverell, Henry

2005-03-22T07:47:00.000-08:00

Early in the reign of Queen Anne

Albuquerque

2005-03-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

Largest city of New Mexico, U.S., seat (1852) of Bernalillo county, on the Rio Grande opposite a pass between the Sandia and Manzano mountains to the east. It is encircled by Indian pueblos and sections of the Cibola National Forest (of which it is headquarters). Founded in 1706 by Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdés, governor and captain general of New Mexico, it was named for the Duque de Alburquerque,

Metaethics

2005-03-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

Analytic philosophers, also known as philosophers of language, distinguish between the first-order language, in which all humans communicate with one another, and the second-order

Permafrost, Climatic change

2005-03-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

Permafrost is the result of present climate. Many temperature profiles show, however, that permafrost is not in equilibrium with present climate at the sites of measurement. Some areas show, for example, that climatic warming since the last third of the 19th century has caused a warming of the permafrost to a depth of more than 100 metres. In such areas much of the permafrost

Hippocrateaceae

2005-03-16T05:57:00.000-08:00

Family of woody vines, shrubs, and trees, belonging to the order Celastrales, comprising 21 genera common in the tropics. They have simple leaves and small, greenish flowers. The genus Hippocratea has 80 or more species, including H. ovata, a high-climbing vine—in tropical America and the West Indies—with leathery, oval leaves. Salacia, with 200 species, differs from Hippocratea

Furniture, England

2005-03-15T07:38:00.000-08:00

After the Restoration, from 1660 onward, there was almost revolutionary progress in English cabinetmaking, as it came to be called at about this time. On its return, the exiled court introduced French and Dutch fashions, and the English craftsmen were considerably helped in supplying the tastes of the nobility by a large influx of foreign workmen. Furniture became lighter,

Pacific Ocean, Central Pacific region

2005-03-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

The central Pacific region lies between the boundaries of the eastern and western regions. The largest and the most geologically stable of the structural provinces of the Earth's crust, it is characterized by expansive areas of low relief, lying at a general depth of about 15,000 feet below the surface.

Overtone

2005-03-13T06:15:00.000-08:00

Harmonics

Ekhof, Konrad

2005-03-11T16:52:00.000-08:00

In 1739 Ekhof became a member of the company managed by Johann Friedrich Schönemann, an association that extended over 17 years. Ekhof played leading roles in German

Carúpano

2005-03-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

City, northern Sucre estado (“state”), northeastern Venezuela. On the Caribbean Sea, near the centre of the twin peninsulas Araya and Paria, Carúpano is the commercial nucleus and principal port of an agricultural area, the principal export of which is cacao. Many fertile valleys in the highlands around Carúpano and throughout Sucre (representing a high percentage

Sherwood, Robert E.

2005-03-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

Sherwood was an indifferent student at Milton Academy and Harvard University, failing the freshman rhetoric course while performing well and happily on the Lampoon, the humour magazine, and with the Hasty Pudding club, which

Kababish

2005-03-10T03:30:00.000-08:00

During the 19th century the Kababish not only carried trade goods between the Nile River and Darfur but

Kwandebele

2005-03-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

Former nonindependent black state and enclave in central Transvaal province, South Africa, that was a self-governing “national state” for Transvaal Ndebele people from 1981 to 1994. KwaNdebele was located in a 3,500-foot- (1,060-metre-) high dry savanna area about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Johannesburg. It was established in 1979, when many Transvaal Ndebele were expelled from the nearby Bophuthatswana

Aesthetics, Form

2005-03-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

Expression and representation form part of the content of a work of art. Nonetheless, it is not only content that is understood (or misunderstood) by the attentive recipient. There is also form, by which term we may denote all those features of a work of art that compose its unity and individuality as an object of sensory experience. Consider music. In most cases when a

Athens

2005-03-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1819) of Limestone county, northern Alabama, U.S., in the Tennessee River valley, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Huntsville. Settled in 1807 and named for Athens, Greece, it grew as an agricultural and timber centre. During the American Civil War, the town was occupied at intervals by Union troops until recaptured by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1864. Cotton dominated

Pacific Mountain System

2005-03-05T00:19:00.000-08:00

Series of mountain ranges that stretches along the Pacific coast of North America from northern British Columbia (Canada) to northwestern Mexico. They run for some 4,500 miles (7,250 kilometres) in the United States and extend northward into Canada for another 1,000 miles. The ranges may be divided into eight sections. Roughly from north to south they are the Coast Mountains of British

Rime Suffisante

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

Plural rimes suffisantes in French and English prosody, end rhyme produced by agreement in sound of an accented final vowel and following final consonant or consonants, if any. Examples of rimes suffisantes in English include the rhymes ship/dip and flee/see. It is distinguished from rime riche.

Madagascar, Population groups

2005-03-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

Madagascar has been inhabited by human beings for the relatively short period of only about 1,300 years. Language and culture point unequivocally to Indonesian origins, but there is no empirical evidence of how, why, or by what route the first settlers came to the island. Studies of the winds and currents of the Indian Ocean indicate that the voyage from Indonesia could

Czestochowa

2005-03-02T04:21:00.000-08:00

City, capital (since 1975) of Czestochowa województwo (province), south-central Poland. The city originally consisted of two settlements, Old Czestochowa, founded in the 13th century, and Jasna Góra (Polish: “Shining Mountain”), founded in the 14th; the two were merged in 1826. Roman Catholic pilgrimages are made to the Jasna Góra monastery (1382), which contains valuable frescoes and the famous

Zambezi River

2005-03-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

The first non-Africans to reach the Zambezi were Arab traders, who utilized the river's lower reaches from the 10th century onward. They were followed in the 16th century by the Portuguese, who hoped to use the river to develop a trade in ivory, gold, and slaves. Until the 19th century, the river, then called the Zanbere, was believed to flow south from a vast inland sea that was also

Liddell, Eric

2005-02-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

The son of Scottish missionaries, Liddell was born in China. His family returned to Scotland when he was five years old. A gifted athlete, he excelled at rugby as well as running. He first gained national recognition by winning

Cohn, Edwin Joseph

2005-02-27T03:07:00.000-08:00

Cohn received his Ph.D.

Crompton, Rookes Evelyn Bell

2005-02-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

After military service in India, where he had introduced steam-driven road transport, Crompton in 1875 became a partner in an engineering firm at Chelmsford, Essex, and soon broadened its activity to the construction of dynamos and arc

Black Mountain Poet

2005-02-25T22:21:00.000-08:00

The group grew up around the poets Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, and Charles Olson while they were teaching at Black Mountain

Akwa Ibom

2005-02-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

The state's population consists

Hai-nan, The people

2005-02-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

Two-thirds of Hai-nan's predominantly rural population is concentrated in the northeastern lowlands. Most of the people are Han (Chinese), but about one-sixth are ethnic minorities. The Li, concentrated in the south, constitute the largest minority group, followed by the Miao. The largest cities are Hai-k'ou in the north and the port city of Ya-hsien (locally called San-ya)

China

2005-02-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

The lower stratum of the Pei-shou-ling culture is represented by finds along the Wei and Ching rivers; bowls, deep-bodied jugs, and three-footed vessels, mainly red in colour, were common. The lower stratum of the related Pan-p'o culture, also in the Wei River drainage area, was characterized by cord-marked red or red-brown ware, especially round and flat-bottomed bowls and

Habitual Offender

2005-02-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

A classic account of habitual offenders is Norval Morris, The Habitual Criminal (1951, reprinted 1973). Works examining habitual-offender laws include David Shichor and Dale K. Sechrest (eds.), Three Strikes and You're Out: Vengeance as Public Policy (1996); and John Clark, James Austin, and D. Alan Henry, “Three Strikes and You're Out”: A Review of State Legislation (1997). John E. Hodge, Mary McMurran, and Clive R. Hollin (eds.), Addicted to Crime? (1997), discusses persistent criminals in terms of addiction.

álava

2005-02-20T04:45:00.000-08:00

Provincia, northern Spain. Álava is the southernmost of the three Basque Country provincias of northern Spain and is located mainly on the southern slope of the Pyrenees Range. It is bounded by the Ebro River (southwest) and surrounds the enclaves of Treviño and Orduña belonging to Burgos and Vizcaya provincias, respectively. Álava has an area of 1,176 square miles (3,047 square

Salazar, António De Oliveira

2005-02-19T04:44:00.000-08:00

Salazar, the son of an estate manager at Santa Comba Dão, was educated at the seminary at Viseu and at the University of Coimbra. He graduated from there in law in 1914 and became a professor specializing in economics at Coimbra. He helped form the Catholic Centre Party in 1921 and was

Valencia

2005-02-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Carabobo state, northwestern Venezuela, on the Río Cabriales in the central highlands at 1,600 ft (490 m) above sea level, near the western shore of Lake Valencia. It was founded in 1555, eight years before the founding of Caracas, the national capital, as Nueva Valencia del Rey by Alonso Díaz Moreno, a soldier from the Spanish city of Valencia; it rivalled Caracas as the

Extinction

2005-02-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

In biology, the dying out or termination of a race or species. Extinction occurs when a species can no longer reproduce at replacement levels. Most extinctions are thought to have resulted from environmental changes that affected the species in either of two ways. The doomed species might not have been able to adapt to the changed environment and thus perished without

Wright, James

2005-02-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, Wright studied under John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon College in

Arguin Island

2005-02-16T03:35:00.000-08:00

Island off the coast of Mauritania; it lies about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Cape Blanc, in a sheltered Atlantic inlet (Arguin Bay). The island (4 by 2.5 miles [6 by 4 km]) was incorporated into the newly independent Mauritania in 1960. Aridity and poor anchorage have prevented the establishment of permanent settlements on it, but the coastal reefs, known as the Arguin Banks, are major fishing

Bulgaria, Slavic invasions

2005-02-14T23:37:00.000-08:00

The story of the modern Bulgarian people begins with the Slavic invasions of the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, a time when Byzantium was absorbed in prolonged conflict with Persia and could not resist the incursions from the north. Ancient sources refer to two Slavic tribes north of the Danube at this time, the Slavenae and the Antae. Evidence suggests

Furniture, Chest

2005-02-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

The chest, including the coffin (and sarcophagus), is an ancient primitive furniture form that has survived into the 20th century. The design of a clothes chest is optional; its size depends on changing demands. The construction of a coffin, on the other hand, is a set task. The format is determined by certain principal dimensions, and the human figure has at all times exercised

Wu Ching-tzu

2005-02-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Wu Ching-tzu was a member of a scholarly and well-to-do family. He succeeded neither academically nor financially, however, and he was unable or unwilling to pass the higher official examinations. He mismanaged his inheritance

Venkataraman, Ramaswamy

2005-02-11T22:09:00.000-08:00

Venkataraman studied law at the University of Madras and began his legal practice in 1935. He became involved in India's independence struggle and was consequently jailed by the British (1942–44). After his release he continued to practice law,

Magnus Ii Eriksson

2005-02-10T20:21:00.000-08:00

The son of Ingeborg, daughter of the Norwegian king Haakon V, and of Duke Erik, brother of the Swedish king Birger Magnusson, Magnus was

Low, Sir Hugh

2005-02-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

Before going to the Malay Peninsula, Low had spent an uneventful 30 years as a colonial civil servant on the small island of Labuan, a crown colony off the northwest coast of Borneo.

Nachi-katsuura

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

Town, Wakayama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. Lying within Yoshino-Kumano National Park, the town is a summer resort renowned for its proximity to more than 40 waterfalls. The main fall is one of the highest in Japan, dropping 427 feet (130 m); it is approached through a large gate set in a grove of ancient cedars. The 7th-century Seiganto Temple is an important

Zeus

2005-02-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

According to a Cretan myth that was later adopted by

Rashalom

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

Asteroid whose orbit is the smallest of any such object so far discovered; it takes only 278 days to circle the Sun. Ra–Shalom was detected in 1978 by Eleanor Helin, a U.S. planetary scientist, at a distance of 29,000,000 kilometres (18,000,000 miles) from the Earth in a region of the solar system that was previously thought to be swept clean of asteroids. It measures about 4 km (2.5 mi) in diameter and is the largest

Dual Organization

2005-02-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

A social structure characterized by the division of society into two complementary parts called moieties. According to a strict definition, moieties are groups that are exogamous (i.e., marriage between members of the same moiety is forbidden), of unilineal descent, and in some sense opposed. Sometimes the term moiety is used more loosely to refer simply to one of two

Duricrust

2005-02-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

Surface or near-surface of the Earth consisting of a hardened accumulation of silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3), and iron oxide (Fe2O3), in varying proportions. Admixtures of other substances commonly are present and duricrusts may be enriched with oxides of manganese or titanium within restricted areas. Thus, siliceous, ferruginous, and aluminous crusts constitute duricrusts

Axon

2005-02-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

Also called Nerve Fibre, portion of a nerve cell (neuron, q.v.) that carries nerve impulses away from the cell body. A neuron typically has one axon, which is rarely branched. Axons connect neurons with other neurons or with muscle or gland cells. The axon of a motor neuron may be quite long, reaching, for example, from the spinal cord down to a toe. Most axons of vertebrate animals are enclosed in a myelin

Argentina, Finance

2005-02-01T00:31:00.000-08:00

Economic troubles in the 1970s and '80s caused the near

Takashimaya Co., Ltd.

2005-01-31T09:29:00.000-08:00

Japanese Takashimaya Kabushiki-gaisha, premier department-store company in Japan. The company traces its history back to a cotton-goods store founded in Kyoto in 1831; the modern limited-liability company was established in 1919. Today the company has department stores in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Rakusai, Sakai, Wakayama, and several other Japanese cities, as well as branches overseas in such cities as New York, Paris, London,

Mountain

2005-01-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

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

France, History Of, The Frondes

2005-01-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

The years of Louis XIV's minority were dominated by the Frondes, a series of civil disturbances that lasted from 1648 to 1653. The government's financial difficulties were once more at the root of the trouble. In the first few years of the regency a variety of expedients were tried to raise additional revenue for the war with Spain. There was about these expedients an air of arbitrariness

Rabato

2005-01-28T15:14:00.000-08:00

The turned-back rabato was sometimes used as the support or base for a ruff,

Teda Language

2005-01-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

Language spoken in Chad, Niger, and Libya. It is closely related to the Kanuri, Zaghawa, and Berti languages and belongs to the Saharan group of the Nilo-Saharan family of languages. Teda has northern and southern groups, and the term Teda is sometimes used for the northern grouping only, with Daza (Dasa), especially in French literature, the term for the southern. In an earlier

Museums, History Of, The spread of the European model

2005-01-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

Before the end of the 18th century the phenomenon of the museum had spread to other parts of the world. In 1773 in the United States the Charleston Library Society of South Carolina announced its intention of forming a museum. Its purpose was to promote the better understanding of agriculture and herbal medicine in the area. Another early institution, the Peale Museum, was

Tietê River

2005-01-25T20:55:00.000-08:00

Several of the state's

Logic, History Of

2005-01-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

In 1900 logic was poised on the brink of the most active period in its history. The late 19th-century work of Frege, Peano, and Cantor, as well as Peirce's and Schröder's extensions of Boole's insights, had broken new ground, raised considerable interest, established international lines of communication, and formed a new alliance between logic and mathematics. Five projects

Peter The Hermit

2005-01-22T01:49:00.000-08:00

Peter reputedly visited the Holy

Cambyses Ii

2005-01-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

Achaemenid king of Persia (reigned 529–522 BC), who conquered Egypt in 525; he was the eldest son of King Cyrus II the Great by Cassandane, daughter of a fellow Achaemenid. During his father's lifetime Cambyses was in charge of Babylonian affairs. In 538 he performed the ritual duties of a Babylonian king at the important New Year festival, and in 530, before Cyrus set out on his last

Roba'i

2005-01-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

The most famous example of this genre known in the Western world

Acosta, José De

2005-01-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

Jesuit theologian and missionary to the New World, chiefly known for his Historia natural y moral de las Indias, the earliest survey of the New World and its relation to the Old. His works, missionary and literary, mark the end of the period of the religious and scientific incorporation of the newly discovered lands into Western

Tyrone, Hugh O'neill, 2nd Earl Of

2005-01-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

Although born into the powerful O'Neill family of Ulster, Hugh grew up in London. In 1568 he returned to Ireland and

Frame Design

2005-01-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

Decorative treatment of frames for mirrors and pictures. Before the 15th century in Europe, frames hardly existed separately from their architectural setting and, with the altarpieces or the predellas they surrounded, formed an integral part of the decorative scheme of the church interior. Such frames were frequently burnished with gold leaf. During the 15th century,

Vulcanization

2005-01-16T08:10:00.000-08:00

The process was discovered in 1839 by the U.S. inventor

Paraguaná Peninsula

2005-01-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

Spanish Península De Paraguaná, Falcón estado (“state”), northwestern Venezuela. It lies between the Caribbean Sea on the east and the Gulf of Venezuela on the west. Of low elevation, the peninsula has infertile soil and is sparsely populated, but the development of the petroleum industry, especially in the 1950s and '60s, gave Paraguaná great economic importance. Pipelines lead from the oil fields at Lake Maracaibo

Taewon-gun

2005-01-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

As regent from 1864 to 1873, Taewon-gun inaugurated a far-ranging reform program to strengthen the central administration; he modernized and increased its armies and rationalized the administration. Opposed to any concessions to Japan or the West, Taewon-gun, though out of power, helped organize the anti-Japanese outbreak in 1882. Considered a troublemaker,

Trichocyst

2005-01-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

A structure in the cortex of certain ciliate and flagellate protozoans consisting of a cavity and long, thin threads that can be ejected in response to certain stimuli. Trichocysts may be widely distributed over an organism or restricted to certain areas (e.g., tentacles, papillae, around the mouth). There are several types. Mucoid trichocysts are elongated

France, History Of, Parisian revolt

2005-01-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

In fact, the king had by no means reconciled himself to this revolutionary act. His concession was a strategic retreat until he could muster the military power to subdue the patriots. Between June 27 and July 1 he ordered 20,000 royal troops into the Paris region, ostensibly to protect the assembly and to prevent disorder in the restive capital. The assembly's pleas to the king

Bonney, Thérèse

2005-01-10T02:54:00.000-08:00

Bonney grew up in New York and California. She graduated from the University of California, took a master's degree in Romance languages at Harvard University, and, after a short time at Columbia University

Albanian Language

2005-01-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

The two principal dialects, Gheg in the north and Tosk in the south, are separated roughly by the Shkumbin River. Gheg and Tosk have been diverging for at least a millennium, and their less extreme forms are mutually intelligible. Gheg has the more marked subvarieties, the most striking of which are the northernmost and eastern types, which include those of the city

Reformed Churches In The Netherlands

2005-01-09T02:16:00.000-08:00

The Christian Reformed Church was organized by seceders who left The Netherlands Reformed Church (q.v.) in 1834 because of disagreements over church organization

Mondoñedo

2005-01-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

City, Lugo province, comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Galicia, northwestern Spain. It lies along the Masma River, 27 miles (43 km) north of Lugo, the provincial capital. Mondoñedo occupies a sheltered valley among the northern outliers of the Cantabrian Mountains. The city has been an episcopal see since the 12th century. The principal building is the cathedral

Einstein's Massenergy Relation

2005-01-06T18:51:00.000-08:00

In physical theories prior to that of special relativity, mass and energy were viewed as distinct entities. Furthermore, the energy of a body at rest could be assigned an arbitrary

Dur Sharrukin

2005-01-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

Modern Khorsabad ancient Assyrian city located northeast of Nineveh, in Iraq. Built between 717 and 707 BC by the Assyrian king Sargon II (reigned 721–705), Dur Sharrukin exhibits careful town planning. The city measured about one mile square (2.59 square km); its outer walls were pierced by seven fortified gates. An inner wall enclosed a temple to Nabu (a god of vegetation and the patron of the art of writing), the

Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich

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

At age 16 Bahrdt began to study theology, philosophy, and philology

English Literature, Theatres in London and the provinces

2005-01-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

So the London theatres were a meeting ground of humanism and popular taste. They inherited, on the one hand, a tradition of humanistic drama current at court, the universities, and the Inns of Court (collegiate institutions responsible for legal education). This tradition involved the revival of classical plays and attempts to adapt Latin conventions to English,

Calah

2005-01-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

Founded in the 13th century BC by Shalmaneser I, Calah remained unimportant until King Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 BC) chose it as his royal seat and the military capital of Assyria. His extensive work on the

Amphitherium

2005-01-01T23:58:00.000-08:00

Extinct genus of early mammals known as fossils from Middle Jurassic deposits (of 187 to 163 million years ago). Amphitherium is the earliest representative of the pantotheres, a group of early mammals that, it is believed, represents the stock that gave rise to all the higher mammals of later times. Amphitherium is known from a lower jaw found in Europe and is characterized

Asherah

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

Ancient West Semitic goddess, consort of the supreme god. Her principal epithet was probably “She Who Walks on the Sea.” She was occasionally called Elath (Elat), “the Goddess,” and may have also been called Qudshu, “Holiness.” According to texts from Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria), Asherah's consort was El, and by him she was the mother of 70 gods. As mother goddess she was widely worshiped

Great Bend

2004-12-30T21:47:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1872) of Barton county, central Kansas, U.S. Great Bend lies on the Arkansas River where the High Plains begin to shade into tallgrass prairie. Situated in the alleged locality of the mythical city of Quivira sought by Francisco Coronado in the 16th century, the site was visited by the American explorer Zebulon Pike in 1806 and became a stopping point on the Santa Fe

Agnihotri, Shiv Narayan

2004-12-29T22:38:00.000-08:00

At the age of 16 Agnihotri entered the government-sponsored Thompson Engineering College in Roorkee and in 1873 took a position as a drawing master in the Government School of Lahore. He and his wife became active members of the Brahmo Samaj (literally, “Society

Gazelle Peninsula

2004-12-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

Peninsula extending northeast from the island of New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, southwestern Pacific. It is about 50 miles (80 km) wide but tapers to 20 miles (32 km) at the isthmus joining it to the main part of the island. From coastal plains its surface rises as high as 7,999 feet (2,438 m) at Mount Sinewit of the central Baining Mountains. The area is actively volcanic (Mount

Cone-headed Grasshopper

2004-12-26T00:34:00.000-08:00

Each species has a characteristic

Defoe, Daniel

2004-12-25T20:13:00.000-08:00

English novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe (1719–22) and Moll Flanders (1722).

Sundbyberg

2004-12-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Town, Stockholm län (county), east-central Sweden. Sundbyberg lies on the northwestern outskirts of Stockholm. When founded in 1877, it was one of Stockholm's first residential suburbs. It was chartered in 1927 and has become an important industrial centre. The church (1909–11) is noted for its stained glass. Other imposing buildings are the large Marabou chocolate factory and the multistory

Industrial Glass

2004-12-23T05:59:00.000-08:00

Solid material that is normally lustrous and transparent in appearance and that shows great durability under exposure to the natural elements. These three properties—lustre, transparency, and durability—make glass a favoured material for such household objects as windowpanes, bottles, and lightbulbs. However, neither any of these properties alone nor all of

Haberlandt, Gottlieb

2004-12-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

Haberlandt's first botanical paper appeared in 1874, one year after he entered the University of Vienna, where he obtained his Ph.D. (1876). He went to the University of Tübingen (1877) to study under Simon Schwendener,

Athetosis

2004-12-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

Slow, purposeless, and involuntary movements of the hands, feet, face, tongue, and neck (as well as other muscle groups). The fingers are separately flexed and extended in an entirely irregular way. The hands as a whole are also moved, and the arms, toes, and feet may be affected. The condition is usually caused by malfunctioning of the basal ganglia of the cerebrum. The movements

Aramaic Alphabet

2004-12-20T21:52:00.000-08:00

The Aramaic language and script were used as a lingua franca over all of the Middle

Anode

2004-12-20T16:04:00.000-08:00

The terminal or electrode from which electrons leave a system. In a battery or other source of direct current the anode is the negative terminal, but in a passive load it is the positive terminal. For example, in an electron tube electrons from the cathode travel across the tube toward the anode, and in an electroplating cell negative ions are deposited at the anode.

Medicine, United States

2004-12-18T03:31:00.000-08:00

Federal, state, county, and city governments all have public health functions. Under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the Public Health Service, headed by an assistant secretary for health and the surgeon general. State health departments are headed by a commissioner of health, usually a physician, who is often in the governor's cabinet. He usually

Hydaspes, Battle Of The

2004-12-17T06:56:00.000-08:00

(326 BC), fourth and last pitched battle fought by Alexander the Great during his campaign of conquest in Asia. It took place after Alexander's conquest of the Achaemenidian Empire and immediately before his army began the journey homeward to Macedonia. Porus, the Indian ruler of the territory between the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers (in modern Pakistan), was his opponent. After

Jordan

2004-12-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

The World Economic Forum (WEF) convened its extraordinary meeting, held June 21–23, 2003, on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea. Klaus Schwab, president of the WEF, justified the meeting place by stating that “the world and, above all, the [Middle Eastern] region were in urgent need of healing processes.” Policy makers, political leaders, academicians, intellectuals, and religious

Frederick William I

2004-12-13T22:59:00.000-08:00

The son of the elector Frederick III, later Frederick I, king of Prussia, Frederick William grew up at a glamorous court,