MaterialOrange

Biblical Literature, The Aramaic Targums

2005-04-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

In the course of the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, Aramaic became the official language of the Persian Empire. In the succeeding centuries it was used as the vernacular over a wide area and was increasingly spoken by the postexilic Jewish communities of Palestine and elsewhere in the Diaspora. In response to liturgical needs, the institution of a turgeman (or meturgeman, “translator

Koch, Martin

2005-04-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

Koch came from a lower middle-class family, which his father deserted when the children were very young. The young Koch worked as a labourer's helper, studied art, and became active in the Good Templars Lodge. His first publication

Palestine, History Of, The rise of Islam

2005-04-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

The successful unification of the Arabian Peninsula by the first caliph, Abu Bakr (AD 632–Aug. 23, 634), made it possible to channel the expansion of the Arab Muslims into new directions. Abu Bakr, therefore, summoned the faithful to a holy war (jihad) and quickly amassed an impressive army. He dispatched three detachments of about 3,000 (later increased to about 7,500) men each to start operations

Lorca

2005-04-02T04:12:00.000-08:00

Town, Murcia province and autonomous community (region), southeastern Spain. It is situated along the Río Guadalentín in a semiarid and steppelike area that is surrounded by rugged mountains. The town, which sits on both banks of the river, was the Ilurco (Ilukro) of the Romans and the Lurka of the Moors. It was the scene of numerous battles between Christian and Moorish

Yung-lo

2005-04-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

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

Aakjær, Jeppe

2005-03-31T09:11:00.000-08:00

Aakjær grew up in the Jutland farming area and so was well aware of the harsh conditions endured by farm labourers in his country. His early novels deal primarily with this theme. As a young man he went to study in Copenhagen,

Biblical Literature, The Letter of Jeremiah

2005-03-30T14:22:00.000-08:00

The Letter of Jeremiah, like the book of Baruch, was conserved—together with the Greek translation of the Book of Jeremiah—in the Septuagint. The oldest witness of the letter is a fragment of a Greek papyrus, written about 160 BCE and found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. Whether the letter was originally written in Greek or is a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic is difficult

Arundel, Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl Of

2005-03-30T00:49:00.000-08:00

Son of William Fitzalan (1483–1544), the 11th earl, he succeeded to the earldom in 1544. He took part in the siege of Boulogne (1544) and was appointed lord chamberlain and a privy councillor in 1546. In June 1553 he alone of the council refused the “engagement” of the council

Don Juan

2005-03-27T19:20:00.000-08:00

Fictitious character who is a symbol of libertinism. Originating in popular legend, he was first given literary personality in the tragic drama El burlador de Sevilla (1630; “The Seducer of Seville,” translated in The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest), attributed to the Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina. Through Tirso's tragedy, Don Juan became a universal character,

Tsévié

2005-03-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

Town, southern Togo, West Africa. It is located about 20 miles (32 km) north of Lomé, the national capital. The town constitutes an important centre for palm oil processing and a major market for commercial trade among Togo's régions. Tsévié has road and railway links with Notsé, Atakpamé, and Blitta to the north and with Lomé to the south. The Ewe people inhabit Tsévié and the surrounding

Cellulose Acetate

2005-03-25T17:07:00.000-08:00

Original name Acetate Rayon, also called Acetate, man-made textile fibre produced from the plant substance cellulose, which is obtained from soft woods or the short fibres adhering to cotton seeds (linters) and treated with acetic acid and acetic anhydride, and then partially hydrolyzed so that the product, secondary acetate, is soluble in acetone. It forms a cellulose acetate solution that is extruded through

Venkataraman, Ramaswamy

2005-03-24T03:55:00.000-08:00

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,

Torez

2005-03-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1964) Chistyakovo city, Donetsk oblast (province), Ukraine. Torez is a typical coal-mining centre of the Donets Basin coalfield, but in Soviet times its industrial base was considerably widened. It is now a centre for engineering industries, especially electrical engineering, and for building materials. The city of Torez has been replanned in modern style, and its streets have been widened.

Allingham, Margery (louise)

2005-03-23T04:26:00.000-08:00

Campion's career was begun with a group of ingenious, popular thrillers: The Crime at Black Dudley (1928; U.S. title, The Black Dudley

Cola Dynasty

2005-03-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

The legendary king Karikalan was the common ancestor through whom small Deccan and Andhra families called Cola or Coda claimed a connection with the Uraiyur

Antarctica

2005-03-22T07:27:00.000-08:00

Antarctica, as defined by the 42-nation Antarctic Treaty that entered into effect in 1961, comprises all lands and waters south of latitude 60° S. The land area is about 14.2 million sq km (5.3 million sq mi), principally the Antarctic continent itself and adjoining islands. Ice averaging 2,160 m (7,085 ft) in thickness covers 98% of the continent. There is no capital or permanent human habitation; scientific

Italian Liberal Party

2005-03-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

The Liberal Party was first formed as a parliamentary group within the Piedmont assembly in 1848 by Count Camillo di Cavour, who eventually brought about the unification of Italy and became

Axis

2005-03-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

In crystallography, any of a set of lines used to describe the orderly arrangement of atoms in a crystal. If each atom or group of atoms is represented by a dot, or lattice point, and these points are connected, the resulting lattice may be divided into a number of identical blocks, or unit cells. The intersecting edges of one of these unit cells are chosen as the crystallographic

La Serena

2005-03-19T00:27:00.000-08:00

Capital of Coquimbo region, northern Chile, lying on a marine terrace overlooking Bahía (bay) de Coquimbo, just south of the Río Elqui and east of Coquimbo city. Founded c. 1543 on the river's northern bank, it was named after the Spanish birthplace of the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. Razed by Diaguita Indians in 1549 and rebuilt on the present site the following year, La Serena

Salesian

2005-03-17T18:45:00.000-08:00

The founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco (formally, the Society of St. Francis de Sales; S.D.B.) was St. John Bosco (Don Bosco), a young priest who focused his concern on the orphaned and homeless child labourers

Earphone

2005-03-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

Small loudspeaker held or worn close to the listener's ear or within the outer ear. Common forms include the hand-held telephone receiver; the headphone (q.v.), in which one or two earphones are held in place by a band worn over the head; and the plug earphone, which is inserted in the outer opening of the ear. The conversion of electrical to acoustical signals is effected by

Devrient, Emil

2005-03-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

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

Oviparity

2005-03-15T04:27:00.000-08:00

Expulsion of undeveloped eggs rather than live young. The eggs may have been fertilized before release, as in birds and some reptiles, or are to be fertilized externally, as in amphibians and many lower forms. In general, the number of eggs produced by oviparous species greatly exceeds the number of offspring from species that bear live young, but the chances of survival

Triconodon

2005-03-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

Genus of extinct primitive mammals found in Europe as fossil deposits of the Late Jurassic (163 to 144 million years ago). Triconodon is representative of the triconodonts, known throughout the world in regions as widely separated as North America, Europe, and China. Triconodon, a relatively large animal for its time (most early mammals were very small), was about the size of

Porch

2005-03-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

There is little material evidence of the existence of the porch before the period of Classical antiquity, although Egyptian

Pereira, Irene Rice

2005-03-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

Irene Rice moved a number of times with her family before they settled in Brooklyn, New York City. After exploring other careers, from 1927 to 1930 she studied at the Art Students League in New York. In 1929 she married commercial artist Humberto Pereira,

Nova Iguaçu

2005-03-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

City and northwestern suburb of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Formerly called Maxambamba, it lies in the Sarapuí River valley, at 85 feet (26 m) above sea level. The city's varied industries include marmalade and orange juice factories, vegetable canneries, and plants manufacturing chemicals and pharmaceutical products. Extensive orange groves

Calamine Brass

2005-03-12T04:14:00.000-08:00

Alloy of copper with zinc, produced by heating fragments of copper with charcoal and a zinc ore, calamine or smithsonite, in a closed crucible to red heat (about 1,300° C, or 2,400° F). The ore is reduced to a zinc vapour that diffuses into the copper. Apparently invented in Asia Minor, this method of brass manufacture was common from the 1st millennium BC. In Roman times a brass industry was

Ma-ubin

2005-03-11T08:41:00.000-08:00

Town, southern Myanmar (Burma). The town is a river port on the west bank of the main Irrawaddy distributary and is protected by flood-control embankments. It is linked with Yangon (Rangoon), 40 miles (65 km) east, by the Twante Canal and is the site of a diesel electric plant. The surrounding area occupies a largely swampy portion of the Irrawaddy River delta. It has a southern coastline

Pendleton

2005-03-10T23:55:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1868) of Umatilla county, northeastern Oregon, U.S., on the Umatilla River, adjacent to the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Situated on the Oregon Trail, it was founded in 1869 by G.W. Bailey and named for George Hunt Pendleton, a prominent Ohio senator. It became a wheat and cattle centre after the arrival of the railroad in 1889 and remains a centre of grain and vegetable production

Ibn Tibbon, Judah Ben Saul

2005-03-10T17:36:00.000-08:00

Persecution of the Jews forced Judah to flee Granada in 1150, and he settled in Lunel, in southern France, where he practiced medicine, according to an account in 1160 by a contemporary traveller,

Sporades

2005-03-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

Group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, lying northeast of Euboea (Évvoia) island, including Skíathos, Skópelos, Skyros, and Alónnisos, as well as neighbouring islets. In antiquity these were known as the Thessalian, or Northern, Sporades, while the Thracian, or Eastern, Sporades included the now-Turkish island of Imroz (Greek Imvros), Samothrace, Thasos, Lemnos, and Áyios

Dome Of The Rock

2005-03-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

Arabic Qubbat as-Sakhrah shrine in Jerusalem that is the oldest extant Islamic monument. The rock over which the shrine was built is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, is traditionally believed to have ascended into heaven from the site. In Jewish tradition, it is here that Abraham, the progenitor and first patriarch of the Hebrew people, is said to have prepared

Arecibo Observatory

2005-03-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

Astronomical observatory located 16 km (10 miles) south of the town of Arecibo in Puerto Rico; it is the site of the world's largest single-unit radio telescope. This instrument, built in the early 1960s, employs a 300-metre (1,000-foot) spherical reflector consisting of perforated aluminum panels that focus incoming radio waves on movable antenna structures positioned about 168 m (550 feet) above

Oates, Titus

2005-03-07T07:12:00.000-08:00

The son of a Baptist preacher, Oates was expelled from the Merchant Taylors School, London, in 1665. Although he managed to

Aurangabad

2005-03-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

Town, west-central Maharashtra state, western India, on the Kaum River. Originally known as Khadki, it was founded by Malik Ambar in 1610. Its name was changed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who built the Bibika Makbara tomb, an imitation of the Taj Mahal, near the town. Aurangabad remained the headquarters of the independent Nizams, but it declined when the capital was moved

Hugh Iii

2005-03-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

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

Alkali Feldspar

2005-03-06T02:42:00.000-08:00

Any of several common silicate minerals that often occur as variously coloured, glassy crystals. They are used in the manufacture of glass and ceramics; transparent, highly coloured, or iridescent varieties are sometimes used as gemstones. The alkali feldspars are primarily important as constituents of rocks; they are very widespread and abundant in alkali and

Algebra, Commerce and abacists in the European Renaissance

2005-03-04T17:46:00.000-08:00

Greek and Islamic mathematics were basically “academic” enterprises, having little interaction with day-to-day matters involving building, transportation, and commerce. This situation first began to change in Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries. In particular, the rise of Italian mercantile companies and their use of modern financial instruments for trade with the

Plymouth

2005-03-03T18:48:00.000-08:00

County, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S., bordered by Massachusetts Bay (northeast), Cape Cod Bay (east), and Buzzards Bay (south). It consists mainly of an upland region with pockets of bogs, especially in the coastal lowlands of the southeast. The primary watercourses are the Taunton, Weweantic, North, and South rivers and Assawompset, Long, Great Quittacas, and Snipatuit

France, History Of, Local institutions

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

Except in the north, which was divided into districts called pagi, the Merovingians continued to use the city (the Roman civitas) as the principal administrative division. A count was installed in each pagus and city (urbs) and delegated financial, military, and judicial authority. Groups of counts were occasionally placed under the authority of a duke, whose responsibilities

Plum Curculio

2005-03-02T23:41:00.000-08:00

Also called American Plum Weevil (Conotrachelus nenuphar), North American insect pest of the family Curculionidae (order Coleoptera); it does serious damage to a variety of fruit trees. The adult has a dark brown body, about six millimetres ( 1/4 inch) long, with gray and white patches and conspicuous humps on each wing case. It has the typical weevil's snout, strongly down-curved for puncturing the skin of young

Avvakum Petrovich

2005-03-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

Archpriest, leader of the Old Believers, conservative clergy who brought on one of the most serious crises in the history of the Russian church by separating from the Russian Orthodox church to support the “old rite,” consisting of many purely local Russian developments. He is also considered to be a pioneer of modern Russian

Mental Disorder, Minor affective disorders

2005-03-02T04:41:00.000-08:00

Dysthmic disorder, or depressive

Land-grant College

2005-03-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

Under the provisions of the act, each state was granted 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) of federal land for each member of Congress representing that state.

Ear, Human

2005-02-28T02:01:00.000-08:00

The human ear, like that of other mammals, contains sense organs that serve two quite different functions: that of hearing and that of postural equilibrium and coordination

Biblical Literature

2005-02-28T00:11:00.000-08:00

Exegesis, or critical interpretation, and hermeneutics, or the science of interpretive principles, of the Bible have been used by both Jews and Christians throughout their histories for various purposes. The most common purpose has been that of discovering the truths and values of the Old and New Testaments by means of various techniques and principles, though

General Sarmiento

2005-02-27T14:52:00.000-08:00

Partido (county) of Gran (“Greater”) Buenos Aires, Argentina. It lies northwest of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires provincia. The early settlement of the county centred on the agricultural plantation San José del Pilar, established by Adolfo Sordeaux in 1862. This plantation settlement led Sordeaux to establish the towns of San Miguel and Bella Vista in 1872. In 1889 General

Alessandro

2005-02-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

Alessandro was an illegitimate child, whose paternity is ascribed either to Lorenzo de' Medici (1492–1519), Duke di Urbino, or, with more likelihood, to Cardinal Giulio, nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Cardinal Giulio received the lordship of Florence in 1519; but, upon being elected pope in 1523 (Clement VII), he made Silvio, Cardinal

Anderson, Lindsay Gordon

2005-02-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

British stage and film director (b. April 17, 1923, Bangalore, India--d. Aug. 30, 1994, near Angoulême, France), as one of the original Angry Young Men, made his distaste for conformity and England's class consciousness the constant theme of his often anarchic works. While attending Wadham College, Oxford, Anderson cofounded and coedited the film magazine Sequence, and he later wrote for such

Eakins, Thomas

2005-02-26T13:02:00.000-08:00

From his earliest student days, Eakins had been primarily interested in studying and portraying the human figure. His early sculling scenes displayed the musculature of athletic men, and “The Gross Clinic” dealt directly with the subject of human anatomy. But Eakins found few subjects in contemporary Philadelphia that afforded opportunities for portraying

Hughes, Sir Samuel

2005-02-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

Hughes was a teacher and a member of the voluntary militia. In 1885–97 he was proprietor and editor of the Warder, a newspaper in Lindsay.

China, The chief councillors

2005-02-25T00:54:00.000-08:00

The later Nan Sung emperors preferred not to take on the awesome burden of managing the huge and complex bureaucracy. Most of them were concerned chiefly with security and the status quo. The Nan Sung court delegated a tremendous amount of power and thus had a series of dominant chief councillors; none of them, however, ever was a potential usurper. No bureaucrat during

Xia Gui

2005-02-24T19:10:00.000-08:00

One of the best English-language sources of information on Hsia Kuei is the article on him by Sherman E. Lee in the Encyclopedia of World Art, vol. 7 (1963), col. 650–654. See also Osvald Sirén, Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles, vol. 2 (1956, reissued 1974), pp. 119–124; and James Cahill, Chinese Painting (1960, reissued 1985), pp. 79–87, which discuss Hsia Kuei in the context of the Ma-Hsia school.

Vietnam War

2005-02-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

(1954–75), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Called the “American War” in Vietnam (or, in full, the “War Against the Americans to Save the Nation”), the war was also part of a larger regional conflict (see Indochina

Katyn Massacre

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

After Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded their Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and Germany invaded Poland from the west, Soviet

Aril

2005-02-23T05:53:00.000-08:00

Special covering of certain seeds that commonly develops from the seed stalk. It is often a bright-coloured fleshy envelope, as in such woody plants as the yews and nutmeg and in members of the arrowroot family, the genus Oxalis, and the castor bean. Animals are attracted to arils and eat the seeds, dispersing them in their wastes. In the castor bean, the aril is spongy and

Albalag, Isaac

2005-02-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

Jewish philosopher who rendered a Hebrew translation of parts of the Maqasid al-falasifah (“Aims of the Philosophers”), a review of doctrines of earlier thinkers by the Arabic philosopher al-Ghazali, to which Albalag added his own views and comments. In defending philosophy against the accusation that it undermined religion,

Durant, Will; And Durant, Ariel

2005-02-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

Will Durant's writing career began with the publication of Philosophy and the Social Problem (1917). His second book, The Story of

Lower Canada

2005-02-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

In Canadian history, the region in Canada now known as Quebec. Known as Lower Canada from 1791 to 1841, the region became known as Canada East (q.v.) with the Act of Union of 1841. See also Quebec.

Redgrave, Vanessa

2005-02-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

Called “the greatest actress of our time” by the playwright Tennessee Williams, Vanessa Redgrave came from a legendary theatrical family. Her father, Sir Michael Redgrave, was one of Britain's most popular and respected actors, and her mother, Rachel Kempson, was a noted stage

Ganassa, Zan

2005-02-20T19:23:00.000-08:00

Ganassa, who took his name from that of a character he invented, was perhaps the first to take a commedia company beyond the borders of Italy. Evidence exists of his appearances at Mantua (1568) and Ferrara (1570), and a performance by him and his company in Paris in 1571 was perhaps

Albumen Paper

2005-02-20T08:32:00.000-08:00

Albumen also spelled Albumin, light-sensitive paper prepared by coating with albumen, or egg white, and a salt (e.g., ammonium chloride) and sensitized by an aftertreatment with a solution of silver nitrate. The process was introduced by the French photographer Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard in about 1850 and was widely used for about 60 years thereafter. Early employers of the process applied by hand the

Taidu

2005-02-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ta-tu , Mongol Khanbaliq the city of Peking (q.v.) under the Mongols.

Ugaki Kazushige

2005-02-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

Japanese soldier-statesman, who in the years before World War II headed the so-called Control Faction of the Japanese army, a group that stressed the development of new weapons and opposed the rightist “Imperial Way” faction, which emphasized increased indoctrination of troops with ultranationalist ideology. Ugaki's

Catatumbo River

2005-02-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

Spanish Río Catatumbo, river rising in northern Colombia. It flows northeast across the Venezuelan border, crosses rich oil-bearing regions in the Maracaibo Lowland, and empties into Lake Maracaibo after a course of about 210 miles (338 km). It is navigable in its lower course and receives Zulia River 4 miles (6 km) west of Encontrados, Venez., in the Maracaibo Lowland.

Limassol

2005-02-18T04:55:00.000-08:00

Limassol's rise from a humble market town between the ancient settlements of Amathus and Curium took place at the end of the Byzantine Empire, when Richard I the Lion-Heart landed

Sa'ib

2005-02-18T03:25:00.000-08:00

Sa'ib was educated in Esfahan, and in about 1626/27 he traveled to India, where he was received into the court of Shah Jahan. He stayed for a time in Kabul and in Kashmir, returning home after several years abroad. After his

Macdowell, Edward (alexander)

2005-02-16T01:51:00.000-08:00

MacDowell first studied in New York with Teresa Carreño and then at the Conservatoire (1876–78) in Paris. In 1878 he went to Germany to study composition

Harare

2005-02-15T20:41:00.000-08:00

Formerly Salisbury, capital of Zimbabwe, lying in the northeastern part of the country. The city was founded in 1890 at the spot where the British South Africa Company's Pioneer Column halted its march into Mashonaland; it was named for Lord Salisbury, then British prime minister. The name Harare is derived from that of the outcast Chief Neharawe, who, with his people, occupied the kopje (the hill

Henri Pittier National Park

2005-02-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

Also called Rancho Grande National Park, park in the Cordillera de la Costa, Aragua state, Venezuela, occupying an area of 350 sq mi (900 sq km) between Lago (lake) de Valencia and the Caribbean. It was established in 1937, largely through the efforts of Henri Pittier, a Venezuelan naturalist, who convinced his government that the destruction of mountain forests would create droughts in the Aragua Valley and hasten the drying

Burgess, Gelett

2005-02-14T19:12:00.000-08:00

Burgess was educated as an engineer and worked briefly for a railroad in that capacity. Between 1891 and 1894 he taught topographical drawing at the University

Eisleben

2005-02-14T09:05:00.000-08:00

City, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), central Germany, in the eastern foothills of the Harz Mountains. First mentioned in 994 as a market, called Islebia, and in 1180 as a town, it belonged to the counts of Mansfeld until it passed to Saxony in 1780 and was assigned to Prussia in 1815. It is divided into the old and new towns (Altstadt and Neustadt), the latter having originated as a residential district

écrins National Park

2005-02-13T19:08:00.000-08:00

Nature reserve located in the départements of Hautes-Alpes and Isère, southeastern France. The park, which was created in 1973, occupies 226,694 acres (91,740 hectares) and is the second largest national park in France. It encompasses the Alpine peaks of Barre des Écrins (13,457 feet [4,102 m]), La Meije (13,067 feet [3,983 m]), Ailefroide, and Pelvoux, as well as numerous lakes, cirques, and gorges. Forests of larch cover the

Macdowell, Edward (alexander)

2005-02-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

International organization established by one of the Treaties of Rome in 1958 to form a common market for the development of the peaceful uses of atomic energy. The original members were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands. It subsequently has come to include all members of the European Union. Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joined

Dachlan, Kijai Hadji Ahmad

2005-02-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Dachlan was a wealthy merchant who made the pilgrimage to Mecca shortly after 1900. On his return, he became active in religious reform activities, first in formalistic issues of ritual and subsequently

Leaf Cactus

2005-02-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Common names are leaf cactus—for the mostly flattened, nonspiny stems that function as leaves—or orchid cactus—for the spectacular large flowers

Black Mountain Poet

2005-02-11T04:48:00.000-08:00

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

Grabbe, Christian Dietrich

2005-02-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

Grabbe studied law in Leipzig and made unsuccessful attempts at acting and directing in Berlin. After quarrelling with the poet Heinrich Heine and members of Young Germany (a politically radical literary movement) and failing in attempts to get

Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah (193373)

2005-02-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

The first 20 years of Mohammad Zahir Shah's reign were characterized by cautious policies of national consolidation, an expansion of foreign relations, and internal development using Afghan funds alone. World War II brought about a slowdown in development processes, but Afghanistan maintained its traditional neutrality. The “Pashtunistan” problem regarding

Nowshera

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

Also spelled Naushahra town, North-West Frontier Province, northern Pakistan. Lying on a sandy plain surrounded by hills, on the banks of the Kabul River (there bridged), Nowshera is a commercial and industrial centre that is connected by rail and road with Dargai (Malakand Pass), Mardan, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi. The town's industries include cotton, wool, and paperboard mills and chemical and newsprint

Emecheta, Buchi

2005-02-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

Emecheta was married at age 16 and immigrated with her husband to London in 1962. The problems she encountered in London during the early 1960s provided background for the books that are called her immigrant novels. Her first two books,

Vanadium Processing

2005-02-08T17:54:00.000-08:00

The discovery of vanadium was first claimed in 1801 by a Spanish mineralogist, Andrés Manuel del Río, who gave it the name erythronium, after the red colour of one of its chemical compounds (Greek erythros, “red”). In 1830 a Swedish chemist, Nils Gabriel Sefström, rediscovered the element and named it vanadium, after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty, because of the beautiful

English Oak

2005-02-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

Also called Brown Oak (Quercus robur), ornamental and timber tree of the beech family (Fagaceae) that is native to Eurasia but also cultivated in North America and Australia. The tree has a short, stout trunk with wide-spreading branches and may grow to a height of 25 m (82.5 feet). The short-stalked leaves, 13 cm (5 inches) or more long, have three to seven pairs of rounded lobes; they are dark green

Telephone And Telephone System, Analog telephone facsimile

2005-02-08T03:26:00.000-08:00

Further deployment of fax transmission had to await the development of improved long-distance telephone service. Between 1920 and 1923 the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) worked on telephone facsimile technology, and in 1924 the telephotography machine was used to send pictures from political conventions in Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago to New York City for publication

Black Market

2005-02-07T13:27:00.000-08:00

Trading in violation of publicly imposed regulations such as rationing laws, laws against certain goods, and official rates of exchange among currencies. Rationing is common in wartime in order to equalize the distribution of scarce goods and services; black-market activity may consist of charging more than the legal prices, stealing or counterfeiting ration

Arnaut De Mareuil

2005-02-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Arnaut's life. His early poems were dedicated to his patroness, Adelaide, the daughter of Raymond V, count of Toulouse, and wife of Roger II, viscount of Béziers.

Florence

2005-02-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Lauderdale county, northwestern Alabama, U.S. It lies on the Tennessee River about 65 miles (105 km) west of Huntsville, forming with Sheffield, Tuscumbia, and Muscle Shoals a four-city metropolitan area in the Muscle Shoals region. Settlers first arrived and established a trading post there about 1779. The area was later purchased by a land company whose stockholders

Moscow Canal

2005-02-05T19:21:00.000-08:00

Russian Kanal Moskva, ship waterway linking Moscow to the Volga River at Ivankovo, north of Moscow. Built between 1932 and 1937, the canal replaced the canalized Moskva River, which can take only small craft, as the main water access to Moscow. The water journey to the important industrial centre of Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky) was shortened by 75 miles (120 km). Along the Moscow Canal's length of 80 miles (128 km)

Monmouth

2005-02-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1836) of Warren county, western Illinois, U.S. Established in 1831, it was named to commemorate the American Revolutionary War battle fought at Monmouth, N.J. (June 28, 1778). Its economy has an agricultural base: livestock, corn (maize), processed meats, and pet foods, with some light manufacturing, chiefly pottery. Monmouth College was founded in 1853. Wyatt Earp, the well-known gunfighter,

Yun, Isang

2005-02-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

Yun began composing at the age of 14 and studied music in Japan in Osaka and Tokyo. He returned to Korea, where he was active in the resistance movement against the Japanese during World War

Gaultier De Varennes Et De La Vérendrye, Pierre

2005-02-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

(French-Canadian explorer): see La Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de.

Rye House Plot

2005-02-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

(1683), alleged Whig conspiracy to assassinate or mount an insurrection against Charles II of England because of his pro-Roman Catholic policies. The plot drew its name from Rye House at Hoddeston, Hertfordshire, near which ran a narrow road where Charles was supposed to be killed as he traveled from a horse meet at Newmarket. By chance, according to the official narrative,

Baal

2005-02-03T16:25:00.000-08:00

God worshiped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, especially among the Canaanites, who apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon. As a Semitic common noun baal (Hebrew ba'al) meant “owner” or “lord,” although it could be used more generally; for example, a baal of wings was a winged creature, and, in the plural, baalim

Fracture

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

In pathology, a break in a bone caused by stress. Certain normal and pathological conditions may predispose bones to fracture. Children have relatively weak bones because of incomplete calcification, and older adults, especially women past menopause, develop osteoporosis, a weakening of bone concomitant with aging. Pathological conditions involving the skeleton,

Insurance, Merchandise credit insurance

2005-02-01T16:09:00.000-08:00

Credit insurance for domestic buyers and sellers is available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and most European countries. It is sold only to manufacturers, wholesalers, and certain service agencies, not to retailers. The insurance is designed to enable the seller to recover a certain percentage of losses from insolvency of the debtor, but the contracts list

World Water Crisis: Is There A Way Out?

2005-02-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

Some 40% of the global population lives within river basins that are shared by two or more countries. Often one country is water-rich and the other water-poor, or one supports heavily polluting industries while the other does not. Since there is no strong international law governing the resolution of transboundary water disputes, the potential for conflict remains

Anazarbus

2005-02-01T04:02:00.000-08:00

In full Caesarea ad Anazarbus , modern Agaçli , formerly Çeçenanavarza former city of the ancient province of Cilicia in Anatolia that was important in the Roman and Byzantine periods. It was located in what is now south-central Turkey. The original native settlement was refounded by the Romans in 19 BC, following a visit by Augustus. It rivaled Tarsus, the Cilician capital, in the 3rd century AD, and under Diocletian became the seat of the separate

Hessen

2005-01-31T15:06:00.000-08:00

Also called Hesse Land (state) of Germany, eighth largest of the 16 Länder, occupying an area of 8,152 square miles (21,114 square km) in the west-central part of that country. Hessen is bounded by the states of Lower Saxony (north), North Rhine-Westphalia (northwest), Rhineland-Palatinate (west), Baden-Württemberg (south), Bavaria (southeast), and Thuringia (east). The state lies between the Upper Rhine Plateau to

Arts, Central Asian, Music

2005-01-30T21:24:00.000-08:00

Richard A. Waterman et al., “Bibliography of Asiatic Musics,” 13th installment, Notes of the Music Library Association, 8:100–118 (1950); Mark Slobin, “Zentralasien,” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 14 (1968), see sect. 1, “Afghanistan and the Sedentary Population of Turkestan”; and Record notes for “Afghanistan,” vol. 1–4, series Anthology of the World's Music, include photographs, musical illustrations; H.G. Farmer, “Turkestani Music,” Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., vol. 8, pp. 610–612 (1954), historical background and general information; A. Huth, “Instruments of East Turkestan,” ibid., pp. 608–610, historical background; Johanna Spector, “Musical Tradition and Innovation,” in Edward Allworth (ed.), Central Asia: A Century of Russian Rule, pp. 434–484 (1967), detailed information on Turkistani music, with emphasis on the court tradition, including excellent illustrations and charts. (Music of the Turkic nomads, Mongolia, and Siberia): Ernst Emsheimer et al., The Music of the Mongols (1943, reprinted 1971), the classic work; Mark Slobin, Kirgiz Instrumental Music (1969), detailed study of one Central Asian tradition. (Music of the Himalayan peoples): P. Crossley-Holland, “Tibetan Music,” Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 8, pp. 456–464, a thorough basic survey; Luther G. Jerstad, Mani-rimdu: Sherpa Dance-Drama (1969), a thorough account of a specific Himalayan tradition.