LeftMouth

Vries, Hugo (marie) De

2005-04-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

Dutch botanist and geneticist who introduced the experimental study of organic evolution. His rediscovery in 1900 (simultaneously with the botanists Carl Correns and Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg) of Gregor Mendel's principles of heredity and his theory of biological mutation, though considerably different from a modern understanding

Arts, Islamic, Philosophy: Averroës and Avicenna

2005-04-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Philosophy, medicine, and theology, all of which flourished in the 'Abbasid East, were also of importance in the Maghrib; and from there strong influences reached medieval Europe. The influences often came through the mediation of the Jews, who, along with numerous Christians, were largely Arabized in their cultural and literary outlook. The eastern Muslim countries

Discus Fish

2005-04-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

Two species of the genus Symphysodon of fishes in the family Cichlidae (order Perciformes), characterized by a compressed, disk-shaped body. The two species (S. discus and S. aequifasciata) occur naturally in tributaries of the Amazon River in South America. Discus fish have an unusual form of parental care: the adults secrete a mucuslike substance onto their skin that

Kubera

2005-04-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

In Hindu mythology, the king of the yaksas (nature spirits) and the god of wealth. He is associated with the earth, mountains, all treasures such as minerals and jewels that lie underground, and riches in general. According to most accounts he first lived in Lanka (Sri Lanka), but his palace was taken away from him by his half brother, Ravana, and he now resides in a beautiful mountain

Biblical Literature, French versions

2005-03-31T10:42:00.000-08:00

The first complete Bible was produced in the 13th century at the University of Paris and toward the end of that century Guyart des Moulins executed his Bible Historiale. Both works served as the basis of future redactions of which

John George I

2005-03-31T03:15:00.000-08:00

An easygoing, indolent drunkard whose chief wish was “to drink his beer in peace,” he was a faithful adherent of the house of Habsburg. As a result of his inability

Carter, Angela

2005-03-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

Carter rejected an Oxford education to work as a journalist with the Croydon Advertiser, but she later studied medieval literature at the University of Bristol (B.A., 1965). She had moderate success with

Davidson (of Lambeth), Randall Thomas Davidson, Baron

2005-03-28T00:35:00.000-08:00

Ordained in 1875, Davidson became resident chaplain two years later to the archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald C. Tait. He soon won the trust of Queen Victoria, whose influence

Powhatan War

2005-03-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

(1622–44), relentless struggle between the Powhatan Indian confederacy and early English settlers in the tidewater section of Virginia and southern Maryland. The conflict resulted in the destruction of the Indian power. English colonists who had settled in Jamestown (1607) were at first strongly motivated by their need of native corn (maize) to keep peace with the Powhatans

Santorio Santorio

2005-03-26T04:16:00.000-08:00

Santorio was a graduate of the University of Padua (M.D., 1582), where he later became professor of medical

Hui-yüan

2005-03-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Huiyuan celebrated early Chinese Buddhist priest who formed a devotional society of monks and lay worshipers of the Buddha Amitabha. The society inspired the establishment in later centuries (6th–7th) of the Ch'ing-t'u (“Pure Land”) cult, which is today the most popular form of Buddhism in East Asia. On his advice, the ruler of the Eastern Chin dynasty

Fischer, Johann Michael

2005-03-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

Fischer was trained by his father, a mason. As an apprentice in Bohemia and Moravia beginning in 1713, he became familiar with the churches of the Dientzenhofer family and returned to Munich in 1718 to become

Uvalde

2005-03-23T20:56:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1856) of Uvalde county, southwestern Texas, U.S. It lies along the Leona River, some 85 miles (135 km) west-southwest of San Antonio. Fort Inge was built (1849) on the Leona's east bank, and the site was settled in 1852 by W.W. Arnett, who was joined in 1853 by Reading W. Black and H.L. Stratton. Black opened a trading post (1855) and called the community Encina. The city was renamed Uvalde in 1856, when it was incorporated

Amnion

2005-03-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

In development, the amnion arises by a folding of a mass of extra-embryonic tissue called the somatopleure. Lined with ectoderm and covered with mesoderm (both are

Dieulafoy, Marcel-auguste

2005-03-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

Dieulafoy's published works include L'Art antique de la Perse, 5 vol. (1884–89; “The Ancient

Andaman And Nicobar Islands, History

2005-03-21T02:12:00.000-08:00

Located on the trade routes from India to East Asia, the Andamans have been known from earliest times. The 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk I-ching, the Arab travelers of the 9th century, and Marco Polo are among those who mention the islands. The name Andaman most likely comes from the Malay Handuman, derived from the monkey god of Hindu mythology, Hanuman. Writings of later

Burano Lace

2005-03-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

Lace made on the island of Burano, near Venice. Until the early 19th century, there had been a Burano lace industry producing copies of 18th-century French lace. By midcentury it was virtually extinct. When in 1872 attempts were made to revive the lace industry to provide relief to the islanders after a ruinous winter, one elderly inhabitant was found who remembered the technique.

Dandenong Ranges

2005-03-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

Mountain ranges, part of the Eastern Highlands, east of Melbourne in southern Victoria, Australia. Several peaks exceed 1,600 ft (500 m), the highest of which is Mt. Dandenong (2,077 ft). With nearly twice as much rainfall as the nearby coastal plain and with fertile volcanic soils, the mountains have dense vegetative cover. The name is derived from an Aboriginal word, tanjenong, meaning

Switzerland, Leisure

2005-03-18T03:07:00.000-08:00

Living in close proximity to the mountains, which are well linked by road and rail to the urban areas, the Swiss have become extremely sport-conscious and have encouraged the growth of skiing and mountaineering as tourist attractions. Other sports include Swiss-style wrestling, gymnastics, regular Sunday-morning shooting, Hornussen (a kind of Alpine baseball), tennis,

Mercier, Honoré

2005-03-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

While studying law in the early 1860s Mercier edited the Conservative newspaper Le Courrier de St. Hyacinthe and supported the Conservative administration

East Hertfordshire

2005-03-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

East Hertfordshire district is largely undulating and rural, characterized by medieval manor houses and thatched cottages. The River Lea, navigable to barge traffic from the London docks to the town of Hertford, drains the

Solar Calendar

2005-03-17T04:07:00.000-08:00

Any dating system based on the seasonal year of approximately 365 1/4 days, the time it takes the Earth to revolve once around the Sun. The Egyptians appear to have been the first to develop a solar calendar, using as a fixed point the annual sunrise reappearance of the Dog Star—Sirius, or Sothis—in the eastern sky, which coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile River. They

China, The Sino-Japanese War

2005-03-15T18:28:00.000-08:00

On July 7, 1937, a minor clash between Japanese and Chinese troops near Pei-p'ing (Peking's name under the National Government) finally led the two nations into war. The Japanese government tried for several weeks to settle the incident locally, but China's mood was highly nationalistic and public opinion clamoured for resistance to further aggression. In late July, new fighting

Akrotiri

2005-03-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

British military enclave in south-central Cyprus that was retained as a “sovereign base area” by the United Kingdom under the London Agreement of 1959 granting the independence of Cyprus. Located southwest of Limassol, the enclave comprises Akrotiri Peninsula, the southernmost part of the island, and a small coastal area north of Episkopi Bay. The enclave has a hospital,

Petróleos De Venezuela, Sa

2005-03-14T23:13:00.000-08:00

By 1971 Venezuela had begun to take steps to curb the influence of the foreign concessionaires who, since their arrival after World War I, had been exploiting the nation's oil

Water Treader

2005-03-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Mesoveliids are predaceous and are usually seen on floating vegetation or on the water surface. One species, Phrynovelia papua of New Guinea, lives in leaves on the forest

Primate

2005-03-13T06:26:00.000-08:00

Traditionally, the order Primates was divided into Prosimii (the primitive primates: lemurs, lorises. and tarsiers) and Anthropoidea (the bigger-brained monkeys and apes, including humans). It is now known that one of the “prosimians,” the tarsier, is actually more closely related to the “anthropoids,” so the classification of the primates has had to be revised. The two suborders

France, History Of, Republican factions

2005-03-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

With the republican regime apparently safe from outside attack, rival factions developed among the republicans. During the 1880s the labels Radical and Opportunist began to be attached to the two wings of the republican movement. On the left, the Radicals saw themselves as heirs to the Jacobin tradition: they stood for a strong centralized regime, intransigent anticlericalism,

Fylde

2005-03-11T01:56:00.000-08:00

Borough (district), administrative and historic county of Lancashire, England. It lies on the north bank of the estuary of the River Ribble at the Irish Sea, just east of the resort of Blackpool. Fylde borough is part of the Fylde geographic region, a low coastal plain 18 miles (29 km) wide between the Ribble and Morecambe Bay to the north. It is an area of undulating terrain containing

Valdai Hills

2005-03-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

Russian Valdayskaya Vozvyshennost, upland region running north-south, about midway between St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. The hills are a northward extension of the Central Russian Upland. The ridge is overlain by deposited glacial materials in the form of terminal moraines and other detritus. The Valdai Hills reach a height, near Vyshny Volochok, of 1,125 feet (343 m). Toward the west the hills decline steeply

Restionales

2005-03-08T23:14:00.000-08:00

Nearly all plants in the group exhibit reduced (simplified) flowers with a one- to three-chambered ovary containing only one pendulous ovule per chamber. There are one to three stamens (male

Bahraich

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

City, east-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, located on a tributary of the Ghaghara River and on a rail line between Lucknow and Nepalganj, Nepal. Bahraich is a centre of trade (agricultural products and timber) with Nepal; there is also some sugar processing. The tomb of Sayyid Salar Mas'ud, an Afghan warrior-saint who died there in 1033, is visited by Muslim and Hindu pilgrims.

Chelm

2005-03-08T03:28:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Chelm województwo (province), eastern Poland. The city is located on the Uherka River, a tributary of the Bug River, 15 miles (24 km) west of the Ukrainian border. It received town rights in 1233, passed to Poland in 1377, and fell to Austria (1795) and then to Russia (1815). During World War II, 90,000 people died in two German prisoner-of-war camps in the town. The Polish republic was proclaimed in

Laibach, Congress Of

2005-03-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

(Jan. 26–May 12, 1821), meeting of the Holy Alliance powers (all European rulers except those of Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and the papacy) at Laibach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia) that set the conditions for Austrian intervention in and occupation of the Two Sicilies in action against the Neapolitan revolution (July 1820). As such, it was a triumph for antiliberal Austrian policy, and also,

Earth Sciences, Gravity, isostasy, and the Earth's figure

2005-03-07T01:25:00.000-08:00

Discoveries of regional anomalies in the Earth's gravity led to the realization that high mountain ranges have underlying deficiencies in mass about equal to the apparent surface loads represented by the mountains themselves. In the 18th century the French scientist Pierre Bouguer had observed that the deflections of the pendulum in Peru are much less than they

Biblical Literature, The Samaritan Pentateuch

2005-03-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

The importance of the recension known as the Samaritan Pentateuch lies in the fact that it constitutes an independent Hebrew witness to the text written in a late and developed form of the paleo-Hebrew script. Some of the Exodus fragments from Qumran demonstrate that it has close affinities with a pre-Christian Palestinian text type and testify to the faithfulness

Rabulist Riots

2005-03-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

The riots, named for a derogatory designation for Swedish radicals, occurred in the summer of 1838, following the conviction of M.J. Crusenstolpe, a liberal journalist, for libel against

Cohn, Harry

2005-03-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

The son of an immigrant Polish-Jewish tailor, Cohn quit school at age 14 and worked at sundry jobs before becoming a vaudeville singer and song plugger. His motion picture career began in 1913, when he worked as a secretary for a film distributor

Malatesta, Errico

2005-03-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

Malatesta became politically active while still in his teens, joining the First International in 1871. A dynamic

Capital Levy

2005-03-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Strictly defined, a direct tax assessed simultaneously on the capital resources of all persons possessing taxable wealth in excess of a minimum value and paid at least partly out of capital resources. This definition excludes death duties because in any given year their application is necessarily limited to the estates of deceased persons. Various taxes have

Emotion, Experiential relation to increased creativity

2005-03-02T03:45:00.000-08:00

Several studies have demonstrated that positive emotion facilitates creative problem solving. One of these studies showed that positive emotion enabled subjects to name more uses for common objects. Another showed that positive emotion enhanced creative problem solving by enabling subjects to see relations among objects that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Taborite

2005-03-02T01:59:00.000-08:00

Czech Tábori member of a militant group of Bohemian Hussite reformers who in 1420 gave the biblical name of Tabor (Czech: Tábor) to their fortified settlement south of Prague. Like their more moderate coreligionists, the Utraquists, they were strict biblicists and insisted on receiving a Eucharist of both bread and wine, though they denied transubstantiation and the Real Presence.

Basel-stadt

2005-03-01T03:50:00.000-08:00

French Bâle-ville, Halbkanton (“demicanton”), northern Switzerland, consisting of the city of Basel (q.v.) and two small villages north of the Rhine. Occupying an area of 14 square miles (37 square km), it was formed in 1833 by the division of Basel canton into two half cantons, or demicantons. Its present constitution dates from 1889. The population is mainly German speaking and Protestant. Pop. (1988 est.) 192,559.

Frunze, Mikhail Vasilyevich

2005-02-28T16:09:00.000-08:00

Frunze took part in the Moscow insurrection in 1905 and, after frequent arrests for revolutionary activity, escaped in 1915 to conduct agitation in the Russian army, first on the western front

Suceava

2005-02-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Suceava judet (county), northeastern Romania. Founded on a terrace above the right bank of the Suceava River before the 14th century, it was the capital of Moldavia from 1375 until 1565, when the capital was moved to Iasi. During the reign of Stephen (Stefan) the Great in the 15th century, Suceava developed as a trading centre and customs point, with many warehouses and a strong

Encaustic Painting

2005-02-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

Painting technique in which pigments are mixed with hot, liquid wax. After all of the colours have been applied to the painting surface, a heating element is passed over them until the individual brush or spatula marks fuse into a uniform film. This “burning in” of the colours is an essential element of the true encaustic technique. Encaustic wax has many of the properties

Tefé

2005-02-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

City, central Amazonas estado (“state”), northwestern Brazil. Founded by missionaries as Nogueira in the 17th century and also called Ega at one time, Tefé lies on the left (north) bank of the portion of the Amazon River known as the Solimões, on the lake formed by the mouth of the Tefé River. River steamers and hydroplanes use facilities at Tefé, which ships Brazil nuts, tobacco,

Mid-atlantic Ridge

2005-02-26T00:32:00.000-08:00

Submarine ridge lying along the north-south axis of the Atlantic Ocean; it occupies the central part of the basin between a series of flat abyssal plains that continue to the margins of the continental coasts. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is in effect an immensely long mountain chain extending for about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) in a curving path from the Arctic Ocean to near the southern

Mauretania

2005-02-24T22:39:00.000-08:00

Its native inhabitants, seminomadic pastoralists of Berber stock, were known to the Romans as the Mauri (i.e., Moors) and the Massaesyli. From the 6th century BC the Phoenicians and Carthaginians also settled at points along the coast.

Philip V

2005-02-24T05:03:00.000-08:00

King of Macedonia from 221 to 179, whose attempt to extend Macedonian influence throughout Greece resulted in his defeat by Rome. His career is significant mainly as an episode in Rome's expansion. The son of Demetrius II and his wife Phthia (Chryseis), the young prince was adopted, after his father's death in 229, by his half-cousin Antigonus Doson, who took

Verdure Tapestry

2005-02-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

Such famous tapestry factories as Aubusson and

Wyss, Johann Rudolf

2005-02-22T15:51:00.000-08:00

Wyss became professor of philosophy at the academy at Bern in 1805 and later chief librarian of the municipal library. He was a collector of Swiss tales and folklore, published in Idyllen,

Carlow

2005-02-21T15:53:00.000-08:00

Irish Ceatharlach urban district and county seat, County Carlow, Ireland, on the left bank of the River Barrow. An Anglo-Norman stronghold, the town received charters of incorporation in the 13th and 17th centuries. The keep (innermost citadel) of a 13th-century stronghold remains at the confluence of the Barrow and Burren rivers. Local industries include sugar-beet and flour processing and

Sena

2005-02-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

Town, central Mozambique, on the Zambezi River. A river port and railway junction, it has an economy based on sugarcane cultivation and processing. Sena Sugar Estates Ltd., a formerly British-owned company that was granted a large land subconcession from the Zambezia Company, had estates at Luabo and Marromeu in the Zambezi River delta and also operated a copra plantation

Rom

2005-02-20T23:51:00.000-08:00

Plural Roma , also called Gypsy , also spelled Gipsy any member of the traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India but live in modern times worldwide, principally in Europe. Most Roma speak some form of Romany, a language closely related to the modern Indo-European languages of northern India, as well as the major language of the country in which they live. It is generally agreed that Roma groups

Adams, Brooks

2005-02-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

Adams graduated from Harvard in 1870 and practiced law in Boston until 1881. Son of the diplomat Charles Francis Adams and grandson of Pres. John Quincy Adams, he was enabled by a substantial inheritance

Kiriath-sepher

2005-02-19T00:39:00.000-08:00

Also called Debir , or Lo-debar , modern Tall Bayt Mirsham ancient town of Palestine, located near Hebron (in the Israeli-occupied West Bank). According to the Bible, the town was taken from the Canaanites either by Caleb's son-in-law Othniel or by Joshua himself. Tall Bayt Mirsham (Tell Beit Mirsim) was excavated (1926–32) by W.F. Albright, who uncovered exceptionally clear stratification from which he was able to give the first comprehensive

Egypt, The Kingdom of Egypt (192252)

2005-02-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

The new kingdom was in form a constitutional monarchy. The constitution, based on that of Belgium and promulgated in April 1923, defined the King's executive powers and established a bicameral legislature. An electoral law provided for universal male suffrage and the indirect election of deputies to the lower house: the Senate was half elected and half appointed. But

Daddah, Moktar Ould

2005-02-17T03:05:00.000-08:00

Mauritanian politician (b. Dec. 25, 1924, Boutilimit, French West Africa—d. Oct. 15, 2003, Paris, France), as Mauritania's first postindependence president (1961–78), secured international recognition and respect for the new country while he reconciled the varied interests of Mauritania's widely dispersed, partly nomadic, and religiously diverse Arab and black African populations. Daddah trained

Arundel, Thomas

2005-02-16T13:32:00.000-08:00

English statesman and archbishop of Canterbury who aided the opponents of King Richard II; during the reign of King Henry IV, Arundel vigorously suppressed the Lollards. His father was Richard Fitzalan, 3rd earl of Arundel, and his mother was a member of the powerful House of Lancaster. He became bishop of Ely in 1374, and during the early years of the reign of Richard

Xenophon

2005-02-16T02:59:00.000-08:00

As a writer of prose, Xenophon ranked with his fellow historians Herodotus and Thucydides in the opinion of literary critics of antiquity and had a stronger influence on Latin literature than either. His works were translated into many European languages in the 16th century, and, until comparatively recently, his reputation stood high. He was the first journalist

Ricimer

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

Ricimer's father was a chief of the Suebi (a Germanic people) and his mother was a Visigothic princess. Early in his military career he befriended the future emperor Majorian. After turning back an attempted Vandal invasion of Sicily at Agrigentum (modern Agrigento) in 456, Ricimer was appointed master

Hawking, Stephen W.

2005-02-15T17:36:00.000-08:00

Hawking studied mathematics and physics at University College, Oxford (B.A., 1962), and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (Ph.D., 1966). He was elected a research fellow at Gonville and Caius

Evans, Walker

2005-02-15T16:27:00.000-08:00

American photographer, important primarily for documenting the effects of economic depression in the American South and photographically interpreting American folk architecture. His approach to photography was largely formed by the documentary photographs of the French photographer Eugène Atget, whose influence

Coral Sea

2005-02-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

Sea of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, extending east of Australia and New Guinea, west of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, and south of the Solomon Islands. It is about 1,400 miles (2,250 km) north-south and 1,500 miles east-west and covers an area of 1,849,800 square miles (4,791,000 square km). To the south it merges with the Tasman Sea, to the north with the Solomon Sea, and to the east with the Pacific; it is connected

Barante, Amable-guillaume-prosper Brugière, Baron De

2005-02-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

Educated at the École Polytechnique

Vigée-lebrun, élisabeth

2005-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Her father was Louis Vigée, a pastel portraitist and her first teacher. She studied later with a number of well-known painters, among them J.-B. Greuze and Joseph Vernet. In 1776 she married a picture dealer,

Trichina

2005-02-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

Mating takes place in the host's small intestine, after which the fertilized female trichinae

Chile, Geography

2005-02-10T03:13:00.000-08:00

Works on the social conditions include Arturo Valenzuela and J. Samuel Valenzuela (eds.), Chile: Politics and Society (1976); Barbara Stallings, Class Conflict and Economic Development in Chile: 1958–1973 (1978); Brian H. Smith, The Church and Politics in Chile: Challenges to Modern Catholicism (1982); and Cesar Caviedes, The Politics of Chile: A Sociogeographical Assessment (1979). The military's role in Chilean politics is treated in J. Samuel Valenzuela and Arturo Valenzuela (eds.), Military Rule in Chile: Dictatorship and Oppositions (1986); Cesar Caviedes, The Southern Cone: Realities of the Authoritarian State in South America (1984); and Frederick M. Nunn, The Military in Chilean History: Essays on Civil-Military Relations, 1810–1973 (1976), and Chilean Politics, 1920–1931: The Honorable Mission of the Armed Forces (1970). Contemporary culture is discussed in Hernán Godoy Urzúa, Apuntes sobre la cultura en Chile (1982).

Allergen

2005-02-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

Substance that in some persons induces the hypersensitive state of allergy and stimulates the formation of reaginic antibodies. Allergens may be naturally occurring or of synthetic origin and include pollen, mold spores, dust, animal dander, insect debris, foods, blood serum, and drugs. Identification of allergens is made by studying both the site of symptoms (e.g.,

Powhatan

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

Confederacy of at least 30 Algonkian-speaking North American Indian tribes that once occupied most of what is now tidewater Virginia, the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, and possibly southern Maryland. The confederacy had been formed by and named for a powerful chief, Powhatan, shortly before the colonial settlement of Jamestown in 1607. The tribes of the confederacy

Interior Design, Renaissance to the end of the 18th century

2005-02-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

The Renaissance was a revival of the old classical styles, and it is not surprising that it first showed itself to a marked degree in Italy. The Gothic style had made comparatively little headway in Italy, where it was regarded as barbarous except in some of the more northerly towns, such as Milan and Venice. The style had more or less coincided with a period of primitive

Kyo-yaki

2005-02-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

Decorated Japanese ceramics produced in Kyoto from about the middle of the 17th century. The development of this ware was stimulated by the appearance of enamelled porcelains in Kyushu, and it was not long after Sakaida Kakiemon successfully perfected overglaze enamels in Arita that Nonomura Ninsei also began production in Kyoto. Kyo-yaki contrasted with the enamelled

Haliburton, Thomas Chandler

2005-02-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Haliburton was admitted to the bar in 1820 and, as a member of the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly (1826–29), led

Biblical Literature, The Apocalypse of Baruch

2005-02-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

The Apocalypse of Baruch was written about the same time as II (IV) Esdras, and the less profound Apocalypse probably depends much upon II Esdras. The Apocalypse of Baruch survives only in a Syriac version translated from Greek; originally the book was composed in Hebrew or Aramaic and is ascribed to Baruch, the disciple of Jeremiah and a contemporary of the destruction

Novikov, Sergey Petrovich

2005-02-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

Novikov graduated from Moscow State University in 1960 and received Ph.D. (1964) and Doctor of Science (1965) degrees from the V.A. Steklov Institute of Mathematics in Moscow. He joined the faculty at Moscow in 1964 and became

Hou I

2005-02-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Hou Yi, the Lord Archer of Chinese mythology, whose prowess with a bow earned him undying fame. With his bow and arrow he saved the moon during an eclipse and rescued the country from a variety of plagues, one of which involved a wind monster who was wreaking havoc across the land. Hou I is also said to have shot down 9 of 10 suns (one account says 8 of 9 suns) that were burning up the earth

Bourguiba, Habib

2005-02-04T04:48:00.000-08:00

Bourguiba was born—the seventh child of Ali Bourguiba, a former lieutenant in the army of the bey (ruler) of Tunisia—in a small fishing village. At an early age, he was sent to Tunis, where he

Earthfill Dam

2005-02-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Earth Dam, or Embankment Dam, dam built up by compacting successive layers of earth, using the most impervious materials to form a core and placing more permeable substances on the upstream and downstream sides. A facing of crushed stone prevents erosion by wind or rain, and an ample spillway, usually of concrete, protects against catastrophic washout should the water overtop the dam.

Noric Alps

2005-02-03T02:47:00.000-08:00

German Norische Alpen, segment of the Eastern Alps extending across southern Austria between the Hohe Tauern range and Katschberg Pass (west) and the city of Graz on the Mur River (east). With the Drava River to the south and the upper Mur River to the north, the mountains rise to Eisenhut (8,008 feet [2,441 m]) and consist of several subranges, the highest of which are the Gurkthaler Alpen in the west. Summer

Swanson, Gloria

2005-02-02T14:31:00.000-08:00

Swanson was the only child of a civilian official of the U.S. Army transport service, whose work during Swanson's childhood took the family to

Ogoja

2005-02-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

Town, Cross River state, southeastern Nigeria, on the road from Abakaliki. A major trade centre (yams, cassava, corn [maize], rice, palm oil and kernels, kola nuts), it is mainly inhabited by the Ekoi peoples. Ogoja is the headquarters of a local government council and the site of a teacher-training college, a secondary school, and several hospitals and clinics. Pop. (1982 est.) 22,020.

Nephron

2005-02-01T00:49:00.000-08:00

Functional unit of the kidney, the structure that actually produces urine in the process of removing waste and excess substances from the blood. There are about 1,000,000 nephrons in each human kidney. The most primitive nephrons are found in the kidneys (pronephros; q.v.) of primitive fish, amphibian larvae, and embryos of more advanced vertebrates.

Poxvirus

2005-01-30T07:36:00.000-08:00

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

Korfanty Line

2005-01-30T03:32:00.000-08:00

When the Allied powers concluded the Treaty of Versailles with defeated Germany, they provided for a plebiscite in Upper Silesia, which contained

Min River

2005-01-29T18:17:00.000-08:00

Wade–Giles romanization Min Chiang, Pinyin Min Jiang, river in Fukien sheng (province), China. The Min River and its various tributaries rise in the mountains of the Fukien–Kiangsi border area and flow to the sea across the grain of the southwest to northeast mountain ranges that cross the province; this flowage results in a trellislike drainage pattern, with lateral tributaries following the direction of the valleys.

Nuisance

2005-01-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

In law, a human activity or a physical condition that is harmful or offensive to others and gives rise to a cause of action. A public nuisance created in a public place or on public land, or affecting the morals, safety, or health of the community, is considered an offense against the state. Such activities as obstructing a public road, polluting air and water, operating

Schaeffer, Claude-frédéric-armand

2005-01-28T04:52:00.000-08:00

Schaeffer

Extortion

2005-01-28T03:02:00.000-08:00

Extortion may include threats of harm to a person or his property,

Vafiades, Markos

2005-01-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

Vafiades worked as a labourer in Istanbul and fled to Greece as a refugee in 1923. He became a communist in his teens and fought with the partisans against the Germans

Stiller, Mauritz

2005-01-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

Motion-picture director who during the early 1920s was a leader in the internationally preeminent Swedish cinema. He was influenced by D.W. Griffith's epic style and Thomas Harper Ince's integral use of landscape but most of all by the typically Swedish mysticism and passionate love of nature reflected in the novels of Selma Lagerlöf, many of which

Europe

2005-01-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

Second smallest of the world's continents (after Australia), composed of the westward-projecting peninsulas of Eurasia and occupying nearly one-fifteenth of the world's total land area. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south (west to east) by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Kuma-Manych Depression, and the

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur

2005-01-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

Of Icelandic descent, Stefansson lived for a year among the Eskimo in 1906–07, acquiring an intimate knowledge of their language and culture and forming the belief that

Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich

2005-01-24T15:11:00.000-08:00

Beginning his adult life as a doctor, Bulgakov gave up medicine for writing. His first major work was the novel Belaya gvardiya (The White Guard), serialized in 1925 but never published in book form. A realistic and

Auersperg, Johann Weikhart, Prince (fürst) Von

2005-01-23T19:13:00.000-08:00

After serving briefly as a Habsburg court councillor, Auersperg was sent to The Hague (1641), and later he took part in peace negotiations at Osnabrück, which ultimately ended the Thirty Years'

Pierce, George Washington

2005-01-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

The second of three sons of a farm family, Pierce grew up on a cattle ranch and fared well enough in the modest rural schools of central Texas to graduate (1893) after three years at the University of Texas, Austin. He taught in rural

Encyclopédie

2005-01-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

In full Encyclopédie, Ou Dictionnaire Raisonné Des Sciences, Des Arts Et Des Métiers (French: “Encyclopaedia, or Classified Dictionary of Sciences, Arts, and Trades”), the 18th-century French encyclopaedia that was one of the chief works of the Philosophes, men dedicated to the advancement of science and secular thought and the new tolerance and open-mindedness of the Enlightenment. The Encyclopédie was a literary and philosophical enterprise with

Lira

2005-01-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

Plural lire the former monetary unit of Italy. The lira was introduced in Europe by Charlemagne, who based it on the pound (libra) of silver. No lira coins were struck during the Middle Ages, and the lira remained strictly a money of account. By the 16th century several of the Italian states actually struck lira coins, but they varied considerably in weight. One of the states that used

France, History Of, Early Frankish period

2005-01-20T09:18:00.000-08:00

In the second quarter of the 5th century, various groups of Franks moved southward toward the middle Rhine area (Cologne), the lower branches of the Moselle and Meuse, and the Atlantic coastal region. In the latter area, separate groups took possession of Tournai and Cambrai and reached the Somme. These Franks along the coast were divided into many small kingdoms. One

Zambezi River, Climate

2005-01-19T07:07:00.000-08:00

The Zambezi River lies within the tropics. The upper and middle course of the river is on an upland plateau, and temperatures, modified by altitude, are relatively mild, generally between 64° and 86° F (18° and 30° C). The winter months (May to July) are cool and dry, with temperatures averaging 68° F (20° C). Between August and October there is a considerable rise in average temperatures, particularly