FalseSeed

Arts, Central Asian, Tashtyk tribe

2005-04-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

On the Yenisey River the Bronze Age Tagar culture was replaced by the Tashtyk culture, dating from the 1st to the 4th century AD. The physical appearance of the Tashtyk people has been preserved by a seriesof masks, some of them modelled, others cast from the dead. They were painted with the features rendered in blue, red, and green against a yellow ground. Spirals disposed

Cost

2005-04-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

In common usage, the monetary value of goods and services that producers and consumers purchase. In a basic economic sense cost is the measure of the alternative opportunities foregone in the choice of one good or activity over others. This fundamental cost is usually referred to as opportunity cost. For a consumer with a fixed income, the opportunity cost of purchasing

Romance

2005-04-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

The Old French word romanz

Jovanovic, Slobodan

2005-04-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Serbian jurist, historian, and statesman, prime minister in the Yugoslav government-in-exile during World War II (Jan. 11, 1942–June 26, 1943). Liberal in his social and political views, he was perhaps Yugoslavia's greatest authority on constitutional law; also a master of Serbian prose style, he was for nearly half a century a leader of the Serbian

Norfolk Four-course System

2005-04-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

In the Norfolk four-course system, wheat was grown in the first year, turnips in the second, followed

San Fernando

2005-04-02T05:24:00.000-08:00

Cabecera (principal built-up area) and partido (political subdivision) of Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, Arg. It lies north of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires province, on the Río de la Plata estuary. Colonization of the area began with the second and permanent founding of Buenos Aires (1580). During this period the region was known as Costa de Monte Grande. In 1780 the parish of

O'mahony, John

2005-03-31T20:17:00.000-08:00

O'Mahony was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a respected Irish scholar. He took part in the unsuccessful Young Ireland rebellion

Rousseau, Jean-baptiste

2005-03-31T10:19:00.000-08:00

The son of a poor cobbler, Rousseau as a young man showed a talent for satiric verse. He later attempted to produce several of his plays, becoming involved in a series of disputes and exchanges of insults with detractors and critics.

Accent

2005-03-31T04:40:00.000-08:00

In prosody, a rhythmically significant stress on the syllables of a verse, usually at regular intervals. The word accent is often used interchangeably with stress, though some prosodists use accent to mean the emphasis that is determined by the normal meaning of the words while stress is used to mean metrical emphasis. In classical prosody, which was based on a quantitative

Conservative Judaism

2005-03-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

Zacharias Frankel (1801–75), whose ideology inspired early Conservative ideas, broke with modernizing extremists after a series of Reform conferences in Germany

La Crosse

2005-03-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1851) of La Crosse county, western Wisconsin, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River at the influx of the Black and La Crosse rivers, 129 miles (208 km) northwest of Madison. The settlement developed around a trading post (1841) on a site that French explorers named Prairie la Crosse, after the game of lacrosse played by the Indians there. A natural river port, it became an important

Narcissus

2005-03-29T03:12:00.000-08:00

Narcissus exercised great influence over Claudius and accumulated immense wealth. At first he allied himself with Claudius' third wife, Messalina Valeria, but fear that she and her lover, Gaius Silius, were conspiring

Eye Disease, The uveal tract

2005-03-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

The uveal tract is a vascular layer of tissue—that is, a layer rich in blood vessels—lying next to the inner surface of the sclera. It is divided into three structures: the choroid, a highly vascular layer that supplies blood to the outer layers of the retina; the ciliary body, largely muscle tissue, which by its contraction and relaxation alters the focussing of the lens;

Ragunan Zoological Gardens

2005-03-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

Also called Jakarta Zoological Gardens , Indonesian Kebun Binatang Ragunan , or Kebun Binatang Jakarta zoo in Jakarta, Indon., that is one of the world's notable collections of Southeast Asian flora and fauna. More than 3,500 specimens of approximately 450 animal species are exhibited on the 200-hectare (494-acre) park grounds. Among these are the orangutan, Sumatran serow, and various other rare animals of Indonesia. The zoo was founded in 1864 on a 4-hectare (11-acre) site and was moved to a new and much

Extraterrestrial Life

2005-03-28T02:49:00.000-08:00

The chemistry of extraterrestrial life, scientists assume, would require (1) a suitable medium for chemical reactions

Ayacucho, Battle Of

2005-03-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

(Dec. 9, 1824), in the Latin-American wars of independence, revolutionary victory over royalists on the high plateau near Ayacucho, Peru. It freed Peru and ensured the independence of the nascent South American republics from Spain. The revolutionary forces, numbering about 6,000 men—among them Venezuelans, Colombians, Argentines, and Chileans, as well as Peruvians—were under the

Canary Current

2005-03-25T20:03:00.000-08:00

Also called Canaries Current, part of a clockwise-setting ocean-current system in the North Atlantic Ocean. It branches south from the North Atlantic Current and flows southwestward along the northwest coast of Africa as far south as Senegal before turning westward to eventually join the Atlantic North Equatorial Current. The cool temperature of the water is produced by upwelling caused

Tiffany, Louis Comfort

2005-03-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

The son of the famous jeweler Charles Lewis Tiffany, Louis studied under the American painters George Inness and Samuel

China, The Tangut

2005-03-24T03:09:00.000-08:00

In the northwest the Tangut, a Tibetan people, inhabited the region between the far end of the Great Wall in modern Kansu and the Huang Ho bend in Inner Mongolia. Their semioasis economy combined irrigated agriculture with pastoralism. Their control over the terminus of the famous Silk Road made them middlemen in trade between Central Asia and China. They adopted

Shamanism

2005-03-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

The shaman attains the ecstasy necessary for communicating with the spirits through the performance of the shaman rite, which requires certain appurtenances.

Caccini, Giulio

2005-03-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

Also called Giulio Romano singer and composer whose songs greatly helped to establish and disseminate the new monodic music introduced in Italy about 1600. This is music in which an expressive melody is accompanied by evocative chords, as opposed to the traditional polyphonic style with its complex interweaving of several melodic

Noble Gas, Xenon

2005-03-22T05:04:00.000-08:00

The name xenon is derived from the Greek word xenos, “strange” or “foreign.” Like several other noble gases, xenon is present in meteorites and certain minerals, but its only useful source has been the atmosphere, of which it composes 86 parts per 109 by volume. Nuclear reactors may become an important source of xenon, because the fission of uranium produces several isotopes

Jackson, Sheldon

2005-03-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

Jackson attended Union College and the Princeton Theological Seminary. From 1859 to 1869 he was a missionary in Wisconsin and Minnesota, organizing more than 20 churches. In 1869 he became superintendent of missions in

Kora

2005-03-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

Long-necked harp lute of the Malinke people of western Africa. The instrument's body is composed of a long hardwood neck that passes through a calabash gourd resonator, itself covered by a leather soundboard. Twenty-one leather or nylon strings are attached to the top of the neck with leather tuning rings. The strings pass over a notched bridge (10 strings

Guadalupe

2005-03-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

County, central New Mexico, U.S., an arid plains area dotted with hills and red mesas and marked by a few arroyos. The county lies mostly in the Pecos River valley, rising in the east to a High Plains region. The Pecos makes an irregular curve through the county from northwest to south, exiting at Sumner Lake. Santa Rosa Lake is an impoundment on the Pecos at Los Esteros Dam. Santa

Kanik, Orhan Veli

2005-03-19T16:59:00.000-08:00

Educated at the Faculty of Literature of Istanbul University, he worked briefly as a teaching assistant before joining the Turkish postal administration in Ankara (1936–42). From 1942 to 1945 he served as a reserve officer in the Turkish Army. Because he had a good command

Alb

2005-03-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

Derived from the long white tunic (tunica alba, or linea) commonly

Geography, Aerial photography and remote sensing

2005-03-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

During the 20th century immense strides have been made in observing features on the Earth's surface, first by the development of aerial photography and later by satellite imagery. Aerial photography was first used extensively during World War I for reconnaissance. A new profession of photographic interpretation evolved in which the identification of both natural

Jewelry

2005-03-18T06:12:00.000-08:00

Throughout the centuries and from culture to culture, the materials considered rare and beautiful have ranged from shells, bones, pebbles, tusks, claws, and wood to so-called precious metals, precious and semiprecious stones,

Ibis

2005-03-18T01:32:00.000-08:00

Any of about 20 species of medium-sized wading birds constituting the subfamily Threskiornithinae of the family Threskiornithidae (order Ciconiiformes), which also includes the spoonbills. Ibises occur in all warm regions except on South Pacific islands. They wade in shallow lagoons, lakes, bays, and marshes, using their slender, down-curved bills to feed on small

Paracel Islands

2005-03-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization Hsi-sha Ch'ün-tao , Pinyin Xisha Qundao , Vietnamese Quan Dao Hoang Sa group of about 130 small coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea. They lie about 250 miles (400 km) east of central Vietnam and about 220 miles (350 km) southeast of Hainan Island, China. Apart from a few isolated, outlying islands (Triton in the south, Lincoln in the east), they are divided into the Amphitrite group in the northeast and the Crescent group in the west. The low, barren islands,

Race

2005-03-16T23:31:00.000-08:00

Although their numbers are dwindling, some scientists continue to believe that it is possible to divide Homo sapiens into discrete populations called races. They believe that the physical differences manifest in wide geographic regions are more than superficial; they reflect innate intellectual, moral, emotional, and other behavioral differences among human

Waikato River

2005-03-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

River, the longest in New Zealand, in central North Island. Rising on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park as the Tongariro River, it flows north through Lake Taupo and, issuing from the lake's northeastern corner, tumbles over Huka Falls and flows northwest to enter the Tasman Sea south of Auckland. The river is 264 miles (425 km) long. It has a gentle gradient

Floodplain

2005-03-14T23:22:00.000-08:00

Also called Alluvial Plain, flat land area adjacent to a stream, composed of unconsolidated sedimentary deposits (alluvium) and subject to periodic inundation by the stream. Floodplains are produced by lateral movement of a stream and by overbank deposition; therefore they are absent where downcutting is dominant. Any erosional widening of one bank is approximately equalled by deposition

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation

2005-03-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

Burlington Northern, Inc., arose out of the merger of the Great Northern Railway Company, the Northern Pacific Railway Company, and the Chicago,

Francis I

2005-03-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

Also called (until 1515) Francis Of Angoulême, French François D'angoulême king of France (1515–47), the first of five monarchs of the Angoulême branch of the House of Valois. A Renaissance patron of the arts and scholarship, a humanist, and a knightly king, he waged campaigns in Italy (1515–16) and fought a series of wars with the Holy Roman Empire (1521–44).

Smith, Michael

2005-03-13T00:46:00.000-08:00

British-born Canadian biochemist who won (with Kary B. Mullis) the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his development of a technique called oligonucleotide-based site-directed mutagenesis, which enabled researchers to introduce specific mutations into genes and, thus, to the proteins that they encode.

Epistemology, Contemporary philosophy

2005-03-12T10:41:00.000-08:00

Contemporary philosophy begins in the late 19th and early 20th century. Much of what sets contemporary philosophy off from modern philosophy is its explicit criticism of the modern tradition and sometimes its apparent indifference to it. There are two basic strains of contemporary philosophy: Continental philosophy, which designates the philosophical style

Wyndham, George

2005-03-12T02:55:00.000-08:00

Wyndham was an enthusiast of the British Empire,

Marche

2005-03-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

English The Marches region in central Italy fronting on the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provinces of Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, and Pesaro e Urbino; it has a total area of 3,742 square miles (9,692 square km). A region of mountains and hills, its only pieces of level land are scattered along river valleys and on the Adriatic shore northwest of Ancona. Its mountain backbone is the Umbrian-Marchigian

Takeda Shingen

2005-03-11T00:25:00.000-08:00

Original name Takeda Harunobu one of the most famous of the military leaders who struggled for mastery of the strategic Kanto Plain in central Japan during the chaotic period of civil unrest in the 16th century. Takeda is especially well known for his series of battles with the noted warrior Uesugi Kenshin, not only famous in the annals of Japanese

China, Reorganization of the KMT

2005-03-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

The KMT held its First National Congress in Canton on Jan. 20–30, 1924. Borodin, who had reached Canton in October 1923, began to advise Sun in the reorganization of his party. He prepared a constitution and helped draft a party program as a set of basic national policies. Delegates from throughout China and from overseas branches of the party adopted the program and the new constitution.

Computers, Whirlwind

2005-03-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

New hardware continued to be invented, though. In the United States, Jay Forrester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Jan Aleksander Rajchman of the Radio Corporation of America came up with a new kind of memory based on magnetic cores that was fast enough to enable MIT to build the first real-time computer, Whirlwind. A real-time computer is one that

Space-time

2005-03-09T02:26:00.000-08:00

Common intuition previously supposed no connection between space and time. Physical space was held to be a flat, three-dimensional continuum—i.e., an arrangement of all possible point locations—to which Euclidean postulates

Davao City

2005-03-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern Mindanao Island, Philippines. It lies at the mouth of the Davao River near the head of Davao Gulf. It is the leading regional centre for southeastern Mindanao and encompasses about 50 small ports in its commercial sphere. Pakiputan Strait, formed by offshore Samal Island, shelters both Santa Ana, an urban port servicing small vessels, and the deepwater

Yverdon

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

German Iferten, city, Vaud canton, western Switzerland, on the southern shore of Lake Neuchâtel, at the mouth of La Thielle River, north of Lausanne. It originated as the Roman camp Eburodunum, and the ruined Roman walls remain. The castle (1260–78) of the dukes of Savoy was the seat of the boarding school established in 1805 by the Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, which flourished for 20 years;

Gumal River

2005-03-08T04:56:00.000-08:00

River that rises in eastern Afghanistan near Sarwandi on the Khumbur Khule Range and enters western Pakistan near Domandi, being joined there by the Kundar River. Further joined by the Wana Toi and Zhob rivers, it falls into the Indus River just south of Dera Ismail Khan after a course of 150 miles (240 km). Dams under construction in the 1980s at Mian Nur and Khajuri Kach, below the confluence

Mellencamp, John

2005-03-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

Growing up in southern Indiana—with which he is strongly identified—Mellencamp began playing in rock bands as a teenager. His first two albums, released in the late 1970s, disappeared without

Lee, Sammy

2005-03-06T22:48:00.000-08:00

In 1942, while a student at Occidental College (Los Angeles), Lee won his first national championship with victories in both the 3-metre springboard and 10-metre platform events. Standing only 5 feet 1 inch, Lee utilized his short stature in his dives, tucking tighter and

Benadir

2005-03-06T04:43:00.000-08:00

Traditional coastal region, southern Somalia, on the Horn of Africa. The name, from Persian bandar, “port,” refers to the voyages of Persian and Arab traders to eastern Africa across the Arabian Sea during the European Middle Ages. Benadir passed to the sultan of Zanzibar in 1871; it was leased by Italy in 1895 and thereafter shared the political fate of the remainder of Somalia

Harald I

2005-03-06T02:21:00.000-08:00

The son of Halvdan the Black, ruler of part of southeastern Norway and a scion of the Yngling dynasty, the ancient

Nagaswaram

2005-03-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled nagasvaram conical double-reed aerophone of southern India related to the shawm and the oboe. The nagaswaram may be as long as 35 inches (89 cm). It is made of dark wood and has a flaring wooden bell, seven equidistant finger holes, and five additional tuning holes. Descended from the Persian surna, by which name it is still known in northern India, the instrument is generally played in pairs,

Ali, Muhammad

2005-03-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., grew up in the American South in a time of segregated public facilities. His father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., supported a

Jyväskylä

2005-03-04T04:38:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Keski-Suomen lääni (province), south-central Finland. It lies at the north end of Lake Päijänne, southwest of Kuopio. The town, chartered in 1837, has three historic educational institutions: the first Finnish teachers' training college (founded 1863; replaced in 1934 by a pedagogical institute [designed by the architect Alvar Aalto] that in 1966 became a university); the Lyceum,

Kearny, Stephen Watts

2005-03-04T00:56:00.000-08:00

After serving in the War of 1812, Kearny spent most of the next 30 years on frontier duty. At the beginning of the Mexican War, he was ordered to lead an expedition from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to seize New Mexico and California for the United States. Lacking

Eastern Orthodoxy, The reforms of Peter the Great (reigned 16821725)

2005-03-02T23:09:00.000-08:00

The son of Tsar Alexis, Peter the Great, changed the historical fate of Russia by radically turning away from the Byzantine heritage and reforming the state according to the model of Protestant Europe. Humiliated by his father's temporary submission to Patriarch Nikon, Peter prevented new patriarchal elections after the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700. After a long

Aalto, Alvar

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

Aalto, whose work exemplifies the best of 20th-century Scandinavian architecture, was one of the first to depart from the stiffly geometric designs common to the early period of the modern movement and to stress informality and personal expression. His style is regarded as both romantic and regional. He used complex forms and varied materials, acknowledged the character

Intension And Extension

2005-03-01T04:23:00.000-08:00

In logic, correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: “intension” indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and “extension” indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular objects that it denotes. For instance, the intension of “ship” as a substantive is “vehicle for conveyance on

Hanabusa Itcho

2005-03-01T02:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Itcho , original name Taga Shinko Japanese painter who broke away from the orthodox style of the Kano school to experiment with humorous subjects from everyday life. Because of his subject matter, his work is sometimes classified with the ukiyo-e school of paintings and prints, and, indeed, some of his designs were used by later ukiyo-e wood-block printers. Unlike most of the

Anschluss

2005-02-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

In July 1934 Austrian and German Nazis together attempted a coup but were unsuccessful. An authoritarian

Vaccinium

2005-02-28T01:31:00.000-08:00

Genus of about 150 species of shrubs, in the heath family (Ericaceae), found widely throughout the Northern Hemisphere and extending south along tropical mountain ranges. The shrubs are erect or creeping, with alternate, deciduous or evergreen leaves. The small flowers resemble those of the true heaths (Erica), but the ovary is beneath the flower. The flowers are clustered

Piero Di Cosimo,

2005-02-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

His name derives from that of his master, Cosimo Rosselli, whom he assisted (1481) in the frescoes “Crossing of the Red Sea” and “Sermon on the Mount” in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. There he saw the frescoes of Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandajo,

Literature, France.

2005-02-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

Many important French intellectuals from the postwar period were honoured in 1993, among them Roland Barthes, Raymond Aron, Jacques Lacan, and Claude Levi-Strauss. The first volume in the Oeuvres complètes of Roland Barthes, who died in 1980, appeared, bringing together all of his works published between 1942 and 1965 as well as a few previously unpublished ones. This volume permitted

Permafrost, Polygonal ground

2005-02-26T17:42:00.000-08:00

One of the most widespread geomorphic features associated with permafrost is the microrelief pattern on the surface of the ground generally called polygonal ground, or tundra polygons. This pattern, which covers thousands of square miles of the Arctic and less in the subarctic, is caused by an intersecting network of shallow troughs delineating polygons 3 to

Benedek, Ludwig August, Ritter Von

2005-02-26T15:11:00.000-08:00

Benedek entered the Austrian Army in 1822, distinguishing himself in Galicia

Indian Languages

2005-02-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

Languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent. The languages of the region are generally classified as belonging to the following families: Indo-European (the Indo-Iranian branch in particular), Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic (Munda in particular), and Sino-Tibetan. Fourteen languages are mentioned in the constitution of India: Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati, Sanskrit,

South American Nomad, Shellfish gatherers

2005-02-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

In the south the Chono, Alacaluf, and Yámana Indians occupied the whole Chilean archipelago southward to Cape Horn. This is a rugged terrain of islands and fjords with heavy rainfall, an average winter temperature of 32° F (0° C), and an average summer temperature of 50° F (10° C). The dense forests make land travel extremely difficult and horticulture impracticable. The area is poor

Sá De Miranda, Francisco De

2005-02-25T02:23:00.000-08:00

The illegitimate son of a canon of Coimbra, Gonçalo Mendes de Sá, and Dona Inês de Melo, he was made legitimate in 1490. He studied at the university, which was then in Lisbon, and seems to have lived mainly in the capital until 1521, frequenting the royal court and taking part in the poetical improvisations

Religion, Salvation Army.

2005-02-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

In March 1998 a group of 150 Protestants and Roman Catholics, including youth from the Salvation Army Ireland Divisional Youth Chorus, demonstrated their shared Christian ideals by traveling to Washington, D.C., where they were greeted by and sang for both U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton

Ngaoundéré

2005-02-24T09:42:00.000-08:00

Also spelled N'gaoundéré, or N'gaundéré, town, north-central Cameroon, on the Adamawa Plateau. It is the northern terminus of the Trans-Cameroon Railway to Yaoundé and Douala and lies on the major north-south road from Garoua to Bertoua and Yaoundé; by these routes it exports livestock and peanuts (groundnuts) to southern Cameroon. Local development projects focus on animal husbandry. The town's industries

Bracteate

2005-02-24T00:26:00.000-08:00

These circular bracteates were derived from late Roman and Byzantine coins. Goldsmiths later abandoned the Roman

Saba'

2005-02-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

Biblical Sheba kingdom in pre-Islamic southwestern Arabia, frequently mentioned in the Bible (notably in the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) and variously cited by ancient Assyrian, Greek, and Roman writers from about the 8th century BC to about the 5th century AD. Its capital, at least in the middle period, was Ma'rib (q.v.), which lies 75 miles (120 km) east of present-day San'a', in Yemen. A second

Ea

2005-02-22T11:42:00.000-08:00

(Akkadian), Sumerian Enki Mesopotamian god of water and a member of the triad of deities completed by Anu (Sumerian: An) and Enlil. From a local deity worshiped in the city of Eridu, Ea evolved into a major god, Lord of Apsu (also spelled Abzu), the fresh waters beneath the earth (although Enki means literally “lord of the earth”). In the Sumerian myth “Enki and the World Order,” Enki is said to have fixed national

Olympic Games, Antwerp, Belgium, 1920

2005-02-22T01:43:00.000-08:00

The city, plagued by bad weather and economic woes, had a very short time to clean up the rubble left

Saw, U

2005-02-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

Unlike most other Burmese politicians, U Saw was not university-educated. He held a license to plead some types of legal cases, however, and helped in the defense

Ogunde, Hubert

2005-02-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

Nigerian playwright, actor, theatre manager, and musician who was a pioneer in the field of Nigerian folk opera (drama in which music and dancing play a significant role). He was the founder of the Ogunde Concert Party (1945), the first professional theatrical company in Nigeria. Often regarded as the father of Nigerian theatre, Ogunde sought to

Saudi Arabia, Foreign affairs under Sa'ud and Faysal

2005-02-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

After World War II the United States became the most influential foreign power in Saudi Arabia. American interest was directed

Niuafo'ou

2005-02-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

Northernmost island of Tonga, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The generally wooded land area of 19 square miles (49 square km) includes a volcanic peak 853 feet (260 m) high, a crater lake, and numerous hot springs. During a particularly violent eruption in 1946, the island's inhabitants were evacuated to 'Eua, several hundred miles to the south. They began returning to Niuafo'ou in 1958. Because

Johannsen, Wilhelm Ludvig

2005-02-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

Danish botanist and geneticist whose experiments in plant heredity offered strong support to the mutation theory of the Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries (that changes in heredity come about through sudden, discrete changes of the heredity units in germ cells). Many geneticists thought Johannsen's ideas dealt a severe blow to Charles

Noverre, Jean-georges

2005-02-19T03:57:00.000-08:00

Distinguished French choreographer whose revolutionary treatise, Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets (1760), still valid, brought about major reforms in ballet production, stressing the importance of dramatic motivation, which he called ballet d'action, and decrying overemphasis on technical virtuosity. His first choreographic

France, History Of, John the Good

2005-02-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

John II the Good (ruled 1350–64) succeeded to a weakened authority and kingdom; he was a mediocrity whose suspicions and impetuosity were ill suited to the changed circumstances. John hoped to rally baronial loyalties to himself. But he failed to reconcile Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, whose strong dynastic claim to the throne (he was the grandson of Louis X) was matched by

Durham

2005-02-17T16:56:00.000-08:00

The historic core of the city is located on a peninsula in a bend of the River Wear. This natural defensive site, chosen by William the Conqueror (reigned 1066–87) as a fortress and bulwark against the Scots to the north, soon became a seat of the feudal prince-bishops of Durham, entrusted

Pavement

2005-02-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

In civil engineering, durable surfacing of a road, airstrip, or similar area. The primary function of a pavement is to transmit loads to the sub-base and underlying soil. Modern flexible pavements contain sand and gravel or crushed stone compacted with a binder of bituminous material, such as asphalt, tar, or asphaltic oil. Such a pavement has enough plasticity to absorb

Claque

2005-02-17T00:47:00.000-08:00

(French claquer: “to clap”), organized body of persons who, either for hire or from other motives, band together to applaud or deride a performance and thereby attempt to influence the audience. As an institution, the claque dates from performances at the theatre of Dionysus in ancient Athens. Philemon frequently defeated Menander in the 4th century BC in the comedy competitions,

Kirkintilloch

2005-02-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Burgh (town), East Dunbartonshire council area, historic county of Dunbartonshire, west-central Scotland, on the northeastern periphery of the metropolitan area of Glasgow. It is situated on the Forth and Clyde Canal, and the River Kelvin flows past the town. There was a Roman fort on the site, part of the defensive Antonine Wall built in AD 142. The town was granted its charter

Hermes

2005-02-15T20:33:00.000-08:00

Greek god, son of Zeus and Maia; often identified with the Roman Mercury (q.v.) and with Casmilus or Cadmilus, one of the Cabeiri (q.v.). His name is probably derived from herma (see herm), the Greek word for a heap of stones, such as was used in the country to indicate boundaries or as a landmark. The earliest centre of his cult was probably Arcadia, where Mt. Cyllene was reputed to be

Eckener, Hugo

2005-02-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

As a member of the firm operated by Ferdinand, Count von Zeppelin, Eckener helped to develop the rigid airships of the early 1900s. During World War I, Eckener trained airship pilots and directed the

Omalius D'halloy, Jean-baptiste-julien D'

2005-02-15T04:16:00.000-08:00

D'Omalius was educated first in Liège and afterward in Paris. While a youth he became interested in geology (over the protests of his parents) and, having an independent income, was able to devote his energies to geologic researches. As early as 1808 he communicated

Glaucoma

2005-02-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

Disease caused by an increase in pressure within the eye as a result of blockage of the flow of aqueous humour, a watery fluid produced by the ciliary body. (The ciliary body is a ring of tissue directly behind the outer rim of the iris; besides being the source of aqueous humour, it contains the muscle that flattens the curvature of the lens for far vision.) The normal flow

Laissez-faire

2005-02-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

(French: “allow to do”), policy based on a minimum of governmental interference in the economic affairs of individuals and society. The origin of the term is uncertain, but it is usually associated with the economists known as Physiocrats, who flourished in France from about 1756 to 1778. The policy of laissez-faire received strong support in classical economics as it developed

Novalis

2005-02-13T08:07:00.000-08:00

Novalis was born into a family of Protestant Lower Saxon nobility and took his pseudonym from “de Novali,” a name his family had formerly used. Young Novalis studied law at the University of Jena

Catechetical School

2005-02-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

In early Christianity, a type of educational institution with a curriculum directed toward inquirers (especially those trained in the Greek paideia, or educational system) whose aim was to gain a greater knowledge of Christianity and eventually, perhaps, baptism into the Christian community. Located in such centres as Alexandria, the catechetical schools became

Mcphatter, Clyde

2005-02-12T02:20:00.000-08:00

One of the most dramatic vocalists of his generation, McPhatter grew up in a devout Christian family that moved from North Carolina to New Jersey in the mid-1940s. There, together with some high school friends (including two of author James

Nicholas Of Autrecourt

2005-02-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

Nicholas was an advanced student in liberal arts and philosophy at the Sorbonne faculty of the University of Paris from 1320 to 1327. He became one of the most notable

Malapropism

2005-02-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different in meaning. Although William Shakespeare had used the device for comic effect, the term derives from Richard Brinsley Sheridan's character Mrs. Malaprop, in his play The Rivals (1775). Her name is taken from the term malapropos (French: “inappropriate”) and is typical of Sheridan's practice

Azerbaijani

2005-02-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

Any member of a Turkic people living chiefly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and in the region of Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran. At the turn of the 21st century there were some 7,500,000 Azerbaijani in the republic and neighbouring areas and more than 15,000,000 in Iran. They are mainly sedentary farmers and herders, although some of those in the republic have found employment in various

Sanguine

2005-02-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

Especially appropriate for rendering

Biblical Literature, The chronology of Paul

2005-02-09T02:47:00.000-08:00

For the chronology of Paul's ministry, there are also some extra-biblical data: According to Josephus, Herod Agrippa I was made ruler of all Palestine by the emperor Claudius in AD 41 and reigned for three years. His death was thus in AD 44. A famine in Claudius' reign took place when Tiberius Alexander was procurator of Judaea (c. 46–48), and Egyptian papyri suggest (by reference to high wheat

Byzantine Empire, The crisis of midcentury

2005-02-08T17:32:00.000-08:00

At last the menace of simultaneous war on two fronts threatened Justinian's plans. During the 550s, his armies were to prove equal to the challenge, but a major disaster prevented them from so doing between 541 and about 548. The disaster was the bubonic plague of 541–543, the first of those shocks, or traumas, mentioned earlier, that would eventually transform East Rome into the medieval

China, The Mongol conquest of China

2005-02-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

Genghis Khan rose to supremacy over the Mongol tribes in the steppe in 1206, and within a few years he attempted to conquer northern China. By securing the allegiance of the Tangut state of Hsi Hsia in what are now Kansu and northeastern Tibet (1209), he disposed of a potential enemy and prepared the ground for an attack against the Chin state of the Juchen in northern China. At that