StiffWall

Usumacinta River

2005-03-18T21:13:00.000-08:00

The Usumacinta River flows northwestward, receiving the Lacantum River and forming the border between

Elbe River

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

Czech Labe, one of the major waterways of central Europe. It runs from the Czech Republic through Germany to the North Sea, flowing generally to the northwest. The river rises on the southern side of the Krkonoše (Giant) Mountains near the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. It then makes a wide arc across Bohemia (northwestern Czech Republic) and enters eastern Germany about

Zalygin, Sergey Pavlovich

2005-03-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

Russian writer and editor (b. Dec. 6, 1913, Durasovka, Russia—d. April 19, 2000, Moscow, Russia), was a respected Soviet novelist and the first non-Communist Party editor in chief of the monthly literary magazine Novy Mir; during Zalygin's tenure (1986–98) at Novy Mir he took advantage of Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost policy and published many previously banned writings, including Boris Pasternak's

Cyril Of Jerusalem, Saint

2005-03-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

A senior presbyter when he succeeded Maximus as bishop (c. 350), Cyril was exiled about 357 and at two later times from his see by the Arians. Many years later at the Council of Constantinople (381) there was evidence

Netherlands Antilles, Saba

2005-03-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

Saba was settled by the Dutch in 1632 but, because of its inaccessibility and ruggedness, never achieved any economic importance.

Computers, Bigger brains

2005-03-08T18:22:00.000-08:00

The computers built during the war were built under unusual constraints. The British work was largely focused on code breaking, the American work on computing projectile trajectories and calculations for the atomic bomb. The computers were built as special-purpose devices, although they often embodied more general-purpose computing capabilities than their

Stone Age, Egypt

2005-03-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

The Pleistocene terrace gravels of the Nile Valley in Egypt have produced a wealth of Paleolithic materials. The 30-metre terrace contains typical Abbevillian and early Acheulean hand axes, including a special form with a triangular section known as the Chalossian type. These are associated with primitive flake implements. In the 15-metre terrace, developed Acheulean

Maathai, Wangari

2005-03-05T15:51:00.000-08:00

Maathai was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College; B.S. in biology, 1964) and at the University of Pittsburgh (M.S., 1966). In 1971 she received a Ph.D. at the University of Nairobi, where

Marr, Nikolay Yakovlevich

2005-03-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

A professor at St. Petersburg University from 1900, Marr published numerous collections of old Georgian and Armenian literature and attempted to prove a relationship between

European Plain

2005-03-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest uninterrupted expanses of plain on the Earth's surface. It sweeps from the Pyrenees Mountains on the French-Spanish border across northern Europe to the Ural Mountains in Russia. In western Europe the plain is comparatively narrow, rarely exceeding 200 miles (320 kilometres) in width, but as it stretches eastward it broadens steadily until it reaches

Scandinavian Literature, Development of lyric poetry

2005-02-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

Several of the best Swedish writers were connected with the development of lyric poetry. One of the most notable, Vilhelm Ekelund, was in his youth the chief exponent of Symbolism in Sweden and later, as an author of aphorisms, exerted much influence on the development of literary modernism. Among the most popular poets were Dan Andersson, Birger Sjöberg, and Hjalmar

Norway, Conflict of church and state

2005-02-24T14:21:00.000-08:00

Following the rule of Magnus III's sons, the increasing power of the church and the monarch contributed to a century of civil war. During the early 12th century the kings expanded their direct rule over the various provinces, and the family aristocracy in Norway grew discontented. With the accession of Harald IV (ruled 1130–36), interest groups within Norwegian society began

Great Bend

2005-02-22T19:44:00.000-08:00

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

Chasuble

2005-02-21T05:51:00.000-08:00

Liturgical vestment, the outermost garment worn by Roman Catholic priests and bishops at mass and by some Anglicans and Lutherans when they celebrate the Eucharist. The chasuble developed from an outer garment worn by Greeks and Romans called the paenula or casula (“little house”), a conical or bell-shaped cloak made from a semicircular piece of cloth sewn partially

Pueblo Libre

2005-02-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

Community in Pueblo Libre (formerly Magdalena Vieja) district, southwestern Lima–Callao metropolitan area, Peru. Mainly a middle-income residential community, it is dotted with small parks. Although many of the homes are modern, some predate Peru's independence from Spain (1824). The liberators Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín both lived in Pueblo Libre in what is now

Sun, Photosphere

2005-02-16T07:11:00.000-08:00

Although there are no fires on the surface of the Sun, the photosphere seethes and roils, displaying the effects of the underlying convection. Photons flowing from below, trapped by the underlying layers, finally escape. This produces a dramatic drop in temperature and density. The temperature at the visible surface is about 5,800 K but drops to a minimum about 4,000 K at approximately

France, History Of, The principalities of the south

2005-02-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

Provence lay in what is now the southeastern corner of France; it was not part of the west Frankish domains. Included in the Middle Kingdom from 843, it passed to the kings of Burgundy after 879 and to the emperors in the 11th century. But it was local counts once again who won prestige

Soga Shohaku

2005-02-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

As a young man he studied painting under the guidance of Takada Keiho of the Kano school (school of painting based on Chinese subject matter and techniques) in Kyoto, but his disillusionment with contemporary

Felsenmeer

2005-02-10T02:05:00.000-08:00

(German: “sea of rock”), exposed rock surfaces that have been quickly broken up by frost action so that much rock is buried under a cover of angular shattered boulders. These mantles principally occur in Arctic regions and high mountain areas. Their continuity and depth varies with climate, vegetation, and rock type, but they may be as much as 4 metres (12 feet) deep. Felsenmeer

Gentile Da Fabriano,

2005-02-09T17:22:00.000-08:00

An early signed work by Gentile has stylistic affinities with Lombard painting and suggests that he was trained in the Lombard school. In 1409 Gentile was commissioned to

Cuckoopint

2005-02-06T03:18:00.000-08:00

The cuckoopint grows from a whitish rootstock, which

Chang Chü-cheng

2005-02-05T14:43:00.000-08:00

Chang gained power through his position as tutor

Arctic Regions

2005-02-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

During 1997 U.S. and Canadian oil and gas companies made renewed efforts to proceed with exploration and development in environmentally sensitive areas of arctic Alaska and the northern part of Canada's Yukon. In January BP Exploration Alaska Inc. announced plans to increase capital spending in Alaska by $1 billion to $3.5 billion over the next five years and reverse the fall

Heschel, Abraham Joshua

2005-02-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

After a traditional Jewish education, Heschel went on to higher studies

Burgess, Anthony

2005-01-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

Trained in English literature and phonetics, Burgess taught in the extramural department of Birmingham University (1946–50), worked for the Ministry of Education (1948–50), and was English master at Banbury

Computers, Time-sharing from Project MAC to UNIX

2005-01-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

In 1959 Christopher Strachey in the United Kingdom and John McCarthy in the United States independently described something they called time-sharing. Meanwhile, computer pioneer J.C.R. Licklider at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began to promote the idea of interactive computing as an alternative to batch processing. Batch processing was the normal

Szold, Henrietta

2005-01-26T15:41:00.000-08:00

Szold was of a German-speaking Hungarian immigrant family; her father was a rabbi. After graduating from public high school in 1877 she taught French, German, Latin, science, mathematics, and history at the Misses Adams' School girls'

Computers, ENIAC

2005-01-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

In the United States, government funding went to a project led by John Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert, Jr., and their colleagues at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania; their objective was an all-electronic computer. Under contract to the army, and under the direction of Herman Goldstine, work began in early 1943 on the Electronic Numerical

Dachlan, Kijai Hadji Ahmad

2005-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

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

Alexander

2005-01-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

The third son of Karadjordje (Karageorge, or Karaðorðe), who had led the movement to win Serb autonomy from the Ottoman Turks (1804–13), Alexander lived in exile until 1842, when the Skupština (Serb parliament) elected him prince of Serbia. Assuming the throne despite Russian

Claque

2005-01-18T17:15:00.000-08:00

(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,

Rausing, Gad Anders

2005-01-16T07:58:00.000-08:00

Swedish industrialist (b. May 19, 1922, Bromma, near Stockholm, Swed.—d. Jan. 28, 2000, Lausanne, Switz.), was the son of the developer of a sealed, laminated paperboard beverage box that did not require refrigeration and thus revolutionized the milk and juice industries. Rausing (with his younger brother, Hans) built the family business, Tetra Pak (later Tetra Laval Group), from a small Scandinavian

Ricimer

2005-01-14T08:28:00.000-08:00

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

Biblical Literature, The English Revised Version

2005-01-12T23:35:00.000-08:00

The remarkable and total victory of the King James Version could not entirely obscure those inherent weaknesses that were independent of its typographical errors. The manner of its execution had resulted in a certain unequalness and lack of consistency. The translators' understanding of the Hebrew tense system was often limited so that their version contains

Ruysbroeck, Jan Van

2005-01-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

After holding the chaplaincy of Sainte Gudule, Brussels, from 1317 to 1343, Ruysbroeck founded the Augustinian abbey at Groenendaal, where he wrote all but the first of his works, Van den Rike der Ghelieven (The

Coracle

2005-01-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

Irish curragh primitive, light, bowl-shaped boat with a frame of woven grasses, reeds, or saplings covered with hides. Those still used, in Wales and on the coasts of Ireland, usually have a canvas and tar covering. American Indians used the similar bullboat, covered with buffalo hides, on the Missouri River, and the corita, often sealed with bitumen, on the Colorado.

Afghan Carpet

2005-01-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

Stout, long-wearing floor covering handwoven by the Afghan tribe of Turkmens of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Afghan carpets are generally all wool or goat hair and are made with the Senna (Sehna) knot. Usually in dull reds, these carpets show less white than the products of other Turkmens. Their gul, or basic tribal motif, is a large, parti-coloured, scalloped octagon

Scaevola, Quintus Mucius

2005-01-01T00:54:00.000-08:00

As consul in 95 Scaevola and his colleague obtained the passage of the Lex Licinia Mucia, which removed certain groups not amalgamated into the Roman Republic (the so-called Latin and Italian allies) from the citizen rolls. The unrest created by this measure exploded in the Social (Italic) War of 90–88. After his consulship Scaevola

Abernathy, Ralph David

2004-12-30T14:26:00.000-08:00

The son of a successful farmer, Abernathy was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1948 and graduated with a B.S. degree from Alabama State University in 1950. His interest then shifted from

Lockhart, John Gibson

2004-12-29T21:28:00.000-08:00

Lockhart, the son of a Presbyterian minister descended from the landed gentry, studied at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford and began the practice

Han Yongun

2004-12-27T00:53:00.000-08:00

Han participated in the famous Tonghak Revolt of 1894, a social reform movement directed by leaders of the apocalyptic Tonghak sect. With the failure of the movement, Han escaped to Mount Solok, where he began to study Buddhism, entering the priesthood in 1905. He immediately became a leader of the struggle

Iberia

2004-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

In full Compañía Mercantil Anónima Iberia (Spanish: “Iberia Commercial Limited-Liability Company”) Spanish airline created by law on June 7, 1940, and given rights to the air transport of persons and cargo within Spain. It took control of a privately owned company established in 1937, which in turn had revived the name of a company called Iberia, Compañía Aérea de Transportes, founded June 28, 1927; the current name was adopted in 1941. Iberia was nationalized in 1944, but in the late 1990s the Spanish

North Germanic Languages

2004-12-22T08:40:00.000-08:00

The six standard languages of today, in the order of their emergence as languages of culture and prestige, are Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese, New Norwegian (Nynorsk), and Dano-Norwegian.

Culture Area

2004-12-21T11:14:00.000-08:00

Among the most important writers on the subject of culture areas were Sir Halford Mackinder

Jacobi, Lotte

2004-12-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

Born into a family of photographers (her great-grandfather began as a professional daguerreotypist in 1840), Jacobi studied art history and literature at the Academy of Posen (1912–16) and attended the Bavarian State Academy of Photography in Munich and

Bruck

2004-12-16T05:56:00.000-08:00

Also called Bruck An Der Mur, town, Steiermark Bundesland (federal state), southeast-central Austria. It lies at the junction of the Mur and Mürz rivers north of Graz. First mentioned in 860 as a possession of the archbishops of Salzburg, it was chartered in 1263. The earliest bridge (Brücke) on the site, probably from Roman times, gave the town its name. Notable landmarks are the magnificent Gothic Kornmesserhaus

Wichita

2004-12-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

North American Indian people of Caddoan linguistic stock who in their early history lived near the Arkansas River in present-day Kansas. They were encountered by the Spanish in the mid-16th century and became the object of the earliest missionary work done among the Plains Indians. Like most Caddoans, the Wichita subsisted largely by farming (corn [maize], pumpkins,

China, Rural areas

2004-12-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Except in the mountains and hills, an overwhelming majority of the rural settlements of China consist of sizable compact (nucleated) villages. The formation of such rural settlements is related not only to the increasing population and to a long historical background but also to water supply (the practice of drilling deep wells, for instance) and to defense (especially,

Craigavon

2004-12-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

District and borough, Northern Ireland, established in 1973 from portions of Counties Antrim, Down, and Armagh. It is situated south of Lough (lake) Neagh and is bordered by the districts of Dungannon to the west, Armagh to the southwest, Banbridge to the southeast, and Lisburn to the east. Its administrative seat is Craigavon new town. In the northern part of Craigavon district,

Breisach

2004-12-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

In full Breisach Am Rhein, city, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine opposite Neuf-Brisach, Fr. As ancient Brisiacum, it was a stronghold of the Celtic Sequani. Captured in the time of Julius Caesar, it became known as Mons Brisiacus. Fortified by the emperor Valentinian in 369, it remained one of the chief Rhine bulwarks of medieval Germany and gave its

Bayinnaung

2004-12-06T23:12:00.000-08:00

In 1550 a revolt broke out among the Mons of southern Myanmar, and Bayinnaung's brother-in-law, Tabinshwehti, was assassinated at Pegu in 1551 by a Mon prince. Bayinnaung

Puerto Rico, Flag Of

2004-12-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

In the late 19th century, as pro-independence sentiment grew in the Caribbean islands under Spanish dominion, many activists in Cuba and Puerto Rico were exiled to the United States or elsewhere. In New York City a flag was chosen in exile by the Puerto Rican section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party on December 22, 1895. The design was simply the Cuban flag with a reversal of the

Hoisin Sauce

2004-12-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

Commercially prepared, thick reddish-brown sauce used in Chinese cuisine both as an ingredient in cooking and as a table condiment. Made from soybeans, flour, sugar, water, spices, garlic, and chili, it is sweet and spicy. It is used in cooking shellfish and fatty meats such as pork and duck. As a condiment, hoisin sauce is eaten with shrimp, pork, and poultry and is invariably

Moseley Braun, Carol

2004-12-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

Carol Moseley attended the University of Illinois at Chicago (B.A., 1969) and received a law degree from the University of Chicago (1972). She married Michael Braun in 1973 (divorced 1986) and worked as an assistant U.S. attorney before her election to the Illinois

Kirkcaldy (of Grange), Sir William

2004-11-29T20:28:00.000-08:00

Kirkcaldy was one of the Protestant conspirators who murdered the powerful cardinal David Beaton at St. Andrews Castle in May 1546. From 1550 to 1556 he served in France as a secret agent for England. He returned to Scotland in 1557 and two years later joined the Protestant lords

Great Leap Forward

2004-11-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

The campaign undertaken by the Chinese Communists between 1958 and early 1960 to organize its vast population, especially in large-scale rural communes, to meet China's industrial and agricultural problems. The Chinese hoped to develop labour-intensive methods of industrialization, which would emphasize manpower rather than machines. Thereby, it was hoped, the country

Finland, Education

2004-11-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

School attendance in Finland is compulsory beginning at the age of seven. The national and local governments support the schools, and tuition is free. The introduction of a new nine-year comprehensive school system, consisting of a six-year primary stage and a three-year secondary stage, was completed during the 1970s. The English language is taught beginning in the third

Carnivore, Form and function

2004-11-23T10:49:00.000-08:00

The teeth of the omnivorous bears are unspecialized. The first three premolars are usually either missing or extremely small. The carnassials are poorly developed, and the molars have broad, flat crowns. Except for variability as to the presence of premolars, the ursid dental formula is that of the Carnivora generally. The sloth bear lacks one pair of upper incisors.

Hope

2004-11-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

District municipality, southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It lies at the confluence of the Coquihalla and Fraser rivers in the forested Coast Mountains, near Mount Hope (6,000 feet [1,829 metres]), 90 miles (145 km) east of Vancouver. The Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Hope on the site in 1848–49, an event commemorated by a cairn at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Wallace

General Sarmiento

2004-11-18T01:45:00.000-08:00

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

Ch'ang-chih

2004-11-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Changzhi , formerly (until 1912) Lu-an city in southeast Shansi Province (sheng), China. It is situated in the Lu-an plain—a basin surrounded by the western highlands of the T'ai-hang Shan (mountains), watered by the Cho-chang-pei Yüan (stream), a tributary of the Wei Ho. It is a communication centre; to the east a route via Li-ch'eng, in Shansi, crosses the T'ai-hang Shan to Han-tan, Hopeh, on the North China Plain. To the northwest

Madison River

2004-11-15T06:08:00.000-08:00

River in southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming, U.S. The Madison River rises in the northwestern corner of Yellowstone National Park at the junction of the Gibbon and Firehole rivers. It flows west through Hebgen Lake (impounded by a dam) into southwestern Montana, then turns north between the Madison Range (to the east) and the Gravelly Range and the Tobacco

Dynamometer

2004-11-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

Among force-measuring devices are a flexible metallic ring that bends when a force is applied

Shamanism

2004-11-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

Among the peoples of northern Asia, shamanism developed into a more definitely articulated and specialized form than among other peoples. Shamanism as practiced there is distinguished by its special clothing, accessories, and rites as well as by the specific worldview connected with them. North Asiatic shamanism in the 19th century, which may be taken as the classical

Rio De Janeiro

2004-11-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

The name was given to the city's original site by Portuguese navigators who arrived at the port on Jan. 1, 1502, and mistook the entrance of the bay for the mouth of a river (rio is the Portuguese word for “river” and janeiro

Pacific Ocean, Temperature

2004-11-07T07:18:00.000-08:00

The surface zone, where temperature variations are perceptible, is between 300 and 1,000 feet thick. It is more compressed in the temperate Eastern Pacific, along the coasts of North and Central America,

Zambia, Resources

2004-11-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

Copper, the basis of Zambia's prosperity in the first decade of independence, is a declining asset. Alternatives such as optical glass fibre have reduced market demand, and exhaustion of reserves in existing mining areas has led to increased costs. Large-scale mining could end by 2005, although small-scale operations will continue long after that. Cobalt occurs in association

Nagaland, The economy

2004-11-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

Agriculture employs about 90 percent of the population. Rice, corn (maize), small millets, pulses (legumes such as peas and beans), oilseeds, fibres, sugarcane, potato, and tobacco are the principal crops. Nagaland, however, still has to depend on imports of food from neighbouring states. The widespread practice of jhum has led to soil erosion and loss of soil fertility. Only the

Wagner Act

2004-10-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

Sponsored by Senator Robert F. Wagner, a Democrat from New York, the Wagner Act established the federal government as the regulator and ultimate arbiter

Norfolk, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke Of, Earl Of Surrey, Earl Marshal

2004-10-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

He was the son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who was put to death for alleged treasonable activities in 1547. Restored to his father's title on the accession of Queen Mary

Infection, Common worm infections

2004-10-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

The worm Ascaris lumbricoides causes one of the most prevalent infections in the world. It lives in the soil and its eggs are ingested with contaminated food. The eggs hatch in the human intestine and the worms then travel through the bloodstream to the liver, heart, and lungs. They can cause pneumonia, perforations of the intestine, or blockage of the bile ducts, but

Gadolinium

2004-10-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

(Gd), chemical element, rareearth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. Silvery white and moderately ductile, the metal reacts slowly with oxygen and water. Below 17° C it is ferromagnetic and at very low temperatures, superconducting. Credit for the discovery of gadolinium is shared by J.-C.-G. de Marignac and P.-É. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Marignac separated (1880) a new

Extraterritoriality

2004-10-21T02:08:00.000-07:00

Also called Exterritoriality, or Diplomatic Immunity, in international law, the immunities enjoyed by foreign states or international organizations and their official representatives from the jurisdiction of the country in which they are present. Extraterritoriality extends to foreign states or international organizations as entities and to their heads, legations, troops in passage, war vessels, mission premises,

Biblical Literature, Uncials

2004-10-19T02:00:00.000-07:00

A, Codex Alexandrinus, is an early-5th-century manuscript containing most of the New Testament but with lacunae (gaps) in Matthew, John, and II Corinthians, plus the inclusion of the extracanonical I and II Clement. In the Gospels, the text is of the Byzantine type, but, in the rest of the New Testament, it is Alexandrian.

Molasse

2004-10-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

Thick association of continental and marine clastic sedimentary rocks that consists mainly of sandstones and shales formed as shore deposits. The depositional environments involved include beaches, lagoons, river channels, and backwater swamps. The sands are deposited on beaches and in river channels and eventually form shoestring bodies (thickness:width

Madanin

2004-10-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Médenine, town, southern Tunisia. The town lies in the semiarid plain of al-Jifarah (Jeffara). It was the capital of the Ouerghemma League of three Berber groups and was the chief town of the Southern Military Territories during the French Protectorate (1881–1955). The honeycomb-like, aboveground granaries (ghorfas) that belonged to the Ouerghemma are features of the locality. The town is

'ashura'

2004-10-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Muslim holy day observed on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic year (Gregorian date variable). 'Ashura' was originally designated in AD 622 by Muhammad, soon after the Hijrah (Hegira), as a day of fasting from sunset to sunset, probably patterned on the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. When Jewish-Muslim relations became strained, however, Muhammad made Ramadan the

Masaryk, Jan (garrigue)

2004-10-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

The son of the statesman Tomáš Masaryk, Jan served in a Hungarian regiment during World War I, entered

Masaryk, Jan (garrigue)

2004-10-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

Its functions include making multilateral

Shield-backed Katydid

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

Any orthopteran of the insect subfamily Decticinae, within the long-horned grasshopper (or katydid) family Tettigoniidae. They are cricketlike in appearance, are more than 2.5 cm (1 inch) long, and are brown or black in colour. They have a pronotum (dorsal surface of the prothorax) that extends back to the abdomen. Most species have short wings, and some species are

Kame

2004-10-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

Moundlike hill of poorly sorted drift, mostly sand and gravel, deposited at or near the terminus of a glacier. A kame may be produced either as a delta of a meltwater stream or as an accumulation of debris let down onto the ground surface by the melting glacier. A group of closely associated kames is called a kame field, or kame complex, and may be interspersed with kettles

Sculpture, Decorative sculpture

2004-10-04T05:01:00.000-07:00

The devices and motifs of ornamental sculpture fall into three main categories: abstract, zoomorphic, and botanical. Abstract shapes, which can easily be made to fit into any framework, are a widespread form of decoration. Outstanding examples of abstract relief ornament are found on Islamic, Mexican, and Mayan buildings and on small Celtic metal artifacts. The character

Hypothalamus

2004-10-02T00:19:00.000-07:00

The hypothalamus and pituitary

Jovellanos, Gaspar Melchor De

2004-09-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

After studying law, Jovellanos was appointed to judicial posts at Sevilla (1767) and Madrid (1778). He gained fame for his literary and scholarly activities and for his personal integrity, but from 1790 to 1797, after unsuccessfully intervening

Computers, The first computer network

2004-09-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

Between 1940 and 1946 George Stibitz and his team at Bell Laboratories built a series of machines with telephone technologies, i.e., employing electromechanical relays. These were the first machines to serve more than one user and the first to work remotely over telephone lines. However, because they were based on slow mechanical relays rather than electronic switches, they

Hine, Lewis Wickes

2004-09-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

Trained as a sociologist, Hine began to portray the immigrants who crowded onto New York's Ellis Island in 1905. He also photographed the tenements and sweatshops where the immigrants were forced to live and work. These pictures were published

Lizard, Locomotion and limb adaptations

2004-09-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

The majority of lizards are quadrupedal, with powerful limb musculature. They are capable of rapid acceleration and possess great ability to change direction of motion rapidly. The racerunners (Cnemidophorus) can attain speeds of 24 kilometres (15 miles) per hour, which, in terms of their own body length, puts them in a class with fast terrestrial mammals. A tendency toward

Vischer Family

2004-09-21T02:33:00.000-07:00

Sculptors and brass founders working in Nürnberg in the 15th and 16th centuries. Hermann the Elder (d. Jan. 13, 1488) established the foundry. His son Peter the Elder (1460–1529) was the most celebrated member of the family, producing monumental brasswork and bronzework that attracted patrons from as far off as Poland and Hungary. Works by Peter, who was assisted by his five sons, include the tomb

Molde

2004-09-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

Town and seat of Møre og Romsdal fylke (county), western Norway. It lies along Molde Fjord, an inlet of the Norwegian Sea. A port since the 15th century, Molde was partially destroyed by fire in 1916, damaged during World War II, then rebuilt completely. During April 1940 it was the temporary home of the Norwegian government. Local industry includes fish export, textile mills, and furniture

Bergson, Henri

2004-09-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

In full Henri-Louis Bergson French philosopher, the first to elaborate what came to be called a process philosophy, which rejected static values in favour of values of motion, change, and evolution. He was also a master literary stylist, of both academic and popular appeal, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927.

Yamm

2004-09-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Yam ancient West Semitic deity who ruled the oceans, rivers, lakes, and underground springs. He also played an important role in the Baal myths recorded on tablets uncovered at Ugarit, which say that at the beginning of time Yamm was awarded the divine kingship by El, the chief god of the pantheon. One day, Yamm's messengers requested that the gods surrender Baal to be a bond

Claudius

2004-09-13T01:21:00.000-07:00

In full Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , original name (until AD 41) Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus Roman emperor (AD 41–54), who extended Roman rule in North Africa and made Britain a province.

Armstrong, Louis

2004-09-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Armstrong grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz was very young. As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in a boys quartet. In 1913 he was sent to the Colored

Kija

2004-09-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

Legendary Korean king of Chinese origin whose arrival in Korea with 5,000 rice- and barley-bearing refugees reputedly introduced Chinese civilization (and these new grains) to the Korean people. The band allegedly had fled China in 1111 BC, refusing to serve the new Chou-dynasty ruler who had overthrown Kija's Shang-dynasty relatives. Historical evidence confirms early Chinese

Môle Saint-nicolas

2004-09-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

Village, just northeast of Cap Saint-Nicolas, on the northwestern coast of Haiti. Situated on an inlet of the Windward Passage (a strait between Haiti and Cuba), it was the site where Christopher Columbus first landed (Dec. 6, 1492) on the island, which he named La Isla Española (taken into English as Hispaniola). Saint-Nicolas was named for the saint on whose day it was discovered.

Egypt, Ancient, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton)

2004-09-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

The earliest monuments of Amenhotep IV, who in his fifth regnal year changed his name to Akhenaton (“one useful to Aton”), are conventional in their iconography and style, but from the first he gave the sun god a didactic title naming Aton, the solar disk. This title was later written inside a pair of cartouches, as a king's name would be. The king declared his religious allegiance

Chong Yak-jong

2004-09-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Born to a family noted for its scholarly background, Chong was converted to Roman Catholicism by the Chinese priest Chou Wen-mu (James

Absolute Idealism

2004-09-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

A philosophical theory chiefly associated with G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both German idealist philosophers of the 19th century, Josiah Royce, an American philosopher, and others, but, in its essentials, the product of Hegel. Absolute Idealism can generally be characterized as including the following principles: (1) the common everyday world of things and embodied

Sinkiang, Uygur Autonomous Region Of, Relief

2004-08-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

In the north the Northern Highlands extend in a semicircle along the Mongolian border.

Austen, Jane

2004-08-29T03:58:00.000-07:00

English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. Austen created the comedy of manners of middle-class life in the England of her time in such novels as Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), and Northanger