ComplexBox

Sable Antelope

2005-11-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

(Hippotragus niger), handsome antelope, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), that lives in herds in forests of southern Africa. Like the related roan antelope (H. equinus), the sable antelope is a graceful animal with an erect mane, long ears, long hair on the throat, and long, parallel, sickle-shaped horns. It stands up to 137 centimetres (54 inches) at the shoulder.

Abdera

2005-07-28T04:15:00.000-07:00

In ancient Greece, town on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Néstos River. The people of Teos, evacuating Ionia when it was overrun by the Persians under Cyrus (c. 540 BC), succeeded in establishing a colony there that developed a brisk trade with the Thracian interior. Abdera was a prosperous member of the Delian League in the 5th century but was crippled early in the 4th

Jacobs, Jane

2005-07-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

After graduating from high school, she became a reporter on the Scranton Tribune, moving to New York City about a year later. While working as a free-lance writer, she met and married an architect, Robert Hyde Jacobs. Already keenly interested

San Francisco, University Of

2005-07-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning, located near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs through six academic divisions: the College of Arts and Sciences, McLaren School of Business, the College of Professional

Nahman Ben Simhah Of Bratslav

2005-07-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

The great-grandson of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement, Nahman was an ascetic from childhood. Married at age 13, he became a self-appointed religious leader and teacher at about age 20. After studying (1798–99) in Tiberius,

Earth, Folding

2005-07-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

Compression of the Earth's surface results in the formation of mountain ranges in which rocks are extensively folded. Erosion of a sequence of sedimentary rocks containing beds, some of which are easily eroded and others of which are resistant to erosion, produces numerous parallel ridges and valleys that are oriented parallel to the mountain belt in which they

Hugh Town

2005-06-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

Village and capital of the Isles of Scilly, historic county of Cornwall, England. Located on a sandy peninsula on the southwestern side of St. Mary's Island, the village has a harbour and a roadstead where large vessels can lie at anchor. Hugh Town gave shelter to Prince Charles (later Charles II) until his escape to Jersey in 1646. The economy is centred on fishing and tourism.

Sanjo

2005-06-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

City, Niigata Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, on the delta of the Shinano-gawa (Shinano River). Sanjo was founded as a castle town in the 16th century. It was a river port and post town during the Tokugawa era (1603–1867), when the city first became known as a centre of metal tool production. Carpenter tools and household hardware are still produced in more than 2,000 small workshops. Pop. (1980) 85,275.

Celtic Literature, Prose

2005-06-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

The early Irish epic was a prose narrative that usually contained non-narrative poetic passages, often in dialogue form. The resemblance between this and the type of epic found in early Sanskrit suggests that the tradition went back to Indo-European times. The oldest sagas probably were first written down in the 7th and 8th centuries, from an oral tradition. These were

Smith, Michael

2005-06-13T00:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Jam And Lewis

2005-06-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

Jam and Lewis's emergence as major record producers was kick-started by Prince's pique. Keyboard player Jimmy Jam (James Harris III) and bassist Terry Lewis played together in local Minneapolis bands while in high school, graduating to Flyte Tyme, which evolved into Prince's backing band, the Time, in 1981. When Jam and Lewis produced the SOS Band's hit “Just Be Good to Me” in 1983, they

Corbière, Tristan

2005-05-18T00:25:00.000-07:00

Educated at Morlaix and the lycées of Saint-Brieuc and Nantes,

Sea Swallow

2005-05-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

Any of certain coastal tern species. See tern.

Machine Tool, Diamonds

2005-05-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

Diamonds have been used for many years for truing grinding wheels, in wire-drawing dies, and as cutting tools. For cutting applications they are used largely for taking light finishing cuts at high speed on hard or abrasive materials and for finish-boring bronze and babbitt-metal bearings.

Dachlan, Kijai Hadji Ahmad

2005-03-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

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

Buddhism, Tibet

2005-03-14T05:03:00.000-08:00

Buddhism, according to the Tibetan tradition, was first given recognition in Tibet during the reign of Srong-brtsan-sgam-po (c. 627 - c. 650). This king had two queens who were early patrons of the religion and were later regarded in popular tradition as incarnations of the Buddhist saviouress Tara. The religion received active encouragement from Khri-srong-lde-btsan, during whose

D.c.m.g.

2005-03-11T03:57:00.000-08:00

Dame commander of St. Michael and St. George, member of the second highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Distinguished Order of.

Submarine Gap

2005-03-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

Also called �Abyssal Gap, � steep-sided furrow that cuts transversely across a ridge or rise; such a passageway has a steeper slope than either of the two abyssal plains it connects. Grooves known as interplain channels exist in many submarine gaps; the sediments in these channels are continuously graded. The graded sediments, in conjunction with the gradient and the furrowed topography

Tachycardia

2005-03-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

In physiology and medicine, a heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute. Tachycardia occurs normally during and after exercise or during stress and represents no danger to healthy individuals. In some cases, however, tachycardia occurs without apparent cause and is an arrhythmia, i.e., a pathological deviation from the normal heartbeat rhythm. Most arrhythmias are

Baseball Hall Of Fame

2005-03-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

In full� National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum � museum and honorary society, Cooperstown, New York, U.S. The origins of the hall can be traced to 1935, when plans were first put forward for the 1939 celebration of the supposed centennial of baseball (it was then believed that the American army officer Abner Doubleday had developed the game at Cooperstown in 1839, a story that was later discredited). The first vote for players to be

Acrocyanosis

2005-03-03T07:52:00.000-08:00

Uneven reddish-blue discoloration of the hands caused by spasms in arterioles (small arteries) of the skin. Less commonly the feet are affected. The fingers, or toes, are usually cold and sweat copiously. The condition may be the result of an endocrine disorder or of some anxiety state. It is most common in adolescents and those in the 20s and usually improves with age.

Latent Heat

2005-03-02T05:47:00.000-08:00

For

Spielberg, Steven

2005-03-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

An amateur filmmaker even before he entered high school, Spielberg attended California State College, Long Beach, and attracted the attention of Universal Pictures with his short films. For Universal

Ruthenian

2005-02-28T00:15:00.000-08:00

Also called �Ruthene � any of those Ukrainians who were formerly Polish or Austrian and Austro-Hungarian subjects. The name is a Latinized form of the word Russian, but the Ruthenians are Ukrainians who, by accidents of history in the late Middle Ages, were absorbed into the territory of Lithuania, which in turn was united with Poland. The term Little Russians has also been applied to them.

Berengario Da Carpi, Jacopo

2005-02-27T19:54:00.000-08:00

Berengario was a professor at the University of Bologna from 1502 to 1527. While there he became known for his use of mercurial ointment in the treatment of syphilis.

Semiconductor

2005-02-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

If an abrupt change in impurity type from acceptors (p-type) to donors (n-type) occurs within a single crystal structure, a p-n junction is formed (see parts B and C of the figure). On the p side, the holes constitute the dominant carriers and so are called majority carriers. A few thermally generated electrons will also exist in the p side; these are termed minority carriers. On the n side,

Porsangen

2005-02-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

Fjord, indenting the coast of Finmark fylke (county), extreme northern Norway on the Arctic Ocean. An inlet of the Barents Sea, the fjord is approximately 80 mi (130 km) long and lies well north of the Arctic Circle. Adjacent to the mouth of the fjord is a largely uninhabited area, Sv�rholtklubben, which serves as home to thousands of seabirds. Many islands are found in Porsangen;

Antiferromagnetism

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

Type of magnetism in solids such as manganese oxide (MnO) in which adjacent ions that behave as tiny magnets (in this case manganese ions, Mn2 ) spontaneously align themselves at relatively low temperatures into opposite, or antiparallel, arrangements throughout the material so that it exhibits almost no gross external magnetism. In antiferromagnetic materials,

Flood, Curt

2005-02-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

Flood began playing baseball as a youth and was signed in 1956 by the National League Cincinnati Reds. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1958 and played

Catargiu, Lascar

2005-02-22T01:57:00.000-08:00

In 1858 Catargiu served on the Moldavian divan ad hoc (representative commission) formed to determine the future political organization of the Danubian principalities - Moldavia and Walachia - and in

Adam, Paul

2005-02-21T23:22:00.000-08:00

Author whose early works exemplify the Naturalist and Symbolist schools and who later won considerable reputation for his historical and sociological novels. Publication of his first Naturalist novel, Chair molle (1885), led to his being prosecuted; his second, Le Th� chez Miranda (1886), written with Jean Mor�as, is an early example of Symbolism. In 1899, with La

Croissy, Charles Colbert, Marquis De

2005-02-20T05:35:00.000-08:00

Colbert de Croissy was the younger brother of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's great financial minister (1665 - 83). Appointed intendant (royal agent)

Abyssal Hill

2005-02-19T00:16:00.000-08:00

Small, topographically well-defined submarine hill that may rise from several metres to several hundred metres above the abyssal seafloor, in water 3,000 to 6,000 m (10,000 to 20,000 feet) deep. Typical hills have diameters of several to several hundred metres. Abyssal-hill provinces, areas of abyssal seafloor occupied exclusively by such hills, characteristically occur seaward of the

Fa-hsiang

2005-02-18T22:32:00.000-08:00

School of Chinese Buddhism derived from the Indian Yogacara school. See Yogacara.

Animal

2005-02-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

(kingdom Animalia), any of a group of multicellular eukaryotic organisms (i.e., as distinct from bacteria, their deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is contained in a membrane-bound nucleus). They are thought to have evolved independently from the unicellular eukaryotes. Animals differ from members of the two other kingdoms of multicellular eukaryotes, the plants (Plantae)

Deorai, Battle Of

2005-02-15T01:39:00.000-08:00

Dara challenged Aurangzeb, relying on the promised support of Jaswant Singh of Marwar, but Jaswant then deserted him, and Dara was left to face Aurangzeb's superior army alone.

Goibhniu

2005-02-14T23:29:00.000-08:00

Welsh �Gofannon, � ancient Celtic smith god. Goibhniu figured in Irish tradition as one of a trio of divine craftsmen; the other two were Luchta the wright and Creidhne the metalworker. Goibhniu was also the provider of the sacred otherworld feast, the Fled Goibhnenn; he allegedly brewed the special ale thought to confer immortality on those who drank it. In Christian times he became

Szell, George

2005-02-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

A child prodigy on the piano, Szell was educated in Vienna. His conducting debut came at the age of 16 with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Bab, The

2005-02-12T07:20:00.000-08:00

At an early age, 'Ali Mohammad became familiar with the Shaykhi school of the Shi'i branch of Islam and with its leader, Sayyid Kazim Rashti, whom he had met on

Gobel, Jean-baptiste-joseph

2005-02-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Educated at the German College, Rome, Gobel became in 1755 vicar-general of the diocese of

L�vis-lauzon

2005-02-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

City, Chaudi�re-Appalaches region, southern Quebec province, Canada, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite the city of Quebec, with which it is linked by ferry. The settlement, founded in 1647, was formerly called Aubigny in honour of the Duke of Richmond (who had inherited the title of Duke d'Aubigny). From the heights above the town, the British general James Wolfe

Sung Chiao-jen

2005-02-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Expelled from middle school in China for revolutionary activities, in 1904, Sung began studies in Japan. In Tokyo the following year, he became one of the leading members of the

Force, Line Of

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

In physics, path followed by an electric charge free to move in an electric field or a mass free to move in a gravitational field, or generally any appropriate test particle in a given force field. More abstractly, lines of force are lines in any such force field the tangent of which at any point gives the field direction at that point and the density of which gives the

Kafue River

2005-02-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

River rising on the Congo (Kinshasa) - Zambia border. It meanders generally southward until it turns west near the Lukanga Swamp (which it drains). The river then flows south and finally east through the Kafue Flats and Kafue Gorge to join the Zambezi River near Chirundu, Zimbabwe, after a course of 600 miles (960 km). One of Zambia's major rivers, its waters are used for irrigation.

Physical Science, Principles Of, Application of Newton's laws

2005-02-06T05:38:00.000-08:00

In the same way that the timing of a pendulum provided a more rigorous test of Galileo's kinematical theory than could be achieved by direct testing with balls rolling down planes, so with Newton's laws the most searching tests are indirect and based on mathematically derived consequences. Kepler's laws of planetary motion are just such an example, and in the two centuries

Straits Times, The

2005-02-05T06:02:00.000-08:00

It was founded in 1845 as a single-sheet weekly by Robert Carr Woods to provide commercial information needed by Singapore's bustling port community. The paper became a daily in 1858. Its facilities were destroyed by fire in 1869, but the paper

Medicine

2005-02-04T01:47:00.000-08:00

It is generally the goal of most countries to have their health services organized in such a way to ensure that individuals, families, and communities obtain the maximum benefit from current knowledge and technology available for the promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health. In order to play their part in this process, governments and other agencies are

Orangery

2005-02-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

The great period of the orangery,

Arts, East Asian, Architecture

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

While little remains except walls and tombs, much can be learned about Han architecture from historical writings and long descriptive poems, fu. This was an era of great palace buildings. The first Ch'in emperor undertook the building of a vast palace, the A-fang or O-pang, whose main hall was intended to accommodate 10,000 guests in its upper story. He also copied the palaces

Smith, Eliza Roxey Snow

2005-02-01T22:47:00.000-08:00

Eliza Snow grew up from the age of two in Mantua, Ohio. Her family was deeply religious and in the 1820s joined the Campbellite sect of �reformed Baptists.� Mormon proselytizers went to their region

Antony, Mark

2005-01-31T10:57:00.000-08:00

Mark Antony was the son and grandson of men of the same name. His father was called Creticus because of his military operations in Crete, and his grandfather, one of the leading orators of his day, was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero's De oratore. After a somewhat dissipated youth, the future triumvir served with distinction in 57 - 54 as a cavalry commander under Aulus

Photography, Portraiture

2005-01-30T17:02:00.000-08:00

A new style of portrait, introduced in Paris by Andr�-Adolphe-Eug�ne Disd�ri in 1854, was universally popular from 1859 onward. It came to be called the carte de visite because the size of the mounted photograph (four by 2 1/2 inches) corresponded to that of a calling card. Disd�ri used a four-lens camera to produce eight negatives on a single glass plate. Each picture could be separately

Xenophon

2005-01-29T01:39:00.000-08:00

The most personal of his writings is Anabasis (or Anabasis Kyrou, �The Expedition of Cyrus�), published probably under a nom de guerre. The narrative excels in graphic details, but the fictitious speeches with which it is adorned have a contrived and artificial air. It is an account by a young man, somewhat romantic, excited by danger and discovery, receptive of impressions,

Vedantadesika

2005-01-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

Vedantadesika was born into a distinguished Srivaisnava family that followed the teachings of Ramanuja, an 11th - 12th-century

Fuji, Mount

2005-01-27T17:09:00.000-08:00

Japanese �Fuji-san�, also called �Fujiyama�, or �Fuji No Yama� highest mountain in Japan, rising to 12,388 feet (3,776 metres) near the Pacific coast in Yamanashi and Shizuoka ken (prefectures), central Honshu, about 60 miles (100 km) west of Tokyo. It is a volcano that has been dormant since its last eruption in 1707 but is still generally classified as active by geologists. The mountain's name, of Ainu origin, means �everlasting life.� Mount Fuji, with its graceful

Bouafl�

2005-01-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

Town, central C�te d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Bouafl� lies on the north bank of the Bandama Rouge River. It is the chief trade centre (coffee, yams, cassava, and plantains) of a transitional zone of dense forest and savanna, which is mainly inhabited by the agricultural Guro (Gouro) and Gagu (Gagou) peoples. Pop. (1988) 34,562.

New Braunfels

2005-01-25T22:04:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1846) of Comal county and also partly in Guadalupe county, south-central Texas, U.S. It lies on the Balcones Escarpment at a point where the Comal River (3 miles [5 km] long and within city limits) flows into the Guadalupe River, 30 miles (50 km) northeast of San Antonio. The community was established in 1845 by a group of German immigrants led by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels and sponsored

Gerry, Elbridge

2005-01-24T18:16:00.000-08:00

In 1812 Gerry, an ardent supporter of war with Great Britain in the War of 1812, was elected vice president of the United States on the Jeffersonian Republican ticket with Madison. In 1813, while presiding over the Senate, Gerry, who along with Madison was in ill health, refused to yield his chair at the close of the legislative session, thus preventing William Giles, a senator from Virginia and an advocate of peace with Britain, from becoming president pro tempore of the Senate and thereby second in line (after the vice president) to succeed the president under the Presidential Succession Act of 1792. Gerry suffered a hemorrhage of the lungs on his way to the Senate and died in 1814.

Eilhart Von Oberg

2005-01-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

German poet important in the history of the court epic and the development of the Tristan and Isolde story in Romance literature. Eilhart was a member of a Brunswick family mentioned in the records of Henry III of Saxony. His epic, Tristrant und Isalde, a laboured version of an Old French source now lost, dates from the last quarter of the 12th century. Uncertainty

Adderley, Nat

2005-01-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

Although he began playing the trumpet in his teens, Nat Adderley switched in 1950 to the somewhat smaller cornet, playing it in the U.S. Army band led by his brother. After a year with Lionel

Becquerel, Henri

2005-01-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

He was a member of a scientific family extending through several generations, the most notable being his grandfather Antoine-C�sar Becquerel (1788 - 1878), his father,

Finland, Justice

2005-01-20T18:33:00.000-08:00

The Finnish judiciary is independent of the legislature and executive; judges are removable only by judicial sentence. There are municipal and rural district courts, held in cities and towns by the chief judge (oikeuspormestari) and assistants and in the country by a judge and jurors. Appeal from these courts lies to courts of appeal in Helsinki, Turku, Vaasa, Kuopio,

Tatar Strait

2005-01-19T00:42:00.000-08:00

Russian �Tatarsky Proliv, �also called �Gulf Of Tatary, � narrow passage of the northwest Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Japan (south) to the Sea of Okhotsk between Sakhalin Island (east) and the Asian mainland. From 4.5 to 213 miles (7 to 342 km) in width and 393 miles (632 km) long, it is generally shallow with depths less than 700 feet (210 m). The strait, which receives the Amur River in the north, is the site of the Russian ports of Uglegorsk, Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky,

Indonesian Literatures

2005-01-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

The poetry and prose writings in Javanese, Malay, Sundanese, and other languages of the peoples of Indonesia. They include works orally transmitted and then preserved in written form by the Indonesian peoples, oral literature recorded by Western anthropologists and ethnologists, and the modern literatures that began to emerge in the early 20th century as the result

Berent, Waclaw

2005-01-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

Born to an affluent merchant family, Berent studied in Z�rich, Switzerland, and Munich, Germany, where he concentrated on the natural sciences. Ideologically related to the Young Poland

Ribeir�o Pr�to

2005-01-15T02:52:00.000-08:00

City, in the highlands of northeastern S�o Paulo state, Brazil, at 1,700 feet (520 m) above sea level, on the Pr�to River, a tributary of the Pardo River. Founded in 1856 and formerly called Entre Rios and S�o Sebasti�o do Ribeir�o Pr�to, the settlement was given town status in 1870 and was made the seat of a municipality in 1871. It was long renowned as a colonization and coffee-growing centre. Now

Deneuve, Catherine

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

Deneuve was the third of four daughters born to the French actors Maurice Dorl�ac and Ren�e Deneuve. She landed a small role in the 1957 film Les Coll�giennes (The Twilight Girls) and began her film career

Augustus, Caesar

2005-01-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

In the following year the balance of power began to change: whereas Antony's eastern expedition failed, Octavian's fleet, commanded by his former schoolmate, Marcus Agrippa, who, although unpopular with the influential nobles, was an admiral of genius, totally defeated Sextus Pompeius off Cape Naulochus (Venetico) in Sicily. At this point the third triumvir, Lepidus,

Levi, Carlo

2005-01-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

Levi was a painter and a practicing physician when he was exiled (1935 - 36) to the southern district of Lucania for anti-Fascist activities. His

Gielgud, Sir John

2005-01-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

In full �Sir Arthur John Gielgud� English actor, producer, and director, who is considered one of the greatest performers of his generation on stage and screen, particularly as a Shakespearean actor. He was knighted in 1953 for services to the theatre. (Click here to hear Gielgud reading from �A Midsummer Night's Dream� and �The

Arr�bida Highway Bridge

2005-01-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

In Porto, Port., bridge (completed in 1963) spanning the gorge of the Douro River. The bridge carries a roadway 82 feet (25 m) wide, supported 170 feet (52 m) above the river; its overall length of 1,617 feet (493 m) includes a reinforced-concrete arch 885 feet (270 m) long, one of the largest in the world.

Nebuchadrezzar Ii

2005-01-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

Nebuchadrezzar II was the oldest son and successor of Nabopolassar, founder of the Chaldean empire. He is known from cuneiform inscriptions, the Bible and later Jewish sources,

Charadriiform

2005-01-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

The order is a heterogeneous assemblage of 16 families linked by similarities in anatomical features (especially skeleton and plumage) and developmental pattern. Better-known members of the order fall into three groups, easily recognized on the basis of general body plan. The first of these (the suborder Charadrii), collectively known as shorebirds or waders, includes

Hemel Hempstead

2005-01-06T05:43:00.000-08:00

Town, Dacorum district, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London. The first charter was granted in 1539. The new town, one of eight designed by British planners to accommodate London's overspill population, has been grafted onto the old market town since 1947. Landscaping has been assisted by the presence of the picturesque River Gade.

Epistemology, Contemporary

2005-01-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

Two excellent anthologies are Harold Morick (ed.), Challenges to Empiricism (1972, reprinted 1980); and Paul K. Moser and Arnold Vander Nat (eds.), Human Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary Approaches (1987). Edmund L. Gettier, �Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?� in Analysis, 23:121 - 23 (June 1963), is considered by many to be a decisive refutation of the justified, true-belief analysis of knowledge. Noam Chomsky, Language and the Problems of Knowledge (1988), discusses innateness, language, and psychology. Roderick M. Chisholm, Theory of Knowledge, 3rd ed. (1989); and Robert Audi, Belief, Justification, and Knowledge (1988), are two good introductions to standard epistemological problems.

Gates, Frederick T.

2005-01-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

During his college days at the University of Rochester, N.Y., Gates worked as a bank clerk. His undergraduate studies were followed by three years at the Rochester Theological

Sudan, The, Muslim peoples

2005-01-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

A major cleavage exists between the northern and the southern parts of the country. The north is dominated by Muslims, most of whom speak Arabic and identify themselves as �Arabs,� while the people of the south are �Africans� (i.e., blacks) who for the most part follow traditional African religions, though there are also some Christians among them. Those who identify themselves

Waccho

2005-01-02T23:25:00.000-08:00

Waccho assassinated his uncle Tato and usurped the throne about 510, ruling for 30 years. Tato's son and grandson took refuge with the king of a neighbouring people, the Gepidae, making several fruitless attempts to

Hill And Range

2005-01-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

When Austrian immigrant brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach formed their Hill and Range publishing company in 1945, the name they chose made it clear which songwriters they were after - the country-and-western writers who had been long overlooked by the established publishers affiliated with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Offering

Smith, Margaret Chase

2004-12-31T21:43:00.000-08:00

Margaret Chase attended high school in her native Skowhegan, Maine, graduating in 1916. She then taught school briefly, held a series of other jobs, and served as president of the Maine Federation of Business and Professional

Absalom

2004-12-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

The picture of Absalom that is presented in 2 Samuel 13 - 19 suggests that he was the Alcibiades of the Old Testament, alike in his personal attractiveness, his lawless insolence, and his tragic fate. He is first mentioned as murdering his half brother Amnon, David's eldest son, in revenge for the rape of his

Piero Di Cosimo,

2004-12-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

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,

Earth Sciences, Micropaleontology

2004-12-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

Microscopic fossils, such as ostracods, foraminifera, and pollen grains, are common in sediments of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras (from about 225,000,000 years ago to the present). Because the rock chips brought up in oil wells are so small, a high-resolution instrument known as a scanning electron microscope had to be developed to study the microfossils. The classification of

Tsimlyansk Reservoir

2004-12-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

Russian �Tsimlyanskoye Vodokhranilishche, � reservoir created by a giant barrage (dam) at the great bend of the Don River, near the town of Tsimlyansk in Rostov oblast (province), southern Russia. The reservoir, about 160 miles (257 kilometres) long, was constructed in 1950 - 51 in connection with the building of the Volga-Don Shipping Canal. It provides hydroelectric power and irrigation water for the extensive vineyards and market

Polar Ecosystem

2004-12-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

Polar barrens and tundra are found at high latitudes on land surfaces not covered by perpetual ice and snow. These areas lying beyond the tree line comprise more than 10 percent of the Earth's land surface. Most are in the Arctic and subarctic, as little land area in the Antarctic is ever free

Grackle

2004-12-24T23:40:00.000-08:00

Also called �Crow-blackbird, � any of several species of birds belonging to the family Icteridae (order Passeriformes) that have iridescent black plumage and long tails. Grackles use their stout, pointed bills to snap up insects, dig grubs from the soil, and kill small vertebrates, including fishes and baby birds; they can also crack hard seeds. Most grackles nest in colonies; after breeding, they

Mabillon, Jean

2004-12-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

T. Ruinart, Abr�g� de la vie de D.J.M. (1709), reprinted in 1933 as Mabillon; Henri Leclercq, Life, 2 vol. (1953 - 57); J.U. Bergkamp, Dom Jean Mabillon and the Benedictine Historical School of Saint-Maur (1928).

Mexico, History Of

2004-12-22T03:46:00.000-08:00

Diego Vel�zquez, governor of Cuba, laid the foundation for the conquest of Mexico. In 1517 and 1518 Vel�zquez sent out expeditions headed by Francisco Hern�ndez de C�rdoba and Juan de Grijalva that explored the coasts of Yucat�n and the Mexican Gulf. Vel�zquez commissioned Hern�n Cort�s to outfit an expedition to investigate their tales of great wealth in the area. Spending

Vyshny Volochyok

2004-12-21T02:50:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Vyshnii Volochek�, or �Vi

Pyralid Moth

2004-12-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

Cosmopolitan

Qala'un

2004-12-19T10:07:00.000-08:00

In the 1250s Qala'un was an early and devoted supporter of the Mamluk commander Baybars, and, after the latter became sultan of Egypt and Syria in 1260, Qala'un's career advanced rapidly. Upon the death of Baybars in 1277, Qala'un quickly deposed and exiled two of Baybars' sons who had briefly succeeded to the sultanate,

Cromwell, Oliver

2004-12-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

As one of the generals on the parliamentary side in the English Civil War against King Charles I, Cromwell helped to bring about

Azzone Dei Porci

2004-12-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

Also called �Azzone Soldanus�, Latin �Azolinus Porcius, Azzone� also spelled �Azo� or �Azzo� a leader of the Bolognese school of jurists and one of the few to write systematic summaries (summae) rather than textual glosses of Roman law as codified under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (6th century AD). His Summa codicis and Apparatus ad codicem together provided a methodical exposition of Roman law and were very influential

Alaungpaya

2004-12-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

Of humble origins, Alaungpaya was a village headman from the

Biogeographic Region, New Zealand region

2004-12-15T22:41:00.000-08:00

The New Zealand region (Figure 2) includes all of New Zealand, excluding aspects of the fauna of the southwest, which shows an Antarctic element. Flightless birds inhabit both New Zealand and Australia, although the order Dinornithiformes (kiwis and moas) is endemic to New Zealand. Other endemic taxa include the snail family Athoracophoridae; New Zealand's only mammals,

Atherton

2004-12-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

Town in the metropolitan borough of Wigan, metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, historic county of Lancashire, England. The manor was held by the Atherton family from the early 13th century to 1738. Atherton was an early centre of Presbyterianism, a chapel being built in 1645 and replaced in 1722; this is now the Chowbent (the name of the old part of the town) Unitarian Chapel. Cotton

Stringed Instrument

2004-12-13T15:44:00.000-08:00

The violin family at present comprises the violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass; it forms the backbone of the modern symphony orchestra. In addition, the violin and viola are widely used in the music of South India and North Africa, in modern Greek and Arab music, in European and American folk music, and by Romany musicians. The term violin, a diminutive of viola (itself

Fu

2004-12-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization �fu � type of Chinese bronze vessel used as a food container, it was produced largely from the middle Zhou period (c. 900 - c. 600 BC) through the Warring States period (475 - 221 BC). Rectangular in shape and divided into two parts, the vessel was supported by angular feet at each corner; the lid was almost a duplicate of the bottom (in principle much like the dui). In ancient documents the vessel was also

France, History Of, Society since 1940

2004-12-11T02:17:00.000-08:00

The surge of economic growth that lasted from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s brought extensive changes in French lifestyles and in some of the society's basic structures. As the century neared its end, most French people had come to enjoy greater comfort and security than their forebears; they took for granted such luxuries as automobiles, modern household appliances, and

North Germanic Languages, Morphology

2004-12-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

Old Scandinavian had a declensional system with four cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) and two numbers. The actual form of the inflections depended on the stem class of the noun or the adjective. Verbs were inflected for tense and mood, person and number. This system is preserved in Icelandic. In Faroese, the declensions have been simplified, and only three