RoughBone

Quantum Mechanics

2005-03-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

Science dealing with the behaviour of matter and light on the atomic and subatomic scale. It attempts to describe and account for the properties of molecules and atoms and their constituents—electrons, protons, neutrons, and other more esoteric particles such as quarks and gluons. These properties include the interactions of the particles with one another and

Cartwright, Edmund

2005-03-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

Cartwright began his career as a clergyman, becoming, in 1779, rector of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire; in 1786 he was a prebendary in Lincoln (Lincolnshire) cathedral. He probably would have spent his life as an obscure

China, Militarism in China

2005-03-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

During the first years of the republic China had been fractured by rival military regimes to the extent that no one authority was able to subordinate all rivals and create a unified and centralized political structure. The South was detached from Peking's control; but even the southern provinces, and indeed districts within them, were run by different military

Furniture, Chair

2005-03-08T04:30:00.000-08:00

Of all furniture forms, the chair may be the most interesting. While most other forms (except the bed) are intended to support objects, the chair supports man. The term chair is used here in the widest sense, from stool to throne to derivative forms such as the bench and sofa, which may be regarded as extended or connected chairs, and whose character (i.e., whether they are intended

Grant, Bernie

2005-03-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

In full Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant British politician who, with Paul Boateng and Diane Abbott, was one of the first persons of African descent to win election to the House of Commons. The son of educators, he attended St. Stanislaus College, one of the finest schools in British Guiana. In the early 1960s he moved to the United Kingdom and became

Carnivore

2005-03-05T02:55:00.000-08:00

Any member of the order Carnivora, literally “meat eaters.” The order includes 10 families of living mammals: Canidae (dogs, wolves, jackals, and foxes), Ursidae (bears), Procyonidae (raccoons), Mustelidae (skunks, mink, weasels, badgers, and otters), Viverridae (civets and mongooses), Hyaenidae (hyenas), Felidae (cats), Otariidae (eared seals), Odobenidae (walrus), and Phocidae (earless seals).

General San Martín

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

Formerly San Martín, cabecera (county seat) and partido (county) of Gran (“Greater”) Buenos Aires, Argentina. It lies immediately northwest of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires provincia. The county seat and county began as an early rural settlement centred on the 18th-century Chapel of Santos Lugares. In 1856 the settlement was formally declared a town, and eight years later the county of San

Vacuum Technology

2005-02-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

This pump is mainly used on equipment for the study of clean surfaces and in radio-frequency sputtering. Capacities are available up to 190,000 cu ft per minute with an operating pressure range of 10-2 to less than 10-9 torr when water-cooled baffles are used and less than 10-11 torr when refrigerated baffles are employed. The pumping speed for a vapour pump remains constant from about

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Parable

2005-02-26T14:37:00.000-08:00

Parables do not analyze social systems so much as they remind the listener of his beliefs. The moral and spiritual stress of the form falls upon memory rather than on the critical faculty. The audience hearing the parable is assumed to share a communal truth but perhaps to have set it aside or forgotten it. The rhetorical appeal of a parable is directed primarily toward

Marcello, Benedetto

2005-02-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

Italian composer and writer, especially remembered for two works: the satirical pamphlet Il teatro alla moda (1720); and Estro poeticoarmonico (1724–26), a setting for voices and instruments of the first 50 psalms in an Italian paraphrase by G. Giustiniani. Il teatro alla moda is an amusing pamphlet in which Marcello vented his opinions on the

Soga Shohaku

2005-02-22T22:52:00.000-08:00

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

Cleopatra's Needle

2005-02-20T06:42:00.000-08:00

Either of two monumental Egyptian obelisks. See obelisk.

Cordillera

2005-02-17T06:19:00.000-08:00

(from old Spanish cordilla, “cord,” or “little rope”), a system of mountain ranges that often consist of a number of more or less parallel chains. Cordilleras are an extensive feature in the Americas and Eurasia. In North America the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevadas, and the mountains between them are collectively known as the Cordilleras, and the entire area has been termed

Balaghat Range

2005-02-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

Series of hills in western Maharashtra state, western India. Originating in the Western Ghats at the Harishchandra Range, the range extends southeastward for about 200 miles (320 km) to the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka states. Its width varies from 3 to 6 miles (5 to 9 km). Higher in the west, the Balaghat hills have elevations of 1,800–2,700 feet (550–825 m), gradually diminishing eastward until they end at

Iphigeneia

2005-02-12T04:52:00.000-08:00

Iphigeneia served as a key figure

Mairet, Jean

2005-02-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

Classical French dramatist, the forerunner and rival of Pierre Corneille. Mairet's characters, his verse, and his situations were freely borrowed by his contemporaries. Before Corneille, he brought to the stage the famous Cornelian figures Sophonisbe and Pulchérie, and he anticipated Jean Racine in two important names, Roxane and

Houston

2005-02-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

The first settlement in the area, Harrisburg (1826), was

Sundial

2005-02-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

The first device for indicating the time of day was probably the gnomon, dating from

Insurance, Classes of benefits

2005-02-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

Four classes of benefits are provided by compulsory insurance, and, except for certain diseases, a right to them is acquired without any qualifying period of previous employment. First is a medical benefit, which includes all necessary treatment and the supply of artificial limbs. If its duration is limited, the maximum is likely to be one year. Second is a temporary

Halicarnassus

2005-02-02T03:44:00.000-08:00

Ancient Greek city of Caria, situated on the Gulf of Cerameicus. According to tradition, it was founded by Dorian Troezen in the Peloponnese. Herodotus, a Halicarnassian, relates that in early times the city participated in the Dorian festival of Apollo at Triopion, but its literature and culture appear thoroughly Ionic. The city, with its large sheltered harbour

Allégret, Yves

2005-02-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

Allégret began his film career working as an assistant to his older brother, the director Marc Allégret, and for Augusto Genina and Jean Renoir. Entering films during the 1930s and working with directors involved in the avant-garde

Ankara, Treaty Of

2005-01-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

Also called Franklin-Bouillon Agreement (Oct. 20, 1921), pact between the government of France and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey at Ankara, signed by the French diplomat Henri Franklin-Bouillon and Yusuf Kemal Bey, the Turkish nationalist foreign minister. It formalized the de facto recognition by France of the Grand National Assembly, rather than the government of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI, as the sovereign

Mammal, Reproduction

2005-01-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

In reproductively mature female mammals an interaction of hormones from the pituitary gland and the ovaries produces a phenomenon known as the estrous cycle. Estrus, or “heat,” typically coincides with ovulation, and during this time the female is receptive to the male. Estrus is preceded by proestrus, during which ovarian follicles mature under the influence of

Zamakhshari, Abu Al-qasim Mahmud Ibn 'umar Az-

2005-01-25T20:12:00.000-08:00

As a theologian, he was one of the Mu'tazilite school. As a philologist, he considered Arabic the queen of languages, in spite of the fact that his own mother tongue was Persian. His commentary on the Qur'an, al-Kashshaf 'an Haq

Mountain, Crustal shortening

2005-01-24T00:49:00.000-08:00

In most mountain belts, terrains have been elevated as a result of crustal shortening by the thrusting of one block or slice of crust over another and/or by the folding of layers of rock. The topography of mountain ranges and mountain belts depends in part on the amount of displacement on such faults, on the angles at which faults dip, on the degree to which crustal shortening

Switzerland

2005-01-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

With its economy in good shape and a substantial budget surplus expected, Switzerland sailed through the year 2000. The nation's exports, particularly pharmaceuticals and watches, benefited from the strong dollar. While strains were experienced in some industrial sectors, average unemployment remained under 3%. Despite a sharp rise in fuel prices, long lines at filling

Historiography, German historiography

2005-01-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

Such a quality was, by and large, lacking in the work of the historians of the Enlightenment, who had been unable to achieve imaginative insight into civilizations very different from their own. The greatest shortcoming of Gibbon was his temperamental inability to appreciate religion. The new historiography of the 19th century was created chiefly by Germans, who,

Jehoram

2005-01-18T16:54:00.000-08:00

Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel and king (c. 849–c. 842 BC) of Israel, maintained close relations with Judah. Together with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Jehoram unsuccessfully attempted to subdue a revolt of Moab against Israel. As had his father, Jehoram later endeavoured to recover Ramoth-gilead from Hazael, king of Damascus. In this

Mordenite

2005-01-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

Hydrated sodium, potassium, and calcium aluminosilicate mineral (Na2,K2,Ca) Al2Si10O24×7H2O, in the zeolite family. It is one of the most abundant zeolites in altered volcanic deposits, and it commonly occurs as white, glassy needles filling veins and cavities in igneous rocks. It is also found in marine sediments, as in the Ural Mountains and in dikes where water has attacked and

Mauriac, Claude

2005-01-14T11:57:00.000-08:00

A son of the novelist François Mauriac, he was able to make the acquaintance of many notable French writers at his father's house and later during his career as a journalist.

Barataria Bay

2005-01-12T21:44:00.000-08:00

Inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, about 15 miles (24 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide, in southeastern Louisiana, U.S. Its entrance, largely blocked by Grand Isle and the Grand Terre Islands, is via a narrow Gulf channel navigable through connecting waterways into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway system. The bay is indented and marshy with many islands. The surrounding low-lying Barataria

Jacobs, W(illiam) W(ymark)

2005-01-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

His early home was a house on a Thames River wharf, where his father was manager. A landsman himself, Jacobs drew on his boyhood memories of seafaring men and dockworkers to create the stories that were to establish him as a writer. His first volume, Many

Babcock, Horace Welcome

2005-01-07T15:24:00.000-08:00

Horace Babcock attended the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of California. He worked at the Massachusetts

Marsa Al-burayqah

2005-01-05T16:14:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Marsa El-brega, Mediterranean port on the Gulf of Sidra, northeastern Libya. The site, which was located by a small fishing village destroyed during World War II, contained nothing but land mines when it was chosen as the terminal for Libya's first oil pipeline, running from Zaltan, 105 miles (169 km) south. After 1960 a new port and town were built from prefabricated materials, including breakwaters

World War I, Vittorio Veneto

2005-01-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

After the stabilization of the Italian front on the Piave River at the end of 1917, the Austrians made no further move until the following June. They then tried not only to force the Tonale Pass and enter northeastern Lombardy but also to make two converging thrusts into central Venetia, the one southeastward from the Trentino, the other southwestward across the lower

Ear, Human, Descending pathways

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

Parallel with the pathway ascending from the cochlear nuclei to the cortex is a pathway descending from the cortex to the cochlear nuclei. In both pathways some of the fibres remain on the same side, while others cross the midline to the opposite side of the brain. There is also evidence of a “spur” line ascending from the dorsal cochlear nucleus to the cerebellum and

Latakia

2005-01-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Ancient Ramitha replaced

Architecture And Civil Engineering, Exhibitions.

2004-12-31T22:44:00.000-08:00

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City staged the largest exhibit ever held of the work of the Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Originating in Glasgow, Scot., the exhibit later traveled to Chicago and Los Angeles. It focused on 250 items, including furniture, watercolours, posters, and other objects by the noted architect, one of the founders of the

Vale Of Glamorgan

2004-12-30T08:19:00.000-08:00

County, southern Wales, extending along the Bristol Channel coast west of Cardiff and lying entirely within the historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg). It comprises an undulating coastal platform, with an average elevation of about 200 feet (60 metres), that often terminates abruptly in cliffs at the coast. Along other sections of the coast, however, there are sand

Epistemology, Logical versus factual propositions

2004-12-30T02:47:00.000-08:00

The term “logical” in this connection is used in a wide sense to include a proposition such as “All husbands are married.” By analyzing the meaning of its constituent terms one can reduce the proposition to a logical truth, e.g., to “A and B implies A.” In contrast, factual propositions, such as “All Model-T Fords are black,” have syntactical and semantic structures that differentiate

Ha'aretz

2004-12-29T23:43:00.000-08:00

Eritrea

2004-12-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

Eritrea consists of a northward extension of the Ethiopian Plateau, bordered by lower plains to the east and west. The plateau, 6,500 feet (2,000 m) in elevation, is dissected by the valleys of westward-flowing rivers whose eroding action has formed steep-sided, flat-topped formations known as ambas. To the east, the arid, treeless coastal plain (10–50 miles [16–80 km] wide) is sharply delimited

Faience Parlante

2004-12-26T06:59:00.000-08:00

(French: “talking faience”), in French pottery, popular utilitarian 18th-century earthenware, principally plates, jugs, and bowls, that had inscriptions as part of its decoration. The city of Nevers was the outstanding centre for the production of faience parlante. The range of inscriptions included owners' names, coats of arms, bacchic or facetious references, Masonic

La Junta

2004-12-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1889) of Otero county, southeastern Colorado, U.S. It lies along the Arkansas River at the northern edge of the Comanche National Grassland, at an elevation of 4,052 feet (1,235 metres). Founded in 1875, it was first called Otero, after a Spanish settler; its present name is Spanish for “the junction,” referring to its location at the convergence of the old Santa Fe and Navajo trails. La Junta

Aegean Civilizations, The Early Bronze Age (c. 30002200)

2004-12-25T03:28:00.000-08:00

The transition from Neolithic to Bronze Age in the Aegean was marked by changes in pottery and other aspects of material culture. These changes may reflect the arrival in Crete and the Cyclades of new people from lands farther east bringing knowledge of metalworking with them. In Crete and the islands, the changes that inaugurated the Bronze Age were more or less

Giles, H.a.

2004-12-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

Educated at Charterhouse school, London, Giles joined the consular service and spent the years 1867–92 in various posts in China. Upon his return, he lived in Aberdeen, Scot.,

Waterford

2004-12-23T03:52:00.000-08:00

Irish Port Láirge city, port, and county borough of County Waterford, and the major town of southeastern Ireland. It is on the south bank of the River Suir, 4 miles (6 km) above the latter's junction with the Barrow at the head of Waterford Harbour. Waterford became a cathedral city in 1096. The 2nd Earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, captured the place in 1170; and Henry II landed there in 1171. Waterford received

12-tone Music

2004-12-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

Large body of music, written roughly since World War I, that uses the so-called 12-tone method or technique of composition. The Austrian-born composer Arnold Schoenberg is credited with the invention of this technique, although other composers (e.g., the American composer Charles Ives and the Austrian Josef Hauer) anticipated Schoenberg's invention by writing music

Business And Industry Review

2004-12-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

The high production and plant-operating rates seen in 1995 continued to mark most of the world's chemical industry in 1996. The high and rising sales levels reflected the generally healthy economies of countries around the globe. The high volume of products sold, however, did not always translate into record profits, particularly for the makers of big-volume petrochemicals.

Shahdol

2004-12-19T05:13:00.000-08:00

The surrounding

Casualty Insurance

2004-12-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

Liability insurance contracts may cover liability arising out of the use of an automobile, the operation of a business, professional negligence

Radha

2004-12-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

The allegorical

Cassel, Gustav

2004-12-16T19:52:00.000-08:00

Cassel was educated at the University of Uppsala and Stockholm University and served as a professor of economics at the latter (1904–33). His most

Dispersion

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

The two disciplines most intimately intertwined with the study of dispersion are systematics and evolution. Systematics is concerned with the relationships between organisms and includes the classification of life into ordered groups, providing the

Gainesville

2004-12-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1853) of Alachua county, north-central Florida, U.S., about 70 miles (115 km) southwest of Jacksonville. The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto marched through the area in 1539, and settlement eventually developed around a trading post known as Hog Town (established 1830). In 1853 the city was laid out as the county seat and named for General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, a commander during the

Kulhwch And Olwen

2004-12-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

Welsh Culhwch Ac Olwen (c. 1100), Welsh prose work that is one of the earliest-known Arthurian romances. It is a lighthearted tale that skillfully incorporates themes from mythology, folk literature, and history. The earliest form of the story survives in an early 14th-century manuscript called The White Book of Rhydderch, and the first translation of the story into modern English was made by Lady

Würzburg, University Of

2004-12-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

German in full Bayerische Julius-maximilians-universität Würzburg, autonomous, state-supported university in Würzburg, Ger., founded in 1582. Early a famous centre for the study of Roman Catholic theology, it was secularized in 1814 and became best known for its medical school. Among its teachers were the philosopher F.W. Schelling, the pathologist Rudolf Virchow, and the physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X rays there in 1895.

Moldova

2004-12-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

The greater part of the republic lies between the great, meandering Prut and Dniester

Nandi

2004-12-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

Every Siva temple has the figure of a white, humped bull reclining on a raised platform and facing the entrance door of the shrine so that, according to tradition, he may perpetually

Hui

2004-12-10T01:46:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Hwei, or Hui-hui, also called (Wade-Giles) T'ung-kan, or (Pinyin) Tonggan, Burmese Pathay, Russian Dungan, Chinese Muslims, intermingled with the Han Chinese throughout China but relatively concentrated in western China—in the provinces or autonomous regions of Sinkiang, Ningsia, Kansu, Tsinghai, Honan, Hopeh, Shantung, and Yunnan. Considerable numbers also live in Anhwei, Liaoning, and Peking. The Hui are also found on the frontier between China and Myanmar (Burma) and

Aspergillus

2004-12-09T02:39:00.000-08:00

Genus of the Fungi Imperfecti (form-class Deuteromycetes). Those species for which the sexual phase is known are placed in the order Eurotiales. A. niger causes black mold of foodstuffs; A. flavus, A. niger, and A. fumigatus cause aspergillosis in humans. A. oryzae is used to ferment sake, and A. wentii to process soybeans. Three genera of the class Ascomycetes have

Kodaira

2004-12-08T15:54:00.000-08:00

City, Tokyo Metropolis (to), Honshu, Japan, in the Musashino Plateau, on the Shinjuku Line (railway). The surrounding area was developed as an agricultural region after the construction of a water supply system in the mid-1600s. The long, rectangular fields were planted with mulberry trees (for silk production) in the early 20th century, and Kodaira grew as a residential suburb

Du Toit, Stephanus Jacobus

2004-12-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

South African pastor and political leader who, as the founder of the Afrikaner Bond (a bitterly anti-British political party of Dutch South Africans), was influential in generating Boer (Dutch) political opposition to British rule in South Africa. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Afrikaans

Masculine Rhyme

2004-12-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

In verse, a monosyllabic rhyme or a rhyme that occurs only in stressed final syllables (such as claims, flames or rare, despair). Compare feminine rhyme. Emily Dickinson used the masculine rhyme to great effect in the last stanza of “After great pain, a formal feeling comes—”: This is the Hour of Lead—Remembered, if outlived,As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow—First—Chill

Ichikawa Family

2004-12-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

Kabuki actors flourishing in Edo (modern Tokyo) from the 17th century to the present. The most famous names are Danjuro, Ebizo, Danzo, and Ebijuro, and, according to kabuki convention, these names were assumed by a natural or adopted son of the Ichikawa family when his skill entitled him to inherit the mantle of a famous ancestor. Thus, there have been 12 Danjuros (the highest honorific

Jackson, Rachel

2004-11-30T21:33:00.000-08:00

As Rachel was reluctantly preparing to move to Washington, D.C., following Andrew's electoral victory in 1828—she said that she “would rather be a door-keeper in the house of God than to live in that palace in Washington”—she died of a heart attack. She was buried on the grounds of the Hermitage on Christmas Eve in what was to be her inaugural gown. A young niece, Emily Donelson, became the surrogate first lady; after Emily's death in 1836, Sarah Yorke Jackson, the wife of Andrew Jackson, Jr., became the official White House hostess.

Oerter, Al

2004-11-30T10:40:00.000-08:00

In full Alfred Oerter American discus thrower who won four consecutive Olympic gold medals (1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968), setting an Olympic record each time. During his career he set new world records four times (1962–64). He was the first to throw the discus more than 200 feet with his first world record of 61.10 metres (200 feet 5 inches). His best throw in setting a world record was 62.94 metres

Puff Daddy

2004-11-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

To the delight of his fans and the dismay of his critics, music mogul-producer-rapper Sean ("Puffy") Combs, aka Puff Daddy, remained in the forefront of the music industry in 1998. Although hip-hop devotees derided the self-aggrandizing showman for his creation of hit singles through the liberal "borrowing" of entire choruses of classic songs, most fans and many fellow musicians

Puerto Lempira

2004-11-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Town, northeastern Honduras. The town lies on an islet that forms part of Tánsin Island, facing the main passage into the Caratasca Lagoon. Fishing is the major economic activity of the area, and the town has a shrimp-packing plant. The shallow, swampy nature of the lagoon and the dense jungle vegetation of the hinterland have precluded the development of a port. An airfield

Eugenikos, Markos

2004-11-27T01:52:00.000-08:00

After a classical and theological education under tutors antagonistic to Rome, Eugenikos at 26 gave his property to the poor and became a monk

Suckling, Sir John

2004-11-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

He was educated at Cambridge and inherited his father's considerable estates at the age of 18. He entered Gray's Inn in 1627 and was knighted in 1630. He became a prominent figure at court with a reputation for being “the greatest gallant of his time, and the greatest

Nigeria

2004-11-24T05:07:00.000-08:00

The first national conventions of the five political parties that had been granted legal status were held in November 1996. The parties elected their leaders as follows:

Ahmadiyah

2004-11-23T21:53:00.000-08:00

A modern Islamic sect and the generic name for various Sufi (Muslim mystic) orders. The sect was founded in Qadian, the Punjab, India, in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (c. 1839–1908), who claimed to be the mahdi (a figure expected by some Muslims at the end of the world), the Christian Messiah, an incarnation of the Hindu god Krishna, and a reappearance (buruz) of Muhammad. The sect's doctrine, in some aspects, is unorthodox:

Raymond, Alex(ander Gillespie)

2004-11-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

At 18 Raymond went to work in a brokerage office on New York City's Wall Street, but the stock market crash of 1929 ended his career in finance. He then worked briefly as an assistant to Russ Westover on his strip “Tillie

Hukbalahap Rebellion

2004-11-22T23:11:00.000-08:00

Also called Huk Rebellion (1946–54), Communist-led peasant uprising in central Luzon, Philippines. The name of the movement is a Tagalog acronym for Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon, which means “People's Anti-Japanese Army.” The Huks came close to victory in 1950 but were subsequently defeated by a combination of advanced U.S. weaponry supplied to the Philippine government and administrative reforms under the

Trade Agreement

2004-11-21T05:26:00.000-08:00

For most countries international trade is regulated by unilateral barriers of several types, including tariffs, nontariff barriers, and outright prohibitions. Trade agreements

Elijah

2004-11-19T03:40:00.000-08:00

The Israelite king Omri had allied himself with the Phoenician cities of the coast, and his son Ahab was married to Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon. Jezebel, with her Tyrian courtiers and a large contingent of pagan priests and prophets, propagated her native religion in a sanctuary built for Baal in the royal city of Samaria. This meant that the Israelites

Maskelyne, Nevil

2004-11-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

Maskelyne was ordained a minister in 1755, but his interest in astronomy had been aroused by the eclipse of July 25, 1748. In 1758 he was admitted to the Royal Society of London, which in 1761 sent him to the island of St. Helena to observe a transit of Venus. During the voyage he experimented

Lancaster, House Of

2004-11-17T05:52:00.000-08:00

The family name first appeared in 1267, when the title earl of Lancaster was granted to Edmund “Crouchback” (1245–96), the youngest son of Henry III. Two of Edmund's sons by his second

Staghead

2004-11-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

Progressive slow death of tree branches from the top down. See dieback.

Norfolk

2004-11-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

City, Madison county, northeastern Nebraska, U.S., on the north fork of the Elkhorn River. Settled in 1866 by German farmers from Xonia and Watertown, Wis., its name, originally proposed as North Fork, was abbreviated to Norfork and then changed by the post office to Norfolk. The economy depends primarily on agriculture (grain and livestock) and food processing, augmented by manufacturing

Malacca, Strait Of

2004-11-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

Waterway connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean). It runs between the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the west and West Malaysia and peninsular Thailand to the east and has an area of 25,000 square miles (65,000 square km). The strait is 500 miles (800 km) long and is funnel-shaped, with a width of only 40 miles (65 km) in the south that broadens northward to 155 miles

Merchant Adventurers

2004-11-13T06:07:00.000-08:00

Company of English merchants who engaged in trade with the Netherlands (and later with northwest Germany) from the early 15th century to 1806. The company, chartered in 1407, principally engaged in the export of finished cloth from the burgeoning English woolen industry. Its heyday extended from the late 15th century to 1564, during which period it sent its fleets to its market at Antwerp

Hay

2004-11-11T17:56:00.000-08:00

In agriculture, dried grasses and other foliage used as animal feed. Usually the material is cut in the field while still green and then either dried in the field or mechanically dried by forced hot air. Typical hay crops are timothy, alfalfa, and clover. The protein content of grasses and legumes decreases and fibre and lignified tissue increases as growing plants

Union Pacific Railroad Company

2004-11-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

The Union Pacific was largely financed

Baqqarah

2004-11-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Baggara (Arabic: “Cattlemen”), nomad Arabs who have been forced by circumstance to live in a part of Africa that will support the cow but not the camel—south of latitude 13° and north of latitude 10° from Lake Chad eastward to the Nile River. Probably they are the descendants of Arabs who migrated west out of Egypt in the European Middle Ages, turned south from Tunisia to Chad, and finally

Ulrich

2004-11-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

A grandson of Ulrich V, count of Württemberg, he succeeded his kinsman Eberhard II as duke of Württemberg in 1498, being declared of age in 1503. He obtained territories from the Palatinate through alliance with the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian

Time

2004-11-07T02:00:00.000-08:00

Major American weekly newsmagazine that is published in New York City. Time was the creation of two young journalists, Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden, who wanted to start a magazine that would inform busy readers in a systematic, concise, and well-organized manner about current events in the United States and the rest of the world. With Hadden as editor and Luce as business

Montagna, Bartolommeo

2004-11-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

His most important work is

Prestea

2004-11-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

Town, Western Region, southwestern Ghana, West Africa, on the west bank of the Ankobra River, about 60 mi (100 km) northwest of Cape coast. It is linked by railroad with Tarkwa and with Sekondi-Takoradi, both to the southeast. Prestea is a centre of trade for the surrounding agricultural region, which produces rice, cassava, corn (maize), taro, and timber. Industries produce beverages,

Huygens, Christiaan

2004-11-03T16:41:00.000-08:00

Huygens was from a wealthy and distinguished middle-class family. His father, Constantijn Huygens,

Perche

2004-11-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

Region of northern France on the border of Normandie, mainly in the east of the Orne département, with extensions into neighbouring départements. Formerly a county, it was united to the French crown in 1525. It is largely hilly country, the Perche Hills having summits as high as 1,000 feet (300 m). Perche is a district of pastoral farming and dairying, famous for its breed of draft horses

Chacabuco, Battle Of

2004-11-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

(Feb. 12, 1817), in the Latin-American wars of independence, a victory won by South American patriots over Spanish royalists near Santiago, Chile. It began the expulsion of the Spaniards from Chile, completed the next year at the Battle of Maipú. After Argentine independence from Spain had been declared in 1816, José de San Martín, leader of the independence movement in southern South

Chekiang, Cultural life

2004-10-31T09:44:00.000-08:00

During the Nan (Southern) Sung dynasty (1127–1279) the political and cultural centre of China moved from the North to western Chekiang. The Hang-chou area became the homeland of a galaxy of famous painters (including a Sung emperor), as well as of calligraphers, poets, essayists, philosophers, and historians. The beauty of Lin-an (modern Hang-chou), the Nan Sung capital, was immortalized

Papua New Guinea

2004-10-31T09:30:00.000-08:00

Officially Independent State of Papua New Guinea, island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It encompasses the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the western half, Irian Jaya, belonging to Indonesia) and its offshore islands as well as the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, and the Admiralty Islands) and those of Bougainville and Buka. Together these islands cover 178,704 square miles

Jeune Belgique, La

2004-10-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

(“Young Belgium”), influential review (1881–97), edited by poet and novelist Max Waller; it gave its name to a literary movement (though never a formal “school”) that aimed to express a genuinely Belgian consciousness and to free the literature of Belgium from outworn Romanticism. Among writers associated with the movement were Maurice Maeterlinck, Émile Verhaeren, and Max

Faber, Lothar Von; And Faber, Eberhard

2004-10-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Taking over a pencil business started by his great-grandfather Kaspar Faber (d. 1784) near Nürnberg, Lothar von Faber established branches

Hounslow

2004-10-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

Outer borough of London, part of the historic county of Middlesex. It lies in the valley of the River Thames, on the western periphery of the metropolis. It was made a borough in 1965 by the amalgamation of the former metropolitan boroughs of Brentford and Chiswick and Heston and Isleworth with the Feltham Urban District. Hounslow includes the areas of (from west to east)

China, Major cultures and sites

2004-10-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

There was not one Chinese Neolithic but a mosaic of regional cultures whose scope and significance are still being determined. Their location in the area defined today as China does not necessarily mean that all the Neolithic cultures were Chinese or even proto-Chinese. Their contributions to the Bronze Age civilization of the Shang, which may be taken as unmistakably

Baltic Religion, Sacred times

2004-10-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Special rites evolved for the festivals of the summer solstice and the harvest, while other rites were used specifically for beginning various kinds of spring work. Such spring work included sending farm animals to pasture or horses to forage for the first time, plowing the first furrow, and starting the first spring planting. The birth of a child was especially