BoilingPlanet

Gatun Lake

2005-04-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

Spanish Lago Gatún, long artificial lake in Panama, constituting part of the Panama Canal system; its area is 166 square miles (430 square km). It was formed by damming the Chagres River and its smaller affluents at Gatun at the north end of the lake. Its dam (completed 1912) and spillway, a key structure of the Panama Canal, operate at a range of 5 feet (1.5 m) between water levels of 87 and 82 feet (26.5 and 25 m) above sea level. The

Sudan, The, Muslim peoples

2005-04-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

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

Jackson, Helen Hunt

2005-04-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

She was the daughter of Nathan Fiske, a professor at Amherst (Mass.) College. She lived the life of a young army wife, traveling from post to post, and after the deaths of her first husband, Captain Edward Hunt, and her two sons, in 1863 she turned to writing. She

Cyprus, The Persian Empire

2005-04-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

In 525 BC the Cypriot kings transferred their allegiance to the Achaemenid (Persian) conquerors of Egypt. The Cypriots retained their independence until the accession of Darius I in 522 but were then incorporated into the fifth satrapy of the Persian Empire. When the Ionians revolted in 499, all the kingdoms of Cyprus except Amathus joined them; the revolt was subsequently suppressed,

Kandahar

2005-04-02T17:12:00.000-08:00

The strategic and

Performing Arts

2005-04-02T00:21:00.000-08:00

Console

2005-04-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

In architecture, type of bracket or corbel, particularly one with a scroll-shaped profile: usually an ogee (S or inverted S curve) or double-ogee terminating in volutes (spirals) above and below. A console projects about one-half its height or less to support a windowhead, cornice, shelf, or sculpture. The difference between a console and other varieties of bracket has more

Foreclosure

2005-03-31T20:37:00.000-08:00

Legal proceeding by which a mortgagor's rights to a mortgaged property may be extinguished if the mortgagor (borrower) fails to live up to the obligations agreed to in the mortgage. The mortgagee (the lender) may then declare the entire debt due and owing and may seek to satisfy the debt by foreclosing on the property. Most foreclosures are brought in equity proceedings.

Nicephorus Iii Botaneiates

2005-03-31T10:18:00.000-08:00

Nicephorus, who belonged to the military aristocracy of Asia Minor and who was related to the powerful Phocas family, became commander of the Anatolian theme (administrative district). When discontent against the government of

Ayrer, Jakob

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

A lawyer by profession, Ayrer spent

Harden, Sir Arthur

2005-03-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

After studies at Manchester and at Erlangen, Germany, Harden became a lecturer-demonstrator at the University of Manchester (1888–97). He took charge of the

France, History Of, Frankish expansion and the unification of Gaul

2005-03-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

During the years following his accession, Clovis consolidated the position of the Franks in northern Gaul. In 486 he defeated Syagrius, the last Roman ruler in Gaul, and in a series of subsequent campaigns with strong Gallo-Roman support occupied an area situated between the Frankish kingdom of Tournai, the Visigothic and Burgundian kingdoms, and the lands occupied

Addams, Jane

2005-03-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

Addams graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in Illinois in 1881 and was granted a degree the following

Earth Sciences, Water vapour in the atmosphere

2005-03-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

After 1760 the analytical chemists at last demonstrated that water and air are not the same substance in different guises. Long before this development, however, investigators had begun to draw a distinction between water vapour and air. Otto von Guericke, a German physicist and engineer, produced artificial clouds by releasing air from one flask into another one from

Black Belt

2005-03-25T23:57:00.000-08:00

Physical region in Alabama and Mississippi, U.S., so named for its soil. The Black Belt is a fertile plain, generally 25–30 miles (40–50 km) wide and stretching approximately 300 miles (480 km) across central Alabama and northeastern Mississippi. A region of dark, calcareous soils, it was one of the South's most important agricultural areas before the American Civil War. Though corn (maize) was

Pau

2005-03-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Pyrénées-Atlantiques département, Aquitaine region, southwestern France. The capital of the former province of Béarn, Pau is a spa and winter sports centre. It stands on the edge of a plateau 130 feet (40 m) above the valley of the Pau Stream, which descends from the Pyrenees. The town's boulevard des Pyrénées, more than 1 mile (1.6 km) long, is situated high above the valley

Batabanó, Gulf Of

2005-03-24T15:57:00.000-08:00

Spanish Golfo De Batabanó, inlet of the Caribbean Sea, indenting southwestern Cuba. The gulf stretches from the shore of eastern Pinar del Río province approximately 80 miles (130 km) to the southwestern coast of Matanzas province and the Zapata Peninsula. At its northern edge lies La Habana province; 50 miles (80 km) to the south is the Isle of Juventud. The shallow gulf, economically important for sponge

Ramananda

2005-03-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

Ramananda left home as a youth and became a sannyasin (ascetic) before settling in Varanasi (Benares) to study Vedic texts, Ramanuja's philosophy,

Kaministiquia River

2005-03-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Kaministikwia, river, western Ontario, Can. It rises in Dog Lake and, after a crooked course of 60 miles (95 km), empties into Thunder Bay, an arm of Lake Superior. It has many rapids and cataracts, notably the wide Kakabeka Falls (154 feet [47 m] high), site of a major hydroelectric station. The river divides into three channels as it enters Thunder Bay, providing deepwater shipping docks at the city of Thunder

Aerospace Industry, Lean manufacturing

2005-03-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

Consistent with improving the economics of aerospace vehicles is the transition to a new paradigm for the entire industry, from concept development to operations. This approach involves all processes pertaining to the acquisition, design, development, and manufacturing of a product or system and has been variously called “lean,” “agile,” or “synchronous” manufacturing.

Vries, Adriaen De

2005-03-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

De Vries left his homeland, where there was little interest in sculpture at the time, and he never returned. In Florence he studied under Giambologna, the leading Italian Mannerist sculptor of his day. De Vries lived for a time in Rome and later worked for Charles Emmanuel, duke of Savoy, and as court sculptor

General Santos

2005-03-22T05:34:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1954) Buayan, city, southern Mindanao, Philippines. The city is named for General Paulino Santos, who directed the pioneer settlement (mostly by Christian Filipino migrants) and development of the Koronadal Valley that began in the mid-1930s. General Santos city is located at the head of Sarangani Bay of the Celebes Sea along the southern shore of Mindanao. The city is a principal shipping

Mercer

2005-03-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

Algonquian-speaking Delaware Indians ceded control of the region

Annatto

2005-03-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

(Bixa orellana), tree native to the New World tropics and the only species of the family Bixaceae. Annatto grows up to 9 m (30 feet) tall and has rose-pink flowers about 5 cm (2 inches) wide and ovalish leaves about 8 to 18 cm long. The brown seed pods, about 5 cm long, yield a reddish or yellowish powder that is used in a dye for butter, cheese, and oleomargarine. The plant is cultivated in tropical

Diesinking

2005-03-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

The die block is mounted on a table while a vertical-spindle milling machine with end cutters is used to shape the die. In most simple machines the movement of the cutter may be controlled by the manual operation of transverse, horizontal,

Yi

2005-03-18T17:35:00.000-08:00

Also called Lolo, or Wu-man, ethnic group of Austroasiatic origin living largely in the mountains of southwest China and speaking a Tibeto-Burman language; the term is used by the Chinese to designate what they formerly called the Lolo or Wu-man. The Yi people numbered about 5.9 million in the late 20th century. Their principal concentrations were in Yunnan and Szechwan provinces, with smaller numbers

øverland, Arnulf

2005-03-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

The early death of Øverland's father, an engineer, left the family in economic straits, but his mother managed to support Øverland while he attended school. He studied philology briefly

Computers, Minicomputers

2005-03-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

Around 1965, roughly coterminous with the development of time-sharing, a new kind of computer came on the scene. Small and relatively cheap (typically 1/10 the cost of the Big Iron machines), the new machines were stored-program computers with all the generality of the computers then in use but stripped down. The new machines were called minicomputers. (About the same time, the

China, The first Opium War and its aftermath

2005-03-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

In February 1840 the British government decided on an expedition, and Rear Adm. George Elliot was appointed first commissioner and plenipotentiary to China. In June, 16 British warships arrived in Hong Kong and sailed northward to the mouth of the Pei River to press China with its demands. No agreement was reached. In May 1841 the British attacked the walled city of Canton and

Atatürk, Kemal

2005-03-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

Vamik D. Volkan and Norman Itzkowitz, The Immortal Atatürk (1984, reissued 1986), is a psychobiography. Lord Kinross (Patrick Kinross), Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation (1964, reissued 1998; also published as Atatürk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey, 1965, reissued 1992), is still worthwhile. Abraham Bodurgil (comp.), Kemal Atatürk: A Centennial Bibliography (1881–1981) (1984), is a comprehensive bibliography. Andrew Mango, Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey (2000), reexamines Turkish sources.

Dachstein

2005-03-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

Mountain massif of the northern Alps, Austria, on the borders of the Bundesländer (federal provinces) Oberösterreich, Salzburg, and Steiermark, reaching its maximum elevation at Hoher Dachstein (9,826 ft [2,995 m]). Among the massif's higher reaches are the easternmost and northernmost glaciers of the Alps, the largest of which is the Hallstättergletscher, 2 sq mi (5.3 sq km) in area. The

Abu Tammam

2005-03-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

Abu Tammam changed his Christian father's name of Thadhus to Aws and invented for himself an Arab genealogy. In his youth he worked in Damascus as a weaver's assistant but on going to Egypt began to study poetry. It is not certain when he began to write verse, but by

Tarawa

2005-03-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Coral atoll of the Gilbert Islands and capital of Kiribati. It lies in the west-central Pacific Ocean, 2,800 miles (4,500 km) northeast of Australia and is the most populous atoll in the Gilberts. Tarawa consists of 15 islets, with a total land area of 12 square miles (31 square km) on a reef 22 miles (35 km) long. The atoll is a commercial and educational centre with port facilities on the islets of Betio,

Arundel

2005-03-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Arundel

Aleatory Music

2005-03-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

The indeterminate portion of aleatory

France, History Of, The monarchy

2005-03-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

The kingdom of France was descended directly from the west Frankish realm ceded to Charles the Bald in 843. Not until 987 was the Carolingian dynastic line set aside, but there had been portentous interruptions. The reunited empire of Charles the Fat (884–888) proved unworkable: the Viking onslaught was then at its worst, and the king proved incapable of managing defenses, which fell

Levittown

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

Unincorporated residential community in Hempstead town (township), Nassau county, western Long Island, New York, U.S. Developed between 1946 and 1951 by the firm of Levitt and Sons, Inc., Levittown was an early example of a completely preplanned and mass-produced housing complex. More than 17,000 low-cost homes were built, with accompanying shopping centres, playgrounds, swimming pools,

Abu Tammam

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

After clipping out pieces of leaves with their jaws, the fragments

Theatre, Western, Commedia dell'arte

2005-03-12T04:43:00.000-08:00

Around the mid-16th century, there emerged in Italy a lively tradition of popular theatre that fused many disparate elements into a vigorous style, which profoundly influenced the development of European theatre. This was the legendary commedia dell'arte (“theatre of the professionals”), a nonliterary tradition that centred on the actor, as distinguished from the

Antae

2005-03-12T03:37:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Antes federation of eastern Slavic nomadic tribes known by the 3rd century AD, dwelling in southern Russia between the Dnieper and Dniester rivers. A powerful people with highly developed agriculture, handicrafts, and ironwork, the Antae fought the Goths, who were fleeing westward from the Huns in the 4th century. In the early 6th century they joined in Slavic raids against

Claudius

2005-03-12T02:29:00.000-08:00

Claudius' general policy increased the control of the emperor over the treasury and the provincial administration and apparently gave jurisdiction in fiscal matters to his own governors in the senatorial provinces. He created a kind of cabinet of freedmen, on whom he bestowed honours, to superintend various branches of the administration. An impressive series

Locke, Bobby

2005-03-11T04:43:00.000-08:00

A meticulous putter who was considered among the best in golf, Locke won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average among male professional golfers in 1946, 1950, and 1954. Nine times the winner of the South African Open championship (1935, 1937–40, 1946, 1950–51, and 1955) and six times the winner of the South

Indian Museum

2005-03-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

In Calcutta, oldest museum in India and one of the most comprehensive in the Orient; its collections depict the cultural history of India from prehistoric to Muslim times. The present building, opened in 1875, comprises sections devoted to geology, zoology, industry, archaeology, art, and ethnology. The coin room contains the largest collection of Indian coins in the

La Chaussée, Pierre-claude Nivelle De

2005-03-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

French playwright who created the comédie larmoyante (“tearful comedy”), a verse-drama form merging tearful, sentimental scenes with an invariably happy ending. These sentimental comedies, which were precursors of Denis Diderot's drames bourgeois, were psychologically superficial and rhetorically exaggerated and were intended to contribute

Furniture, Renaissance and later

2005-03-09T04:05:00.000-08:00

(Italy): George Leland Hunter, Italian Furniture and Interiors, 2 vol. (1918), mostly illustrations; William M. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture from the 4th to the Early 19th Centuries, 2 vol. (1918–19). (Spain): Arthur Byne and Mildred Stapley, Spanish Interiors and Furniture (1921), profusely illustrated with scale drawings and photographs. (Germany): Heinrich Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, 2 vol. (1968–70), thorough, illustrated history of German furniture. (France): Pierre Verlet, Le Mobilier royal français, 2 vol. (1945–55); Les Meubles français du XVIIIe siecle, 2 vol. (1956), a learned treatise on French furniture. (England and the colonies): Percy Macquoeo and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture from the Middle Ages to the Late Georgian Period, 2nd ed., 3 vol. (1954), documented survey of English and American furniture; Ralph Fastenedge, English Furniture Styles from 1500 to 1830 (1962), an excellent elementary introduction to the study of English furniture; Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture (1968), illustrated study of Chippendale and his contemporaries; Clifford Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and Other NeoClassical Furniture (1966), written by one of the best informed students of the Neoclassical English style of furniture; Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture (1966), a survey of Federal period furniture. See also Berry B. Tracy, The Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts at Boscobel (1981); Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America (1981); John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (1983).

France, History Of, Rural life

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

Rural life changed more gradually. The expanding markets favoured well-endowed or efficient lords or peasants who could produce a surplus of goods for sale. Such conditions were less common in the south than in the north, although they could be found in most wine-producing areas. But, while rising prices benefited producers, they contributed to certain difficulties

Ovimbundu

2005-03-08T04:05:00.000-08:00

The ruling families entered the highlands from the northeast in the 17th century, subduing and incorporating the indigenous cattle-keeping peoples. They

China, Trends in the arts

2005-03-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

In literature the greatest glory of the T'ang period was its poetry. By the 8th century poets had broken away from the artificial diction and matter of the court poetry of the southern dynasties and achieved a new directness and naturalism. The reign of Hsüan-tsung (712–756)—known as Ming-huang, the Brilliant Emperor—was the time of the great figures of Li Po, Wang Wei, and Tu Fu. The

Ariel

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

Ariel orbits at a distance of 191,020 km (118,432 miles) from the centre of the planet. It has a period of 2.52 days. Ariel's estimated diameter is 1,330 km (825 miles), and its mass is thought to be about 1.8 ´ 10-5 that of Uranus.

Indian Museum

2005-03-07T01:55:00.000-08:00

Perception that occurs independently of the known sensory processes. Usually included in this category of phenomena are telepathy, or thought transference between persons; clairvoyance, or supernormal awareness of objects or events not necessarily known to others; and precognition, or knowledge of the future. Scientific investigation of these and similar

Frederick Iii

2005-03-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

Frederick adopted Lutheranism in 1546 and Calvinism somewhat later. His Calvinism and his opposition to the Habsburg emperors made his electoral position insecure,

Cyst

2005-03-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

Although the majority of cysts are benign, several varieties may be malignant or precancerous. Benign cysts often require

Iliescu, Ion

2005-03-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

Iliescu received a degree in business from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest and then studied engineering in Moscow. In 1953 he joined the Communist Party, and he held positions of increasing prestige during the following decade. A protégé of Nicolae Ceausescu, he benefited

Vaihinger, Hans

2005-03-05T01:56:00.000-08:00

Vaihinger taught philosophy at the University of Halle from 1884 to 1906, when nearsightedness

Arts, East Asian, The Tokugawa, or Edo, period

2005-03-04T01:45:00.000-08:00

At the death of the Momoyama leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, his five-year-old son, Hideyori, inherited nominal rule, but true power was held by Hideyoshi's counselors, among whom Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) was the most prominent. Ieyasu assumed the title of shogun in 1603, and the de facto seat of government was moved from Kyoto to his headquarters in Edo (now Tokyo). Ieyasu completed his

Great Bahama Bank

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

Large shoal off The Bahamas, separated from Little Bahama Bank (north) by Northwest Providence Channel. Its shallow waters extend southeast from Miami, across the Straits of Florida, in a broad curve about 330 miles (530 km) long, between Cuba and Andros Island. The edge of the bank drops off precipitously into great depths. The marine life is abundant and varied, making it a prized

Ksar El-kebir

2005-03-03T00:23:00.000-08:00

Originally a Greek and Carthaginian colony, the site was occupied by the Romans, whose ruins remain, and by the Byzantines. The Arab town, which was founded in the 8th century, has one of the oldest mosques of western Morocco, built with inscribed stones from an earlier Christian church. Ksar el-Kebir, which

Arts, Islamic, The 'Abbasids

2005-03-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

It was not until the 'Abbasids assumed power in 750, settling in Baghdad, that the golden age of Arabic literature began. The influx of foreign elements added new colour to cultural and literary life. Hellenistic thought and the influence of the ancient cultures of the Near East, for example, contributed to the rapid intellectual growth of the Muslim community. Its members,

Main River

2005-03-02T03:01:00.000-08:00

Latin Moenus, river, an important right- (east-) bank tributary of the Rhine in Germany. It is formed, near Kulmbach, by the confluence of the Weisser (White) Main, which rises in the Fichtel Mountains, and the Roter (Red) Main, which rises on the eastern slope of the Fränkische Mountains (Franconian Jura). The Main River flows southwesterly around the northern end of the Fränkische Mountains

Sogdian Art

2005-03-02T00:23:00.000-08:00

Rich body of pre-Muslim Central Asian visual arts that was created between roughly the 5th and 9th centuries and is represented most notably by finds at Pendzhikent and Varakhsha, town principalities in Sogdiana. Many cultural streams united there: the remains of Sasanian culture, of post-Gupta India, and of China of the Sui and T'ang periods. Wall painting and carved wood

East Hartford

2005-03-01T23:14:00.000-08:00

Urban town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S., across the Connecticut River from Hartford. The area, called Podunk by the Indians, was first settled in 1639 by John Crow. Organized as a parish in 1746 and originally part of Hartford, it was incorporated as a separate town in 1783 and experienced early industrial development (papermaking and the manufacture of gunpowder,

Nebula, Neutral clouds (H I regions)

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

Neutral hydrogen is dominant in clouds that have enough starlight to dissociate molecular hydrogen but lack hydrogen-ionizing photons from hot stars. These clouds can be seen as separate structures within the lower-density interstellar medium or else on the outer edges of the molecular clouds. Because a neutral cloud moves through space as a single entity, it

China, Growth of the economy

2005-02-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

The 8th and 9th centuries were a period of growth and prosperity. The gradual movement of the population away from the north, with its harsh climate and dry farming, into the more fertile and productive south meant a great proportional increase in productivity. The south still had large areas of virgin land. Fukien, for example, was still only marginally settled along

Peter Damian, Saint

2005-02-28T01:40:00.000-08:00

Educated at Ravenna, Faenza, and Parma, he abandoned his teaching career (1035) to enter the hermitage of Fonte Avellana in the Apennines, where he was chosen prior in 1043. Peter's zeal for reform, particularly his advocacy of

Bektashi

2005-02-27T22:35:00.000-08:00

Originally one of many Sufi orders within orthodox Sunnite Islam, the Bektashi order in the 16th century adopted tenets of the Shi'ite sect,

Hungarian Language

2005-02-26T22:35:00.000-08:00

The language has been written in a modified

Claude Of France

2005-02-26T18:19:00.000-08:00

In 1504 Claude's mother, eager to keep Brittany out of French hands, caused the Treaty of Blois to be concluded, which assured the hand of Claude to Charles of Austria (the future emperor Charles V) and promised him Brittany, Burgundy,

Cartoon

2005-02-26T16:26:00.000-08:00

Originally, and still, a full-size sketch or drawing used as a pattern for a tapestry, painting, mosaic, or other graphic art form, but also, since the early 1840s, a pictorial parody utilizing caricature, satire, and usually humour. Cartoons are used today primarily for conveying political commentary and editorial opinion in newspapers and for social comedy and visual wit

Coronado, Francisco Vázquez De

2005-02-26T01:08:00.000-08:00

Coronado went to New Spain (Mexico) with Antonio de Mendoza, the Spanish viceroy, in 1535 and earned early distinction in pacifying Indians.

Flamsteed, John

2005-02-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

Poor health forced Flamsteed to leave school in 1662. He studied astronomy on his own and later (1670–74) continued his education at the University of Cambridge. In 1677 he became a member of the Royal Society. Ordained a clergyman in 1675, Flamsteed in

Carlisle

2005-02-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

Borough (town), seat (1751) of Cumberland county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., in the Cumberland Valley, 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Harrisburg. James Le Tort, a French-Swiss Indian trader, settled with an Indian tribe near the site about 1720. The town, laid out in 1751, was named for Carlisle, Cumberland, England. It was the setting for continuous conflict with the Iroquois Confederacy until Benjamin

Limited Liability

2005-02-23T16:29:00.000-08:00

Condition under which the loss that an owner (shareholder) of a business firm may incur is limited to the amount of capital invested by him in the business and does not extend to his personal assets. Acceptance of this principle by business enterprises and governments was a vital factor in the development of large-scale industry, because it enabled business concerns

Great Attractor

2005-02-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

Proposed concentration of mass that influences the movement of many galaxies, including the Milky Way. In 1986 a group of astronomers observing the motions of the Milky Way and neighbouring galaxies noted that the galaxies were moving toward the Hydra-Centaurus superclusters in the southern sky with velocities significantly different from those predicted by

Boece, Hector

2005-02-23T04:43:00.000-08:00

Boece was educated at Dundee and the University of Paris, where he was appointed regent (professor) of philosophy and became a friend of Desiderius Erasmus. He was chief adviser to William Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen, in the foundation of the University of Aberdeen and

Heriz Carpet

2005-02-22T22:01:00.000-08:00

Heriz also spelled Heris, floor covering handmade in any of a group of villages near the town of Heris, lying east of Tabriz in northwest Iran. Heriz carpets—primarily room-sized, stout, serviceable, and attractive—have found ready markets in Europe and the U.S. They are an offshoot, apparently, of the Tabriz carpets, a country version of city styles. The smooth curves and flowing lines of a sophisticated

Corbeil-essonnes

2005-02-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

Town, Essonne département, Paris region, north central France, at the confluence of the Seine and Essonnes rivers, just southeast of Paris. Corbeil and Essonnes, formerly separate towns, were united in 1951. Corbeil (ancient Corbilium) has a 14th-century gate and the medieval church of Saint-Spire (originally an abbey). An independent county in the Carolingian period, it was annexed

Caucasian Languages, The Lezgian languages

2005-02-21T02:22:00.000-08:00

This language group includes Lezgi (with 240,000 speakers in Dagestan and about 170,000 in Azerbaijan); Tabasaran (about 90,000); Agul (about 12,000); Rutul (about 15,000); Tsakhur (about 11,000); Archi (fewer than 1,000); Kryz (about 6,000); Budukh (about 2,000); Khinalug (about 1,500); and Udi (about 3,700). The majority of Lezgi languages are spoken in southern Dagestan, but some of them (Kryz, Budukh, Khinalug, Udi) are spoken chiefly in Azerbaijan; and one village

Alaska

2005-02-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

Constituent state of the United States of America. It lies at the extreme northwest of the North American continent and is the largest peninsula in the Western Hemisphere. Its 591,004 square miles (1,530,700 square km) include some 15,000 square miles (38,800 square km) of fjords and inlets, and its three faces to the sea have about 34,000 miles (54,400 km) of indented tidal coastline and 6,600 total miles (10,600 km) of coast fronting

Arts, East Asian, Painting

2005-02-20T02:31:00.000-08:00

The development of painting during the Edo period drew energy from innovations and changes precipitated during the Momoyama period. Thematic interests, including Confucian subjects and a continuing fascination with Japanese classical themes, were already apparent in the years preceding national consolidation. Genre themes celebrating urban life became

Fujiwara Tadahira

2005-02-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

Japanese statesman who assumed the leadership of the Fujiwara family in 909 upon the death of his brother Tokihira. Although in his later years Tokihira had begun to dominate the government, he had never assumed the title of kampaku (chancellor). The post had been created and first assumed by their father, Fujiwara Mototsune, and allowed to lapse by the emperor

Arruza, Carlos

2005-02-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

Born in Mexico of Spanish parents, he began as a professional torero at the age of 14 in Mexico City. He went to Spain in 1944 billed as “El Ciclón” and soon was ranked as the most serious contender to challenge Manolete's preeminence

Veneer

2005-02-19T02:31:00.000-08:00

Extremely thin sheet of rich-coloured wood (such as mahogany, ebony, or rosewood) or precious materials (such as ivory or tortoiseshell) cut in decorative patterns and applied to the surface area of a piece of furniture. It is to be distinguished from two allied processes: inlay, in which cutout pieces of decorative wood or other materials—such as metal, leather, or

Saalfeld

2005-02-17T19:40:00.000-08:00

City, Thuringia Land (state), east-central Germany, on the Saale River, at the northeast edge of the Thüringer Wald (forest), south of Weimar. First mentioned in 899 as a royal palace, it was the site of a Benedictine monastery founded in 1071. The present town dates from 1200. It was sold by the counts of Schwarzburg in 1389 to the House of Wettin and was the seat of the Duchy of Saxe-Saalfeld from

Indian Pipe

2005-02-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

The plant arises from a tangled mass of rootlets, grows 15–25 cm (6–10 inches) tall, and is white, pinkish, or (rarely) red; if it dries out, it turns black. A single,

World War I, Technology of war in 1914

2005-02-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

The planning and conduct of war in 1914 were crucially influenced by the invention of new weapons and the improvement of existing types since the Franco-German War of 1870–71. The chief developments of the intervening period had been the machine gun and the rapid-fire field artillery gun. The modern machine gun, which had been developed in the 1880s and '90s, was a reliable belt-fed gun

Fukien, Settlement patterns

2005-02-16T08:44:00.000-08:00

About one-fifth of Fukien's population lives in cities and towns, the rest in rural areas. Population densities are lowest in the mountain uplands, increase in the river valleys, and are highest on the coastal plains and estuaries near Amoy, Ch'üan-chou, and Fu-chou.

Vrjji

2005-02-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

Pali Vajji confederacy of the Licchavis and neighbouring peoples in Bihar, India, that existed from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. Its capital was at Vaisali (in modern Besarh). It was governed as an aristocratic republic. Gautama Buddha is said to have modeled the organizational structure of the Buddhist monastic order, sangha, on the government of the Vrjji. In the 4th century BC the

Aryabhata

2005-02-15T08:44:00.000-08:00

First unmanned Earth satellite built by India. It was named for a prominent Indian astronomer and mathematician of the 5th century AD. The satellite was assembled at Peenya, near Bangalore, but was launched from within the Soviet Union by a Russian-made rocket on April 19, 1975. Aryabhata weighed 794 pounds (360 kilograms) and was instrumented to explore conditions in the Earth's ionosphere,

Land Snail

2005-02-15T00:32:00.000-08:00

Any of the approximately 22,000 species of snails adapted to life away from water. Most are members of the subclass Pulmonata (class Gastropoda); a few are members of the subclass Prosobranchia. Typically, land snails live on or near the ground, feed on decaying plant matter, and lay their eggs in the soil. They are most common on tropical islands but occur also

Levitsky, Ivan

2005-02-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

Pseudonym of Ivan Nechuy-levitsky, also spelled Nechúi-levýtsky, or Necuj-levyc'kyj Ukrainian Realist novelist of the postserfdom reform period. He drew upon his background as a seminary student and, later, a provincial teacher, to depict the educated and lower classes in some of the earliest social novels in Ukrainian literature. His works include Prichepa (1869; “The

Use

2005-02-14T18:11:00.000-08:00

In medieval English property law, the right of one person to take the profits of land belonging to another. It involved at least two and usually three persons. One man (A) would convey or enfeoff land to another (B) on the condition that the latter would use it not for his own benefit but for the benefit of a third man (C)—who could be A himself. C (or A), thus, had the profits—that is, the

Olympias

2005-02-14T16:26:00.000-08:00

The daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus, Olympias apparently was originally named Myrtale. Later she may have been called Olympias as a recognition of Philip's

Petaluma

2005-02-13T16:26:00.000-08:00

City, Sonoma county, western California, U.S., at the head of navigation on the Petaluma River, 38 miles (61 km) north of San Francisco. Founded in 1852, it derived its name from the Rancho Petaluma (Miwok Indian pe'ta, “flat”; lu'ma, “back”). The poultry and egg industry, dairying, and wine making are foremost commercial activities, supplemented by light manufactures (notably processing machinery

John

2005-02-12T18:53:00.000-08:00

John took part in the commission that drew up the constitution of 1831 and succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother, King Frederick Augustus II. He was persuaded by

Sickel, Theodor Von

2005-02-12T18:42:00.000-08:00

Educated at the École des Chartes de Paris (1850–52) and in Berlin, Sickel, on grants from the French government, carried out research projects

Padua, University Of

2005-02-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

Italian Università Degli Studi Di Padova, autonomous coeducational state institution of higher learning in Padua, Italy. The university was founded in 1222 by a secession of about a thousand students from the University of Bologna, reinforced by additional migrations from Bologna in 1306 and 1322. Like Bologna, it was a student-controlled university, with students electing the professors and fixing their salaries.

Henner, Jean-jacques

2005-02-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

Henner studied at Strasbourg and at the École des Beaux-Arts (“School of Fine

Faraday's Laws Of Electrolysis

2005-02-09T23:11:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, quantitative laws used to express magnitudes of electrolytic effects, first described by the English scientist Michael Faraday in 1833. The laws state that (1) the amount of chemical change produced by current at an electrode-electrolyte boundary is proportional to the quantity of electricity used, and (2) the amounts of chemical changes produced by the same

Aydin

2005-02-08T23:11:00.000-08:00

City, southwestern Turkey, near the Menderes River (the ancient Maeander). It is an important trading centre on the Afyon-Izmir highway and rail line. Nearby is the site of ancient Tralles, said to have been founded by the Argives. Aydin was called Güzelhisar (“Beautiful Castle”) under the Turkmen Mentese emirs in the 13th century. Renamed for the 14th-century ruling dynasty of

Fu

2005-02-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

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