TiredBaby

Dowitcher

2005-04-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

In 1949 the JCP won 35 seats in the House of Representatives and nearly 10 percent of the vote, but external and internal

Waterford

2005-04-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

Town (township), New London county, southeastern Connecticut, U.S., on Long Island Sound just west of the city of New London. The area, settled about 1653, was separated from New London and incorporated as a town in 1801. Drained by the Thames and Niantic rivers, it has a name descriptive of local fordable shallows. Early industries included paper mills and a granite quarry, which was

Framingham

2005-04-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Town (township), Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Sudbury River, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Boston. Settled in 1650, it was incorporated in 1700 and derived its name from Framlingham, Suffolk, England. Framingham Center, just north of the downtown area, was the original village. Framingham's industrial development dates from 1835, with the utilization of local

Anglo-norman Literature

2005-04-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

In the 12th century the oldest substantial Anglo-Norman prose work, “The Book of Kings,” was written in England, as were many versions of the Psalter. Sanson de Nanteuil translated into verse the proverbs of Solomon, with commentary; and in the 13th century Robert of Greatham wrote the “Sunday Gospels” for a noble lady. The same century saw the beginning of the magnificent series

Reification

2005-04-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

The treatment of something abstract as a material or concrete thing, as in the following lines from Matthew Arnold's poem “Dover Beach”: The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

Theodahad

2005-04-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

The son of Theodoric's sister, Theodahad was invited to share the throne with Amalasuntha in 534, after the death of her son. Theodahad

Bank One

2005-04-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

Former U.S. bank holding company that merged with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in 2004. Bank One had been created through the 1998 merger of First Chicago NBD Corp. and Banc One. Although the 1998 merger created one of the country's largest banks, it performed poorly until Jamie Dimon, a former Citigroup executive, became chief executive officer and revamped operations. Based in Chicago, Bank

Sabellic Dialects

2005-03-31T20:46:00.000-08:00

A group of inscriptions from eastern central Italy, sometimes referred to as Sabellic,

Earth, Outer magnetic field

2005-03-31T18:23:00.000-08:00

The actual configuration of the Earth's outer magnetic field as recently determined by spacecraft is summarized in Figure 7. The diagram shows projections of magnetic field lines into the noon–midnight meridian at a time near an equinox. At this time the Earth's rotation axis is perpendicular to the Earth–Sun line. The dipole axis will be tilted another plus or minus

Neoplatonism

2005-03-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

The last school of Greek philosophy, given its definitive shape in the 3rd century Ad by the one great philosophical and religious genius of the school, Plotinus. The ancient philosophers who are generally classified as Neoplatonists called themselves simple “Platonists,” as did the philosophers of the Renaissance and the 17th century whose ideas derive from ancient Neoplatonism. See Platonism.

Ulanova, Galina

2005-03-30T05:04:00.000-08:00

The daughter of dancers Sergey Ulanov and Marie Romanova of the Mariinsky Ballet (called the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet during the Soviet period), Ulanova was trained in the

Exekias

2005-03-29T14:15:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Execias Greek potter and painter who, with the Amasis Painter, is considered the finest of black-figure masters of the mid-6th century BC and is one of the major figures in the history of the art. His name is found on 11 vases. The commonest inscription on the vases is “Exekias epoiesen me” (“Exekias made me”). In two instances, on an amphora (a two-handled wine container) in the Vatican and on an

Gauge

2005-03-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Gage, in manufacturing and engineering, a device used to determine, either directly or indirectly, whether a dimension is larger or smaller than another dimension that is used as a reference standard. Some devices termed gauges may actually measure the size of the object to be gauged, but most gauges merely indicate whether the dimensions of the test object are sufficiently

Toba, Lake

2005-03-28T08:42:00.000-08:00

Indonesian Danau Toba lake in the Barisan Mountains, north-central Sumatra, Indonesia. It covers an area of about 440 square miles (1,140 square km), excluding Samosir Island, which occupies a large part of the lake's centre and which is about 30 miles (50 km) long and 10 miles (15 km) wide. The lake drains east through the Asahan River into the Strait of Malacca; along the Asahan River several major hydroelectric projects

Paradip

2005-03-28T07:30:00.000-08:00

Town and major port of east-central Orissa state, eastern India, on the Bay of Bengal. It is situated on the delta of the Mahanadi River at the mouth of one of its branches. The development of Paradip was begun after 1958. In the 1970s it was enlarged and has since become Orissa state's principal port. Pop. (1981) 33,042.

Human Evolution, Dating the fossils

2005-03-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

In the early 1970s a number of new carbon-14 datings gave rise to a radical revision in the then-accepted dating of the African Stone Age. The resulting picture has since been confirmed by a variety of newer methods. Accordingly, the African Middle Stone Age no longer is considered to have begun some 40,000 years ago and ended c. 10,000 years ago but instead to have begun c. 200,000 years ago and ended

Accius, Lucius

2005-03-26T21:10:00.000-08:00

Accius also spelled Attius one of the greatest of the Roman tragic poets, in the view of his contemporaries. His plays (more than 40 titles are known, and about 700 lines survive) were mostly free translations from Greek tragedy, many from Euripides, with violent plots, flamboyant characterizations, and forceful rhetoric. His tragedies were performed until the end of the republic

Mun River

2005-03-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

Thai Mae Nam Mun main river system of the Khorat Plateau, in eastern Thailand. The Mun rises in the San Kamphaeng Range northeast of Bangkok and flows east for 418 miles (673 km), receiving the Chi River, its main tributary, and entering the Mekong River at the Laotian border. Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani are the chief towns on its banks. The river is seasonally navigable below Ubon

Frederick

2005-03-24T19:03:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1748) of Frederick county, north-central Maryland, U.S., on a tributary of the Monocacy River 47 miles (76 km) west of Baltimore. Laid out in 1745 as Frederick Town, it was presumably named for Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, although it may have been for Frederick Louis, prince of Wales. The British Stamp Act received its first repudiation from jurists in the Frederick County

Basra

2005-03-23T23:37:00.000-08:00

Basra

Epistemology, Analytic versus synthetic propositions

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

A proposition is often said to be analytic if the meaning of the predicate term is contained in the meaning of the subject term. Thus, “All husbands are married” is analytic because the term “husband” includes as part of its meaning “being married.” A term is said to be synthetic if this is not so. Therefore, “All Model-T Fords are black” is synthetic since the term “black” is not included

Pacific Ocean, Exploration in the 20th century

2005-03-23T00:53:00.000-08:00

Among the most important 20th-century expeditions to the Pacific were those of the American ship Carnegie (1928–29), the Danish vessel Dana II (1928–1930), the Swedish ship Albatross (1947–48), and the Danish ship Galathea (1950–52). In the late 1950s the Soviet vessel Vityaz carried out detailed soundings of the deep trenches of the western Pacific, and in 1960 the American bathyscaphe Trieste descended to the bottom

Abu Muslim

2005-03-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

There are numerous versions of Abu Muslim's background, but it seems most likely that he was descended from a slave of Persian origin and was therefore a mawali (non-Arab

Aurangzeb

2005-03-22T03:43:00.000-08:00

Aurangzeb's reign falls into two almost equal parts. In the first, which lasted until about 1680, he was a capable Muslim monarch of a mixed Hindu-Muslim empire and as such was generally disliked for his ruthlessness but feared and respected for his vigour and skill. During this period he was much occupied with safeguarding the northwest from Persians and Central Asian

Muhammad 'ali

2005-03-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

Viceroy and pasha of Egypt (1805–49), founder of the dynasty that ruled Egypt from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th. He encouraged the emergence of the modern Egyptian state.

Mansart, François

2005-03-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

In 1642 René de Longeuil, an immensely wealthy financier and officer of the royal treasury, commissioned Mansart to build a château on his estate. The château of Maisons (now called Maisons-Laffitte, in the chief town of the département of Yvelines) is unique in that it is the only building by Mansart in which the interior decoration (graced particularly by a magnificent

Germany, Religious war and the Peace of Augsburg

2005-03-20T00:28:00.000-08:00

After the diet of 1530, Charles left Germany for more than a decade, occupied with troubles in the Mediterranean, the Netherlands, and, once again, France. In 1535 he campaigned against Tunis to subdue the Barbary pirates who, as a naval arm of the Ottomans and as corsairs and privateers, had been making navigation unsafe. Renewed war with France was temporarily halted in 1538 by a treaty

Avijja

2005-03-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

(Pali), in the Buddhist chain of dependent origination, the ignorance that fetters man to transmigration. See pratitya-samutpada.

Freckle

2005-03-19T00:36:00.000-08:00

Also called ephelis , plural ephelides, a small, brownish, well-circumscribed, stainlike spot on the skin occurring most frequently in red- or sandy-haired individuals. In genetically predisposed individuals who have been exposed to the ultraviolet radiation of sunlight, production of the pigment melanin increases in the pigment cells of the skin (melanocytes); the number of melanocytes does not increase.

Tarn

2005-03-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

A small mountain lake, especially one set in a glaciated steep-walled amphitheatre known as a cirque (q.v.).

Vagrancy

2005-03-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

State or action of one who has no established home and drifts from place to place without visible or lawful means of support. Traditionally a vagrant was thought to be one who was able to work for his maintenance but preferred instead to live idly, often as a beggar. The punishment for this ranged from branding and whipping to conscription into the military services

Arias Navarro, Carlos

2005-03-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

After receiving a doctorate in law, Arias Navarro began his service with the Ministry of Justice in 1929. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), he was imprisoned by the Republicans, a group loyal to the republic, but he was freed by Franco's forces,

Alabama, Cultural life

2005-03-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

Alabama enjoys a rich vein of folk culture in the rural areas, especially among blacks. Story telling has attracted the attention of folklore specialists. The experiences of rural life contributed important elements to the development of modern American popular music, including ragtime and jazz. Sacred music, in the form of gospel quartets and shape-note, or “fa-so-la,

Zabid

2005-03-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Zebid, town, western Yemen. It lies on the bank of the Wadi Zabid and at the eastern fringe of the Tihamah coastal plain, about 10 miles (16 km) from the Red Sea coast. An ancient Yemeni centre, Zabid was refounded in AD 820 by the 'Abbasids under Muhammad ibn Ziyad, emissary of the caliph al-Ma'mun. From there the Ziyadi dynasty, his successors, ruled over large parts of southwestern Arabia. Upon the conquest

Augereau, Pierre-françois-charles, Duc De Castiglione

2005-03-15T04:36:00.000-08:00

The son of a poor Parisian servant, Augereau turned to a military career at the age of 17, served in several foreign armies, and returned to France in 1792. He quickly advanced in rank and by 1793 was general of a division stationed

Carné, Marcel

2005-03-15T03:30:00.000-08:00

After holding various jobs, Carné joined the director Jacques Feyder as an assistant in 1928, and he also assisted René Clair on the popular comedy Sous les toits de Paris (1930; “Under the Roofs of Paris”). Carné's first

Kabelvåg

2005-03-14T19:54:00.000-08:00

Historical village of the Lofoten island group, Nordland fylke (county), northern Norway. It is on the southern shore of Austvågøya island, just southwest of Svolvær, chief town of the Lofoten. Kabelvåg was founded as Vågan in the early 12th century by King Øystein, who built a church and fishermen's hostel there. For many centuries the small port, situated at the base of steep,

Juba

2005-03-14T05:01:00.000-08:00

Dance of Afro-American slaves, found as late as the 19th century from Dutch Guiana to the Caribbean and the southern United States. It was danced by a circle of men around two men who performed various steps (e.g., the juba, the long dog scratch, the pigeon wing) in response to a rhythmic call and to the clapping (patting juba) of the other dancers. As a refrain, after each new step

Korçë

2005-03-13T05:25:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Korça, Korcha , or Kortcha , Old Slavonic Koritsa , Italian Corizza city, southeastern Albania. It began as a feudal estate in the 13th century, and in 1484 the local lord, Koja Mirahor Ilyas Bey, a Muslim convert active in the Ottoman siege of Constantinople (1453), returned to the site and built the mosque that bears his name. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries Korçë was a centre of commerce and trade. The first school to use the Albanian language opened there

Nalchik

2005-03-13T02:00:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Nalcik, city and capital of Kabardino-Balkariya, southwestern Russia. The city lies along the Nalchik River where the latter leaves the Caucasian foothills. Founded as a Russian fortress in 1818, the town remained unimportant until after the October Revolution (1917). Now it is a popular holiday, climbing, and health resort, with several sanatoriums. There is considerable industry,

Interior Design, Spain

2005-03-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

In Spain, Moorish influence mingled with subsequent Western classical styles to produce a unique flavour in decorative design. The style known as Mudéjar (c. 12th–17th century) was the early outcome of these blended Christian and Arab ideas and consists in essence of tiled floors and skirtings in polychrome, plain white walls, carved stucco friezes, and intricately decorated

Mocha

2005-03-12T04:37:00.000-08:00

Arabic Al-mukha, also spelled Mokha, or Mukha, town, southwestern Yemen, on the Red Sea and the Tihamah (coastal plain). Yemen's most renowned historic port, it lies at the head of a shallow bay between two headlands, with an unprotected anchorage 1.5 miles (2.5 km) offshore. It was long famous as Arabia's chief coffee-exporting centre; the term mocha and variations of the word have entered European languages as a synonym for the

Ili River

2005-03-11T22:52:00.000-08:00

Ili also spelled I-li, Kazak Ile, Chinese (Wade-Giles) I-li Ho, or (Pinyin) Yili He, river in western Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. It is 870 miles (1,400 km) long and drains the basin between the Tien Shan (“Celestial Mountains”) to the south and the P'o-lo-k'o-nu Mountains to the north. Both ranges are extremely high. The drainage basin of the Ili and its principal tributaries—the K'a-shih, K'ung-chi-ssu, and T'e-k'o-ssu rivers—is rugged and mountainous, the axes

Lear, William P(owell)

2005-03-11T03:35:00.000-08:00

The child of immigrant parents

Turina, Joaquín

2005-03-10T01:48:00.000-08:00

After studying in Sevilla (Seville) and Madrid, Turina went in 1905 to Paris, where he was a pupil of Moritz Moszkowski for piano and Vincent d'Indy for composition. Though he absorbed elements of the French style, he was inspired in Paris by Isaac

Kea

2005-03-09T22:33:00.000-08:00

New Zealand parrot species of the subfamily Nestorinae. See parrot.

Rembrandt

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

Another cluster of talented pupils worked with Rembrandt around 1640: Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621–74) from Amsterdam; Carel Fabritius (1622–54), later a leading painter in Delft; and Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78) of Dordrecht, later better known for his art theory, Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst (1678; “Introduction to the High School of Painting”). Each of these made his own variation

Bhakti

2005-03-09T01:11:00.000-08:00

(from Sanskrit bhaj, “to allot,” “to revere”), in Hinduism, a devotional movement emphasizing the intense emotional attachment and love of a devotee toward his personal god. Bhakti assumes a dualistic relationship between the devotee and god, in contrast to the monistic ideal of Advaita Vedanta philosophy. The way of bhakti (bhakti-marga) is contrasted with other means of

Pyrolite

2005-03-08T06:27:00.000-08:00

Rock consisting of about three parts peridotite and one part basalt. The name was coined to explain the chemical and mineralogic composition of the upper mantle of the Earth. The relative abundances of the principal metallic element components (except iron) are similar to those in chondritic meteorites and in the solar photosphere. Accordingly, it is reasonable

Paustovsky, Konstantin Georgiyevich

2005-03-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

A descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks, Paustovsky attended school in Kiev, St. Petersburg, and Odessa. Before he began to write, he worked at various jobs; he also traveled a good deal, both in

Nitrite

2005-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Any member of either of two classes of compounds derived from nitrous acid. Salts of nitrous acid are ionic compounds containing the nitrite ion, NO-2, and a positive ion such as Na+ in sodium nitrite (NaNO2). Esters of nitrous acid are covalent compounds having the structure R-O-N-O, in which R represents a carbon-containing combining group such as ethyl (C2H5) in ethyl nitrite.

Pa Sak River

2005-03-07T01:05:00.000-08:00

River in central Thailand. It rises in the northern portion of the Phetchabun Range and flows south through a narrow valley for 319 miles (513 km). It empties into the Lop Buri River at the city of Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok. Lomsak, Phetchabun, and Sara Buri are the main towns on its banks. Below Sara Buri, the Pa Sak is dammed for irrigation.

Sanger, Margaret

2005-03-06T07:14:00.000-08:00

The sixth of 11 children, she attended Claverack College and then took nurse's training in New York at the White Plains Hospital and the Manhattan Eye and Ear Clinic. She was married

Abominable Snowman

2005-03-05T23:08:00.000-08:00

Tibetan Yeti mythical monster supposed to inhabit the Himalayas at about the level of the snow line. Though reports of actual sightings of such a creature are rare, certain mysterious markings in the snow have traditionally been attributed to it. Those not caused by lumps of snow or stones falling from higher regions and bouncing across the lower slopes have probably been produced

Laatste Nieuws, Het

2005-03-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

A liberal paper with a serious approach to national and international news, it also publishes such features as comic strips, crossword puzzles, and cartoons. In the 1960s a large and attractive sports section of several pages

Essential Oil

2005-03-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

Distillation is the most common method

Ukiyo-e

2005-03-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

(Japanese: “pictures of the floating world”), one of the most important genres of art of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) in Japan. The style is a mixture of the realistic narrative of the emaki (“picture scrolls”) produced in the Kamakura period and the mature decorative style of the Momoyama and Tokugawa periods. The ukiyo-e style also has about it something of both native and foreign

Anhwei, Education

2005-03-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

Western learning was introduced in the early decades of the 20th century through the teaching of Christian missions. The National Government after 1928 attempted to expand education throughout the province, but most people remained illiterate. After 1949 the problem of illiteracy was attacked with vigour. The communes established in the late 1950s were then made responsible

Orléans, Louis-philippe-robert, Duc D' (duke Of)

2005-03-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

The eldest son of Louis-Philippe-Albert, comte de Paris, and great-grandson of King Louis-Philippe, Orléans was banished from France in 1886 as a threat to the republican regime. Returning in 1890, he was arrested and given a prison sentence but was released after a few months

Conditioning

2005-03-03T04:27:00.000-08:00

In physiology, a behavioral process whereby a response becomes more frequent or more predictable in a given environment as a result of reinforcement (providing a natural stimulus or reward for the desired response). The history of this concept shows its dependence upon experimental techniques for the study of reflexes. Physiologists in Russia, England, and the

Actinide Element

2005-03-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

Any of a series of 15 consecutive chemical elements in the periodic table from actinium to lawrencium (atomic numbers 89–103). As a group they are significant largely because of their radioactivity. Although several members of the group, including uranium (the most familiar), occur naturally, most are man-made. Both uranium and plutonium have been used in atomic bombs for their

Gérome, Jean-léon

2005-03-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

Gérome, whose father was a goldsmith, studied with J.-H. Delaroche. His historical and mythological compositions, such as “Pygmalion and Galatea” (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City), were anecdotal, painstaking, often melodramatic, and frequently

Bachman, John

2005-03-01T17:36:00.000-08:00

Ordained in 1814, Bachman obtained a parish in Charleston, S.C., the following year. Long a natural-history enthusiast, he published studies of southern animals and works on botany

Chong Yak-jong

2005-03-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

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

Profit

2005-02-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

In business usage, the excess of total revenue over total cost during a specific period of time. In economics, profit is the excess over the returns to capital, land, and labour (interest, rent, and wages). To the economist, much of what is classified in business usage as profit consists of the implicit wages of manager-owners, the implicit rent on land owned by the firm, and

Perak War

2005-02-28T01:42:00.000-08:00

Birch arrived in Perak

San Angelo

2005-02-27T22:18:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1875) of Tom Green county, west-central Texas, U.S. It lies about 90 miles (145 km) southwest of Abilene. Founded in 1869 near Fort Concho (now a museum) at the confluence of the North, South, and Middle Concho rivers, it was first known as Over-the-River but was renamed Santa Angela (later masculinized) for a sister-in-law of Bart J. DeWitt, one of the founders. The rivers have there been impounded

Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert

2005-02-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

In 1845 Kirchhoff first announced Kirchhoff's

Xia Gui

2005-02-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

For a time after his death, Xia may have suffered the same low esteem as other Southern Song academy painters in the eyes of proponents of the new literati, or scholar-amateur, school of painting, for whom professionalism was equated with empty technique and academicism. Zhuang Su wrote in 1298 in Huaji Buyi:He painted landscapes and figures, all very vulgar and debased.

Hupeh, Settlement patterns

2005-02-26T20:05:00.000-08:00

Population distribution, as in the rest of China, is predominantly rural. The main concentrations of rural population are found in the lake plain around the Yangtze and lower Han, notably from Wu-han downriver to Huang-shih; the lower Han Basin below Chung-hsiang (former An-lu) to Wu-han; and between I-ch'ang and Sha-shih. There is a smaller concentration at Hsiang-fan at the

Torcello

2005-02-25T11:07:00.000-08:00

Island-village in the Laguna Veneta (Venice Lagoon) and an eastern environ of Venice, Italy. Founded in AD 452 by refugees from Altino on the mainland, the bishopric of Altino was transferred there in the 7th century. The island, a flourishing city in ancient times, was the head of an association of the communes of the lagoon until the seat of government was moved to the Rialto

Epidote

2005-02-25T03:20:00.000-08:00

Any of a group of colorless to green or yellow-green silicate minerals with the general chemical formula A2B3(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH), in which A is usually calcium (Ca), though manganese (Mn) or cerium (Ce) is sometimes substituted; and B is generally aluminum (Al), with the main substitution being ferric iron (Fe+3). Structurally the epidote group consists of chains of AlO6 and Al4(OH)2 octahedra

Japan Series

2005-02-24T22:54:00.000-08:00

Japanese Nihon Shirizu or Nippon Shirizu in baseball, a seven-game playoff between champions of the two professional Japanese baseball leagues, the Central League and the Pacific League. Baseball in Japan was established on a professional basis in 1934, and by 1936 seven professional teams had been organized. A system of two leagues composed of six teams each was instituted in 1950. Each 135-game season culminates in the

Margaret Of Parma

2005-02-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

The illegitimate daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) and Johanna van der Gheenst, Margaret was married in 1536 to Alessandro de' Medici,

France, History Of, The Fifth Republic

2005-02-24T04:57:00.000-08:00

During his years of self-imposed exile, de Gaulle had scorned and derided the Fourth Republic and its leaders. He had briefly sought to oppose the regime by organizing a Gaullist party, but he had soon abandoned this venture as futile. Back in power, he adopted a more conciliatory line; he invited a number of old politicians to join his Cabinet, but he made sure that his

Baptist

2005-02-23T10:59:00.000-08:00

Member of a group of Protestant Christians who share the basic beliefs of most Protestants but who insist that only believers should be baptized and that it should be done by immersion rather than by the sprinkling or pouring of water. (This view, however, is shared by others who are not Baptists.) Although Baptists do not constitute a single church or denominational

Anaximenes Of Miletus

2005-02-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

Anaximenes substituted aer (“mist,” “vapour,” “air”) for his predecessors'

Alaska Peninsula

2005-02-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

Stretch of land extending southwest from mainland Alaska, U.S., for 500 miles (800 km) between the Pacific (southeast) and Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea. The volcanic Aleutian Range runs along its entire length. It is the site of the Katmai National Park and Preserve, the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve (qq.v.), and the Becharof, Alaska Peninsula, and Izembek National

Stair-step Moss

2005-02-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

(Hylocomium splendens), plant of the order Bryales that covers areas of coniferous forest floor of the Northern Hemisphere and also occurs on dunes, ledges, and tundra. The fernlike shoots have many branches and reddish, glossy caulids (stems) with phyllids (leaves) up to 3 mm (0.12 inch) long. The capsules (spore cases) of the female plant are borne on setae (stalks) about 2 cm (0.8 inch)

Diego Garcia

2005-02-21T04:18:00.000-08:00

Discovered by the Portuguese in the early 16th century, it was for

Qalyubiyah, Al-

2005-02-20T01:17:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Kalyubia, small muhafazah (governorate), just north of Cairo at the apex of the Nile River delta, Lower Egypt. It is bounded on the northeast by Ash-Sharqiyah muhafazah and on the northwest by the Damietta Branch of the Nile. With a total area of 387 square miles (1,001 square km), it is densely populated. About three-fifths of its population relies on agriculture. The alluvial farmland is irrigated

Heredity, DNA repair

2005-02-19T16:22:00.000-08:00

A variety of agents in the cell's environment, both chemical and physical, can damage DNA. Organisms have developed a variety of mechanisms for repairing copying errors produced by damaged DNA, usually by enzymatically excising them. The enzyme DNA polymerase then catalyzes the replacement of the excised segment with the correct nucleotides, using the undamaged

Puerto Rico Trench

2005-02-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Submarine depression in the North Atlantic Ocean, roughly parallel to the northern coast of the island of Puerto Rico and lying about 75 miles (120 km) to the north. The Puerto Rico Trench is about 1,090 miles (1,750 km) long and 60 miles (100 km) wide. The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Depth, lies at a depth of 27,493 feet (8,380 m) in the western end of the trench, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Puerto

Maugham, Robin

2005-02-19T01:55:00.000-08:00

The only son of the 1st Viscount, Lord Chancellor Herbert Romer Maugham (whom he succeeded in 1958), Robin Maugham was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He served as an intelligence officer in World War

Châteauroux

2005-02-18T19:39:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Indre département, Centre région, central France. It lies along the Indre River, south of Orléans, on the main road and railway from Paris to Toulouse. It derives its name from a castle built toward the end of the 10th century by Raoul le Large, prince of Déols. The present Château Raoul, occupied by the prefecture, dates from the 15th century. An 18th-century mansion,

Ribes

2005-02-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

Genus of about 150 species of shrubs of two distinct groups, the currants and the gooseberries, constituting the family Grossulariaceae (often included in the family Saxifragaceae). They are native to the temperate regions of North America, extending southward into the Andes. Some authorities separate the gooseberries as the genus Grossularia. Currants usually

World War I, Air warfare

2005-02-18T08:03:00.000-08:00

At the start of the war the land and sea forces used the aircraft put at their disposal primarily for reconnaissance, and air fighting began as the exchange of shots from small arms between enemy airmen meeting one another in the course of reconnoitering. Fighter aircraft armed with machine guns, however, made their appearance in 1915. Tactical bombing and the bombing

Plumbojarosite

2005-02-17T03:34:00.000-08:00

A widespread iron and lead sulfate mineral, PbFe6(So4)4(OH)12, that has been found in the oxidized zone of lead deposits, particularly in arid regions. It is an important ore mineral of lead in Bolkar Dagi, Tur., and in Clark County, Nev. It also occurs in many places in the western United States. For detailed physical properties, see sulfate mineral (table).

Bridget Of Sweden, Saint

2005-02-16T15:22:00.000-08:00

The daughter of Birger Persson, governor of Uppland, she had from an early age remarkable religious visions that influenced her entire life and outlook. In

Switzerland, Barbarian invasions

2005-02-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

The first of the barbaric incursions took place in AD 259. By AD 400 Roman Switzerland had disintegrated and the lands of the Romanized Celts were occupied by Germanic tribes such as the Burgundians and Alemannians. The Burgundians, few in number, occupied the lands of western Switzerland. Although they retained political control, they lost contact with their former homelands

Arabia

2005-02-15T06:10:00.000-08:00

Roman province created out of the former kingdom of the Nabataeans and the adjacent Syrian cities of Gerasa and Philadelphia (modern Jarash and 'Amman, Jordan, respectively), after the formal annexation of the Nabataean kingdom by the Roman emperor Trajan in AD 105. The province was bounded by the western coast of the Sinai Peninsula, the present Syrian-Lebanese border to

Great Bend

2005-02-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

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

Girtin, Thomas

2005-02-14T03:05:00.000-08:00

While still boys, Girtin and his friend J.M.W. Turner were employed to wash in skies for architectural drawings

Interface

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

Surface separating two phases of matter, each of which may be solid, liquid, or gaseous. An interface is not a geometric surface but a thin layer that has properties differing from those of the bulk material on either side of the interface. A common interface is that between a body of water and the air, which exhibits such properties as surface tension, by which the interface

Indian Literature

2005-02-13T04:16:00.000-08:00

The earliest Indian literature took the form of the canonical Hindu sacred writings, known as the Veda, which were written in Sanskrit. To the Veda

Koch, Marita

2005-02-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

An injury forced Koch to withdraw from the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where she had been a favoured competitor. She set the first of her indoor records the

Independence Day

2005-02-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

The Congress had voted in favour of independence from Great Britain on July 2 but did not actually complete the process of revising the Declaration of Independence, originally

Isaac

2005-02-12T00:52:00.000-08:00

In the Old Testament (Genesis), second of the patriarchs of Israel, the only son of Abraham and Sarah, and father of Esau and Jacob. Although Sarah was past the age of childbearing, God promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son, and Isaac was born. Later, to test Abraham's obedience, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice the boy. Abraham made all the preparations for

Wagner, Carl

2005-02-11T14:22:00.000-08:00

Wagner was educated at the universities of Munich and Leipzig

Scythebill

2005-02-10T22:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Sabrebill, or Sicklebill, any of several birds of Central and South American tropical forests, belonging to the genus Campylorhamphus. The five species are woodcreepers (family Dendrocolaptidae, order Passeriformes), with long downcurved bills that are as much as one-third of the bird's total length, which is about 23 cm (9 inches).