NaturalStomach

Scalping

2005-04-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

Scalping

Gun

2005-04-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Weapon consisting essentially of a metal tube from which a missile or projectile is shot by the force of exploding gunpowder or some other propellant. In military science, the term is often limited to cannon larger than a howitzer or mortar, although these latter two types, like all tube-fired artillery pieces, also fall within the general definition of a gun. Guns

Raymond Terrace

2005-03-30T10:07:00.000-08:00

Town, eastern New South Wales, Australia, on the east bank of the Hunter River (near its junction with the Williams), just north of Newcastle. Founded in the 1830s, the town was named after a member of an exploring expedition in 1812 led by Gov. Lachlan Macquarie. An important wool river port in the 1840s, Raymond Terrace was proclaimed a municipality and in 1937 merged into the Shire of Port

Schmucker, S.s.

2005-03-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

Schmucker joined in the establishment of the General Synod (1820) that coordinated the various Lutheran churches in the United States and

Itapicuru River

2005-03-26T04:17:00.000-08:00

River, Maranhão estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil. The river rises in several headstreams in the Itapicuru mountain range. It arches northeastward to Caxias and thence northwestward, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean through São José Bay, southeast of São Luís Island. The river's total length is approximately 750 miles (1,200 km), of which about 400 miles (640 km) are navigable.

Antarctica, Post-IGY research

2005-03-24T05:09:00.000-08:00

In order to continue and coordinate the international Antarctic scientific effort in the post-IGY period, ICSU in September 1957 organized the Special Committee on Antarctic Research, or SCAR. (In 1961 the word Scientific was substituted for Special.) The foundations for the committee were laid at its first meeting in The Hague in 1958. SCAR, a nonpolitical body, coordinates not

Allee, Warder Clyde

2005-03-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

Allee became interested in the problems and patterns of the distribution of marine animals during the summers that he spent as an instructor at the Marine

China, The dynastic succession

2005-03-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

The Ming dynasty, which encompassed the reigns of 16 emperors, proved to be one of the stablest and longest dynasties of Chinese history. Rulers of Korea, Mongolia, East Turkistan, Burma, Siam, and Nam Viet regularly acknowledged Ming overlordship, and at times tribute was received from as far away as Japan, Java and Sumatra, Ceylon and South India, the East African coast,

Arcaro, Eddie

2005-03-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

Byname of George Edward Arcaro American jockey who was the first to ride five Kentucky Derby winners and two U.S. Triple Crown champions (winners of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes). In 31 years of riding Thoroughbreds (1931–61), he won 549 stakes events, a total of 4,779 races, and more than $30,000,000 in purses. On Feb. 20, 1958, at Santa Anita Race Track in California, he became

Arzner, Dorothy

2005-03-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

Arzner was reared in Los Angeles, where her family owned a Hollywood

Buraydah

2005-03-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

Town, Najd (Central) region, north central Saudi Arabia. It has long been a commercial rival of 'Unayzah to the south, at one time controlling the export of Arab horses and monopolizing the camel caravan trade of Arabia. Now a principal oasis and agricultural centre, it has extensive date, lemon, and orange groves; other fruits are grown, and cattle and sheep are reared on

Juan Manuel, Don

2005-03-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

Don Juan

Furniture, Wood

2005-03-16T06:01:00.000-08:00

A relatively cheap material, wood lends itself to various kinds of treatment; for example, it can be stained, painted, gilded, and glued.

Apple, Max

2005-03-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Apple's satire is distinguished by its

Nithard

2005-03-13T15:56:00.000-08:00

A son of Charlemagne's daughter Bertha and the renowned poet and imperial chancellor Angilbert, Nithard was reared at court. On the death of the

Mammal, Nervous and endocrine systems

2005-03-13T00:27:00.000-08:00

The nervous system and the system of endocrine glands are closely related to one another in their function, for both serve to coordinate activity. The endocrine glands of mammals generally have more complex regulatory functions than do those of lower vertebrates. This is particularly true of the pituitary gland, which supplies hormones that regulate the reproductive

Wynn, Ed

2005-03-12T00:59:00.000-08:00

Wynn made his professional debut with the Thurber-Nasher Repertoire Company in Norwich, Conn., in 1902 and acquired the nickname of the Perfect Fool from a revue of the same name in

Aeschylus

2005-03-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

Studies of special topics relating to Aeschylus' plays include Anthony J. Podlecki, The Political Background of Aeschylean Tragedy (1966); A.F. Garvie, Aeschylus' “Supplices”: Play and Trilogy (1969); George Thomson, Aeschylus and Athens: A Study in the Social Origins of Drama, 4th ed. (1973), a Marxist study; Anne Lebeck, The Oresteia: A Study in Language and Structure (1971), on the significant connections of imagery; R.P. Winnington-Ingram, Studies in Aeschylus (1983), a collection of insightful essays; Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, The Art of Aeschylus (1982), a critical study; D.J. Conacher, Aeschylus' “Prometheus Bound”: A Literary Commentary (1980); Mark Griffith, The Authenticity of “Prometheus Bound” (1977), a powerful attack on authenticity; and Oliver Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: The Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy (1978), on dramatic techniques and meanings.

Abandonment

2005-03-09T02:35:00.000-08:00

In Anglo-American property law, the relinquishment of possession of property with an intent to terminate all ownership interests in that property. Abandonment may occur by throwing away the property, by losing it and making no attempt to retrieve it, by vacating the property with no intention of returning to it, or by any other act manifesting a complete disclaimer

Poznan Riots

2005-03-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

After the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (March 1953), the rigidly authoritarian Communist regime in Poland relaxed some of its policies. It abolished

Kazakstan, Drainage

2005-03-07T01:49:00.000-08:00

Kazakstan's east and southeast possess extensive watercourses: most of the country's 7,000 streams form part of the inland drainage systems of the Aral and Caspian seas and Lakes Balkhash and Tengiz. The major exceptions are the great Irtysh, Ishim (Esil), and Tobol rivers, which run northwest from the highlands in the southeast and, crossing Russia, ultimately drain into

Bacab

2005-03-06T15:50:00.000-08:00

In Mayan mythology, any of four gods, thought to be brothers, who, with upraised arms, supported the multilayered sky from their assigned positions at the four cardinal points of the compass. (The Bacabs may also have been four manifestations of a single deity.) The four brothers were probably the offspring of Itzamná, the supreme deity, and Ixchel, the goddess of weaving,

Switzerland, Industry

2005-03-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

Switzerland's transformation into an industrial state began during the second half of the 19th century. Today the major exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals and drugs, watches, and textiles and apparel. Lacking mineral and agricultural raw materials, Switzerland is forced to import raw materials, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods by rail, truck, and barge;

Light Bulb

2005-03-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

Electric incandescent lamp based on a glowing metallic filament enclosed within a glass shell filled with an inert gas such as nitrogen. See incandescent lamp; lamp.

Constantia

2005-03-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Residential area, Western Cape province, South Africa, near Cape Town. It is located in Constantia Valley, famous since the 18th century for wines produced on both government and private farms. The Groot Constantia homestead there was built about 1685 by Governor Simon van der Stel and named for his wife, Constance; a fine example of Cape Dutch architecture, it has been restored

Kyoto University

2005-03-02T02:26:00.000-08:00

Japanese Kyoto Daigaku, coeducational state institution of higher education in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded in 1897 under the provisions of an 1872 Japanese law that established a system of imperial universities admitting small numbers of carefully selected students to be trained as scholars and imperial officials. Kyoto Imperial University (Kyoto Teikoku Daigaku), popularly called Kyodai, soon

Aelle

2005-03-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Aella, or Aelli Anglo-Saxon ruler who is credited with the foundation of the kingdom of the South Saxons, or Sussex. Aelle is said to have landed near Selsey Bill (in modern West Sussex, Eng.) in 477. He immediately made war on the Britons, and in 491 he and his son Cissa massacred a British garrison at the former Roman fort of Anderida (modern Pevensey, East Sussex). His subsequent fate is

Refractory

2005-02-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

Material not deformed or damaged by high temperatures, used to make crucibles, incinerators, insulation, and furnaces, particularly metallurgical furnaces. Refractories are produced in several forms: molded bricks of various shapes (see firebrick); bulk granular materials; plastic mixtures consisting of moistened aggregate that are rammed into place; castables

Dewas

2005-02-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

City, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It is located on the Malwa Plateau at the foot of the conical Chamunda Hill, which rises to a Devivasini shrine. Jaina and Hindu temple ruins lie just south of the city, in Nagara. The surrounding area consists chiefly of level plains of the Malwa Plateau, watered by the Narmada, Sipra, and Kali Sindh rivers. Wheat, sorghum, rice, cotton,

Wessel, Horst

2005-02-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

A student and low-life bohemian, Wessel joined the Nazi Party in 1926 and became a member of the SA (Storm Troopers). In 1930 political enemies, possibly Communists, killed him in a brawl in his room in the Berlin slums. Nazi propagandists,

Sazonov, Sergey Dmitriyevich

2005-02-25T09:05:00.000-08:00

Having entered the foreign ministry in 1883, Sazonov, whose brother-in-law Pyotr Stolypin was Russia's prime minister from 1906 to 1911, obtained posts in the Russian embassies in London,

Wichita

2005-02-23T00:49:00.000-08:00

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

Starr, Kenneth W.

2005-02-22T21:57:00.000-08:00

On Sept. 9, 1998, Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr reported to the U.S. Congress grounds for finding that Bill Clinton (q.v.) had committed perjury, obstructed justice, tampered with a witness, and abused his power as U.S. president. In the report, which was accompanied by voluminous evidence that included a semen-stained dress, tapes of telephone conversations, and grand jury testimony,

Dragon

2005-02-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

Legendary monster usually conceived as a huge, bat-winged, fire-breathing, scaly lizard or snake with a barbed tail. The belief in these creatures apparently arose without the slightest knowledge on the part of the ancients of the gigantic, prehistoric, dragon-like reptiles. In Greece the word drakon, from which the English word was derived, was used originally for any

Race, Human rights versus property rights

2005-02-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

Chattel slavery was not established without its critics. From the beginning, many Englishmen condemned the presence of slavery in English territories. They argued that theirs was a society of free men and of democratic institutions and that it was committed to the preservation of human rights, justice, and equality. For several hundred years, trends in English

Grace

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

In Christian theology, the spontaneous, unmerited gift of the divine favour in the salvation of sinners, and the divine influence operating in man for his regeneration and sanctification. The English term is the usual translation for the Greek charis, which occurs in the New Testament about 150 times (two-thirds of these in writings attributed to Paul). Although the word

Empiricism, In medieval philosophy

2005-02-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

Most medieval philosophers after St. Augustine (see below, Criticism and evaluation) took an Empiricist position, at least about concepts, even if they recognized much substantial but nonempirical knowledge. The standard formulation of this age was: “There is nothing in the intellect that was not previously in the senses.” Thus St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) altogether rejected

Ayodhya

2005-02-17T20:40:00.000-08:00

An ancient city, Ayodhya is regarded as one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus, revered because of its association, in the great Indian epic poem Ramayana, with the birth of Rama and with the rule of his father, Dasaratha. According to this source, the city was prosperous

Theobromine

2005-02-16T20:46:00.000-08:00

Diuretic drug and major alkaloidal constituent of cocoa. Theobromine is a xanthine alkaloid, a methylxanthine, as are caffeine and theophylline, but it differs from them in having little stimulatory action upon the central nervous system. The stimulant effect of cocoa results from the caffeine that it contains rather than from the theobromine.

Turban

2005-02-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

Early Persians wore a conical cap sometimes encircled by bands of cloth, which perhaps may be considered one of the origins of the turban. The turban did not become common among the Turks, however, until after the capture of Constantinople in 1453, when the Ottoman sultan

Areopagus

2005-02-14T23:58:00.000-08:00

The Areopagite Council probably began as the king's advisers. Early in the Archaic period it exercised a general and ill-defined authority until the publication of Draco's Code of Law (c. 621). Membership continued

Kuwait

2005-02-13T02:33:00.000-08:00

Low oil prices caused 1998 to be an extremely difficult year for all oil producers, and Kuwait was obliged to take a hard look at its industry and initiate some significant

Oberlin, Johann Friedrich

2005-02-11T23:36:00.000-08:00

Born into a middle-class family, Oberlin studied theology and graduated from the University of Strasbourg in 1758. He was a teacher

Guadalajara

2005-02-11T22:38:00.000-08:00

Province, in the autonomous community (region) of Castile-La Mancha, central Spain, occupying part of the uptilted northeastern edge of the Meseta Central (plateau). In the north are highlands that reach their greatest elevations in Cerro de San Felipe (7,214 feet [2,199 metres]), and other spurs of the Sierra de Guadarrama. In the south, the land slopes into the plateau basin of New Castile.

Earth, Intraplate activity

2005-02-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

Although most tectonic activity takes place along plate boundaries, some occurs within plates. Much of this intraplate activity occurs along aulacogens and plume traces. An aulacogen can be defined as a failed third arm of a spreading ridge. Aulacogens commonly intersect a divergent plate margin at an angle of about 120°, and they form just as two continents begin to

Ireland

2005-02-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

Even before September the slowdown in the U.S. had begun to have an impact on Ireland. As

Udi-nsukka Plateau

2005-02-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

Pair of plateaus in south-central Nigeria that form a nearly continuous elevated area. The Nsukka Plateau, which forms the main eastward-facing escarpment, extends about 80 miles (130 km) from Nsukka in the north to Enugu in the south. The Udi Plateau continues southward for about 100 miles (160 km) to a point near Okigwi. The average elevation is slightly more than 1,000 feet (300 m), and the highest

Ghats

2005-02-06T02:49:00.000-08:00

Two mountain ranges forming the eastern and western edges, respectively, of the Deccan (q.v.) plateau of peninsular India. In Hindi ghat means “river landing stairs” or “mountain pass” and has been extended in its Anglicized plural form (formerly “ghauts”) to include the mountains themselves. The word refers as well to riverbanks that have been artificially terraced for bathing

Fairbairn, Stephen

2005-02-05T17:19:00.000-08:00

As a coach at Cambridge

Mosby, John Singleton

2005-02-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

Reared near Charlottesville, Va., Mosby entered the University of Virginia in 1849 and graduated in 1852. While there, he shot at and wounded a few students, but his resulting jail sentence

Uttlesford

2005-02-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

District, administrative and historic county of Essex, England. It occupies the northwestern corner of the county, where it borders Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. A low ridge of chalk hills runs from southwest to northeast through a rolling countryside. The district is largely rural. The main town is Saffron Walden; there are also many smaller old parishes, such

Halton

2005-02-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

Unitary authority, geographic county of Cheshire, England. The unitary authority comprises Widnes and surrounding suburban areas, on the north shore of the River Mersey in the historic county of Lancashire, and Runcorn and its suburbs, on the south shore of the Mersey in the historic county of Cheshire. The name Halton is ancient, and the barony of Halton created after

Karun River

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

Persian Rud-e Karun , ancient Ulai , or Eulaeus river in southwestern Iran, a tributary of the Shatt al-Arab, which it joins at Khorramshahr. It rises in the Bakhtiari Mountains west of Esfahan and follows a tortuous course trending basically southwest. The Karun's total length is 515 miles (829 km), though the direct distance from its source to the junction with the Shatt al-Arab is only 180 miles (290 km). Its catchment basin up to Ahvaz has an

Mahakala

2005-01-31T03:31:00.000-08:00

In Tibetan Buddhism, one of the eight fierce protective deities. See dharmapala.

Cramp

2005-01-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

Painful, involuntary, and sustained contraction of muscle, most common in the limbs but also affecting certain internal organs. Examples of cramping include menstrual cramps and spasms of the circular muscles of the bowel (irritable colon), blood vessels (vasospasm), and pylorus of the stomach (pylorospasm; the pylorus is the opening from the stomach to the

Houdini, Harry

2005-01-29T10:33:00.000-08:00

Houdini was the son of a rabbi who emigrated from Hungary to the United States and settled in Appleton, Wis. He became a trapeze performer in circuses at an early age, and, after settling in New York City in 1882, he performed in vaudeville shows

Epistemology, Innate versus learned

2005-01-28T05:01:00.000-08:00

The puzzle about origins of knowledge has led historically to two different kinds of issues. One of these is the question of whether knowledge (or at least certain kinds of knowledge) is innate, meaning that it is not acquired or learned through experience but in some important sense is present in the human psyche at birth. The matter is still a live issue today, not only

Dominican University

2005-01-27T09:42:00.000-08:00

Formerly Rosary College, private, coeducational institution of higher learning in River Forest, Ill., U.S. It is affiliated with the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, a religious order of the Roman Catholic church. The college offers a range of undergraduate majors in business, education, and arts and sciences. Master's degree programs in business, education, and library and information science

Orant

2005-01-26T23:44:00.000-08:00

In Christian art, a figure in a posture of prayer, usually standing upright with raised arms. The motif of the orant, which seems to reflect the standard attitude of prayer adopted by the first Christians, is particularly important in Early Christian art (c. 2nd–6th century) and especially in the frescoes and graffiti that decorated Roman catacombs from the 2nd century

Madagascar, Plant and animal life

2005-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Much of the island was once covered with evergreen and deciduous forest, but little now remains except on the eastern escarpment and in scattered pockets in the west. The plateau is particularly denuded and suffers seriously from erosion. The forest has been cut in order to clear rice fields, to obtain fuel and building materials, and to export valuable timber, such

Gundagai

2005-01-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

Town, southeastern New South Wales, Australia, on the Murrumbidgee River. The site, originally a sheep run called Willia Ploma, was surveyed in 1838, and the town, a former riverport, derived its present name from an Aboriginal term for “going upstream.” A disastrous flood in 1852 drowned 89 townspeople. The discovery of gold in 1861 at nearby Spring Flat stimulated both its growth and bushranger

Cultural Revolution

2005-01-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

In full Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Wade-Giles romanization Wu-ch'an Chieh-chi Wen-hua Ta Ke-ming, Pinyin Wuchanjieji Wenhua Dageming, upheaval launched by Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong during his last decade in power (1966–76) to renew the spirit of the Chinese revolution. Fearing that China would develop along the lines of the Soviet model and concerned about his own place in history, Mao threw China's cities into turmoil in a monumental effort to reverse the historic processes

Madison

2005-01-21T03:45:00.000-08:00

Borough (town), Morris county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies 18 miles (29 km) west of Newark. The borough of Madison includes the communities of Montville, Wood Ridge, and Hopewell Valley. The centre of a greenhouse industry and nicknamed the “Rose City,” it is the site of Drew University (chartered 1868) and the Florham-Madison Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. The College

Maret, Hugues-bernard, Duc (duke) De Bassano

2005-01-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

A journalist in the early stages of the French Revolution, Maret entered the diplomatic service in 1792. After the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), Napoleon appointed him secretary of state to the consuls. He grew in Napoleon's esteem and acted as his confidential adviser. From April 1811 to November 1813, Maret

Aesthetics, Understanding art

2005-01-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

The use of the concept of understanding in describing the appreciation of art marks out an interesting distinction between art and natural beauty. A person may understand or fail to understand T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, Michelangelo's “David,” or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, but he cannot understand or fail to understand the Highlands of Scotland, even when he finds

Hilarion, Saint

2005-01-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

Most knowledge about Hilarion derives from a semi-legendary and rhetorically embellished account of his life written about 391 by the Latin biblical scholar St. Jerome, using material by Bishop Epiphanius

Epistatic Gene

2005-01-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

In genetics, a gene that determines whether or not a trait will be expressed. The system of genes that determines skin colour in man, for example, is independent of the gene responsible for albinism (lack of pigment) or the development of skin colour. This gene is an epistatic gene. When the albino condition occurs, the genes that determine skin colour are present but not

Paul, The Apostle, Saint

2005-01-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

Converted only a few years after the death of Jesus, he became the leading Apostle (missionary) of the new movement and played a decisive part in extending it beyond the limits of Judaism to become a worldwide

Cruise Missile

2005-01-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

Type of low-flying strategic guided missile. The German V-1 missile used in World War II was a precursor of the cruise missile, which was developed by the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and '70s. Capable of carrying either a nuclear or a conventional warhead, the cruise missile was designed to have a very low radar cross section and to hug the ground while traveling

Amichai, Yehuda

2005-01-14T07:38:00.000-08:00

Amichai and his Orthodox Jewish family immigrated to Palestine in 1936. During World War II he served in the British army, but he later fought the British as a guerrilla prior to the formation of Israel; he also was involved in the Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1956 and 1973. Amichai attended

Romania, Flag Of

2005-01-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

In 1834 the Ottoman government recognized local flags for use in Moldavia and Walachia, two principalities that later joined to form Romania. Their local flags were based on ancient heraldic banners—blue with an ox head (Moldavia) and yellow with an eagle (Walachia). Walachia also chose a naval ensign with horizontal stripes of red, blue, and yellow, colours later selected

Zamia

2005-01-12T04:25:00.000-08:00

A genus of 30 or more species of cycads (family Cycadaceae), small, stocky, fern-like plants native to tropical and subtropical America. They have a turniplike, mostly underground stem that in some species reaches 3 m (10 feet) or more in height. A starchy food is obtained from the crushed roots and stems of certain species, among them coontie, or comfortroot (Z. floridana), found in

Lipogram

2005-01-10T20:12:00.000-08:00

A written text deliberately composed of words not having a certain letter (such as the Odyssey of Tryphiodorus, which had no alpha in the first book, no beta in the second, and so on). The French writer Georges Perec composed his novel La Disparition (1969; A Void) entirely without using the letter e; his English translator, Gilbert Adair, succeeded in avoiding that letter as

Fyt, Jan

2005-01-10T04:40:00.000-08:00

Apprenticed to a painter when scarcely more than 10 years old, Fyt was accepted into the Guild of St. Luke as a master at age 20 and over the next 30 years produced a vast number of pictures with facility and power. His forte was the depiction

Architecture, History Of Western, 18th century

2005-01-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

Urban design in the 18th century placed greater emphasis on unity and direction through the subordination of lesser parts to the whole. Entire cities were laid out on regularized multiaxial schemes (e.g., Washington, D.C., 1792, by Pierre L'Enfant); the spaces between the radiating avenues were subdivided either geometrically or on a gridiron pattern. New principles calling

Marengo, Battle Of

2005-01-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

(June 14, 1800), narrow victory for Napoleon Bonaparte in the War of the Second Coalition, fought on the Marengo Plain about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Alessandria, in northern Italy, between Napoleon's approximately 28,000 troops and some 31,000 Austrian troops under General Michael Friedrich von Melas; it resulted in the French occupation of Lombardy up to the Mincio River and secured Napoleon's

Kyongju

2005-01-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

City, Kyongsang-puk do (province), southeastern South Korea. It is 17 miles (28 km) inland from the coast of the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and 34 miles (55 km) east of the provincial capital, Taegu. The capital of the Silla kingdom (57 BC–AD 935), its ancient name was Sorabol, which means “capital.” Kyongju plain, surrounded by a double range of hills and mountains, formed a natural fortress for the city. Kyongju has

La Venta

2005-01-06T05:28:00.000-08:00

Ancient Olmec settlement, located near the border of modern Tabasco and Veracruz states, on the gulf coast of Mexico. La Venta was originally built on an island in the Tonalá River; now it is part of a large swamp. After petroleum was found there, many of the artifacts were moved to an archaeological park on the outskirts of the city of Villahermosa, some 80 miles (129 km) to the

Fuad Pasa, Mehmed

2005-01-05T01:10:00.000-08:00

The son of a well-known Turkish poet, Fuad Pasa was trained in medicine, but his knowledge of French allowed him to enter the diplomatic service, where he

China, Ethnic and linguistic groups

2005-01-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

China is a multinational country, with a population composed of a large number of ethnic and linguistic groups. Thus, the basic classification of the population is not so much ethnic as linguistic. The Han (Chinese), the largest group, outnumber the minority groups or minority nationalities in every province or autonomous region except Tibet and Sinkiang. The Han,

Banner System

2005-01-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade–Giles romanization) Ch'i-ping, Pinyin Qibing, the military organization used by the Manchu tribes of Manchuria (now Northeast China) to conquer and control China in the 17th century. The Banner system was developed by the Manchu leader Nurhachi (1559–1626), who in 1601 organized his warriors into four companies of 300 men each. The companies were distinguished by banners of different colours—yellow, red, white, and blue. In 1615 four more

Kirby, William

2005-01-03T03:12:00.000-08:00

Kirby moved in 1832 to the United States and in 1839 to Canada, where he settled in Niagara and became editor of the Niagara Mail (1850–71) and collector of customs from 1871 to 1895. Kirby was a fervent loyalist (favouring

Bank One

2005-01-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

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

Jáchymov

2004-12-31T15:25:00.000-08:00

Spa town, Západoceský kraj (region), Czech Republic. It lies at the foot of Mount Klínovec, the highest summit in the Ore Mountains (Krušné hory), just north of Karlovy Vary. A silver-mining centre for the Holy Roman Empire, the town reached its peak in the 16th century, when its mines were owned by the counts of Šlik (German: Schlik). The German monetary unit taler, or thaler, from which

Biblical Literature, II Enoch

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

Similar in content is II Enoch, or The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, which is preserved only in an Old Slavonic translation. The oldest text does not contain any Christian additions nor any passage from which it could be concluded that the book was written in Greek. Thus, the book could have been written originally in Hebrew or Aramaic, probably in the 1st century CE. The hero

Amorphous Solid

2004-12-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

On amorphous solids in particular, a lucid introductory text accessible to a nontechnical reader is Richard Zallen, The Physics of Amorphous Solids (1983), with coverage of structural models for the various classes of amorphous solids as well as percolation theory, a modern paradigm for disordered systems. A classic advanced work is N.F. Mott and E.A. Davis, Electronic Processes in Non-crystalline Materials, 2nd ed. (1979), which features many of the theoretical contributions of Nobel Laureate coauthor Mott. A text providing a thorough treatment of oxide glasses is J. Zarzycki, Glasses and the Vitreous State (1991; originally published in French, 1982). A reference work with wide coverage of recent research topics, including detailed treatment of chalcogenide glasses, is S.R. Elliott, Physics of Amorphous Materials, 2nd ed. (1990). A comprehensive collection of detailed reviews is contained in R.W. Cahn, P. Haassen, and E.J. Kramer (eds.), Materials Science and Technology, vol. 6, Glasses and Amorphous Materials, ed. by J. Zarzycki (1991), including coverage of glass technology, formation, and structure, oxide glasses, chalcogenide glasses, metallic glasses, polymeric glasses, and the optical, electric, and mechanical properties of glasses. Amorphous silicon is treated in detail in another work, R.A. Street, Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon (1991).

Ciconiiform, Bill shape

2004-12-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

The bill shows various adaptations to methods of feeding. In herons it is typically long, straight, and pointed; although spearlike in appearance, it is used for grasping rather than impaling. In the boat-billed heron (Cochlearius cochlearius) the bill is flattened into a broad scoop and is used as such in feeding. In bitterns, both mandibles are finely serrated near

Baramula

2004-12-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

Town in the northwestern part of the Indian-held sector of Jammu and Kashmir state, in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. It is situated on the Jhelum River about 7 miles (11 km) beyond the river's emergence from Wular Lake. Located some 28 miles (45 km) west and slightly north of Srinagar, the capital of the Indian-held sector of Jammu and Kashmir, Baramula is surrounded by

Fellenberg, Philipp Emanuel Von

2004-12-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

In 1799 Fellenberg purchased the estate of Hofwil, where he founded a school combining manual training and agricultural and academic instruction. His social aim, to be achieved through education, was to try to raise the living conditions of the poor and to weld them and the upper classes together.

Shining Path

2004-12-25T08:31:00.000-08:00

The Shining Path was founded in 1970 in a multiple split in the Communist Party of Peru. It took its name from the maxim of the founder of Peru's first communist party, José Carlos Mariátegui: “El Marxismo-Leninismo abrirá el sendero luminoso hacia la

Gullstrand, Allvar

2004-12-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Gullstrand studied in Uppsala, Vienna, and Stockholm, earning a doctorate in 1890. He became professor of diseases of the eye at Uppsala in 1894 and in 1913 was appointed professor of physiological

Kublai Khan

2004-12-23T03:24:00.000-08:00

Kublai also spelled Khubilai , or Kubla Mongolian general and statesman, grandson of Genghis Khan. He conquered China and became the first emperor of its Yüan, or Mongol, dynasty. He was thus at one and the same time the overlord of all the Mongol dominions—which included areas as diverse as that of the Golden Horde in southern Russia, the Il-Khanate of Persia, and the steppe heartlands where Mongol princes

Philip Ii

2004-12-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

Byname Philip Augustus, French Philippe Auguste the first of the great Capetian kings of medieval France (reigned 1179–1223), who gradually reconquered the French territories held by the kings of England and also furthered the royal domains northward into Flanders and southward into Languedoc. He was a major figure in the Third Crusade to the Holy Land in 1191.

Aargau

2004-12-19T00:39:00.000-08:00

French Argovie, canton, northern Switzerland. It borders Germany to the north and is bounded by the demicanton of Basel-Laandschaft and by the cantons of Solothurn and Bern to the west, Luzern to the south, and Zug and Zürich to the east. It forms the northeastern section of the great Swiss Plateau between the Alps and the Jura Mountains, taking in the lower course of the Aare River, whence

Yadava Dynasty

2004-12-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

Rulers of a 12th–14th-century Hindu kingdom of central India in what is the modern Indian state of Maharashtra. Originally a feudatory of the Eastern Calukyas of Kalyani, the dynasty became paramount in the Deccan under Bhillama (c. 1187–91), who founded Devagiri (later Daulatabad) as his capital. Under Bhillama's grandson Singhana (c. 1210–47) the dynasty reached its height at the expense of the

Vostok Island

2004-12-15T08:44:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Vostock , formerly Staver Island coral atoll in the Southern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, southwestern Pacific Ocean. It lies 400 miles (640 km) northwest of Tahiti. A low formation, with a land area of only 0.1 square mile (0.3 square km), it has no anchorage in its lagoon. Vostok was sighted in 1820 by the Russian Antarctic explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and was named for his ship. It was claimed by the United

Armenian Highland

2004-12-13T06:01:00.000-08:00

Russian Armyanskoye Nagorye, also spelled Arm'anskoje Nagor'e, mountainous region of Transcaucasia. It lies mainly in Turkey, occupies all of Armenia, and includes southern Georgia, western Azerbaijan, and northwestern Iran. The highland covers almost 154,400 square miles (400,000 square km). The average elevation of the Armenian Highland is 5,000 to 6,500 feet (1,500 to 2,000 m), but several peaks exceed 14,000 feet (4,000 m). The highland is a segment of the Mediterranean alpine volcanic

Pol Pot

2004-12-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

Original name Saloth Sar Khmer political leader whose totalitarian regime (1975–79) imposed severe hardships on the Cambodian people. His radical communist government forced the mass evacuations of cities, killed or displaced millions of people, and left a legacy of brutality and

Hale, George Ellery

2004-12-09T06:16:00.000-08:00

American astronomer known for his development of important astronomical instruments, including the Hale telescope (completed 1948), a 200-inch reflecting telescope at the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Mountain Observatory near Pasadena. He is known also for his researches in solar physics, particularly his discovery

Shensi, Plant and animal life

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

The vegetation in the northern and southern zones is also sharply differentiated. The southern mountain area forms a part of the mixed deciduous broad-leaved and evergreen forest zone that formerly covered the Lower Yangtze and Han river basins; this region is characterized by a rich variety of vegetation that includes more than 50 broad-leaved genera and a dozen