ElasticPrison

Iron Cross,

2005-04-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

Originally, the Cross had three classes,

Hvarenah

2005-04-03T00:28:00.000-08:00

In Zoroastrianism, the attribute of kingly glory. Introduced to the Persian religion from Iran as part of Mithraism, hvarenah is thought of as a shining halo that descends on a leader and makes him sacred. The king thus proclaims himself divine and can rule with absolute power in the name of God. The concept of hvarenah was especially popular with the Roman emperors,

Athabaska, District Of

2005-04-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

Part of the original Northwest Territories in Canada. The district was created in 1882 and enlarged by an eastward extension in 1895. It was abolished in 1905. Its area comprised the northern parts of present Alberta and Saskatchewan and a small portion of northwestern Manitoba.

Robert The Strong

2005-04-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

Count of various regions between the Seine and Loire rivers, Robert served the Carolingian king of France Charles II the Bald and, by his bold and inspiring military leadership, succeeded in checking the depredations of the Northmen who were laying waste the settlements near the Loire. A great victory

Thomas, J.h.

2005-04-02T01:50:00.000-08:00

In full James Henry Thomas British trade-union leader and politician, a shrewd and successful industrial negotiator who lost his standing in the labour movement when he joined Ramsay MacDonald's coalition government (August 1931). Later (May 1936) he was found responsible for the leakage of details of a proposed national budget to Stock Exchange speculators,

Chrétien, Jean

2005-03-31T21:50:00.000-08:00

The 18th of 19 children of a working-class family, Chrétien studied law at Laval University and was called to the bar in Quebec in 1958. Long interested in politics, he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1963 and was reelected thereafter through

øvre Divi Valley National Park

2005-03-31T14:38:00.000-08:00

Norwegian Øvre Dividal Nasjonalpark, national park in the eastern part of the Divi valley, Troms county, northern Norway. With an area of 286 square miles (741 square km), it was established in 1971. The landscape varies from lowland forests of pine and birch to low hills and mountain plateaus with lakes and bogs interspersed throughout. A sparse pine forest supports bear, lynx, wolverine, and wolf. Large numbers of tame

Rodin, Auguste

2005-03-30T15:35:00.000-08:00

In full François-Auguste-René Rodin French sculptor of sumptuous bronze and marble figures, considered by some critics to be the greatest portraitist in the history of sculpture. His La Porte de l'Enfer (The Gates of Hell; see photograph), commissioned in 1880 for the future Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, remained unfinished at his death but nonetheless

Sangihe Islands

2005-03-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

Indonesian Kepulauan Sangihe , also spelled Sangi islands, constituting Sangihe Talaud kabupaten (regency), off the northeastern tip of Celebes, Indonesia. The islands are administered from Manado, the capital of Sulawesi Utara provinsi (“province”). The island group comprises Sangihe, Siau, Tahulandang, Biaro, and a number of islets, with a total area of 408 square miles (1,056 square km). The capital of the regency is Tahuna (Taruna),

Acanthaceae

2005-03-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

One of 18 families in the figwort order of flowering plants (Scrophulariales), containing approximately 250 genera and at least 2,500 species distributed predominantly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The greater part of the Acanthaceae family are herbs or shrubs, but climbers (vines) and trees occur as well. The range of habitats extends from marshes to extremely

Scale

2005-03-28T04:24:00.000-08:00

The specific selection of different tones in any piece of music generally reveals a pattern of relationships among its pitches that can be expressed as a series of fixed distances (intervals) from one pitch to another within the span of an octave. The interval relationships

Hand Tool

2005-03-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

Any of the implements used by craftsmen in manual operations, such as chopping, chiseling, sawing, filing, or forging. Complementary tools, often needed as auxiliaries to shaping tools, include such implements as the hammer for nailing and the vise for holding. A craftsman may also use instruments that facilitate accurate measurements: the rule, divider, square, and

France, History Of, The second revolution

2005-03-26T07:12:00.000-08:00

The insurrection of Aug. 10, 1792, did not of course stop the Prussian advance on the capital. As enthusiastic contingents of volunteers left for the front, fear of counterrevolutionary plots gripped the capital. Journalists like Jean-Paul Marat pointed to the prisons bursting with vagrants and criminals as well as refractory clergy and royalists and asked what would

Gaulle, Charles De

2005-03-25T17:09:00.000-08:00

In full Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle French soldier, writer, statesman, and architect of France's Fifth Republic.

Elis

2005-03-25T10:35:00.000-08:00

The region was bounded on the north by Achaea, on the east by Arcadia, and on the south by Messenia. Elis consisted of three districts from north to south: Hollow Elis, which occupied the basin

Police Gazette, The

2005-03-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

The original Gazette, the Quarterly Pursuit, was founded in 1772 by John Fielding, chief magistrate of the Bow Street Police Court, then seat of London's police forces.

Père David's Deer

2005-03-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

The deer is about 1.1 metres (43 inches) tall at the shoulder and is characterized

Drexel, Katharine, Saint

2005-03-22T11:21:00.000-08:00

Drexel was the daughter of the American financier and

Han-tan

2005-03-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

The area was already settled

Earth Exploration, Radioactive methods

2005-03-21T02:56:00.000-08:00

Radioactive disintegration, or decay, gives rise

National Botanical Garden Of Belgium

2005-03-20T23:48:00.000-08:00

French Jardin Botanique National de Belgique , Flemish Nationale Plantentuin van België botanical garden consisting of the plant collections at Meise, on the outskirts of Brussels, Belgium. The garden has about 18,000 different species of plants. Originally founded in 1870 on a 17-acre (7-hectare) site in the heart of Brussels, the botanical garden was gradually transferred after the mid-1960s to a magnificent estate at Meise, the Domaine de Bouchout. The world's largest greenhouse,

Caucasian Languages, Nakho-Dagestanian languages

2005-03-19T20:51:00.000-08:00

The Nakho-Dagestanian group consists of the Nakh and Dagestanian languages. Some investigators subdivide the Nakho-Dagestanian languages into two independent groups: Central Caucasian languages (Nakh) and East Caucasian languages (Dagestan), although the great proximity of these groups, and their equal remoteness from the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages, may justify

Earth Sciences, Evaporation from the sea

2005-03-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

The question remained as to whether the amount of water evaporated from the sea is sufficient to account for the precipitation that feeds the streams. The English astronomer-mathematician Edmond Halley measured the rate of evaporation from pans of water exposed to the air during hot summer days. Assuming that this same rate would obtain for the Mediterranean,

Carnivore, Natural history

2005-03-18T18:24:00.000-08:00

The family Procyonidae includes raccoons (see photograph), coatis or coatimundis, olingos, and the ringtailed cat, kinkajou, and lesser panda. Procyonids, like bears, are omnivorous, eating numerous types of insects, crayfish, crabs, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, small mammals, and a variety of fruits, nuts, roots, and young plants. A characteristic of

Udon Thani

2005-03-18T17:41:00.000-08:00

Town, northeastern Thailand, near the northern (Laotian) border. Udon Thani is the major town of the northern Khorat Plateau and is served by road, rail, and air. The surrounding area produces rice, livestock, timber, and freshwater fish. Pop. (1986 est.) 82,706.

East Detroit

2005-03-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

City, Macomb county, Michigan, U.S., 10 miles (16 km) north-northeast of Detroit. It is primarily a residential suburb of Detroit but does have such commerce as truck and poultry farming, as well as light manufacturing. First settled in 1837, it was on the military road (now Gratiot Avenue) connecting Fort Wayne (Detroit) with Fort Gratiot (Port Huron). Equidistant between Detroit and Mount

Calarasi

2005-03-16T22:52:00.000-08:00

Judet (county), southwestern Romania, occupying an area of 1,835 sq mi (4,754 sq km). The county, consisting mostly of lowlands, was formed in 1981 from portions of Ialomita and Ilfov districts. The Danube River, flowing northeastward, marks the county's eastern border; and the Borcea, Barza, and Dâmbovita rivers, tributaries of the Danube, drain southward. The Mostistea and Galatui lakes lie in the

Mormon, Book Of

2005-03-16T18:55:00.000-08:00

The Book of Mormon relates

Mignet, François

2005-03-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

Educated at Avignon, Mignet became professor there in 1815; he returned to Aix for his law studies and was called to the bar in 1818. His first work, the Essai sur les institutions de Saint Louis, was acclaimed by the Academy of Inscriptions

Downpatrick

2005-03-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

Irish Dún Pádraig town and seat, Down district (established 1973), formerly in County Down, Northern Ireland. Downpatrick is located where the River Quoilé broadens into its estuary in Strangford Lough (inlet of the sea). The town takes its name from dún (fortress) and from its association with St. Patrick. It is the Dun-da-leth-glas (Fortress of the Two Broken Fetters) of Irish chroniclers. Formerly

Table Tennis

2005-03-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Table tennis equipment is relatively simple and inexpensive. The table is rectangular, 9 feet by 5 feet (2.7 m by 1.5 m), its upper surface a level plane 30 inches (76 cm) above the floor. The net is 6 feet (1.8 m) long, and its upper edge along the whole length is 6 inches (15 cm) above the playing surface. The ball, which is spherical, hollow, and made of white celluloid or, since 1969, a similar plastic, weighs about

Japanese Orthodox Church

2005-03-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning

Hale Observatories

2005-03-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

The Palomar and Wilson observatories were operated

Cat

2005-03-13T22:24:00.000-08:00

The history of the cat family can be traced through the fossil record to the Late Eocene Epoch (43.6 to 36.6 million

Defferre, Gaston

2005-03-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

Son of a lawyer (avocat), Defferre studied at the Faculty of Law in Aix-en-Provence and practiced law from 1931. During World War II he served in the resistance and was briefly mayor of Marseille near war's end. He was deputy to the National Assembly

Duarte, José Napoleon

2005-03-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Duarte studied civil engineering at Notre Dame University in the United States (B.S., 1948). In 1960 he was a founder of the centre-right Christian Democratic Party. While he was mayor of San Salvador (1964–70) his administration

English Literature, Drama

2005-03-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

Apart from the short-lived attempt by T.S. Eliot and Christopher Fry to bring about a renaissance of verse drama, theatre in the late 1940s and early 1950s was most notable for the continuing supremacy of the “well-made” play, which focused upon, and mainly attracted as its audience, the comfortable middle class. The most interesting playwright working within this mode was Terence

Monarch Butterfly

2005-03-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

(Danaus plexippus), a familiar member of the milkweed butterfly family Danaidae (order Lepidoptera), distributed throughout the world but concentrated mainly in North, Central, and South America. The monarch's wingspan averages 90 to 100 millimetres (about 4 inches). The distinctive coloration of the reddish-brown wings, marked by black veins and a black

Kara-e

2005-03-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

The style was employed in the Nara (645–794) and Heian (794–1185) periods. In spite of the increasing popularity of Yamato-e, an evolving native style of painting, Kara-e was practiced throughout the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, though its use was confined to official and

Constantia

2005-03-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

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

Heves

2005-03-10T00:52:00.000-08:00

Lentils, tobacco, and

Herzen, Aleksandr Ivanovich

2005-03-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

Herzen also spelled Hertzen, or Gertsen political thinker, activist, and writer who originated the theory of a unique Russian path to socialism known as peasant populism. Herzen chronicled his career in My Past and Thoughts (1861–67), which is considered to be one of the greatest works of Russian prose.

Swains Island

2005-03-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

Coral atoll, American Samoa, southwestern Pacific Ocean, 280 miles (450 km) north of Tutuila. The atoll is 15–25 feet (5–8 m) above sea level; it is circular in shape, with 8 miles (13 km) of shoreline, and encloses a freshwater lagoon. It has an area of about 1 square mile (2.6 square km). Probably first known to Europeans in the 19th century, the atoll was named for a whaling captain. It is not geographically a

Joint

2005-03-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

The nerve and blood supply of synovial joints follows the general rule for the body: Ubi nervus ibi arteria—“Where there is a nerve there also is an artery.” Hence the nerve supply will be described first.

Tuapse

2005-03-08T02:30:00.000-08:00

City and seaport of Krasnodar kray (region), southwestern Russia. It lies on a sheltered bay of the Black Sea. Founded in 1838 around a fortress established in 1828, it grew in the 20th century as a major ship-repairing, oil-refining, and oil-export centre. It is linked by pipeline to Grozny and the north Caucasian oil fields. Other industries include food processing and the manufacture

Eurocommunism

2005-03-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

The term Eurocommunism was coined in the mid-1970s and received wide publicity after the publication

Spiny-finned Fish

2005-03-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

The atheriniform (q.v.) is the best known of the spiny-finned group, including flying fishes, guppies, mollies, swordtails, and California grunion. Beryciforms

Valdivia, Pedro De

2005-03-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

Valdivia served with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders before being sent to South America in 1534. During the Peruvian civil war (1538), he fought with Francisco Pizarro against Diego de Almagro. For the Chilean

Bradford

2005-03-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

Spanish Hill, near Sayre and Athens at the confluence of the Chemung and Susquehanna

Bond, Julian

2005-03-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

The son of prominent educators, Bond attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he helped found a civil rights group and led a sit-in movement intended to desegregate Atlanta lunch

Bonaparte, Louis-lucien

2005-03-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

He passed his youth in Italy and did not go to France until 1848, when he served two brief terms in the Assembly as representative for Corsica (1848) and for the Seine (1849). He played no direct part in the coup d'etat of Dec. 2, 1851, of his cousin Napoleon

Hawes, Stephen

2005-03-04T22:29:00.000-08:00

Hawes's main work is a long allegorical poem, The Passetyme of Pleasure, the chief theme of which is the education and pilgrimage through life of the knight Graunde Amoure. Completed in 1506, it was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509. Another allegory by Hawes, The Example

Circus, Wild West shows

2005-03-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

Wild West shows, which were sometimes attached to circuses, emphasized displays and events of America's old West. A Wild West show usually presented its exhibition in a large open field surrounded by bleachers protected by a canvas canopy. Typically, such shows featured American Indian ceremonies; cowboys who engaged in broncobusting, roughriding, roping, and sharpshooting;

Itasca, Lake

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

The fur trader William Morrison was reputedly

Roman Republican Calendar

2005-03-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Dating system that evolved in Rome prior to the Christian era. According to legend, Romulus, the founder of Rome, instituted the calendar in about 738 BC. This dating system, however, was probably a product of evolution from the Greek lunar calendar, which in turn was derived from the Babylonian. The original Roman calendar appears to have consisted only of 10 months and of a year

Anthropomorphism

2005-03-03T06:22:00.000-08:00

The attribution of human form or other human characteristics to any nonhuman object. In religion, the term is applied to any statement that depicts the deity as having a bodily form resembling that of human beings, or as possessing qualities of thought, will, or emotion that are continuous with those experienced by humans. Any reference to the divine as having a human

Arts, East Asian, Painting and pictorial arts

2005-03-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

Practically nothing survives of Chou painting, although from literary evidence it seems that the art developed considerably, particularly during the period of the Warring States. Palaces and ancestral halls were decorated with wall paintings. Late Chou texts tell of a craftsman working for the Duke of Chou (Chou Kung) who covered the stock of a whip with minute

Roche, Kevin

2005-03-01T18:19:00.000-08:00

Roche graduated in 1945 with a bachelor's degree in architecture from the National University of Ireland in Dublin. After short-term employment with firms in Dublin and London, he did postgraduate

Nervous System, Intracellular systems

2005-03-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

All living cells have the property of irritability, or responsiveness to environmental stimuli, which can affect the cell in different ways, producing, for example, electrical, chemical, or mechanical changes. These changes are expressed as a response, which may be the release of secretory products by gland cells, the contraction of muscle cells, the bending of a plant-stem

Silk Spider

2005-02-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

Also called Golden Silk Spider (Nephila), any of a genus of the class Arachnida (phylum Arthropoda), so named because of the great strength of their silk and the golden colour of their huge orb webs. These webs often measure one metre (about three feet) or more in diameter and are suspended between trees by guy lines. About 60 species are known to live in the warmer regions of the world. Adult females are very

Earth, Mid-oceanic ridges

2005-02-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

These structures represent the spreading axes of plate tectonics, along which hot volcanic material is ejected to become new oceanic lithosphere. Bathymetrically, the ridges are striking topographic features, rising one to three kilometres above the deep ocean floor on either side. That they are associated with geoidal highs can be seen on the global map of the

Dell, Floyd

2005-02-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

A precocious poet, Dell grew up in an impoverished family and left high school at age 16 to work in a factory. Moving to Chicago in 1908, he worked as a newspaperman and soon was a leader of the

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

2005-02-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

Denomination organized in 1810 by a group of Presbyterians on the Kentucky–Tennessee frontier who left the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The immediate cause of the separation was a religious revival in the Kentucky area (1799–1802) that brought many converts into the church and led to a shortage of ordained ministers. The Cumberland Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in

Dunning, John R(ay)

2005-02-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

Dunning graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1929 and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University, New York City, in 1934. About the time he received his doctoral degree, he also became an

French Literature, Prose literature

2005-02-25T06:36:00.000-08:00

Prose flourished as a literary medium from about 1200. A few years earlier Robert de Borron had used verse for his Joseph d'Arimathie (recounting the Holy Grail's sacred origins) and his Merlin; but both were soon turned into prose. Other Arthurian romances adopted it, notably the great Vulgate cycle with its five branches by various hands. These included the immensely popular

Fischer, Ludwig

2005-02-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Although originally a student of the violin and cello, Fischer was discovered at the age of 18 in a church choir and in a student operetta and was given a position at court. With the help of a grant by Elector Karl Theodor he continued

Aerosol Container

2005-02-24T05:51:00.000-08:00

The

Dacorum

2005-02-24T05:36:00.000-08:00

Borough (district), administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England. The borough, in the northwestern corner of the county, includes part of the range of chalk hills known as the Chilterns, which border the London Basin on the north. Dacorum embraces a number of the outer suburban communities of London, including the new town of Hemel Hempstead, 25 miles (40 km)

Florey, Howard Walter Florey, Baron

2005-02-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

Florey studied medicine at Adelaide and Oxford universities until 1924. After

Ribeiro Couto, Rui

2005-02-23T05:39:00.000-08:00

Brazilian poet, short-story writer, and diplomat, one of the leading figures of Modernism in its early years. Originally a symbolist poet, Ribeiro Couto evolved toward the Modernism that exploded upon the Brazilian literary scene in the early 1920s, publishing poems and short stories concerning themes of humble everyday life. Besides his

Arabia, Najd

2005-02-22T22:57:00.000-08:00

The western part of Najd (Nejd, meaning “Highland”), known as Upper Najd, lies within the Arabian shield with an average elevation of 4,000 feet; the eastern part falls within the sedimentary province with the city of Riyadh (Ar-Riyad), near the eastern edge, having an elevation of about 1,950 feet. The principal drainage of Najd consists of a number of eastward-flowing wadi systems that

Mazia, Daniel

2005-02-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

U.S. cell biologist (b. Dec. 18, 1912, Scranton, Pa.--d. June 9, 1996, Monterey, Calif.), studied the structure, division, and regulation of cells and was best known for having isolated the cellular structures involved in mitosis (the process by which chromosomes within the nucleus of a cell double and divide), research that he carried out in 1951 with Japanese biologist Katsuma Dan. Mazia, who was interested

Roman De La Rose

2005-02-21T03:13:00.000-08:00

(French: “Romance of the Rose”), one of the most popular French poems of the later Middle Ages. Modeled on Ovid's Ars amatoria (c. 1 BC; Art of Love), the poem is composed of more than 21,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets and survives in more than 300 manuscripts. Nothing is known of the author of the first 4,058 lines except his name, Guillaume de Lorris (a village near Orléans). This section, which was

Adalbero Of Ardennes

2005-02-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

Adalbero, a native of Lorraine, had opposed the attempts of the Carolingian king of France, Lothair, to gain Lorraine from the Holy Roman emperor Otto

Springfield

2005-02-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1818) of Clark county, west-central Ohio, U.S., on Buck Creek and Mad River, 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Dayton. The original settlement by James Demint and migrant Kentuckians in 1799 was on the site of the village of Old Piqua (birthplace of Tecumseh, the Shawnee Indian chief). It was laid out in 1801 and named by the wife of Simon Kenton, an Indian scout who had settled there, for the springs

Eyadema, Gnassingbe

2005-02-20T02:04:00.000-08:00

Eyadema joined the French army in 1953, served in Indochina, Dahomey, Niger, and Algeria (1953–61), and had attained the rank of sergeant when he returned to Togo in 1962. When President Sylvanus Olympio refused to take 626 Togolese veterans of French wars into Togo's tiny army, a group of them,

Epistemology, Philosophy of mind and epistemology

2005-02-19T03:40:00.000-08:00

In the late 1970s a series of developments occurred in a variety of intellectual fields that promise to cast new light on the nature of the human mind. There have been explosive advances in neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, neurobiology, artificial intelligence, and computer studies. These have resulted in a new understanding of how seeing works, how the mind

Saraikela

2005-02-19T01:34:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Seraikela city, southern Bihar state, northeastern India. The city is a road and agricultural-trade centre located on an undulating plain with copper, iron-ore, asbestos, and limestone deposits. Saraikela was the capital of a former princely state that was founded by Bikram Singh of the Porahat Raj family in the 17th century. It was a sanad (grant) state of the Chota Nagpur Commission

Aasen, Ivar

2005-02-18T21:49:00.000-08:00

After studying Old Norwegian, Aasen undertook a survey of the contemporary Norwegian dialects. These he judged to be the true offshoots of Old Norwegian, as distinct from the Danish-influenced

Naga

2005-02-18T05:24:00.000-08:00

Group of tribes inhabiting the Naga Hills of Nagaland (q.v.) state in northeastern India. They include more than 20 tribes of mixed origin, varying cultures, and very different physiques and appearances. The numerous Naga languages (sometimes classified as dialects) belong to the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Almost every village has its own dialect;

Amber

2005-02-17T23:06:00.000-08:00

Amber occurs as irregular nodules, rods, or droplike shapes

Allen, Henry

2005-02-17T19:33:00.000-08:00

The son of a longtime New Orleans brass-band leader, Allen played in his father's band before joining King Oliver's big band in the Midwest in 1927 and then Luis Russell's New York band in 1929–32. Allen was in Fletcher Henderson's big band

Kunlun Mountains, Physiography

2005-02-16T06:23:00.000-08:00

Throughout much of their alignment, the Kunluns comprise two or three parallel ridges rather than a single crest. This is especially true in the western reaches. At the Sarykol Range where the Kunluns forge out from the Pamirs, a short spur to the north called the Aghil Mountains actually has some of the highest summits, Mount Kung-ko-erh (Kongur), at 25,324 feet (7,719 metres), as well

Aptronym

2005-02-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

A name that fits some aspect of a character, as in Mr. Talkative and Mr. Worldly Wiseman in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress or Mrs. Malaprop in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals. The term aptronym was allegedly coined by the American newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams, by an anagrammatic reordering of the first letters of patronym (to suggest apt) to denote

Azhari, Isma'il Al-

2005-02-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Educated at Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum and at the American University of Beirut, al-Azhari became president of the Graduates' General Congress in 1940. At first concerned primarily with educational and social reforms, the

Switzerland, Transportation

2005-02-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

The large-scale technical undertakings of modern highway

Sétif

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

Also called Stif, town, northeastern Algeria, near the Wadi Bou Sellam. As ancient Sitifis, it became important when the Roman emperor Nerva established a veterans' colony there in AD 97. Sitifis became the chief town of the province of Mauretania Sitifensis (created AD 297) and remained so under Byzantine rule. The town declined until garrisoned by the French in 1838. In 1945 the Sétif town area was the site

Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann

2005-02-13T18:39:00.000-08:00

W.F. Bach's musical instruction was primarily from his father (who wrote for him, when he was ten, the charming Klavier-büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach of keyboard pieces). He also studied the violin. He matriculated

Lithuania

2005-02-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

Adapting his administrative

Mammal, Excretory system

2005-02-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

The mammalian kidney is constructed of a large number of functional units called nephrons. Each nephron consists of a distal tubule, a medial section termed the loop of Henle, a proximal tubule, and a renal corpuscle. The renal corpuscle is a knot of capillaries, called a glomerulus, surrounded by a sheath, Bowman's capsule. The renal corpuscle is a pressure filter, relying

Carnatic Wars

2005-02-11T02:37:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Karnatic Wars series of military contests during the 18th century between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore for control of the coastal strip of eastern India from Nellore (north of Madras) southward (the Tamil country). The name Carnatic properly refers to the region occupied by the Kannada-speaking people, which roughly corresponds to the modern Indian state of Karnataka

Leverkusen

2005-02-10T21:59:00.000-08:00

City, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), west-central Germany, on the Rhine River at the mouth of the Wupper River, in the Dhünn valley just north of Cologne. Formed in 1930 by the union of the villages of Schlebusch, Rheindorf, and Steinbüchel with the town of Wiesdorf, it is well served by highway and rail and is the site of the Bayer Works (chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and photographic

Quincy

2005-02-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

City, Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on Boston Harbor, just southeast of Boston. In 1625 the site, which was settled by Captain Wollaston, was given the name Mount Wollaston, and a short time afterward, under the leadership of Thomas Morton, it was renamed Merry Mount; in 1627 Morton, an anti-Puritan, was exiled for celebrating May Day. Set off from Braintree and incorporated

Cordaitales

2005-02-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

An order of coniferophytes (class, sometimes division, Coniferophyta), fossil plants dominant during the Carboniferous Period (360 to 286 million years ago). It is believed to be directly ancestral to the conifers (order Coniferales). Many were trees up to 30 metres (100 feet) tall, branched, and crowned with large, leathery, strap-shaped leaves. Three families are included—Pityaceae,

Marquand, J(ohn) P(hillips)

2005-02-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

Marquand grew up in New York City and suburban Rye in comfortable circumstances until his father's business failure, when he was sent to live with relatives in Newburyport. This experience of reduced status and

Northwest Spitsbergen National Park

2005-02-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

Norwegian Nordvest-spitsbergen Nasjonalpark, national park and bird sanctuary established in 1973 by Norway on the northwestern corner of the island of Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. With an area of 1,268 square miles (3,283 square km), the park typifies a high-arctic-tundra biologic community. The glaciated uplands of Albert I Land and Haakon VII Land, together with offshore islands, constitute

Robert I

2005-02-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

Also called Robert the Frisian , French Robert le Frison , Dutch Robrecht de Fries count of Flanders (1071–93), second son of Count Baldwin V. In 1063 he married Gertrude and became guardian of her son, who had inherited Frisia east of the Scheldt River. Upon this marriage, Robert's father also invested him with Imperial Flanders, including the islands of Frisia west of the Scheldt. He thus in his own right and that of his stepson became ruler

Taranto

2005-02-08T01:16:00.000-08:00

Zaragoza

2005-02-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

English Saragossa capital of Zaragoza province, in the autonomous community (region) of Aragon, northeastern Spain, lying on the south bank of the Río Ebro (there bridged). Toward the end of the 1st century BC, the Celtiberian town of Salduba at the site was taken by the Romans, who made it a colony under Emperor Augustus with the name of Caesaraugusta (from which its Arabic name Saraqustah and

Mauchline

2005-02-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

Village, situated near the River Ayr in East Ayrshire council area, historic county of Ayrshire, Scotland, and closely associated with the Scottish national poet, Robert Burns. It is the site of the Burns National Memorial. Mauchline has many links with the poet, who lived with his brother Gilbert at nearby Mossgiel from 1784 to 1788. In Castle Street stands a house, now a museum,