PoliticalBerry

Rayy Ware

2005-11-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

In Islamic ceramics, style of pottery found at Rayy near Tehran and dating from the 12th century. Particularly characteristic is a fine minai (a kind of enamel) painting. Fine pottery with bold carving, occasional piercing, and translucent glaze is typical, as is a range of matte colours and silhouette decoration.

Platonism

2005-10-16T03:45:00.000-07:00

Since Plato refused to write his own metaphysics, knowledge of its final shape has to be derived from hints in the dialogues and statements by Aristotle and, to a far lesser extent, other ancient authorities. According to these, Plato's doctrine of Forms was, in its general character, highly mathematical, the Forms being somehow identified with, or explained in terms

Henderson, Arthur

2005-07-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

An iron molder at Robert Stephenson's locomotive works and foundry in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Henderson became secretary of the Newcastle local of the

Klamath Mountains

2005-07-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Segment of the Pacific mountain system (q.v.) of western North America. The range extends southward for about 250 miles (400 km) from the foothills south of the Willamette Valley in southwestern Oregon, U.S., to the northwestern side of the Central Valley of California. The mountains rise to Mount Eddy (9,038 feet [2,755 m]) west of Mount Shasta in California and include numerous subranges. They

Duran, Profiat

2005-07-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Duran was the descendant of a scholarly Jewish family of southern France. He was educated in Germany and then took a position as tutor with a wealthy family in Catalonia. There, in 1391, in a wave of Spanish religious persecution,

Kiraly, Karch

2005-07-06T02:40:00.000-07:00

When Kiraly was four years old, he moved with his family to Santa Barbara, California. His father, Laszlo Kiraly, had played on the Hungarian national

William Of Tyre

2005-06-29T03:05:00.000-07:00

Probably born to a French family that had settled in Frankish Syria during the 12th century, William was educated in France and Italy and knew Latin, Greek, and Arabic. He returned to

Amphibole, Regional metamorphic rocks

2005-06-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Many different amphiboles may be contained in regional metamorphic rocks. Commonly several amphiboles may coexist with one another in the same sample, depending on the bulk chemistry of the rock and on the pressure and temperature of metamorphism. The amphiboles typically occur with plagioclase feldspar, quartz, and biotite, as well as with chlorite and oxide

Selim Iii

2005-06-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

A poet and an accomplished composer of Ottoman classical music, Selim had enjoyed greater freedom prior to his accession

Paean

2005-05-31T23:30:00.000-07:00

Solemn choral lyric of invocation, joy, or triumph, originating in ancient Greece where it was addressed to Apollo in his guise as Paean, physician to the gods. Paeans were sung at banquets following the boisterous dithyrambs, at the festivals of Apollo, and at public funerals. It was the custom for them to be sung by an army on the march and before going into battle, when

Ciliaris Muscle

2005-05-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Muscle of the ciliary body of the eye, between the sclera (white of the eye) and the fine ligaments that suspend the lens. It is composed of both longitudinal and circular fibres and serves to change the shape of the lens, enabling the eye to focus upon near or distant objects.

Rio Grande

2005-05-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Spanish Río Grande del Norte, or (in Mexico) Río Bravo, or Río Bravo del Norte, fifth longest river of North America, and the 20th longest in the world, forming the border between the U.S. state of Texas and Mexico. Rising as a clear, snow-fed mountain stream more than 12,000 feet (3,700 metres) above sea level in the Rocky Mountains, the Rio Grande descends across steppes and deserts, watering rich agricultural regions as it flows on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The

Rawlins

2005-05-13T18:15:00.000-07:00

City, seat (1886) of Carbon county, south-central Wyoming, U.S. It lies just east of the Continental Divide at an elevation of 6,755 feet (2,059 metres). Founded in 1868 when the Union Pacific Railroad arrived, it was first named Rawlins Springs for U.S. Army Chief of Staff General John A. Rawlins, who requested a freshwater spring there bear his name. In 1874 “Rawlins Red” pigment from the local paint mines

Fief

2005-03-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

In European feudal society, a vassal's source of income, held from his lord in exchange for services. The fief constituted the central institution of feudal society (see feudalism). It normally consisted of land to which a number of unfree peasants were attached; the land was supposed to be sufficient to support the vassal and to secure his knight service for the lord.

Babeuf, Fran�ois-no�

2005-03-14T01:28:00.000-08:00

The son of a tax farmer, Babeuf

Lip Fern

2005-03-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

Ferns of the genus Cheilanthes (family Adiantaceae), about 180 species of tropical and temperate regions. Most are small, sturdy, often evergreen plants that thrive in dry and rocky areas. The leaves arise directly from the rootstocks and are often covered with dense hairs. Spore-bearing structures (sporangia) occur at the ends of veins and are protected by the leaf margins,

Asvalayana

2005-03-07T14:06:00.000-08:00

Author of the Asvalayana-srauta-sutra, Vedic manual of sacrificial ceremonies composed for the use of the class of priests called hotar, or hotr, whose main function was to invoke the gods. Belonging to the �forest tradition� of hermits and wandering holy men rather than to that of the priesthood, Asvalayana is mentioned as a teacher as well as a sage in Vedic litanies and in the

Alkaline Phosphatase

2005-03-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

Enzyme that is normally present in high concentrations in growing bone and in bile. It is essential for the deposition of minerals in the bones and teeth. Alkaline phosphatase deficiency is a hereditary trait called hypophosphatasia, which results in bone deformities. In severe cases, the deficiency leads to early death from infection. Alkaline phosphatase is

Hoysala Dynasty

2005-03-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

Family that ruled from about 1006 to about 1346 in the southern Deccan and for a time in the Cauvery Valley. The first kings came from the hills northwest of Dorasamudra (modern Halebid), which became their capital about 1060. With their hardy, hill-dwelling, Kanarese-speaking followers, they gradually absorbed Gangavadi (Mysore state) and the rich lands beyond the Tungabhadra toward

Interference Fringe

2005-03-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

A bright or dark band caused by beams of light that are in phase or out of phase with one another. Light waves and similar wave propagation, when superimposed, will add their crests if they meet in the same phase (the waves are both increasing or both decreasing); or the troughs will cancel the crests if they are out of phase; these phenomena are called constructive and destructive

Gaunilo

2005-03-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

Gaunilo's Liber pro insipiente (�In Defense of the Fool�) was a critique of the rationality of Anselm's assertion that the concept of �that than which nothing greater can be thought� (i.e., God) implies God's existence. Gaunilo

Gaunilo

2005-03-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

The company was incorporated in 1892, acquiring all the assets of the Edison General Electric

Gaunilo

2005-02-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

Degus have a large head, large eyes, and moderate-sized, nearly hairless ears. They weigh 170 to

Chelm

2005-02-26T19:22:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Chelm wojew�dztwo (province), eastern Poland. The city is located on the Uherka River, a tributary of the Bug River, 15 miles (24 km) west of the Ukrainian border. It received town rights in 1233, passed to Poland in 1377, and fell to Austria (1795) and then to Russia (1815). During World War II, 90,000 people died in two German prisoner-of-war camps in the town. The Polish republic was proclaimed in

Harun Ar-rashid

2005-02-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

The fabulous descriptions of Harun and his court in The Thousand and One Nights are idealized and romanticized, yet they had a considerable basis in fact. Untold wealth had flowed into the new capital of Baghdad since its foundation in 762. The leading men, and still more their wives, vied in conspicuous consumption, and in Harun's reign this reached levels unknown before. His

Amazonas

2005-02-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

Largest estado (�state�) of Brazil, situated in the northwestern part of the country. It is bounded to the northwest by Colombia, to the north by Venezuela and the Brazilian state of Roraima, to the east and southeast by the Brazilian states of Par� and Mato Grosso, to the south by the Brazilian state of Rond�nia, to the southwest by the Brazilian state of Acre, and to the west

Mammal, The evolution of the mammalian condition

2005-02-23T09:30:00.000-08:00

Mammals were derived in the Triassic Period from members of the reptilian order Therapsida. The therapsids, members of the subclass Synapsida (sometimes called the mammal-like reptiles), generally were unimpressive in relation to other reptiles of their time. Synapsids were present in the Carboniferous Period (about 280,000,000 to 345,000,000 years ago) and are one of the earliest known

Itami

2005-02-22T06:15:00.000-08:00

City, Hyogo ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Fukuchiyama railway line, 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Osaka. Itami was a castle town from the 13th to the 16th century and became a major sake-brewing centre in the Tokugawa period (1603 - 1867). The opening of the railway and the construction of company-owned housing made Itami a residential suburb of the Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area. The

Cavalcanti, Guido

2005-02-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

Born into an influential Florentine family of the Guelf (papal) party, Cavalcanti studied under the philosopher and scholar

Ramanujan, Srinivasa

2005-02-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

When he was 15 years old, he obtained a copy of George Shoobridge Carr's Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 2 vol. (1880 - 86). This collection of some 6,000 theorems (none of the material

Drame Bourgeois

2005-02-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

Type of play that enjoyed brief popularity in France in the late 18th century. Written for and about the middle class and based upon the theories of the French essayist and encyclopaedist Denis Diderot (1713 - 84), the drame bourgeois was conceived of as occupying a place between tragedy and comedy; it was designed as a serious depiction of middle-class problems, especially social

Perciform, Use as food

2005-02-18T17:44:00.000-08:00

Since early times, the rivers and oceans have provided man with food; fishing was one of man's earliest means for securing food. Archaeological findings among shell mounds of Scotland indicate that the sea bream (family Sparidae) formed part of the diet of early man. The Nile perches (family Latidae) have been found as mummies in ancient tombs in Egypt. The goatfishes

Pottery, Thailand and Annam

2005-02-17T04:59:00.000-08:00

Pottery was made in the old Siamese capitals of Sukhothai and Sawankhalok. It is also thought that potteries persisted at Ayutthaya until the 18th century. Little is known of the early history of the region, and definite information on its pottery is almost nonexistent. Dating of the pottery from these regions for the most part has been by analogy with related Chinese

France, History Of, The Wars of Religion

2005-02-16T01:04:00.000-08:00

Guise forces occupied Paris and took control of the royal family, while the Huguenots rose in the provinces, and their two commanders, Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Cond�, and Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, established headquarters at Orl�ans. The deaths of the opposing leaders - the Protestant Antoine de Bourbon, King Consort of Navarre, and the Catholic marshal Jacques

Roland (de La Plati�re), Jeanne-marie

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

Jeanne-Marie Phlipon was the daughter of a Paris engraver. Brilliant and cultured, she absorbed the democratic ideas of Jean-Jacques

Insurance, Financing and administering employment injury insurance

2005-02-14T04:35:00.000-08:00

Almost all systems of employment injury insurance are financed by employers' contributions exclusively, and in almost all these systems the contribution is proportional to the risk represented by the class of activity in which the employer is engaged. Usually the insurance institution adapts the contribution to the accident experience of the undertaking

Clonograptus

2005-02-13T01:05:00.000-08:00

Genus of graptolites (extinct, small floating colonial animals related to the primitive chordates), characterized by a frondlike form. Groups of these animals were connected by stalklike structures to a central region. Various forms or species of Clonograptus are important guide, or index, fossils for the correlation of Ordovician rocks (505 to 438 million years ago).

Waigeo Island

2005-02-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

Indonesian �Pulau Waigeo�, also spelled �Waigeu� largest island of the Raja Ampat group in the Dampier Strait, Irian Jaya provinsi (�province�), Indonesia. Waigeo Island lies about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of the Doberai (Vogelkop) Peninsula and across the strait from Irian Jaya. It is 70 miles (110 km) long (east-west) and 30 miles (48 km) wide (north-south). The island, which is almost bisected by a narrow inlet of the Dampier Strait, has a rocky and

Ahsa'i, Al-

2005-02-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

After spending his early years studying the Islamic religion and traveling widely in Persia and the Middle East, al-Ahsa'i in 1808 settled in Yazd, Persia, where he taught religion. His interpretation of the Shi'ite faith (one of the two major branches of Islam) soon attracted

Arecidae

2005-02-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

Subclass of flowering plants belonging to the class Liliopsida.

Arecidae

2005-02-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

Former union of garment and apparel workers in the United States and Canada. It was formed in 1976 by the merger of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA), a large union representing workers in the men's clothing industry, with the Textile Workers Union of America, a smaller union founded in 1939. The ACWA was originally formed when militant elements within the United

Racine, Jean

2005-02-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Racine was born into a provincial family of minor administrators. His mother died 13 months after he was born, and his father died two years later. His paternal grandparents took him in, and when his grandmother, Marie des Moulins, became a widow, she brought Racine, then age nine, with her to the convent of Port-Royal des Champs near Paris. Since a group of devout scholars and

Hohenlohe-schillingsf�rst, Chlodwig Karl Viktor, F�rst Zu (prince Of)

2005-02-06T03:04:00.000-08:00

A Bavarian Roman Catholic, he was a member of a princely house and

Furniture, General works

2005-02-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

Ole Hanscher, Mobelkunsten (1966; Eng. trans., The Art of Furniture, 1967), is a chronological survey of the art of furniture (with illustrations). George Nakashima, The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections (1981), is an inspirational commentary of a designer and crafter on the art of furniture making.

Sa'adia Ben Joseph

2005-02-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Sa'adia's early years. When he departed from Egypt, at the age of about 23, he left behind, besides his wife and two sons, a distinguished group of devoted students. By that time he had already composed a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary, later expanded and issued under the name ha-Egron. For unknown reasons he migrated to Palestine. There he found a growing community

Tjurunga

2005-02-03T15:22:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Churinga, � in Australian Aboriginal religion, a mythical being and a ritual object, usually made of wood or stone, that is a representation or manifestation of such a being. An Aranda word, tjurunga traditionally referred to sacred or secret - sacred things set apart, or taboo; for example, certain rites, stone, and wooden slab objects, bull-roarers, ground paintings and earth mounds,

Binswanger, Ludwig

2005-02-02T22:45:00.000-08:00

Swiss psychiatrist and writer who applied the principles of existential phenomenology, especially as expressed by Martin Heidegger, to psychotherapy. Diagnosing certain psychic abnormalities (e.g., elation fixation, eccentricity, and mannerism) to be the effect of the patient's distorted self-image and his inadequate

Nichinan

2005-02-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

City, Miyazaki Prefecture (ken), Kyushu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. Japanese (Obi) cedar has been cultivated in the area since the early 19th century and forms the basis of the city's shipbuilding, timber, paper, and pulp industries. Nichinan's two ports - Aburatsu and Oodotsu - are the main centres for coastal fishing (bonito, yellowtail, tuna) in southern Kyushu. Agricultural

Lipoprotein

2005-01-31T18:52:00.000-08:00

Cholesterol

Lippe River

2005-01-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

River, a right-bank tributary of the Rhine, that flows through North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state) in Germany. Rising near Bad Lippspringe on the western edge of the Teutoburger Wald, the Lippe follows a westerly course of 155 miles (250 km) and flows into the Rhine near Wesel. The river lies along the northern border of the Ruhr industrial region. By the aid of locks it is navigable

Ear, Human, Structure of the cochlea

2005-01-29T07:57:00.000-08:00

The cochlea contains the sensory organ of hearing. It bears a striking resemblance to the shell of a snail and in fact takes its name from the Greek word for this object. The cochlea is a spiral tube that is coiled two and one-half turns around a hollow central pillar, the modiolus. It forms a cone approximately 9 millimetres (0.35 inch) in diameter at its base and 5 millimetres

Johannes Von Tepl

2005-01-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

After taking a degree at Prague University, he was appointed, probably before 1378, a notary in Saaz (Zatec), and he became headmaster of the grammar school there in 1383. In

M�li�s, Georges

2005-01-27T19:16:00.000-08:00

When the first genuine movies, made by the Lumi�re brothers, were shown in Paris in 1895, M�li�s, a professional magician and manager-director of the Th��tre Robert-Houdin, was among the spectators. The films were scenes from real life having the novelty of

Burbage, Richard

2005-01-26T04:16:00.000-08:00

The son of the actor and theatre manager and owner James Burbage, Richard had attained wide popularity as an actor by age 20. He was a member of the Earl of Leicester's company and remained with it through its evolution into the King's Men in 1603. He

Pendred's Syndrome

2005-01-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

Hereditary metabolic condition that is characterized by deafness and defective incorporation of iodine into thyroid hormone, resulting in goitre or enlargement of the thyroid gland. Pendred's syndrome is a major cause of congenital deafness. It does not produce symptoms of hypothyroidism (deficiency of thyroid activity) in most patients, nor does the condition

Acarina

2005-01-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

Subclass of the arthropod class Arachnida that includes the mite and tick (qq.v.).

L�pez De Ayala, Pedro

2005-01-23T21:09:00.000-08:00

Ayala had a long and distinguished civil

Quadrature

2005-01-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

In mathematics, process of determining the area of a plane geometric figure by dividing it into a collection of shapes of known area (usually rectangles) and then finding the sum of these areas. When this process is performed with solid figures to find volume, the process is called cubature. A similar process called rectification is used in determining the length

Conservation, The Antarctic Treaty

2005-01-21T23:29:00.000-08:00

The Antarctic continent remained unknown and unexplored during the period when most other parts of the world were being claimed and colonized by European powers. Uninhabited and, until recently, of little or no value to any country, Antarctica never became an area for international dispute. Although segments of the continent and sub-Antarctic islands have been

Arts, Central Asian, Tibet

2005-01-20T17:01:00.000-08:00

Tibetan art comprises ancient pre-Buddhist decorative and domestic crafts and the all-pervading religious art that was gradually introduced from the 8th century onward from surrounding Buddhist countries and developed subsequently as recognizably distinct Tibetan imagery, sculpture, and decorative architectural motifs. In all its forms Tibetan art has

Ryan, T. Claude

2005-01-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

Ryan learned to fly in 1917, trained with the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1919 at Marsh Field, California, and served with the U.S. Aerial Forest Patrol until 1922. Ryan established a flight school and a business

Ryan, T. Claude

2005-01-18T02:35:00.000-08:00

Cystic fibrosis is the most common inherited disorder affecting people of European ancestry. It is estimated to occur in 1 per 2,000 live births in these populations and is particularly concentrated

Gabin, Jean

2005-01-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

Gabin was the son of a music-hall comedian (stage name Jean Gabin). In 1923 he began a theatrical career in the Folies-Berg�re but left the stage after his film debut in Chacun sa chance (1931). He achieved fame in Maria Chapdelaine (1934) and later in P�p� le Moko (1937), directed

Vigny, Alfred-victor, Comte De

2005-01-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

Poet, dramatist, and novelist who was the most philosophical of the French Romantic writers.

Van Horne, Sir William Cornelius

2005-01-15T04:01:00.000-08:00

Van Horne worked as a telegraph operator on the Illinois Central Railroad. By 1880 he was general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad system. In 1881 he became general manager of the Canadian Pacific

Lancet Window

2005-01-14T04:14:00.000-08:00

Narrow, high window capped by a lancet, or acute, arch. The lancet arch is a variety of pointed arch in which each of the arcs, or curves, of the arch have a radius longer than the width of the arch. It takes its name from being shaped like the tip of a lance. The lancet window is one of the typical features of the Early English (13th century) period in Gothic architecture.

Sukhothai Style

2005-01-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

The most direct influence on Sukhothai style

Bahadur Shah I

2005-01-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

As Prince Mu'azzam, the second son of the emperor Aurangzeb, he was prospective heir apparent after his elder brother defected to join their father's brother and rival, Shah Shuja'. Prince Mu'azzam was sent to represent his father in the Deccan Plateau region of south and central India in 1663. He led an army in 1683 - 84 against the

Saaremaa

2005-01-11T05:34:00.000-08:00

German and Swedish ��sel�, Russian �Sarema� largest of the islands in the Muhu archipelago that divides the Baltic Sea from the Gulf of Riga. It constitutes the bulk of the Estonian county of Saaremaa (Saare) and has an area of 1,032 square miles (2,674 square km). The island is low-lying and is composed largely of limestones and dolomites. Some of the places with poorer soils are characterized by the alvary - poor bushy vegetation,

Kagame, (abb�) Alexis

2005-01-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

Kagame, the son of a deputy chief of the Tutsi people, was baptized in 1928 and ordained a priest in 1941. His considerable activity before and after taking his doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University

Regional Development Program

2005-01-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

Any government program designed to encourage the industrial and economic development of regions that are stagnant or in which a large portion of the population is experiencing prolonged unemployment. The measures taken may include loans, grants, and tax incentives to private industries relocating in such areas; assistance in developing power, light, transportation,

Wolf, Friedrich August

2005-01-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

Extremely precocious, Wolf learned Greek, Latin, and French as a child. He was largely self-taught when in 1777 he

Zakrzewska, Marie Elizabeth

2005-01-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

Zakrzewska early developed a strong interest in medicine, and at age 20 she was admitted to the school for midwives at the

Daigo, Go-

2005-01-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

In full� Go-daigo Tenno, �personal name �Takaharu� emperor of Japan (1318 - 39), whose efforts to overthrow the shogunate and restore the monarchy led to civil war and divided the imperial family into two rival factions.

Brabham, Sir Jack

2005-01-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

After serving in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II, Brabham set up his own engineering business in 1946. He drove in midget racing (1946 - 52) in Australia, and in 1955 he moved to England to drive for the Cooper team in Grand Prix racing. He won

Conservation Law

2005-01-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

Also called �Law Of Conservation, � any of several principles applied in physics that state that certain physical properties (i.e., measurable quantities) do not change in the course of time within an isolated physical system. In classical physics, laws of this type govern mass, energy, momentum, and electric charge. In particle physics, other conservation laws apply to properties of subatomic particles

Ear Disease, Acoustic neuroma

2005-01-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

An acoustic neuroma is a benign tumour that grows on the auditory nerve near the point where it enters the labyrinth of the inner ear. The tumour causes gradual and progressive loss of auditory and vestibular nerve function on one side. Eventually the tumour grows out into the brain cavity, causing headaches and paralysis. If it is not removed, blindness and death

Biblical Literature, The succession of Solomon to the throne

2005-01-02T02:31:00.000-08:00

I Kings (chapters 1 and 2) continues the story of David and the struggle for the succession of his throne. The sides were drawn between Adonijah, David's eldest living son, and Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba. Supporting Adonijah were the �old guard� - the general Joab and the priest Abiathar - and supporting Solomon were the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and the captain

Tzu-jan

2005-01-01T17:06:00.000-08:00

(Chinese: �naturalness�), in Chinese Taoism, an ideal state of human existence that results from living in complete harmony with the forces of nature. Taoists, observing that everything in the world has its natural state, strive to attain a state of complete spontaneity in order to become what nature intended them to be. As a consequence, life becomes exceedingly simple;

Wicomico

2004-12-31T05:31:00.000-08:00

County, southeastern Maryland, U.S., bordered by Delaware to the north, the Pocomoke River to the east, the Wicomico River to the southwest, and the Nanticoke River to the west and northwest. Salisbury, the county seat, developed as the commercial centre of the Delmarva Peninsula and became one of the largest ports in Maryland. Parklands include Wicomico Demonstration

Animal Development, Amphioxus, echinoderms, and amphibians

2004-12-30T07:31:00.000-08:00

Gastrulation does not always proceed exactly as described above. In the course of evolution, certain animal groups have modified this critical stage of embryonic development, and these modifications have undoubtedly contributed to the successful continuation of species. In the primitive fishlike chordate amphioxus, for example, the invaginating blastoderm

Stadion (-warthausen), Johann Philipp (karl), Graf Von (count Of)

2004-12-29T04:54:00.000-08:00

After service in the imperial Privy Council (1783 - 87), Stadion was dispatched to the Austrian embassy in Stockholm. In 1790 he was sent to London, where he was influenced by the conservative philosophy of

Tzara, Tristan

2004-12-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Dadaist movement originated in Z�rich during World War I, with the participation of the artists Jean Arp, Francis Picabia, and

Qarakhanid Dynasty

2004-12-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Qarakhanids, who belonged to the Qarluq tribal confederation, became prominent during the 9th century. With the disintegration of the Iranian Samanid dynasty, the Qarakhanids took over the Samanid territories in Transoxania. In 999 Harun (or Hasan) Bughra Khan, grandson of the paramount tribal chief of the Qarluq confederation,

Fang

2004-12-26T20:42:00.000-08:00

The Fang speak languages of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family. They can be divided into three

India, The Anglo-French struggle, 1740 - 63

2004-12-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

In 1740 India appeared to be relatively tranquil. In the north the Persian Nadir Shah's invasion (1739) had proved only to be a large-scale raid. In the Deccan, the Nizam-ul-Mulk (�Deputy for the Whole Empire�) provided some measure of stability. In western India the Marathas were dominant. However, there was competition between Marathas, Mughals, and local rulers for political supremacy in the

Siberut Island

2004-12-24T10:52:00.000-08:00

Indonesian �Pulau Siberut�, also spelled �Siberoet� largest island in the Mentawai group of islands, Sumatera Barat provinsi (province), Indonesia. Siberut lies off the western coast of Sumatra, about 90 miles (145 km) west-southwest of and across the Mentawai Strait from Padang city. The island is 25 miles (40 km) wide and 70 miles (110 km) long. Its terrain is generally low, rising to about 1,260 feet (384 m) in the western portion. Rainfall is heavy, and the

Kamakura-bori

2004-12-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

(Japanese: �Kamakura carving�), in Japanese lacquerwork, technique in which designs are carved in wood and then coated with red or black lacquer. Originally, it was an imitation of a Chinese carved lacquer (tiao-ch'i, called tsuishu in Japanese) in which many layers of lacquer are built up to a considerable thickness (often in several colours) and then cut back to achieve the

Biblical Literature, Roman occupation and Jewish revolts

2004-12-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

In AD 66 - 70 there was a Jewish revolt while Nero was emperor of Rome (54 - 68). When he died and was succeeded by Vespasian, his former army commander (69 - 79), the siege and final destruction of Jerusalem occurred (AD 70). Before this event, Jewish Christians had fled, perhaps to Pella, and Yohanan ben Zakkai, a leading Jewish rabbi, with a group of rabbinical scholars, fled to Yavneh, where they established

Tooth Squeeze

2004-12-21T23:19:00.000-08:00

Also called �Aerodontalgia, � pain caused by the expansion or contraction of air beneath the filling of a tooth when pressure within the mouth cavity is increased or decreased. Aircraft pilots and underwater divers are common victims of tooth squeeze, as the pressures that they experience vary widely from the normal atmospheric pressures. As one goes deeper under water, pressure increases.

Fjord

2004-12-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Fiord, � long narrow arm of the sea, commonly extending far inland, that results from marine inundation of a glaciated valley. Many fjords are astonishingly deep; Sogn Fjord in Norway is 1,308 m (4,290 feet) deep, and Canal Messier in Chile is 1,270 m (4,167 feet). The great depth of these submerged valleys, extending thousands of feet below sea level, is compatible only with a glacial origin. It is assumed

Bear Grass

2004-12-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

Also called �Turkey Beard, � one of two species of North American plants comprising the genus Xerophyllum of the lily family (Liliaceae). The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, and fire lily. It is a smooth, light-green mountain perennial with a stout, unbranched stem, from 0.6 to 2 metres (2 to 6 feet) high, which rises from a woody, tuber-like rootstock and cordlike roots. The stem bears

Bhagavata

2004-12-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

The Bhagavata sect originated among the Yadava people of the Mathura area in the

Trianon, Treaty Of

2004-12-17T17:10:00.000-08:00

The Allies' presentation of their terms for peace with Hungary was delayed first by their reluctance to treat with B�la Kun's communist regime in that country and subsequently by the obvious

Stability

2004-12-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

In mathematics, condition in which a slight disturbance in a system does not produce too disrupting an effect on that system. In terms of the solution of a differential equation, a function f(x) is said to be stable if any other solution of the equation that starts out sufficiently close to it when x = 0 remains close to it for succeeding values of x. If the difference between the

Ashcroft, Dame Peggy

2004-12-15T22:57:00.000-08:00

After graduation from London's Central School of Dramatic Art, Ashcroft made her debut as Margaret in the Birmingham Repertory's production of Dear Brutus (1926). She made her initial London appearance in 1927, but her first important notices were for the role of Naomi in

East Hampton

2004-12-14T04:21:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Suffolk county, southeastern New York, U.S. It lies on the southern shore of Long Island, 100 miles (161 km) east of New York City, and includes East Hampton village and Gardiners Island. Settled in 1648 by English yeomen from Kent and first called Maidstone, the town prospered as a whaling and fishing centre. Several colonial homes have survived. Lyman Beecher, father

Aube River

2004-12-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

River, north central France, navigable tributary of the Seine, which it joins above Romilly. The Aube and its tributary, the Aujon, rise on the Langres Plateau, flowing northwest for 154 mi (248 km) in trenchlike valleys across the dry oolitic limestone country. In front of the C�te des Bars escarpment, the valleys open out as stone gives way to clay at Montigny-le-Roi and Ch�teauvillain.

Papyrus

2004-12-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

Papyrus

Pythagoreanism

2004-12-11T21:16:00.000-08:00

Philosophical school and religious brotherhood, believed to have been founded by Pythagoras of Samos, who settled in Croton in southern Italy about 525 BC.