BrightMarble

Bot Fly

2005-03-19T05:11:00.000-08:00

Horse bot flies (family Gasterophilidae) include species of Gasterophilus, a serious horse pest. The adult horse fly, often known as a gad fly, deposits between about 400 and 500 eggs (nits) on the horse's

Bar Sauma, Rabban

2005-03-19T00:57:00.000-08:00

Born into a wealthy Christian family living in Chung-tu and descended from the nomadic Uighurs of Turkistan,

Hannibal

2005-03-18T11:54:00.000-08:00

The treaty between Rome and Carthage that was concluded a year after the Battle of Zama frustrated the entire object of Hannibal's life, but his hopes of taking arms once more against Rome lived on. Although accused of having misconducted the war, he was made a suffete (a civil magistrate) in addition to retaining his military command, and as suffete he was able to overthrow

Kirchhoff, Gustav Robert

2005-03-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

In 1845 Kirchhoff first announced Kirchhoff's

Telephone And Telephone System

2005-03-15T16:09:00.000-08:00

Facsimile, or fax, refers to the transmission of text or fixed images and drawings by wire or radio channels. Fax permits the transmission of a mix of documents—including handwriting, graphs, pictures, and maps—that often cannot be transmitted at all over other communications media. Although the concepts of fax were developed in the 19th century using contemporary

Kylver Stone

2005-03-14T16:54:00.000-08:00

The runes faced the inside of a coffin and probably were intended either to protect the grave or to bind the dead person to it. In addition to the runic alphabet, the rune carver also carved

Performing Arts, Latin America.

2005-03-14T01:16:00.000-08:00

Gerardo Tort's unsparing picture of street children in Mexico City, De la calle (Streeters), was based on a play by Jesús González Dávila. Marysa Sistach's Perfuma de violetas, nadie te oye (Violet Perfume: Nobody Hears You) dealt intelligently with rape in working-class Mexico City. Guillermo del Toro's Spanish co-production El espinazo del diablo (The Devil's

Chang Ping-lin

2005-03-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Chang received a traditional education during which he was influenced by Ming dynasty (1368–1644) loyalist writers who had refused to serve the foreign Ch'ing dynasty (1644–1911/12) established by the Manchu tribes of Manchuria.

Earth, The figure of the Earth

2005-03-12T19:37:00.000-08:00

Recent standard works include G. Bomford, Geodesy, 4th ed. (1980, reprinted 1983); Weikko A. Heiskanen and Helmut Moritz, Physical Geodesy (1967); Wolfgang Torge, Geodesy, an Introduction (1980; originally published in German, 1975), a classical treatment; and Petr Vanícek and Edward J. Krakiwsky, Geodesy, the Concepts, rev. ed. (1986). See also International Association Of Geodesy, Systeme geodesique de reference 1967: Geodetic Reference System 1967 (1971).

Finland, Justice

2005-03-11T22:12:00.000-08:00

The Finnish judiciary is independent of the legislature and executive; judges are removable only by judicial sentence. There are municipal and rural district courts, held in cities and towns by the chief judge (oikeuspormestari) and assistants and in the country by a judge and jurors. Appeal from these courts lies to courts of appeal in Helsinki, Turku, Vaasa, Kuopio,

Sayan Mountains

2005-03-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

The Sayans form a rough arc, convex to the north, and stretch from the Altai Mountains in the west to Lake Baikal in the

Lenoir, (jean-joseph-) étienne

2005-03-09T04:07:00.000-08:00

Lenoir's engine was a converted double-acting steam engine with slide valves to admit the air-fuel mixture and to discharge exhaust products. A two-stroke cycle engine, it used a mixture of coal gas and air. Though only

Amanita

2005-03-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Among the deadliest of all mushrooms are the destroying angels

Robert, Shaaban

2005-03-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Popular Swahili writer, Robert was the product of two cultures—his father was a Christian, but Shaaban returned to Islam. His work ranges from poetry to essay and didactic tale, influenced in style by the Oriental tradition. Many poems follow the form of utendi verse (used for narration and didactic themes),

Savannakhét

2005-03-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

Town in the central southern panhandle of Laos, on the left bank of the Mekong River. It had a teacher-training school (1911), a public high school (1946), a Buddhist secondary school, a trade school, and the Savannakhét Technical College before the 1975 communist takeover. Industries in the town included manufacturing of soft drinks, ice making, and a sawmill. There is an airport, and a road

Berenice Ii

2005-03-05T01:44:00.000-08:00

Magas' queen, who favoured an alliance with the Seleucid dynasty of Syria, tried to thwart the marriage by summoning Demetrius the Fair, a Macedonian prince, as a husband for Berenice. The princess, however, arranged Demetrius' murder and married

Amundsen Gulf

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

The

Radetzky, Joseph, Count (graf)

2005-03-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

Radetzky joined the Austrian army in 1784 and served in the Turkish War of 1787–92 and in the Low Countries in the first years of the French Revolutionary Wars. His courage and enterprise were conspicuous

Bhaiband

2005-03-01T23:24:00.000-08:00

(Hindi), Urdu-Persian Beradari (“brotherhood”), important instrument of caste self-government in India; the bhaiband is the council formed by the heads of families that belong to the same lineage in a particular area, thus constituting an exogamous (those who do not intermarry) unit within the endogamous (those who do intermarry) caste group. One of their concerns, in addition to questions arising as a

Noble Gas, Xenon

2005-03-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

The name xenon is derived from the Greek word xenos, “strange” or “foreign.” Like several other noble gases, xenon is present in meteorites and certain minerals, but its only useful source has been the atmosphere, of which it composes 86 parts per 109 by volume. Nuclear reactors may become an important source of xenon, because the fission of uranium produces several isotopes

Malolos

2005-02-26T19:03:00.000-08:00

Town, south-central Luzon, Philippines. It lies at the head of the Pampanga River delta, near the northern shore of Manila Bay. During a revolt against U.S. administration, the insurgent congress met there in the Barasoain Church, where they framed the “Malolos Constitution” and proclaimed a republic on January 23, 1899. The insurgent leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, established his

Nitrocellulose

2005-02-26T02:11:00.000-08:00

Also called Cellulose Nitrate, a mixture of nitric esters of cellulose, and a highly flammable compound that is the main ingredient of modern gunpowder. Nitrocellulose is a fluffy white substance that retains some of the fibrous structure of untreated cellulose. It is not stable to heat, and even carefully prepared samples will ignite on brief heating to more than about 150° C (300° F). When nitrocellulose

Davies (of Hereford), John

2005-02-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

Davies settled in Oxford and became known as the best penman of his day. As well as other religious verse treatises, he wrote Wittes Pilgrimage . . . (c. 1610), a collection of love sonnets; and Humours Heav'n on Earth; with the Civile Warres

Domino Theory

2005-02-24T00:22:00.000-08:00

Also called Domino Effect, theory in U.S. foreign policy after World War II stating that the “fall” of a noncommunist state to communism would precipitate the fall of noncommunist governments in neighbouring states. The theory was first proposed by President Harry S. Truman to justify sending military aid to Greece and Turkey in the 1940s, but it became popular in the 1950s when President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Perche

2005-02-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

Region of northern France on the border of Normandie, mainly in the east of the Orne département, with extensions into neighbouring départements. Formerly a county, it was united to the French crown in 1525. It is largely hilly country, the Perche Hills having summits as high as 1,000 feet (300 m). Perche is a district of pastoral farming and dairying, famous for its breed of draft horses

Clone

2005-02-22T20:05:00.000-08:00

Also spelled clon population of genetically identical cells or organisms that are derived originally from a single original cell or organism by asexual methods. Cloning is fundamental to most living things, since the body cells of plants and animals are clones ultimately derived from the mitosis of a single fertilized egg. More narrowly, a clone can be defined as an individual

Anne

2005-02-20T15:38:00.000-08:00

Queen of Great Britain from 1702 to 1714. The last Stuart monarch, she wished to rule independently, but her intellectual limitations and chronic ill health caused her to rely heavily on her ministers, who directed England's efforts against France and Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). The bitter rivalries between Whigs and Tories

Mela, Pomponius

2005-02-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

Author of the only ancient treatise on geography in classical Latin, De situ orbis (“A Description of the World”), also known as De chorographia (“Concerning Chorography”). Written about AD 43 or 44, it remained influential until the beginning of the age of exploration, 13 centuries later. Though probably intended for the general reader, Mela's geography was cited by Pliny the Elder

Newington

2005-02-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

Area in the borough of Southwark, London. It lies southeast of Waterloo Station and west of Bermondsey. In the 19th century the area was developed as a residential suburb, and several roads and railways were built, converting Newington into a transportation hub for London south of the River Thames. Central to the area is the Elephant and Castle, a large traffic roundabout

Andrada E Silva, José Bonifácio De

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

Andrada went to Portugal as a student and became a distinguished scholar there, earning an international reputation as a naturalist and geologist. He remained in Portugal until

Girardon, François

2005-02-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

Giradon attracted the attention of Chancellor Pierre Séguier, who brought him to Paris to study under François Anguier and afterward sent him to Rome. He returned to France about 1650, becoming a member of the

Conservative Party

2005-02-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

Byname Tories in the United Kingdom, a political party whose guiding principles include the promotion of private property and enterprise, the maintenance of a strong military, and the preservation of traditional cultural values and institutions. Since World War I the Conservative Party and its principal opponent, the Labour Party, have dominated British political life.

Encina, Juan Del

2005-02-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

After youthful training as a chorister at Salamanca cathedral (c. 1484) and at the University of Salamanca (before 1490), Encina entered the service of the Duke of Alba as

Indonesia, The French and British in Java, 180615

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

The fall of the Netherlands to France during the Revolutionary Wars and the dissolution of the company led in due course to significant changes in the administration of the Indies. Under Napoleon's “Kingdom of Holland,” one of his marshals, Herman Willem Daendels, was appointed as governor-general. Daendels strengthened Javanese defenses, raised new forces, built

Indian Grass

2005-02-13T02:50:00.000-08:00

(species Sorghastrum nutans), tall perennial forage grass of the family Poaceae and one of the important constituents of the North American tall grass prairie. It bears narrow, greatly branched flower clusters. Each yellow spikelet is fringed with white hairs, giving the plant a silver-and-gold appearance. It is a close relative of S.

Baule

2005-02-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

The ancestors of the Baule were a section of the Asante who immigrated to their present location under the leadership of Queen Awura Pokou about 1750, following a dispute over the chieftaincy,

Crocker, Lucretia

2005-02-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

Crocker graduated from the State Normal School in West Newton, Massachusetts, in 1850 and remained there for four more years as an instructor

Argentina, Transitional period

2005-02-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

The military government faced several urgent and difficult problems, including the decision of whether to remain neutral or choose sides in the war. It also had to decide between the restoration of a representative system and the installation of a long-term military dictatorship. General Arturo Rawson was made president but resigned after two days when his anticonservative

Duarte, Fausto (castilho)

2005-02-08T22:41:00.000-08:00

Duarte was educated under the official program of assimilaçao (“assimilation”), which after 1921 had social and political equality for Africans in the Portuguese sphere of influence as a goal. He was then

Argentina, The Pampean zone

2005-02-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

The Pampas occupy a transitional area between high summer temperatures to the north and cooler summers to the south. Buenos Aires, located on the northern edge of the Pampas, has a climate similar to that of cities in the southeastern United States, with hot, humid summers and cool, mild winters. The range of mean temperatures for summer months (December to February)

Biblical Literature, Early versions

2005-02-07T02:52:00.000-08:00

Even with all these witnesses, there remain problems in the Greek text. These include variants about which there is no settled opinion and some few words for which no accurate meaning can be found because they occur only once in the New Testament and not in prior Greek works. Very early translations of the New Testament made as it spread into the non-Greek-speaking

Louis Vi

2005-02-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

Louis was designated by his father, Philip I, as his successor in 1098 and was already effectively the ruler well before Philip's death in 1108. He quickly recognized that his priority must be

Mitchell, Edgar D(ean)

2005-02-05T07:22:00.000-08:00

Mitchell entered the U.S. Navy upon graduation from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pa. He was awarded an engineering degree by the Navy

Earth, Crustal magnetization

2005-02-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Magnetic fields measured at the Earth's surface are not entirely produced by the internal dynamo. Radially outward from the Earth's core, the next major source of magnetic field is crustal magnetization. The temperature of the materials constituting the crust is cool enough for them to exist in solid form. The solids may become magnetized by the Earth's main field

Petah Tiqwa

2005-02-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

City, west-central Israel, on the Plain of Sharon, east-northeast of Tel Aviv-Yafo and part of that city's metropolitan area. Situated in the valley of Achor near the Yarqon River, the city takes its name (meaning “Door of Hope”) from the biblical allusion in Hosea 2:15: “ . . . and make the valley of Achor a door of hope.” Petah Tiqwa was the first village (founded 1878) in the modern Jewish settlement

Nizhegorod

2005-02-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1932–90) Gorky, oblast (province) in western Russia, in the middle of the Volga River basin. Nizhegorod oblast is bisected by the Volga River. The northern half of the oblast is a low plain, mostly in dense coniferous forest of spruce, pine, and fir, while lower parts are often swampy. Its soils are infertile. The southern half comprises rolling morainic hills, with deciduous trees, especially

Aichi

2005-02-01T02:47:00.000-08:00

Ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan, on the Pacific coast. More than half of its area lies within the Nobi Plain and two smaller plains to the east. The northwestern border with Gifu prefecture is formed by the Kiso River, sometimes known as the Nihon (Japan) Rhine. The irregular coast is marked by the peninsulas of Chita (west) and Atsumi (east), which enclose Mikawa Bay and

Auber, Daniel-françois-esprit

2005-01-30T08:16:00.000-08:00

Composer who was prominent in the development of opera containing spoken as well as sung passages (opéra comique). The great contemporary success of his works was due in part to the expertly tailored librettos of Eugène Scribe and in part to Auber's spirited musical settings, which were influenced by Rossini and well suited to French taste. One

Thomas, Dylan

2005-01-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

Thomas spent his childhood in southwestern Wales. His father taught English

Cinco De Mayo

2005-01-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

National holiday in Mexico in honour of a military victory in 1862 over the French forces of Napoleon III. When in 1861 Mexico declared a temporary moratorium on the repayment of foreign debts, English, Spanish, and French troops invaded the country. By April 1862 the English and Spanish had withdrawn, but the French, with the support of wealthy landowners, remained in an attempt

Chasseur

2005-01-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

(French: “hunter”), member of an armoured unit of the French army. Originally (1743) chasseurs, or chasseurs à pied (“on foot”), were light-infantry regiments. By the outbreak of World War I there were 30 battalions of chasseurs of which 12 were known as chasseurs alpins—units specially trained for mountain warfare. After World War II, chasseurs were formed as independent battalions for

Italy, Tourism

2005-01-27T20:38:00.000-08:00

Italy's tourist industry has flourished under both national and international patronage. The most popular locations, apart from the great cultural centres of Rome, Florence, Venice, and Naples, are the coastal resorts and islands or the Alpine hills and lakes of the north; the Ligurian and Amalfi rivieras; the northern Adriatic coast; the small islands in the Tyrrhenian

France, History Of, Napoleonic nobility

2005-01-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

Napoleon cultivated the loyalty of the nation's wealthy landed proprietors by a system of patronage and honours. He thereby facilitated the emergence of a ruling class drawn from both the middle classes and the nobility of the old regime, which had been divided by the artificial barriers of old-regime estates and privileges. The principal artifacts of Napoleon's

Ring Nebula

2005-01-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

(catalog numbers NGC 6720 and M 57), bright nebula in the constellation Lyra, several thousand light-years from the Earth. It was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Augustin Darquier. Like other nebulae of its type, called planetary nebulae, it is a sphere of glowing gas thrown off by a central star. Seen from a great distance, such a sphere appears brighter at the edge than

Dual Organization

2005-01-24T05:58:00.000-08:00

A social structure characterized by the division of society into two complementary parts called moieties. According to a strict definition, moieties are groups that are exogamous (i.e., marriage between members of the same moiety is forbidden), of unilineal descent, and in some sense opposed. Sometimes the term moiety is used more loosely to refer simply to one of two

Epistemology, Logical versus factual propositions

2005-01-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

The term “logical” in this connection is used in a wide sense to include a proposition such as “All husbands are married.” By analyzing the meaning of its constituent terms one can reduce the proposition to a logical truth, e.g., to “A and B implies A.” In contrast, factual propositions, such as “All Model-T Fords are black,” have syntactical and semantic structures that differentiate

Mitchell, William

2005-01-19T15:37:00.000-08:00

Byname Billy Mitchell U.S. Army officer who early advocated a separate U.S. air force and greater preparedness in military aviation. He was court-martialed for his outspoken views and did not live to see the fulfillment during World War II of many of his prophecies: strategic bombing, mass airborne operations, and the eclipse of the battleship by the bomb-carrying

Bonaparte, (marie-annonciade-)caroline

2005-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

As a result of her ambitious and intriguing nature, her husband became governor of Paris, marshal of France (1804), grand duke of Berg and of Cleves (1806), lieutenant of the emperor in Spain (1803), and king of Naples (1808). Her relations with Napoleon became strained as she associated

Tigereye

2005-01-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Tiger's-eye, semiprecious quartz gem displaying chatoyancy, a vertical luminescent band like that of a cat's eye. Veins of parallel, blue asbestos (crocidolite) fibres are first altered to iron oxides and then replaced by silica. The gem has a rich yellow to yellow-brown or brown colour and, when polished, a fine golden lustre. The best stones come from Griqualand West, S.Af. Hawk's-eye

D'urfey, Thomas

2005-01-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

Patronized by King Charles II, whom he entertained as a jester

Valdemar Ii

2005-01-15T23:19:00.000-08:00

The son and brother, respectively, of the Danish kings Valdemar I and Canute IV, Valdemar acted as the duke of Schleswig from 1188 and conquered

Astrodome

2005-01-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

Modern domed stadium built in Houston, Texas, in 1965. The largest previous covered sports arenas provided only limited performing space and seated no more than 20,000 persons. The Astrodome, however, built on the principle of the dome, completely protects a sports area suitable for baseball and American football, with seating for 66,000 spectators in six tiers. The plastic-paneled

Mathematics, Foundations Of

2005-01-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

The study of the logical and philosophical basis of mathematics, including whether the axioms of a given system ensure its completeness and its consistency. Because mathematics has served as a model for rational inquiry in the West and is used extensively in the sciences, foundational studies have far-reaching consequences for the reliability and extensibility

Nagaland, The economy

2005-01-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

Agriculture employs about 90 percent of the population. Rice, corn (maize), small millets, pulses (legumes such as peas and beans), oilseeds, fibres, sugarcane, potato, and tobacco are the principal crops. Nagaland, however, still has to depend on imports of food from neighbouring states. The widespread practice of jhum has led to soil erosion and loss of soil fertility. Only the

Marrano

2005-01-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

In the late 14th century, Spanish Jewry was threatened with extinction at the hands of mobs of fanatical Christians. Thousands

Hines, Earl (kenneth)

2005-01-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

Byname Fatha American jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer who was one of the strongest influences in the first 30 years of jazz history. He improvised lines with his right hand that were phrased like those of a trumpeter and—with the use of octave voicings, tremolos, and his powerful attack—caused the piano to seem almost brassy. This style,

Paasikivi, Juho Kusti

2005-01-10T00:14:00.000-08:00

Paasikivi studied law and history at the universities of Stockholm, Uppsala, and Leipzig and from 1902 to 1903 was a lecturer in law at the University

Alakol, Lake

2005-01-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

Kazak Alaköl , Russian Ozero Alakol , also called Ozero Ala-Kul salt lake in Kazakstan, 110 miles (180 km) east of Lake Balqash, near the border with the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. Lake Alakol has a drainage basin of about 26,500 square miles (68,700 square km), an area of 1,025 square miles, reaches a depth of about 148 feet (45 m), and receives the Urdzhar River (north).

Baden

2005-01-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

Former state on the east bank of the Rhine River in the southwestern corner of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg Land (state) of Germany. The former Baden state comprised the eastern half of the Rhine River valley together with the adjoining mountains, especially the Schwarzwald, which fills the great angle made by the river between Schaffhausen

Teapot Dome Scandal

2005-01-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

Also called the Oil Reserves, or Elk Hills, Scandal, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert B. Fall. After President Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive

Bottome, Margaret Mcdonald

2005-01-05T03:58:00.000-08:00

Née Margaret McDonald American columnist and religious organizer, founder of the Christian spiritual development and service organization now known as the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons. She attended school in Brooklyn and in 1850 married the Reverend Frank Bottome. Her long-standing practice of giving informal talks on the Bible

Balbo, Cesare, Count (conte)

2005-01-04T05:24:00.000-08:00

Balbo grew up while Piedmont was annexed to France and began his career by entering the Napoleonic

Toccata

2005-01-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

In the late 16th century in Venice such composers as Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Merulo wrote organ toccatas (many with such titles as Fantasia and Intonazione), often

Leucothea

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

(Greek: White Goddess [of the Foam]), in Greek mythology, a sea goddess first mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, in which she rescued the Greek hero Odysseus from drowning. She was customarily identified with Ino, daughter of the Phoenician Cadmus; because she cared for the infant god Dionysus, the goddess Hera drove Ino (or her husband, Athamas) mad so that she and her son, Melicertes,

Waals, Johannes Diederik Van Der

2004-12-31T21:55:00.000-08:00

A self-educated man who took advantage of the opportunities offered by the University of Leiden, van der Waals first attracted notice in 1873 with his doctoral

Aelfheah, Saint

2004-12-31T15:20:00.000-08:00

Of noble birth, Aelfheah entered the Benedictine abbey of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, and later became a hermit at Bath, Somerset, where followers elected him abbot. Aelfheah was a friend of Archbishop St. Dunstan of Canterbury,

Alexander City

2004-12-28T17:33:00.000-08:00

City, Tallapoosa county, east-central Alabama, U.S., 75 miles (120 km) southeast of Birmingham. Early settlement began in 1836, and gold was discovered in the area in the early 1840s. It was known as Youngsville until 1873, when it was named for General Edward Porter Alexander, president of the Savannah and Memphis (Central of Georgia) Railroad. To the south, Martin Dam on the Tallapoosa River provides

Azathioprine

2004-12-28T07:30:00.000-08:00

Immunosuppressive drug that is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and to suppress the body's rejection of transplanted organs. By inhibiting several enzymatic pathways required for the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), azathioprine decreases the number of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) that can migrate to inflammatory sites. Leukopenia (an

Levi Strauss & Co.

2004-12-26T18:25:00.000-08:00

The company traces its origin to Levi Strauss (1829–1902), a Bavarian immigrant who arrived in San

Arnow, Harriette

2004-12-26T03:21:00.000-08:00

Née Harriette Louisa Simpson American novelist, social historian, short-story writer, and essayist, known primarily for the novel The Dollmaker (1954), the story of a Kentucky hill family that moves north to Detroit during World War II. Arnow is an important writer who is often overlooked because of her regionalist approach to universal

Cloud Forest

2004-12-24T01:39:00.000-08:00

Also called montane rainforest, vegetation of tropical mountainous regions in which the rainfall is often heavy and persistent condensation occurs because of cooling of moisture-laden air currents deflected upward by the mountains. The trees in a cloud forest are typically short and crooked. Mosses, climbing ferns, lichens, and epiphytes (air plants, such as orchids) form thick blankets on the

Roosevelt, Franklin D., Declining health and death

2004-12-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

Roosevelt had been suffering from advanced arteriosclerosis for more than a year before the Yalta Conference. His political opponents had tried to make much of his obviously declining health during the campaign of 1944, when he ran for a fourth term against Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. But Roosevelt campaigned actively and won the election by a popular vote of 25 million to 22 million and an electoral college vote of 432 to 99. (See primary source document: Fourth Inaugural Address.) By the time of his return from Yalta, however, he was so weak that for the first time in his presidency he spoke to Congress while sitting down. Early in April 1945 he traveled to his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia—the “Little White House”—to rest. On the afternoon of April 12, while sitting for a portrait, he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage, and he died a few hours later. With him at his death were two cousins, Laura Delano and Margaret Suckley, and Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd (by then a widow), with whom he had renewed his relationship a few years before.

Agrippa

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

Agrippa's five arguments held that (1) there is a clash of opinions, both in daily life and in the debates of philosophers; (2) nothing is self-evident, because that

Kiddush

2004-12-21T04:26:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Qiddush (Hebrew: “sanctification”) Jewish benediction and prayer recited over a cup of wine immediately before the meal on the eve of the sabbath or of a festival; the ceremony acknowledges the sanctity of the day that has just begun. Chanting, or recitation, usually performed by the head of the household, may involve several or all members of the family, depending on the custom; each then sips wine from

Lenin, Vladimir Ilich

2004-12-19T15:35:00.000-08:00

Original name Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov founder of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), inspirer and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and the architect, builder, and first head (1917–24) of the Soviet state. He was the founder of the organization known as Comintern (Communist International) and the posthumous source of “Leninism,

Anchorage

2004-12-19T03:25:00.000-08:00

City, southern Alaska, U.S. It is a port at the head of Cook Inlet (a bay of the Pacific). Anchorage was founded in 1914 as the headquarters of the Alaska Railroad running north to Fairbanks. It became a key aviation and defense centre with the construction of Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base during World War II. Subsequently, it became a regular stop on air routes from

Natick

2004-12-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Boston. The first recorded settlement there was made in 1650, when the missionary John Eliot was granted the land for use as a plantation for his “praying Indians.” In 1663 Eliot published an Algonquian-language translation of the Bible, a copy of which the town historical society possesses. After

Ravinia Park

2004-12-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

One of the oldest outdoor summer music and cultural centres in the United States, located in Highland Park, Ill., 25 miles (40 km) north of Chicago's Loop. It was established in 1905 on land purchased by the A.C. Frost Company, a subsidiary of the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad (the Chicago and North Western Railroad now bisects the property). Originally an amusement centre

Kiel Canal

2004-12-15T23:55:00.000-08:00

German Nord-ostsee-kanal (“North Sea–Baltic Sea Canal”), waterway extending eastward for 61 miles (98 km) from Brunsbüttelkoog (on the North Sea, at the mouth of the Elbe River) to Holtenau (at Kiel Harbour on the Baltic Sea), in northern Germany. The canal is 338 feet (103 m) wide and 37 feet (11 m) deep and is spanned by seven high-level bridges (about 140 feet high). It constitutes the safest, most convenient, shortest, and cheapest

Wild Ginger

2004-12-14T03:23:00.000-08:00

Canadian wild ginger,

Procuracy

2004-12-13T21:14:00.000-08:00

Russian Prokuratura, in the former Soviet legal system, a government bureau concerned with ensuring administrative legality. The Soviet constitution invested the procurator general (Russian: generalny prokuror) with the responsibility of supervising the observance of the law by all government ministries and institutions subordinate to them, as well as by individual officials

Cymbeline

2004-12-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

In the play Cymbeline, the king

Yellow-green Algae

2004-12-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

Members of the division Xanthophyta (about 6,000 species), once classified with the green algae on the basis of similarity of body organization. The Xanthophyta are distinguished by their food reserve (oil), the quantity of b-carotene in their plastids, and motile bodies with unequal flagella. Frequently their cell walls are two overlapping halves. The

Armenian Language

2004-12-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

Language that forms a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. (It was once erroneously considered a dialect of Iranian.) Armenian is the mother tongue of the Turkish Armenians and of the Armenians in Armenia, where it is spoken by 2,850,000 people. In other parts of the former Soviet Union, especially in the neighbouring republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan, it is

Aesthetics

2004-12-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

As the above discussion illustrates, it is impossible to advance far into the theory of aesthetic experience without encountering the specific problems posed by the experience of art. Whether or not we think of art as the central or defining example of the aesthetic object, there is no doubt that it provides the most distinctive illustration both of the elusive

Aethelwulf

2004-12-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

The son of the great West Saxon king Egbert (ruled 802–839), Aethelwulf ascended the throne four years after the Danes had begun large-scale raids on the English coast. In 851 he scored a major

Caudata, Bones and cartilage

2004-12-08T03:54:00.000-08:00

The rather weak skull of adults is composed of various paired and unpaired bones. These bones may fuse or be lost in different groups, and their presence and arrangement are important in classification. Much of the fusion and loss of skull bones is associated with a trend toward tongue feeding. Small, double-cusped teeth line the margins of the jaw and spread over parts

Amitayur-dhyana-sutra

2004-12-07T13:05:00.000-08:00

(Sanskrit: “Discourse Concerning Meditation on Amitayus”), one of three texts basic to Pure Land Buddhism. Together with the larger and smaller Sukhavati-vyuha-sutras (Sanskrit: “Description of the Western Paradise Sutras”), this text envisions rebirth in the celestial Pure Land of Amitayus, the Buddha of Infinite Life (virtually identical with Amitabha, “Infinite Light,” called

Gwyn, Nell

2004-12-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

Her father, according to tradition, died in a debtors' prison at Oxford during

Yeshiva

2004-12-04T22:42:00.000-08:00

Also spelled yeshivah , or yeshibah (Hebrew “sitting”) , plural yeshivas, yeshivot, yeshivoth , or yeshibot any of numerous Jewish academies of Talmudic learning, whose biblical and legal exegesis and application of Scripture have defined and regulated Jewish religious life for centuries. The early history of the yeshiva as an institution is known only through indirect evidence, and the word itself did not come into current use until the 1st century AD. Rabbinic literature