MixedBoat

Yerkes, Robert M.

2005-03-30T04:08:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Ursinus College, Yerkes took his Ph.D. degree at Harvard University in 1902 and then served first as instructor and then as professor of psychology at Harvard until 1917. His early studies of the behaviour

Aetolia And Acarnania

2005-03-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

Most of Acarnania

Devonport

2005-03-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

Town, northern Tasmania, Australia. It lies near the mouth of the River Mersey, which empties into Bass Strait. One of the state's largest communities, it was formed through the amalgamation in 1893 of the villages of Torquay (east bank) and Formby (west), both of which had been founded in the 1850s. A major service centre with port facilities, Devonport is on the Bass Highway and a rail

Mabillon, Jean

2005-03-28T16:44:00.000-08:00

He entered Saint-Rémi Abbey, Reims, in 1653 and became a Benedictine monk the following year. He was ordained priest (1660) at Corbie, Fr., before moving in 1664 to St. Germain-des-Prés, Paris, headquarters of the Maurists, a congregation of French

Insurance, Business property insurance

2005-03-27T09:29:00.000-08:00

Insurance for business property follows a pattern that is similar in many ways to the one for individual property. A commonly used form is the “building and personal property coverage form” (BPP). This form permits a business owner to cover in one policy the buildings, fixtures, machinery and equipment, and personal property used in business and the personal property

Ashfield

2005-03-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

District, administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, England. The name is ancient and appeared in the names of the two major towns within the district even before its formation. The two towns are the coal-mining centres of Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield, forming, as does the whole district, part of the heavily industrialized western rim of the

Maccarthy, Sir Desmond

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

MacCarthy was associated with the Bloomsbury group. He began his career as a freelance journalist, quickly moving to editorial work

Permafrost

2005-03-25T17:57:00.000-08:00

Perennially frozen ground, a naturally occurring material with a temperature colder than 0° C (32° F) continuously for two or more years. Such a layer of frozen ground is designated exclusively on the basis of temperature. Part or all of its moisture may be unfrozen, depending on the chemical composition of the water or the depression of the freezing point by capillary forces.

China, The civil service

2005-03-24T00:12:00.000-08:00

One of the main contributions of the Han dynasty to the future of Imperial China lay in the development of the civil service and the structure of central and provincial government. The evolutionary changes that subsequently transformed Han polity beyond recognition were not directed at altering the underlying principles of government but at applying them

Chia-i

2005-03-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Chiayi, shih (municipality) and seat of Chia-i hsien (county), on the western coastal plain of Taiwan. It lies at the foot of the A-li Mountains, on Taiwan's main north–south rail and highway routes. Narrow-gauge branch railways built by the Japanese (who occupied Taiwan from 1895 to 1945) run from Chia-i to the sugar-producing plains to the west and into the A-li Mountains for the transport of lumber.

Otfrid

2005-03-23T16:04:00.000-08:00

Otfrid was trained in the monastery school of Fulda under Rabanus Maurus, who directed the school from 802 to 824. His fame rests on his Evangelienbuch (c. 870; “Book of the Gospels”), a poem of 7,416 lines, which is extant in three good contemporary manuscripts. It is an exceptionally valuable document,

Giotto Di Bondone

2005-03-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

In January 1330, King Robert of Naples promoted Giotto to the rank of “familiar” (member of the royal household), which implies that he had been in Naples for some while, possibly since 1329, and he remained there until 1332–33. All the works he executed there have been lost, but traces of his style may be distinguished in the local school. On April 12, 1334, he was appointed capomastro, or surveyor, of

Møller, Poul Martin

2005-03-21T22:04:00.000-08:00

Danish author whose novel of student life, the first in his country's literature that dealt with the contemporary scene, marked an important stage in the history of Danish literature. His aphorism, “All poetry that does not come from life is a lie,” sums up his realistic approach in a romantic age. He is also distinguished

Spongillafly

2005-03-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Any insect of the parasitic neuropteran family Sisyridae. The adult, a smoky brown insect, deposits clusters of eggs under a silky web near or on the water. The larva lives as a parasite on a freshwater sponge. It leaves the water when fully grown and spins a double-walled, lacelike cocoon in which it passes the pupal stage. Spongillaflies are found throughout the world

Udaipur

2005-03-20T16:53:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Udaypur, city, southern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It lies in the hills of the Aravali Range. Udaipur (“City of Sunrise”) was made the capital of the princely state of Udaipur in 1568 by Maharana Udai Singh after the sack of Chittaurgarh. A walled city, it stands on a ridge crowned by the Maharana's palace, which was begun in 1570. To the west lies Lake Pichola with its two small islands and marble

Roman Catholicism, History Of, Napoleon Iexportation of the Revolution

2005-03-19T17:11:00.000-08:00

As it was obvious that the French Revolution itself had to be carried to some more permanent settlement, so it was recognized on all sides that a more stable arrangement of church-state relations was essential. This was achieved by Napoleon Bonaparte in a concordat concluded with Pope Pius VII on July 15/16, 1801. It recognized that Roman Catholicism was the faith of most Frenchmen

Kerll, Johann Caspar Von

2005-03-19T06:36:00.000-08:00

In 1645 Kerll was sent by Ferdinand III to study in Rome with the prominent composers Giacomo Carissimi and Girolamo Frescobaldi; earlier he had studied in Vienna. His study in Italy had great influence on his composition, much of which is Italianate in

Chamonix-mont-blanc

2005-03-18T06:13:00.000-08:00

Internationally known mountain resort in the French Alps, Haute-Savoie département, Rhône-Alpes region, west of Annecy. It is situated at an elevation of 3,402 feet (1,037 m) on both sides of the Arve River, which rises in the Sea of Ice, largest of Mont Blanc's glaciers. The peaks of the rugged mountain chain of Brévent and Rouges rise to the northwest above the right bank, while the snow-clad

Maccready, Paul Beattie

2005-03-18T02:47:00.000-08:00

MacCready was a national champion model-plane builder in the 1930s and received his pilot's license at the age of 16. He graduated with a B.S. degree in physics from

Aerospace Industry, Remanufacture and upgrading

2005-03-17T18:03:00.000-08:00

The most elaborate type of program under the general heading of maintenance is the remanufacturing process. Performed at aircraft-manufacturing facilities, remanufacture is a measure that combines a general overhaul with an upgrade of some of the aircraft's systems. The latter process often paces the progressive development of a basic airplane type through

Literature, Yiddish.

2005-03-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

Most of the Yiddish writings in 1997 appeared in the accessible form of short stories and sketches. Some, like Avraham Karpinovitsh's exciting tapestry Geven, geven amol Vilne ("There Was Once Upon a Time Vilna"), brought a wealth of memory to a retrospective--a reconstruction of the Jerusalem of the North. Yoysef Burg's companion volumes Tsvey veltn ("Two Worlds") and Tseviklte

Amide

2005-03-16T04:14:00.000-08:00

Any member of either of two classes of nitrogen-containing compounds related to ammonia and amines. The covalent amides are neutral or very weakly acidic substances formed by replacement of the hydroxyl group (OH) of an acid by an amino group (NR2, in which R may represent a hydrogen atom or an organic combining group such as methyl, CH3). The carboxamides (R¢CONR2), which are

Digestive System Disease, Hookworms

2005-03-16T00:14:00.000-08:00

Hookworm, or Ancylostoma duodenale, infection begins when the worm is in the larval stage. It penetrates the skin, usually of the feet, migrates during its life cycle through the liver and the lungs, and attaches to the mucosa of the small intestine where it matures. Hookworms deplete the body of nutrients, and a major effect is severe chronic iron-deficiency

Biblical Literature, Zechariah

2005-03-15T16:17:00.000-08:00

Though little is known about Zechariah's

López De Ayala, Pedro

2005-03-15T02:25:00.000-08:00

Ayala had a long and distinguished civil

Ski Patrol

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

Group of paid or volunteer workers at ski resorts whose primary function is to promote skiing safety and provide first aid for injured skiers. Ski patrolmen are proficient skiers trained in first aid and cold weather rescue and survival techniques. One of the largest such organizations in the world is the National Ski Patrol System of the United States, founded

Celestial Globe

2005-03-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

Some globes were made in ancient Greece; Thales of Miletus (fl. 6th century BC) is generally credited with having constructed the first. Probably the oldest in existence is the

Minamoto Yoriyoshi

2005-03-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

After aiding the central government in quelling several uprisings by Ainu tribesmen, Yoriyoshi was sent to crush a rebellion led by Abe Yoritoki of the powerful Abe warrior clan of northern Japan (1051). The fighting was characterized by repeated pauses, defeats

Chibcha

2005-03-12T15:48:00.000-08:00

Also called Muisca, South American Indians who at the time of the Spanish conquest occupied the high valleys surrounding the modern cities of Bogotá and Tunja in Colombia. With a population of more than 500,000, they were notable for being more centralized politically than any other South American people outside the Inca empire. Numerous small districts, each with its own chief, had been consolidated

Padmasambhava

2005-03-12T05:41:00.000-08:00

According to tradition, he was a native of Udyana (now Swat, Pak.), an area famed for its magicians. Padmasambhava was a Tantrist and a member of the Yogacara sect and taught at Nalanda, a centre of Buddhist studies

Babbage, Charles

2005-03-12T05:08:00.000-08:00

In 1812 Babbage helped found the Analytical Society, whose object was to introduce developments from the European continent into English mathematics. In 1816 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He

Viet-muong Languages

2005-03-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

Subbranch of the Vietic branch of the Mon-Khmer family of languages, itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. Vietnamese, the most important language of the group and of the entire Mon-Khmer family, has a number of regional variants. Northern Vietnamese, centred in Hanoi, is the basis for the official form of Vietnamese. Central Vietnamese, centred in Hue, and Southern

Maharaja

2005-03-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

The title seems to have been introduced sometime in the first century BC by the Kushans. They had been

Augustine, Saint, Scholarly literature

2005-03-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

The best one-volume study of Augustine's thought is Eugene TeSelle, Augustine the Theologian (1970). John Burnaby, Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine (1938; reissued with corrections and a new foreword, 1991), is sympathetic and illuminating but dated. For Augustine in his cultural context, there is still nothing better than Henri Irénée Marrou, Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique, 4th ed., 2 vol. in 1 (1958; reissued in 1 vol., 1983). Other useful studies are Brian Stock, Augustine the Reader: Meditation, Self-Knowledge, and the Ethics of Interpretation (1996); and Sabine MacCormack, The Shadows of Poetry: Vergil in the Mind of Augustine (1998). Augustine's political views are addressed in Herbert A. Deane, The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine (1963); and R.A. Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St. Augustine, rev. ed. (1988). Augustine's views on sexuality have come under scrutiny in recent years; the most comprehensive study is Kim Power, Veiled Desire: Augustine on Women (1996); but Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (1988), is also important.

Defense Economics

2005-03-10T01:09:00.000-08:00

Field of national economic management concerned with the economic effects of military expenditure, the management of economics in wartime, and the management of peacetime military budgets.

Arts, Central Asian, Instrumental and vocal styles

2005-03-09T01:25:00.000-08:00

Across the region the principal instrument types are lutes, with two or three strings, the necks either fretted or fretless; fiddles, largely horsehair fiddles; flutes, mostly open at both ends and either end-blown or side-blown; and jews' harps, either metal or, often in Siberia, wooden. Few percussion instruments are found, except for the shaman's magic drum. Considerable

Balash

2005-03-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Valakhsh Sasanian king (reigned 484–488), succeeding his brother Firuz I. Soon after he ascended the throne, Balash was threatened by the dominance of invading Hephthalites, a nomadic eastern tribe. Supported by Zarmihr, a feudal chief, Balash suppressed an uprising by his rebel brother Zareh. Later, however, he was abandoned by Zarmihr, and shortly afterward he was deposed and blinded.

Hammar, Lake

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

Arabic Hawr Al-hammar, large swampy lake in southeastern Iraq, south of the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Fed by distributaries of the Euphrates, the lake (70 miles [110 km] long; 750 square miles [1,950 square km] in area) drains via a short channel into the Shatt al-Arab near Basra. It was once only a reed-filled marshland but was later utilized as a natural irrigation reservoir for the fertile soils

Mahir, Ahmad

2005-03-08T01:13:00.000-08:00

Mahir was educated at the Khedivial Law school and the University of Montpellier in France. A younger brother of 'Ali Mahir, who had on three previous occasions been premier of Egypt, Ahmad occupied a number of important government positions from the early 1920s. Early in his career, Mahir was

Aqaba, Gulf Of

2005-03-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

Arabic Khalij Al-'aqabah, northeastern arm of the Red Sea, penetrating between Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula. It varies in width from 12 to 17 miles (19 to 27 km) and is 100 miles (160 km) long. The gulf lies in a pronounced cleft between hills rising abruptly to about 2,000 feet (600 m). Navigation is difficult because of the gulf's narrow entrance at the Straits of Tiran and its islands, coral reefs, and sudden squalls. The

Blood Bank

2005-03-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

Organization that collects, stores, processes, and transfuses blood. The fact that stored blood could safely be used was demonstrated in World War I. Before the first blood banks came into operation, the physician determined the blood types of the patient's relatives and friends until the proper type was found, performed the crossmatch, bled the donor, and gave the

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Fable

2005-03-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

E. Chambry, Fables (1927), in Greek and French; S.A. Handford, Fables of Aesop (1956); B. Pares, Krylov's Fables (1926); Marianne Moore, Fables of La Fontaine (1954). For commentary on fables, see P. Clarac, La Fontaine, l'homme et l'oeuvre (1947); B.E. Perry, Aesopica (1952).

Papen, Franz Von

2005-03-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

The scion of a wealthy Catholic landowning family, Papen began his career as a professional soldier. At the beginning of World War I, he was military attaché in Washington, but after

Fukien, Settlement patterns

2005-03-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

About one-fifth of Fukien's population lives in cities and towns, the rest in rural areas. Population densities are lowest in the mountain uplands, increase in the river valleys, and are highest on the coastal plains and estuaries near Amoy, Ch'üan-chou, and Fu-chou.

Ligand Field Theory

2005-03-04T21:07:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, one of several theories that describe the electronic structure of coordination or complex compounds, notably transition metal complexes, which consist of a central metal atom surrounded by a group of electron-rich atoms or molecules called ligands. The ligand field theory deals with the origins and consequences of metal– ligand interactions as

Earthnut

2005-03-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

Also called Pignut, or Hognut (Conopodium majus), European plant of the carrot family (Apiaceae), so called because of its edible tubers. It grows in woods and fields in the British Isles and from Norway, France, Spain, and Portugal to Italy and Corsica. The slender, smooth perennial, growing 750 mm to 1 m (30 to 39 inches) high, has much-divided leaves and small, white flowers in compound umbels. The tubers, reaching 25 mm

Devotio Moderna

2005-03-04T00:52:00.000-08:00

Religious movement within Roman Catholicism from the end of the 14th to the 16th century stressing meditation and the inner life, attaching little importance to ritual and external works, and downgrading the highly speculative spirituality of the 13th and 14th centuries. Devotio moderna (Latin: “modern devotion”) originated in the Netherlands and spread to Germany, northern

Minehead

2005-03-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

Town (“parish”), West Somerset district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England. The town owes its origin and growth to its harbour. Minehead was first incorporated in 1558. Its older buildings include St. Michael's Church (1450), the almshouses (1630), the old manor office, and the 17th-century cottages along Quay Street. The present harbour was built in 1616. Minehead's trade with

Madiun

2005-03-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Madioen kotamadya (municipality) and kabupaten (regency) in Jawa Timur provinsi (“province”), eastern Java, Indonesia. The city lies on the east bank of the Madiun River. The population is mostly Indonesian and Chinese. The city was the scene of a short-lived communist rebellion, the so-called Madiun Affair, in 1948, and it maintains a site at which hundreds of soldiers killed in the Indonesian

Epistemology, Contemporary

2005-03-02T15:21:00.000-08:00

Two excellent anthologies are Harold Morick (ed.), Challenges to Empiricism (1972, reprinted 1980); and Paul K. Moser and Arnold Vander Nat (eds.), Human Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary Approaches (1987). Edmund L. Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” in Analysis, 23:121–23 (June 1963), is considered by many to be a decisive refutation of the justified, true-belief analysis of knowledge. Noam Chomsky, Language and the Problems of Knowledge (1988), discusses innateness, language, and psychology. Roderick M. Chisholm, Theory of Knowledge, 3rd ed. (1989); and Robert Audi, Belief, Justification, and Knowledge (1988), are two good introductions to standard epistemological problems.

Binocular

2005-03-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

In most binoculars, each

Maseru

2005-02-28T22:55:00.000-08:00

Capital and largest urban centre of Lesotho. It is on the left bank of the Caledon River near the border with Free State province, South Africa. In 1869 the chief of the Sotho (Basotho) nation, Moshoeshoe, founded the town near his mountain stronghold of Thaba Bosiu; few of the 19th-century buildings remain. Lesotho is linked with the South African railway system by a short line

Nabis

2005-02-27T15:59:00.000-08:00

Group of artists who, through their widely diverse activities, were a major influence on the art produced in France during the late 19th century. Preaching that a work of art is the end product and visual expression of an artist's synthesis of nature into personal aesthetic metaphors and symbols, they paved the way for the early 20th-century development of abstract and

Southwest National Park

2005-02-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

Marked by rugged terrain and a cold, wet

Agrippa

2005-02-27T08:35:00.000-08:00

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

Karakoram Highway

2005-02-25T20:54:00.000-08:00

The highway was a joint Pakistani and Chinese project and required

Halfbeak

2005-02-25T19:02:00.000-08:00

Any of about 70 species of marine and freshwater fishes of the family Exocoetidae (order Atheriniformes), sometimes placed in the family Hemirhamphidae. Halfbeaks are named for their unusual jaws—the upper is short and triangular, and the lower is long, slim, and beaklike. The fish are silvery, slender, and up to about 45 centimetres (18 inches) long. They can skip across the water

Kuang-hsü

2005-02-25T04:55:00.000-08:00

When the previous emperor died, his mother, the empress dowager Tz'u-hsi, chose her four-year-old nephew

Bendigo

2005-02-24T21:11:00.000-08:00

Founded as a sheep run in 1840, the city's official name was Sandhurst until 1891, when it was formally changed to honour a local prizefighter who compared his own prowess to that of the English pugilist known as Bendigo. An important gold discovery on Bendigo

Biogeochemical Cycle

2005-02-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

Any of the natural circulation pathways of the essential elements of living matter. These elements in various forms flow from the nonliving (abiotic) to the living (biotic) components of the biosphere and back to the nonliving again. In order for the living components of a major ecosystem (e.g., a lake or forest) to survive, all the chemical elements that make up living cells

Eliphaz The Temanite

2005-02-23T06:54:00.000-08:00

In three speeches of increasing severity, Eliphaz attempts to reconcile Job to God and induce him to repent. In

Buddhism, Sa-skya-pa, Bka'-brgyud-pa, and related schools

2005-02-23T03:36:00.000-08:00

The Sa-skya-pa order traces

Sun Bittern

2005-02-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

(species Eurypyga helias), slender bird of tropical America, the sole member of the family Eurypygidae (order Gruiformes). It has strikingly patterned wings, which the male spreads in courtship and threat displays. The sun bittern is about 43 cm (17 inches) long, with full wings and a long tail beautifully marked in browns, yellows, black, and white. It lives on

Talbot, Mary Anne

2005-02-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

Talbot's mother died at her birth, and she believed herself to be the illegitimate child of William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot. She was seduced in 1792 by Captain Essex Bowen and accompanied him to Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, disguised

Alaric Ii

2005-02-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

His dominions comprised Spain (except the kingdom of Galicia), Aquitaine, Languedoc, and western Provence. Alaric, like his father, was an Arian Christian, but he mitigated the persecution of Catholics and authorized the Catholic council at Agde in 506. To provide a law code for his Roman subjects, he appointed a

Bowling

2005-02-20T16:10:00.000-08:00

The crown jewel among all international tenpin bowling tournaments of 1994 was the third world youth championships, held in Monterrey, Mexico, August 6-13. A record 29 countries sent their best young bowlers to Mexico to compete for world titles in boys' and girls' divisions. Stars of the tournament were Jaana Puhakka and Pasi Pöllänen of Finland, each of whom won two individual

Ch'i-chia Culture

2005-02-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

Evidence of the culture was first unearthed in the small village of Ch'i-chia-p'ing, in the northwestern Chinese

Gulu

2005-02-20T11:35:00.000-08:00

Town, northwestern Uganda, situated about 175 miles (285 km) north of Kampala (the national capital) at an elevation of about 3,600 feet (1,100 m). It is the marketing centre of the main agricultural region of northern Uganda; cotton, tea, coffee, corn (maize), sorghum, and tobacco are grown in the surrounding area. Processing industries in Gulu handle cotton, coffee, tea, and oilseed and grain milling.

Caoshu

2005-02-20T08:47:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization ts'ao-shu in Chinese calligraphy, a cursive variant of the standard Chinese scripts lishu and kaishu and their semicursive derivative xingshu. The script developed during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220), and it had its period of greatest growth during the Tang dynasty (618–907). In caoshu the number of strokes in characters are reduced to single scrawls or abstract abbreviations of curves and dots.

Cabal

2005-02-18T22:53:00.000-08:00

A private organization or party engaged in secret intrigues; also, the intrigues themselves. In England the word was used during the 17th century to describe the mystical interpretation of the Hebrew scripture (the Cabala, or Kabbala), as well as to describe any secret or extralegal council of the king, especially the foreign committee of the Privy Council. The term took

Conductors Play Musical Chairs

2005-02-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

In recent years conductors have increasingly become the musical equivalents of professional athletes, parlaying their high-profile public personas and singular skills in a market that is driven by professional excellence and name value. Given that, 2003 was a particularly busy year for conductors, many of whom played their own version of musical chairs at orchestras

Maher, Bill

2005-02-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

The title of Politically Incorrect, the often controversial television talk show that nightly featured four outspoken guests from the world of entertainment, arts and letters, and politics, was never more appropriate than when its host, comedian Bill Maher, implied that the terrorists who had attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, were braver than U.S. forces fighting

Mordvinia

2005-02-17T05:14:00.000-08:00

Mordvinia occupies a gently rolling plain crossed by the broad, shallow, often swampy valley of the Moksha River in the west and the Sura, a direct tributary of the Volga, in the east. The climate is markedly continental. The average January temperature is 10° F (-12° C), but cold air from the north

Bearberry

2005-02-16T02:58:00.000-08:00

Also called Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), flowering, prostrate, evergreen shrubs, of the heath family (Ericaceae), occurring widely throughout North America in rocky and sandy woods and open areas. It has woody stems that are often 1.5–1.8 metres (5–6 feet) long. Roots develop from the stem joints, and the plant spreads, forming a broad, massive ground cover. The foliage turns

Epigraphy

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

Because such media were exclusive or predominant in many of mankind's earliest civilizations, epigraphy is a prime tool in recovering much of the firsthand record of antiquity. It is thus an essential

Salem

2005-02-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

Salem's manufactures include

Sorus

2005-02-15T01:26:00.000-08:00

Plural Sori, in botany, brownish or yellowish cluster of spore-producing structures (sporangia) on the lower surfaces of fern leaves. A sorus may be protected during development by a scale or film of tissue called an indusium. In rust and smut fungi, a sorus is a spore mass produced on the leaf of an infected plant. Reproductive structures called sori also occur in various species

Coín

2005-02-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

City, Málaga province, in the autonomous community (region) of Andalusia, southern Spain. It is situated near the beach resort region of Costa del Sol. The site was first settled by the Turdetanos, an Iberian tribe, and was later occupied by the Romans, who established the town of Lacibis. In 713 the Arabs took the town, calling it Cohine (Pleasant Paradise), the basis of its present

Estampie

2005-02-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

Provençal estampida courtly dance of the 12th–14th century. Mentioned in trouvère poetry, it was probably danced with sliding steps by couples to the music of vielles (medieval viols); its afterdance was the saltarello. In musical form the estampie derives from the sequence, a medieval genre of Latin hymn. Like the sequence it has a series of repeated melodic phrases (aa, bb, cc, . . . ); phrase endings in

Augustana College

2005-02-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Rock Island, Ill., U.S. The college is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Augustana offers only Bachelor of Arts degrees and has a curriculum of education, business, and the liberal arts and sciences. It operates study-abroad programs in Latin America, Asia, Israel, and Europe. The campus

Sun Worship

2005-02-14T08:22:00.000-08:00

Although sun worship has been used frequently as a term for “pagan” religion, it is, in fact, relatively rare. Though almost every culture uses solar motifs, only a relatively few cultures (Egyptian, Indo-European, and Meso-American) developed solar religions. All of these

Yíthion

2005-02-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Githion , historically Gythium small port of Laconia, southern Peloponnese, Greece. It lies at the northwestern extremity of the Lakonikós Gulf at the mouth of the Gythius River. The town is connected by a causeway to Marathonísi Island, on which, according to the 2nd-century-AD Greek geographer Pausanias, the legendary Paris celebrated his nuptials with Helen. Yíthion is built on the site of Migonium,

Papua

2005-02-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1969–2002) Irian Jaya (until 1969) Irian Barat propinsi (province), Indonesia, the western half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands—including the individual islands of Yapen, Adi, Waigeo, Batanta, Kofiau, Salawati, Misool, and Yos Sudarsa and the Schouten Islands. Papua fronts the Ceram and Banda seas to the west, the Arafura Sea to the southwest, and the Pacific Ocean to the north; it is bounded by Papua

Later Ly Dynasty

2005-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Vietnamese Nha Hau Ly (1009–1225), first of the three great dynasties of Vietnam. The kingdom, known later as Dai Viet, was established by Ly Thai To in the Red River Delta area of present northern Vietnam. Its capital was Thang Long (Hanoi). (It is “later” with respect to the Earlier Ly dynasty, founded by Ly Bon and lasting from 544 to 602/603.) The Later Ly was the first stable Vietnamese dynasty and helped establish many

Kubaba

2005-02-11T01:20:00.000-08:00

Goddess of the ancient Syrian city of Carchemish. In religious texts of the Hittite empire (c. 1400–c. 1190 BC), she played a minor part and appeared mainly in a context of Hurrian deities and rituals. After the downfall of the empire her cult spread westward and northward, and she became the chief goddess of the successor kingdoms (the neo-Hittite states) from Cilicia to the Halys

Peter Ii

2005-02-11T00:02:00.000-08:00

Duke of Brittany (from 1450), son of John V (or VI) and brother of his predecessor Francis I. He made an important innovation in limiting the right of asylum in churches and monasteries, enabling him to pursue his enemies at will. To preserve the family line, he adhered to the testament of Francis I and made his uncle Arthur, constable de Richemont, his successor, as

Procellariiform, Distribution

2005-02-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

The majority of procellariiforms breed in the Southern Hemisphere, but several species migrate thousands of miles north across the Equator to winter in the northern summer seas, where they molt, feed, and rest in preparation for the return home in the southern spring. Similarly, species that breed in the Northern Hemisphere also live in perpetual summer by migrating

Burbank, Luther

2005-02-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

Reared on a farm, Burbank received little more than a high

Shensi, Culture

2005-02-09T23:53:00.000-08:00

Citizens of Shensi take pride in their region as a historic centre of Chinese civilization and in their distinctive traditions in art, ceramics, and folksinging. The Yang-ko is a local form of musical folk opera with comic themes. Shensi-style Ch'in-ch'iang opera is also popular, as are shadow plays using local leather puppets.

Mineral

2005-02-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

Naturally occurring homogeneous solid with a definite chemical composition and a highly ordered atomic arrangement; it is usually formed by inorganic processes. There are several thousand known mineral species, about 100 of which constitute the major mineral components of rocks; these are the so-called rock-forming minerals.

Ercker, Lazarus

2005-02-08T04:29:00.000-08:00

Ercker studied at the University of Wittenberg (1547–48) and in 1554 was appointed assayer at Dresden, the first of many such positions he held in the state bureaucracy of Saxony. After 1567 he became control tester of coins at Kutná Hora, near Prague. In his great work, Beschreibung

Xingshu

2005-02-08T04:07:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization hsing-shu a semicursive Chinese script that developed out of the Han dynasty lishu script at the same time that the standard kaishu script was evolving (1st–3rd century AD). The characters of xingshu are not abbreviated or connected, but strokes within the characters are often run together. The best-known example of early surviving Chinese calligraphy, Lanting Xu (“Essay

Plymouth Company

2005-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

The Plymouth Company was less successful than its twin, the London Company (q.v.). In 1606 it established two colonies, and in 1607 settlers landed at the mouth of the

Adams, Charles Follen

2005-02-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

During the American Civil War he was wounded and taken prisoner. In 1872 he began writing humorous verses for periodicals and newspapers in a Pennsylvania German dialect. Collections of his verse are Leedle Yawcob Strauss, and Other Poems (1877) and

Gage, Thomas

2005-02-05T18:42:00.000-08:00

Gage's military career in North America began in 1754, when he sailed with his regiment to serve in the last French

Croker Island

2005-02-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

Island in Northern Territory, Australia, lying 2 miles (3 km) across Bowen Strait in the Arafura Sea from Coburg Peninsula. Low and swampy, the island rises only to 50 feet (15 m). It is 30 miles (50 km) long by 4 miles (6 km) wide and has an area of 126 square miles (326 square km). Visited by Captain Phillip Parker King of the Royal Navy about 1818, the island was probably named for John Wilson Croker, then chief

Kitami-sammyaku

2005-02-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

(Japanese: Kitami Range), mountain range, northeastern Hokkaido, Japan, extending 180 mi (290 km) along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The range is basically an upwarped block except in the west, where it drops abruptly to the Teshio-gawa (Teshio River) valley. Elevations are generally between 2,500 and 3,100 ft (750 and 950 m). In the south central part of the range, however, the Wenshiri horst (block of

Hughes, John Ceiriog

2005-02-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

After working successively as a grocer's helper, a clerk in Manchester, and a railway official in Wales, Hughes began winning poetry prizes in the 1850s and thereafter published several volumes of verse, the first

Brie

2005-02-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

Natural region of northern France between the Seine and Marne valleys. It occupies most of Seine-et-Marne département and parts of adjacent départements. The region was historically divided between the king of France (the Brie Française) and the duke of Champagne (the Brie Champenoise) from the 9th to the early 13th century, when the crown took it over. Broken here and there

Snowdrop

2005-02-04T00:13:00.000-08:00

Several species, including common snowdrop (G. nivalis) and giant snowdrop (G. elwesii), are cultivated as ornamentals for their nodding, sometimes fragrant flowers. They