ChiefRoot

Amalaric

2005-04-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

Amalaric was a child when his father fell in battle against Clovis, king of the Franks (507). He was carried for safety into Spain, which country, with southern Languedoc and Provence, was thenceforth ruled by his maternal grandfather Theodoric the Great through his vice-regent, an Ostrogothic nobleman named Theudis. On Theodoric's death

Príbram

2005-04-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

Príbram's other

Motor-paced Race

2005-03-29T15:54:00.000-08:00

In bicycle racing, a form of competition in which each bicycle racer competes behind a motorbike or motorcycle. (Originally, racers followed tandem bicycles or multicycles.) The bicycles used have small front wheels, enabling the rider to move close to a freely moving roller on a bar projecting from the rear of the pacing motorbike and thus to take full advantage of

Dyarchy

2005-03-27T02:50:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Diarchy, system of double government introduced by the Government of India Act (1919) for the provinces of British India. It marked the first introduction of the democratic principle into the executive branch of the British administration of India. Though much-criticized, it signified a breakthrough in British Indian government and was the forerunner of India's full provincial

Mountain

2005-03-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

Most mountains and mountain ranges are parts of mountain belts that have formed where two lithospheric plates have converged and where, in most cases, they continue to converge. In effect, many mountain belts mark the boundaries of lithospheric plates, and these boundaries in turn intersect other such boundaries. Consequently, there exist very long mountain systems

Lovelace, Augusta Ada King, Countess Of

2005-03-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

She was the daughter of the 6th Lord Byron (the famous poet) and Annabella Milbanke Byron, who legally separated

Xavier, Saint Francis

2005-03-22T00:11:00.000-08:00

Twentieth-century scholarship has dispelled many of the legends connected with Xavier and has also defended him against his critics. A modern estimate puts the figure of those baptized by him at about 30,000, as opposed to the 1,000,000 asserted by Baroque exaggeration. In reality he had to struggle with language wherever he worked and did not possess the gift of tongues attributed

Ashley, Maurice

2005-03-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

Ashley moved to Brooklyn, New York, with his family when he was 12 years old. He soon took up chess and excelled at the game, becoming a national master in 1986 and an International Master in 1993. From 1991 to 1997 Ashley was the chess director of the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, Inc., where

Paul, Wolfgang

2005-03-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

German physicist who shared one-half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1989 with the German-born American physicist Hans G. Dehmelt. (The other half of the prize was awarded to the American physicist Norman F. Ramsey.) Paul received his share of the prize for his development of the Paul trap—an electromagnetic device that captures ions (electrically

Simeon

2005-03-18T03:27:00.000-08:00

Following the Exodus out of Egypt and the death of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land and divided the new territory among the 12 tribes. Though sources do

Brune, Guillaume(-marie-anne)

2005-03-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

At first dedicated to a literary career, Brune became associated in Paris with the Revolutionary leader Georges Danton,

Ford, Richard

2005-03-15T02:04:00.000-08:00

Ford attended Michigan State University (B.A., 1966), Washington University Law School, and the University of California, Irvine (M.A., 1970), and subsequently taught at several American colleges and universities. His first novel, A Piece of My Heart (1976), is set on an island in the southern Mississippi

Lamballe, Marie-thérèse-louise De Savoie-carignan, Princess (princesse) De

2005-03-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

The daughter of Prince Louis-Victor de Savoie-Carignan, she was married in 1767 to Louis-Alexandre-Stanislas de Bourbon, Prince de Lamballe,

Cabeiri

2005-03-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Cabiri, important group of deities, probably of Phrygian origin, worshiped over much of Asia Minor, on the islands nearby, and in Macedonia and northern and central Greece. They were promoters of fertility and protectors of seafarers. Perhaps originally indefinite in number, in classical times there appear to have been two male deities, Axiocersus and his son and attendant

Ansbach

2005-03-12T06:46:00.000-08:00

Formerly Anspach, city, Bayern Land (state), southern Germany, on the Rezat River, southwest of Nürnberg. It originated around the Benedictine monastery of Onolzbach (founded 748) and was sold to a Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern line (later margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth) in 1331. It passed to Prussia in 1791 and to Bavaria in 1806. Queen Caroline, consort of George II of Great Britain, was

Kerr Electro-optic Effect

2005-03-12T04:11:00.000-08:00

In physics, the inducement of double refraction of light in a transparent substance when a strong electric field is applied in a direction transverse to the beam of light. In double refraction, the index of refraction (a measure of the amount the ray is bent on entering the material), and hence the wave velocity of light vibrating in the direction of the electric field,

Amphictyony

2005-03-10T02:11:00.000-08:00

Also spelled amphictiony (from Greek amphiktyones, “dwellers around”) in ancient Greece, association of neighbouring states formed around a religious centre. The most important was the Amphictyonic League (Delphic Amphictyony). Originally composed of 12 tribes dwelling around Thermopylae, the league was centred first on the shrine of Demeter and later became associated with the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Member states sent two kinds

Amphictyony

2005-03-09T13:21:00.000-08:00

A soft, silvery-white or grayish metal in Group IVa of the periodic table. Lead is very malleable, ductile, and dense and is a poor conductor of electricity. Known in antiquity and believed by the alchemists to be the oldest of metals, lead is highly durable and resistant to corrosion, as is indicated by the continuing use of lead water pipes installed by the ancient

Amazon River, Early European exploration

2005-03-08T20:35:00.000-08:00

In the early days the river was the only means of access into the forest. Francisco de Orellana descended the main course of the river from the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic in 1541–42. Nearly a century later, Pedro Teixeira went from Belém to Quito, Ecuador, and the region increasingly became known through the explorations of the Portuguese. In 1743 the French naturalist Charles-Marie

Biblical Literature, The life of Jesus

2005-03-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Though the fact that Jesus was a historical person has been stressed, significant, too, is the fact that a full biography of accurate chronology is not possible. The New Testament writers were less concerned with such difficulties than the person who attempts to construct some chronological accounts in retrospect. Both the indifference of early secular historians

Extinction

2005-03-05T03:34:00.000-08:00

In biology, the dying out or termination of a race or species. Extinction occurs when a species can no longer reproduce at replacement levels. Most extinctions are thought to have resulted from environmental changes that affected the species in either of two ways. The doomed species might not have been able to adapt to the changed environment and thus perished without

Dyer, Mary Barrett

2005-03-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

Married in 1633 in London to William Dyer, Mary Dyer went with him to America (c. 1635) and settled in Boston. She began to accept the antinomian

Industrial Polymers, Major, Aldehyde condensation polymers

2005-03-04T06:21:00.000-08:00

The polymerization reactions of these monomers produce complex, thermosetting network polymers with the following

Interior Design, Industrial interiors

2005-03-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

Industrial interiors do not usually involve interior designers. There are, of course, many industrial spaces, such as workshops, laboratories, and factories, that have been planned by architects and designers, and there are a few that have stressed some aesthetic considerations. By and large, however, industrial interiors are created as strictly functional spaces.

Luther, Martin, Augustinian Order at Erfurt

2005-03-02T03:07:00.000-08:00

In joining the eremitical order of St. Augustine, Luther had joined an important mendicant order, which by the middle of the 15th century had over 2,000 chapters. As a result of reforms carried through in 1473, the house at Erfurt, to which Luther went, accepted the strict, observant interpretation of the rule. Under Johann von Staupitz, Luther's mentor and vicar general to the order,

Strasbourg Ware

2005-02-28T01:32:00.000-08:00

Strasbourg

Clove Tree

2005-02-28T01:12:00.000-08:00

Tropical tree, a species of the genus Eugenia (q.v.).

Elimelech Of Lizhensk

2005-02-26T14:18:00.000-08:00

Elimelech was a disciple of Tov Baer, one of the early Hasidic leaders, and after Baer's death he settled in Lizhensk, which subsequently became an important Hasidic centre. Elimelech emphasized the importance of the leader (zaddik, meaning “righteous

Cimon

2005-02-24T19:39:00.000-08:00

Athenian statesman and general who played an active part in building up the Athenian empire in the period following the Greco-Persian Wars and whose conservatism and policy of friendship with Sparta were opposed to the policy of Pericles. His greatest military victory was the defeat of a Persian fleet (manned by Phoenicians) at the mouth of the River Eurymedon

Vreeland, Diana Dalziel

2005-02-23T02:55:00.000-08:00

Diana Dalziel was the daughter of a Scottish father and an American mother in whose home the leading artists of the day were frequent guests. In 1914 the

Grünewald, Matthias

2005-02-22T07:17:00.000-08:00

Original name Mathis Gothardt one of the greatest German painters of his age, whose works on religious themes achieve a visionary expressiveness through intense colour and agitated line. The wings of the altarpiece of the Antonite monastery at Isenheim, in southern Alsace (dated 1515), are considered to be his

Biblical Literature, The expansion of the Davidic Empire

2005-02-21T04:26:00.000-08:00

The third section of Samuel (II Samuel, chapter 6 through chapter 20, verse 22) contains the account of the reign of David from Jerusalem, ruling over a minor empire that stretched from Egypt in the south to Lebanon in the north and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Arabian Desert in the east. He thus controlled the crossroads of the great empires of the ancient Near

Jabotinsky, Vladimir

2005-02-21T01:09:00.000-08:00

Jabotinsky began his career in 1898 as a foreign correspondent, but his popularity as a journalist led to his recall to Odessa

Lagash

2005-02-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

Modern Telloh one of the most important capital cities in ancient Sumer, located midway between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southeastern Iraq. The ancient name of the mound of Telloh was actually Girsu, while Lagash originally denoted a site southeast of Girsu, later becoming the name of the whole district and also of Girsu itself. The French excavated at Telloh between

Biblical Literature, The canon of the Prophets

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

The Hebrew canon of the section of the Old Testament known as the Nevi'im, or the Prophets, is divided into two sections: the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets. The Former Prophets contains four historical books—Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; the Latter Prophets includes four prophetic works—the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve (Minor) Prophets.

Internationale, L'

2005-02-18T01:50:00.000-08:00

About 1871 a Parisian transport worker, Eugène Pottier, wrote the words (as a poem), which begin, “Debout, les damnés de la terre” (“Arise, the wretched of the earth”) and acclaim, “Nous n'étions rien—donc, soyons tout!” (“We were

Qabus Ibn Sa'id

2005-02-17T23:40:00.000-08:00

Qabus was educated at Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk, England, and at Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy, in Berkshire. He was called home in 1965 by his father, Sa'id ibn Taymur, who kept his son a virtual prisoner for six years while maintaining his subjects in a state of relative underdevelopment despite the country's growing oil revenues.

House Snake

2005-02-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

The house snakes of Africa belong to the genus Boaedon, family Colubridae. They are harmless mouse- and rat-catchers. An example is B. lineatum of eastern Africa, often found in eaves or under mats; it is blackish and usually less than 90 cm (35 inches)

Babbitt, Milton

2005-02-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

Babbitt attended public schools in Jackson, Miss., and later studied at New

Zamora

2005-02-13T00:52:00.000-08:00

Province, in the autonomous community (region) of Castile-León, northwestern Spain. It was formed in 1833 from part of the historic province of León and is bounded by Portugal and Orense (west), by León (north), by Valladolid (east), and by Salamanca (south). It has an area of 4,077 square miles (10,559 square km) and is traversed from east to west by the Duero (Portuguese Douro) River; the Tormes River

Metchnikoff, élie

2005-02-12T21:43:00.000-08:00

Russian in full Ilya Ilich Mechnikov Russian zoologist and microbiologist who received (with Paul Ehrlich) the 1908 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery in animals of amoeba-like cells that engulf foreign bodies such as bacteria—a phenomenon known as phagocytosis and a fundamental part of the immune

Balaguer, Victor

2005-02-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

Balaguer was a precocious youth; his first dramatic essay, Pépin el Jorobado; o, el hijo de Carlomagno (1838; “Pippin the Hunchbacked; or, The Son of Charlemagne”), was staged in Barcelona when he was 14. At 19 he was publicly “crowned” after the production of his second play, Don Enrique el Dadivoso (1843; “Don Henry

Spice Trade

2005-02-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

Cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, and turmeric were known to Eastern peoples thousands of years ago, and they became important items of commerce early in the evolution of trade. Cinnamon and cassia found their way to the Middle East at least 2,000 years

Igneous Rock, Inclusions

2005-02-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

These are rounded to angular masses of solid material enclosed within a rock of recognizably different composition or texture. Those consisting of older material not directly related to that of their host are known as xenoliths, and those representing broken-up and detached older parts of the same igneous body that encloses them are termed cognate xenoliths

Oaxaca

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

Estado (“state”), southern Mexico, bounded south by the Pacific Ocean, west by Guerrero, north by Puebla, northeast by Veracruz, and east by Chiapas. The state's territory, with an area of 36,275 square miles (93,952 square km), includes most of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on its Pacific side. The Sierra Madre del Sur ends at the isthmus, which is low, hot, and arid. The Atlantic lowlands near Veracruz

Bent, Charles

2005-02-08T17:24:00.000-08:00

After moving from Charleston, Va., to Marietta, Ohio, in 1805, the Bent family settled in St. Louis the following year. Charles and his brother William developed an interest in the fur trade, and they probably worked for John

Earth, The geomagnetic dynamo

2005-02-07T21:16:00.000-08:00

Observations of the magnetic field of the Earth's surface indicate that more than 90 percent of this field arises from sources internal to the planet. A variety of mechanisms for generating this field have been proposed, but at present only the geomagnetic dynamo is seriously considered. In the dynamo mechanism, fluid motion in the core moves conducting material

Bishop's Cap Cactus

2005-02-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

All four species of Astrophytum, which is sometimes regarded as a subgenus of Echinocac

Categorical Imperative

2005-02-04T04:25:00.000-08:00

In the ethics of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, founder of critical philosophy, a moral law that is unconditional or absolute for all agents, the validity or claim of which does not depend on any ulterior motive or end. “Thou shalt not steal,” for example, is categorical as distinct from the hypothetical imperatives associated with desire, such as “Do

Ob River

2005-02-04T00:37:00.000-08:00

Although paleo-Asiatic peoples have inhabited the Ob basin for millennia, Russian explorers and adventurers first penetrated the area only toward the end of the 16th century. During the reign of Ivan IV (the Terrible), the Cossack folk hero Yermak led an expedition into the Ob basin (1581–84/85) that claimed vast expanses for the tsar. Settlements and forts were established at Tyumen

Burbank, Luther

2005-02-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

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

Waialeale, Mount

2005-02-01T01:51:00.000-08:00

Peak, central Kauai Island, Hawaii, U.S. Waialeale (“Rippling Water”), with a height of 5,148 feet (1,569 m), is a dissected (eroded) dome that is part of a central mountain mass which includes Kawaikini (5,243 feet [1,598 m]), the island's highest peak, immediately south. Waialeale is located at the southeastern edge of an extinct caldera that is now a plateau called Alakai Swamp. Shrouded in clouds, Waialeale

Addax

2005-02-01T01:26:00.000-08:00

(species Addax nasomaculatus), desert-dwelling antelope, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), once found throughout the Sahara but now much reduced in numbers and distribution and threatened with extinction from overhunting. A heavy-bodied, short-legged, gregarious antelope, the addax is characterized by broad hooves that are adapted to travel

Ekkehard Iv

2005-01-31T00:13:00.000-08:00

He grew up at Sankt Gallen, being educated by the celebrated German scholar Notker Labeo, Ekkehard I's nephew. From sometime after 1022 until 1031 he was director

Earth Sciences

2005-01-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

Hardanger Plateau

2005-01-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

Also called Vidda plateau in Hordaland and Buskerud fylker (counties), southwestern Norway. The largest peneplain (an eroded, almost level plain) in Europe, it has an area of about 2,500 square miles (6,500 square km) and an average elevation of 3,500 feet (1,100 m). It has many lakes and rivers, which, draining westward, drop in huge waterfalls such as the Vørings Falls (476 feet). The Oslo–Bergen Railroad and a main east–west

Hohenlohe-schillingsfürst, Chlodwig Karl Viktor, Fürst Zu (prince Of)

2005-01-27T01:28:00.000-08:00

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

Arrau, Claudio

2005-01-26T22:42:00.000-08:00

After studying privately in Santiago for two years, Arrau went to Berlin, where he studied with Martin Krause, a pupil of Franz Liszt, from 1912 to 1918. His serious career began with a recital in Berlin in 1914, and during the next decade he toured

Shah Shoja'

2005-01-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

Shoja' ascended the throne in 1803 after a long fratricidal war. In 1809 he concluded an alliance with the British against an expected Franco-Russian invasion of India but, the following year, was overthrown by his

Line Islands

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

The Line Islands extend 1,600 miles (2,600 km) northwestward from French Polynesia. They have a land area of 193 square miles (500 square km) and are divided into Northern, Central, and Southern groups.

Baptist

2005-01-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

Member of a group of Protestant Christians who share the basic beliefs of most Protestants but who insist that only believers should be baptized and that it should be done by immersion rather than by the sprinkling or pouring of water. (This view, however, is shared by others who are not Baptists.) Although Baptists do not constitute a single church or denominational

Water Mass

2005-01-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

Body of ocean water with a distinctive narrow range of temperature and salinity and a particular density resulting from these two parameters. Water masses are formed as the result of climatic effects in specific regions. Antarctic bottom water is an important water mass that forms on the Antarctic continental shelf as a cold, dense residual brine during the formation

Aquifoliaceae

2005-01-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

The Aquifoliaceae differ from other

Anne

2005-01-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

David Green, Queen Anne (1970); Edward Gregg, Queen Anne (1980).

Ankara

2005-01-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

While the date of the city's foundation is uncertain, archaeological evidence indicates habitation at least since the Stone Age, and a thriving Phrygian town was located in the area at the end of the 2nd millennium

Ba'al Shem Tov

2005-01-17T07:55:00.000-08:00

During his lifetime, the Besht brought about a great social and religious upheaval and permanently altered many traditional values. In an atmosphere marked by joy, new rituals, and ecstasy, he created a new religious climate in small houses of prayer outside the synagogues. The changes that had occurred were further emphasized by the wearing of distinctive garb

Bald Cypress

2005-01-14T02:53:00.000-08:00

A young bald cypress is symmetrical and pyramidal;

Araguari

2005-01-13T02:40:00.000-08:00

City, western Minas Gerais state, Brazil, on the Jordão River, a tributary of the Paranaíba River, at 3,051 feet (930 m) above sea level. Formerly called Freguesia do Brejo Alegre, the settlement was made the seat of a municipality in 1882 and was elevated to city rank in 1888. Araguari's main source of income is from the large herds of cattle raised in the hinterlands, where rice, corn (maize), feij

Ganassa, Zan

2005-01-10T04:52:00.000-08:00

Ganassa, who took his name from that of a character he invented, was perhaps the first to take a commedia company beyond the borders of Italy. Evidence exists of his appearances at Mantua (1568) and Ferrara (1570), and a performance by him and his company in Paris in 1571 was perhaps

Canadian Shield

2005-01-08T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Shield constitutes the largest mass

Averno, Lake Of

2005-01-07T03:22:00.000-08:00

Italian Lago D'averno, Latin Lacus Avernus, crater lake in Napoli province, Campania region, southern Italy, in the Campi Flegrei volcanic region, west of Naples. It is 7 ft (2 m) above sea level, 118 ft deep, and nearly 2 mi (more than 3 km) in circumference, with no natural outlet. Its Greek name, Aornos, was interpreted as meaning “without birds,” giving rise to the legend that no bird could fly across it and live because of its poisonous

Moravia, Alberto

2005-01-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

Moravia contracted tuberculosis of the bone (a form of osteomyelitis usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis) at the age of 8, but, during several

Iturbide, Agustín De

2005-01-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

Like many young men of the upper classes in Spanish America, Iturbide entered the army, becoming an officer in

Plymouth

2004-12-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Grafton county, central New Hampshire, U.S. It lies on the Pemigewasset River north-northwest of Laconia, west of Squam Lake, and overlooked (southwest) by Plymouth Mountain (2,187 feet [667 metres]). The town includes the communities of Plymouth and West Plymouth. Chartered in 1763, it annexed parts of Hebron and Campton in 1845 and 1860. Agriculture, lumbering, and light manufacturing

Canaanite Inscriptions

2004-12-30T14:56:00.000-08:00

A group of 11 inscriptions recovered from bowls and other utensils found in several archaeological sites in Palestine dating from approximately the 16th to 13th century BC. Because they have not as yet been satisfactorily deciphered, it is unclear whether or not the writing system used in these inscriptions is related to the North Semitic alphabet, which has been positively

Anthropomorphism

2004-12-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

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

Displacement Law

2004-12-26T15:30:00.000-08:00

In physics, any of the statements (originally formulated in 1913) that radioactive decay produces daughter atoms whose position in the periodic table of the chemical elements is shifted from that of their parents: two lower for alpha decay and one higher for negative beta decay. See radioactive series.

Anticlimax

2004-12-24T22:37:00.000-08:00

A figure of speech that consists of the usually sudden transition in discourse from a significant idea to a trivial or ludicrous one. Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock uses anticlimax liberally; an example isHere thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea.

'abbadid Dynasty

2004-12-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

In 1023 the qadi (religious judge) Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn 'Abbad declared Sevilla independent of Córdoba. His son Abu 'Amr 'Abbad, known as al-Mu'tadid (1042–69), greatly enlarged his territory by forcibly

Arabia, Ethnic groups

2004-12-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

In ethnographic terms, Arabs belong to the Mediterranean local race, a subgroup of the Caucasoid geographic race. According to tradition, Arabs are descended from a southern Arabian ancestor, Qahtan, forebear of the “pure” or “genuine” Arabs (known as al-'Arab al-'Aribah), and a northern Arabian ancestor, 'Adnan, forebear of the “Arabicized” Arabs (al-'Arab al-Musta'ribah). A tradition,

Cone

2004-12-18T02:57:00.000-08:00

In mathematics, the surface traced by a moving straight line (the generatrix) that always passes through a fixed point (the vertex). The path, to be definite, is directed by some closed plane curve (the directrix), along which the line always glides. In a right circular cone, the directrix is a circle, and the cone is a surface of revolution. The axis of this cone is a line through

Calendar Of 2000

2004-12-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

Following four months of intensive negotiations, the Austrian People's Party agrees to form a coalition with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), led by ultranationalist Jörg Haider; the FPÖ's success has clouded Austrian politics, and on January 31 the European Union had threatened to break with Austria if the right-wingers were allowed to participate in the

Pythagoras

2004-12-13T23:21:00.000-08:00

Pythagoras migrated in his youth to Rhegium. He made a statue of Philoctetes, noted for the physical

Noriega, Manuel

2004-12-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Noriega was born into a poor family of Colombian extraction. Educated at one of the top high schools in Panama, he was awarded a scholarship to the Chorrillos Military School in Lima,

Cloud Chamber

2004-12-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

Radiation detector, originally developed between 1896 and 1912 by the Scottish physicist C.T.R. Wilson, that has as the detecting medium a supersaturated vapour that condenses to tiny liquid droplets around ions produced by the passage of energetic charged particles, such as alpha particles, beta particles, or protons. In a Wilson cloud chamber, supersaturation is caused

X Club

2004-12-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Dining clubs were common in gentlemanly society of the time. The X Club met monthly in the London “season” (October to June), from November 1864 until March 1892. Its members were Joseph Dalton Hooker, eminent

Hinduism, Ahimsa: non-injury

2004-12-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

A further characteristic of Hinduism is the ideal of ahimsa. Ahimsa, “non-injury” or the absence of the desire to harm, is regarded by Indian thinkers as one of the keystones of their ethics. Historically, ahimsa is unrelated to vegetarianism; in ancient India, killing people in war or in capital punishment and killing animals in Vedic sacrifices were acceptable to many

Tso Tsung-t'ang

2004-06-07T04:30:00.000-07:00

Pinyin Zuo Zongtang Chinese administrator and military leader, one of the scholar-officials who worked to suppress the great rebellions that threatened the imperial government during the second half of the 19th century. Tso's efforts helped revive the declining Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty (1644–1911/12) and reestablished the Chinese position in

Caxias Do Sul

2004-06-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

City, northeastern Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil, lying at 2,490 ft (760 m) above sea level on the range of hills separating the Antas and Caí river valleys. It was founded in 1875 by Italian colonists and given city status in 1910. Metallurgic industries and viticulture are the city's economic mainstays; the vineyards of the surrounding area are considered Brazil's best. The Universidade

Lahar

2004-06-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Mudflow of volcanic material. Lahars may carry all sizes of material from ash to large boulders and produce deposits of volcanic conglomerate. Lahars may be the result of heavy rain on loose ash material such as deposits of nuées ardentes (dense clouds of gases charged with incandescent dust, discharging volcanic sand in avalanche fashion); or they may result from

Vandegrift, Alexander A.

2004-06-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1909, Vandegrift had advanced to major general by 1942. Having served in Nicaragua, Haiti, and China, he was prepared for the jungle-warfare

Cranbrook

2004-05-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

City, southeastern corner of British Columbia, Canada. It lies in the Kootenay River valley on the western edge of the Rocky Mountain Trench. The region was first settled about 1863 by gold prospectors. Cranbrook was probably named for a town near the farm home in Kent, Eng., of one of the settlers, Colonel James Baker. The Canadian Pacific Railroad's Crowsnest branch line reached

Mahan, Alfred Thayer

2004-05-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

Mahan was the son of a professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., in 1859 and went on to serve nearly 40 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy. He fought in

Philip Ii

2004-05-26T04:35:00.000-07:00

John II's grant of the duchy of Burgundy to Philip in September 1363 did not become effective until

Tereus

2004-05-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

In Greek legend, king of Thrace who married Procne, daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. Later Tereus seduced her sister Philomela, pretending that Procne was dead. In order to hide his guilt, he cut out Philomela's tongue. But she revealed the crime to her sister by working the details in embroidery. Procne sought revenge by serving up her son Itys for Tereus' supper. On learning

Cabrol, Fernand

2004-05-22T01:50:00.000-07:00

One of the most important of Cabrol's works was his widely circulated Livre de la

Talbot, William Henry Fox

2004-05-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

English chemist, linguist, archaeologist, and pioneer photographer. He is best known for his development of the calotype (q.v.), an early photographic process that was an improvement over the daguerreotype of the French inventor L.-J.-M. Daguerre. Talbot's calotypes involved the use of a photographic

Schlaak, Evelin

2004-05-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Schlaak began throwing the discus at the age of 13, winning the European junior championship in 1973 and setting a world junior record the following year.

Ghavam El-saltaneh, Ahmad

2004-05-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

Ghavam entered the court of the Qajar monarch Mozaffar al-Din Shah as a scribe in 1898. He rose to the position of minister of justice in 1909 and became minister of the interior the following year. In 1918 he was appointed governor of Khorasan province and three years later was nominated prime

Herculano De Carvalho E Araújo, Alexandre

2004-05-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

As a young man Herculano took part in the unsuccessful rebellion against the absolute rule of Dom Miguel