FrequentHook

organic bed linen

2006-10-29T15:15:00.000-08:00

Livs range of soft luxurious bed linenis sourced ethically from India and using a fair trade policy. Liv also provide duvet cover set and bath towel set.

Iceland, The status of women

2005-03-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

Outwardly the feminist movement may seem uniquely strong in Iceland. A woman, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, served as president of the republic for four terms (1980–96), enjoying great popularity. A Women's Alliance has been represented in the parliament since 1983. However, the Icelandic president typically is not influential in politics, and the Women's Alliance has yet to participate

Balassi, Bálint

2005-03-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

Balassi was born into one of the richest Protestant families of the country and lived an adventurous life, fighting against the Turks and against his own relatives, who sought to despoil him of his heritage.

Anielewicz, Mordecai

2005-03-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

Anielewicz was born into a working-class family and attended a Hebrew academic secondary school. As a boy he joined Betar, a Zionist youth organization that among other things advocated self-defense for Jews. By 1940 he had gone to Warsaw and become

Biblical Literature, Hungarian versions

2005-03-12T05:34:00.000-08:00

The spread of Lutheranism in the Reformation period gave rise to several vernacular versions. János Sylvester (Erdosi) produced the first New Testament made from the Greek (Sárvár, 1541). The Turkish occupation of much of Hungary and the measures of the Counter-Reformation arrested further printing of the vernacular Bible, except in the semi-independent principality

Kaga

2005-03-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

The former city of Daishoji is now the central part of Kaga. An old temple town, it grew around a castle built by the Maeda family in the early Tokugawa

Ibn Al-'arabi

2005-03-09T23:41:00.000-08:00

A.M. Palacios, El Islam cristianizado; estudio del “sufismo” a través de las obras de Abenarabi de Murcia (1931); R.A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism (1921); A.E. Affifi, The Mystical Philosophy of Muhyid-Din Ibnul 'Arabi (1939); S.H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages (1963); M.M. Sharif (ed.), A History of Muslim Philosophy, vol. 2 (1963); Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi (Eng. trans. 1969); Osman Yahya, Histoire et classification de l'oeuvre d'Ibn 'Arabi, 2 vol. (1964); T. Izutsu, A Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism: Ibn 'Arabî and Lao Tzû, Chuang Tzû, 2 vol. (1966–67). See especially the works of Palacios, Nasr, and Corbin for biographical information.

Bach, Johann Christoph Friedrich

2005-03-07T23:49:00.000-08:00

Probably educated by his father's cousin Johann Elias Bach, J.C.F. Bach became a chamber musician to Count Wilhelm at Bückeburg in 1750, and was appointed concertmaster c. 1758. His career was steady and his output of compositions extensive. He made a successful transition from the late Baroque

Appleton, Sir Edward Victor

2005-03-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

Educated

Cheng Chih-lung

2005-03-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

As a boy, Cheng found employment with the Europeans in the Portuguese settlement at Macau, where he was baptized and given the Christian name of Nicholas Gaspard. After leaving Macau, he joined a pirate band that

Vodou

2005-03-01T02:42:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Voodoo, Voudou, Vodun , or French Vaudou an official religion of Haiti (together with Roman Catholicism). Vodou is a creolized religion forged by descendents of Dahomean, Kongo, Yoruba, and other African ethnic groups who had been enslaved and brought to colonial Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was known then) and Christianized by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries. The word Vodou means “spirit

Japan, Ancient Japan

2005-02-27T04:12:00.000-08:00

The Nara and Heian periods are discussed in Robert Borgen, Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court (1986, reissued 1994); G. Cameron Hurst III, Insei: Abdicated Sovereigns in the Politics of Late Heian Japan, 1086–1185 (1976); Allan G. Grapard, The Protocol of the Gods: A Study of the Kasuga Cult in Japanese History (1992); Ivan Morris, The World of The Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (1964, reissued 1994); Karl F. Friday, Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan (1992); and William Wayne Farris, Population, Disease, and Land in Early Japan, 645–900 (1985), and Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan's Military, 500–1300 (1992).

Narayan, R.k.

2005-02-25T01:06:00.000-08:00

Reared by his grandmother, Narayan completed his education in 1930 and briefly worked as a teacher before deciding to devote himself to writing. His first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), is an episodic narrative recounting the adventures of a group of schoolboys.

Cachet, Lettre De

2005-02-23T05:06:00.000-08:00

(French: “letter of the sign [or signet]”), a letter signed by the king and countersigned by a secretary of state and used primarily to authorize someone's imprisonment. It was an important instrument of administration under the ancien régime in France. Lettres de cachet were abused to such an extent during the 17th and 18th centuries that numerous complaints on the subject

Islamic World, Cultural flowering in Iraq

2005-02-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

By the late 9th and early 10th centuries the last remnant of the caliphal state was Iraq, under control of the Turkic soldiery. Political decline and instability did not preclude cultural creativity and productivity, however. In fact, Iraq's “generation of 870,” loosely construed, contained some of the most striking and lastingly important figures in all of early Islamicate

Elias Of Cortona

2005-02-19T00:48:00.000-08:00

In 1217 Elias headed the new Franciscan mission to the Holy Land as first minister provincial of Syria. He visited holy places in Palestine with Francis, returning with him

Muktafi, Al-

2005-02-16T08:26:00.000-08:00

The son of al-Mu'tadid, al-Muktafi ascended to the throne in 902 with somewhat more popular support than his predecessors, thanks to his liberal rule and abolition of dungeons in Baghdad. He immediately faced battle with the Qarmatians, a schismatic

Chi-ning

2005-02-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Jining , Pinyin (Mongolian) Ulan Qab town, Inner Mongolia autonomous ch'ü (region), China. Before the Communist Revolution of 1949, the town was a minor station named P'ing-ti-ch'üan and was a collecting point on the east-west Peking–Pao-t'ou railway. It experienced phenomenal growth after the completion in 1955 of a trunk railway northward to Erh-lien-hao-t'e on the Mongolian border, linking it with Ulaanbaatar (capital

France, History Of, Louis IX

2005-02-12T05:53:00.000-08:00

Louis IX, who was canonized in 1297, is the best-known Capetian ruler. He impressed all who came in touch with him, and the records of his reign—anecdotal and historical as well as official—leave no doubt that he

Drexel, Katharine, Saint

2005-02-11T23:37:00.000-08:00

Drexel was the daughter of the American financier and

Nitrate

2005-02-09T05:30:00.000-08:00

Any member of either of two classes of compounds derived from nitric acid. The salts of nitric acid are ionic compounds containing the nitrate ion, NO-3, and a positive ion, such as NH+4 in ammonium nitrate. Esters of nitric acid are covalent compounds having the structure R-O-NO2, in which R represents an organic combining group, such as ethyl (C2H5) in ethyl nitrate. See also nitro

Biblical Literature, The Lives of the Prophets

2005-02-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

The little book called the Lives of the Prophets is a collection of Jewish legends about Old Testament prophets. It is preserved in Greek and in versions and recensions in various languages, all based on the Greek. The purpose of the work was to furnish to the readers of the Bible further information about the prophets. The collection evidently passed through Christian

Raymond Iv

2005-02-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

In the early years of his countship, Raymond was a pious

Annelid

2005-02-02T11:40:00.000-08:00

The

Machado De Assis, Joaquim Maria

2005-01-31T17:17:00.000-08:00

The son of a house painter of mixed black and Portuguese ancestry, he was raised, after his mother's death, by a stepmother,

Shih-chia-chuang

2005-01-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

In pre-Han times (i.e., before 206 BC) it was the site of the city of Shih-i in the state of Chao, and, from Han (206 BC–AD 220) to Sui (581–618) times, it was the site of a county

Sol

2005-01-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

In physical chemistry, a colloid (aggregate of very fine particles dispersed in a continuous medium) in which the particles are solid and the dispersion medium is fluid. If the dispersion medium is water, the colloid may be called a hydrosol; and if air, an aerosol. Lyophobic (Greek: “liquid-hating”) sols are characterized by particles that are not strongly attracted to

López Michelsen, Alfonso

2005-01-25T02:55:00.000-08:00

The son of Alfonso López Pumarejo, who was twice president of Colombia (1934–38 and 1942–45), López Michelsen was educated in Bogotá, Paris, London, and Brussels, with postgraduate studies at Georgetown University and the University of Chile. Returning to Colombia from voluntary exile in Mexico in 1958, he organized a new party of dissident Liberals, the

La Grande

2005-01-24T18:47:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1905) of Union county, northeastern Oregon, U.S., between the Blue Mountains (west) and Wallowa Mountains (east), on the Grande Ronde River. The region was once roamed by Umatilla Indians. The city was founded in 1864 as a way station along the Oregon Trail. It developed as a shipping centre for ores, timber, and cattle; the cattle and lumber industries remain the economic mainstays

Radical Republican

2005-01-22T07:15:00.000-08:00

The Republican Party at its formation during the 1850s was a coalition of Northern altruists, industrialists, former Whigs, practical politicians, etc. While not publicly committed

Allied-signal Inc.

2005-01-20T19:33:00.000-08:00

The corporation was formed in 1920 in the consolidation of several chemical manufacturers; the Barrett Company (founded 1903), supplying coal-tar chemicals and roofing; General Chemical Company (founded 1899), specializing in industrial acids; National Aniline

O Canada

2005-01-18T19:24:00.000-08:00

The music, written by Calixa Lavallée (1842–91), a concert pianist and native of Verchères, Que., was commissioned in 1880 on the occasion of a visit to Quebec by Lord Lorne (later Duke of Argyll), then governor-general of Canada, and his wife, Queen Victoria's

Alewife

2005-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

Also called Sawbelly, Grayback, Gaspereau, or Branch Herring (Pomolobus, or Alosa, pseudoharengus), important North American food fish of the herring family, Clupeidae. Deeper-bodied than the true herring, the alewife has a pronounced saw-edge on the underside; it grows to about 30 cm (1 foot). Except for members of a few lake populations, it spends several years along the Atlantic coast of North America before

Susanoo

2005-01-13T07:05:00.000-08:00

Susanoo descended into the land of Izumo in western Japan

Medicine, Clinical observation

2005-01-12T00:53:00.000-08:00

Much of the investigative clinical field work undertaken in the present day requires only relatively simple laboratory facilities because it is observational rather than experimental in character. A feature of much contemporary medical research is that it requires the collaboration of a number of persons, perhaps not all of them doctors. Despite the advancing

Amoeba

2005-01-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ameba, plural Amoebas, or Amoebae, any of the microscopic unicellular protozoans of the rhizopodan order Amoebida. The well-known type species, Amoeba proteus, is found on decaying bottom vegetation of freshwater streams and ponds. There are numerous parasitic amoebas. Of six species found in the human alimentary tract, Entamoeba histolytica causes amebic dysentery. Two related free-living

Maharashtra, Education

2005-01-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

Maharashtra's literacy rate—which consists of more than half of the state's adult population—exceeds the national average. The state provides free compulsory education for children between the ages of 6 and 14. Vocational and multipurpose high schools also have grown in importance. The state operates two universities (including one for women) at Bombay and others at

Zafrulla Khan, Sir Muhammad

2005-01-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

The son of the leading attorney of his native city, Zafrulla Khan studied at Government College in Lahore and received his LL.B. from King's College, London University, in 1914. He practiced

Gully, John

2005-01-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

In 1805, having failed as a butcher, Gully was in prison for his debts when he was visited by his Bristol pugilist friend Henry Pearce, “the Game Chicken.” As the result of an informal bout between them in jail, Gully's

Raynal, Guillaume-thomas, Abbé De

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

Raynal was educated by the Jesuits and as a young man joined the order, but after going to Paris to work for the church he gave up religious life in favour of writing. He established himself as a writer with two historical works, one

Fari'ah, Tall Al-

2004-12-31T13:36:00.000-08:00

Ancient site in northern Palestine, located near the head of the Wadi al-Fari'ah northeast of Nabulus in Israeli-occupied Jordan. Excavations at the site, spon sored since 1946 by the Dominican École Biblique de St. Étienne in Jerusalem, have revealed that occupation began during the Chalcolithic Age (c. 4000–c. 3000 BC), although no actual structures have been found antedating the beginning

Eusebius Of Caesarea

2004-12-28T14:25:00.000-08:00

Eusebius was baptized and ordained at Caesarea, where he was taught by the learned presbyter Pamphilus, to whom he was bound by ties of respect and affection

Xerox Parc

2004-12-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

Xerox had invented and dominated the paper copier market since 1948, but with the accession of C. Peter McColough as president in 1966 the company began to explore options for diversifying its business. In 1969 the director of research, Jack Goldman, produced a plan to establish an “Advanced Scientific & Systems Laboratory” to develop future technologies. The laboratory was not

Schadow, Gottfried

2004-12-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

Schadow was trained under the court sculptor Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert and in Rome (1785–87), where he studied under Antonio Canova. In 1788 he succeeded Tassaert as director of the Prussian royal school of sculpture in Berlin. His first monumental work

Mirambo

2004-12-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

Nyamwezi warlord of central Africa whose ability to unite the many hitherto separate Nyamwezi clans into a powerful kingdom by the 1870s gave him strategic control of Arab trade routes and threatened the preeminence of the Arabs' colony in Unyanyembe (near present Tabora, Tanzania). His capital, Urambo (now in Tanzania), became a major rival trading

Taft, William Howard

2004-12-18T05:10:00.000-08:00

For additional writings by Taft, see Limited Presidential Power and The Cabinet and the Congress.

Technology, History Of

2004-12-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

The development over time of systematic techniques for making and doing things. The term technology, a combination of the Greek techne, “art, craft,” with logos, “word, speech,” meant in Greece a discourse on the arts, both fine and applied. When it first appeared in English in the 17th century, it was used to mean a discussion of the applied arts only, and gradually these “arts” themselves

Obuasi

2004-12-15T01:04:00.000-08:00

Town, southern Ghana. Its growth was stimulated by the discovery of a large gold deposit in 1897 and the building of the railway from Sekondi in 1902. The Asante gold mine at Obuasi has continued as the country's major producer while others have become depleted. It is one of the world's richest gold mines in terms of yield per ton of ore. By the end of the 20th century, it was the 10th largest

Mercoeur, Philippe-emmanuel De Lorraine, Duke (duc) De

2004-12-13T06:37:00.000-08:00

Philippe was the son of Nicolas de Lorraine, who became Duke de Mercoeur in 1569, and was a half brother to Louise de Vaudémont, wife of Henry III of France. He succeeded to his father's duchy in 1577. Mercoeur

Gtor-ma

2004-12-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

Sacrificial cakes used in Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies as offerings to deities. The unbaked cakes are prepared by kneading parched barley flour and butter into the shapes of cones, decorated with pats of butter. The cakes form part of the phyi-mchod, or eight offerings of external worship, as well as part of the offerings of the five senses, which are considered internal

Anastasius Ii

2004-12-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

In notifying the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I of his accession, Anastasius expressed a conciliatory attitude toward the late patriarch Acacius of Constantinople, who had been deposed and excommunicated in 484 by Pope St. Felix III. The Acacian Schism resulted from this act. The pope's reception of the Byzantine deacon Photinus,

Bailey, Ann

2004-12-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

Ann Hennis moved to America, probably as an indentured servant, in 1761. Her first husband, Richard Trotter, a Shenandoah Valley settler and survivor of General Edward Braddock's disastrous expedition of 1755, was killed

Cartagena

2004-12-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

Capital of Bolívar departamento, northern Colombia, at the northern end of Cartagena Bay. The old walled sections, including the 17th-century fortress of San Felipe de Barajas, lie on a peninsula and the island of Getsemaní, but the city now spreads over the islands of Manga and Manzanillo (site of the airport) and the mainland below La Popa Hill. In the old section are the

Grito De Dolores

2004-11-28T22:24:00.000-08:00

Hidalgo was involved in a plot against the Spanish colonial government, and, when the plot was betrayed, he decided to act immediately. After arming the people, he addressed them from the pulpit,

Avignon School

2004-11-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

A body of late Gothic painting, not necessarily of a single stylistic evolution, produced in and around the city of Avignon in southeastern France from the second half of the 14th century into the second half of the 15th. Subject to both Italian and Flemish influences—in contrast to the contemporary art of northern France, which was entirely Flemish in character—the art

Seti Ii

2004-11-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

Upon his death, Seti was succeeded by Siptah

Hovd

2004-11-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

Founded in 1731 as a trade depot linked commercially with Peking, Hovd is the main trade centre of western Mongolia.

Athanasius The Athonite, Saint

2004-11-20T18:39:00.000-08:00

Originally named Abraham, he took the monastic name of Athanasius when he retired to Mt. Athos after forsaking the sophisticated, urban monastic life in Constantinople;

Ra

2004-11-19T23:04:00.000-08:00

Either of two papyrus boats with which the Norwegian scientist-explorer Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic in 1969–70 to demonstrate the possibility of cultural contact between early peoples of Africa and Central and South America. The first was built in Egypt by boatbuilders Heyerdahl hired from Lake Chad, where reed boats are commonplace. Manned by seven men chosen

Gyda Peninsula

2004-11-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

Also called Gydan Peninsula, Russian Gydansky Poluostrov, peninsula, northern Russia. It is a northern extension of the West Siberian Plain reaching into the Kara Sea and situated between the bays of Ob and Tazovsky to the west and the estuary of the Yenisey River to the east. The peninsula is about 250 miles (400 km) long and is similar in width. It is predominantly low-lying, varying in elevation between 165 and 525 feet (50 and 160 m). The peninsula is

Cattaraugus

2004-11-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

County, southwestern New York state, U.S., consisting of a ruggedly hilly region bounded by Cattaraugus Creek to the north and Pennsylvania to the south. It is drained by the Allegheny River and Ischua and Great Valley creeks. Surrounding Allegheny Reservoir are Allegany Indian Reservation and Allegany State Park, both of which are the largest of their kind in the

Insurance, General average clause

2004-11-12T04:37:00.000-08:00

The general average clause in ocean marine insurance obligates the insurers of various interests to share the cost of losses incurred voluntarily to save the voyage from complete destruction. Such sacrifices must be made voluntarily, must be necessary, and must be successful. For example, if a shipper's cargo is voluntarily jettisoned in a storm in order to save

Shilling Shocker

2004-11-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

A novel of crime or violence especially popular in late Victorian England and originally costing one shilling. Shilling shockers were usually characterized by sensational incidents and lurid writing. Compare dime novel; penny dreadful.

Aho, Juhani

2004-11-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

Aho's early realistic

Eguren, José María

2004-11-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

His first book of poetry, Simbólicas (1911; “Symbolisms”), signaled a break with the Modernismo tradition, while still maintaining contacts with the Romantic and early French Symbolist poets who had influenced the Modernist movement. Eguren's often fantastic creations reflect his

Ford, Henry, Ii

2004-11-04T04:19:00.000-08:00

In 1940 Ford left Yale University without graduating to join the firm founded by his grandfather, Henry Ford, and at the time run by his father, Edsel Ford. A year later he joined the U.S. Navy; but in 1943, following the unexpected death

Steiger, Niklaus Friedrich Von

2004-11-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

From a Bernese patrician family, Steiger was dispatched to Halle in Germany and Utrecht, Neth., for his education, eventually returning to Bern in 1754. Thereafter, he held several minor

Black Oak

2004-10-31T16:10:00.000-08:00

(Quercus velutina), North American timber tree belonging to the red oak group of the genus Quercus in the beech family (Fagaceae), distributed throughout the eastern United States. It usually grows to about 25 m (80 feet) tall and may grow to 45 m on rich soils; it is common on exposed slopes and ridges, as it cannot tolerate shade. The tree's blackish outer bark is ridged in irregular

Johannesburg

2004-10-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

One of the youngest of the world's major cities, Johannesburg was founded in 1886, following the discovery of gold. The city was initially part of the Transvaal, an independent Afrikaner, or Boer, republic that later became one of the four provinces of South Africa. Today the

Bradley, Marion Zimmer

2004-10-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

Marion Zimmer studied at the New York State College for Teachers from 1946 to 1948 and, after her career was established, graduated from Hardin-Simmons College in 1964. In 1949 she

Aarau

2004-10-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

Capital of Aargau canton, northern Switzerland, at the southern foot of the Jura Mountains, on the right bank of the Aare River, west of Zürich. Founded about 1240 by the counts of Kyburg, it passed to the Habsburgs in 1264 and was taken by the Bernese in 1415. In 1798 it became the capital of the Helvetian Republic. Notable landmarks include several 13th-century towers, the town church (1471), the town

Texas, The people

2004-10-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Texas has long been a huge reservoir for diverse streams of races and cultures. For the bands of prehistoric hunters, for the waves of Indian tribes, for the Spanish and Mexicans pushing northward, for the Anglo-Americans from the North and East, and for colonizers who came to Texas directly from Europe, there was more than enough room for settlement and for the opportunity

Visistadvaita

2004-10-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

(Sanskrit: Nonduality of the Qualified), one of the principal schools of Vedanta, an orthodox philosophy of India. This school grew out of the Vaisnava (worship of the god Vishnu [Visnu]) devotional movement prominent in South India from the 7th century on. One of the early Brahmans (class of priests) who began to guide the movement was Nathamuni (10th century), head priest of the temple

Hinduism, Vaishnava Samhitas

2004-10-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

These consist of two groups of texts: Vaikhanasa Samhitas and Pañcaratra Samhitas. The latter group is the prevailing one; more than 200 titles are known, though the official number is 108. Vaikhanasa Samhitas (collections of the Vaishnava school of Vaikhanasas, who were originally ascetics) seem to have embodied the original temple manuals for the Bhagavatas (devotees), which by the 11th

Resnais, Alain

2004-10-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Resnais was the son of a well-to-do pharmacist. A victim of chronic asthma, he spent a solitary childhood

Johannes Von Tepl

2004-10-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

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

Ikorodu

2004-10-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

Town, Lagos state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies near the Lagos Lagoon, on the Bight of Benin, 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Lagos. A traditional settlement of the Awori people (a subgroup of the Yoruba), it became important in the mid-19th century as a trading post of the Remo (Ijebu-Remo) kingdom on the trade route from Lagos to Ibadan. During the Ibadan-Ijaiye wars (1860–65), the Ikorodu traders,

Furniture, China

2004-10-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

Remarkably little systematic study has been made of Chinese furniture. Its origins remain comparatively obscure, its workshops mostly unrecorded, its designers unknown; consequently, its dating is extremely difficult. Most of the forms of Chinese furniture, such as the low table and the covered bed, are found in the oldest Chinese paintings in existence; the designs

Water

2004-10-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

A substance composed of the chemical elements hydrogen and oxygen and existing in gaseous, liquid, and solid states. Water is one of the most plentiful and essential of compounds. It is vital to life, participating in virtually every process that occurs in plants and animals. Although the molecules of water are simple in structure (H2O), the physical and chemical properties

Wang Yang-ming

2004-10-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

Pinyin Wang Yangming , original name (Wade–Giles romanization) Wang Shou-jen , literary name Pe-an , canonized as Wen-ch'eng , Japanese Oyo-mei Chinese scholar-official whose Idealistic interpretation of Neo-Confucianism influenced philosophical thinking in East Asia for centuries. Though his government career was rather unstable, his suppression of rebellions brought a century of peace to his region. His philosophical doctrines, emphasizing understanding

Down Syndrome

2004-10-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

Also called Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, or (formerly) Mongolism, congenital disorder caused by an extra chromosome on the chromosome 21 pair, thus giving the person a total of 47 chromosomes rather than the normal 46. Persons born with Down syndrome are characterized by several of the following: broad, flat face; short neck; up-slanted eyes, sometimes with an inner epicanthal fold; low-set ears; small nose and enlarged tongue and lips; sloping

Freckle

2004-10-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

Also called ephelis , plural ephelides, a small, brownish, well-circumscribed, stainlike spot on the skin occurring most frequently in red- or sandy-haired individuals. In genetically predisposed individuals who have been exposed to the ultraviolet radiation of sunlight, production of the pigment melanin increases in the pigment cells of the skin (melanocytes); the number of melanocytes does not increase.

Ariosto, Ludovico

2004-10-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

Ariosto's father, Count Niccolò, was commander of the citadel at Reggio Emilia. When Ludovico was 10, the family

Bell Island

2004-10-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

Island in southeastern Newfoundland, Canada; it lies in Conception Bay 3 mi (5 km) off the Avalon Peninsula. Bell Island is 6 mi long and 3 mi wide, and has an area of 11 sq mi (28 sq km). Named after a large bell-shaped rock off its west end, it was one of the world's major iron-ore producers from 1895 to 1966. Fishing and subsistence agriculture are now the main economic activities on the densely populated

Encyclopedia Americana, The

2004-10-04T04:15:00.000-07:00

First published in 1829–33, with subsequent editions in 1911 (20 volumes) and 1918–20 (30 volumes), and thereafter continuously revised, Americana is international in scope and is known for its

Kita-ibaraki

2004-10-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

City, northern Ibaraki Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. The western part of the city occupies hills that slope toward the rest of the city on the coast. Agriculture (rice) and fishing (sardines, mackerel) are important. Because of the closing of all but one of the coal mines in the area, the city's population was decreasing throughout the 1970s. Kita-Ibaraki

Jackrabbit

2004-10-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

Any of several North American species of hare (genus Lepus).

Rivoli

2004-10-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

Town, Torino provincia, Piemonte (Piedmont) regione, northwestern Italy, just west of Turin (Torino). Once the favourite resort of the counts of Savoy, the town is dominated by a castle begun by Victor Amadeus II, king of Sicily and Sardinia, in 1712 on the site of an older structure. The house of the Green Count (Amadeus VI), dating from the 14th–15th century, is typical of the elegant patrician

Mesopotamia, History Of, Political fragmentation

2004-09-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

It is probable that the definitive separation from Ur III came about through changing components of the population, from “Sumerians and Akkadians” to “Akkadians and Amorites.” An Old Babylonian liver omen states that “he of the steppes will enter, and chase out the one in the city.” This is indeed an abbreviated formula for an event that took place more than once: the usurpation

Chase, Mary Ellen

2004-09-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

Chase grew up in Maine, graduating from the University of Maine in 1909. Three autobiographical works describe her background and early experiences: A Goodly Heritage (1932), A Goodly Fellowship (1939), and The White Gate:

Lens Dislocation

2004-09-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Abnormal position of the crystalline lens of the eye. The dislocation, which may be congenital or acquired, has as its immediate cause weakness or loss of a portion of the ligaments that anchor the lens to the ciliary muscle.

Pachymeres, George

2004-09-27T05:31:00.000-07:00

Upon the fall in 1262 of the Latin Eastern Empire and the return of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, Pachymeres went to Constantinople and was ordained to the

Dadra And Nagar Haveli

2004-09-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

Union territory of India, located in the western part of the country between the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, some 15 miles (24 kilometres) from the Arabian Sea and 80 miles north of Bombay. It consists of two sections: Dadra, with three villages, and Nagar Haveli, with 69 villages. Occupying 190 square miles (491 square kilometres), it is administered by the governor of Goa. The capital is

New Brutalism

2004-09-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

One aspect of the International Style of architecture that was created by Le Corbusier and his leading fellow architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright and that demanded a functional approach toward architectural design. The name was first applied in 1954 by the English architects Peter and Alison Smithson to the post-1930 style of the major French architect

Wryneck

2004-09-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

Either of two species of birds that constitute the subfamily Jynginae of the woodpecker family (Picidae) but may be separated as the family Jyngidae. Wrynecks are gray-brown birds of open woods and brushlands, named for their habit of twisting their necks snakily when alarmed. They flick up ants from the ground or insects from trees with their long tongues, and they

God And Saints Of Christ, Church Of

2004-09-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

Religious sect founded in 1896 by Prophet William S. Crowdy. He passed his mantle of leadership to Bishop William Plummer, who announced himself as “Grand Father Abraham.” This group believes that all Jews were originally black and that modern-day blacks are descendants of the “lost tribes of Israel.” Their beliefs centre on the “Seven Keys,” the “Stone of Truth,” and the Ten Commandments.

Kiribati

2004-09-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

A few of the islands are compact with fringing reefs, but most are atolls. The largest atoll (and one of the largest in the world) is Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Line group, which has a land area of 150 square miles (388 square km) and accounts for about one-half of the country's total. Kiritimati was used for U.S. and British nuclear testing in the 1960s; it now has a large coconut plantation

Lanao, Lake

2004-09-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

Lake, west-central Mindanao, Philippines. It is situated just south of Marawi, northwest of the Butig Mountains. Lake Lanao is the second largest lake in the Philippines and has an area of 131 square miles (340 square km). Its outlet is the Agus River, which flows north, over Maria Cristina Falls, where there is a hydroelectric power plant, to Iligan Bay. There are numerous Muslim

Sagua La Grande

2004-09-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

City, north-central Villa Clara provincia, north-central Cuba. Lying on the Sagua la Grande River, 15 miles (24 km) from its mouth, the city is a major port and regional manufacturing and commercial centre. The area is known primarily for its sugarcane, but rice, black beans, and livestock also are economically significant. Foundries, distilleries, railroad shops, lumberyards,

Jackson, William

2004-09-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Jackson was organist and choirmaster at Exeter cathedral from 1777. His best-known other compositions are Twelve Songs (1755) and Twelve Canzonets for Two Voices (c. 1770). His name is also associated with an Anglican service of dubious authenticity,