SafeBoat

Caucasian Languages, Grammatical characteristics

2005-03-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

The grammatical characteristics of the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages include an extremely simple noun system and a relatively complicated system of verb conjugation. There are no grammatical cases in Abkhaz and Abaza, and in the other languages only two principal cases occur: a direct case (nominative) and an oblique case, combining the functions of several

China, The Plateau of Tibet

2005-03-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

This great massif occupies about one-fourth of the whole country. A large part of the plateau lies at elevations above 13,000–15,000 feet. The border ranges of the plateau are even higher, with individual peaks rising to heights of 23,000–26,000 feet. The interior slopes of these border mountains, as a rule, are gentle, while the exterior slopes are very steep. In its eastern and southern periphery,

Shillong Plateau

2005-03-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

Plateau in eastern Meghalaya state, northeastern India. It is a rolling tableland and the highest portion of the hill mass that comprises most of Meghalaya. The plateau's western, northern, and southern escarpments are called the Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia hills, respectively. The Shillong Plateau is an outlier of the plateau of peninsular India and is composed primarily

Interior Design, Ancient world

2005-03-21T01:20:00.000-08:00

Coin, Switzerland

2005-03-20T15:23:00.000-08:00

The coinage of Switzerland illustrates its varying fortunes. First there was the gold money of the Merovingian kings, among whose mints were Basel, Lausanne, St. Maurice-en-Valais, and Sitten (Sion). The silver deniers that Charlemagne made the coinage of the empire were issued by fewer mints. The dukes of Swabia began to strike at Zürich in the 10th century, and the empire

Ribeiro, Bernardim

2005-03-19T01:13:00.000-08:00

Ribeiro was

World War Ii, Iwo Jima and the bombing of Tokyo

2005-03-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

With U.S. forces firmly established in the Mariana Islands, the steady long-range bombing of Japan by B-29s under the command of General Curtis E. LeMay continued throughout the closing months of 1944 and into 1945. But it was still 1,500 miles from Saipan to Tokyo, a long flight even for the B-29s. Strategic planners therefore fixed their attention on the little volcanic island of Iwo

Tiger Snake

2005-03-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

This common serpent, most numerous in swampy places in southern regions, is variable in colour but often has brown-and-yellow

Tonkin

2005-03-14T04:04:00.000-08:00

Northern Vietnam

Kafue National Park

2005-03-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

Park, south-central Zambia. Established in 1950 and located about 200 miles (322 km) west of Lusaka, the park covers an area of 8,650 square miles (22,400 square km) and consists of a vast and gently undulating plateau, situated along the middle reaches of the Kafue River and its two tributaries, the Lufupa and the Lunga. The vegetation is lush and green, varying from mixed forest, thicket, woodland,

Algeria, Mining

2005-03-13T05:02:00.000-08:00

The main mining centres are at Ouenza and Djebel Onk near the eastern border with Tunisia and at El-Abed in the west, the latter the source of most of Algeria's zinc and lead production. Nearly all of the country's substantial output of high-grade iron ore from the open-cut works at Ouenza is used to supply the domestic steel industry. About one-third of Djebel Onk's phosphate

Augsburg

2005-03-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

Traces of an Early Bronze Age settlement have been found at the site. The town was founded as a Roman colony

Bohemia

2005-03-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

Czech Cechy , German Böhmen historic country of central Europe that was a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire and subsequently a province in the Habsburgs' Austrian Empire. Bohemia was bounded on the south by Austria, on the west by Bavaria, on the north by Saxony and Lusatia, on the northeast by Silesia, and on the east by Moravia. From 1918 to 1939 and from 1945 to 1992 it was part of Czechoslovakia, and since 1993 it has formed

Kleiber, Erich

2005-03-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

Kleiber studied in Prague and between 1912 and 1922 conducted at several German opera houses. In 1923 he became general

Gabon

2005-03-09T17:11:00.000-08:00

After the violent protests that nearly paralyzed the government in 1994, 1995 proved to be one of compromise

Ahmed Yesevi

2005-03-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

Very little is known about his life, but legends indicate that his father died when the boy was young and his family moved to Yasi, where

Bone, Sir Muirhead

2005-03-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

Bone first studied architecture and then art at the Glasgow School of Art. Attracted to the picturesque aspect of buildings, he began to depict views of his native town of Glasgow, among them Portfolio (1899), a series

Amakusa Islands

2005-03-06T08:13:00.000-08:00

Japanese Amakusa-shoto, archipelago off western Kyushu, Japan, in the Amakusa Sea. Administered by Kumamoto ken (prefecture), it includes about 100 islands, the largest of which are Kami (“Upper”) Island and Shimo (“Lower”) Island. There is little farming because of the rough, mountainous terrain, and there are few industries, but forestry, orange cultivation, and offshore fishing are actively

Vistula Lagoon

2005-03-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

German Frisches Haff , Polish Zalew Wislany , Russian Vislinsky Zaliv shallow, marsh-fringed lagoon on the Baltic coast, bisected by the Polish-Russian border and considered part of the Gulf of Gdansk. Covering 330 square miles (855 square km), it is 56 miles (90 km) long, 6 to 15 miles (10 to 19 km) wide, and up to 17 feet (5 m) deep. The Nogat, the eastern distributary of the Vistula River delta, is the principal river entering the lagoon. The long, narrow Vistula Spit protects the

West Liberty State College

2005-03-04T05:52:00.000-08:00

Public, coeducational institution of higher learning in West Liberty, West Virginia, U.S. It is a four-year liberal arts college that confers two-year associate as well as bachelor's degrees. The campus is on a hilltop in a rural region of northern West Virginia that is near the metropolitan areas of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Steubenville, Ohio; and Wheeling, West Virginia.

Aalto, Alvar

2005-03-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

Aalto's commissions after 1950, in addition to being greater in number, were more varied and widely dispersed: a high-rise apartment building in Bremen, W.Ger. (1958), a church in Bologna, Italy (1966), an art museum

Triassic Period, Invertebrates

2005-03-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

Ammonoids were common in the Permian but suffered drastic reduction at the end of that period. Only a few genera belonging to

'abd Al-malik

2005-03-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

In full 'abd Al-malik Ibn Marwan fifth caliph (685–705) of the Umayyad Arab dynasty centred in Damascus. He reorganized and strengthened governmental administration and, throughout the empire, adopted Arabic as the language of administration.

Gaines's Mill, Battle Of

2005-02-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

In the American Civil War, one of the Seven Days' Battles, which ended the Peninsular Campaign. See Cold Harbor, battles of.

Gene Flow

2005-02-27T03:13:00.000-08:00

Also called gene migration the introduction of genetic material (by interbreeding) from one population of a species to another, thereby changing the composition of the gene pool of the receiving population. The introduction of new alleles through gene flow increases variability within the population and makes possible new combinations of traits. In human beings gene flow usually comes

Objectivism

2005-02-26T18:37:00.000-08:00

The theory or practice of objective art or literature. The term was used by the poet William Carlos Williams in the 1930s to describe a movement in which emphasis was placed on viewing poems as objects that could be considered and analyzed in terms of mechanical features. According to Williams, this meant examining the structural aspects of the poem and considering

Rawalpindi

2005-02-25T07:55:00.000-08:00

Rawalpindi (“Village of Rawals”) occupies the site of an old village inhabited by the Rawals, a group of yogis (ascetics). Certain ruins on the site are identified with the ancient city Gajipur, or Gajnipur,

Fribourg

2005-02-24T01:27:00.000-08:00

German Freiburg, canton, western Switzerland, bounded by Lake Neuchâtel and the cantons of Vaud on the west and south and Bern on the east, with enclaves within Vaud. Occupying an area of 644 sq mi (1,669 sq km), it lies in an elevated plain (Swiss Plateau) and rises from flat land in the west through a hilly region up to the PreAlps in the south and east. The highest summits are to the south in La Gruyère

Mies Van Der Rohe, Ludwig

2005-02-22T05:12:00.000-08:00

Original name Maria Ludwig Michael Mies German-born American architect whose rectilinear forms, crafted in elegant simplicity, epitomized the International Style (q.v.) of architecture.

Aargau

2005-02-21T01:33:00.000-08:00

French Argovie, canton, northern Switzerland. It borders Germany to the north and is bounded by the demicanton of Basel-Laandschaft and by the cantons of Solothurn and Bern to the west, Luzern to the south, and Zug and Zürich to the east. It forms the northeastern section of the great Swiss Plateau between the Alps and the Jura Mountains, taking in the lower course of the Aare River, whence

Manchester

2005-02-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

City and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, northwestern England. Most of the city, including the historic core, is in the historic county of Lancashire, but it includes an area south of the River Mersey in the historic county of Cheshire. Manchester is the nucleus of the largest metropolitan area in the north of England, and it

Mathematics, Foundations Of, Abstraction in mathematics

2005-02-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

One recent tendency in the development of mathematics has been the gradual process of abstraction. The Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–29) proved that equations of the fifth degree cannot, in general, be solved by radicals. The French mathematician Évariste Galois (1811–32), motivated in part by Abel's work, introduced certain groups of permutations to determine

United States, The Jeffersonian Republicans in power

2005-02-18T23:52:00.000-08:00

By the start of Jefferson's second term in office, Europe was engulfed in the Napoleonic Wars. The United States remained neutral, but both Britain and France imposed various orders and decrees severely restricting American trade with Europe and confiscated American ships for violating the new rules. Britain also conducted impressment raids in which U.S. citizens were sometimes seized. Unable to agree to treaty terms with Britain, Jefferson tried to coerce both Britain and France into ceasing to violate “neutral rights” with a total embargo on American exports, enacted by Congress in 1807. The results were catastrophic for American commerce and produced bitter alienation in New England, where the embargo (written backward as “O grab me”) was held to be a Southern plot to destroy New England's wealth. In 1809, shortly after Madison was elected president, the embargo act was repealed.

North Lincolnshire

2005-02-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

Unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Lincolnshire, England, comprising a low plain on the south shore of the River Humber estuary that extends inland to the northernmost Lincolnshire Wolds and the reclaimed wetlands of the Isle of Axholme along the River Trent. The unitary authority covers a largely rural and agricultural area. Its fertile lands

Whidbey Island

2005-02-16T00:12:00.000-08:00

Whidbey also spelled Whidby island, part of Island county, northwestern Washington, U.S., in Puget Sound. Approximately 40 miles (65 km) long, it is one of the largest offshore islands in the continental United States. Its chief towns are Oak Harbor, Coupeville (a preserved historic [1875] town), and Langley. The island was named for Joseph Whidbey, the sailing master for George Vancouver. Whidbey, on June 2, 1792, as a member

Anointment

2005-02-15T05:44:00.000-08:00

Ritual application of oil or fat to the head or body of a person or to an object; an almost universal practice in the history of religions, although both the cultic practice followed and the sacred substance employed vary from one religion to another. It is possible to recognize three distinct, though not separate, meanings ascribed to ritual anointments by the devotees

Earth, Development of the Earth's structure and composition

2005-02-14T03:58:00.000-08:00

The origin of the Earth in its present form has been the subject of intellectual interest for centuries, but the decades since 1950 have seen major advances both in concepts and in measurements pertaining to this topic. The quantitative analysis by geochemists of the isotopes in meteorites and, in particular, the study of lunar rocks obtained during the U.S. Apollo program

Laos, Relief

2005-02-13T09:55:00.000-08:00

Dominating the landscape of Laos are its inhospitable, forest-covered mountains, which in the north rise to a maximum elevation of 9,245 feet (2,818 metres) above sea level at Mount Bia and everywhere constitute an impediment to travel. The principal range lies along a northwest-southeast axis and forms part of the Annamese Cordillera (Chaîne Annamitique), but secondary ranges

Visitador

2005-02-13T00:39:00.000-08:00

The institution of the

Augustine, Saint

2005-02-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

In many ways no less unusual a book than his Confessions, the Retractationes (426–427; Reconsiderations), written in the last years of his life, offers a retrospective rereading of Augustine's career. In form, the book is a catalog of his writings with comments on the circumstances of their composition and with the retractions or rectifications he would make in hindsight. (One

Babington, Anthony

2005-02-11T10:15:00.000-08:00

The son of Henry Babington of Derbyshire, he was brought up secretly a Roman Catholic. As a youth he served at Sheffield

Reggae

2005-02-09T03:19:00.000-08:00

According to an early definition in The Dictionary of Jamaican English (1980), reggae is

Joyner-kersee, Jackie

2005-02-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

Joyner showed great enthusiasm for athletics early on, and as a teenager she won the first of four consecutive National Junior Pentathlon championships. In high school she was a

Interior Design, Final drawings and specifications

2005-02-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

The next stages of the design may consist of a series of drawings done by professional draftsmen or by the interior designer himself, if he works as an

Rainmaking

2005-02-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

Any process of increasing the amount of precipitation discharged from a cloud. Primitive methods, such as rain dances or the throwing of pebbles into water, failed to produce rain, but modern techniques of seeding supercooled clouds with frozen carbon dioxide or silver iodide offer some possibility of increasing rainfall amounts substantially.

Mahmud

2005-02-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

In full Yamin Al-daula Abu'l-qasim Mahmud Ibn Sebüktigin sultan of the kingdom of Ghazna (998–1030), originally comprising modern Afghanistan and northeastern modern Iran but, through his conquests, eventually including northwestern India and most of Iran. He transformed his capital, Ghazna, into a cultural centre rivalling Baghdad.

Hoop

2005-02-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

Circular toy adaptable to many games, children's and adults', probably the most ubiquitous of the world's toys, after the ball. The ancient Greeks advocated hoop rolling as a beneficial exercise for those not very strong. It was also used as a toy by both Greek and Roman children, as graphic representations indicate. Most of these ancient hoops were of metal. Most later

Earnshaw, Thomas

2005-02-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

Earnshaw became an apprentice at the age of 14 and later set up a shop in London. He made significant improvements in the transit clock at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, London, and,

Osage Orange

2005-02-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

Also called Bowwood, French Bois D'arc (Maclura pomifera), thorny tree with large, yellow-green, wrinkled fruit and a milky sap that can produce dermatitis in humans. It is the only species of its genus in the mulberry family (Moraceae). It is native to the south-central United States but has been planted extensively farther north in the Mississippi River valley and at points east of

Chancellor

2005-02-01T04:24:00.000-08:00

In western Europe, the title of holders of numerous offices of varying importance, mainly secretarial, legal, administrative, and ultimately political in nature. The Roman cancellarii, minor legal officials who stood by the cancellus, or bar, separating the tribune from the public, were later employed in the imperial scrinia (writing departments). After the fall of

Poe, Edgar Allan, Short stories. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque

2005-02-01T02:37:00.000-08:00

(1840); The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe (1843), includes “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Man That Was Used Up”; Tales (1845), includes “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” “The Gold Bug,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Purloined Letter”; “The Masque of the Red Death” (1842); “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1843); “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843); “The Premature Burial” (1844); “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846).

Novocherkassk

2005-01-31T14:44:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Novocerkassk, city, Rostov oblast (province), southwestern Russia. It lies at the confluence of the Tuzlov and the Aksay rivers. The original 16th-century town of Starocherkasskaya stood along the Don River, but it was frequently inundated and was moved to its present site in 1805. Novocherkassk long served as the capital of the Don Cossack region and was a centre of opposition to the Bolsheviks

Computers, Invention of the modern computer

2005-01-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

G. Pascal Zachary, Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century (1997), presents a detailed account of Bush's role in transforming scientific research in the United States through government funding.

Allopurinol

2005-01-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Drug used in the treatment of gout, a disease that is characterized by severe inflammation in one or more of the joints of the extremities. Allopurinol inhibits an enzyme that is necessary to form uric acid, a substance present in abnormally large amounts in the blood of persons with gout that forms solid deposits in the joints, the kidneys, and other tissues. The drug

Ghee Hin

2005-01-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

Chinese secret society that flourished in Malaya in the 19th and early 20th centuries. During the 1800s many Chinese migrated to Malaya, bringing their secret societies with them. The Ghee Hin had strong branch organizations in Penang. Its membership consisted primarily of Cantonese speakers from southern China. The Ghee Hin was a semilegal society internally controlled

Chassériau, Théodore

2005-01-26T21:38:00.000-08:00

As a boy, Chassériau entered the studio of Ingres, following his master to Rome in 1834. Chassériau's immediate success at the Paris Salon of 1836 was confirmed three

Rayburn, Sam

2005-01-25T02:09:00.000-08:00

Reared on a farm after his family moved to Texas, young Rayburn taught school

Alicyclic Compound

2005-01-24T22:53:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, any of a large class of organic compounds in which three or more atoms of the element carbon are linked together in a ring. The bonds between pairs of adjacent atoms may all be of the type designated single bonds (involving two electrons), or some of them may be double or triple bonds (with four or six electrons, respectively); six-membered rings for which a system

Novel, Apprenticeship

2005-01-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

The Bildungsroman, or novel about upbringing and education, seems to have its beginnings in Goethe's work, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1796), which is about the processes by which a sensitive soul discovers its identity and its role in the big world. A story of the emergence of a personality and a talent, with its implicit motifs of struggle, conflict, suffering, and success,

Kuznets, Simon

2005-01-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

Kuznets immigrated to the United States in 1922, 15 years after the arrival there of his father (who changed the family name to Smith, though the young Kuznets preferred the original

Hyderabad

2005-01-21T09:35:00.000-08:00

The city, administrative headquarters of the district, lies on the most northerly hill of the Ganjo Takkar ridge, just east of the Indus River. The third largest city in Pakistan, it is a communications centre, connected by rail with Peshawar and Karachi and with Indian railways via the border towns of Khokhropar and

Distribution Function

2005-01-20T22:38:00.000-08:00

Mathematical expression that describes the probability that a system will take on a specific value or set of values. For example, the probability (dP) that a molecule of gas will be found with velocity components u, v, and w in the x, y, and z directions, respectively, is given by the product of the distribution function and the infinitesimal volume du dv dw; i.e., dP = f (u, v, w) du dv

Turtle

2005-01-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

One-man submarine, the first to be put to military use, built and designed by the American inventor David Bushnell (q.v.) in 1775 for use against British warships. The pear-shaped vessel, made of oak reinforced with iron bands, measured about 2.3 m (7.5 feet) long by 1.8 m (6 feet) wide. It was equipped with a mine that was to be attached to the hull of an enemy ship. In 1776, in New York harbour, the Turtle tried

Berosus

2005-01-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

Chaldean priest of Bel in Babylon who wrote a work in three books (in Greek) on the history and culture of Babylonia; it was widely used by later Greek compilers, whose versions in turn were quoted by religious historians such as Eusebius and Josephus. Thus Berosus, though his work survives only in fragmentary

Anger, Per Johan Valentin

2005-01-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

Swedish diplomat (b. Dec. 7, 1913, Göteborg, Swed.—d. Aug. 25, 2002, Stockholm, Swed.), helped save thousands of Hungarian Jews from being transported to Nazi death camps during World War II. Anger, a member of the Swedish legation in Budapest when the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, set up safe houses around Budapest and issued temporary passports and identity cards that identified Jews as Swedes.

Yobe

2005-01-15T05:29:00.000-08:00

Yobe's terrain consists of plains that are drained by the seasonal Komadugu Yobe River and its tributaries in the north and by the Gongola

Pacific Ocean, Submarine hydrocarbons

2005-01-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Deposits of oil and gas under the seafloor are the most valuable and sought-after fuels of the modern world economy. Shallow seas and small ocean basins, such as the South and East China seas, are thought to have a high potential for large reserves. Among the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean and its marginal seas, the proportion of production from submarine reserves

Raman, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata

2005-01-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in India. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for the discovery that when light traverses a transparent material, some of the light that is deflected changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is

China, State and society

2005-01-12T16:43:00.000-08:00

The ritual schedule records 29 royal ancestors over a span of 17 generations who, from at least Wu-ting to Ti-hsin, were each known as wang (king). Presiding over a stable politico-religious hierarchy of ritual specialists, officers, artisans, retainers, and servile peasants, they ruled with varying degrees of intensity over the North China Plain and parts of Shantung, Shansi,

Oryol

2005-01-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Or'ol, or Orel, city and administrative centre of Oryol oblast (province), western Russia, on the headwaters of the Oka River at the Orlik confluence. Founded in 1564 as a fortress of the Muscovite State against Tatar attacks, it was the scene of heavy fighting during World War II. The city centre, with a street pattern of ring roads and radials and with a mixture of old and new buildings, lies

Lilar, Suzanne

2005-01-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

Lilar was of Flemish origins. She began her career as

Amazon Rainforest

2005-01-10T04:56:00.000-08:00

Large, tropical rainforest occupying the drainage basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries in northern South America, and covering an area of 2,300,000 square miles (6,000,000 square km). Comprising about 40 percent of Brazil's total area, it is bounded by the Guiana Highlands to the north, the Andes Mountain Ranges to the west, the Brazilian central plateau to the south, and the Atlantic

Saptamatrka

2005-01-09T01:19:00.000-08:00

Representations of the goddesses are found in shrines throughout

Pachelbel, Johann

2005-01-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

Pachelbel studied music at Altdorf and Regensburg and held posts as organist in Vienna, Stuttgart, and other cities. In 1695 he was appointed organist at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nürnberg, where he remained until his death.

Milles, Carl

2005-01-07T05:14:00.000-08:00

In 1902, during student years in Paris, Milles won recognition through the competition for

Ayrshire

2005-01-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

Breed of hardy dairy cattle originating in the county of Ayr, Scotland, in the latter part of the 18th century and considered to be the only special dairy breed to have originated in the British Isles. The body colour varies from almost pure white to nearly all cherry red or brown with any combination of these colours; black or brindle are considered undesirable. The beef

Sankaran Nair, Sir Chettur

2005-01-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Sankaran Nair

Downs

2005-01-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

Because

Sankaran Nair, Sir Chettur

2005-01-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

The tree has a straight but often buttressed stem (i.e., thickened at the base), a spreading crown, and four-sided branchlets with large quadrangular pith. The leaves are opposite

Lemur

2005-01-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

Generally, any of the more primitive primates except the tree shrews. In this sense, the term covers not only the typical lemurs (family Lemuridae) but also the avahi, indri, sifaka, aye-aye, loris, potto, and galago (qq.v.). All these animals are characterized by a naked, moist tip to the muzzle; comblike, forward-directed lower front teeth; and a clawlike nail on the second toe of

Syriac Literature

2005-01-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

Body of writings in Syriac, an eastern Aramaic Semitic language originally spoken in and around Edessa, Osroëne (modern Saliurfa, in southeastern Turkey). First attested in the 1st century AD, Syriac spread through the Middle East because of Edessa's position as the intellectual capital of the Christian Orient. Syriac reached its height just prior to the Arab conquest

Bhadrabahu I

2004-12-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

According to Digambara tradition, in 310 BCE, after a 12-year famine, Bhadrabahu and Candra Gupta—the first king of the Mauryan dynasty, who had become a Jain monk—led an exodus from the Jain stronghold in northern India. This migration,

Ma Yuan

2004-12-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

Ma was born into a family of court painters: his great grandfather, Ma Fen, had been daizhao (i.e., painter in attendance) at the Northern Song court about 1119–25; both his grandfather Ma Xingzu and his father, Ma Shirong, held the same rank at the Southern Song court in the middle decades of the 12th century. Ma Yuan began his career under the emperor Xiaozong, became daizhao under Emperor

Mabinogion

2004-12-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

The finest of the tales are the four related

Ambrym

2004-12-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ambrim, island of Vanuatu, southwestern Pacific Ocean. It has an area of 257 sq mi (665 sq km) and is known for its two active volcanoes: Mt. Marum, 4,167 ft (1,270 m), which last erupted in 1973; and Mt. Benbow, 3,720 ft, which had major eruptions in 1894, 1913, 1929, 1942, 1950, 1972 and 1973. The 1950 eruption was serious enough to warrant the evacuation of several hundred persons for resettlement on Éfaté. The island produces copra. Pop. (1979) 6,311.

France, History Of, The historical debate

2004-12-26T07:18:00.000-08:00

In broad terms, 18th-century French politics could be defined as the response of the monarchic state to the emergence of the new cultural and economic configurations that had transformed the lives and especially the imaginations of French men and women. The question was whether the Bourbon monarch could rationalize its administration and find a way to adapt itself

Sculpture, Western, Georgia

2004-12-25T14:35:00.000-08:00

A distinct Georgian sculptural tradition did not emerge until the advent of Christianity, which stimulated a demand for a large number of carved stone reliefs. The earliest of these were based on Early Christian models. In the 8th and 9th centuries the high-relief figures of Early Christian art gave way to figures rendered in wholly linear fashion. In the 10th and 11th centuries

Scanlon, John Patrick

2004-12-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

American public relations consultant (b. Feb. 27, 1935, New York, N.Y.—d. May 4, 2001, New York), specialized in representing high-profile and often controversial clients. He worked as a press spokesman for various New York City government agencies and corporations before embarking on a career as an independent consultant. Among other notable clients, Scanlon represented the tobacco

Blood Disease

2004-12-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

Abnormal condition that involves the corpuscular elements of the blood—red cells, white cells, and platelets—and the tissues in which they are formed—the bone marrow, the lymph nodes, the spleen (i.e., the hematopoietic system). This definition, however, needs expansion and modification. In certain types of illness (e.g., pneumonia, appendicitis) the number of leukocytes

Menken, Adah Isaacs

2004-12-21T02:27:00.000-08:00

The facts concerning Menken's early life are obscured by later and confused publicity stories. On various occasions she claimed various original names, birthplaces, and histories. It seems likely that her

Kuan Han-ch'ing

2004-12-19T22:58:00.000-08:00

Kuan Han-ch'ing, probably a scholar, belonged to a writers' guild that specialized in writing plays for performing groups. Fourteen of his plays (from more than 60 with known titles) have been preserved. Several of them are unquestionably

Heyward, Dubose

2004-12-19T04:27:00.000-08:00

At the age of 17 Heyward worked on the waterfront, where he observed the black Americans who were to become the subject of his writing. Heyward first wrote poems: Carolina Chansons (1922), a joint publication

Tibet, The unification of Tibet

2004-12-17T22:15:00.000-08:00

In 1642 with exemplary devotion, Güüshi enthroned the Dalai Lama as ruler of Tibet, appointing Bsod-nams chos-'phel as minister for administrative affairs and himself taking the title of king and the role of military protector. These three forceful personalities methodically and efficiently consolidated the religious and temporal authority of the Dge-lugs-pa. Lhasa,

Middleton, John Middleton, 1st Earl Of

2004-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

In early life he served as a soldier in France. Later, although he fought against Charles I in both England and Scotland, being especially prominent at the Battle of Philiphaugh and in other operations against the great Montrose, he held a high command in the Scottish army that marched to

Procyonid

2004-12-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

Any member of the mammalian family Procyonidae (order Carnivora), including the raccoon and allied species. They are hunted for their fur and flesh, and sometimes kept as pets. Except for the lesser panda of East Asia, the living forms inhabit North and Central America. Procyonids are closely related to bears (Ursidae) and dogs (Canidae). They are small animals with long,

Farah, Nuruddin

2004-12-14T22:57:00.000-08:00

The son of a merchant and the well-known Somali poet Aleeli Faduma, Farah was educated in Ethiopia and at the colonial-era Institutio Magistrale in

Arabia, History Of, The Tubba' kings

2004-12-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

A major break with the past was made in the 4th century AD, when the polytheistic religion of the earlier cultures was replaced by a monotheistic cult of “The Merciful (Rahman), Lord of heaven and earth.” There was also an increasing interest, both friendly and hostile, in central Arabia. Already in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD Sabaean, Himyaro-Sabaean, and Himyarite rulers had employed

Bond, Sir Robert

2004-12-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

Bond was elected to the Newfoundland House of Assembly in 1882. He became speaker in 1884 and colonial secretary in 1889 in the Liberal ministry. His attempts to settle the fishing rights allowed to France and the United States were overruled by

401(k)

2004-12-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

In the United States, a retirement savings program organized by employers but funded primarily by workers through paycheck deductions. Because employees generally do not make withdrawals from the fund until after they have retired, the 401(k) is considered a deferred compensation plan. As a result, the worker is not taxed on any earnings or gains made in the account

Hard Water

2004-12-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

Water that contains salts of calcium and magnesium principally as bicarbonates, chlorides, and sulfates. Ferrous iron may also be present; oxidized to the ferric form, it appears as a reddish brown stain on washed fabrics and enameled surfaces. Water hardness that is caused by calcium bicarbonate is known as temporary, because boiling converts the bicarbonate