StrangePig

Organic Underwear

2006-10-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

Natural soft Organic Clothinggoods are hard to find as they can often be a little course. Liv Organic Cotton Goodsare soft and luxurious and their Organic Underwear is to die for.

Giulini, Carlo Maria

2005-04-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Giulini studied under Bernardino Molinari at Rome's Accademia di Santa Cecilia. As violist for that institution's resident orchestra, he observed the work of such notables as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer, and Bruno Walter. His conducting

Korea, History Of, Division of Korea

2005-04-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Cairo Declaration, issued on Dec. 1, 1943, by the United States, Great Britain, and China, pledged independence for Korea “in due course.” This vague phrase aroused the leaders of the Korean provisional government in Chungking to request interpretation from the United States. Their request, however, received no answer. At the Yalta Conference held in February 1945, U.S. President

Tetrameter

2005-04-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

Line of poetic verse that consists of four metrical feet. In English versification, the feet are usually iambs (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in the word {breve}be|cause¢ ), trochees (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, as in the word ti¢|ger),{breve} or a combination of the two. Iambic tetrameter is, next to iambic pentameter, the most common

Azuchi-momoyama Period

2005-03-29T03:28:00.000-08:00

Also called Momoyama Period (1574–1600), in Japanese history, age of political unification under the daimyo Oda Nobunaga and his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who finally brought all provinces under the control of the central government. In contrast to the restraint of the preceding Muromachi, or Ashikaga, period (1338–1573), it was an age of magnificence and ostentation. The building of great castles and mansions

Kyneton

2005-03-28T16:21:00.000-08:00

Town, central Victoria, Australia, on the Campaspe River, about 50 mi (85 km) northwest of Melbourne. Squatters settled in the region in 1836–41; the town was surveyed in 1849 and named after Kineton (now known as Kington) in Hertfordshire, England. Kyneton is the service centre for an area producing wool, beef, dairy products, oats, wheat, and potatoes. There are abattoirs, knitting and timber

Saudi Arabia

2005-03-25T16:33:00.000-08:00

Officially Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , Arabic Al-Mamlakah Al-'Arabiyah As-Sa'udiyah country with an area of approximately 868,000 square miles (2,248,000 square kilometres), occupying about four-fifths of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait on the north; by the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman on the east; by a portion of Oman on the southeast; by Yemen on the south and southwest; and by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba

Annelid, Importance

2005-03-24T18:48:00.000-08:00

Large earthworms, or night crawlers (Lumbricus terrestris), are cultivated and sold as bait for freshwater fishes and as humus builders in gardens. The sludge worm Tubifex, abundant near sewer outlets and thus an indicator of water pollution, is collected and sold as food for tropical fish. Polychaetes play an important role in turning over sediment on the ocean

Hyde Park

2005-03-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

The park shares a large curved lake with its western neighbour; the portion of the lake in Kensington Gardens is known as the Long Water, whereas the Hyde Park portion is called the Serpentine. The lake is used for boating

Chand, Dhyan

2005-03-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

Chand is most remembered for his goal-scoring feats and for his three Olympic gold medals (1928, 1932, and 1936) in field hockey, while India was dominant in the sport. He joined the Indian army in 1922 and came to prominence when he toured New Zealand with the

Joachim Ii Hektor

2005-03-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

The elder son of Joachim I, Joachim II was given the Old (Altmark) and Middle Marks of Brandenburg on his father's death

France, History Of, The Reign of Terror

2005-03-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

After their victory in expelling the Girondins, Parisian militants “regenerated” their own sectional assemblies by purging local moderates, while radicals like Jacques-René Hébert and Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette tightened their grip on the Paris Commune. On Sept. 5, 1793, they mounted another mass demonstration to demand that the Convention assure food at affordable

Faerie Queene, The

2005-03-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

One of the great long poems in the English language, written in the 16th century by Edmund Spenser. As originally conceived, the poem was to have been a religious-moral-political allegory in 12 books, each consisting of the adventures of a knight representing a particular moral virtue; Book I, for example, recounts the legend of the Red Cross Knight, or Holiness. The knights

Caudata, Size range and diversity of structure

2005-03-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

The most typical salamanders are short-bodied, four-legged, moist-skinned vertebrates about 100 to 150 millimetres (about 4 to 6 inches) long. The tail is usually about as long as the body. There is much variation in size, and terrestrial salamanders range from 40 to nearly 350 millimetres, with a few exceeding 1 metre (39 inches) in length. Members of most species live in moist places on land

Burges, William

2005-03-15T10:47:00.000-08:00

During Burges' apprenticeship he studied medieval architecture, visiting the Continent to gain firsthand impressions. In 1856 he received the first award in an international competition for the Cathedral of Lille, France. He designed the Cathedral

Abbott, Berenice

2005-03-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

Abbott studied briefly at Ohio State University before moving in 1918 to New York City, where she explored sculpture and drawing on her own for four years. She continued these pursuits

Displacement Current

2005-03-12T03:55:00.000-08:00

In electromagnetism, a phenomenon analogous to an ordinary electric current, posited to explain magnetic fields that are produced by changing electric fields. Ordinary electric currents, called conduction currents, whether steady or varying, produce an accompanying magnetic field in the vicinity of the current. The British physicist James Clerk Maxwell in

Clarence, Lionel Of Antwerp, Duke Of

2005-03-11T01:29:00.000-08:00

Before he was four years of age Lionel was betrothed to Elizabeth (d. 1363), daughter and heiress of William de Burgh, earl of Ulster (d. 1333), and he entered nominally into possession of her great Irish inheritance. Having been named as his father's representative in England in

Computers, Zuse's Plankalkül

2005-03-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

Konrad Zuse developed the first real programming language, Plankalkül (“Plan Calculus”) in 1944–45. Zuse's language allowed for the creation of procedures (stored chunks of code that could be invoked repeatedly to perform routine operations such as taking a square root; also known as routines or subroutines) and structured data (such as a record in a database, with a mixture

France, History Of, Industrial production

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

After 1740 overall production in France rose annually by about 2 percent, and even more in some sectors. During the later decades of the 18th century, French industrial production grew rapidly, although not on the same scale as in Britain, whose industrial development had begun 60 years before that of the French. Coal mining was a major industry by 1789, its production being nearly

Jackal

2005-03-06T01:24:00.000-08:00

Any of several species of wolflike carnivores of the dog genus Canis, family Canidae, sharing with the hyena an exaggerated reputation for cowardice. Three species are usually recognized: the golden, or Asiatic, jackal (C. aureus), found from eastern Europe and northeast Africa to Southeast Asia, and the black-backed (C. mesomelas) and side-striped (C.

Kahn, Robert Elliot

2005-03-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

After receiving an engineering degree from City College of New York in 1960, Kahn received his M.A. (1962) and Ph.D. (1964) in electrical engineering from Princeton University. Immediately after completing his doctorate, Kahn worked for Bell Laboratories and subsequently

La Harpe, Jean-françois De

2005-03-02T23:58:00.000-08:00

Orphaned at 9 and imprisoned at 19 for allegedly writing a satire against his protectors at college, La Harpe became a bitter and caustic man. Of many uninspired plays he wrote, the best are perhaps his first tragedy, Warwick (1763), and

Bekabad

2005-02-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

City, Tashkent oblast (province), eastern Uzbekistan. It lies along both banks of the Syr River at the extreme southern tip of the oblast. The town arose originally in connection with a cement plant and until World War II was known as a cement and cotton centre. During World War II a small steel plant was constructed in Bekabad. It uses scrap and some pig iron brought from

Beamon, Bob

2005-02-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

Beamon began jumping at Jamaica High School (Long Island, New York) and attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (Greensboro), the University of Texas

Duck Mountain

2005-02-24T07:03:00.000-08:00

Plateau in southwestern Manitoba, Canada, forming the highest part of the Manitoba Escarpment. It extends southeastward from the Saskatchewan border for 50 miles (80 km), culminating in Baldy Mountain (2,730 feet [832 m]), 36 miles northwest of Dauphin. A large part of the plateau is embraced by Duck Mountain Provincial Park, established in 1962 to preserve the region's dense forests, numerous

Melaka

2005-02-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

Formerly Malacca, town and port, West Malaysia (Malaya), on the Strait of Malacca, at the mouth of the sluggish Melaka River. The city was founded about 1400, when Paramesvara, the ruler of Tumasik (now Singapore), fled from the forces of the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit and found refuge at the site, then a small fishing village. There he founded a Malay kingdom the kings of which, aided by the Chinese,

Metasomatic Replacement

2005-02-21T21:36:00.000-08:00

The process of simultaneous solution and deposition whereby one mineral replaces another. It is an important process in the formation of epigenetic mineral deposits (those formed after the formation of the host rock), in the formation of high- and intermediate-temperature hydrothermal ore deposits, and in supergene sulfide enrichment (enriched by generally

Metasomatic Replacement

2005-02-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

The company was incorporated in 1892, acquiring all the assets of the Edison General Electric

Candidiasis

2005-02-17T05:53:00.000-08:00

Also called moniliasis infectious disease produced by the yeastlike fungus Candida albicans and closely related species. A common inhabitant of the mouth, vagina, and intestinal tract, Candida ordinarily causes no ill effects, except among infants and in persons debilitated by illness such as diabetes. There is evidence that prolonged treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics, such

Yan Liben

2005-02-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

Yan was a high official within the imperial court, but his fame derives from his skill as a painter. He is recorded as having painted Buddhist and Daoist subjects and as having received various imperial commissions; but among the extant works attributed to him, the most important

Kadu Languages

2005-02-13T03:36:00.000-08:00

Also called Kadugli-Krongo languages group of related languages spoken along the western and southern edge of the Nuba Hills in The Sudan. These languages were formerly classified as part of the Kordofanian group within the Niger-Congo language family, but they are now widely believed to form a subgroup within the Nilo-Saharan language family. The name Kadu is based on a widespread word for “people” in

Khams

2005-02-10T04:19:00.000-08:00

Also called Mdo-stod, one of three regions into which the area of Central Asia inhabited by Tibetans is traditionally divided. During the 7th to 9th century AD, the central Tibetan kingdom was extended until it reached the Tarim Basin on the north, China on the east, India and Nepal on the south, and Kashmir on the west. The newly added dominions to the east and northeast were called Mdo-Khams. The

Araçatuba

2005-02-08T09:33:00.000-08:00

City, western São Paulo estado (“state”), Brazil, near the Tietê River, which is dammed for power and irrigation. The city was founded in 1908 and was given town rank in 1917. In 1921 it was separated administratively from Penápolis (to the southeast) and was designated the seat of a municipality. It serves an agricultural area (cotton, coffee, rice, corn [maize], and feijão [beans]). Araçatuba processes

Philip Iv

2005-02-06T23:09:00.000-08:00

He succeeded his father, Philip III of Spain, in 1621, and, for the first 22 years of his reign, Philip's valido, or chief minister, was the Conde-Duque de Olivares, who took the spread of the Thirty Years' War as an opportunity not only for resuming hostilities against

Mercer, Johnny

2005-02-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

Educated in Virginia, Mercer arrived in New York City in the late 1920s and acted in bit parts until his collaboration with Everett Miller on “Out of Breath and Scared to Death of You” was accepted for the revue Garrick

Melanin

2005-02-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

A dark biological pigment (biochrome) found in skin, hair, feathers, scales, eyes, and some internal membranes; it is also found in the peritoneum of many animals (e.g., frogs), but its role there is not understood. Formed as an end product during metabolism of the amino acid tyrosine, melanins are conspicuous in dark skin moles of humans; in the black dermal melanocytes (pigment

Brer Rabbit

2005-01-31T17:04:00.000-08:00

Trickster figure originating in African folklore and transmitted by African slaves to the New World, where it acquired attributes of similar native American tricksters (see trickster tale); Brer, or Brother, Rabbit was popularized in the United States in the stories of Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908). The character's adventures embody an idea considered to be a universal

Smith, Hamilton Othanel

2005-01-29T01:34:00.000-08:00

Smith graduated from the

Maccabees, The Books Of The

2005-01-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

Maccabees also spelled Machabees four books, none of which is in the Hebrew Bible but all of which appear in some manuscripts of the Septuagint. The first two books only are part of canonical scripture in the Septuagint and the Vulgate (hence are canonical to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) and are included in the Protestant Apocrypha.

Adductor Muscle

2005-01-25T20:39:00.000-08:00

Any of the muscles that draw a part of the body toward its median line or toward the axis of an extremity (compare abductor muscle), particularly three powerful muscles of the human thigh—adductor longus, adductor brevis, and adductor magnus. Originating at the pubis and the ischium (lower portions of the pelvis—the hipbone), these ribbonlike muscles are attached along

A-mdo

2005-01-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

Also called Mdo-smad, one of three regions into which the area of central Asia inhabited by Tibetans is traditionally divided. During the 7th to 9th centuries, the central Tibetan kingdom was extended until it reached the Tarim Basin on the north, China on the east, India and Nepal on the south, and Kashmir on the west. The newly added dominions to the east and northeast were called Mdo-Khams.

Gracchus, Tiberius Sempronius

2005-01-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

Born into an aristocratic Roman family, Tiberius Sempronius was heir to a nexus of political connections with other leading families—most

Austerlitz, Battle Of

2005-01-20T06:40:00.000-08:00

The battle took place near Austerlitz in Moravia

Bad Gandersheim

2005-01-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

Also called Gandersheim, city, Lower Saxony Land (state), north-central Germany. It lies in the Leine River valley. Bad Gandersheim is remarkable for an 11th-century convent church containing the tombs of famous abbesses and for the former abbey, which was moved there in 852 by the duke of Saxony, whose daughters were the first two abbesses. Louis III granted a privilege by which the office of abbess

Italy, The rise of Mussolini

2005-01-15T02:38:00.000-08:00

The political crisis of the postwar years provided an opportunity for militant, patriotic movements, including those of ex-servicemen and former assault troops, radical students, ex-syndicalists, and former pro-war agitators. D'Annunzio in Fiume led one such movement, but the ex-Socialist journalist Benito Mussolini soon became even more prominent, founding his

Heinz Company

2005-01-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

The company was founded in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1869 by Henry John Heinz (1844–1919), who was later to become nationally known as the “Pickle

John Day

2005-01-11T10:03:00.000-08:00

City, Grant county, northeast-central Oregon, U.S., situated at the confluence of John Day River and Canyon Creek, near the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Area. (The North Fork of the John Day is part of the U.S. Wild and Scenic Rivers system.) A stopover on the Pony Express trail from The Dalles (220 miles [354 km] northwest), it originated in the early 1860s, along with adjacent Canyon City,

Flood

2005-01-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

High-water stage in which water overflows its natural or artificial banks onto normally dry land, such as a river inundating its floodplain. The effects of floods on human well-being range from unqualified blessings to catastrophes. The regular seasonal spring floods of the Nile River prior to construction of the Aswan High Dam, for example, were depended upon to

Florida

2005-01-07T02:41:00.000-08:00

The surrounding region is characterized by rolling hills. In addition to its

Alaska, University Of

2005-01-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

State university system consisting of three campuses (regional university centres) in Fairbanks (main campus), Anchorage, and Juneau (known as the University of Alaska Southeast). All campuses are coeducational and offer bachelor's and master's degree programs in business and education; the Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses include schools of engineering and arts

Sucking Louse

2005-01-03T19:16:00.000-08:00

Any small, wingless, flat insect of the suborder Anoplura, with more than 400 described species and worldwide distribution. The sucking louse has piercing and sucking mouthparts and lives on blood and tissue fluids of mammals as an ectoparasite (external parasite). The adult sucking louse, or true louse, glues her eggs, or nits, to the host's hair. The young, which resemble

Roiphe, Anne

2005-01-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

Anne Roth graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1957 and married Jack Richardson in 1958. The marriage ended in divorce in 1963, and in 1967 she married Herman Roiphe. That year she also published

Myriocephalon, Battle Of

2004-12-31T07:34:00.000-08:00

Manuel determined to reassert his suzerainty over former Byzantine territory

Araliaceae

2004-12-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

The ginseng family of flowering plants, in the order Apiales, comprising approximately 700 species centred in Southeast Asia and tropical America. Most members are shrubs or trees, though there are a number of climbers and a few herbs. The family has large, usually alternate, compound leaves, five-parted flowers arranged in compound umbels (flat-topped clusters), and a

Harun Ar-rashid

2004-12-27T09:20:00.000-08:00

The fabulous descriptions of Harun and his court in The Thousand and One Nights are idealized and romanticized, yet they had a considerable basis in fact. Untold wealth had flowed into the new capital of Baghdad since its foundation in 762. The leading men, and still more their wives, vied in conspicuous consumption, and in Harun's reign this reached levels unknown before. His

Kathiawar Peninsula

2004-12-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

Peninsula in southwestern Gujarat state, west-central India. It is bounded by the Little Rann (marsh) of Kachchh (Kutch; north), the Gulf of Cambay (east), the Arabian Sea (southwest), and the Gulf of Kachchh (northwest). From the northeast an ancient sandstone formation extends into the peninsula, which has an area of 23,000 square miles (60,000 square km). Most of the sandstone, however, is masked

Baranya

2004-12-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

Megye (county), southern Hungary, bounded to the south by the Drava River, and by the Mecsek Mountains in its northwestern area. Its area of 1,732 square miles (4,487 square km) is hilly, forested terrain. With adjacent Somogy megye, it is the most sparsely populated part of Hungary. The climate is semi-Mediterranean, and peaches, plums, sour cherries, grains, and vegetables are grown. Pigs

Earth Sciences

2004-12-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

Hudson's Bay Company

2004-12-19T04:14:00.000-08:00

Corporation that occupies a prominent place in both the economic and the political history of Canada. It was incorporated in England on May 2, 1670, to seek a northwest passage to the Pacific, to occupy the lands adjacent to Hudson Bay, and to carry on any commerce with those lands that might prove profitable. It still exists as a commercial company active in real estate, merchandising,

Earth Sciences, Paleontology and stratigraphy

2004-12-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

During the 17th century the guiding principles of paleontology and historical geology began to emerge in the work of a few individuals. Nicolaus Steno, a Danish scientist and theologian, presented carefully reasoned arguments favouring the organic origin of what are now called fossils. Also, he elucidated three principles that made possible the reconstruction

Hviezdoslav

2004-12-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

Hviezdoslav was a lawyer until he became able to devote himself to literature. He originally wrote in Hungarian and was a Hungarian patriot, but in the 1860s he switched both activities to Slovak. By the time of his death the Slovaks

Blom, Frans Ferdinand

2004-12-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the

Anticholinesterase

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

Any of several drugs that prevent destruction of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine by the enzyme acetylcholinesterase within the nervous system. Acetylcholine acts to transmit nerve impulses within the parasympathetic nervous system—i.e., that part of the autonomic nervous system that tends to induce secretion, to contract smooth muscles, and to dilate

Sevilla

2004-12-08T04:53:00.000-08:00

, also spelled Seville , ancient Hispalis city and capital of the provincia of Sevilla, in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of southern Spain. Sevilla lies on the left (east) bank of the Guadalquivir River at a point about 54 miles (87 km) north of the Atlantic, and about 340 miles (550 km) southwest of Madrid. An inland port, it is the chief city of Andalusia and the fourth largest in Spain. Sevilla was important

Switzerland, Remaining challenges

2004-12-06T07:19:00.000-08:00

At the end of the 20th century, growing doubts about Switzerland's past and future emerged. Many Swiss questioned the country's traditional “bunker mentality” in a Europe at peace and with open borders. Particularly troubling for Switzerland was an international debate during the 1990s about “dormant accounts”—assets left by foreign Jews in Swiss banks during the Nazi era

Caruso, Enrico

2004-12-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

Caruso was of a poor family and was the 18th of 20 children. Although he was a musical child who sang Neapolitan folk songs everywhere and joined his parish choir at the age of nine, he received no formal

Ma Yüan

2004-12-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

Ma began his career in the service of Wang Mang, but when revolts erupted throughout the countryside in opposition to Wang's policies, Ma joined the minister's enemies. He eventually

Plot

2004-11-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

In fiction, the structure of interrelated actions, consciously selected and arranged by the author. Plot involves a considerably higher level of narrative organization than normally occurs in a story or fable. According to E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel (1927), a story is a “narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence,” whereas a plot organizes the events according

Sayers, Gale

2004-11-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

Sayers first gained national attention as a two-time

Yuki

2004-11-27T16:16:00.000-08:00

Four groups of North American Indians who lived in the Coast Ranges and along the coast of northwestern California, U.S. They spoke distinctive languages unaffiliated with any other known language. The four Yuki groups were the Yuki proper, who lived along the upper reaches of the Eel River and its tributaries; the Huchnom, who dwelt in the Redwood Valley to the west;

Heterocyclic Compound

2004-11-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

Any of a class of organic chemical substances that consist of molecules containing one or more rings of atoms with at least one atom being an element other than carbon. The class includes many compounds of biological importance, such as nucleic acids and certain vitamins, hormones, and pigments. Also included are industrially significant pharmaceuticals, pesticides,

Dehri

2004-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

City, western Bihar state, northeastern India, west of the Son River. It has major road and rail connections and houses railway workshops. Dehri is the headworks of the Son canal system and the site of a hydroelectric dam. Its industries include sugar production, sawmilling, ghee processing, and varied manufactures. Nearby, on the Son, lies the ancient Rohtas fortress. Pop.

Rio De Janeiro Botanical Garden

2004-11-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

Portuguese Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro one of the great tropical botanical gardens and arboretums of the world. It was founded in 1808 by John, prince regent of the United Kingdom of Brazil and Portugal (later King John VI), for introducing and acclimatizing economically beneficial plants brought from other tropical regions of the world. The garden, located on a 350-acre (141-hectare) site below high peaks, has a collection

Bulganin, Nikolay Aleksandrovich

2004-11-18T05:46:00.000-08:00

Bulganin began his career as a Cheka (Bolshevik secret police) officer in 1918. Later, as manager of Moscow's leading electrical-equipment factory, he earned a reputation as an outstanding administrator. In 1931 he was made chairman

Chandelier

2004-11-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

Brass chandeliers were made in the

Vendôme

2004-11-13T06:39:00.000-08:00

Historic town and capital of an arrondissement in the département of Loir-et-Cher, Centre région, north-central France. It lies southwest of Paris and 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Blois. Vendôme stands on the Loir River, which there divides and intersects the town. To the south stands a hill on which are ruins of the 11th-century castle of the counts (later dukes) of Vendôme. The town

Camargue

2004-11-10T00:37:00.000-08:00

Delta region in Bouches-du-Rhône département, southern France. The region lies between the Grand and Petit channels of the Rhône River and has an area of 300 square miles (780 square km). In the northern part of the delta, the alluvium has emerged as dry land; in the south, the highest ground is along the embankments of present and former watercourses; in the intervening basins

France, History Of, The juridical revolution

2004-11-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

Louis XVI's decision to convene the Estates-General in May 1789 became a turning point in French history. When he invited his subjects to express their opinions and grievances in preparation for this event—unprecedented in living memory—hundreds responded with pamphlets in which the liberal ideology of 1789 gradually began to take shape. Exactly how the Estates-General

Zaharias, Babe Didrikson

2004-11-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

William Oscar Johnson and Nancy P. Williamson, "Whatta-Gal": The Babe Didrikson Story (1977); and Susan E. Cayleff, Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1995), examine her life and career.

Amoghasiddhi

2004-11-03T00:49:00.000-08:00

(Sanskrit: “Unfailing Success”), in Mahayana and Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism, one of the five “self-born” Buddhas. See Dhyani-Buddha.

Epicureanism

2004-10-31T14:24:00.000-08:00

In a strict sense, the philosophy taught by Epicurus (341–270 BC). In a broad sense, it is a system of ethics embracing every conception or form of life that can be traced to the principles of his philosophy. In ancient polemics, as often since, the term was employed with an even more generic (and clearly erroneous) meaning as the equivalent of hedonism, the doctrine that pleasure or

Pinar Del Río

2004-10-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

City, capital of Pinar del Río provincia, western Cuba. Founded in 1775, the city is situated near the base of the Sierra de los Órganos. In 1800 it was officially named Nueva Filipina and was made capital of the western jurisdiction of Cuba. Its economic importance dates from about 1830, when the tobacco industry of the Vuelta Abajo region was developed. With the completion of the railroad

Silicon

2004-10-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

Silicon was first isolated and described as an element in 1824 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist. Silicon does not occur uncombined in nature; but

Automotive Industry, The industry in the United States

2004-10-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

At the end of World War II the American automobile industry had intact facilities, somewhat enlarged by construction for military needs. There was also a great demand for automobiles. This situation invited several attempts by newcomers to enter the industry, but all proved unsuccessful. The most promising, Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, lasted some 10 years but lacked

Pacific Scandal

2004-10-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

One of the conditions under which British Columbia entered the Dominion of Canada (1871) was that a railway to link that province with the east be constructed

Kathiri Sultanate

2004-10-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

Former semi-independent state in the southern Arabian Peninsula, in the inland Hadhramaut region now included in Yemen. The sultanate, with its capital at Saywun (Say'un), once extended from the Wadi Hadramawt, an intermittent stream, northward to the Rub' al-Khali, the vast southern Arabian desert. The Kathiri tribe dominated the Hadhramaut from about 1500 until the early 19th century,

Buontalenti, Bernardo

2004-10-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Buontalenti entered the service of the Medici as a youth and remained with them the rest of his life. In the Uffizi Palace, Florence, he built a great court stage, where, during the winter of 1585–86, splendid fetes were produced under his direction. For the Medici extravaganzas, he designed costumes

Salan, Raoul (-albin-louis)

2004-10-15T00:53:00.000-07:00

French military officer who sought to prevent Algeria from gaining independence from France. In 1961–62 he led an organization of right-wing extremists, the Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS; Secret Army Organization), in a campaign of terror against the government of Charles de Gaulle in both France and Algeria before being captured,

Kyushu

2004-10-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Japanese Kyushu (“Nine Provinces”) southernmost and third largest of the four main islands of Japan. It is bordered by the East China Sea on the west and the Pacific Ocean on the east. Its name refers to the nine ancient provinces (kuni) into which the island was divided. It is separated from the island of Honshu to the north by the Shimonoseki Strait and from Korea to the northwest by the Tsushima Strait,

Hinduism, Sacrifice and worship

2004-10-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

Although the Vedic fire rituals were largely replaced in Puranic and modern Hinduism by image worship and other forms of devotionalism, many Hindu rites can still be traced back to Vedism. Certain royal sacrifices—such as the rajasuya, or consecration ritual, and the horse sacrifice (asvamedha)—remained popular with Hindu kings until very recently. Other large-scale

Kudymkar

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

City and administrative centre of Komi-Permyak autonomous okrug (district), Perm oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along the Inva River at the latter's confluence with the Kuva River in the Northern Ural Mountains. Founded in the 16th century, Kudymkar grew rapidly after 1925, and it became a town in 1938. Industrial enterprises include timber milling and food processing.

Kabila, Joseph

2004-10-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

On Jan. 26, 2001, Joseph Kabila was inaugurated as the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He was the eldest son of the former president, Laurent Kabila, who had been shot by a bodyguard and apparently killed on January 16, although the death was not announced until two days later. (See Obituaries.) The son—named interim president on January 17 and subsequently chosen

Wells, H(erbert) G(eorge)

2004-10-06T04:28:00.000-07:00

English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian, best known for such science fiction as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds and such comic novels as Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly.

Ear, Human, Vestibule

2004-10-03T05:04:00.000-07:00

The two membranous sacs of the vestibule, the utricle and the saccule, are known as the otolith organs (Figure 4). Because they respond to gravitational forces, they are also called gravity receptors. Each sac has on its inner surface a single patch of sensory cells called a macula, which is about 2 millimetres (0.08 inch) in diameter and which monitors the position of the head

Tereshkova, Valentina

2004-10-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Although she had no pilot training, Tereshkova was an accomplished amateur parachutist

Hawes, Harriet Ann Boyd

2004-09-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

Harriet Boyd graduated from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1892; thereafter she taught ancient and modern languages for four years, first as a private tutor in Henderson, North Carolina, and then at a girls' school in Wilmington,

Obwalden

2004-09-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

Half canton, central Switzerland, formerly part of the canton of Unterwalden. The half canton is drained by the Sarner River and occupies the western part of former Unterwalden canton. Obwalden means “above the forest” and refers to the great forest of Kerns that divided the two half cantons in the Middle Ages. Obwalden acted independently of Nidwalden in its acquisition,

Rca Corporation

2004-09-26T02:05:00.000-07:00

RCA was founded as Radio Corporation of America by the General Electric Company in 1919 to acquire Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (incorporated in

Wolfe, Thomas

2004-09-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

His father, William Oliver Wolfe, the Oliver Gant of his novels, was a stonecutter, while his mother, Julia Elizabeth Westall Wolfe, the Eliza of the early novels, owned a successful boardinghouse in Asheville, N.C., where Wolfe