IllCurtain

Dagger

2005-04-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Short stabbing knife, ostensibly the diminutive of the sword, though in ancient and medieval times the distinction between a long dagger and a short sword was often obscure. From approximately 1300 the European dagger was consistently differentiated from the sword; in the 16th century a school of fencing developed in which a specially designed dagger with a large guard

The Environment

2005-04-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

To the surprise of professional horticulturists, computers had a large impact on the field in 1997. Academics led the way, and numerous universities in industrialized countries converted their reference resources to on-line, searchable form, making them freely available via the World Wide Web. The types of information that were obtained from these sites included

Muhammadiyah

2005-04-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

Socioreligious organization in Indonesia, established in 1912 at Jogjakarta, aimed at adapting Islam to modern Indonesian life. The organization was chiefly inspired by an Egyptian reform movement, led by Muhammad 'Abduh, that had tried to bring the Muslim faith into harmony with modern rational thought. The Muhammadiyah advocated the abolition of all superstitious

Nicol, Davidson

2005-04-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

Nicol was educated in medicine and natural sciences in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and England, and he subsequently served in various medical posts in those countries. He became

Kaédi

2005-04-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

Town, southern Mauritania. It lies along the right bank of the Sénégal River where it is joined by the Gorgol River. The banks of these streams and other tributaries are seasonally inundated and cultivated and support the densest settled population in the nation. The remainder of the area, which receives more rainfall than regions farther north, is grazed by zebu

Indo-aryan Languages

2005-04-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

Linguists generally assign the Indo-Aryan languages to three major periods: Old, Middle, and New Indo-Aryan. These periods are linguistic, not strictly chronological. Old Indo-Aryan includes different dialects and linguistic states referred

Ocean, Antarctic Circumpolar Current

2005-04-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

The Southern Ocean links the major oceans by a deep circumpolar belt in the 50°–60° S range. In this belt flows the Antarctic Circumpolar Current from west to east, encircling the globe at high latitudes. It transports 125 million cubic metres of seawater per second over a path of about 24,000 kilometres and is the most important factor in diminishing the differences between oceans.

Tabari, At-

2005-03-31T22:44:00.000-08:00

In the Commentary, at-Tabari's method of composition was to follow the Qur'an text word by word, juxtaposing all of the juridical, lexicographical, and historical explanations

San Cristóbal De Las Casas

2005-03-31T03:54:00.000-08:00

City, central Chiapas estado (“state”), southeastern Mexico. It is situated on the central plateau of Chiapas, at 6,900 feet (2,100 m) above sea level. Founded about 1527 as Villa Real, the settlement was renamed on five occasions before acquiring its present name, which honours Bartolomé de Las Casas, the first bishop of Chiapas. Many colonial buildings remain in the city, the most notable

Hlothere

2005-03-30T05:42:00.000-08:00

Hlothere appears to have shared power with his nephew Eadric (Egbert's son); a code of law still extant was issued in their joint names. A quarrel between them caused Eadric either to be banished or to flee the kingdom. He returned with an army of South Saxons,

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint

2005-03-30T03:24:00.000-08:00

Thomas was born to parents who were in possession of a modest feudal domain on a boundary constantly disputed by the emperor and the pope. His father was of Lombard origin; his mother was of the later invading Norman strain. His people were distinguished in the service of Emperor Frederick II during the civil strife in southern Italy between the papal and imperial

Richelieu River

2005-03-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

French Rivière Richelieu, river in Montérégie region, southern Quebec province, Canada, rising from Lake Champlain, just north of the Canada-U.S. border, and flowing northward for 75 miles (120 km) to join the St. Lawrence River at Sorel. Explored in 1609 by Samuel de Champlain and named in 1642 in honour of the Cardinal de Richelieu, chief minister of the French king Louis XIII, the river served repeatedly as an attack

Päijänne, Lake

2005-03-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

Lake located in parts of the läänit (provinces) of Keski-Suomi, Häme, and Mikkeli, south-central Finland. The lake has an area of 407 square miles (1,054 square km) and a maximum depth of 305 feet (93 m). It is about 85 miles (135 km) long and between 2 and 18 miles (3 and 29 km) wide. The lake is broken by thousands of islands. Jyväskylä, at the northern tip of the lake, and Heinola, on a southeastern branch of the lake, are

Optical Interferometer

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

Instrument for making precise measurements for beams of light of such factors as length, surface irregularities, and index of refraction. It divides a beam of light into a number of beams that travel unequal paths and whose intensities, when reunited, add or subtract (interfere with each other). This interference appears as a pattern of light and dark bands called

K'ang-hsi

2005-03-27T02:12:00.000-08:00

The third son of the Shun-chih emperor, Hsüan-yeh was born to Empress Hsiao-k'ang, daughter of Tulai, a famous Manchu general from the prestigious T'ung clan. (The Manchus were a people of Tungusic stock living in Manchuria who conquered China and established the Ch'ing dynasty in 1644.) Upon Shunchih's sudden death from smallpox at age 23, in February 1661, Hsüan-yeh was immediately raised

Baseball Hall Of Fame

2005-03-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

In full National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum museum and honorary society, Cooperstown, New York, U.S. The origins of the hall can be traced to 1935, when plans were first put forward for the 1939 celebration of the supposed centennial of baseball (it was then believed that the American army officer Abner Doubleday had developed the game at Cooperstown in 1839, a story that was later discredited). The first vote for players to be

Quinará

2005-03-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

Region, southwestern Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, bordered by the regions of Tombali on the south and east, Bafatá on the northeast, Oio on the north, and Biombo on the northwest. Quinará fronts the Atlantic Ocean and the region of Bolama to the southwest. It has an area of 1,139 sq mi (2,920 sq km). The Rio Grande de Buba flows east–west through the centre of the region and empties into the

Mid Sussex

2005-03-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

District, administrative county of West Sussex, historic county of Sussex, southeastern England. It occupies an area in central Sussex. Mid Sussex extends from The Weald, a sandstone area of hilly grasslands and woodlands in the north, across undulating grasslands of the Ouse and Adur river valleys in the centre, to the steep chalk scarps of the north-facing South

Earth Sciences, Charles Lyell and uniformitarianism

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

In opposition to the catastrophist school of thought, the British geologist Charles Lyell proposed a uniformitarian interpretation of geologic history in his Principles of Geology (3 vols., 1830–33). His system was based on two propositions: the causes of geologic change operating include all the causes that have acted from the earliest time; and these causes have always

Ta'liq Script

2005-03-24T00:05:00.000-08:00

In Arabic calligraphy, cursive style of lettering developed in Iran in the 10th century. It is thought to have been the creation of Hasan ibn Husayn 'Ali of Fars, but, because Khwajah 'Abd al-Malik Buk made such vast improvements, the invention is often attributed to him. The rounded forms and exaggerated horizontal strokes that characterize the ta'liq letters were derived primarily

Cancer

2005-03-23T03:50:00.000-08:00

In astrology, Cancer is the

Silius Italicus

2005-03-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

Silius was a distinguished advocate in his earlier years. He later took to public service and was a consul in 68, the year of Nero's death. His association with the emperor Nero was a stain on his reputation that he later expunged through his successful governorship

China, Unification

2005-03-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Though a militarist himself, T'ai-tsu ended militarism as well as usurpation. Even his own coup was skillfully disguised to make it appear that the popular acclaim of the rank and file left him with no choice. Masterful in political maneuvering, T'ai-tsu, as emperor (reigned 960–976), did not destroy other powerful generals as had many previous founding rulers. Instead, he persuaded

Systemic Circulation

2005-03-21T09:21:00.000-08:00

In physiology, the circuit of vessels supplying oxygenated blood to and returning deoxygenated blood from the tissues of the body, as distinguished from the pulmonary circulation. Blood is pumped from the left ventricle of the heart through the aorta and arterial branches to the arterioles and through capillaries, where it reaches an equilibrium with the tissue

Black Nationalism

2005-03-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Political and social movement prominent in the 1960s and early '70s in the United States among some African Americans. The movement, which can be traced back to Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association of the 1920s, sought to acquire economic power and to infuse among blacks a sense of community and group feeling. Many adherents to black nationalism assumed

Neo-sinaitic Alphabet

2005-03-19T22:06:00.000-08:00

Writing system used in many short rock inscriptions in the Sinai Peninsula, not to be confused with the Sinaitic inscriptions, which are of much earlier date and not directly related. Neo-Sinaitic evolved out of the Nabataean alphabet in the 1st century AD and was in use perhaps until the 4th century AD; inscriptions date primarily from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The chief importance

Duan

2005-03-19T02:01:00.000-08:00

A poem or song in Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic literature. The word was used by James Macpherson for major divisions of his Ossianic verse and hence was taken to be the Scottish Gaelic equivalent of canto.

Babeuf, François-noël

2005-03-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

The son of a tax farmer, Babeuf

Abstract Art

2005-03-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Nonobjective Art, or Nonrepresentational Art, painting, sculpture, or graphic art in which the portrayal of things from the visible world plays no part. All art consists largely of elements that can be called abstract—elements of form, colour, line, tone, and texture. Prior to the 20th century these abstract elements were employed by artists to describe, illustrate, or reproduce the world of nature and of human

Powell, William

2005-03-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1912, Powell debuted

Eure River

2005-03-17T01:02:00.000-08:00

River in northern France, a left-bank tributary of the Seine, with a length of 140 miles (225 km). From its source in the Perche Hills, Orne département, at an elevation of about 800 feet (240 m), to its confluence with the Seine River above Rouen at Pont de l'Arche, it flows chiefly through agricultural and wooded regions, receiving numerous tributaries, including the Blaise, the Avre, and the

Ithaca

2005-03-16T09:34:00.000-08:00

With an area of 37 square miles (96 square km), Ithaca consists of two limestone masses connected by a narrow, peninsula that curves to form the head of a gulf facing the Greek mainland. The island is separated from the island of Cephallenia to the west by

Smith, Jessie Willcox

2005-03-16T02:01:00.000-08:00

At age 16 Smith entered the School of Design for Women in Philadelphia, and from 1885 to 1888 she studied with Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of

Affleck, Thomas

2005-03-15T09:09:00.000-08:00

Probably trained in England, Affleck settled in Philadelphia in 1763, producing tables, chairs, sofas, and case furniture for Governor John Penn and other leading Philadelphia

Water Lily

2005-03-15T03:06:00.000-08:00

Any of the freshwater plants of the family Nymphaeaceae, comprising eight genera native to the temperate and tropical parts of the world. All members of the family are perennial except for the genus Euryale, an annual or short-lived perennial found only in Asia. Most species of water lilies have rounded, floating, waxy-coated leaves on long stalks that contain

Lutetium

2005-03-15T02:20:00.000-08:00

(Lu), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table; the hardest and densest rare-earth element, last member of the lanthanide series. Lutetium was discovered (1907–08) by Carl Auer von Welsbach and Georges Urbain, working independently. Urbain derived the name for the element from Lutetia, which was the ancient Roman name for Paris. The name

Man Orchid

2005-03-14T04:21:00.000-08:00

The flower spike, about 10 to 45 cm (4 to 18 inches) tall, may bear up to 90 greenish or yellowish flowers, which have an unpleasant odour.

Oratorian

2005-03-13T13:10:00.000-08:00

The Institute of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri was founded by the saint in Rome in 1575, approved in 1612, and confederated and reapproved in 1942. It consists of independent communities of secular priests held under obedience but not bound by vows, and it is dedicated

Uganda, Martyrs Of

2005-03-13T04:06:00.000-08:00

The first Roman Catholic missions to Bantu-speaking Africa were established

Taconic Orogeny

2005-03-13T00:36:00.000-08:00

A mountain-building event that affected the Appalachian Geosyncline along the eastern coast of the United States. Evidence for the orogeny is most pronounced in the northern Appalachians, but its effects can be noted in the Ridge and Valley Province as far south as Tennessee and in the Piedmont Province as far south as Georgia. Originally thought to have occurred

Wu-kung Mountains

2005-03-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

Wade–Giles romanization Wukung Shan, Pinyin Wugong Shan, mountain range, chiefly in west-central Kiangsi Province, China, forming a part of the frontier area between Kiangsi and Hunan provinces. The range is about 80 miles (130 km) long and extends northeastward from Ch'a-ling in Hunan to near I-ch'un in Kiangsi, being divided from the Chiu-ling Mountains farther north by the valley route between Chu-chou and I-ch'un. The western section

United States, Bank Of The

2005-03-12T02:09:00.000-08:00

Central bank chartered in 1791 by the U.S. Congress at the urging of Alexander Hamilton and over the objections of Thomas Jefferson. Extended debate over its constitutionality contributed significantly to the evolution of pro- and anti-bank factions into the first American political parties—respectively, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Antagonism

Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl Of, Lord Balgonie

2005-03-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

Leslie joined the Swedish army in 1605 and served brilliantly in the Thirty Years' War in central Europe. In 1628 he distinguished himself by successfully defending Stralsund against the imperial commander

Székesfehérvár

2005-03-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

A Roman settlement, Herculea, superseded an earlier Celtic village on the site; in the 10th century it was chosen by Stephen I, king of Hungary, as capital of the Hungarian kingdom, which it remained until the 16th century. Then known as Alba Regia,

Gujarat, The land

2005-03-09T22:19:00.000-08:00

Gujarat is a land of great contrasts; it stretches from the wet, fertile, rice-growing plains of the west coast, north of Bombay city, to the almost rainless salt deserts of Kachchh in the northwest. Kachchh, comprising a single district, is bounded on the south by the Gulf of Kachchh and on the north and east is separated from Pakistan and the mainland of India by the Rann

Christian, Charlie

2005-03-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

Reared in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Christian studied music with

Sila

2005-03-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

Buddhist morality is codified in the form of 10 precepts (dasa-sila), which require

Syringomyelia

2005-03-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

Chronic, progressive disease characterized principally by the development of a cyst, called a syrinx, near the spinal cord or brain stem. Symptoms include gradual dissociated sensory loss, muscle wasting, and spasticity. The cause of the disease is unknown but is thought to be a developmental defect. Symptoms ordinarily appear between 10 and 30 years of age; males are

Adda River

2005-03-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

Italian Fiume Adda, river, in the Lombardia (Lombardy) regione of northern Italy, issuing from small lakes in the Rhaetian Alps at 7,660 feet (2,335 m). The Adda flows southward from Bormio to Tirano, where it turns west past Sondrio to enter Lake Como near its northern end after a course of 194 miles (313 km). The river's upper course is known as the Valtellina (q.v.). Leaving Lake Como at Lecco, it crosses the Lombardy

Bratteli, Trygve (martin)

2005-03-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

Entering the Labour Party's youth organization in 1928, Bratteli became editor of the newspaper Arbeiderungdommen (“Labour Youth”) in the 1930s and served as secretary of the organization until 1940 and as its chairman in 1945–46. From 1940 to 1942, during the early years of the German occupation

World War I, Killed, wounded, and missing

2005-03-07T23:05:00.000-08:00

The casualties suffered by the participants in World War I dwarfed those of previous wars: some 8,500,000 soldiers died as a result of wounds and/or disease. The greatest number of casualties and wounds were inflicted by artillery, followed by small arms, and then by poison gas. The bayonet, which was relied on by the prewar French Army as the decisive weapon, actually produced

Dysplasia

2005-03-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

Chondroectodermal dysplasia (Ellis-van Creveld syndrome) is a very rare, congenital disorder. It is heritable (autosomal recessive). Affected individuals exhibit heart

Midwestern Regionalism

2005-03-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

American literary movement of the late 19th century that centred on the realistic depiction of Middle Western small town and rural life. The movement was an early stage in the development of American Realistic writing. E.W. Howe's Story of a Country Town (1883) and Joseph Kirkland's Zury (1887) and The McVeys (1888) foreshadowed the stories and novels of Hamlin Garland, the foremost representative

Grabau, Amadeus William

2005-03-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

Grabau was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, from 1892 until 1897 and of the Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute from 1899 until 1901, when he became a professor at Columbia

Utica

2005-03-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1798) of Oneida county, central New York, U.S., on the Mohawk River and New York State Canal System, 45 miles (72 km) east of Syracuse. The first settlers were Dutch and Palatinate Germans, and in 1758 the British built Old Fort Schuyler, near the site of an ancient Oneida Indian council stone. Destroyed by the Indian-Tory raid in 1776, the early village was rebuilt and connected by stagecoach

Alexis

2005-03-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Alexis came from Thurii but apparently lived most of his long life in Athens; he was said to have been Menander's uncle. According to Plutarch, he lived to the age of 106 and died on the stage while being crowned. Alexis is

Dunash Ben Labrat

2005-03-04T00:39:00.000-08:00

Dunash was born either in Fès or in Baghdad and after travelling to Sura, Babylonia,

Alcalá De Henares

2005-03-03T02:09:00.000-08:00

City, Madrid provincia and comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”), central Spain. Known under the Romans as Complutum, the city was destroyed in 1000 and rebuilt in 1038 by the Moors, who called it Al-Qal'ah al-Nahr. It was reconquered in 1088 by Alfonso VI and granted with the surrounding lands to the archbishop of Toledo. The city contains the unique Gothic church of San Justo (built

Bach, Johann Sebastian

2005-03-02T22:11:00.000-08:00

Composer of the Baroque era, the most celebrated member of a large family of northern German musicians. Although he was admired by his contemporaries primarily as an outstanding harpsichordist, organist, and expert on organ building, Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers

Uterus

2005-03-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

The uterus has four major regions: the fundus is the broad, curved upper area in which the fallopian

Alligator Apple

2005-03-02T06:33:00.000-08:00

Fruit tree of tropical America valued for its wood. See custard apple.

Rupa-loka

2005-02-28T08:06:00.000-08:00

Also called Rupa-dhatu, in Buddhist thought, the world, or realm, of form. See arupa-loka.

San Francisco, University Of

2005-02-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning, located near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs through six academic divisions: the College of Arts and Sciences, McLaren School of Business, the College of Professional

Cystiphyllum

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

Extinct genus of solitary corals found as fossils in Silurian and Devonian marine rocks (the Silurian Period preceded the Devonian Period and ended 408 million years ago). Cystiphyllum was one of the horn corals, so named for their hornlike shape. Like other corals, it had specialized requirements, and thus its fossils are important environmental indicators.

Damascus, The Muslim city

2005-02-27T03:40:00.000-08:00

Damascus was the first great city of the ancient world that the Muslim Arab forces encountered. In 661, Mu'awiyah, the first Umayyad caliph, moved out of Arabia and established his court in the Syrian capital. The city was renowned for almost a century thereafter as the capital of a luxurious and extensive empire—the most far-reaching of any achieved by Islam. The principal

Melaconite

2005-02-26T16:53:00.000-08:00

Noncrystalline variety of the mineral tenorite (q.v.).

Kiel Canal

2005-02-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

German Nord-ostsee-kanal (“North Sea–Baltic Sea Canal”), waterway extending eastward for 61 miles (98 km) from Brunsbüttelkoog (on the North Sea, at the mouth of the Elbe River) to Holtenau (at Kiel Harbour on the Baltic Sea), in northern Germany. The canal is 338 feet (103 m) wide and 37 feet (11 m) deep and is spanned by seven high-level bridges (about 140 feet high). It constitutes the safest, most convenient, shortest, and cheapest

Ataulphus

2005-02-26T00:37:00.000-08:00

In 412 Ataulphus led the Visigoths, who had recently sacked Rome (410), from Italy to settle in southern Gaul. Two years later he married the Roman princess Galla Placidia (sister of the emperor Honorius), who had been seized at Rome. Driven from Gaul, he retreated into Spain early

France, History Of, Commitment to modernization

2005-02-25T01:41:00.000-08:00

The great peculiarity of the ancien régime, however, was that traditionalism, though deeply felt, was only one-half of a complicated institutional diptych. When first conceived by Cardinal Richelieu between 1624 and 1642 and developed after him by Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, and the Sun King, the ancien régime was also committed to a program of modernization. Guided by a modern

Colfax, Schuyler

2005-02-25T00:18:00.000-08:00

At the end of his term, Colfax returned to private life under a cloud but managed to make a living by delivering popular lectures.

Jacamar

2005-02-24T05:19:00.000-08:00

Any of 15 species of tropical American birds that constitute the family Galbulidae (order Piciformes). The jacamar has a glittering body, tapered from large head to, in most species, a long, graduated tail; some have square tails. Most are iridescently blue, green, or bronze on back and breast; males are white-throated, females brown-throated. The commonest

Rome, Period of the Avignon papacy

2005-02-24T03:06:00.000-08:00

In spite of

Scandinavian Literature, Notable 20th-century prose writers

2005-02-23T02:28:00.000-08:00

Several writers of this time showed a keen eye for character and an understanding of human feelings and of the stark life of rural Iceland: Jón Trausti (Gudmundur Magnússon), who wrote the cycle Heidarbýlid (4 vol., 1908–11; “The Mountain Cot”); Gunnar Gunnarsson, whose Kirken på bjerget (1923–28; “The Church on the Mountain”) was written in Danish; and Gudmundur Hagalín. The outstanding modern

Skiing

2005-02-22T21:14:00.000-08:00

In the 18th Nordic World Cup series, Dæhlie and Vyalbe

Tapestry, Collection catalogs

2005-02-22T01:53:00.000-08:00

Important illustrated catalogs of tapestry collections include: A.S. Cavallo, Tapestries of Europe and Colonial Peru in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2 vol. (1967); D. Du Bon, Tapestries from the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1964); H.C. Marillier, The Tapestries at Hampton Court Palace, London, 2nd ed. (1962), and with A.J. Wace, Marlborough Tapestries at Blenheim Palace (1968); N.Y. Biryukova, The Leningrad Hermitage Gothic and Renaissance Tapestries (1966); M. Crick Kuntziger, Musees royaux d'Art et d'Histoire: Catalogues des tapisseries (1956); A.m. Erkelens, Wandtapijten I. Late Goteik en vroege Renaissance, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (1962); and A.F. Kendrick, Catalogue of Tapestries at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1924). Tapestries of the second half of the 20th century are shown in numerous exhibition catalogs, such as Erika Sellman-Büsching, Tapisserien 1970 bis 1981 (1981); F. Vialet, Tapisseries contemporaines d'Aubusson (1981); Swiss Tapestries, Artists of Today (1981).

Aleksandrovsk-sakhalinsky

2005-02-22T01:12:00.000-08:00

City, Sakhalin oblast (province), far-eastern Russia, on the western coast of Sakhalin Island. It was founded in 1881 as a centre for penal settlements. In 1890 the writer Anton Chekhov lived there while gathering material about convict life for his book Ostrov Sakhalin (“Sakhalin Island”). It became a city in 1926 and from 1932 to 1947 was the centre of an oblast. Pop. (1991 est.) 19,600.

Literature

2005-02-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

The Turkish literary field proved fertile in 2001. Many impressive works of fiction with wide-ranging themes and topics appeared, including Ahmet Altan's Isyan günlerinde ask (“Love in Days of Rebellion”), about an early 20th-century fundamentalist uprising; Buket Uzuner's Uzun beyaz bulut—Gelibolu (“Tall White Cloud—Gallipoli”); Ayla Kutlu's Zehir zikkim hikâyeler (“Bitter

Taylor, Elizabeth

2005-02-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

Taylor's American parents were residing in England at the time of her birth. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II her parents returned to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. Her beauty brought her to the attention of a talent scout,

Melamine

2005-02-19T18:26:00.000-08:00

Melamine is manufactured by heating dicyandiamide under pressure. Its most important reaction is that with formaldehyde, forming resinous compounds of high molecular weight.

Byzantine Art

2005-02-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

Architecture, paintings, and other visual arts produced in the Middle Ages in the Byzantine Empire (centred at Constantinople) and in various areas that came under its influence. The pictorial and architectural styles that characterized Byzantine art, first codified in the 6th century, persisted with remarkable homogeneity within the empire until its final dissolution

Schaeffer, Pierre

2005-02-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

French composer, acoustician, and electronics engineer who in 1948, with his staff at Radio-diffusion et Télévision Française, introduced musique concrète (q.v.), in which sounds of natural origin, animate and inanimate, are recorded and manipulated so that the original sounds are distorted and combined in a musical fashion. The means

Kwinana

2005-02-17T17:54:00.000-08:00

Town, southwestern Western Australia. It lies along Cockburn Sound, just south of Perth. The name was taken from a freighter wrecked offshore in 1922; it is an Aboriginal word meaning “young woman.” The place was a small resort until the mid-1950s, when a large oil refinery with associated port facilities was completed to receive oil shipments from the Middle East. Since then, blast

Puerto Rico

2005-02-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

Officially Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , Spanish Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico self-governing island commonwealth of the West Indies, associated with the United States. The easternmost island of the Greater Antilles chain, it lies approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of the Dominican Republic, 40 miles (65 km) west of the Virgin Islands, and 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is situated in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, its northern shore facing

Abbott, Sir John

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

Educated at McGill University, Montreal, Abbott became a lawyer in 1847 and was made queen's counsel in 1862. He served as dean of the McGill faculty of law from 1855 to 1880. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the then-united province of Canada in 1857 and

Stafford, William

2005-02-17T03:43:00.000-08:00

Stafford attended the University of Kansas (B.A., 1937; M.A., 1945) and the State University of Iowa, where he received a doctorate in 1955. A conscientious objector, he participated

Berosus

2005-02-16T22:35:00.000-08:00

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

Argentina, Cultural life

2005-02-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

The role of the church is discussed in John J. Kennedy, Catholicism, Nationalism, and Democracy in Argentina (1958); and Daniel H. Levine (ed.), Churches and Politics in Latin America (1980).

Physical Science, Principles Of, Simplified models

2005-02-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

The process of dissection was early taken to its limit in the kinetic theory of gases, which in its modern form essentially started with the suggestion of the Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli (in 1738) that the pressure exerted by a gas on the walls of its container is the sum of innumerable collisions by individual molecules, all moving independently of each other.

Gum

2005-02-14T15:54:00.000-08:00

Also called Gingiva, plural Gingivae, in anatomy, mucous membrane attached to and surrounding the necks of the teeth and adjacent alveolar bone. Before the erupting teeth enter the mouth cavity, gum pads develop; these are slight elevations of the overlying oral mucous membrane. When tooth eruption is complete, the gum embraces the neck region of each tooth. As well as being attached to adjacent alveolar

Campa

2005-02-14T08:46:00.000-08:00

Campa is often mentioned in early Buddhist literature as a city of importance and was one

Van Deman, Ralph

2005-02-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

Van Deman followed an eclectic educational course before settling on a military career: he took a degree from Harvard, studied law for a year, and then took a medical degree (1893). He served briefly as an army surgeon and then attended the

Turin Papyrus

2005-02-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

Also called Turin Papyrus Of Kings, or Turin Canon, hieratic manuscript of the 19th dynasty of Egypt, listing the kings of Egypt from earliest times to the reign of Ramses II (1279–13 BC), under whom it was written. Although the papyrus, now in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, is in very fragmentary condition, it is still considered the most detailed and reliable of the existing Egyptian king lists. It lists not only names but also

Atiyah, Sir Michael Francis

2005-02-12T05:01:00.000-08:00

Atiyah's father was Lebanese and his mother Scottish. He attended Victoria College in Egypt and Trinity College,

Round Table Conference

2005-02-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

The first (Nov. 12, 1930–Jan. 19, 1931) had 73 representatives, from

Wimbledon

2005-02-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

The

Earhart, Amelia

2005-02-11T03:11:00.000-08:00

Amelia Earhart, Last Flight, arranged by George Palmer Putnam (1937, reissued 1988), contains journal entries and messages sent home, selected and arranged by her husband. Biographies include George Palmer Putnam, Soaring Wings (1939, reissued 1972); Doris L. Rich, Amelia Earhart (1989); Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings (1989); Susan Butler, East to the Dawn (1997); and Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, Amelia (1997). Randall Brink, Lost Star: The Search for Amelia Earhart (1994), examines her disappearance.

Truman, Bess

2005-02-10T17:32:00.000-08:00

Retiring to their home in Independence, the Trumans had less to do with politics than with their grandchildren and friends. After her death Bess was buried beside her husband at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence. For his unpretentious wife, he had already specified her epitaph: First Lady of the U.S., 1945–1953.

Celibacy

2005-02-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

The state of being unmarried and, therefore, sexually abstinent, usually in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term is applied only to those for whom the unmarried state is the result of a sacred vow, act of renunciation, or religious conviction. Celibacy has existed in one form or another throughout history and in virtually

Priapea

2005-02-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Priapeia poems in honour of the the god of fertility Priapus. Although there are ancient Greek poems addressed to him, the name Priapea is mainly applied to a collection of 85 or 86 short Latin poems composed in various metres and dealing with the fertility god who, with his sickle, protected gardens and vineyards against thieves and from whose axe-hewn image of figwood or willow

Philippines, The downfall of Marcos and return of democratic government

2005-02-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

The assassination of Benigno Aquino as he returned to Manila in August 1983 was generally thought to have been the work of the military; it became the focal point of a renewed and more heavily supported opposition to Marcos' rule. By late 1985 Marcos, under mounting pressure both inside and outside the Philippines, called a snap presidential election for February 1986. Corazon