OppositeAngle

Zadar

2005-04-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

The old town on the peninsula dates from the 9th century BC, when it was a Liburnian settlement

Kazan, Elia

2005-04-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

At age four, Kazan was brought to the United States with his immigrant Greek family. He

Italy, The early years

2005-04-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

Interest in the French Revolution was enhanced by the waning of the reformist impulse of the 1780s in the Italian states. Educated landowners and entrepreneurs who had put their trust in the enlightened rulers of their own states and had looked forward to important administrative and political reforms were disappointed. The French example gave them new hope. During

Music Recording, Composition

2005-04-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

The contemporary

Bacillariophyta

2005-04-01T00:15:00.000-08:00

Division of algae the members of which are commonly known as diatoms. See diatom.

Monticello

2005-03-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1895) of San Juan county, southeastern Utah, U.S. Founded in 1886 as a point of entry into the nearby Abajo Mountains and named after the Virginia estate of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, the town grew as a centre for several ranches that hosted a thriving livestock industry. A vanadium-processing plant was built during World War II and converted to uranium production

Nataraja

2005-03-31T06:51:00.000-08:00

In the most common type of images, which includes the magnificent Cola bronzes of the 10th–11th century, Siva is shown with four arms and flying locks dancing on the figure of a dwarf, the Apasmarapurusa (a symbol of man's ignorance; puru

Ayodhya

2005-03-30T20:17:00.000-08:00

An ancient city, Ayodhya is regarded as one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus, revered because of its association, in the great Indian epic poem Ramayana, with the birth of Rama and with the rule of his father, Dasaratha. According to this source, the city was prosperous

Bulgarian Language

2005-03-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

Bulgarian Bulgarski ezik South Slavic language written in the Cyrillic alphabet and spoken in Bulgaria and parts of Greece, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine. Together with Macedonian, to which it is most closely related, Bulgarian contrasts sharply with the other Slavic languages in its almost complete loss of case declension in the noun and in its use of certain grammatical features found

Póros

2005-03-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Island of the Saronic group, lying close to the Argolis peninsula of the Peloponnese, part of the nomós (department) of Attikí, Greece. It actually comprises two islands totaling 9 square miles (23 square km), the larger of which is the wooded, limestone island of Kalávria, separated from the village of Galatás on the mainland by a narrow channel, or poros, whence the collective

Chelmsford

2005-03-28T03:09:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Middlesex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies 24 miles (39 km) north of Boston; the city of Lowell is adjacent to the northeast. Settled in 1633, it was named for Chelmsford, England, and incorporated in 1655. An iron foundry using local bog ore was built there in 1656. During the early 19th century, the production of lumber, textiles, and granite was important. Services,

Basketball, International competition

2005-03-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

The success of international basketball was greatly advanced by Forrest C. (“Phog”) Allen, a Naismith disciple and a former coach at the University of Kansas, who led the movement for inclusion of basketball in the Olympic Games in 1936 and thereafter. Basketball has also been played in the Pan-American Games since their inauguration in 1951. The international game is governed

Laibach, Congress Of

2005-03-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

(Jan. 26–May 12, 1821), meeting of the Holy Alliance powers (all European rulers except those of Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and the papacy) at Laibach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia) that set the conditions for Austrian intervention in and occupation of the Two Sicilies in action against the Neapolitan revolution (July 1820). As such, it was a triumph for antiliberal Austrian policy, and also,

France, History Of, The central government

2005-03-27T02:36:00.000-08:00

By the time of Clovis, the ancient Germanic assembly of free men participated only in the conduct of local affairs and was consigned largely to a military role. Within each kingdom, the king's court, of Roman imperial origin but adapted and modified by the Frankish sovereigns, encompassed domestic services (treasury, provisioning, stables, clergy), a bureau of accounts,

Tibet, Plateau Of

2005-03-24T10:43:00.000-08:00

Also called Tibetan Highlands or Tsinghai-Tibet Plateau, Chinese (Wade–Giles) Ch'ing-tsang Kao-yuan or (Pinyin) Qing Zang Gaoyuan vast, high plateau in Central Asia and part of China in which the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tsinghai province, western Szechwan province, and southern Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang are located. It lies between the Kunlun Mountains (north) and the Himalayas (south) and is a region of tangled mountains that rise 13,000 to 15,000 feet (4,000 to 5,000 metres). The plateau has an area of about 850,000 square

Ushak Carpet

2005-03-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

Floor covering handwoven in the city of Usak (Ushak), Tur. By the 16th century the principal manufacture in Ottoman Turkey of large commercial carpets had been established at Usak, which produced for palace and mosque use and for export. By the 18th and early 19th centuries, this manufacture had come increasingly under European control. The carpets became coarser and rougher,

Andersen, Hjallis

2005-03-24T04:11:00.000-08:00

A three-time world, European, and Norwegian champion (1950–52), Andersen was the favourite to win the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre races at the 1952 Olympic Games in Oslo, Norway. He won a surprise

Wildfowl Trust, The

2005-03-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

Centre of the world's largest collection of waterfowl. It was established in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott on 418 acres (169 hectares) along the River Severn near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, Eng. Nearly a quarter of the land is fenced off for captive birds and breeding stock; the rest of the refuge is traditional wintering ground for many species of ducks and geese. In addition to accommodating

Roman Catholicism, History Of, Napoleon Iexportation of the Revolution

2005-03-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

As it was obvious that the French Revolution itself had to be carried to some more permanent settlement, so it was recognized on all sides that a more stable arrangement of church-state relations was essential. This was achieved by Napoleon Bonaparte in a concordat concluded with Pope Pius VII on July 15/16, 1801. It recognized that Roman Catholicism was the faith of most Frenchmen

Abdul-jabbar, Kareem

2005-03-22T03:22:00.000-08:00

Alcindor played for Power Memorial Academy (at 6 feet 8 inches) on the varsity for four years, and his total of 2,067 points set a New York City high school record. He entered the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1965 and set a UCLA

Benacerraf, Baruj

2005-03-21T04:39:00.000-08:00

From the age of five until the outbreak of World War II, Benacerraf

Anhwei, Relief

2005-03-21T03:44:00.000-08:00

The northern portion of Anhwei Province is occupied by the North China Plain—an immense level surface that has periodically been flooded by its dominant rivers. The southern section of the province, the Yangtze Valley, is separated from the northern plain by a series of mountains that stretch roughly from west to east. The Ta-pieh Mountains—an extension of the

Adelaide, Saint

2005-03-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

The daughter of Rudolf II (d. 937), king of Burgundy, and Bertha of Swabia, Adelaide was married (947) to Lothair, who succeeded his father, Hugh of Arles, as king of Italy

Lighter

2005-03-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

Shallow-draft boat or barge, usually flat-bottomed, used in unloading (lightening) or loading ships offshore. Use of lighters requires extra handling and thus extra time and expense and is largely confined to ports without enough traffic to justify construction of piers or wharves. Lighters are also used in transporting freight for short distances, as around harbours.

Garrett, Pat

2005-03-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

Born in Alabama and reared in Louisiana, Garrett left home at about the age of 17 and headed for Texas and the life of a cowboy and buffalo hunter. In 1879 he married and settled in Lincoln County, N.M., where he became first deputy sheriff and then sheriff. In July 1881 he tracked

Shensi, Southern Shensi

2005-03-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

The history of the southern part of the province has been considerably more placid than that of the north. Until the late 17th century the area was very sparsely peopled, and much of it, apart from the Han-chung basin, is still virgin forest. In the period after about 1680 the introduction of corn (maize) and sweet potatoes, followed in the 18th century by the introduction of the Irish

Ringo, Johnny

2005-03-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

Not much is known of Ringo, not even his birthplace. He showed up first in Mason county, Texas, in 1875, where he was suspected of cattle rustling and arrested for a double murder. He escaped from jail, was re-arrested, and was released. He appeared next in Galeyville, N.M., in 1879, already possessing

Crofts, Freeman Wills

2005-03-17T03:21:00.000-08:00

Educated in Belfast, Crofts was a railroad engineer in Northern Ireland (1899–1929). During a long convalescence he wrote his first novel, The Cask (1920). Considered a classic

Early, Jubal A(nderson)

2005-03-16T22:55:00.000-08:00

Confederate general in the American Civil War (1861–65) whose army at one time threatened Washington, D.C., but whose series of defeats during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of late 1864 and early 1865 led to the final collapse of the South. A West Point graduate, Early served in the Second Seminole War in Florida (1835–42) and the Mexican War (1846–48). In the period

Aerosol

2005-03-16T03:10:00.000-08:00

True

Faesi, Robert

2005-03-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

Faesi combined his literary activity with a professorship of German literature at the University of Zürich from 1922 to 1953. His poems in the collections Aus der Brandung (1917; “From

Luria, Salvador

2005-03-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

Luria graduated from the University of Turin in 1935 and became a radiology specialist. He fled Italy for France in 1938 and went to the United States

Aksum

2005-03-14T13:45:00.000-08:00

Despite common belief to the contrary, Aksum did not originate from one of the Semitic Sabaean kingdoms of southern Arabia but instead developed as a local power. At its apogee (3rd–6th century AD), Aksum became the greatest market of northeastern Africa; its merchants traded as far as Alexandria and

Viola

2005-03-14T05:42:00.000-08:00

Genus of about 500 species of herbs or low shrubs, including the small, solid-coloured violets and the larger-flowered, often multicoloured violas and pansies. Viola occur naturally worldwide but are found most abundantly in temperate climates, with the greatest variety occurring in the Andes Mountains of South America. They have also been widely cultivated

Brig

2005-03-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Two-masted sailing ship with square rigging on both masts. Brigs were used for both naval and mercantile purposes. As merchant vessels, they plied mostly coastal trading routes, but oceanic voyages were not uncommon; some brigs were even used for whaling and sealing. Naval brigs carried a battery of 10 to 20 guns on a single deck. In the great European navies of the 18th and 19th

Parys

2005-03-12T04:05:00.000-08:00

Resort town, northern Free State province, South Africa. It is situated on the southern bank of the Vaal River. Parys was founded in 1873 and most likely named by a German surveyor named Schilbach, who had fought in the siege of Paris in 1870. Parys officially became a town in 1887. Tobacco, corn (maize), sorghum, and cattle are raised in the surrounding area. Industries produce processed

Kafue

2005-03-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

Town, south-central Zambia, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Lusaka, the national capital. The town is located on the northern bank of the Kafue River, whose water is diverted northward by channel to Chilanga and Lusaka. The town's industrial area, which gets its power supply from the Kafue hydroelectric scheme, houses an ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant, a textile mill, an iron

Augustine Of Canterbury, Saint

2005-03-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

Probably of aristocratic birth, Augustine was prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew, Rome, when Pope St. Gregory I the Great chose him to lead an unprecedented mission

Skara

2005-03-11T04:40:00.000-08:00

Town, Västra Götaland län (county), south-central Sweden, southeast of Lake Vänern. One of Sweden's oldest towns, it was a religious centre both before and after the arrival of Christianity. In 1015 it became the seat of Sweden's first bishop. The cathedral was built in the 12th century and has been restored several times. One of Sweden's earliest secondary schools was established

Russell, Ken

2005-03-10T07:54:00.000-08:00

The son of a shoe-store owner, Russell became a cadet at the Nautical College at Pangbourne and subsequently joined the British Merchant Navy. After training as an electrician in the

Themba, Can

2005-03-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the University of Fort Hare, S.Af., Themba worked as a reporter and later editor on the magazine Drum

Labour Economics, Theory of bargaining

2005-03-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

Limitations on the scope of bargaining are also suggested by theory. Collective bargaining can be seen as the reduction of two risks to which the worker is exposed through individual bargaining. There is first the risk that the worker will be merely one of a number of applicants for a single vacancy and that competition between them will force the pay down. Even as

Louis I

2005-03-08T15:14:00.000-08:00

Not all challenges to Louis's authority could so easily be managed. The birth of Charles in 823 to Louis's second wife, Judith, and the accommodations required by another heir provoked a crisis in the family and the empire. Reformers complained about the rampant corruption of powerful nobles who preyed on church lands and the poor. Moreover, the various ethnic and linguistic

Ibárruri (gómez), (isidora) Dolores

2005-03-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

Born the eighth of 11 children of a Viscayan miner, Ibárruri was compelled by poverty to quit school at age 15 to work as a seamstress and later as a

Tordesillas, Treaty Of

2005-03-07T22:12:00.000-08:00

In 1493, after reports of Columbus' discoveries had reached them, the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella enlisted papal support for their claims to the New World in order to inhibit the

Ramillies, Battle Of

2005-03-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

The battle was fought at the village of Ramillies, 13 miles north of Namur (in modern Belgium), between a 62,000-man Allied army under Marlborough and a 60,000-man

Beastie Boys, The

2005-03-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

American hip-hop and rock group, the first white rap performers to gain a substantial following; as such, they were largely responsible for the growth of rap's mainstream audience. The principal members were MCA (byname of Adam Yauch; b. August 5, 1964, New York, New York, U.S.), Mike D (byname of Mike Diamond; b. November 20, 1966, New York), and King AdRock (byname of Adam Horovitz; b. October 31, 1966, New

Fructidor, Coup Of 18

2005-03-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

The Directory, fearing that it was losing favour in the country, called upon Napoleon Bonaparte to send a general to command troops guarding the legislature at the Tuileries. On 18 Fructidor, year V (September 4, 1799), General Pierre-Fran

Kashmir, Vale Of

2005-03-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

Scenic intermontane valley between the main Himalayan ranges (northeast) and the Pir Panjal Range (southwest), in northwestern India. The valley is an ancient lake basin 85 mi (140 km) long, 20 mi wide, and 5,300 ft (1,620 m) high. Drained by the upper Jhelum River, the valley is lined by 12,000–16,000-ft-high mountains that help shelter it from the wet southwest monsoon. It is the centre of population for the Kashmir

Hard-boiled Fiction

2005-03-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

A tough, unsentimental style of American crime writing that brought a new tone of earthy realism or naturalism to the field of detective fiction. Hard-boiled fiction used graphic sex and violence, vivid but often sordid urban backgrounds, and fast-paced, slangy dialogue. Credit for the invention of the genre belongs to Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961), a former Pinkerton detective

Switzerland, Precipitation

2005-03-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

Since rainfall tends to increase in direct proportion to altitude, the precipitation map corresponds very closely to the relief map; and, because of the marked variation in reliefs, differences in precipitation within short linear distances are often very great. For example, St. Gall (Sankt Gallen), at 2,556 feet, has an average annual precipitation of 52 inches (1,318 mm), while that

Baseball

2005-03-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

Robert Verdi

Antares

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

Also called Alpha Scorpii red, semiregular variable star, with apparent visual magnitude about 0.9, the brightest star in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius and one of the largest known stars, having several hundred times the diameter of the Sun and several thousand times the Sun's luminosity. It has a fifth-magnitude blue companion. Antares lies about 400 light-years from the Earth. The name seems

D-day

2005-03-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

(in World War II), first day of the Allied landing in Normandy, France. See Normandy Invasion.

Ryazan

2005-03-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

Medieval Russian principality from the 12th to the early 16th century. Ryazan became an independent princedom early in the 12th century under Yaroslav, the son of the grand prince Svyatoslav of Kiev. Its capital city was Old Ryazan on the Oka River, about 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Moscow. For the next century it was often in conflict with the principality of Vladimir, which was

Paraguay River

2005-03-02T10:03:00.000-08:00

The source and upper course of the Paraguay River are in Brazil, where it demarcates

Athlone

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

Irish Baile Átha Luain town, County Westmeath, Ireland. It lies on the River Shannon just south of Lough (lake) Ree. Located at a major east-west crossing of the Shannon, it has always been an important garrison town. In the 12th century the area, previously fortified by the kings of Uí Maine and Connaught (Connacht), was seized by the Anglo-Normans. Their motte (palisade) castle was built in 1210 and underwent

Cystine

2005-03-01T18:51:00.000-08:00

A crystalline, sulfur-containing amino acid that is formed from two molecules of the amino acid cysteine. Cystine can be converted to cysteine by reduction (in this case, the addition of hydrogen). Discovered in 1810, cystine was not recognized as a component of proteins until 1899, when it was isolated from animal horn. Cystine is particularly abundant in skeletal and connective

Aristotle

2005-03-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

Aristotle was born in the summer of 384 BC in the small Greek township of Stagira (or Stagirus, or Stageirus), on the Chalcidic peninsula of Macedonia, in northern Greece. (For this reason Aristotle is also known as the “Stagirite.”) His father, Nicomachus, was court physician to Amyntas III, king of Macedonia, father of Philip II, and grandfather of Alexander the Great. As a doctor's

Pen-hsi

2005-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

From the time of the Liao dynasty (907–1125) it was the centre of a small-scale iron industry, and coal began to be mined in the late 18th century. The startling modern growth of Pen-hsi began with the establishment in 1905 of the Pen-hsi Coal Mining Company with joint Chinese

Base

2005-02-27T23:52:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, any substance that in water solution is slippery to the touch, tastes bitter, changes the colour of indicators (e.g., turns red litmus paper blue), reacts with acids to form salts, and promotes certain chemical reactions (base catalysis). Examples of bases are the hydroxides of the alkali and alkaline earth metals (sodium, calcium, etc.) and the water solutions

Zama, Battle Of

2005-02-27T13:26:00.000-08:00

(202 BC), victory of the Romans led by Scipio Africanus over the Carthaginians commanded by Hannibal. It was the last and decisive battle of the Second Punic War. The battle took place at a site identified by the Roman historian Livy as Naraggara (now Saqiyat Sidi Yusuf, Tunisia). The name Zama was given to the site (which modern historians have never precisely identified) by the Roman

Ear Disease

2005-02-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

The child born deaf or with a severe hearing impairment cannot acquire speech by the normal process but must attend special classes or a school for the deaf to be taught speech and lipreading. Most of these children have remnants of the sense of hearing that can be utilized in their schooling by the use of aids to amplify sound. The child with a moderate or mild hearing

Czetwertynski Family

2005-02-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

Also called Swietopelk-Czetwertynski Polish princely family descended from the Kievan grand prince Svyatopolk II Izyaslavich (d. 1113) of the house of Rurik. Among its prominent members was Antoni Czetwertynski (1748–94), the castellan of Przemysl and last leader of the pro-Russian Confederation of Targowica that opposed the Polish constitution of 1791; he was finally hanged as a traitor to Poland during Tadeusz Kosciuszko's

Guadalcanal, Battle Of

2005-02-25T23:36:00.000-08:00

(August 1942–February 1943), series of World War II land and sea clashes between Allied and Japanese forces on and around Guadalcanal, one of the southern Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific. Japanese troops had landed on Guadalcanal on July 6, 1942, and had begun constructing an airfield there. On August 7, in the Allies' first major offensive in the Pacific, 6,000 U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal

Bridgeport

2005-02-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

City, coextensive with the town (township) of Bridgeport, Fairfield county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S. The city, the most populous in the state, is a port on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Pequonnock River. Settled in 1639, it was first known as Newfield and later as Stratfield. In 1800 it was incorporated as a borough and named Bridgeport for the first drawbridge over the

Arabia, History Of, The sharifs of the Holy Cities

2005-02-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

At Mecca in the mid-10th century commenced the 1,000-year ascendancy of the 'Alid sharifian families. Mecca now became capital of the Hejaz, replacing Medina, the centre from which it had been ruled since the Prophet's days. The sharifs, though at times subject to such foreign overlords as the rulers of Egypt and of other parts of Arabia, exercised virtual independence. Throughout

Honan

2005-02-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

Honan abounds in prehistorical and early historical interest. Some of the most important evidences of the Neolithic beginnings of Chinese civilization are found in the northern part of the province. It was at Yang-shao in north Honan that a Swedish geologist and archaeologist, Johan Gunnar Andersson, in 1921 discovered an assemblage of Neolithic painted pottery

Sanka

2005-02-23T19:21:00.000-08:00

Little is known of their history. Although they are mentioned in Japanese chronicles from

Indore

2005-02-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

Indore was founded in 1715 as a trade market on the Narmada River valley route by local landowners, who erected Indreshwar Temple (1741), from which the name Indore is derived. It became the capital

Double Dactyls

2005-02-23T05:13:00.000-08:00

Also called higgledy-piggledy a light-verse form consisting of eight lines of two dactyls each, arranged in two stanzas. The first line of the poem must be a jingle, often “Higgledy-piggledy” or “Jiggery-pokery”; the second line must be a name; the last lines of each stanza are truncated and they should rhyme; and one line in the second stanza must consist of a single word. The following example by R. McHenry

Adalbert

2005-02-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

The youngest son of Frederick, Count of Goseck (on the Saale River), Adalbert attended the cathedral school at Halberstadt, becoming subsequently subdeacon and, in 1032, canon. In May 1043 he was appointed archbishop

Barb

2005-02-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

Also called Barbel (genus Barbus), any of numerous freshwater fishes belonging to a genus in the carp family, Cyprinidae. The barbs are native to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The members of this genus typically have one or more pairs of barbels (slender, fleshy protuberances) near the mouth and often have large, shining scales. The species vary widely in size; certain barbs are only about 2.5–5 cm (1–2 inches)

Spalding, Henry Harmon

2005-02-21T03:50:00.000-08:00

Spalding was educated at Plattsbury (N.Y.) Academy, Western Reserve College (Ohio), and Lane Theological Seminary (Cincinnati) and was ordained in the Presbyterian ministry

Alcan Aluminium Limited

2005-02-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

Canadian multinational company incorporated in 1928 (as Aluminium Limited) and now the largest Canadian industrial enterprise, operating in more than 100 countries. It has mining and refining operations for bauxite; smelting plants for aluminum; hydroelectric plants; fabricating plants for a wide variety of aluminum products; transportation operations; facilities

Taedong River

2005-02-20T01:47:00.000-08:00

Korean Taedong-gang river, southern North Korea, rising in the Nangnim Mountains in Hamgyong-nam do (province). It flows 273 miles (439 km) southwestward to enter Korea Bay, an arm of the Yellow Sea, at Namp'o. With its tributaries it forms a drainage basin of 7,855 square miles (20,344 square km). Because of its deep water and the tidal influence of the Yellow Sea, it is useful for water transportation, and many river ports,

Colditz Castle

2005-02-19T02:54:00.000-08:00

German Schloss Colditz, German prisoner-of-war camp in World War II, the site of many daring escape attempts by Allied officers. The castle sits on a steep hill overlooking the Mulde River as it flows through the small Saxon town of Colditz, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Leipzig. A former residence of the kings of Saxony, the castle was used in 1939 as a prisoner-of-war camp, and in 1940 it became a maximum security

Crocoite

2005-02-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

Mineral consisting of lead chromate, PbCrO4, that is identical in composition to chrome yellow, the artificial product used in paint. The element chromium was discovered in this mineral in 1797. Crocoite occurs as long, well-developed, prismatic crystals; the most beautiful specimens are from Dundas, Tasmania. Other localities include the Urals, Brazil, and the southwestern

Human Evolution, Dating the fossils

2005-02-18T04:57:00.000-08:00

In the early 1970s a number of new carbon-14 datings gave rise to a radical revision in the then-accepted dating of the African Stone Age. The resulting picture has since been confirmed by a variety of newer methods. Accordingly, the African Middle Stone Age no longer is considered to have begun some 40,000 years ago and ended c. 10,000 years ago but instead to have begun c. 200,000 years ago and ended

Luristan Bronze

2005-02-17T01:22:00.000-08:00

Luristan also spelled Lorestan, any of the horse trappings, utensils, weapons, jewelry, belt buckles, and ritual and votive objects of bronze probably dating from roughly 1500–500 BC that have been excavated since the late 1920s in the Harsin, Khorramabad, and Alishtar valleys of the Zagros Mountains in the Lorestan region of western Iran, especially at the site of Tepe Sialk. Their precise origin is unknown. Scholars

Dinosaur, Pachycephalosauria

2005-02-16T22:13:00.000-08:00

In important respects the pachycephalosaurs conformed to the basic ornithopod body plan, and there is some evidence that pachycephalosaurs actually evolved from (and are therefore members of) ornithopods, perhaps similar to hypsilophodontids. All of them appear to have been bipedal. They bore the typical ornithopod ossified tendons along the back, and they

Cimabue

2005-02-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

Original name Bencivieni Di Pepo, modern Italian Benvenuto Di Giuseppe painter and mosaicist, the last great Italian artist in the Byzantine style, which had dominated early medieval painting in Italy. Among his surviving works are the frescoes of New Testament scenes in the upper church of S. Francesco, Assisi; the “Sta. Trinita Madonna” (c. 1290; Uffizi, Florence); and the “Madonna Enthroned with St. Francis” (c. 1290–95; lower church

Gerhard, Johann

2005-02-16T04:44:00.000-08:00

Gerhard was deeply influenced as a youth by the Lutheran theologian Johann Arndt and obtained training

China, Livestock and fishing

2005-02-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

China has a long tradition of ocean and freshwater fishing and of aquaculture.

Cassel, Gustav

2005-02-14T09:21:00.000-08:00

Cassel was educated at the University of Uppsala and Stockholm University and served as a professor of economics at the latter (1904–33). His most

Margaret Of Provence

2005-02-14T05:04:00.000-08:00

Although Blanche of Castile, Louis IX's mother, had arranged the marriage, she was jealous of her daughter-in-law, whom she supervised strictly; Jean, Sire de Joinville, chronicler of Louis's reign, tells several

Rhythmic Sportive Gymnastics

2005-02-14T04:28:00.000-08:00

Also called moderne gymnastics , or modern rhythmic gymnastics the performance of systematic physical exercise with the aid of such hand apparatuses as ropes, hoops, balls, clubs, and ribbons. It is closely related to women's artistic gymnastics—a sport performed on the vaulting horse, uneven parallel bars, balance beam, and floor—and, like synchronized swimming, is allied with dance. The sport dates from the 18th century; and, although

Christ, Church Of

2005-02-13T22:51:00.000-08:00

Any of several conservative Protestant churches, found chiefly in the United States. They are strongest in parts of the Midwest and in the western and southern parts of the United States. Each church is known locally as a Church of Christ, and its members as Christians; and each church is autonomous in government, with elders, deacons, and a minister or ministers. There

Dahomey

2005-02-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

Kingdom in western Africa that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries in the region that is now southern Benin. According to tradition, at the beginning of the 17th century three brothers vied for the kingdom of Allada, which, like neighbouring Whydah (now Ouidah), had grown rich on the slave trade. When one of the brothers won control of Allada, the other two fled. One went southeast

Domei

2005-02-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Domei was formed in 1964 by a merger of three politically moderate federations that opposed the leftist stance of the larger and more militant union Sohyo. Unlike the majority of Sohyo members, who were public employees, most Domei members worked for private-sector firms. Domei was a supporter of the Democratic

New Braunfels

2005-02-13T01:59:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1846) of Comal county and also partly in Guadalupe county, south-central Texas, U.S. It lies on the Balcones Escarpment at a point where the Comal River (3 miles [5 km] long and within city limits) flows into the Guadalupe River, 30 miles (50 km) northeast of San Antonio. The community was established in 1845 by a group of German immigrants led by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels and sponsored

Refraction

2005-02-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

In physics, the change in direction of a wave passing from one medium to another caused by its change in speed. For example, waves in deep water travel faster than in shallow; if an ocean wave approaches a beach obliquely, the part of the wave farther from the beach will move faster than that closer in, and so the wave will swing around until it moves in a direction perpendicular

Kiribati

2005-02-11T02:18:00.000-08:00

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

Hackney

2005-02-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

Hackneys were

Nerchinsk, Treaty Of

2005-02-10T05:03:00.000-08:00

(1689), peace settlement between Russia and the Manchu Chinese empire that checked Russia's eastward expansion by removing its outposts from the Amur River basin. By the treaty's terms Russia lost easy access to the Sea of Okhotsk and Far Eastern markets but secured its claim to Transbaikalia (the area east of Lake Baikal) and gained the right of passage to Beijing for its

Aleatory Music

2005-02-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

The indeterminate portion of aleatory

Accused, Rights Of

2005-02-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

All legal systems provide, at least on paper, guarantees

France, History Of, Political and social changes

2005-02-09T01:23:00.000-08:00

The structure of the Fourth Republic seemed remarkably like that of the Third; in actual operation it seemed even more familiar. The lower house of parliament (now renamed the National Assembly) was once more the locus of power; shaky coalition Cabinets again succeeded one another at brief intervals, and the lack of a clear-cut majority in the country or in parliament

Mental Disorder, Affective personality disorder

2005-02-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Three particular types of persistent mood disturbance can be described under this heading: (1) the trait of anxiety may be persistent and highly developed, so that the person encounters all new circumstances with fearful anticipation; (2) the chronic depressive personality is a gloomy pessimist who is skeptical in outlook and who may regard suffering as meritorious;

Fusion Reactor

2005-02-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

A fusion reaction occurs when two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form the nucleus of a heavier element. When the two nuclei fuse, a small amount of mass is converted into a large amount of energy. For a fusion reaction to occur, the two nuclei must be moving at high speed in