StrongBasket

Turban Shell

2005-04-04T04:06:00.000-07:00

Any marine snail of the family Turbinidae (subclass Prosobranchia of the class Gastropoda) that has a wide aperture in the first whorl of the stout shell, which is topped by a bulbous, turbanlike coil. The shell may be beaded, knobbed, or ridged. The largest species of turban shell is the 20-centimetre (8-inch) green turban (Turbo marmoratus), native to the East Indies and Australia;

Stazewski, Henryk

2005-04-03T03:39:00.000-07:00

Educated at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1913–19), Stazewski was a founding member of three Polish artist groups during the 1920s and a member of the Cercle

Estelí

2005-03-31T06:35:00.000-08:00

City, northwestern Nicaragua. It lies along the Estelí River in the central highlands, at an elevation of 2,674 feet (815 m). A Spanish settlement founded near prehistoric carved-stone figures, it was a scene of heavy fighting between Sandinista guerrillas and government troops in 1978–79 that left much of the centre of the city in ruins. Estelí is an agricultural and commercial centre,

D.c.m.g.

2005-03-30T23:21:00.000-08:00

Dame commander of St. Michael and St. George, member of the second highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Distinguished Order of.

Likasi

2005-03-28T23:56:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1966) Jadotville, city, southeastern Congo (Kinshasa). It lies along the Likasi River, 86 miles (138 km) northwest of Lubumbashi, to which it is connected by road and rail. In 1892 Belgians discovered copper deposits at Likasi and at Kambove, 15 miles (24 km) northwest. Likasi was founded in 1917 and was designated an urban district in 1943. It is now one of the nation's most important mineral-processing centres, with plants

Oraon

2005-03-26T17:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Kurukh, aboriginal people of the Chota Nagpur region in the state of Bihar, India. They call themselves Kurukh and speak a Dravidian language akin to Gondi and other tribal languages of central India. They once lived farther to the southwest on the Rohtas Plateau, but they were dislodged by other populations and migrated to Chota Nagpur, where they settled in the vicinity of Munda-speaking

Marrucini

2005-03-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

Ancient tribe that occupied a small area around Teate (modern Chieti) on the east coast of Italy. The Marrucini, though Samnite kinsmen, were probably not members of the Samnite league; they did, however, come into conflict with the Romans during the Second Samnite War, at the end of which they entered the Roman alliance (304 BC). They revolted in 91 BC and were thereafter enrolled in

Macau

2005-03-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Macao , Chinese (Pinyin romanization) Aomen or (Wade-Giles romanization) Ao-men special administrative region (Pinyin tebie xingzhengqu; Wade-Giles t'e-pieh hsing-cheng-ch'ü) of China, on the country's southern coast. Macau is located on the western side of the Pearl River (Chu Chiang) estuary (at the head of which is the port of Canton) and stands about 40 miles (64 km) opposite the special administrative region of Hong Kong, which is on the eastern side of the

Carnivore, Importance of carnivora

2005-03-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

There is probably no other group of animals more familiar to man than mammals belonging to the order Carnivora. The more popular domesticated pets of man, the dog and the cat, are both derived from wild members of this order. The majority of luxurious natural furs (ermine, mink, sable, otter) worn by women of fashion, as well as the furs of utility used by primitive man, come

Porgy

2005-03-12T03:43:00.000-08:00

Porgies are generally shallow-water fishes and are

Six, Les

2005-03-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

(French: “The Six”), group of early 20th-century French composers whose music represents a strong reaction against the heavy German Romanticism of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, as well as against the lush Impressionism of Claude Debussy. Les Six were Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, and Germaine Tailleferre. The French

Boise River

2005-03-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

Watercourse, southwestern Idaho, U.S., formed by the confluence of the Middle Fork and North Fork branches, southeast of Idaho City in Boise National Forest. It flows generally westward through Arrowrock and Lucky Peak reservoirs and through the city of Boise to join the Snake River at the Oregon line after a course of about 95 miles (150 km). Dams along the river include Lucky

Florida

2005-03-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

The geographic location of Florida has been the key factor in a long and colourful development, and it helps explain the striking contemporary character of the state. The

Allspice

2005-03-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Tropical evergreen tree (Pimenta diocia, formerly P. officinalis) of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), native to the West Indies and Central America and valued for its berries, the source of a highly aromatic spice. Allspice was so named because the flavour of the dried berry resembles a combination of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It is widely used in baking

Ekrem, Recaizade Mahmud

2005-03-02T23:04:00.000-08:00

The son of a poet and scholar, Ekrem was apprenticed to a number of government offices after his formal education. Later he became an official in the Council of State and a teacher of Turkish literature at the

Xiaozhuan

2005-02-28T08:57:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization hsiao-chuan in Chinese calligraphy, a standardized and simplified form of the earlier dazhuan script, in which all lines are of even thickness and curves and circles are relatively predominant. Its development during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) is traditionally attributed to Li Si, a minister of that dynasty. The Qin dynasty created the first Chinese empire, under which customs, laws, and

Chelsea

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

The city's economy was severely affected by the economic recession of the 1980s, and Chelsea was placed

Conegliano

2005-02-24T23:14:00.000-08:00

Town, Treviso provincia, Veneto regione, northeastern Italy, near the Piave River, just north of the city of Treviso. It is dominated by a castle with a museum and a cathedral (1352), which has a bell tower (1497) and a fine altarpiece (1493) by the painter Cima da Conegliano, a native of the town. There is modern construction along the old perimeter of the town. Noted for its wines, Conegliano

Colchicine

2005-02-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

Drug used in the treatment of gout, a disease that is characterized by severe inflammation in one or more of the joints of the extremities. Colchicine is obtained from the autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale). The mechanism by which colchicine relieves the pain of gout, which is caused by solid deposits of uric acid in the joints, the kidneys, and other tissues, is unknown.

Elbe River

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

Czech Labe, one of the major waterways of central Europe. It runs from the Czech Republic through Germany to the North Sea, flowing generally to the northwest. The river rises on the southern side of the Krkonoše (Giant) Mountains near the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. It then makes a wide arc across Bohemia (northwestern Czech Republic) and enters eastern Germany about

Hooded Shrimp

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

Any member of the order Cumacea (superorder Peracarida), a group of small, predominantly marine crustaceans immediately recognizable by their unusual body shape. The head and thorax are wide and rounded, in sharp contrast to the slender, cylindrical, flexible abdomen from which extends a long, forked tail. About 1,000 species are known. The body of most hooded shrimp measures

Arosa

2005-02-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

Alpine village, health resort, and winter sports centre, Graubünden canton, eastern Switzerland, on the Plessur River. The village, at an elevation of 5,689 feet (1,734 m), stretches along a wooded valley holding two small lakes, the Untersee and the Obersee, that are used for fishing, swimming, and boating in the summer. Arosa is noted as a fashionable winter-sports centre, particularly

Haley, Bill

2005-02-14T08:12:00.000-08:00

If not the father of rock and roll, Haley is certainly one of its fathers. He cut his first record in 1948 and the next year settled into a job as a disc jockey in Chester, Pennsylvania. At the time his groups

Pregnancy, Amniocentesis

2005-02-12T02:14:00.000-08:00

In the procedure of amniocentesis, amniotic fluid is aspirated (withdrawn) from the uterus by a needle inserted through a woman's abdomen, using ultrasound to circumnavigate the fetus and placenta. Spinal cord defects and a host of genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome and autosomal recessive diseases such as Tay-Sachs disease and cystic fibrosis can be

Hawk Owl

2005-02-10T04:21:00.000-08:00

The northern hawk owl (Surnia ulula) is approximately 40 cm (about 16 inches) long. Its tail is long, and its wings are short and pointed like those of a hawk. The facial disk of the northern hawk owl does not extend above the eyes, and it has no ear tufts. It feeds on small mammals, birds, and insects, hunting during

Amadeus Quartet

2005-02-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

English string quartet (1948–87), one of the most durable and highly regarded quartets of Europe. The quartet was formed in 1947, the result of an internment-camp meeting during World War II between three young Austrian refugees—Peter Schidlof, the group's violist; Norbert Brainin, a violinist; and Siegmund Nissel, also a violinist. They were released from the camp with help from Dame

Bottlenose Whale

2005-02-04T03:31:00.000-08:00

Any of four species of beaked whales distinguished by a bulbous forehead that drops sharply to the base of the beak. All inhabit deep offshore waters and eat squid, fish, and various bottom-dwelling animals. Bottlenose whales are capable of long, deep dives; biologists recorded the dive of one northern bottlenose (Hyperoodon ampullatus) to almost

Biblical Literature, Textual criticism

2005-02-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

Textual criticism is concerned with the basic task of establishing, as far as possible, the original text of the documents on the basis of the available materials. For the Old Testament, until 1947, these materials consisted principally of: (1) Hebrew manuscripts dated from the 9th century AD onward, the Masoretic text, the traditional Jewish text with its vocalization and punctuation

Tafthartley Act

2005-01-31T05:12:00.000-08:00

Formally Labor–Management Relations Act (1947), in U.S. history, law—enacted over the veto of Pres. Harry S. Truman—amending much of the pro-union Wagner Act of 1935. A variety of factors, including the fear of Communist infiltration of labour unions, the tremendous growth in both membership and power of unions, and a series of large-scale strikes, contributed to an anti-union climate in the United States after World War II. Republican

Shi

2005-01-30T15:41:00.000-08:00

Also called dan the basic unit of weight in ancient China. The shi was created by Shi Huang Di, who became the first emperor of China in 221 BC and who is celebrated for his unification of regulations fixing the basic units. He fixed the shi at about 60 kg (132 pounds). The modern shi is equivalent to 71.68 kg (157.89 pounds).

Mission Indians

2005-01-28T16:54:00.000-08:00

The role of the missions, in addition to spreading the Roman Catholic faith, was to act as “civilizing agents” for the Spanish monarchy;

Quartet

2005-01-25T22:56:00.000-08:00

Musical composition for four instruments or voices; also the group of four performers. Although any music in four parts can be performed by four individuals, the term has come to be used primarily in referring to the string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello), which has been the predominant genre of chamber music since about 1750. The term may also denote such derivatives

Saudi Arabia, Settlement patterns

2005-01-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

Four traditional regions stand out—the Hejaz, Asir, Najd, and Al-Hasa (transliterated more precisely as Al-Hijaz, 'Asir, Najd, and Al-Ahsa'). The Hejaz, in the northwest, contains the two holiest cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, as well as the kingdom's primary port and diplomatic centre, Jiddah. Asir is the highland region south of the Hejaz; its capital, Abha, lies at an elevation of about

Davidescu, Nicolae

2005-01-22T05:20:00.000-08:00

Romanian poet and novelist whose early poems, Inscriptii (1916), showed the influence of Charles Baudelaire. Among his prose works the novel Zâna din fundul lacului (1912; “The Fairy at the Bottom of the Lake”) was an exercise in symbolism, and Vioara muta (1928; “The Muted Violin”), in social psychology. In the epic Cântecul omului (1928–37; “The Song of Man”), he aimed at re-creating world history.

Beira

2005-01-19T17:22:00.000-08:00

Port city, central Mozambique. Beira is situated on the Mozambique Channel (Indian Ocean) at the mouths of the Púngoè and Búzi rivers. It was founded in 1891 as the headquarters of the Companhia de Moçambique (“Mozambique Company”) on the site of an old Muslim settlement. The city's administration passed from the trading company to the Portuguese government in 1942 and then to independent

Jili, Al-

2005-01-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

Little is known about al-Jili's personal life. Possibly after a visit to India in 1387, he studied in Yemen during 1393–1403. Of his more than 30 works, the most famous is Al-Insan al-kamil fi ma'rifat al-awakhir wa al-awa 'il (partial Eng. trans., Studies in Islamic

Ammeter

2005-01-16T18:39:00.000-08:00

Ammeters vary in their operating principles and accuracies. The

Death Rite, Forms of final determination

2005-01-14T18:33:00.000-08:00

Those religions that have taught the possibility of a happy afterlife have also devised forms of postmortem testing of merit for eternal bliss. Ancient Egypt has the distinction of conceiving of a judgment of the dead of an essentially moral kind. This conception finds graphic expression in the vignettes that illustrate the Book of the Dead. The heart of the deceased

Syria, The state of the arts

2005-01-12T04:57:00.000-08:00

Following World War I, drawing was taught in the schools, and talented artists began to emerge. There is a faculty of fine arts

Alabama, The people

2005-01-09T00:54:00.000-08:00

Three-fourths of the state's population is white. The white population is significant for its deep roots in the state: the number of foreign-born residents is very small, and most whites are descendants of 19th-century settlers who came from adjoining regions to the east and north. Black Alabamians have equally deep roots in the state, dating to the days of chattel slavery

'abd Al-ghani

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

Orphaned at an early age, 'Abd al-Ghani, joined the Islamic mystical orders of the Qadiriyah and the Naqshbandiyah. He then spent seven years in isolation in his house, studying the mystics on their expression of divine experiences. 'Abd al-Ghani traveled extensively

La Matanza

2005-01-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

Partido (political subdivision) of Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, Arg., directly southwest of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires province. The present-day partido was part of the Pago (country district) de las Conchas during the 17th and early 18th centuries. In 1730 the Pago de las Conchas was divided into four rural settlement areas, one of which was the Pago de la Matanza. The

Indian Philosophy, The logical period

2005-01-04T03:36:00.000-08:00

The logical period of Indian thought began with the Kusanas (1st–2nd centuries). Gautama (author of the Nyaya-sutras; probably flourished at the beginning of the Christian Era) and his 5th-century commentator Vatsyayana established the foundations of the Nyaya as a school almost exclusively preoccupied with logical and epistemological issues. The Madhyamika (“Middle

Wolf-rayet Star

2005-01-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

Any of a class of extremely hot, white stars having peculiar spectra thought to indicate either great turbulence within the star or a steady, voluminous ejection of material. A typical Wolf-Rayet star is several times the diameter of the Sun and thousands of times more luminous. Only a few hundred are known, located mostly in the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. The

Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate Of Antioch

2004-12-31T03:28:00.000-08:00

In the 5th and 6th centuries a large body of Christians in Syria repudiated the patriarchs of Antioch who had supported the Council of Chalcedon (451) in affirming the dual nature of Christ. Like many Copts, Ethiopians, and Armenians,

Murdoch, Dame Iris

2004-12-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

After an early childhood spent in London, Murdoch went to Badminton School, Bristol, and from 1938 to 1942 studied at Somerville College, Oxford. Between 1942 and 1944 she worked in the British Treasury and

Kerry

2004-12-27T13:22:00.000-08:00

Irish Ciarraí county in the province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. With an area of 1,815 square miles (4,701 square km), it is bounded by Counties Limerick and Cork to the east and by the Atlantic Ocean or its inlets to the south, west, and north. Tralee is the county seat. The principal highlands of Kerry, among which are the highest mountains in Ireland, are of sandstone. Three, and part of a fourth,

Tardigrade

2004-12-22T01:01:00.000-08:00

Also called water bear any of about 350 species of free-living, cosmopolitan invertebrates belonging to the phylum Tardigrada. In evolutionary development they are considered to lie between annelid worms and arthropods (e.g., insects, crustaceans). Tardigrades are mostly about 1 mm or less in size. They live in varying habitats: in damp moss, on flowering plants, in sand, in freshwater, and in the

Dieback

2004-12-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

Common symptom or name of disease, especially of woody plants, characterized by progressive death of twigs, branches, shoots, or roots, starting at the tips. Staghead is a slow dieback of the upper branches of a tree; the dead, leafless limbs superficially resemble a stag's head. Dieback and staghead are caused by many fungi and a few bacteria that produce cankers, anthracnose,

Amichai, Yehuda

2004-12-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

Amichai and his Orthodox Jewish family immigrated to Palestine in 1936. During World War II he served in the British army, but he later fought the British as a guerrilla prior to the formation of Israel; he also was involved in the Arab-Israeli conflicts of 1956 and 1973. Amichai attended

Tobogganing

2004-12-16T04:18:00.000-08:00

The runnerless toboggan was originally an American Indian sled made of poles tied together with thongs. The modern version is usually built of thin, straight-grained

Argolís

2004-12-15T10:40:00.000-08:00

Nomós (department), northeastern Peloponnese, southern Greece. It is a narrow, mountainous peninsula projecting eastward into the Aegean Sea between the Saronic Gulf, (to the northeast) and the Gulf of Argolis (to the southwest). Bordered on the north by Kórinthos (Corinth) and on the west by the mountains of Arcadia, it has been inhabited since Neolithic times. A limestone

Arts, East Asian, Architecture

2004-12-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

While little remains except walls and tombs, much can be learned about Han architecture from historical writings and long descriptive poems, fu. This was an era of great palace buildings. The first Ch'in emperor undertook the building of a vast palace, the A-fang or O-pang, whose main hall was intended to accommodate 10,000 guests in its upper story. He also copied the palaces

Ear Disease, Lop ear

2004-12-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Lop ear, excessive protrusion of the ear from the side of the head, is a more frequent but less serious deformity of the outer ear. Surgery may be performed to bring the ears back to a more normal and less conspicuous position.

Ammonite

2004-12-09T08:57:00.000-08:00

Any member of an ancient Semitic people whose principal city was Rabbath Ammon, in Palestine. The “sons of Ammon” were in perennial, though sporadic, conflict with the Israelites. After a long period of seminomadic existence, the Ammonites established a kingdom north of Moab in the 13th century BC. With difficulty, their fortress capital was captured by Israel's King David.

Olt

2004-12-06T06:25:00.000-08:00

Judet (county), south-central Romania. It is bounded on the south by Bulgaria. The sub-Carpathian Mountains lie in the northern portion of the county, overlooking settlement areas in intermontane valleys and lowlands. The eastward-flowing Danube River and the southeastward-flowing Olt and Vedea rivers drain the area. Slatina (q.v.) town, in existence since the 14th century,

Palaeologus Family

2004-12-04T01:37:00.000-08:00

Palaeologus also spelled Palaiologos Byzantine family that became prominent in the 11th century, the members of which married into the imperial houses of Comnenus, Ducas, and Angelus. Michael VIII Palaeologus, emperor at Nicaea in 1259, founded the dynasty of the Palaeologi in Constantinople in 1261. His son Andronicus II (reigned 1282–1328) and his grandson Michael IX (died 1320) succeeded him as coemperors. Michael IX's son Andronicus

Mond, Ludwig

2004-12-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

The son of a wealthy Jewish family, Mond studied chemistry at Marburg and Heidelberg, entered the chemical industry, and went to England in 1862. There his method for recovering sulfur

Spotswood, Alexander

2004-11-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

After service under the 1st duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), he was appointed lieutenant governor of Virginia (1710). In this post he recommended the establishment of a Virginia company to carry

Nation, The

2004-11-29T14:15:00.000-08:00

The Nation under Godkin was an eloquent and increasingly influential voice against Reconstruction excesses, graft

Kuba Carpet

2004-11-27T09:25:00.000-08:00

Any of several types of antique floor coverings of the Caucasus, many of which are of considerable length, but narrow. Rather than the town of Kuba (now Quba, Azerbaijan), which was founded about 1750 in Dagestan, the original source was probably the districts of Karabakh and Shirvan in Southern Caucasia, where rug workshops were operated under the sponsorship of the Iranian

Computers, Ubiquitous computing

2004-11-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

The Internet also has inspired new ways of programming. Programmers are developing software to divide computational tasks into subtasks that a program would assign to separate processors in order to achieve greater efficiency and speed. This trend is one of various ways that computers are being connected to share information and to solve complex problems.

Vaccine

2004-11-23T13:02:00.000-08:00

A vaccine can confer active immunity against a specific harmful agent by stimulating the immune system to attack the agent. Once stimulated by a vaccine, the antibody-producing cells, called B lymphocytes,

Taft, Lorado

2004-11-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

Taft graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign and from 1880 to 1883 attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he received a conservative, traditional art education with an emphasis on mythological

Dalai Lama

2004-11-18T17:48:00.000-08:00

The first of the line was Dge-'dun-grub-pa (1391–1475), founder and abbot of Tashilhunpo monastery (central Tibet). In accordance with the belief in reincarnate lamas, which began to develop in the 14th century, his successors were conceived as his rebirths and

Rabi, Isidor Isaac

2004-11-17T16:33:00.000-08:00

Rabi's parents settled in New York City in 1899. After earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Cornell University in 1919, Rabi switched

Dow, Charles Henry

2004-11-15T15:28:00.000-08:00

In his twenties Dow took up journalism,

Stimulant

2004-11-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

The major stimulant

Daghur

2004-11-08T21:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Daghor , or Dagur , Manchu Dahur , Russian Daur , Chinese (Wade-Giles) Ta-wo-erh , or (Pinyin) Dawoer , or Daur Mongol people living mainly in the northeastern portion of Inner Mongolia autonomous region and western Heilungkiang province of China and estimated to number about 121,000. Their language, once thought to be Tungusic or a mixture of Mongolian and Tungus, is now known to be an archaic Mongolian dialect preserving features found in 13th-century documents. Their own name

Texas, Settlement

2004-11-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

By the 1730s the Spanish had sent more than 30 expeditions into Texas. San Antonio, which by 1718 housed a military post and a mission, had become the administrative centre. Missions, with military support, were established in Nacogdoches in East Texas, Goliad in the south, and near El Paso in the far west. The French also explored Texas. The explorations of Robert Cavelier, Lord de

Ear, Human, Transduction of mechanical vibrations

2004-11-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

The hair cells located in the organ of Corti transduce mechanical sound vibrations into nerve impulses. They are stimulated when the basilar membrane, on which the organ of Corti rests, vibrates. The hair cells are held in place by the reticular lamina, a rigid structure supported by the pillar cells, or rods of Corti, which are attached to the basilar fibres. At the base

Aligarh

2004-11-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

Also called Koil or Kol city, west-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies southeast of Delhi. The city itself is usually called Koil, or Kol; Aligarh is the name of a nearby fort. The city is an agricultural trade centre; the processing of agricultural products and manufacturing are also important. Aligarh Muslim University (1875) and its affiliated colleges are located there, as are a

Alba Longa

2004-11-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

Ancient city of Latium, Italy, in the Alban Hills about 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Rome, near present Castel Gandolfo. Tradition attributes its founding (c. 1152 BC) to Ascanius, the son of the legendary Aeneas, thus making it, according to legend at least, the oldest Latin city, which in turn founded others, including Rome. Excavations have revealed cemeteries that date to the 10th century

Scythe

2004-10-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

One of the most important of all agricultural hand tools, consisting of a curved blade fitted at an angle to a long, curved handle and used for cutting grain. In modern scythes the handle has a projecting peg that is grasped by one hand, facilitating control of the swinging motion by which grass and grain are cut. The exact origin of the scythe is unknown, but it was little

Cabezón, Antonio De

2004-10-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

Blind from infancy, Cabezón studied organ in Palencia and in 1526 became organist and clavichordist

Arts, Central Asian, Ghaznavids and Ghurids

2004-10-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Alp Tigin, a slave of Turkic origin at the Samanid court, escaped in AD 962 to Kabul, where he rapidly gained control of the town. He transferred his headquarters to Ghazna in central Afghanistan and established his dynasty there. Few Ghaznavid works of art have survived, but the admirably proportioned and decorated mortuary towers at Ghazna are architectural achievements

Amadeus, Lake

2004-10-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

Salty mud basin in southwestern Northern Territory, Australia. The lake occupies a shallow trough filled with sediments washed from the MacDonnell (north) and Musgrave (south) ranges. It intermittently contains a few inches of water and at such times may measure as much as 90 miles (145 km) long and 12 miles (20 km) wide, covering some 340 square miles (880 square km). When dry, it is a playa, or salt

France, History Of, Louis VIII

2004-10-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

The reign of Louis VIII (ruled 1223–26) had an importance out of proportion to its brevity. It was he (this frail husband of the formidable Blanche of Castile and father of famous sons) who first brought Languedoc under the crown of France and who inaugurated the appanages—grants of patrimonial land to members of the royal family or royal favourites—thereby creating a familial

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Medieval allegory

2004-10-20T03:49:00.000-07:00

Erich Auerbach, Dante als Dichter der irdischen Welt (1929; Eng. trans., Dante: Poet of the Secular World, 1961); M.W. Bloomfield, “Symbolism in Medieval Literature,” Modern Philology, 56:73–81 (1958), and Piers Plowman As a Fourteenth-Century Apocalypse (1962); Edgar de Bruyne, Études d'esthétique médiévale, 3 vol. (1946); M.D. Chenu, La Théologie au douzième siècle (1957; Eng. trans. of nine selected essays, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century, 1968); E.R. Curtius, Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (1948; Eng. trans., European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, 1953); Raymond Klibansky, The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition During the Middle Ages (1939); C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964); Joseph A. Mazzeo, Medieval Cultural Tradition in Dante's Comedy (1960); D.W. Robertson and B.F. Huppe, Piers Plowman and Scriptural Tradition (1951); Charles Singleton, Dante Studies, vol. 1, Commedia (1954).

Chicago And North Western Transportation Company

2004-10-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

The railroad was incorporated in 1859 as a successor to the foreclosed Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo Railway. Its first president was William Butler Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago. A constituent company that was acquired

Hypothyroidism

2004-10-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hypothyroidism may be caused by any of a number of factors, including inadequate iodine intake (iodine being a key constituent of thyroid hormone); a defect in the synthesis of thyroid hormone; excessive intake of agents that block iodine metabolism (e.g., cobalt, resorcinol, cyanate); inborn errors

Amami Great Island

2004-10-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

Japanese Amami-o-shima, largest island in the Amami chain of the northern Ryukyu Islands, in Kagoshima ken (prefecture), Japan. Most of the 274-square-mile (709-square-kilometre) island is mountainous and forested. A quasi-national park protects landscapes at the higher elevations. Mount Yuwan is the highest mountain at 2,276 feet (694 m). The lower, cultivated areas produce timber, sugarcane, and rice. A hydroelectric

Grundy, Mrs.

2004-10-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

Imaginary English character who typifies the censorship enacted in everyday life by conventional opinion. She first appears (but never onstage) in Thomas Morton's play Speed the Plough (produced 1798), in which one character, Dame Ashfield, continually worries about what her neighbour Mrs. Grundy will say of each development. Since then the term Mrs. Grundy has passed into

Malayan Lar

2004-10-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

Species of gibbon (q.v.).

Spranger, (franz Ernst) Eduard

2004-10-08T00:04:00.000-07:00

Spranger was a student of Wilhelm Dilthey and continued his teacher's

Heiss, Carol

2004-10-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

Heiss began to skate at age six, and she won the world championships in 1956, a title she held for four more years. She also captured the North American championship in 1957 and 1959 and the U.S. national championship from 1957 through 1960. Although narrowly defeated by Tenley Albright of the

Euripides

2004-10-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Last of classical Athens' three great tragic dramatists, following Aeschylus and Sophocles.

Canaan

2004-10-01T01:36:00.000-07:00

Area variously defined in historical and biblical literature, but always centred on Palestine. Its original pre-Israelite inhabitants were called Canaanites. The names Canaan and Canaanite occur in cuneiform, Egyptian, and Phoenician writings from about the 15th century BC as well as in the Old Testament. In these sources, “Canaan” refers sometimes to an area encompassing

Acroterion

2004-09-29T02:51:00.000-07:00

Plural Acroteria, in architecture, decorative pedestal for an ornament or statue placed atop the pediment of a Greek temple; the term has also been extended to refer to the statue or ornament that stands on the pedestal. Originally a petal-shaped ornament with incised pattern, such as the honeysuckle, was placed on the ridge and at the eaves at either side of the pediment. Later this ornamentation

China, The dynastic succession

2004-09-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Ming dynasty, which encompassed the reigns of 16 emperors, proved to be one of the stablest and longest dynasties of Chinese history. Rulers of Korea, Mongolia, East Turkistan, Burma, Siam, and Nam Viet regularly acknowledged Ming overlordship, and at times tribute was received from as far away as Japan, Java and Sumatra, Ceylon and South India, the East African coast,

Celery-top Pine

2004-09-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

Also called Adventure Bay Pine (species Phyllocladus asplenifolius), slow-growing ornamental and timber conifer of the family Podocarpaceae, native to temperate rain forests of Tasmania at elevations from sea level to 750 m (2,500 feet). The tree is shrubby at high elevations but may grow to 18 m (60 feet) and occasionally 30 m (100 feet) in lower areas. The irregularly arranged branches bear

Koch, Robert

2004-09-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

In full Robert Heinrich Hermann Koch German physician and one of the founders of bacteriology. He discovered the anthrax disease cycle (1876) and the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis (1882) and cholera (1883). For his discoveries in regard to tuberculosis, he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1905.

Meher Baba

2004-09-23T04:09:00.000-07:00

Also called The Awakener, original name Merwan Sheriar Irani spiritual master in western India with a sizable following both in that country and abroad. Beginning on July 10, 1925, he observed silence for the last 44 years of his life, communicating with his disciples at first through an alphabet board but increasingly with gestures. He observed that he had come “not to teach but to awaken,” adding that “things

Benckendorff, Aleksandr Khristoforovich, Count

2004-09-22T03:44:00.000-07:00

Of Baltic-German origin, Benckendorff joined the Russian army and was one of the officers who assassinated Emperor Paul I in 1801. Between 1806 and 1815 he fought in numerous military campaigns,

Sea Snake

2004-09-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

Any of more than 50 species of venomous marine snakes of the family Hydrophiidae. In adaptation to marine life, sea snakes have oarlike tails and flattened bodies. Their nostrils have valvelike closings and are usually on top of the snout. Several sea snakes have bodies much thicker than their heads and necks affording them greater stability

Substitution

2004-09-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

In Greek or Latin prosody, the replacement of a prosodic element that is required or expected at a given place in a given metre by another which is more or less equivalent in temporal quantity. In modern prosody, substitution refers to the use within a metrical series of a foot other than the prevailing foot of the series. A silence may also replace expected sound and

Montfaucon, Bernard De

2004-09-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

He joined the Benedictine Congregation of Saint-Maur in 1676 and in 1687 was sent to Paris to edit the works of the Church Fathers. His major publications in this field were editions of Athanasius, 3 vol. (1698) and John Chrysostom, 13 vol. (1718–38). As a student of manuscripts

Computers, Time-sharing from Project MAC to UNIX

2004-09-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

In 1959 Christopher Strachey in the United Kingdom and John McCarthy in the United States independently described something they called time-sharing. Meanwhile, computer pioneer J.C.R. Licklider at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began to promote the idea of interactive computing as an alternative to batch processing. Batch processing was the normal

Black Hole

2004-09-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Cosmic body of extremely intense gravity from which nothing, not even light, can escape. A black hole can be formed by the death of a massive star. When such a star has exhausted its internal thermonuclear fuels at the end of its life, it becomes unstable and gravitationally collapses inward upon itself. The crushing weight of constituent matter falling in from all

Il-khanid Dynasty

2004-09-16T04:57:00.000-07:00

Hülegü, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was given the task of capturing Iran by the paramount Mongol chieftain Möngke. Hülegü set out in about 1253 with a Mongol army of about 130,000. He founded the Il-Khanid dynasty in 1256, and by 1258 he had captured Baghdad and all Iran. The Il-Khans consolidated their position in Iran