ColdHook

Wagner, Robert F(erdinand)

2005-04-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

Wagner arrived in the United States at the age of eight and settled with his parents in a New York tenement neighborhood. After graduating from the City College of New York in 1898, he went on to obtain a law degree from New York Law School in 1900. Later that year he was

Sangamon Interglacial Stage

2005-04-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Major division of Pleistocene time and deposits in North America (the Pleistocene Epoch began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). The Sangamon Interglacial follows the Illinoian Glacial Stage and precedes the Wisconsin Glacial Stage, both periods of widespread continental glaciation and severe climatic conditions, as opposed to the moderate conditions

Puerto Lempira

2005-04-02T07:07:00.000-08:00

Town, northeastern Honduras. The town lies on an islet that forms part of Tánsin Island, facing the main passage into the Caratasca Lagoon. Fishing is the major economic activity of the area, and the town has a shrimp-packing plant. The shallow, swampy nature of the lagoon and the dense jungle vegetation of the hinterland have precluded the development of a port. An airfield

Table Tennis

2005-04-02T03:27:00.000-08:00

In the years between the biennial world championships, attention focused on regional events, the largest of which were the European championships. At the 19th staging of this tournament, in Birmingham, England, during March-April 1994, Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium became the new European men's singles champion by defeating Olympic gold medalist Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden

Asphyxia

2005-04-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Asphyxia can be caused by injury to or obstruction of breathing passageways, as in strangulation or the aspiration of food (choking) or large quantities of fluid (near-drowning or drowning).

Selfoss

2005-03-31T06:12:00.000-08:00

Village, southwestern Iceland, 30 miles (48 km) east-southeast of Reykjavík. It lies on the Ölfusá River, about 5 miles (8 km) from the Atlantic Ocean. An agricultural market and dairying centre on the western edge of the country's most extensive agricultural region, it supplies most of the milk for the capital. Selfoss is also a popular resort. Pop. (1992 est.) 3,977.

Maurice, Furnley

2005-03-29T05:08:00.000-08:00

At age 14 Wilmot worked in a Melbourne bookshop, rising to the position of manager. When the business was dissolved in 1929, he operated

Light-year

2005-03-29T00:54:00.000-08:00

In astronomy, the distance traveled by light moving in a vacuum in the course of one year, at its accepted velocity of 299,792,458 metres per second (186,282 miles per second). A light-year equals about 9.46053 ´ 1012 km (5.878 ´ 1012 miles), or 63,240 astronomical units. About 3.262 light-years equal one parsec (q.v.).

Azteco-tanoan Languages

2005-03-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

A major grouping (phylum or superstock) of American Indian languages that includes the large Uto-Aztecan language family and the small Kiowa-Tanoan language family of New Mexico and Oklahoma. The Uto-Aztecan languages are widely spoken in Mexico, northern Guatemala, and, by fewer numbers, in California, the Great Basin, and Arizona. The Kiowa-Tanoan languages are four

Wilson, Edmund

2005-03-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

Educated at Princeton, Wilson moved from newspaper reporting in New York to become managing editor of Vanity Fair (1920–21) and associate editor of The New Republic (1926–31). Wilson's first critical work, Axel's Castle (1931), was an important international survey of the Symbolist

Luther, Martin, Luther's questioning of authority

2005-03-26T05:44:00.000-08:00

Eck was able to go off to Rome with new prestige to give sharpness to the process of Luther's official condemnation. Luther had now to examine the further implications of his actions to date, in relation to the authority of the church, of councils, and of Scripture; his correspondence shows that he was reaching something like a crisis in his attitude to papal

United Kingdom, The break with Rome

2005-03-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

With Wolsey and his papal authority gone, Henry turned to the authority of the state to obtain his annulment, and the so-called Reformation Parliament that first met in November 1529 was unprecedented—it lasted seven years, enacted 137 statutes (32 of which were of vital importance), and legislated in areas that no feudal Parliament had ever dreamed of entering. “King in

Nestlé Sa

2005-03-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

Multinational manufacturer of food products. It is headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, and operates factories in more than 80 countries. Nestlé's chief products are condensed and powdered milk, baby foods, chocolate products, candies, instant coffees and teas, soups, seasonings and condiments, frozen foods, ice cream, and bottled water. The company also produces

Rawalpindi

2005-03-23T00:52:00.000-08:00

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

Metallogenic Province

2005-03-22T03:53:00.000-08:00

Among the examples of metallogenic provinces in North America are the gold

Breda

2005-03-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

Gemeente (commune), Noord-Brabant provincie, southwestern Netherlands, at the confluence of the Mark (Merk) and Aa rivers. It was a direct fief of the duchy of Brabant; its earliest known lord was Godfrey I (1125–70), in whose family it continued until it was sold to Brabant in 1327. Chartered in 1252, it passed to the house of Nassau in 1404 and, ultimately, to William I of Orange (1533–84). Fortified (1531–36) by Count Henry

Haley, Bill

2005-03-21T05:23:00.000-08:00

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

Cartan, élie-joseph

2005-03-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

In 1894 Cartan became a lecturer at the University of Montpellier, where he studied the structure of continuous groups introduced by the noted Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie. He later examined theories of equivalence

Breda

2005-03-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

Organization of Caribbean nations and dependencies that was established in 1973 by the Treaty of Chaguaramas. It replaced the former Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta), which had become effective in 1968. The treaty spurred the development of associate institutions, including the Caribbean Development Bank and the Organization of East Caribbean States, both

Zittau

2005-03-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

City, Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany, on the Lausitzer Neisse River, near the frontiers of Poland and the Czech Republic. Originating as the Slav settlement of Sitowir, it was mentioned in 1230 and chartered in 1255, when it belonged to Bohemia. Zittau joined the federation of Lusatian towns in 1346 and fell to Saxony in 1635. Four 13th- and 15th-century churches still remain. There are training

Sør-trøndelag

2005-03-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

Fylke (county), central Norway. It extends from the Swedish border (east) to the coast of the Norwegian Sea (west). The mouth of the deeply indented Trondheim Fjord lies in the northern part of the fylke; parts of the Dovre Mountains are in the south. Adjacent to the Norwegian Sea coast are the large islands of Hitra and Frøya. The fylke's economy is based on fishing and agriculture

North America, The dispossession of the Indians

2005-03-18T10:35:00.000-08:00

The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation Line of 1763 along the Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans

Yadin, Yigael

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

Yadin, the son of an archaeologist, was educated at Hebrew University (M.A., 1945; Ph.D., 1955). He was a member of the Haganah military organization from 1932 to 1948 and served as chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 1949 to

Denishawn School Of Dancing And Related Arts

2005-03-17T05:34:00.000-08:00

Dance school and company founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn. Considered a fountainhead of American modern dance, the Denishawn organization systematically promoted nonballetic dance movement and fostered such leading modern dancers as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Because St. Denis and Shawn believed that all dance techniques

Scandinavian Literature, Prose

2005-03-16T17:43:00.000-08:00

Prose literature of the 14th century included several sagas. Among them were the Finnboga saga ramma (“Saga of Finnbogi the Strong”), about a 10th-century hero, and another telling the love story of its hero Víglundr. Sagas about bishops, already a theme in the 13th century, became more numerous, as did lives of foreign saints. A large collection of exempla (moral tales) was also made,

Nashville Convention

2005-03-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

(1850), two-session meeting of proslavery Southerners in the United States. John C. Calhoun initiated the drive for a meeting when he urged Mississippi to call for a convention. The resulting Mississippi Convention on Oct. 1, 1849, issued a call to all slave-holding states to send delegates to Nashville, Tenn., in order to form a united front against what was viewed as Northern

Indian Sculpture

2005-03-15T19:46:00.000-08:00

Sculpture was the favoured medium of artistic expression on the Indian subcontinent. Indian buildings were profusely adorned with it and indeed are often inseparable from it. The subject matter of Indian sculpture was almost invariably abstracted human forms that

Amphibian, General features

2005-03-15T04:07:00.000-08:00

The form and structure of the skeletal, nervous, digestive, and urogenital systems of amphibians are intermediate between fishes and reptiles, but those of other systems are specifically modified for amphibians. The integument (skin) and circulatory and respiratory systems exemplify these adaptations and act together to provide cutaneous respiration. Amphibians

Yahya Sobh-e Azal, Mirza

2005-03-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

Yahya was the designated successor of Sayyid Ali Muhammad, a Shi'i sectarian leader known as the Bab (Arabic: “gate,” referring to one who has access to the hidden imam). The Bab was executed in 1850, and by the following year his followers

Rackett

2005-03-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

Finger holes were provided. The sound was reedy, low-pitched, and muffled.

Chi-lung

2005-03-13T17:12:00.000-08:00

Conventional Keelung shih (municipality), northern Taiwan, and the principal port of Taipei, 16 mi (26 km) southwest. The municipality has an area of 51 sq mi (133 sq km). Chi-lung first became known by that name, said to have been a corruption of Ketangalan, the name of a tribe of aboriginal peoples who lived in the district, in the 17th century. The location was occupied in 1626 by the Spanish, who built a fort on the island

Siberia

2005-03-12T14:10:00.000-08:00

All but the extreme southwestern area of Siberia lies in Russia. In Russian usage the

Insurance, Underwriting principles

2005-03-12T02:55:00.000-08:00

Underwriting has to do with the selection of subjects for insurance in such a manner that general company objectives are met. The main objective of underwriting is to see that the risk accepted by the insurer corresponds to that assumed in the rating structure. There is often a tendency toward adverse selection, which the underwriter must try to prevent. Adverse

Christo And Jeanne-claude

2005-03-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

On June 25, 1995, when the last panel of silver fabric fell into place, the biggest artwork of the year was completed in Berlin by site artists Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude. But this was a veiling, not an unveiling; "Wrapped Reichstag" covered the 101-year-old German parliament building with 100,000 sq m (1,076,000 sq ft) of fabric held in place by nearly 16 km (10 mi) of blue rope. In a now-familiar pattern, skeptics

Earth, Cause of magnetic storms

2005-03-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

It is known that magnetic storms are produced by a change in the properties of the solar wind. Magnetically quiet times occur when the solar wind contains a magnetic field called the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) that has the same direction as the Earth's field on the dayside. Magnetic disturbances occur when this field rotates toward an antiparallel orientation.

Abelson, Philip Hauge

2005-03-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

After receiving a Ph.D. (1939) in nuclear physics from the University of California at Berkeley, Abelson worked

Davidson, Donald

2005-03-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

While attending Vanderbilt University, Nashville (B.A., 1917; M.A., 1922), Davidson became one of the Fugitives, a group of Southern writers determined to conserve their region's distinctive literature and

Asylum

2005-03-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

In international law, the protection granted by a state to a foreign citizen against his own state. The person for whom asylum is established has no legal right to demand it, while the sheltering state, which has the legal right to grant asylum, is under no obligation to give it. Asylum is thus a right of the state, not of the individual. The right of asylum falls into three

Abrahams, Israel

2005-03-10T01:17:00.000-08:00

In 1902, after teaching for several years at Jews' College, London, Abrahams was appointed reader in Talmudics (rabbinic literature) at the University of Cambridge, a post he retained

Christchurch

2005-03-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

Town and borough (district), administrative county of Dorset, historic county of Hampshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the Rivers Stour and Avon and adjoins the English Channel resort of Bournemouth. The site was significant during prehistoric times; Late Bronze–Early Iron Age trade with the European continent apparently focused on nearby Hengistbury

Scandinavian Literature, 20th-century literary trends

2005-03-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

The two greatest early 20th-century novelists

Arundel, Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl Of

2005-03-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

Son of William Fitzalan (1483–1544), the 11th earl, he succeeded to the earldom in 1544. He took part in the siege of Boulogne (1544) and was appointed lord chamberlain and a privy councillor in 1546. In June 1553 he alone of the council refused the “engagement” of the council

Oranjestad

2005-03-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

Seaport and chief administrative centre of the Caribbean island of Aruba, located on the island's western coast. It is a free port and a petroleum-processing and shipping centre. The enclosed harbour, with two basins, has modern cargo-handling and fueling equipment. Oranjestad has brightly coloured buildings, fine residential sections, and a modern sports arena,

Skiing

2005-03-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

Unlike the Alpine competitors, the Nordic skiers did not have a world championship tournament in 1996 and thus were able to focus fully on the 17th Nordic World Cup. In that competition Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway and Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakstan continued their supremacy. Dæhlie retained the overall title, his fourth in five years, with runner-up Smirnov denied a chance to

Aldebaran

2005-03-06T22:59:00.000-08:00

Also called Alpha Tauri, reddish giant star in the constellation Taurus. Aldebaran is one of the 15 brightest stars, with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.86. Its diameter is approximately 50 times that of the Sun. It is accompanied by a very faint (13th magnitude) red companion star. Aldebaran lies about 50 light-years from the Earth. The star was once thought to be a member of the Hyades cluster, but in fact

Heinse, (johann Jakob) Wilhelm

2005-03-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

A law student at Erfurt, Heinse met the Romantic writer Christoph

Danish Literature

2005-03-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

The first written evidences of Danish may be found in runic inscriptions, the extant majority of which date from 800 to 1100. With the introduction of Christianity in the 12th century, Latin became the predominant literary language of Denmark and remained so until the Protestant Reformation of 1536, when a new literary movement was inaugurated

Gumilyov, Nikolay Stepanovich

2005-03-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

The son of a naval surgeon, Gumilyov was educated at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where he was influenced by the poet and teacher Innokenty Annensky. Gumilyov's earliest published volumes

Lipetsk

2005-03-04T23:17:00.000-08:00

City and administrative centre of Lipetsk oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along both banks of the Voronezh River in the Don Basin. A fortified settlement existed on the site in the 13th century, until its destruction by Tatars in 1284. The town was founded in 1703 as an ironworking centre by Peter I the Great. It also served as a spa resort; its natural springs and mineral-laden

Aqaba, Gulf Of

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

Arabic Khalij Al-'aqabah, northeastern arm of the Red Sea, penetrating between Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula. It varies in width from 12 to 17 miles (19 to 27 km) and is 100 miles (160 km) long. The gulf lies in a pronounced cleft between hills rising abruptly to about 2,000 feet (600 m). Navigation is difficult because of the gulf's narrow entrance at the Straits of Tiran and its islands, coral reefs, and sudden squalls. The

Uccello, Paolo

2005-03-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

The standard and most readable and complete work on Uccello (and his followers) in English is John Pope-Hennessy, Paolo Uccello, 2nd ed. (1969). Eve Borsook discusses Uccello's Florentine frescoes in The Mural Painters of Tuscany, from Cimabue to Andrea del Sarto (1960). Uccello's role in the investigation of perspective is mentioned by John White in The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, 2nd ed. (1967); and this subject is treated more fully by Alessandro Parronchi in Studi su la dolce prospettiva (1964).

Aliger, Margarita Iosifovna

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

Born into a poor family, Aliger was a committed communist from an early age. She studied writing in Moscow from 1934 to 1937 at what later became the Gorky Literary Institute. In the late 1930s she wrote prose sketches and verse diaries of her

Fiedler, Arthur

2005-03-02T00:54:00.000-08:00

Maestro of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 50 seasons and the best-selling classical conductor of all time; his recordings with the Pops sold some 50,000,000 discs. (The Pops Orchestra is the Boston Symphony minus its principal players.) Fiedler, whose principal aim was “to give audiences a good time,” led the Pops in performances of popular tunes, show

Draco

2005-03-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

The six junior archons (thesmotetai), or magistrates, are said by Aristotle to have been instituted in Athens after 683 BC to record the laws. If this is correct, Draco's code,

Burn

2005-03-01T05:01:00.000-08:00

The use of topical antibacterial agents has reduced the incidence of post-burn infection, but infection remains one of the most serious complications of burns. Burn surgeons often obtain cultures of the burn wound and of sputum and other body secretions; these are examined for signs of infection. Early detection and prompt treatment of infection with antibiotics

Kirby-smith, E.

2005-02-28T07:05:00.000-08:00

Born Edmund Kirby Smith, he later signed his name E. Kirby Smith; the hyphenated form of the name was adopted by his family after

Auersperg, Johann Weikhart, Prince (fürst) Von

2005-02-28T02:34:00.000-08:00

After serving briefly as a Habsburg court councillor, Auersperg was sent to The Hague (1641), and later he took part in peace negotiations at Osnabrück, which ultimately ended the Thirty Years'

Chasles, Michel

2005-02-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

French mathematician who, independently of the Swiss German mathematician Jakob Steiner, elaborated on the theory of modern projective geometry, the study of the properties of a geometric line or other plane figure that remain unchanged when the figure is projected onto a plane from a point not on either the plane or the

Steiermark

2005-02-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

English Styria Bundesland (federal province), southeastern and central Austria, bordering Slovenia on the south and bounded by Bundesländer Kärnten (Carinthia) on the south, Salzburg on the west, Oberösterreich and Niederösterreich (Upper and Lower Austria) on the north, and Burgenland on the east. It has an area of 6,327 sq mi (16,387 sq km). Upper Steiermark extends in the north from the Limestone

Triangle

2005-02-27T00:53:00.000-08:00

Percussion instrument consisting of a steel rod bent into a triangle with one corner left open. It is suspended by a gut or nylon loop and struck with a steel rod. It is theoretically an instrument of indefinite pitch, for its fundamental pitch is obscured by its inharmonic partials (component

Craigie, Sir William Alexander

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

Craigie attended St. Andrews University, studied Scandinavian languages in Copenhagen, and taught at St. Andrews

Arts, Central Asian, Social role of music

2005-02-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

Three basic functions of music are common throughout most of the region: music as ritual, with magical connotations (shamanism); music as tribal record, aiding group solidarity (epic recitation); and music as entertainment (itinerant performers, festivals). Music is the medium of the shaman, or priest-medicine man, as he performs his role as mediator between the seen, or

Arabia, History Of, The sharifs of the Holy Cities

2005-02-25T14:05:00.000-08:00

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

Argentina, Discovery and settlement

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

The main Atlantic outline of Argentina was revealed to European explorers in the early 16th century. The Río de la Plata estuary was discovered years before Ferdinand Magellan traversed the Strait of Magellan in 1520, although historians dispute whether the estuary was first reached by Amerigo Vespucci in 1501–02 or by Juan Díaz de Solís in his ill-fated voyage of 1516. Solís and a

Appalachian Orogenic Belt

2005-02-24T06:28:00.000-08:00

An old mountain range that extends for more than 3,000 km (1,860 miles) along the eastern margin of North America from Alabama in the southern United States to Newfoundland, Canada, in the north. The geosynclinal theory of mountain building was first worked out in the Appalachians by James Dana and James Hall in the late 19th century; today a plate tectonic theory is invoked. The earliest

Sackler, Arthur M.

2005-02-24T01:13:00.000-08:00

Sackler studied at New York University (B.S., 1933; M.D., 1937) and worked as a psychiatrist at Creedmore State Hospital in Queens, New York (1944–46), where in 1949 he founded the Creedmore Institute of Psychobiological Studies, a field in

Baghdad, Districts

2005-02-23T04:42:00.000-08:00

The city extends along both banks of the Tigris. The east-bank settlement is known as Rusafah, the west-bank as Al-Karkh. A series of bridges, including one railroad trestle, link the two banks. From a built-up area of about 4 square miles (10 square km) at the beginning of the 20th century, Baghdad has expanded into a bustling metropolis with suburbs spreading north and south along

Lowden, Frank Orren

2005-02-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Lowden attended law school in Chicago and within a few years of graduating had become a prominent and prosperous corporate attorney. Throughout his legal and political career, he remained

Alamán, Lucas

2005-02-21T19:24:00.000-08:00

Politician and historian, the leader of Mexican conservatives for nearly 30 years and the spokesman for a strong, centralized government that would support industrialization, educational expansion, and agricultural modernization. Living during a corrupt and brutal period of Mexican politics, he stood out as an honest

Savora

2005-02-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

Also spelled sabora (Aramaic: “reasoner,” or “one who reflects”) , plural savoraim , or saboraim any of a group of 6th-century-AD Jewish scholars who determined the final internal form of the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), a collection of authoritative interpretations and explanations of Jewish oral laws and religious customs. Some experts feel that certain (perhaps many) of the critical textual remarks now found in the Talmud represent the work of savoraim,

Oeser, Adam Friedrich

2005-02-20T21:25:00.000-08:00

Trained in the art of modeling by a sculptor, Raphael

Avocet

2005-02-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

Any of several large shorebirds belonging to the genus Recurvirostra, family Recurvirostridae. Avocets have boldly contrasting plumage, long bluish legs, and a long black bill upturned at the tip. They inhabit fresh and salt marshes that have areas of open shallow water and mud flats, and they feed by sweeping the bill, held partly open, back

Cone

2005-02-19T04:04:00.000-08:00

In mathematics, the surface traced by a moving straight line (the generatrix) that always passes through a fixed point (the vertex). The path, to be definite, is directed by some closed plane curve (the directrix), along which the line always glides. In a right circular cone, the directrix is a circle, and the cone is a surface of revolution. The axis of this cone is a line through

Eureka

2005-02-18T19:56:00.000-08:00

City, port, and seat (1856) of Humboldt county, northern California, U.S., on Humboldt Bay. A major lumber and commercial-fishing centre and headquarters for the Six Rivers National Forest, it was laid out in 1850 and named for the Greek motto (meaning “I have found it”) on the state seal. Site of Fort Humboldt (now a state historic monument) and scene of several Indian uprisings (1853–65), it developed

Coast Ranges

2005-02-18T05:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Pacific Coast Ranges, segment of the Pacific mountain system (q.v.) of western North America, consisting of a series of ranges in the United States running parallel to the Pacific coast for more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from west-central Washington in the north to southern California in the south. The Coast Ranges are separated from the higher mountains of the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada to

Spotlight: The Spat Over The Spratlys

2005-02-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

Scattered over 388,000 sq km (150,000 sq mi) of the South China Sea midway between Vietnam and the Philippines, the 500-600 largely uninhabited islets, reefs, and shoals of the Spratly Islands (see Map) seem a curious prize in Southeast Asia's most contentious territorial dispute. China, Vietnam, and Taiwan lay claim to the entire archipelago, and Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines to islands

Kern, Jerome (david)

2005-02-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

Kern studied music in New York City and in 1903 in Heidelberg, Ger., later gaining theatrical experience in London. After his return to New York in 1905, he worked as a pianist and salesman for

Alabaster

2005-02-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

Fine-grained, massive gypsum (q.v.) that has been used for centuries for statuary, carvings, and other ornaments. It normally is snow-white and translucent but can be artificially dyed; it may be made opaque and similar in appearance to marble by heat treatment. Florence, Livorno, and Milan, in Italy, and Berlin are important centres of the alabaster trade. The alabaster of

Franche-comté

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

Région compassing the eastern French départements of Jura, Doubs, Haute-Saône, and the Territoire de Belfort. The capital is Besançon. The region has an area of 6,256 square miles (16,202 square km) and is bounded by the départements of Ain to the south, Saône-et-Loire, Côte-d'Or, and Haute-Marne to the west, and Vosges and Haut-Rhin to the north. Switzerland lies to the east. Franche-Comté

Parallelism

2005-02-15T13:36:00.000-08:00

In rhetoric, component of literary style in both prose and poetry, in which coordinate ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another of equal importance and similar wording. The repetition of sounds, meanings, and structures serves to order, emphasize, and point out relations. In its simplest form parallelism consists

Southern Africa, Xhosa-Dutch conflict

2005-02-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

Settler expansion to the Cape's eastern frontier was blocked by the 1770s when trekboers came up against numerous Xhosa farmers in the area of the Great Fish River. During the 18th century the Xhosa had been embroiled in two major civil wars over the chiefly succession, of which the more important was the dispute, between the paramount Gcaleka and his ambitious brother

Southern Africa, Xhosa-Dutch conflict

2005-02-14T17:11:00.000-08:00

Anomalures have lightly built skeletons and slender bodies with long limbs and strong, curved

Huichol And Cora

2005-02-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Neighbouring Middle American Indian peoples living in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit in western Mexico. Numbering together about 40,000 in the late 20th century, they inhabit a mountainous region that is cool and dry. The Huichol and Cora languages are about as closely related as Spanish and Italian and are next most closely related to Nahua, the language of the Nahua

Black Mass

2005-02-14T04:06:00.000-08:00

In the Roman Catholic church, a requiem mass during which the celebrant wears black vestments. The term is more commonly used, however, for a blasphemous and usually obscene burlesque of the true mass performed by satanic cults. The naked back of a woman often serves as an altar, and a validly consecrated host is generally used to intensify the mockery. The rite commonly

Duchenne, Guillaume-benjamin-amand

2005-02-12T23:37:00.000-08:00

During his lifelong private practice in Boulogne (1831–42) and Paris (1842–75), he explored the effects of electrical stimulation on diseased nerves and muscles. He rendered

West Bengal

2005-02-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

State of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bounded on the north by Bhutan and the state of Sikkim, on the east by Bangladesh, on the northeast by the state of Assam, on the south by the Bay of Bengal, on the southwest by the state of Orissa, on the northwest by Nepal, and on the west by the state of Bihar. Its area is 34,267 square miles (88,752 square kilometres). Although

Paul I, Saint

2005-02-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

Consecrated deacon by Pope St. Zacharias, he became a key member of the Curia under his brother Pope Stephen II (or III), whom he was elected on April 26, 757, to succeed. He secured the support of the Frankish king Pippin III the Short against the animosity of the Lombard king Desiderius and the Byzantine emperor Constantine V

Allen, Walter Ernest

2005-02-11T17:41:00.000-08:00

British novelist, academic, and critic, best known for his 1954 study The English Novel (b. Feb. 23, 1911--d. Feb. 28, 1995).

Gobi, Plant life

2005-02-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

Vegetation, as mentioned above, is sparse and rare. On the plateau and on the plains beneath the mountains, small bushlike vegetation occurs: echinochloa (a type of succulent grass found in warm regions), yellowwood bean caper, winter fat (a shrub covered with densely matted hairs), Dzungarian reaumur, nitre bush, and bushlike halophytic vegetation. In the salt marshes,

Lanark

2005-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Royal burgh (town), South Lanarkshire council area, historic county of Lanarkshire, south-central Scotland, situated by the right bank of the River Clyde, southeast of the Glasgow metropolitan area. The town developed around a castle built by David I of Scotland (reigned 1124–53), who made the town a royal burgh. Lanark is now primarily a residential town and a market centre for

Xylophone

2005-02-09T05:52:00.000-08:00

(from Greek xylon and phone: “wood” and “sound”), percussion instrument consisting of a set of graduated, tuned wooden bars supported at nodal (nonvibrating) points and struck with padded mallets. The xylophone possibly originated in Southeast Asia or Oceania and today exists in forms as simple as two

Celandine

2005-02-09T04:02:00.000-08:00

Any of several distinct flowering plants of similar appearance. The celandine proper, or greater celandine (Chelidonium majus), once a valued plant of the Old World herbalist, is now grown somewhat in wild gardens. A member of the poppy family (Papaveraceae), it has poisonous orange sap, coarsely toothed, divided leaves, and four-petaled yellow blooms

Denson, William Dowdell

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

American lawyer who, as chief military prosecutor of Nazis accused of many of the most horrific of the atrocities committed in Germany at the Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenberg, and Dachau concentration camps, was the most successful of the American prosecutors of World War II criminals; of 177 Nazis he prosecuted between 1945 and 1947, 97 were hanged and the rest went to prison

Iris

2005-02-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

In anatomy, pigmented muscular curtain at the front of the eye, between the cornea and the lens and perforated by an opening called the pupil. The iris consists of two sheets of smooth muscle with contrary actions, expansion and contraction. These muscles control the size of the pupil and thus determine how much light reaches the sensory tissue of the retina. The sphincter

Force, Line Of

2005-02-07T03:31:00.000-08:00

In physics, path followed by an electric charge free to move in an electric field or a mass free to move in a gravitational field, or generally any appropriate test particle in a given force field. More abstractly, lines of force are lines in any such force field the tangent of which at any point gives the field direction at that point and the density of which gives the

France, History Of, The religious wars and the monarchy

2005-02-06T16:02:00.000-08:00

This succession of civil disturbances brought the French state close to disintegration and posed a threat to the crown that would not be matched again until 1789. The key factor in producing this situation lay in the nature of Calvinism, which provided both a rallying point for a wide cross section of opposition and the organization necessary to make that opposition

Carbine

2005-02-06T00:52:00.000-08:00

Light, short-barrelled musket or rifle. The word, the source of which is obscure, seems to have originated in the late or mid-16th century. The carbine, in various versions corresponding to the different full-sized military arms, was chiefly a cavalry weapon until the 18th century. Then some unmounted officers, artillerymen, and other specialists began to carry carbines.

iauliai

2005-02-05T07:29:00.000-08:00

City, north-central Lithuania. The city, dating from at least the 13th century, may be identical with the “Saule” where a major military confrontation took place in 1236 between the Lithuanians and the Brothers of the Sword, an order of Christian knights bent on imposing Christianity on the Baltic states. The order was decisively defeated, and the survivors were forced to merge

Sabang

2005-02-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

Kotamadya (city) and free port, Aceh daerah istimewa (special district), Indonesia, on the northeastern coast of We Island, off the northern tip of Sumatra. It lies at the northern entrance to the Strait of Malacca and is the first port of call in the Malay Archipelago for vessels coming from the west. The harbour, built in 1887, is sheltered from the strong winds and heavy swells

Italian Republican Party

2005-02-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

The party dates back to the 19th century, when radicals fought for a unified Italy under a republican form of government; the PRI was formally founded