FreeSnake

Mold

2005-04-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

Also spelled mould, in biology, a conspicuous mass of mycelium (masses of vegetative filaments, or hyphae) and fruiting structures produced by various fungi (division Mycota). Fungi of the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Rhizopus form mold and are associated with food spoilage and plant diseases.

Tragedy

2005-04-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

The origins of the tragic form are Greek, as are those of the term itself, meaning “goat-song” and possibly referring originally to the sacrifice of a

Mollet, Guy

2005-03-31T10:44:00.000-08:00

A teacher of English at the Arras lycée, Mollet joined the Socialist Party in 1921. In 1939 he was elected secretary-general of the Teaching Federation, a Socialist

Mollet, Guy

2005-03-29T03:59:00.000-08:00

Former industrial union in the United States and Canada that represented workers in the women's clothing industry. When the ILGWU was formed in 1900, most of its members were Jewish immigrants employed in sweatshops—i.e., small manufacturing establishments that employed workers under unfair and unsanitary conditions. Successful strikes in 1909 and 1910 in New York City by the

Abydos

2005-03-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

The history of Abydos is intimately associated with the political and religious development of Egypt

Star

2005-03-26T23:57:00.000-08:00

Throughout the Milky Way Galaxy (and even near the Sun itself), astronomers have discovered stars that are well evolved or even approaching extinction, or both, as well as occasional stars that must be very young or still in the process of formation. Evolutionary effects on these stars are not negligible, not even for a middle-aged star such as the Sun. More massive stars

Daily World

2005-03-24T06:07:00.000-08:00

The Daily Worker was variously the organ and the “semi-official” voice of the party, and its readers have included numerous U.S. government intelligence agents, who also have monitored its list of subscribers. In 1958 the paper became a weekly as The

Babergh

2005-03-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

District, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England. Babergh extends across the southern part of Suffolk. Babergh includes much of the area made familiar by the paintings of John Constable (1776–1837), who was born within the district at East Bergholt and whose family owned mills there and at Flatford. It also includes a group of small towns—Lavenham, Lindsey, and

Mindanao River

2005-03-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

Also called Río Grande De Mindanao, or Cotabato River, main river of the Cotabato lowland, central Mindanao, Philippines. It rises in the central highlands of northeastern Mindanao (island) as the Pulangi and then flows south to where it joins the Kabacan to form the Mindanao. It meanders northwest through the Libungan Marsh and Liguasan Swamp, which is the habitat of crocodiles. At Datu Piang the river turns to enter Illana

Athenagoras

2005-03-18T05:16:00.000-08:00

Identified by some early historians as

Amphibolite Facies

2005-03-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

One of the major divisions of the mineral-facies classification of metamorphic rocks, the rocks of which formed under conditions of moderate to high temperatures (500° C, or about 950° F, maximum) and pressures. Less intense temperatures and pressures form rocks of the epidote-amphibolite facies, and more intense temperatures and pressures form rocks of the granulite facies.

Ghaybah

2005-03-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

Ghaybah is applied loosely to anyone whom God has withdrawn from the world and kept invisible to the eyes of ordinary men. The life of such a blessed

Bezborodko, Aleksandr Andreyevich, Knyaz

2005-03-16T23:28:00.000-08:00

Recommended to Catherine by Count P.A. Rumyantsev, with whom he had

Pordenone

2005-03-15T07:27:00.000-08:00

Pordenone was a pupil of Pellegrino da S. Daniele and other Friulian masters, but his early style is founded on Venetian models and in particular on Andrea Mantegna. Later he was influenced by Titian, Correggio, and also

Marey, étienne-jules

2005-03-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

Marey wrote extensively on the circulation of the blood, cholera, terrestrial and aerial locomotion, experimental physiology,

Industrial Bank Of Japan

2005-03-12T05:45:00.000-08:00

Japanese Nippon Kogyo Ginko former Japanese commercial bank that operated a general-banking and foreign-exchange business with branches in Japan and overseas. Established in 1902, the bank had specialized in medium- and long-term financing of industrial development, and both its main office and its foreign branches were active in the foreign-exchange markets. In September 2000, Industrial Bank of

Australia Day

2005-03-12T05:15:00.000-08:00

Holiday (January 26) honouring the establishment of the first permanent European settlement on the continent of Australia. On January 26, 1788, Arthur Phillip, who had sailed into what is now Sydney Cove with a shipload of convicts, hoisted the British flag at the site. In the early 1800s the date, called Foundation Day, was celebrated by politicians and businessmen of New South Wales

Cheever, John

2005-03-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

American short-story writer and novelist whose work described, often through fantasy and ironic comedy, the life, manners, and morals of middle-class, suburban America. Cheever has been called “the Chekhov of the suburbs” for his ability to capture the drama and sadness of the lives of his characters by revealing the undercurrents

Bear Grass

2005-03-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

Also called Turkey Beard, one of two species of North American plants comprising the genus Xerophyllum of the lily family (Liliaceae). The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, and fire lily. It is a smooth, light-green mountain perennial with a stout, unbranched stem, from 0.6 to 2 metres (2 to 6 feet) high, which rises from a woody, tuber-like rootstock and cordlike roots. The stem bears

Ibn Al-jawzi

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

Ibn al-Jawzi received a traditional religious education, and, upon the completion of his studies, he chose a teaching career, becoming

Kidney Transplant

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

Also called Renal Transplant, replacement of a diseased or damaged kidney with a healthy one obtained either from a living relative or a recently deceased person. Although kidney transplants were carried out in the late 1950s, clinically significant transplantation did not begin until around 1963, when the immunosuppressive drug azathioprine was developed to help counteract the rejection of the

Céline, Louis-ferdinand

2005-03-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

Pseudonym of Louis-ferdinand Destouches French writer and physician. Céline received his medical degree in 1924 and travelled extensively on medical missions for the League of Nations. In 1928 he opened a practice in a suburb of Paris, writing in his spare time. He became famous with his first novel, Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932; Journey to the End of Night, 1934), the story of a man's tortured

Wells, Charles Jeremiah

2005-03-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

As a young man, Wells was a member of the poet John

Asclepius

2005-03-05T00:09:00.000-08:00

Greek Asklepios, Latin Aesculapius, Greco-Roman god of medicine, son of Apollo (god of healing, truth, and prophecy) and the nymph Coronis. The Centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing. At length Zeus (the king of the gods), afraid that Asclepius might render all men immortal, slew him with a thunderbolt. Homer, in the Iliad, mentions him only as a skillful physician; in later times, however, he was honoured as a

Annalist

2005-03-03T10:48:00.000-08:00

Any of the Roman historians prior to Livy (1st century BC–1st century AD) who drew up the conventional history of Rome from the foundation of the city. For their sources early Roman historians relied for the most part on the annual tabulae pontificum, or annales, which after 300 BC contained regular records of magistrates' names and public events of religious significance. The early

Siamese Fighting Fish

2005-03-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

(Betta splendens), freshwater tropical fish of the family Belontiidae (classified by some authorities as Anabantidae; order Perciformes), noted for the pugnacity of the males toward one another. The Siamese fighting fish, a native of Thailand, was domesticated there for use in contests. Combat consists mainly of fin nipping and is accompanied by a display of extended

Wilson, August

2005-03-02T02:02:00.000-08:00

Largely self-educated, Wilson grew up in poverty and quit school at age 15. He joined the black aesthetic movement in the late 1960s, became the cofounder and director

Amadeus

2005-02-28T23:03:00.000-08:00

The second son of the future King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont (later, of Italy), he was originally called Amadeus I, duke of Aosta. His candidacy for the Spanish throne (vacant after the deposition of Isabella II

Hess, Dame Myra

2005-02-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

Hess studied at the Guildhall School of Music and at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay. She made her concert debut in London in 1907 and in the United States in 1922. From 1939 to 1946, even during the height of the German bombardment of London, she

Piero Della Francesca

2005-02-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

Painter whose serene, disciplined exploration of perspective had little influence on his contemporaries but came to be recognized in the 20th century as a major contribution to the Italian Renaissance. The fresco cycle “The Legend of the True Cross” (1452–66) and the diptych portrait of Federico

Disorderly Conduct

2005-02-25T04:01:00.000-08:00

Disorderly conduct may take the form of directly disturbing the peace, as when one intentionally disrupts a public meeting or awakens a sleeping community. Less directly, it includes

Tagawa

2005-02-24T00:19:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Takawa city, Fukuoka ken (prefecture), Kyushu, Japan, on the upper Onga River. It was a farm village until the systematic exploitation of nearby coalfields began after 1900. Tagawa was the largest mining town in the Chikuho coalfield region until 1970, when the last of the mines was closed. The city's main industrial product now is cement. Pop. (1990) 57,701.

Quadrature

2005-02-23T02:56:00.000-08:00

In astronomy, that aspect of a heavenly body in which its direction as seen from the Earth makes a right angle with the direction of the Sun. The Moon at First or Last Quarter is said to be at east or west quadrature, respectively. A superior planet (outside the Earth's orbit) is at west quadrature when its position is 90° west of the Sun. It rises around midnight, reaches the meridian

Intentionality

2005-02-22T16:56:00.000-08:00

In modern literary theory, the study of authorial intention in a literary work and its corresponding relevance to textual interpretation. With the ascendancy of New Criticism after World War I, much of the debate on intentionality addressed whether information external to the text could help determine the writer's purpose and whether it was even possible or

Yamuna River

2005-02-20T09:58:00.000-08:00

The Yamuna then passes Delhi, where it feeds the Agra Canal. Near

Amphibole

2005-02-20T02:19:00.000-08:00

Long prismatic, acicular, or fibrous crystal habit, Mohs hardness between 5 and 6, and two directions of cleavage intersecting at approximately 56° and 124° generally suffice to identify amphiboles in hand specimens. The specific gravity values of amphiboles range from about 2.9 to 3.6. Amphiboles yield water when heated in a closed tube and fuse with difficulty in a flame. Their

Switzerland, Agriculture and forestry

2005-02-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

Of the territory that makes up Switzerland, only three-fourths is productive. About one-fourth of that productive land is devoted to agricultural cultivation (grains, fodder, vegetables, fruits, vineyards, etc.), and one-fifth is pasture, reflecting the significance of stock raising and dairying. Grain cultivation, accounting for about one-sixth of productive land,

Békésy, Georg Von

2005-02-16T18:30:00.000-08:00

As director of the Hungarian Telephone System Research Laboratory (1923–46), Békésy worked on problems

Caruaru

2005-02-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

City, eastern Pernambuco estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil, on the Ipojuca River at 1,804 feet (550 m) above sea level. Caruaru originated as a weekly market centre; it was elevated to city status in 1857. Agriculture, livestock, and food processing are the principal sources of income, and there is some light manufacturing. The city has many fairs and religious festivals. It is accessible

Chi-lung

2005-02-15T20:10:00.000-08:00

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

Kléber, Jean-baptiste

2005-02-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

The son of a mason, Kléber was an officer in the Austrian army from 1776 to 1782. He was an architect for a time in Paris, and, in

Zaltys

2005-02-12T23:44:00.000-08:00

On special occasions the snake was asked to the table to share the family meal from their

Kirk Range

2005-02-12T03:32:00.000-08:00

Plateau in southwestern Malawi, extending in a north-south direction and skirting the southwestern shore of Lake Nyasa and the western border of the Shire River valley. The northern scarp overlooks the Central Region Plateau, while the southern limits merge into the lower Shire Highlands. The plateau's height decreases in a southerly direction, from 5,500 feet (1,676 m) at Dedza

Skeleton Shrimp

2005-02-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

Aeginella longicornis (longicornia), which occurs among eelgrass, sponges, and wharf pilings

Hip Roof

2005-02-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

Also called hipped roof roof that slopes upward from all sides of a structure, having no vertical ends. The hip is the external angle at which adjacent sloping sides of a roof meet. The degree of such an angle is referred to as the hip bevel. The triangular sloping surface formed by hips that meet at a roof's ridge is called a hip end. A pyramidal hipped roof, also known as a pavilion roof, is hipped

Aethelberht I

2005-02-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

King of Kent (560–616) who issued the first extant code of Anglo-Saxon laws, a code that established the legal position of the clergy and many secular regulations. Aethelberht's marriage to Bertha (or Berhta), daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, and a Christian, may account for the tolerant reception that he accorded Augustine and other missionaries dispatched to Kent by

La Tuque

2005-02-07T03:16:00.000-08:00

Town, Mauricie–Bois-Francs region, southern Quebec province, Canada, situated on the Saint-Maurice River. During the French regime, the site was occupied by a trading post of the Company of New France. The original lumbering settlement of 1908 was named for a rock on the river's edge that was shaped like a tuque, the woolen headgear that was worn by early French trappers. The

Roma

2005-02-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

Town, south-central Queensland, Australia, principal settlement of the Maronoa district, on Bungil Creek. The town, surveyed in 1862 and declared a municipality in 1867, was named after Diamantina Roma Bowen, wife of the state's first governor. Linked to Brisbane (about 315 miles [510 km] east-southeast) by rail, air, and the Carnarvon and Warrego highways, it serves an agricultural and pastoral

Andiron

2005-02-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

One of a pair of horizontal iron bars upon which wood is supported in an open fireplace. The oldest of fireplace furnishings, andirons were used widely from the Late Iron Age. The andiron stands on short legs and usually has a vertical guard bar at the front to prevent logs from rolling off, thus giving it a somewhat doglike appearance (hence the alternative name, firedog).

Tala

2005-02-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

In the music of India and Pakistan, a metric cycle with a specific number of beats—from 3 to 128—that recur in the same pattern throughout a musical performance. Tala might generally be equated with rhythm or metre, although the tala procedure has no precise counterpart in Western music. Within the pattern the beats are not necessarily grouped in identical subunits, as in

Chateaubriand, François-auguste-rené, Viscount (vicomte) De

2005-02-04T01:44:00.000-08:00

The youngest child of an eccentric and impecunious noble, Chateaubriand spent his school holidays largely with his sister in the romantic

Palatalization

2005-02-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

In phonetics, the production of consonants with the blade, or front, of the tongue drawn up farther toward the roof of the mouth (hard palate) than in their normal pronunciation. Palatalized consonants in Russian are pronounced as if attempting simultaneously to pronounce a particular consonant and a y sound; in English, the ny in “canyon” approximates a palatalized

Aelia Capitolina

2005-02-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

City founded in AD 135 by the Romans on the ruins of Jerusalem, which their forces, under Titus, had destroyed in AD 70. The name was given, after the Second Jewish Revolt (132–135), in honour of the emperor Hadrian (whose nomen, or clan name, was Aelius) as well as the deities of the Capitoline Triad (Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva). A sanctuary to Jupiter was built on the Temple Mount, and statues of Roman

Computers, The Internet

2005-02-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Internet grew out of funding by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), later renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to develop a communication system among government and academic computer-research laboratories. The first network component, ARPANET, became operational in October 1969. With only 15 nongovernment (university) sites

La Mancha

2005-01-31T16:41:00.000-08:00

Barren, elevated plateau (2,000 ft [610 m]) of central Spain, stretching between the Montes (mountains) de Toledo and the western spurs of the Cerros (hills) de Cuenca, and bounded on the south by the Sierra Morena and on the north by La Alcarria region. It includes portions of the modern provinces of Cuenca, Toledo, and Albacete, and most of Ciudad Real province. It constitutes the southern

Faience Patriotique

2005-01-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

French 18th-century earthenware, chiefly plates and jugs, decorated with themes drawn from the French Revolution and its ideology or from national political events. The first example of a faience patriotique was a Moustiers dish occasioned by the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, but it was the Revolution that inspired the greatest production of faience patriotique. A number

Conspiracy

2005-01-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

In common law, an agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act or to accomplish a lawful end by unlawful means. Conspiracy is perhaps the most amorphous area in Anglo-American criminal law. Its terms are vaguer and more elastic than any conception of conspiracy to be found in the continental European codes or their imitators. In most civil-law countries,

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint

2005-01-28T02:35:00.000-08:00

Kamehameha Ii

2005-01-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

In 1820 he admitted the first company of missionaries (from New England), who, within two years, had learned the language, reduced it to writing, and printed the first textbook. Kamehameha resisted conversion to Christianity, allegedly because he refused to give up four of his five wives as well as rum

Jet Engine, Medium-bypass turbofans, high-bypass turbofans, and ultrahigh-bypass engines

2005-01-25T05:25:00.000-08:00

Moving up in the spectrum of flight speeds to the transonic regime—Mach numbers from 0.75 to 0.9—the most common engine configurations are turbofan engines, such as those shown in Figures 4 and 5. In a turbofan, only a part of the gas horsepower generated by the core is extracted to drive a propulsor, which usually consists of a single low-pressure-ratio, shrouded turbocompression

Regensburg

2005-01-24T17:34:00.000-08:00

Also called Ratisbon, city, Bavaria Land (state), southeastern Germany, on the right bank of the Danube River at its most northerly course, where it is joined by the Regen River. In the area of the old city was a Celtic settlement (Radasbona), which later became the site of a Roman stronghold and legionary camp, Castra Regina (founded AD 179). The Roman north gate (Porta Praetoria) and parts of the walls survive.

Jhelum River

2005-01-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Jhelum rises from a deep spring at Vernag, in the Indian-held sector of Jammu and Kashmir state. The river meanders northwestward from the northern slope of the Pir Panjal Range through the Vale of Kashmir to Wular Lake, which controls its flow. Emerging from the

Brooks, Gwendolyn

2005-01-23T03:05:00.000-08:00

Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College in Chicago in 1936. Her early verses appeared in the Chicago Defender, a newspaper written

Palaeospondylus

2005-01-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

Genus of enigmatic fossil vertebrates that were very fishlike in appearance but of uncertain relationships. Palaeospondylus, from the Middle Devonian epoch (387 to 374 million years ago), has been found in the Old Red Sandstone rocks in the region of Achannaras, Scot. Hundreds of specimens are known, yet the position of this genus in relation to other fishlike vertebrates

Hsi K'ang

2005-01-20T02:06:00.000-08:00

Of influential parentage, Hsi received a traditional education,

3-d

2005-01-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

Also called stereoscopic, motion-picture process that gives a three-dimensional quality to film images. It is based on the fact that humans perceive depth by viewing with both eyes. In the 3-D process, two cameras or a twin-lensed camera are used for filming, one representing the left eye and the other the right. The two lenses are spaced about 2 1/2 inches (6.3 cm) apart, the same as the separation between a person's

3-d

2005-01-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

French national theatre created in 1920 to bring theatre to the general public. Its first director, Firmin Gémier, had been the director of the Théâtre Antoine and had made a number of attempts to create a people's theatre. Initially the TNP offered productions from the other national companies in a large hall with inexpensive tickets. It had no acting company, could not

Wick

2005-01-13T23:35:00.000-08:00

Royal burgh (town) and fishing port, Highland council area, historic county of Caithness, Scotland. An ancient Norse settlement on the North Sea, situated about 14 miles (23 km) south of John o'Groats, Wick developed as a fishing port and centre and was designated a royal burgh in 1589. It expanded rapidly during the herring boom of the 19th century. Since then herring fishing has declined

Athelstan

2005-01-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

On the death of his father, Edward the Elder, in 924, Athelstan was elected king of Wessex and Mercia, where he had been brought up by his aunt, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians. Crowned king of the whole country at Kingston on Sept. 4, 925, he proceeded to establish boundaries and rule firmly. His dominion

Johnson, Samuel

2005-01-09T22:09:00.000-08:00

Samuel Johnson was the son of Michael Johnson, a bookseller, and his wife, Sarah. From childhood he suffered from a number of physical afflictions and could have spoken, as had the 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope, of “this long disease my life.” By his own account, he was born “almost dead,” and he early contracted scrofula (tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands). Because

Hveragerdhi

2005-01-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

Village, southwestern Iceland. It lies midway between the lake of Thingvallavatn to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The centre of Iceland's hothouse industry, Hveragerdhi is noted for its fruit (especially tomatoes and even bananas), vegetables, and flowers, all of which are grown under glass. The hothouses are heated by steam from the numerous hot springs

Ecuador, Drainage

2005-01-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

As the annual thawing of snow occurs in the mountains, numerous rivers rise, pass through the hoyas of the Sierra, and flow either west to the Pacific coast or east to the Amazon River. The Costa is primarily drained into the Pacific Ocean by the Guayas basin. Formed by the juncture of the Daule and Babahoyo rivers and their affluents, the Guayas River is navigable for

Maharashtra, Education

2005-01-04T06:14:00.000-08:00

Maharashtra's literacy rate—which consists of more than half of the state's adult population—exceeds the national average. The state provides free compulsory education for children between the ages of 6 and 14. Vocational and multipurpose high schools also have grown in importance. The state operates two universities (including one for women) at Bombay and others at

Spring Of Khosrow Carpet

2005-01-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

Also called Winter of Khosrow Carpet ancient Persian carpet, possibly the most costly and magnificent of all time, made for the Ctesiphon palace of the Sasanian king Khosrow I (reigned AD 531–579). Described in the historical annals of the Muslim scholar at-Tabari, it became the model for subsequent Garden carpets. The carpet was called the Spring of Khosrow because it represented, in silk, gold, silver, and jewels, the splendour

Intermediate Vector Boson

2004-12-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

Type of boson associated with the electromagnetic and weak forces in unified form. See W particle.

Handedness

2004-12-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

A tendency to use one hand rather than the other to perform most activities; it is the usual practice to classify persons as right-handed, left-handed, or ambidextrous. See laterality.

Orlov, Aleksey Grigoryevich, Count (graf)

2004-12-27T04:04:00.000-08:00

Having entered the cadet corps in 1749, Orlov became an officer in the Russian guards as well as a close adviser to his brother Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov, who about 1760 became the lover of Catherine,

Nigeria

2004-12-24T00:16:00.000-08:00

A republic and suspended member of the Commonwealth, Nigeria is located in West Africa, on the Gulf of Guinea. Area: 923,768 sq km (356,669 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.): 103,912,000. Cap.: Abuja. Monetary unit: naira, with (Oct. 11, 1996) an official par value of 22 naira to U.S. $1 (free rate of 34.66 naira = £1 sterling); a truer value of the naira was on the free market, where 79.70 naira = U.S. $1 (125.55 naira = £ 1 sterling). Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council in 1996, Gen. Sani

Jehu

2004-12-22T02:48:00.000-08:00

Hebrew Yehu, king (c. 842–815 BC) of Israel. He was a commander of chariots for the king of Israel, Ahab, and his son Jehoram, on Israel's frontier facing Damascus and Assyria. Ahab, son of King Omri, was eventually killed in a war with Assyria; during Jehoram's rule, Jehu accepted the invitation of the prophet Elisha, Elijah's successor, to lead a coup to overthrow the dynasty of Omri (II Kings 9–10). The prophetic

Macarius Magnes

2004-12-21T02:30:00.000-08:00

Of Macarius' origin and career, nothing is known except that he is probably identified with the bishop of Magnesia, later Manisa, Tur., who, at the Synod of the

Pacific Ocean, Tropical storms

2004-12-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

Although, in general, the climatic conditions of the trade-wind belts are characteristically regular and uniform, storms of great violence do originate there. In such storms, winds of exceptionally great force spiral inward toward a centre of exceedingly low atmospheric pressure. These are the tropical storms known in the western Pacific as typhoons. While the

Abu Sir

2004-12-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

Zahi Hawass, “Abusir Tomb,” National Geographic, 194(5):102–113 (November 1998).

Morse, Jedidiah

2004-12-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

While a young man teaching school in New Haven, Morse developed an interest

Lower Egypt

2004-12-13T14:30:00.000-08:00

Arabic Misr Bahri, geographic and cultural division of Egypt consisting primarily of the triangular Nile River delta region and bounded generally by the 30th parallel north in the south and by the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Characterized by broad expanses of fertile soil, Lower Egypt contrasts sharply with Upper Egypt, where the centres of habitation along the Nile valley are

Colebrook-cameron Commission

2004-12-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

Committee sent by the British government in 1829–32 to investigate its colonial government in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and to make recommendations for administrative, financial, economic, and judicial reform. Most of the recommendations were accepted; they signified for Ceylon the first manifestation of constitutional government, the first steps toward modernizing

Honan

2004-12-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

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

Babashoff, Shirley

2004-12-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Babashoff won silver medals in the 100- and 200-metre freestyle events and competed on the gold-medal-winning U.S. team in the 400-metre freestyle relay. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, she again

Pacher, Michael

2004-12-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Pacher's early life, but he is thought to have gone to Italy, where he was much impressed by the experiments in perspective of two eminent northern Italian

Bloodfin

2004-12-03T05:37:00.000-08:00

Freshwater fish, a species of characin (q.v.).

Adams, Roger

2004-12-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Receiving

Water Resource

2004-11-29T05:52:00.000-08:00

Any of the entire range of natural waters that occur on the Earth, regardless of their state (i.e., vapour, liquid, or solid) and that are of potential use to humans. Of these, the resources most available for use are the waters of the oceans, rivers, and lakes; other available water resources include groundwater and deep subsurface waters and glaciers and permanent

Robbe-grillet, Alain

2004-11-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

Trained as a statistician and agronomist, he claimed to write novels for his time, especially attentive “to the ties that exist between objects, gestures, and situations, avoiding

World War I, The Far East

2004-11-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

China's entry into the war in 1917 on the side of the Allies was motivated not by any grievance against the Central Powers but by the Peking government's fear lest Japan, a belligerent since 1914, should monopolize the sympathies of the Allies and of the United States when Far Eastern affairs came up for settlement after the war. Accordingly, in March 1917 the Peking government severed

Great Migration

2004-11-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

In U.S. history, the widespread migration of African Americans in the 20th century from rural communities in the South to large cities in the North and West. At the turn of the 20th century, the vast majority of black Americans lived in the Southern states. From 1916 to 1970, during this Great Migration, it is estimated that some six million black Southerners relocated to urban areas

Arabia, Dhofar (Zufar)

2004-11-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

The Qara' Mountains in Dhofar, the southern province of the sultanate of Oman, are about 3,000 feet high, with one peak higher than 5,000 feet. The monsoon keeps the seaward (southern) side of the mountains, as well as the coastal plain, fertile. A gradual slope leads northward from the water divide to the Rub' al-Khali; valleys from the slope converge on Ramlat Al-Mughshin at the desert's

Andradite

2004-11-15T14:03:00.000-08:00

Calcium-iron garnet, perhaps the most spectacular garnet because of its high dispersion (separation of light into colours), even greater than that of diamond, and refractive index. It is found in various colours, some of the most beautiful being yellowish (termed topazolite, because of its resemblance to topaz) and yellowish green or emerald-green (Uralian emeralds,

San Carlos

2004-11-13T17:27:00.000-08:00

City, south-central Nicaragua. It lies at the extreme southeastern corner of Lake Nicaragua near the Costa Rican border, where the San Juan River begins its journey to the Caribbean Sea. With its strategic location, San Carlos served as a fort to guard against pirate attacks during the colonial period. Although the city was severely damaged by fire in 1948, it is still a port

Hanks, Nancy

2004-11-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

Hanks graduated from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in 1949 and two years later settled in Washington, D.C. In 1953 she became an assistant to Nelson A. Rockefeller, then

Epic

2004-11-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

Long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds, although the term has also been loosely used to describe novels, such as Tolstoy's War and Peace, and motion pictures, such as Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible. In literary usage, the term encompasses both oral and written compositions. The prime examples of the oral epic are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Outstanding examples

Argentina, Political developments

2004-11-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

Works on Juan Perón and Peronism include Frederick C. Turner and José Enrique Miguens (eds.), Juan Perón and the Reshaping of Argentina (1983); Joseph A. Page, Perón: A Biography (1983); Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Eva Perón (1980, reissued as Evita, 1996); Jeane Kirkpatrick, Leader and Vanguard in Mass Society: A Study of Peronist Argentina (1971); and Guido Di Tella, Argentina Under Perón, 1973–76: The Nation's Experience with a Labour-Based Government (1983).