NecessaryArch

Carletonville

2005-03-30T18:34:00.000-08:00

Town, principal mining centre of the Far West Witwatersrand goldfields, Gauteng province, South Africa, west of Johannesburg. Carletonville was originally an unplanned settlement established between 1937 and 1957 as various companies developed their gold-mining claims. In 1959 it was officially designated a town, being named for Guy Carleton Jones, a local mining director.

Agricultural Technology, Rainmaking

2005-03-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Attempts to increase the amount of precipitation from clouds by seeding them with salt or silver iodide have been made for nearly three decades. Both aircraft and ground generators have been employed, but the techniques are typically beyond the means of an individual farmer. Results suggest that cloud modification is entirely possible, but the proof of increased

Bülow, Hans (guido), Freiherr Von (baron Of)

2005-03-29T02:32:00.000-08:00

As a child Bülow studied piano under Friedrich Wieck, father

Chancery, Court Of

2005-03-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

In England, the court of equity under the lord high chancellor that began to develop in the 15th century to provide remedies not obtainable in the courts of common law. Today, the court comprises the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice. Courts of chancery or equity are still maintained as separate jurisdictions in certain areas of the commonwealth and in

Malanje

2005-03-27T14:29:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Malange, town, north-central Angola. The town developed in the mid-19th century as an important feira (open-air market) on the country's principal plateau, between Luanda, now the national capital, 250 miles (400 km) to the west and the Kwango valley, inhabited by the Mbundu people, 125 miles (200 km) to the east. Situated at an elevation of 4,373 feet (1,333 m), the town has a high-altitude tropical climate. The environs

Iron Guard

2005-03-27T00:04:00.000-08:00

Romanian Garda De Fier Romanian fascist organization that constituted a major social and political force between 1930 and 1941. In 1927 Corneliu Zelea Codreanu founded the Legion of the Archangel Michael, which later became known as the Legion or Legionary Movement; it was committed to the “Christian and racial” renovation of Romania and fed on anti-Semitism and mystical nationalism. Codreanu established

Vaitown

2005-03-26T23:49:00.000-08:00

Also called Bomi Hills, city, western Liberia, West Africa. Located in the Bomi Hills former iron-mining district, it is associated with the Liberian Mining Company (LMC; a subsidiary of Republic Steel Corporation), which closed down mining operations in the late 1970s. The firm, first in Liberia to export iron ore, completed a 43-mile (69-kilometre) narrow-gauge railway to the port at Monrovia in 1951. Iron interests

Breckland

2005-03-26T17:58:00.000-08:00

The name Breckland was first applied in 1894 by the Norfolk naturalist W.G.

Alliterative Prose

2005-03-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

Prose that uses alliteration and some of the techniques of alliterative verse. Notable examples are from Old English and Middle English, including works by the Anglo-Saxon writer Aelfric and the so-called Katherine Group of five Middle English devotional works.

Computers, The personal computer revolution

2005-03-24T22:21:00.000-08:00

Michael S. Malone, The Big Score: The Billion-Dollar Story of Silicon Valley (1985), explains how the invention of the semiconductor transformed Silicon Valley.

Ocaña

2005-03-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

City, Norte de Santander departamento, northern Colombia, in the Hacarí valley. Founded (c. 1570) as Nueva Madrid by Francisco Fernández, the city was renamed for Ocaña in New Castile, Spain. An independence convention that was held there in 1828 is commemorated by a triumphal arch. Barium mining and onion growing are basic economic activities. Ocaña is the superior court of a judicial

Iapetus

2005-03-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

Exterior moon in the Saturn system, extraordinary because of its surface markings. Discovered by Gian Domenico Cassini in 1671, Iapetus orbits Saturn once every 79.33 Earth days at a distance of 3,561,000 km (2,212,800 miles). The satellite's radius and mass are, respectively, 730 ± 10 km (454 ± 6 miles) and 1.88 ± 0.12 ´ 1024 grams, implying a bulk density of 1.16 ± 0.09 grams per cubic centimetre. A solid object with so low a density must be composed

Resonance, Theory Of

2005-03-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, theory by which the actual normal state of a molecule is represented not by a single valence-bond structure but by a combination of several alternative distinct structures. The molecule is then said to resonate among the several valence-bond structures or to have a structure that is a resonance hybrid of these structures. The energy calculated for

Bearded Seal

2005-03-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

(Erignathus barbatus), nonmigratory seal of the family Phocidae, distinguished by the bushy, bristly whiskers for which it is named; it is also known as “squareflipper” after the rectangular shape of the foreflipper. Highly valued by Eskimos for its hide, meat, and blubber, the bearded seal is a grayish or yellow-brown animal that lives alone or in small groups in coastal

Hancock

2005-03-20T19:41:00.000-08:00

County, southeastern Maine, U.S. It is located in a mountain-and-valley region bounded to the west by the Penobscot River and to the south by several bays of the Atlantic Ocean and includes many islands. The rugged coastline was formed by a flooded mountain range; Mount Desert Island features Cadillac Mountain (1,532 feet [467 metres]), the highest Atlantic coast summit in Maine,

Algebraic Geometry, Definition of a field

2005-03-19T23:58:00.000-08:00

A set of elements (e.g., a, b, and c) with two laws of composition, addition and multiplication, that obey the rules A, B, and C is called a field. Other examples of fields are the rational numbers (integers as well as all numbers obtainable as ratios of integers that are not zero, together with field properties, constituting the field Q), and the integers modulo a prime number p (the integers

Wesleyan Church

2005-03-19T04:48:00.000-08:00

U.S. Protestant church, organized in 1968 by the merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church. The Wesleyan Methodist Church originated in 1843 after members of the Methodist Episcopal Church withdrew from that church to organize a nonepiscopal, antislavery church. The Pilgrim Holiness Church originated in 1897 by uniting several Holiness

'amarah, Al-

2005-03-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern Iraq. Situated on a low ridge beside the Tigris River, it is Iraq's chief port on that waterway south of Baghdad. It is a trade centre for agricultural produce, livestock, wool, and hides and is known for weaving and silverware. In World War I it was captured by the British during their 1915 Mesopotamia campaign. Before 1958, al-'Amarah was an outstanding example of

Fürstenwalde

2005-03-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

City, Brandenburg Land (state), eastern Germany, on the Spree River near its junction with the Oder-Spree Canal, east of Berlin. Founded between 1252 and 1258 by the margraves of Brandenburg and chartered in 1285, it was the seat of the bishops of Lebus from 1385 to 1571. The cathedral, begun in 1446, was destroyed in 1945. Fürstenwalde's largest enterprise is the nationally owned tire plant; chemicals, metal

Gneist, Rudolf Von

2005-03-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

The son of a supreme court judge, he studied at Berlin University

Hypoxia

2005-03-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

Condition of the body in which the tissues are starved of oxygen. In its extreme form, where oxygen is entirely absent, the condition is called anoxia. There are four types of hypoxia: (1) the hypoxemic type, in which the oxygen pressure in the blood going to the tissues is too low to saturate the hemoglobin; (2) the anemic type, in which the amount of functional hemoglobin is too

Argentina, Perón's legacy

2005-03-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

When Perón died on July 1, 1974, he left to his widow a deeply compromised inheritance, yet the transition of power was smooth, and Isabel Perón was sworn in as the world's first woman president. Under the influence of López Rega, the government became even more inflexibly oriented toward the right, and violence reached new heights. López Rega, who used the rightist crusade to

Afonso V

2005-03-16T23:13:00.000-08:00

The son of King Edward (Duarte) and Queen Leonor, daughter of King Ferdinand I of Aragon, Afonso succeeded to the throne at the age of six. In 1440 his mother was deprived of the regency by his uncle Pedro, Duke de Coimbra, whose daughter Isabella Afonso married. The regent was in turn

Catalysis

2005-03-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

The term catalysis was first used in 1835 by the Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius to characterize phenomena observed by chemists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Examples of catalysis, however, were known much

Generative Grammar

2005-03-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

A precisely formulated set of rules whose output is all (and only) the sentences of a language—i.e., of the language that it generates. There are many different kinds of generative grammar, including transformational grammar as developed by Noam Chomsky from the mid-1950s. Linguists disagree as to which, if any, of these different kinds of generative grammar will serve as

Computers, Application software

2005-03-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

The availability of BASIC and CP/M enabled more widespread software development. By 1977, a two-person firm called Structured Systems Group started developing a General Ledger program, perhaps the first serious business software, which sold for $995. The company shipped its software in zip-lock bags with a manual, a practice that became common in the industry. General Ledger

Duckpins

2005-03-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

Bowling game played on a standard tenpin lane with smaller pins and balls. Duckpins are 9.4 inches (23.3 cm) tall. The ball that is used to knock the pins down is a maximum of 5 inches in diameter and 3 pounds 12 ounces (1.7 kg) in weight, and it has no finger holes. Three balls may be rolled in each frame of the 10-frame game. There is no bonus for knocking down all 10 pins with three balls. Other rules are

Hinton, Milt

2005-03-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

Hinton grew up in Chicago, where he began playing bass in high school and then worked with jazz bands in the early to mid-1930s, most notably with violinist Eddie

Luzon

2005-03-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

Criminal Law, Behavioral norms

2005-03-13T06:53:00.000-08:00

The fact that the crime rates in many countries have risen faster than the population has brought into question the relevance of the law itself and whether or not laws against crime actually have an influence on an individual's behaviour. Various large-scale inquiries have been made into the relation between law and civil order: in the United States, the President's

Brummell, Beau

2005-03-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Brummell's grandfather was a shopkeeper in the parish of St. James, London, who let lodgings to the aristocracy; his father was private secretary to Lord North

Houston, Edwin James

2005-03-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

A Philadelphia high school teacher, Houston collaborated with Elihu Thomson in experimenting on induction coils, dynamos, wireless transmission, and the design of an arc lighting system (patented in 1881) that was widely successful

Tamanghasset

2005-03-11T05:43:00.000-08:00

Also called (after 1981) Tamenghest, formerly Fort Laperrine, town, southern Algeria. Located in the mountainous Ahaggar (Hoggar) region on the Wadi Tamanghasset, the town originated as a military outpost, guarding trans-Saharan trade routes. It has become an important way station on the north-south asphalt road called the Trans-Sahara Highway via northern Algeria, which reached Tamanghasset in 1980. Although the desert climate

Yakutsk

2005-03-10T03:24:00.000-08:00

City and capital of Sakha republic (Yakutia), in far northeastern Russia, on the Lena River. A fort was founded on the Lena's low right bank in 1632 and transferred 43 miles (70 km) upstream to the present site of Yakutsk in 1642. Long a small provincial centre of wooden houses where, beginning in the 19th century, dissidents were exiled, Yakutsk has grown in size and acquired light industries,

Hawaii, University Of

2005-03-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

State university system consisting of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (main campus) in Honolulu, the University of Hawaii–West Oahu in Pearl City, the University of Hawaii at Hilo in Hilo, and seven community colleges on the islands of Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii. The main campus at Manoa is a comprehensive, land-grant university offering a wide range of undergraduate

China, Climate and environment

2005-03-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

Although the precise nature of the paleoenvironment is still in dispute, temperatures in Neolithic China were probably some 4° to 7° F (2° to 4° C) warmer than they are today. Rainfall, although more abundant, may have been declining in quantity. The Tsinling Mountains in northwest China separated the two phytogeographical zones of North and South China, while the absence of

Sunda Islands

2005-03-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

Group of islands extending from the Malay Peninsula to the Moluccas southeast of the Asiatic mainland toward New Guinea. They include the Greater Sundas (Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, and adjacent smaller islands) and the Lesser Sundas (Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, and Flores, Timor, Alor, and adjacent smaller islands). With the exception of Borneo, eastern Sumatra, and

Adaptive Radiation

2005-03-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Evolution of an animal or plant group into a wide variety of types adapted to specialized modes of life. A striking example is the radiation, beginning in the Tertiary period (beginning 66.4 million years ago), of basal mammalian stock into forms adapted to running, leaping, climbing, swimming, and flying.

Sanno Ichijitsu Shinto

2005-03-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

Also called Ichijitsu Shinto , or Tendai Shinto in Japanese religion, the syncretic school that combined Shinto with the teachings of the Tendai sect of Buddhism. Shinto-Buddhist syncretism developed from the Japanese concept that Shinto deities (kami) were manifestations of Buddhist divinities. The earliest of these schools, Ryobu Shinto, was founded on the belief that Amaterasu Omikami, the chief Shinto deity, corresponded

Hai Ben Sherira

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

Though the office of gaon was not necessarily hereditary, Hai, whose family traced its origin back to the Davidic

Awdl

2005-03-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

Plural Awdlau, in Welsh verse, a long ode written in cynghanedd (a complex system of alliteration and internal rhyme) and in one or more of the 24 strict bardic metres, though only 4 bardic metres are commonly used. The awdl was, by the 15th century, the vehicle for many outstanding Welsh poems. It remains the predominant form in the annual national eisteddfod (bard and minstrel competition);

Anhava, Tuomas

2005-03-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

Anhava was a perfectionist in his poetry, with a fanatical concern for le mot propre and a great theoretical interest in the aesthetics of modern poetry. His Runoja (1953; “Poems”) has as its central theme alienation and a search for a transcendence of everyday reality.

Dwarfism

2005-03-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

Condition of growth retardation resulting in abnormally short adult stature and caused by a variety of hereditary and metabolic disorders. Traditionally, the term “dwarf” was used to describe individuals with disproportions of body and limb, while “midget” referred to those of reduced stature but normal proportions; today neither word is used, and “little

Faience

2005-03-05T22:24:00.000-08:00

The tin glaze used in faience is actually a lead glaze that has been rendered white and opaque by the addition of tin oxide. In the

Switzerland, Internal political difficulties; external threats to neutrality

2005-03-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, this era of material prosperity was not free from political problems. The Mediation Act had disappeared with Napoleon, its place taken by a new Federal Pact that once again established Switzerland as a confederation of sovereign states united only for common defense and the maintenance of internal order. Thus, the formulation and execution of

Flodoard

2005-03-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

After returning from a visit to Pope Leo VII in Rome, Flodoard became involved in a dispute

Cohnheim, Julius Friedrich

2005-03-04T21:35:00.000-08:00

At the Pathological Institute, Berlin (1865–68), Cohnheim was an outstanding pupil of Rudolf Virchow, founder of the science of pathology. While assisting him, Cohnheim

Cairo, Development of the city

2005-03-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Modern urban growth began in the 1830s, but only during Isma'il's reign (1863–79) was the city fundamentally transformed. Influenced by Baron Haussmann's renovation of Paris, Isma'il ordered the construction of a European-style city to the west of the medieval core. French city-planning methods dominated the design of the districts of Al-Azbakiyah (with its large park), 'Abdin, and Isma'iliyah

Armenian Massacres

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

It is estimated that nearly two million Christian Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire by the late 1880s. The Armenians in the eastern provinces at that time, encouraged by Russia, began promoting Armenian territorial

Furphy, Joseph

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

The son of Irish immigrants, Furphy worked as a thresher, teamster, and gold miner before settling down in 1884 at his brothers'

Israel, Karaites

2005-03-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

The Karaites are a Jewish sect that emerged in the early Middle Ages. Several thousand members live in Ramla, and more recently in Beersheba and Ashdod. Like other religious minorities, they have their own religious courts and communal organizations. Considered part of Jewish society, they have maintained their separate identity by resisting intermarriage and

Poland, Partitions Of

2005-03-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

The First Partition occurred after Russia became involved in a war against the Ottoman Turks (1768) and won such impressive victories, particularly in the Danubian principalities,

Clambake

2005-03-01T01:40:00.000-08:00

Seafood picnic traditional in the New England region of the United States. Early settlers on the Atlantic Coast adopted and elaborated the practice from the coastal Indians, who steamed shellfish over hot stones under a covering of seaweed. Clambakes, best undertaken on a large scale, have long been a feature of civic and fraternal celebrations in areas where clams,

Interior Design, Natural elements

2005-02-28T11:22:00.000-08:00

No man-made object can equal the beauty found in nature, and it is not surprising that the introduction of natural elements into interiors has always been considered desirable. In spite of their beauty, one cannot arbitrarily introduce a plant, a tree, or rocks, or water into an interior. The foremost considerations must be the location of the space, its climate, and its

Hwange National Park

2005-02-27T18:28:00.000-08:00

Formerly Wankie National Park, park in northwestern Zimbabwe, on the Botswana frontier. It was established in 1928 as a game reserve, and as a national park in 1930. The park's area of 5,657 square miles (14,651 square km) is largely flat and contains fine hardwood forests of mukwa and Zimbabwean teak. Hwange is one of Africa's largest elephant sanctuaries and is also the habitat of thousands of Cape buffalo as well as giraffes,

Maban Languages

2005-02-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

Group of related languages spoken in the border area of Chad, The Sudan, and the Central African Republic. The Maban languages form a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Maba (also called Bura Mabang) is the largest Maban language in terms of number of speakers (more than 250,000). Other members of the group include Karanga, Kibet, Massalat, Masalit (Massalit), Marfa, and Runga.

Weaving

2005-02-26T23:06:00.000-08:00

In weaving, lengthwise yarns are called warp; crosswise yarns are called weft, or filling. Most woven fabrics are made with their outer edges finished in a manner that avoids raveling; these are called

Scythian

2005-02-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

Much of what is known of the history of the Scythians comes from the account of them by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who visited their territory. In modern times this

Shibusawa Eiichi, Shishaku

2005-02-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Although Shibusawa's

Papermaking

2005-02-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

The word paper

Cubism

2005-02-25T04:38:00.000-08:00

Highly influential visual arts style of the 20th century that was created principally by the artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro, and refuting time-honoured

Shensi, Administration and social conditions

2005-02-24T05:06:00.000-08:00

The province has three prefecture-level municipalities (shih) directly subordinated to the provincial government. One of these municipalities includes the provincial capital, Sian. The rest of the province is organized into seven prefectures (ti-ch'ü); the northern plateau area is divided between the Yü-lin Prefecture in the far north and the Yen-an Prefecture farther

Mountain, The Circum-Pacific System

2005-02-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

A nearly continuous chain of volcanoes surrounds the Pacific Ocean. The chain passes along the west coast of North and South America, from the Aleutian Islands to the south of Japan, and from Indonesia to the Tonga Islands, and to New Zealand. The Pacific Basin is underlain by separate lithospheric plates that diverge from one another and that are being subducted

Epistolary Novel

2005-02-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

A novel told through the medium of letters written by one or more of the characters. Originating with Samuel Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), the story of a servant girl's victorious struggle against her master's attempts to seduce her, it was one of the earliest forms of novel to be developed and remained one of the most popular up to the 19th century. The epistolary

Accursius, Franciscus

2005-02-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

A professor at the University of Bologna, Accursius had access to the many legal works of the Romans that had been brought from

Fiedler, Leslie A.

2005-02-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

Fiedler attended the University of Wisconsin (M.A., 1939; Ph.D., 1941), and, after service in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946, he did further research at Harvard University. Thereafter he taught at many universities both

Fields, Dorothy

2005-02-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

Fields was the daughter of Lew M. Fields of the vaudeville comedy team of Weber and Fields. After graduating from high school in New York City, she taught drama

Belinsky, Vissarion Grigoryevich

2005-02-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

The son of a provincial doctor, Belinsky was expelled from the University of Moscow (1832) and earned his living thereafter as a journalist. His first substantial critical articles were part

D.c.m.g.

2005-02-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

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.

Vigny, Alfred-victor, Comte De

2005-02-20T00:52:00.000-08:00

Poet, dramatist, and novelist who was the most philosophical of the French Romantic writers.

Wad Madani

2005-02-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

City, east-central Sudan. Wad Madani lies on the west bank of the Blue Nile, 85 miles (136 km) southeast of Khartoum, at an elevation of 1,348 feet (411 m). It owes its recent growth to the irrigated lands of the Jazirah (Gezira) irrigation scheme and is the commercial centre of the al-Jazirah cotton-growing area. Peanuts (groundnuts) and wheat are also grown in the area. The University of al-Jazirah

Claes, Ernest

2005-02-19T09:03:00.000-08:00

Claes treated several subjects. Animals and children were the subject of such works as Floere het fluwijn (1950; “Floere the Polecat”)

Zaharias, Babe Didrikson

2005-02-18T22:34:00.000-08:00

From 1930 through 1932, Didrikson was a member of the women's All-America basketball team. During the same period she also won eight events and tied in a ninth in national championship competition

John George Ii

2005-02-18T19:24:00.000-08:00

In 1657, just after his accession, he made an arrangement with his three brothers with the object of preventing disputes over their separate territories, and in 1664 he entered into friendly relations with Louis XIV of France. He received money from the French

Income Tax, International variations in rate structures

2005-02-17T04:51:00.000-08:00

Attention has already been called to several types of variations found in the income tax practices of different countries, mainly those relating to the determination of taxable income. Something should now be said about variations in rate structures. The important variants in these structures are (1) the starting point and levels of first-bracket rates, (2) the top

Alcobaça

2005-02-16T23:09:00.000-08:00

Town and concelho (township), Leiria distrito (“district”), west-central Portugal. It lies at the confluence of the Alcoa and Baça rivers, just south-southwest of the city of Leiria. Alcobaça is notable for its Cistercian monastery (Mosteiro de Santa Maria), founded in 1152 by King Afonso I in thanksgiving for the reconquest of Santarém from the Moors and rebuilt in the 13th century.

Gryphaea

2005-02-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

Extinct molluskan genus found as fossils in rocks from the Jurassic period to the Eocene epoch (between 208 million and 36.6 million years ago). Related to the oysters, Gryphaea is characterized by its distinctively convoluted shape. The left valve, or shell, was much larger and more convoluted than the flattish right valve. Fine markings extended across the shell

Thousand Days, The War Of A

2005-02-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

The Liberal Party represented coffee plantation owners and import-export merchants who favoured a laissez-faire economic policy. Largely excluded from participation in government after the Conservative victory

Tala

2005-02-15T15:42:00.000-08:00

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

The Peoples Known As Mimi

2005-02-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

The Mimi of Nachtigal and the Mimi of Gaudefroy-Demombynes, both of which speak a Maban language of the Nilo-Saharan language family, are identified by the names of their first investigators—Gustav Nachtigal and Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes, respectively. The name Mimi sometimes is applied to a people who call themselves Amdang and are also known as Biltine; although

Afghanistan, Nadir Shah

2005-02-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

In 1738, after a year's siege, the city of Kandahar fell to Nadir Shah's army of 80,000 men. Nadir Shah seized Ghazna and Kabul and occupied the Mughal capital at Delhi in 1739. His booty included

Hip Roof

2005-02-13T00:16:00.000-08:00

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

Annates

2005-02-12T18:58:00.000-08:00

A tax on the first year's income (first fruits) from an ecclesiastical benefice given by a new incumbent either to the bishop or to the pope. The first mention of the practice appears in the time of Pope Honorius III (d. 1227). The earliest records show that the annates were sometimes a privilege conceded to the bishop for a term of years and sometimes a right based on immemorial

Industrial Espionage

2005-02-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

A considerable amount of data on what the

Kahlo, Frida

2005-02-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

In 1925 Kahlo was involved in a bus accident that so seriously injured her that she had to

Henderson, Thomas

2005-02-10T06:27:00.000-08:00

Henderson was elected

National Archaeological Museum

2005-02-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

Among the

Yungas

2005-02-09T04:54:00.000-08:00

Humid, subtropical region in western Bolivia. It occupies the eastern slopes of the Andean Cordillera Real and extends northeast and north of the cities of La Paz and Cochabamba. This rainy forested belt of rugged terrain (deep valleys and gorges separated by sharp ridges) has its counterparts in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Settlers have been attracted to the area

Alcatraz Island

2005-02-09T02:13:00.000-08:00

The island had little vegetation and was a seabird habitat when it was explored in 1775 by Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala, who named it Isla de los Alcatraces (“Isle of the Pelicans”). Sold in 1849 to the U.S. government, Alcatraz has the distinction of being the site of the first

Köflach

2005-02-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

Town, Steiermark Bundesland (federal state), southern Austria, west of Graz. Köflach received market rights in 1170 but did not achieve town status until 1939. It is a rail terminus and has glass and porcelain works. Important lignite (brown coal) mines are nearby, and the Lipizzaner horses (originating from the former Austrian imperial stud at Lipizza, near Trieste; see photograph

Subatomic Particle, The weak nuclear force

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

Since the 1930s physicists have been aware of a force within the atomic nucleus that is responsible for certain types of radioactivity that are classed together as beta decay. A typical example of beta decay occurs when a neutron transmutes into a proton. The force that underlies this process is known as the weak nuclear force to distinguish it from the strong nuclear

Business And Industry Review

2005-02-07T23:15:00.000-08:00

The buoyant economy and the continued growth in consumer confidence contributed to strong gains in advertising spending in 1997. Worldwide advertising on all media, including direct mail and the Yellow Pages in telephone directories, was expected to climb 6.2% to $411.5 billion in 1997, according to Robert J. Coen, McCann-Erickson Worldwide's senior vice president in charge of forecasting.

Gamete

2005-02-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Sex, or reproductive, cell containing only one set of dissimilar chromosomes, or half of the genetic material necessary to form a complete organism (i.e., haploid). During fertilization, male and female gametes fuse, producing a diploid (i.e., containing paired chromosomes) zygote. Gametes may be identical in form (isogamy), as in the black mold (Rhizopus), or there may be more

Reproduction, Life cycles of animals

2005-02-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

Invertebrate animals have a rich variety of life cycles, especially among those forms that undergo metamorphosis, a radical physical change. Butterflies, for instance, have a caterpillar stage (larva), a dormant chrysalis stage (pupa), and an adult stage (imago). One remarkable aspect of this development is that, during the transition from caterpillar to adult, most of

Hadhramaut

2005-02-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Hadramout, Arabic Hadramawt, region in east-central Yemen, on the Gulf of Aden. The region comprises a hilly area near the coast and an inland valley occupied by a seasonal watercourse, the Wadi Hadramawt, that runs parallel to the coast before turning southeastward to reach the sea. In its lower reaches this watercourse achieves a year-round flow and is called Wadi Masilah. At higher elevations in

Catanduanes

2005-02-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

Island, east-central Philippines, in the Philippine Sea, separated from southeastern Luzon (Rungus Point) by the shallow Maqueda Channel. The island has an area of 550 square miles (1,425 square km). Farming is diversified (rice, corn [maize], copra, abaca) on the hilly, rolling land. Virac, the chief port, is on the southern coast in a lowland area. The island is known for its stone churches.

Jungle Babbler

2005-02-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

Any of about 32 species of songbirds constituting the tribe Pellorneini of the babbler family Timaliidae. Found from Africa to Malaysia and the Philippines, these drab birds with slender, often hook-tipped bills skulk in forest undergrowth. An example is the striped jungle babbler, or spotted babbler (Pelloreum ruficeps), of Southeast Asia—16 centimetres (6 1/4 inches) long,

Sanidine

2005-02-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

Because sanidine that occurs in the Earth's crust has cooled quickly (its structure is stable only above 700° C [1,300° F]), it has trapped a disordered distribution

Florentine Diamond

2005-02-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

Clear, pale-yellow stone weighing 137 carats; of Indian origin, it was cut as a double rose with 126 facets. Once owned by Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, who lost it when he fell in battle in 1477, the stone came into the possession of Pope Julius II and the Medici family early in the 16th century. Maria Theresa of Austria acquired it through her marriage (1736) to the Duke of Tuscany, and it subsequently

Nature Worship, Mountains

2005-02-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

Especially prominent mountains are favourite places for cults of high places, particularly when they are isolated as island mountains, mountains with snowcaps, or uninhabited high mountain ranges. The psychological roots of the cults of high places lie in the belief that mountains are close to the sky (as heavenly ladders), that clouds surrounding the mountaintops