MaterialShoe

Peter Iv

2005-04-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

Peter was the most cultivated of Spanish 14th-century kings but was also an inveterate political intriguer whose ability to dissemble was notorious. Through his voluminous correspondence, the workings of his mind are far better known than those of any contemporary Spanish

Mosaddeq, Mohammad

2005-04-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

The son of an Iranian public official, Mosaddeq grew up as a member of Iran's ruling elite. He received a doctor of law degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and then returned to Iran in 1914 and was appointed

Judah Ha-levi

2005-04-03T04:58:00.000-07:00

Hebrew in full Yehuda Ben Shemuel ha-Levi Jewish poet and religious philosopher. His works were the culmination of the development of Hebrew poetry within the Arabic cultural sphere. Among his major works are the poems collected in Diwan, the “Zionide” poems celebrating Zion, and the Sefer ha-Kuzari (“Book of the Khazar”), presenting his philosophy of Judaism in dialogue

Abrahams, Israel

2005-04-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

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

Epistemology, Ancient

2005-03-31T02:50:00.000-08:00

An excellent collection on skepticism is Miles Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition (1983). For Greek Skepticism in particular, see Charlotte L. Stough, Greek Skepticism: A Study in Epistemology (1969). The chief epistemological works of Plato are his Meno, Theaetetus, and Republic, especially Books V–VII. The views of Aristotle can be found in On the Soul, Metaphysics, Book IV, ch. 5 and 6, and Posterior Analytics, Book I, ch. 3. The locus classicus for ancient skepticism is R.G. Bury (trans.), Sextus Empiricus, 4 vol. (1933–49), in The Loeb Classical Library series. From among the voluminous writings of Augustine, see Against the Academicians, trans. by Mary Patricia Garvey (1942, reissued 1978).

Saxhorn

2005-03-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

Any of a family of brass wind instruments patented by the Belgian instrument-maker Antoine-Joseph Sax, known as Adolphe Sax, in Paris in 1845. Saxhorns, one of many 19th-century developments from the valved bugle, provided military bands with a homogeneous series of valved brass in place of the miscellany of valved instruments that had come into use since 1825 (such as flügelhorns,

Keel

2005-03-29T05:10:00.000-08:00

In shipbuilding, the main structural member and backbone of a ship or boat, running longitudinally along the centre of the bottom of the hull from stem to stern. It may be made of timber, metal, or other strong, stiff material. Traditionally it constituted the principal member to which the ribs were attached on each side and to which the stem and sternpost were also attached.

Mason, James

2005-03-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

Mason studied architecture before trying for a theatrical career. Following four years as a stage actor, his first film was Late Extra (1935). From then on he became one of the busiest of

Robert Iii

2005-03-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

The eldest son of Robert the Steward (the future Robert II) and Elizabeth Mure, he was legitimated by their marriage several years after

Argand Diagram

2005-03-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

Graphic portrayal of complex numbers, those of the form a + bi, in which a and b are real numbers and i is the square root of -1; it was devised by the Swiss mathematician Jean Robert Argand in about 1806. One axis represents the pure imaginary numbers (those consisting of the bi portion only); the second represents the real numbers (a values only). This permits the complex numbers to

Disasters

2005-03-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

January 8, Charlotte, N.C. A commuter plane, a Beechcraft 1900 twin-engine turboprop operated by US Airways Express, crashes into a hangar on takeoff, killing 21 passengers and crew members; the cause of the crash is believed to be

Maupeou, René-nicolas-charles-augustin De

2005-03-23T13:25:00.000-08:00

Chancellor of France who succeeded in temporarily (1771–74) depriving the Parlements (high courts of justice) of the political powers that had enabled them to block the reforms proposed by the ministers of King Louis XV. By rescinding Maupeou's measures, King Louis XVI (reigned 1774–92) lost his opportunity to institute fundamental reforms that might

Botany

2005-03-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

The branch of biology that deals with plants. It involves the study of the structure, properties, and biochemical processes of all forms of plant life, including trees. Also included within its scope are plant classification and the study of plant diseases and of the interactions of plants with their physical environment. Over the years various specialized branches

Cabra

2005-03-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

Cabra has a ruined Moorish castle, and its parish church (the former cathedral) was originally a mosque. Called Baebro or Aegabro in ancient times, it was

Fore-edge Painting

2005-03-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

Technique of painting the edges of the leaves, or folios, of a book, employed in the European Middle Ages. Manuscript books with gold-tooled bindings often had the edges of their pages gilded with burnished gold. They were also frequently goffered with heated tools and were occasionally coloured. From 1650 onward a number of London binders practiced a new decorative method

Italian Labour Union

2005-03-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Italian Unione Italiana Del Lavoro (UIL) Italian trade union federation with more than a million and a half members. The UIL was formed in 1950 in opposition to the communist-dominated Italian General Confederation of Labour, Italy's largest trade union federation, and the Roman Catholic-supported Italian Confederation of Syndicated Labourers. The federation is affiliated with the International Confederation

Established Church

2005-03-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

A church recognized by law as the official church of a state or nation and supported by civil authority. Though not strictly created by a legal contract, the legal establishment is more like a contractual entity than like anything else and, therefore, ordinarily cannot be varied or repudiated by only one party to it. The church is not free to make changes in such things

Preston, May Wilson

2005-03-20T05:10:00.000-08:00

May Wilson displayed marked artistic ability from an early age. In 1889, when she was barely out of high school, she helped found the Women's Art

Hale, Nathan

2005-03-19T18:37:00.000-08:00

A graduate of Yale University (1773) and a schoolteacher, Hale joined a Connecticut regiment in 1775, served in the siege of Boston, and was commissioned a captain (1776). He went to New York with William Heath's brigade and is said to have participated in

Faraday, Michael

2005-03-18T21:35:00.000-08:00

Faraday, who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century, began his career as a chemist. He wrote a manual of practical chemistry that reveals his mastery of the technical aspects

Resonance, Theory Of

2005-03-18T02:37:00.000-08:00

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

House

2005-03-18T02:18:00.000-08:00

In astrology, 1 of the 12 sectors, or divisions, of the celestial sphere. See horoscope.

Alexander I

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

Alexander probably acknowledged King Henry

Magdalena River

2005-03-16T05:25:00.000-08:00

Spanish Río Magdalena, river, north-central Colombia. It rises at the bifurcation of the Andean Cordilleras Central and Oriental, and flows northward for 930 miles (1,497 km) to the Caribbean Sea. It receives the San Jorge, César, and Cauca rivers in the swampy floodplain of the northern lowlands. The river's mouth must be dredged to give oceangoing vessels access to the port of Barranquilla, in Atlántico

Costa Alegre, Caetano Da

2005-03-15T00:51:00.000-08:00

Costa Alegre was born into a creole family but moved in 1882 to Portugal, where he enrolled in the Medical School of Lisbon. Before he could graduate and

Literature, Latin America.

2005-03-14T03:29:00.000-08:00

The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes was the most prominent novelist of Latin America to publish a book in 1994. It was a year of particular significance for Latin-American writers of Fuentes' generation as well as for earlier writers. Fuentes published the novel Diana, o la cazadora solitaria, part of his lifelong project "The Era of Time." The novel, set in the world of Mexican

Sable Antelope

2005-03-13T02:41:00.000-08:00

(Hippotragus niger), handsome antelope, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), that lives in herds in forests of southern Africa. Like the related roan antelope (H. equinus), the sable antelope is a graceful animal with an erect mane, long ears, long hair on the throat, and long, parallel, sickle-shaped horns. It stands up to 137 centimetres (54 inches) at the shoulder.

Hindustan

2005-03-13T00:30:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Hindusthan (Persian: “Land of the Hindus”), historically, northern India, in contrast to the Deccan, or southern India. This area can be defined more particularly as the basin of the five Punjab rivers and the upper Gangetic Plain. As a mostly fertile and well-populated corridor situated between walls of mountain, desert, and sea, Hindustan has been regarded as the principal seat of Indian

Mitscherlich, Eilhardt

2005-03-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

From 1818 to 1820 Mitscherlich worked in the Berlin laboratory of the German botanist Heinrich F. Link, where he first undertook the study of arsenates and phosphates. In 1819 he discovered

Ciliaris Muscle

2005-03-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

Muscle of the ciliary body of the eye, between the sclera (white of the eye) and the fine ligaments that suspend the lens. It is composed of both longitudinal and circular fibres and serves to change the shape of the lens, enabling the eye to focus upon near or distant objects.

Fire Ant

2005-03-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

Also called Thief Ant (Solenopsis), any of a genus of insects in the family Formicidae, order Hymenoptera, several species of which are common in North America. The red or yellowish ants are one to five millimetres in length and can inflict a severe sting. The semipermanent nest consists of a loose mound with open craters for ventilation. The workers are notorious for damaging planted grain

Hinduism, Vaishnavism

2005-03-10T21:43:00.000-08:00

Vaishnavism is the worship of Vishnu and his various incarnations. During a long and complex development from Vedic times, there arose many Vaishnava groups with differing beliefs and aims. Some of the major Vaishnava groups include the Srivaisnavas and Dvaitins (“philosophical or religious dualists”) of South India, the followers of the teachings of Vallabha in western

Berdyayev, Nikolay Aleksandrovich

2005-03-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

During his student days at Kiev

Biblical Literature, The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men

2005-03-09T05:56:00.000-08:00

The first addition to Daniel (in Greek and Latin translations Dan. 3:24–68) contains the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men. These are the prayers of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the three young men who praised God after they had been placed in the midst of the fiery furnace during a persecution of Jews in Babylon, as told in the Book of Daniel. The first prayer

Malwa Plateau

2005-03-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

Plateau in north central India, bounded by the Gujarat Plains on the west, the Vindhya Range on the south, the Madhya Bharat Plateau and Bundelkhand Upland on the north, and the Vindhya Range on the east. Of volcanic origin, the plateau comprises central Madhya Pradesh state and southeastern Rajasthan state. The name Malwa is derived from the Sanskrit term Malav and means

Water Moss

2005-03-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

Also called Brook Moss, or Fountain Moss (Fontinalis), genus of mosses belonging to the order Bryales, found in flowing freshwater streams and ponds in temperate regions. About 25 species are native to North America. A brook moss may have shoots 30 to 100 (rarely up to 200) cm (12 to 40 inches) long, and is usually attached to a stone or a tree root. The most common species, F. antipyretica, has long, slender branches covered with glossy,

Lath

2005-03-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

One of the most common laths is gypsum lath. It is manufactured with an air-entrained gypsum core sandwiched between two layers of fibrous absorbent

Bonaparte, (marie-annonciade-)caroline

2005-03-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

As a result of her ambitious and intriguing nature, her husband became governor of Paris, marshal of France (1804), grand duke of Berg and of Cleves (1806), lieutenant of the emperor in Spain (1803), and king of Naples (1808). Her relations with Napoleon became strained as she associated

Idku

2005-03-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Edkou, town, northern al-Buhayrah muhafazah (governorate), Lower Egypt. It lies on a sandy strip behind Abu Qir Bay, in the northwestern Nile River delta. Immediately south is Lake Idku, a 58-square-mile (150-square-kilometre) lagoon that stretches some 22 miles (35 km) behind and parallel to the coast and has a maximum width of 16 miles (26 km). Drained by al-Ma'addiyah Channel, connecting with the Mediterranean,

Hardey, Mother Mary Aloysia

2005-03-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

Hardey attended the school conducted by the Society of the Sacred Heart (lately introduced into America by Mother Philippine Duchesne) at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, in 1822–24, and in September

Flavius, Gnaeus

2005-03-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

Roman legal writer and politician who made public the technical rules of legal procedure, which had been kept secret by the patricians and the pontifices (advisers to the king, dictator, or emperor) so that they could maintain their advantage over the plebeians. Flavius learned procedure while serving as secretary to the censor and consul Appius

Selim I

2005-03-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

Selim came to the throne in the wake of civil strife in which he, his brother, and their father, Bayezid II, had been involved. Selim eliminated all potential claimants to the sultanate, leaving only

Kinguélé

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

Waterfall and site of a hydroelectric complex on the Mbei River of Gabon. Kinguélé is situated near Kango and is about 95 miles (150 km) by road east of Libreville, the national capital. There are actually two sets of waterfalls. The upper Kinguélé falls drop a total of 115 feet (35 m) in three consecutive leaps. The larger, lower falls drop 148 feet (45 m). Below the lower falls, the Mbei River continues

Liturgical Music

2005-03-01T23:58:00.000-08:00

Also called Church Music, music written for performance in a religious rite of worship; the term is most commonly associated with the Christian tradition. Developing from the musical practices of the Jewish synagogues, which allowed the cantor an improvised charismatic song, early Christian services contained a simple refrain, or responsorial, sung by the congregation. This evolved

Earth Sciences, Charles Lyell and uniformitarianism

2005-03-01T23:04:00.000-08:00

In opposition to the catastrophist school of thought, the British geologist Charles Lyell proposed a uniformitarian interpretation of geologic history in his Principles of Geology (3 vols., 1830–33). His system was based on two propositions: the causes of geologic change operating include all the causes that have acted from the earliest time; and these causes have always

France, History Of, The end of Gaul (c. 400c. 500)

2005-03-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

From 395 the division of the Roman Empire between an eastern and a western half caused acute internal political stresses that encouraged barbarian penetration of the Danube region and even Italy. The Rhine frontier was again neglected, and the seat of the Gallic prefecture was moved to Arelate. The result was Germanic invasion and civil war. By 418, Franks and Burgundians

Fremont

2005-02-28T18:22:00.000-08:00

City, Alameda county, California, U.S., on the southeast shore of San Francisco Bay (there spanned by the Dumbarton Bridge), on the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct. Site of Mission San José de Guadalupe (founded in 1797), the city, named for John C. Frémont, the Western explorer, was formed in 1956 through the amalgamation of five communities—Centerville, Irvington, Niles, Mission San José, and Warm

Naftah

2005-02-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Nefta, oasis town, southwestern Tunisia. It lies on the northwest shore of Al-Jarid saline lake, which is an important source of phosphates. It was known to the Romans as Aggarsel Nepte. Naftah has many small mosques and is a date-growing and trans-Saharan transport centre. The larger oasis of Tawzar (Tozeur) is 15 miles (24 km) east-northeast. Pop. (1984) 15,511; (1989 est.) 17,216.

Ilchester

2005-02-28T17:08:00.000-08:00

Town (“parish”), South Somerset district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England. It lies along the River Yeo. Ilchester was known as Lindinis under Roman rule and was the northern tribal capital of the Durotriges, an early British people. A royal mint was established there in the 10th century and remained in operation until Henry II's reign (1154–89). The town's royal

La Plata River

2005-02-26T07:29:00.000-08:00

Spanish Río De La Plata, river in east-central Puerto Rico, rising on the western slope of Mount Santa (2,963 feet [903 m]), a peak of the Sierra de Cayey. Part of the stream is impounded by Lake Carite; the reservoir's outlet diverts waters for a series of hydroelectric stations on the Guamaní River in the coastal Guayama area to the south. The La Plata itself flows about 45 miles (70 km) northwest and north, dropping

Haddonfield

2005-02-26T01:15:00.000-08:00

Borough (town), Camden county, southwestern New Jersey, U.S., a southeastern suburb of Camden. First settled by Francis Collins in 1682, it was later named by Elizabeth Haddon, an English Quaker girl who settled there about 1701. The story of her romance with a Quaker missionary, John Estaugh, is told by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863). She lived to be 82, and her personal

Interior Design, Furniture and accessories

2005-02-25T04:42:00.000-08:00

To the layman, furniture is the most important aspect of interior design. It is a significant component of design to the professional as well, since it is the most personal and intimate product relating man to a building. It is also personal because it can be moved from one home to the next and handed on from generation to generation, and often furniture takes on important

Argand Burner

2005-02-24T10:42:00.000-08:00

First scientifically constructed oil lamp, patented in 1784 in England by a Swiss, Aimé Argand. The first basic change in lamps in thousands of years, it applied a principle that was later adapted to gas burners. The Argand burner consisted of a cylindrical wick housed between two concentric metal tubes. The inner tube provided a passage through which air rose into the

Argentina, The Dirty War and the Falklands dispute

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

For vivid accounts of the Dirty War, see Andrew Graham-Yooll, A State of Fear: Memories of Argentina's Nightmare (1986); and Jacobo Timerman, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number (1981, reprinted 1993; originally published in Spanish, 1981). Works on the Falkland Islands dispute and the war of 1982 include Raphael Perl, The Falkland Islands Dispute in International Law and Politics: A Documentary Sourcebook (1983); Alejandro Dabat and Luis Lorenzano, Argentina, the Malvinas, and the End of Military Rule (1984; originally published in Spanish, 1982); and Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands (1983).

Ta-t'ung

2005-02-23T09:08:00.000-08:00

During the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, the region was the headquarters for the eastern frontier command of the Han armies protecting the region

Ibi

2005-02-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

Town and river port, Taraba state, east-central Nigeria, on the south bank of the Benue River, opposite the mouth of the Shemankar River. Founded in the 1850s by a slave of Hamman, the Fulani emir of Muri (to the northeast), it became a post for slave traders from Muri, known as the bayin Fulani. In the late 19th century British merchants of the Royal Niger Company observed Ibi's Hausa

Adams, John

2005-02-22T03:38:00.000-08:00

His insistence that elites were unavoidable realities in all societies, however, made him vulnerable to the charge of endorsing aristocratic rule in America, when in fact he was attempting to suggest that the inevitable American elite must be controlled, its ambitions channeled toward public purposes. He also was accused of endorsing monarchical principles because he argued that the chief executive in the American government, like the king in medieval European society, must possess sufficient power to check the ravenous appetites of the propertied classes. Although misunderstood by many of his contemporaries, the realistic perspective Adams proposed—and the skepticism toward utopian schemes he insisted upon—has achieved considerable support in the wake of the failed 20th-century attempts at social transformation in the communist bloc. In Adams's own day, his political analysis enjoyed the satisfaction of correctly predicting that the French Revolution would lead to the Reign of Terror and eventual despotism by a military dictator.

Metamorphism

2005-02-21T02:33:00.000-08:00

Mineralogical and structural adjustments of solid rocks to physical and chemical conditions differing from those under which the rocks originally formed. Changes produced by surface conditions such as compaction are usually excluded. The most important agents of metamorphism include temperature, pressure, and stress. Equally as significant are changes

Pacific Ocean, Environmental impact of human activity

2005-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

The Pacific Ocean is able to absorb, dilute, and disperse large quantities of human-generated wastes, but the increasing pace of economic activity—particularly the transport of crude oil and other hazardous substances—has led to measurable levels of pollution in some nearshore waters, especially close to ports and large coastal cities. At the same time, the loads

Biblical Literature, Division of the land and renewal of the Covenant

2005-02-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

The division of the land among the tribes is recounted in chapters 13–22. Two sources were apparently used by the Deuteronomist in dealing with the division of the land: a boundary list from the pre-monarchical period (i.e., before the late 11th century BCE) and a list of cities occupied by several tribes from the 10th to the 7th century BCE. The tribes who occupied territories were: Reuben,

Hughes, David (edward)

2005-02-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

Anglo-American inventor of the carbon microphone, which was important to the development of telephony. His family emigrated to the United States when he was seven years old. In 1850 he became professor of music at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ky. Five years later he took out a U.S. patent for a type-printing telegraph instrument; its success was immediate,

Muhammad, Elijah

2005-02-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

The son of sharecroppers and former slaves, Muhammad moved to Detroit in 1923 where, around 1930, he became assistant minister to the founder of the sect, Wallace D. Fard, at Temple No. 1. When Fard disappeared in 1934 Muhammad

Arab Economic Unity, Council Of

2005-02-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

The organization is devoted to achieving economic integration

Vital Rates

2005-02-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

Principal among vital rates are the crude

Babenco, Hector

2005-02-15T03:38:00.000-08:00

Babenco spent his late teen and early adult years studying existential philosophy and traveling the world, finally settling in Brazil in 1971. He became interested in filmmaking during the early '70s and directed shorts and commercials

Kuei River

2005-02-15T00:45:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization Kuei Chiang , Pinyin Gui Jiang , conventional Kwei Kiang northern tributary of the Hsi River, southern China. The Kuei River rises in the Mao-erh Mountains to the north of Kuei-lin in the northern part of the Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region and flows southward to join the Hsi River at Wu-chou on the border of Kwangsi Chuang and Kwangtung province. The level of the river varies from season to season, and its course has many dangerous

Aethelflaed

2005-02-14T05:11:00.000-08:00

The daughter of King Alfred the Great, she helped her brother Edward the Elder, king of the West Saxons (reigned 899–924), in conquering the Danish armies occupying eastern England. Aethelflaed became the effective ruler of Mercia some years before the death (911) of her husband, Aethelred, ealdorman of the Mercians. While

Sian Incident

2005-02-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

(Dec. 12–25, 1936), in Chinese history, seizure of the Nationalist generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek by one of his own generals, Chang Hsüeh-liang (q.v.). Chang, commander of the Northeastern (Manchurian) forces at Sian, in Northwest China, opposed Chiang's policy of continuing to fight the Chinese Communists rather than devoting the Nationalists' full effort to fighting the Japanese, who

Luther, Martin, Brother Martin Luther

2005-02-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

Evidence on the reason for his decision to enter the religious life is scanty. In his later, not always reliable, Tischreden (“Table Talk”), it is related that on July 2, 1505, he was returning from a visit to his parents when he was overtaken by a thunderstorm near the village of Stotternheim and cried out in terror, “Help, St. Anne, and I'll become a monk.” In his De votis monasticis (“Concerning

Jacksonville

2005-02-12T03:05:00.000-08:00

City, Pulaski county, central Arkansas, U.S., 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Little Rock. The locality was settled before the American Civil War but did not develop until the 1860s, when a local resident, Nicholas Jackson, offered land for a Cairo and Fulton (now Union Pacific) Railroad depot. The town, named for him in 1870, became a distribution point for farm produce. The economy diversified

Luther, Martin, Brother Martin Luther

2005-02-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Chemical element, one of the alkaline-earth metals of main Group IIa of the periodic table. It is the most abundant metallic element in the human body and the fifth most abundant element in the Earth's crust.

Sakakah

2005-02-11T08:45:00.000-08:00

Oasis, northwestern Saudi Arabia. It lies on an old caravan route from the Mediterranean Sea coast to the central and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Sakakah lies north of the desert an-Nafud and northeast of al-Jawf oasis. The government tried to improve agricultural conditions in the area. The main products of the oasis are dates and dairy products.

Nagorno-karabakh

2005-02-10T09:41:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Nagorno-karabach, region of southwestern Azerbaijan. It occupies an area of 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km) on the northeastern flank of the Karabakh Range of the Lesser Caucasus and extends from the crest line of the range to the margin of the Kura River lowland at its foot. Nagorno-Karabakh's environments vary from steppe on the Kura lowland through dense forest of oak, hornbeam, and beech

Brazil, Drainage

2005-02-10T05:46:00.000-08:00

Brazil is drained by the Amazon River, which is the centrepiece of the most extensive river system in the world, and by other systems that are notable in their own right—the Tocantins-Araguaia in the north, the Paraguay-Paraná-Plata in the south, and the São Francisco in the east and northeast. Numerous smaller rivers and streams drain directly eastward to the Atlantic

Afghanistan, Urban settlement

2005-02-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

Most urban settlements have grown along the road that runs from Kabul southwestward to Kandahar, then northwest to Herat, northeast to Mazar-e Sharif, and southeast back to Kabul. The rural population of farmers and nomads is distributed unevenly over the rest of the country, mainly concentrated along the rivers. The most heavily populated part of the country is between

Rouergue

2005-02-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

Ancient province of south central France, corresponding to much of the modern départements of Aveyron and Tarn-et-Garonne. It was bounded on the north by Auvergne, on the south and southwest by Languedoc, on the east by Gévaudan and the Cévennes mountains, and on the west by Quercy. It derived its name from the Gallic tribe of Rutheni. Administratively it formed first

Abu Al-hasan 'ali

2005-02-07T16:21:00.000-08:00

In 1331 Abu al-Hasan succeeded his father, Abu Sa'id, to the throne. With the goals of expelling the Christians from Spain and uniting all the Islamic lands of North Africa, Abu al-Hasan attacked and captured Algeciras and Gibraltar

Ahmed, Fakhruddin Ali

2005-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

The son of an army doctor from Assam, Ahmed was educated in India and studied history at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1927. After returning to India, he was elected to the Assam legislature (1935). As Assam's minister of finance and revenue in 1938, he was responsible for some radical taxation measures.

Ambrose D'évreux

2005-02-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

Norman poet and chronicler who accompanied Richard I of England as a minstrel on the Third Crusade. Nothing more is known of him than that he was probably a native of Évreux and was a noncombatant making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His account of the Crusade is preserved in the Estoire de la guerre sainte (“History of the Holy War”), a poem of over 12,000 lines extant in an Anglo-Norman

Melanesian Pidgin

2005-02-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

Also called Melanesian Pidgin English, Neo-melanesian, Beach-la-mar, or Sandalwood English, an English-based pidgin that is used widely in Melanesia as a trade and mission language; in some areas it has become established as a creole (i.e., it has become the native language of some communities). Melanesian Pidgin has also become the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea, where several hundred native languages are spoken, most of them being mutually

Anauxite

2005-02-05T19:44:00.000-08:00

Mineral, an interstratified mixture of kaolinite and free silica. See kaolinite.

Bashkirtseff, Marie

2005-02-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

Bashkirtseff was the daughter of Russian nobility, and she spent a peripatetic childhood with her mother

Augustus, Caesar

2005-02-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

The inscriptions of the Augustan Age are used to explicate the history of the period in P.A. Brunt and J.M. Moore (eds.), Res Gestae Divi Augusti: The Achievements of the Divine Augustus (1967, reprinted 1988); and Victor Ehrenberg and A.H.M. Jones (compilers), Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus & Tiberius, 2nd ed. (1955, reprinted with addenda, 1976). Books that examine numismatic evidence from the reign of Augustus include C.H.V. Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy, 31 BC–AD 68 (1951, reprinted 1978), and Roman History and Coinage, 44 BC–AD 69 (1987); and Michael Grant, From Imperium to Auctoritas: A Historical Study of Aes Coinage in the Roman Empire, 49 BC–AD 14 (1946, reprinted with corrections, 1969). The art, architecture, and decoration of this period are treated by J.M.C. Toynbee, The Art of the Romans (1965); Axel Boëthius, Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture, 2nd integrated ed., rev. by Roger Ling and Tom Rasmussen (1978); and Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, trans. from (1988).

Yingqing Ware

2005-02-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

Yingqing (“shadowy blue”) ware is distinctive

Addax

2005-02-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

(species Addax nasomaculatus), desert-dwelling antelope, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), once found throughout the Sahara but now much reduced in numbers and distribution and threatened with extinction from overhunting. A heavy-bodied, short-legged, gregarious antelope, the addax is characterized by broad hooves that are adapted to travel

Xenarthran

2005-02-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Alfred L. Gardner, “Order Xenarthra,” in Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn M. Reeder (eds.), Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (1993), pp. 63–68, provides lists of the families, genera, and species of the Xenarthra; the author is a wildlife biologist and curator of mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Gerald G. Montgomery (ed.), The Evolution and Ecology of Armadillos, Sloths, and Vermilinguas (1985), compiles 43 well-illustrated scholarly reports on all aspects of xenarthran biology, including pathology and parasitology.

Zanesville

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

City, Muskingum county, east central Ohio, U.S., at the juncture of the Muskingum and Licking rivers (there spanned by the “Y” Bridge [1902]), 52 miles (84 km) east of Columbus. The town was founded (1797) by Ebenezer Zane on land awarded him by the U.S. Congress for clearing a road (Zane's Trace) through the forest to Limestone (now Maysville), Ky. Zane sold the land to his son-in-law, John McIntire, who laid

Piedmont

2005-02-02T23:22:00.000-08:00

Geographic region in the eastern United States, running some 600 miles (950 km) between New Jersey (north) and Alabama (south) and lying between the Appalachian Mountains (west) and the Atlantic Coastal Plain (east). It comprises a relatively low rolling plateau (from 300 to 1,800 feet [90 to 550 m]) cut by many rivers and is a fertile agricultural region. Cotton is the most important crop in the southern

Aesthetics, Symbolism in art

2005-02-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

Later philosophers have been content merely to distinguish representation and expression as different modes of artistic meaning, characterized perhaps by different formal or semantic properties. Nelson Goodman of the United States is one such philosopher. His Languages of Art (1968) was the first work of analytical philosophy to produce a distinct and systematic

Nutrition, Human, Vitamin D

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

Vitamin D is fat-soluble, and cholecalciferol is the major active substance. Its main function is to stimulate the absorption of calcium. The natural source of vitamin D is from the action of short-wave ultraviolet light from the Sun on a derivative of cholesterol in the skin. Vitamin D also occurs in some foods. It is only when people live in high latitudes, consistently

Mountain, Mid-ocean ridges and rises

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

Where two lithospheric plates diverge, new material is intruded into the gap between the plates and accreted to each of them as they diverge. The vast majority of volcanic rocks ejected onto the surface of the Earth is erupted at the mid-ocean ridges and rises where this process occurs. Thus, such submarine landforms comprise very long, narrow volcanic centres. Although

Thun Und Hohenstein, Friedrich, Count (graf) Von

2005-01-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

After the suppression of the 1848–49 revolutions in Germany and Austria, Thun, an astute politician, headed

Georgia Platform

2005-01-31T15:46:00.000-08:00

Drawn up by Charles J. Jenkins and adopted by a state convention on Dec. 10, 1850, at Milledgeville, the Georgia Platform consisted of a set of resolutions accepting the Compromise of 1850. It was not an endorsement of the compromise, but it said that Georgia would abide by the

Auricular Style

2005-01-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

Applied to chair backs, frames, cupboards, and other surfaces, the gruesome, curving motifs

Auerbach, Erich

2005-01-30T07:38:00.000-08:00

After gaining a doctorate in philology at the University of Greifswald, Germany, in 1921, Auerbach served as librarian for the Prussian State Library. From 1927 to 1947 he was professor of Romance philology at the University of Marburg in Germany and at the Turkish State University

Dorris, Michael Anthony

2005-01-29T19:16:00.000-08:00

American writer whose best-known book, the 1989 National Book Award-winning The Broken Cord, chronicled the struggle his adopted son faced as a result of fetal alcohol syndrome; suffering from chronic depression, separated from his wife, writer Louise Erdrich, and facing legal difficulties, Dorris took his own life (b. Jan 30, 1945--found dead April 11, 1997).

William

2005-01-29T09:16:00.000-08:00

William was elected German king to succeed Henry Raspe (died Feb. 16, 1247), Pope Innocent IV's nominee to replace Conrad,

Clairvoyance

2005-01-28T05:39:00.000-08:00

(French: “clear seeing”), knowledge of information not necessarily known to any other person, not obtained by ordinary channels of perceiving or reasoning; thus a form of extrasensory perception ESP. Spiritualists also use the term to mean seeing or hearing (clairaudience) the spirits of the dead that are said to surround the living. Parapsychological research, using

Hansi

2005-01-27T03:19:00.000-08:00

City, west-central Haryana state, northwestern India, on the road between Hissar city (northwest) and Delhi (southeast). Hansi is an ancient town and was probably a Kushan stronghold in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. It was captured in 1192 by Qutb-ud-Din Aybak, general of the Muslim emperor Muhammad Ghuri; several mosques and tombs date from the 12th century. Hansi was the capital of the independent

Adelaide River

2005-01-26T22:54:00.000-08:00

River in northwestern Northern Territory, Australia, rising in the hills west of Brock's Creek and flowing (with marked summer increases in volume) for 110 miles (180 km) northeastward to Adam Bay, an inlet of the Timor Sea on Clarence Strait. From its mouth, 32 miles (50 km) northeast of Darwin, it is navigable for 80 miles (130 km). The river was reached in 1839 by L.R. Fitzmaurice of the ship HMS Beagle

MaterialShoe

Peter Iv

Mosaddeq, Mohammad

Judah Ha-levi

Abrahams, Israel

Epistemology, Ancient

Saxhorn

Keel

Mason, James

Robert Iii

Argand Diagram

Disasters

Maupeou, René-nicolas-charles-augustin De

Botany

Cabra

Fore-edge Painting

Italian Labour Union

Established Church

Preston, May Wilson

Hale, Nathan

Faraday, Michael

Resonance, Theory Of

House

Alexander I

Magdalena River

Costa Alegre, Caetano Da

Literature, Latin America.

Sable Antelope

Hindustan

Mitscherlich, Eilhardt

Ciliaris Muscle

Fire Ant

Hinduism, Vaishnavism

Berdyayev, Nikolay Aleksandrovich

Biblical Literature, The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men

Malwa Plateau

Water Moss

Lath

Bonaparte, (marie-annonciade-)caroline

Idku

Hardey, Mother Mary Aloysia

Flavius, Gnaeus

Selim I

Kinguélé

Liturgical Music

Earth Sciences, Charles Lyell and uniformitarianism

France, History Of, The end of Gaul (c. 400c. 500)

Fremont

Naftah

Ilchester

La Plata River

Haddonfield

Interior Design, Furniture and accessories

Argand Burner

Argentina, The Dirty War and the Falklands dispute

Ta-t'ung

Ibi

Adams, John

Metamorphism

Pacific Ocean, Environmental impact of human activity

Biblical Literature, Division of the land and renewal of the Covenant

Hughes, David (edward)

Muhammad, Elijah

Arab Economic Unity, Council Of

Vital Rates

Babenco, Hector

Kuei River

Aethelflaed

Sian Incident

Luther, Martin, Brother Martin Luther

Jacksonville

Luther, Martin, Brother Martin Luther

Sakakah

Nagorno-karabakh

Brazil, Drainage

Afghanistan, Urban settlement

Rouergue

Abu Al-hasan 'ali

Ahmed, Fakhruddin Ali

Ambrose D'évreux

France, History Of, The end of Gaul (c. 400c. 500)