GreyChurch

Tiwi

2005-07-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Resort town, southeastern Luzon, Philippines. It is situated along Lagonoy Gulf of the Philippine Sea. The town lies in a bed of volcanic vents over an active geothermal area; through the vents, sulfurous live steam pours continuously. Tiwi Hot Springs National Park is nearby; there tourists can boil food in the steaming water. There are local handicraft industries

Camagüey

2005-07-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Provincia, east-central Cuba, bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Ciego de Ávila province, on the east by Las Tunas province, and on the south by the Caribbean Sea. It was established in 1879 as Puerto Príncipe; the province of Ciego de Ávila was separated from Camagüey province in 1976. It is Cuba's largest province. Camagüey's early importance as a cattle-raising

Taginae, Battle Of

2005-07-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

The Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent his commander in chief, the eunuch Narses, with an army of 20,000 men into Italy, where, at the Apennine village of Taginae near

Tagawa

2005-07-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

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.

Ariel

2005-07-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

The first international cooperative Earth satellite, launched April 26, 1962, as a joint project of agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom. Design, construction, telemetry, and launching of the 14.5-kilogram (32-lb) satellite was handled in the United States by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The United Kingdom was responsible for designing the

Addison

2005-06-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

County, western Vermont, U.S. It is bounded by Lake Champlain (constituting the border with New York state) to the west and the Green Mountains to the east. Lowlands in the west give way to foothills and mountains in the east. The county is drained by Otter Creek, the state's longest stream, and its tributaries, the Lemon Fair, New Haven, Leicester, and Middlebury rivers. Other

Amalfi

2005-06-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

Town and archiepiscopal see, Salerno provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies in the ravine of the Mulini Valley, along the Gulf of Salerno, southeast of Naples. Although it was known in the 4th century, Amalfi was of little importance until the mid-6th century under the Byzantines. As one of the first Italian maritime republics in the 9th century, it rivaled Pisa,

Computers, Digital calculators: From the Calculating Clock to the Arithmometer

2005-05-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

In 1623 the German astronomer and mathematician Wilhelm Schickard built the first calculator. He described it in a letter to his friend the astronomer Johannes Kepler, and in 1624 he wrote again to explain that a machine that he had commissioned to be built for Kepler was, apparently along with the prototype, destroyed in a fire. He called it a Calculating Clock, which modern

Pitchblende

2005-05-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Amorphous, black, pitchy form of the crystalline uranium oxide mineral uraninite (q.v.); it is one of the primary mineral ores of uranium, containing 50–80 percent of that element. Three chemical elements were first discovered in pitchblende: uranium by the German chemist Martin Klaproth in 1789, and polonium and radium by the French scientists Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898. Deposits,

Hydra

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

Genus of invertebrate freshwater animals of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria). The body of such an organism consists of a thin, usually translucent tube that measures up to about 30 millimetres (1.2 inches) long but is capable of great contraction. The body wall is comprised of two layers of cells separated by a thin, structureless layer of connective tissue called the

W�st, Georg

2005-03-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

W�st received his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1919. After the death of his teacher Alfred

Pen

2005-03-07T08:02:00.000-08:00

Tool for writing or drawing with a coloured fluid, such as ink. The earliest ancestor of the pen probably was the brush used for writing by the Chinese by the 1st millennium BC. The early Egyptians employed thick reeds for penlike implements about 300 BC. A specific allusion to the quill pen occurs in the 7th-century writings of St. Isidore of Sevilla, but such pens made of bird feathers

France, History Of, Culture and learning

2005-03-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

Literacy and elementary learning became more widespread. The courtly tastes of the 12th century, while not obliterated, were overtaken by a more flexible and ironic sensibility evident in vernacular ballads, fables, satires, and moralizing literature, most popular in the northern towns. The burgher or knight began to take a keen interest in the tangible world about

2005-03-05T07:48:00.000-08:00

Serbo-Croatian �

Earth, Constructing seismological Earth models

2005-03-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

Effectively what is done is to start with an initial estimate of the density and velocity distributions, calculate the observed properties (periods of oscillations, travel times, and so forth), compare these with the observations, and then refine the density and velocity distributions until the observed properties are satisfactorily reproduced. An elegant mathematical

Catalan Literature

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

The oldest extant text in Catalan is the Homilies d'Organy�, a collection of sermons dating from the 12th or early 13th century but now appreciated more for their linguistic than for their literary value. Early kings of Aragon and counts

Viet-muong Languages

2005-03-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

Subbranch of the Vietic branch of the Mon-Khmer family of languages, itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. Vietnamese, the most important language of the group and of the entire Mon-Khmer family, has a number of regional variants. Northern Vietnamese, centred in Hanoi, is the basis for the official form of Vietnamese. Central Vietnamese, centred in Hue, and Southern

Chaste Tree

2005-03-01T02:39:00.000-08:00

Its pliable twigs are used in basketry, and its red fruits are used for flavouring. The undersides of its five- to seven-lobed leaves and its branches are white felted. It is native

Copeland, Charles Townsend

2005-02-28T13:18:00.000-08:00

Copeland was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1882), and, after a year as a teacher at a boys' school in New Jersey and another at Harvard Law School, he was a drama critic and book reviewer for the Boston Advertiser and the Boston

Coiba Island

2005-02-27T04:04:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Quibo Island, �Spanish �Isla De Coiba or Quibo, � Central American island in the Pacific Ocean, administered by Veraguas province, Panama. Lying 15 mi (24 km) offshore and separated from the mainland by the Gulf of Montijo on the east and the Gulf of Chiriqu� on the northwest, the island measures about 20 mi from north to south and 10 mi from east to west. It has an area of 191 sq mi (494 sq km) and rises to a maximum elevation of 1,400 ft (425 m). Coiba is the

Tabora

2005-02-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

Formerly �Kazeh, � town, west-central Tanzania. Lying on the Central Plateau at an elevation of 4,000 feet (1,200 m), it has a mean annual temperature of 73� F (23� C). The town has been the capital of the Nyamwezi people and was the major trade link between the coast and the Congo River basin prior to European colonial rule. As the junction point of the east-west (Dar es-Salaam - Ujiji) railway and the north-south railway

Faenza

2005-02-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

Latin �Faventia, � city, Ravenna provincia, in the Emilia-Romagna regione of northern Italy, on the Lamone River, southeast of Bologna. In the 2nd century BC it was a Roman town (Faventia) on the Via Aemilia, but excavations show Faenza to have had a much earlier origin. It was later subject to many barbarian attacks, became an independent commune at the beginning of the 12th century, and withstood

Myanmar (burma)

2005-02-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

In late May Myanmar's military junta, the State

Chandpur

2005-02-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

River port, south-central Bangladesh, situated at the confluence of the Dakatia and Meghna rivers. It is a major jute-shipping centre, connected by road and rail with Comilla and Noakhali and by river steamer with Calcutta (through the Sundarbans), Goalundo Ghat, and Narayanganj. Industries served by its thermal power station include jute presses, oilseed and plywood mills,

Ibn Khallikan

2005-02-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

Ibn Khallikan was an assistant to the chief judge of Egypt until 1261, when he became qadi al-qudat (chief judge) of Damascus. He adhered to the Shafi'i branch of Muslim law, and for the first years had deputy judges of the other three main

Madison

2005-02-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

Borough (town), Morris county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies 18 miles (29 km) west of Newark. The borough of Madison includes the communities of Montville, Wood Ridge, and Hopewell Valley. The centre of a greenhouse industry and nicknamed the �Rose City,� it is the site of Drew University (chartered 1868) and the Florham-Madison Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. The College

Sunbird

2005-02-20T09:18:00.000-08:00

Any of about 95 species of the songbird family Nectariniidae (order Passeriformes) that have brilliant plumage in breeding males. They are 9 to 15 cm (3 1/2 to 6 inches) long and live chiefly on nectar. Unlike hummingbirds, sunbirds rarely hover while feeding but instead perch on the flower stalk (see photo). Sunbirds are most numerous

Brucioli, Antonio

2005-02-19T06:41:00.000-08:00

After involvement in a plot against Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII) in 1522, Brucioli fled to Lyon. In 1527, after the fall of the Medici, he returned to Florence and wrote against ecclesiastical

France, History Of, Social and political order

2005-02-18T22:26:00.000-08:00

A foremost circumstance of the later 9th and 10th centuries was the inability of the west Frankish kings to keep order. The royal estates that had theretofore supported them, mostly in the north and east, were depleted through grants to retainers uncompensated by new acquisitions. Hindered by poor communications, the kings lost touch with lesser counts and bishops,

Anthimus I

2005-02-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

As bishop of Trebizond Anthimus participated in discussions at Constantinople in 532, to effect religious and political unity between East and West. Although avowing support for the orthodox party, Anthimus

Vis

2005-02-16T04:52:00.000-08:00

Italian �Lissa, � Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, the outermost major island of the Dalmatian archipelago. Its area is 35 square miles (90 square km), and its highest point is Mount Hum, at 1,926 feet (587 m). Its climate and vegetation are Mediterranean and subtropical, with palms, Mediterranean pines, citrus, eucalyptus, cacti, and early vegetables. Fishing and canning are economically important.

Netherlands, The, Plant and animal life

2005-02-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

Most wild Dutch plant species are of the Atlantic district within the Euro-Siberian phytogeographic region. Gradients of salt and winter temperature variations cause relatively minor zonal differences in both wild and garden plants from the coast to more continental regions. The effects of altitude are negligible. Vegetation from coastal sand dunes, muddy

Annalist

2005-02-14T05:09:00.000-08:00

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

Thompson, Dorothy

2005-02-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a Methodist minister, Thompson attended the Lewis Institute in Chicago and Syracuse University in New York (A.B., 1914), where she became ardently committed to woman suffrage. After World War I she went to Europe as a freelance correspondent

Manat�

2005-02-12T17:32:00.000-08:00

Town, north-central Puerto Rico, situated on the humid coastal lowlands. Of Indian origins, the name Manat� refers to a sea mammal, the manatee. Founded in 1738 on the northernmost point of limestone hills, Manat� is linked by road to San Juan. The town produces shoes, pearl buttons, clothing, and woodwork and has a pineapple cannery. Manat� is the centre of an agricultural area

Kirkwood Gaps

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

Interruptions that appear in the distribution of asteroids where the orbital period of any small body present would be a simple fraction of that of Jupiter. Several zones of low density in the minor-planet population were noticed about 1860 by Daniel Kirkwood, an American mathematician and astronomer, who explained the gaps as resulting from perturbations by Jupiter.

Ashdod

2005-02-10T03:14:00.000-08:00

City of southern Palestine, on the coastal plain of ancient Philistia; since 1948 it has been a city in southwestern Israel and is one of its three international ports and chief industrial centres. In antiquity Ashdod was a member of the Philistine pentapolis (five cities). Although the Bible assigns it to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:47), the invading Israelites were unable to

Caesar, Julius

2005-02-09T01:35:00.000-08:00

Caesar changed the course of the history of the Greco-Roman world decisively and irreversibly.

Aribau, Buenaventura Carles

2005-02-08T02:42:00.000-08:00

After working in Madrid at the banking establishment of Gaspar Remisa (1830 - 41), Aribau became the director of the treasury and financial secretary to the royal household. Animated by a deep patriotism,

Irish Moss

2005-02-07T01:19:00.000-08:00

Also called �Carrageen� (Chondrus crispus), species of red algae, a small, tufted seaweed with thin fronds from 5 to 25 cm (2 to 10 inches) long, that grows abundantly along the rocky parts of the Atlantic coast of the British Isles, Europe, and North America. The name is also used loosely for several other red seaweeds found associated with Chondrus. Other names descriptive of its appearance are pearl moss,

Lean, Sir David

2005-02-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Lean was the son of strict Quaker parents and did not see his first film until age 17. He began his film career in 1928 as a teaboy for Gaumont-British studios, where he soon was promoted to clapboard boy, and finally to editor,

Andorra La Vella

2005-02-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

Andorra la Vella long remained relatively isolated from the outside world. Its modernization began in the 1930s with the construction of carriage roads, and its population

Tonga

2005-02-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Tongan economy. Coconuts, bananas, and vanilla beans constitute the main cash crops, and other important crops include yams, taro, cassava, corn (maize), watermelons, pineapples, and tomatoes. All land is essentially owned by the Crown, but large estates have been divided among the nobles of Tonga. Land is parceled out to peasant proprietors:

Mckim, Ruby

2005-02-03T21:40:00.000-08:00

N�e �Ruby Short� one of the 20th century's most innovative American quilt designers. Educated at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts (now Parsons School of Design) in New York City, she later taught art classes for the Kansas City school system. Her first published quilt pattern, for the Kansas City Star in 1916, was an outgrowth

Great Basin National Park

2005-02-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

The park consists mainly of the southern part of the Snake Range, a chain of peaks that trend north-south and rise abruptly from the surrounding desert

Alexander

2005-02-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

The second son of King Constantine (ruled 1913 - 17 and 1920 - 22) and Queen Sophia, Alexander became king (June 12, 1917) when his father was forced by the Allies of World War I to abdicate and thereby allow his country to join them in the war. Shortly after Alexander's accession to the throne, Eleuth�rios Veniz�los became premier of

La Noue, Fran�ois De

2005-01-31T19:39:00.000-08:00

La Noue became a Protestant in 1558 and soon began fighting for the Huguenot cause. Wounded at Fontenay (1570), he had one arm replaced by an iron device and was thereafter nicknamed Bras-de-Fer (�Arm of Iron�). After the Peace of

Graviton

2005-01-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

Postulated quantum that is thought to be the carrier of the gravitational field. It is analogous to the well-established photon of the electromagnetic field. Gravitons, like photons, would be massless, electrically uncharged particles traveling at the speed of light and would be emitted only by highly accelerating, extremely massive objects such as stars. Since

Trig�re, Pauline

2005-01-29T19:42:00.000-08:00

Trig�re was the daughter of a tailor. She early learned to sew and helped her mother custom-tailor women's clothes. After graduating from the Coll�ge Victor Hugo in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near

France, History Of, The juridical revolution

2005-01-28T19:35:00.000-08:00

Louis XVI's decision to convene the Estates-General in May 1789 became a turning point in French history. When he invited his subjects to express their opinions and grievances in preparation for this event - unprecedented in living memory - hundreds responded with pamphlets in which the liberal ideology of 1789 gradually began to take shape. Exactly how the Estates-General

Bloch, Felix

2005-01-27T18:45:00.000-08:00

Bloch's doctoral dissertation (University of Leipzig, 1928) promulgated a quantum theory of solids that provided the basis for understanding electrical

Steamer Duck

2005-01-26T23:33:00.000-08:00

(genus Tachyeres), any of four species of heavily built, big-billed sea ducks of southernmost South America and the Falkland Islands. The bird is named for its habit of running across the water with wings thrashing like a paddle-wheel steamboat. Of the four species, T. pteneres, T. brachypterus, and T. leucocephalus are flightless and a bit larger than the mallard-size flying

Auburn

2005-01-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1805) of Cayuga county, west-central New York, U.S. It lies at the north end of Owasco Lake, in the Finger Lakes region, 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Syracuse. Founded in 1793 by John Hardenbergh, an officer in the American Revolution, on the site of a Cayuga Indian village called Wasco, it was first known as Hardenbergh's Corners. It developed around Auburn State Prison (established

China, The decisive year, 1948

2005-01-24T08:41:00.000-08:00

The year 1948 was the turning point. In central China, Communist armies of 500,000 men proved their ability to fight major battles on the plains and to capture, though not always hold, such important towns on the Lung-hai as Lo-yang and K'ai-feng. In North China they encircled T'ai-y�an, the capital of Shansi; took most of Chahar and Jehol, provinces on Manchuria's western flank; and recaptured

Sibyl

2005-01-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

Also called �Sibylla, � prophetess in Greek legend and literature. Tradition represented her as a woman of prodigious old age uttering predictions in ecstatic frenzy, but she was always a figure of the mythical past, and her prophecies, in Greek hexameters, were handed down in writing. In the 5th and early 4th centuries BC, she was always referred to in the singular; Sibylla was treated as her proper

Vairocana

2005-01-22T01:38:00.000-08:00

Some Buddhists regard Vairocana, or Mahavairocana, as a being separate from the five �self-born� Dhyani-Buddhas, one of whom is known as Vairocana (see Dhyani-Buddha). Among the Shingon sect of Japan, he is the chief object of reverence and is regarded as the source

Acclimatization

2005-01-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

The numerous sudden changes that evoke rapid and short-term responses via the nervous and hormonal systems are not examples of acclimatization. An individual

Primate, Diet

2005-01-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

The principal food substances taken by primates may be divided into

Alonso, D�maso

2005-01-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

Educated at the University of Madrid, Alonso taught at the Centre of Historical Studies, Madrid (1923 - 36), and was a professor at the University of Valencia (1933 - 39) and the University of Madrid (1939 - 68). He was also a lecturer or visiting professor at universities in

Compurgation

2005-01-18T05:01:00.000-08:00

The essence of the procedure lay in oath making. The party responsible for proving a fact had to produce a number of witnesses (usually 12) who would swear that he was

Hancock, John

2005-01-17T23:00:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Harvard (1754), Hancock entered a mercantile house in Boston owned by his uncle Thomas Hancock, who later left him a large fortune. In 1765 he became a selectman of Boston and from 1769 to 1774 was a member of the Massachusetts

Stadholder

2005-01-16T23:57:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Stadtholder, �Dutch �Stadhouder, � provincial executive officer in the Low Countries, or Netherlands, from the 15th through the 18th century. The office acquired extensive powers in the United Provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch Republic). Introduced by the ruling Burgundian dukes in the 15th century and continued unchanged by the succeeding Habsburg rulers, the stadholderates were at first occupied

Conservatory

2005-01-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

In music, institution for education in musical performance and composition. The term and institution derive from the Italian conservatorio, which in the Renaissance period and earlier denoted a type of orphanage often attached to a hospital (hence the term ospedale also applied to such institutions). The foundlings (conservati) were given musical instruction

Biblical Literature, Uniqueness of John

2005-01-14T03:14:00.000-08:00

John is the last Gospel and, in many ways, different from the Synoptic Gospels. The question in the Synoptic Gospels concerns the extent to which the divine reality broke into history in Jesus' coming, and the answers are given in terms of the closeness of the new age. John, from the very beginning, presents Jesus in terms of glory: the Christ, the exalted Lord, mighty from

Ibycus

2005-01-13T23:57:00.000-08:00

Ibycus left Sicily for the Aegean island of Samos, where the tyrant Polycrates became his patron. Ancient authorities found it hard to distinguish his early work from that of Stesichorus, but even in the few surviving

Lenard, Philipp

2005-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

After working as a lecturer and as an assistant to Heinrich

Grumbach, Wilhelm Von

2005-01-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

About 1540 Grumbach allied

Baxter, George

2005-01-10T22:18:00.000-08:00

He was the son of John Baxter (1781 - 1858), printer and publisher at Lewes, who issued the popular illustrated �Baxter� Bible. George Baxter went to London in 1827. There he supplied colour illustrations

Afonso Ii

2005-01-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

Afonso II was the son of King Sancho I and Queen Dulcia, daughter of Ram�n Berenguer IV of Barcelona. His obesity seems to have been caused by illness in his youth, and he was unable to lead his forces. However, they distinguished themselves in the

Deduction

2005-01-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

In logic, a rigorous proof, or derivation, of one statement (the conclusion) from one or more statements (the premises) - i.e., a chain of statements, each of which is either a premise or a consequence of a statement occurring earlier in the proof. This usage is a generalization of what the Greek philosopher Aristotle called the syllogism, but a syllogism is now recognized as

Rushworth, John

2005-01-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

Rushworth studied law, perhaps at the University of Oxford (from which he received an M.A. in 1649), and in 1638 was made

China, Growth of the economy

2005-01-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

The 8th and 9th centuries were a period of growth and prosperity. The gradual movement of the population away from the north, with its harsh climate and dry farming, into the more fertile and productive south meant a great proportional increase in productivity. The south still had large areas of virgin land. Fukien, for example, was still only marginally settled along

Smith, A(rthur) J(ames) M(arshall)

2005-01-05T06:51:00.000-08:00

As an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal, Smith founded and edited the McGill Fortnightly Review (1925 - 27), the first literary magazine dedicated to freeing Canadian literature from its narrow provincialism. He encouraged other

Atahuallpa

2005-01-04T23:47:00.000-08:00

Atahuallpa was a younger son of the Inca ruler Huayna Capac and an Ecuadoran princess; although not the legitimate heir, he seems to have been his father's

Islam, Cosmogony and eschatology

2005-01-02T07:41:00.000-08:00

The world was created by God's word kun (�Be�) out of nothing; after the creation of the angelic beings from light, Adam was formed from clay and destined to be God's vicegerent, khalifah. All of the angels obeyed God's order to prostrate themselves before Adam, except Iblis (Satan), who refused and was cursed; due to Iblis' instigation Adam ate the forbidden fruit (or grain) and was driven

Zaehner, R.c.

2005-01-01T15:36:00.000-08:00

The son of Swiss parents who had immigrated to England, Zaehner studied Oriental languages at the University of Oxford, specializing in Persian, Armenian, and Avestan. He became a Roman Catholic in 1946. During

Isabella I

2004-12-31T11:12:00.000-08:00

First married to Humphrey IV, lord of Toron, she was forcibly divorced from her beloved husband in order to be married to Conrad of Montferrat, lord of Tyre,

Kerr, Sir John Graham

2004-12-30T02:37:00.000-08:00

Kerr's scientific education began when he was a student of medicine, but

Microtonal Music

2004-12-29T16:33:00.000-08:00

Much of the world's music, however, of both past and present times, uses intervals greater or smaller than 100 cents.

Profit Sharing

2004-12-28T17:56:00.000-08:00

System by which employees are paid a share of the profits of the business enterprise in which they are employed, in accordance with a scheme defined in advance. Such payments, which may vary according to salary or wage, are distinct from and additional to regular earnings. Profit-sharing plans were probably first developed in France before the middle of the 19th century

Reformation

2004-12-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

The world of the late medieval Catholic Church

Fischer Von Erlach, Johann Bernhard

2004-12-26T08:04:00.000-08:00

Austrian architect, sculptor, and architectural historian whose Baroque style, a synthesis of classical, Renaissance, and southern Baroque elements, shaped the tastes of the Habsburg empire. Fischer's works include the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (1694 - 1702) and the Kollegienkirche (1696 - 1707), both in Salzburg, and the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy

Elizabeth City

2004-12-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1799) of Pasquotank county, northeastern North Carolina, U.S. It lies on the Pasquotank River (an embayment of Albemarle Sound) at the southern end of Dismal Swamp Canal on the Intracoastal Waterway. Settlers had established a presence on the river in the 1660s, and the area was the scene of Culpeper's Rebellion (1677 - 79). It was founded and incorporated as Redding in 1793 but was renamed

Steele, Sir Richard

2004-12-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

Pseudonym �Isaac Bickerstaff � English essayist, dramatist, journalist, and politician, best known as principal author (with Joseph Addison) of the periodicals The Tatler and The Spectator.

Schenker, Heinrich

2004-12-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

Austrian music theorist whose insights into the structural hierarchies underlying much of 18th- and 19th-century music led to a new understanding of the laws of melodic and harmonic construction and form. Schenker was not well known in his time; he worked as a private teacher in Austria. He studied composition with Anton Bruckner

Activity

2004-12-22T18:54:00.000-08:00

In radioactive-decay processes, the number of disintegrations per second, or the number of unstable atomic nuclei that decay per second in a given sample. Activity is determined by counting, with the aid of radiation detectors and electronic circuits, the number of particles and photons (pulses of electromagnetic energy) ejected from a radioactive material during

Calendar Of 1995

2004-12-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

With near unanimous consent (292-15), members of Ukraine's Supreme Council (parliament) voted to oust the Cabinet of Pres. Leonid Kuchma. The vote of no confidence cast by numerous former communist legislators was generally interpreted as an expression of dissatisfaction with Kuchma's reforms. Some analysts, however, suggested that the president

Antigone

2004-12-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

In Greek legend, the daughter born of the unwittingly incestuous union of Oedipus (q.v.) and his mother, Jocasta. After her father blinded himself upon discovering that Jocasta was his mother and that, also unwittingly, he had slain his father, Antigone and her sister Ismene served as Oedipus' guides, following him from Thebes into exile until his death near Athens. Returning

New Deal

2004-12-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

The domestic program of the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939, which took action to bring about immediate economic relief as well as reforms in industry, agriculture, finance, waterpower, labour, and housing, vastly increasing the scope of the federal government's activities. The term was taken from Roosevelt's speech accepting the

Chaadayev, Pyotr Yakovlevich

2004-12-17T02:43:00.000-08:00

In his early years Chaadayev was an army officer and a liberal. During the 1820s he experienced a conversion to mystical Christianity, with strong leanings

Artaxerxes I

2004-12-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

He was surnamed in Greek Macrocheir (�Longhand�) and in Latin Longimanus. A younger son of Xerxes I and Amestris, he was raised to the throne by the commander of the guard, Artabanus, who had murdered Xerxes. A few months later, Artaxerxes slew Artabanus in a hand-to-hand fight. His reign, though generally peaceful, was

Kyodo Tsushinsha

2004-12-15T22:02:00.000-08:00

(Japanese: Cooperative News Agency) national news agency founded in November 1945 to replace the pre-World War II Domei tsushinsha (Federated News Agency), which had served as the official news service of the Japanese government since 1936. Despite competition from the beginning with the Jiji news agency, formed by Domei employees who did not join Kyodo, the latter gradually gained

Wasil Ibn 'ata'

2004-12-14T18:48:00.000-08:00

As a young man Wasil went to Basra, Iraq, where he studied under the celebrated ascetic Hasan al-Basri and met other influential religious figures who lived there. In Wasil's time there began the discussions that led to the development of Islamic

Arundel

2004-12-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

Arundel

Field Emission

2004-12-12T01:38:00.000-08:00

Also called �Cold Emission, � discharge of electrons from the surface of a material subjected to a strong electric field. In the absence of a strong electric field, an electron must acquire a certain minimum energy, called the work function, to escape through the surface of a given material, which acts as a barrier to electron passage. If the material is placed in an electric circuit that renders

Ben Bella, Ahmed

2004-12-11T23:41:00.000-08:00

Ben Bella was the son of a farmer and small businessman in Maghnia in the d�partement of Oran. There, he successfully completed his early studies

Melanin

2004-12-10T22:11:00.000-08:00

A dark biological pigment (biochrome) found in skin, hair, feathers, scales, eyes, and some internal membranes; it is also found in the peritoneum of many animals (e.g., frogs), but its role there is not understood. Formed as an end product during metabolism of the amino acid tyrosine, melanins are conspicuous in dark skin moles of humans; in the black dermal melanocytes (pigment

Cambridge

2004-12-08T20:41:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1686) of Dorchester county, eastern Maryland, U.S., on the Choptank River's south bank near Chesapeake Bay's eastern shore. Bisected by Cambridge Creek (a natural harbour), it was founded in 1684 as a plantation port and named in 1686 for the English university town. For more than two centuries it handled small coastwise traffic, but the addition of deepwater facilities and the

Tableware

2004-12-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

Utensils used at the table for holding, serving, and handling food and drink. Tableware includes various types of containers (known as hollowware, q.v.), spoons and forks (flatware, q.v.), knives (cutlery, q.v.), and a variety of dishes and accessories.

Furniture, Cupboard

2004-12-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

Strictly speaking, the cupboard is a derivative form of the chest. Early Renaissance cupboards resembled two chests placed one on top of the other, but they were opened from the front by means of doors. The design and construction of the cupboard's pronounced front have always provided ample scope for artistic composition, and it is no mere coincidence that the cupboard