SweetDrain

Liri River

2005-04-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

Latin Liris, river in central Italy, made up of two streams, the Rapido (or Gari) and the Liri, and having a total length of 98 mi (158 km) and a drainage basin of 1,911 sq mi (4,950 sq km). It has its sources near Cappadocia, in the Monti Simbruini east of Rome, and flows south and southeast through a long, narrow, scenic valley in its upper course as far as Arce, where it enters its wide lower valley and receives the

France, History Of, Carolingian literature and arts

2005-04-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

A renaissance movement occurred during the general renovation undertaken by the Carolingian monarchs; they supported the movement as an aid to religious reform and as a means to enhance their own prestige. The origins of the movement lie deep in the 7th and 8th centuries. It received great stimulus, however, when the growth of the empire brought the Franks into contact

Switzerland, Economic expansion

2005-04-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

The unification of the Swiss economy both promoted and was promoted by the rail network that rapidly expanded as soon as the new constitution had been adopted. In 1847 the first railroad had opened between Zürich and Baden. The railways were built not according to central planning but through competition among private entrepreneurs. The result was an extensive network

Kucha

2005-04-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

Wade-Giles romanization K'u-ch'e, Pinyin Kuqa, oasis city in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. The oasis of Kucha lies at the foot of the southern slope of the Tien Shan (“Celestial Mountains”) on the northern rim of the Tarim Basin. It is watered by the Kucha and Mu-cha-t'i rivers, which during rainy spells flow into the Tarim River but which for most of the year lose themselves in the salt marshes on the northern

Berbera

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

Port, northwestern Somalia, on the Gulf of Aden. It lies at the terminus of roads from the towns of Hargeysa and Burko and has an airport. Known during classical times and to Ibn Sa'id (d. 1286) and other early Arab geographers, Berbera was one of the Muslim settlements of the medieval state of Adal. It was sacked by the Portuguese in 1518 and occupied by the sharifs of Mocha in the 17th century,

Wolin

2005-04-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Island off the northwestern coast of Poland, in Szczecin województwo (province). It is surrounded by the Baltic Sea on the north, the Dziwna River on the east, the Szczecinski Lagoon on the south, and the Swina River on the west. Its area is 95 square miles (245 square km). The main towns are Wolin in the south and Miedzyzdroje in the north. The central area contains the Wolin National

Pyrrhus

2005-03-31T15:16:00.000-08:00

Upon becoming ruler at the age of 12, Pyrrhus allied himself with Demetrius, son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus of Macedonia.

Fenech Adami, Eddie

2005-03-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the University of Malta, Fenech Adami practiced law beginning in 1959, and from 1962 to 1969 he was the editor of a weekly newspaper. He ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives (parliament) in 1962 and 1966 but was appointed to a seat in 1969 upon the death of a Nationalist

Clarence River

2005-03-30T11:37:00.000-08:00

River in eastern South Island, New Zealand. Rising on the eastern slopes of the Spenser Mountains, it flows south, then northeast between the Inland and Seaward Kaikoura ranges. Cutting eastward by a gorge 7 mi (11 km) long through the Seaward Kaikoura Range, the river flows south and east, entering the Pacific Ocean 20 mi north of the town of Kaikoura. The main stream, fed by Lake

Amorite Language

2005-03-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

One of the most ancient of the archaic Semitic languages, distributed in an area that is now northern Syria. Amorite is known almost exclusively from glosses and names, and the only known grammar is the grammar of names. Despite the unknown linguistic characteristics, Amorite is dated from the known chronology of proper names of the period in the last century of the

France, History Of, The Frondes

2005-03-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

The years of Louis XIV's minority were dominated by the Frondes, a series of civil disturbances that lasted from 1648 to 1653. The government's financial difficulties were once more at the root of the trouble. In the first few years of the regency a variety of expedients were tried to raise additional revenue for the war with Spain. There was about these expedients an air of arbitrariness

Arts, Central Asian, Tibetan literature

2005-03-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

Tibetan was developed as a literary language from the 7th century onward as a result of earlier cultural contacts with neighbouring Buddhist countries—namely, the small states of the Takla Makan, especially Khotan (Ho-t'ien) and the kingdoms of ancient northwestern India (modern Gilgit, Kashmir, and Kullu) and Nepal. Scripts of Indian origin were in use in these countries,

Stafford

2005-03-28T11:49:00.000-08:00

Founded by Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, the town of Stafford had its own mint from the reign of Aethelstan to that of Henry II. Stafford town was chartered in

Victoria

2005-03-26T05:43:00.000-08:00

Victoria, which retains a distinct transplanted English atmosphere,

Kirkwood Gaps

2005-03-25T10:51:00.000-08:00

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.

Henbury Craters

2005-03-24T18:16:00.000-08:00

Group of 13 meteorite craters in a desert area 8 mi (13 km) west-southwest of Henbury, Northern Territory, central Australia, within the Henbury Meteorite Conservation Park. The craters, recognized in 1931, lie in an area of 0.5 sq mi (1.25 sq km) and are distributed in a scattering ellipse typical of a cluster fall of meteorites. The largest crater (thought to be a coalescence of two smaller

Philanthropic Foundation

2005-03-23T15:45:00.000-08:00

A nongovernmental, nonprofit organization, with assets provided by donors and managed by its own officials and with income expended for socially useful purposes. Foundation, endowment, and charitable trust are terms used interchangeably to designate these organizations, which can be traced far back in history. They existed in the ancient civilizations of the

Rare-earth Element, Sources and extraction

2005-03-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

Though numerous minerals rich in rare earths are found in the Earth's crust, many are extremely rare, and many more are found only in small pockets in more massive rocks. Although such minerals are of considerable research interest they are not used commercially. Monazite, a mixed phosphate of calcium, thorium, cerium, and various lanthanides, occurs in extensive deposits

Angola, Resources

2005-03-22T22:10:00.000-08:00

Angola's resources are considerable in comparison to those of most African countries, and they are particularly suited to the development of an industrial economy. There are large reserves of oil and natural gas, concentrated in the maritime zones off the Cabinda exclave and the Congo estuary. Total proven recoverable reserves of crude oil stood at more than 2 billion

Dagger

2005-03-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

Short stabbing knife, ostensibly the diminutive of the sword, though in ancient and medieval times the distinction between a long dagger and a short sword was often obscure. From approximately 1300 the European dagger was consistently differentiated from the sword; in the 16th century a school of fencing developed in which a specially designed dagger with a large guard

Bharati, Subrahmanya C.

2005-03-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

The son of a learned Brahman, Bharati became a Tamil scholar at an early age. He received little formal education, however, and in 1904 moved to Madras. There he translated English into Tamil for several magazines

Epistemology, Continental philosophy

2005-03-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

The German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) thought that the standard

Swan Theatre

2005-03-19T17:23:00.000-08:00

Elizabethan theatre built about 1595 by Francis Langley in Bankside, London. A description and a sketch of the Swan made by Johann DeWitt of Utrecht (the sketch copied by Arend van Buchell) have proved most useful in attempts to reconstruct the form of the Elizabethan theatre. The last known mention of the Swan Theatre was in 1632.

Karaïskákis, Geórgios

2005-03-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

A native of the district of Ágrafa in Epirus, a region known for its bandits and rebels, Karaïskákis served in the armatoli, or militia, and participated in the struggles

Craiova

2005-03-19T06:15:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Dolj judet (county), southwestern Romania. It is situated near the Jiu River, 115 miles (185 km) west of Bucharest. Settlement there is of long standing. Close to the city archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Roman fortress built under Trajan. From the late 15th to the 18th century Craiova was the residence of the military governors of the region. The city prospered

Shilling Shocker

2005-03-17T21:45:00.000-08:00

A novel of crime or violence especially popular in late Victorian England and originally costing one shilling. Shilling shockers were usually characterized by sensational incidents and lurid writing. Compare dime novel; penny dreadful.

Balantidium

2005-03-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

Genus of ovoid protozoans of the holotrichous order Trichostomatida. Uniformly covered with longitudinal rows of minute, hairlike projections (cilia), Balantidium exists as a parasite in the intestines of pigs, apes, and other animals. The species B. coli can, in rare cases, infect humans and cause balantidiosis (balantidial dysentery), a relatively severe disease

Arensky, Anton

2005-03-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

Although he was a composition student under Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Arensky's work was more akin to that of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; the predominant moods of his music are lyrical and elegiac. Of his three

Star

2005-03-17T02:34:00.000-08:00

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

Clampett, Robert

2005-03-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

Clampett joined Leon Schlesinger's fledgling animation unit on the Warner Bros. lot in 1933. In 1936 he became part of director Tex Avery's innovative animation team, where the youthful energy, zany humour, and iconoclastic

Seto Great Bridge

2005-03-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Japanese Seto Ohashi, a series of suspension bridges spanning the Inland Sea (Seto-naikai) between the islands of Honshu and Shikoku, Japan. The double-tiered rail and vehicular roadway is a network of six bridges, straddling a chain of five small islands, and extends 5.6 miles (9 km) over water to link the towns of Kojima, on Honshu, and Sakaide, on Shikoku. Its total length is 7.6 miles (12.2 km), and it consists

Biblical Literature, Uniqueness of John

2005-03-15T19:19:00.000-08:00

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

Kiribati

2005-03-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Officially Republic of Kiribati island country in the central Pacific Ocean. Of its 33 islands, only 20 are inhabited. The population is concentrated in the 16 Gilbert Islands, which straddle the Equator. From the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati extends 250 miles (400 km) to the west to Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) and 1,800 miles to the east, to the Line Islands, three of which are inhabited. In between lie the islands of the Phoenix

South American Indian Languages, Quechumaran

2005-03-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Quechumaran, which is composed of the Quechuan and Aymaran families, is the stock with the largest number of speakers—7,000,000 for Quechuan and 1,000,000 for Aymaran—and is found mainly in the Andean highlands extending from southern Colombia to northern Argentina. The languages of this group have also resisted displacement by Spanish, in addition to having gained in numbers of

Mountain, Residual mountain ranges and thermally uplifted belts

2005-03-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

Although isolated mountains and mountainous terrains exist on all continents, most mountain belts not part of either the Circum-Pacific or the Alpine-Himalayan systems either are composed of residual mountains or owe their existences to localized thermally induced uplifts. Most such linear belts are residual ranges. The Appalachians in the eastern United

Abyssal Plain

2005-03-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Flat seafloor area at an abyssal depth (3,000 to 6,000 m [10,000 to 20,000 feet]), generally adjacent to a continent. These submarine surfaces vary in depth only from 10 to 100 cm per kilometre of horizontal distance. Irregular in outline but generally elongate along continental margins, the larger plains are hundreds of kilometres wide and thousands of kilometres long. In the North Atlantic the Sohm

Yako

2005-03-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

The Yako are mainly yam farmers; subsidiary crops include cocoyams (taro), corn (maize), okra, and pumpkin. The main cash crop is palm oil. The Yako occupy compact villages divided into wards, each containing several patrilineal clans. Patrilineal

International Trade, Economic integration in Latin America

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

Progress toward economic integration in Europe encouraged the Latin American republics to make similar attempts. By the late 20th century several organizations had been established to work toward such integration; they included the Central American Common Market; the Latin American Free Trade Association; the Andean Community of Nations; and the Caribbean

Facet

2005-03-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

Flat, polished surface on a cut gemstone, usually with three or four sides. The widest part of a faceted stone is the girdle; the girdle lies on a plane that separates the crown, the stone's upper portion, from the pavilion, the stone's base. The large facet in the crown parallel to the girdle is the table; the very small one in the pavilion also parallel to the girdle is the culet.

Giordano, Umberto

2005-03-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

Giordano, the son of an artisan, studied music at Foggia and Naples. His early operas, among them Mala vita (1892; Evil Life), were written in the forceful, melodramatic style introduced by Pietro Mascagni in his verismo opera Cavalleria rusticana (1890). In Andrea

Belgian Literature, The 20th century

2005-03-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Walloon literature explored new paths during the course of the 20th century. Scholars undertook dialect studies, and standardization of spelling and grammar extended the literary possibilities of the dialect, as did attempts by Émile Lempereur and some other writers to renew the sources of inspiration. Alongside several veteran authors, such as the talented

Ariobarzanes

2005-03-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

Persian satrap (provincial governor) of Phrygia after about 387. The son of a nobleman, he cultivated the friendship of Athens and Sparta and, about 366, led the unsuccessful revolt of the satraps of western Anatolia against the Persian king Artaxerxes II (reigned 404–359/358 BC).

Arnsberg

2005-03-10T05:07:00.000-08:00

Regierungsbezirk (administrative district), east-central North Rhine–Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. Arnsberg is bordered by Hesse Land to the east, Rhineland-Palatinate Land to the southwest, and the Regierungsbezirke of Köln and Düsseldorf to the west and Münster and Detmold to the north. The largest of five districts in North Rhine–Westphalia, it occupies

Chabrias

2005-03-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

Chabrias defeated the Spartans in 388 and again in 378, when Athens joined Thebes against Sparta. On the latter occasion he invented a new defensive technique: he ordered each soldier to receive a charge kneeling on his left knee, with his shield

Alemán, Mateo

2005-03-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

Descended from Jews who had been forcibly converted to Catholicism, Alemán expressed many aspects of the experiences and feelings of the New Christians in 16th-century Spain. His most important literary work, Guzmán de

Kerala Plains

2005-03-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

Narrow strip of coastland, southwestern India, fronting the Arabian Sea to the west and constituting almost all of Kerala state and most of the Malabar Coast (q.v.). With an area of approximately 11,000 square miles (28,000 square km), the plains are indented by numerous shallow lagoons, known locally as kayes, that are formed by sand dunes and which are known locally as teris. The sandy

Atwater, Wilbur Olin

2005-03-06T04:55:00.000-08:00

Upon completing his undergraduate work at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., Atwater continued his studies at Yale University, where his Ph.D. thesis discussed for the first time how chemical techniques could be applied to food. After further study in Germany,

Beaconsfield

2005-03-06T04:49:00.000-08:00

The wide main street of the old town of Beaconsfield, bordered by 18th-century houses, contrasts with the modern town, in which commuters to London—28 miles (39 km) to the southeast—reside. Beaconsfield was adopted by Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th-century British

Gerlach, (ludwig Friedrich) Leopold Von

2005-03-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

Participating

Uda

2005-03-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

The son of the emperor Koko, Uda was one of the few rulers during this period whose mother was not a member of the Fujiwara family, which, partly through intermarriage with the imperial line, dominated Japan from 859 to 1160. During the first part of Uda's reign, Mototsune, the head of the Fujiwara house, occupied the post of kampaku,

Ambrose D'évreux

2005-03-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

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

Aarau

2005-03-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

Capital of Aargau canton, northern Switzerland, at the southern foot of the Jura Mountains, on the right bank of the Aare River, west of Zürich. Founded about 1240 by the counts of Kyburg, it passed to the Habsburgs in 1264 and was taken by the Bernese in 1415. In 1798 it became the capital of the Helvetian Republic. Notable landmarks include several 13th-century towers, the town church (1471), the town

Italian Literature

2005-03-04T03:36:00.000-08:00

The body of written works produced in the Italian language that had its beginnings in the 13th century. Until that time nearly all literary work composed in the Middle Ages was written in Latin. Moreover, it was predominantly practical in nature and produced by writers trained in ecclesiastical schools. Literature in Italian developed later than literature in French

Amarillo

2005-03-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

At first called Oneida, the city originated in 1887 as a railroad construction camp and in the 1890s grew to become one of

Early American Furniture

2005-03-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

Furniture made in the last half of the 17th century by American colonists. Furniture made by the earliest settlers, none of which is known to have survived, was probably crude and makeshift. The earliest known American-made furniture dates from the mid-17th century, when life in the colonies was becoming more settled. Many of these early pieces were massive in size and were

Aleandro, Girolamo

2005-03-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

In 1520 Pope

Argead Dynasty

2005-03-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

Ruling house of ancient Macedonia from about 700 to about 311 BC; under their leadership the Macedonian kingdom was created and gradually gained predominance throughout Greece. From about 700 the founder of the dynasty, Perdiccas I, led the people who called themselves Macedonians eastward from their home on the Haliacmon (modern Aliákmon) River. Aegae (Edessa) became the capital,

Augusta

2005-03-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

Town, Siracusa province, Sicily, Italy, north of the city of Syracuse; it lies on a long sandy island off the southeast coast between the Golfo (gulf) di Augusta and the Ionian Sea and is connected by two bridges with the mainland. The town was founded near the site of the ancient Dorian town of Megara Hyblaea in 1232 by Emperor Frederick II for the rebellious people of Centuripe

Albanian Language

2005-03-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

The origins of

Arabia, An-Nafud (Great Nafud)

2005-02-28T20:38:00.000-08:00

The second largest sand desert in the Arabian Peninsula, An-Nafud, marks the northern limit of Najd. Lying just beyond the shield, it occupies an area of about 25,000 square miles. Its sands almost reach the oasis towns of Tayma' (Taima) in the west, Al-Jawf and Sakakah in the north, and Ha'il in the south. The sands are gradually moving toward the southeast, where they enter either the Mazhur

Ramana Maharshi

2005-02-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

Original name Venkataraman Aiyer Hindu philosopher and yogi called “Great Master,” “Bhagavan” (the Lord), and “the Sage of Arunachala,” whose position on monism (the identity of the individual soul and the creator of souls) and maya (illusion) parallels that of Sankara (c. AD 700–750). His original contribution to yogic philosophy is the technique of vicara (self-“pondering”

Aufwuchs

2005-02-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

(German: “growth”), the community of plants and animals that are attached to or move about on the surfaces of submerged stems, leaves, rocks, sticks, or debris but do not penetrate the surface. The term periphyton is sometimes used to indicate organisms that attach themselves to submerged plant leaves or stems.

Anselm Of Canterbury, Saint

2005-02-26T08:09:00.000-08:00

Founder of Scholasticism, a philosophical school of thought that dominated the Middle Ages; he was recognized in modern times as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God (based on the idea of an absolutely perfect being, the fact of the idea being in itself

Dagestan

2005-02-26T05:14:00.000-08:00

Dagestan can be divided into five physical regions. The first, occupying most of the southern half of the republic, consists of the Caucasus Mountains, there at their widest.

Lille

2005-02-26T04:45:00.000-08:00

Lille (often written L'Île [“the island”] until the 18th century) began as a village between arms of the Deûle River. Count Baldwin IV of Flanders fortified it in the 11th century. The medieval

Narameikhla

2005-02-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

When Arakan became the scene of a struggle between rival centres of power in the 15th century, Narameikhla, the son of King Rajathu (reigned 1397–1401), was forced in the first year

Mcqueen, Steve

2005-02-24T19:56:00.000-08:00

McQueen drifted through odd jobs and three years of service in the marines before he began performing at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in 1952. He did occasional theatre work, making his screen

1927, Generation Of

2005-02-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

Spanish Generación Del 1927, in Spain, a group of poets and other writers who rose to prominence in the late 1920s and who derived their collective name from the year in which several of them produced important commemorative editions of the poetry of Luis de Góngora y Argote on the tercentenary of his death. In contrast to the earlier Generation of '98, most of whom were prose writers, the members of the

Motion Picture, Motion-picture design

2005-02-24T01:26:00.000-08:00

Under the heading of design, all the elements of a picture's setting may be included—art direction, scenic composition, set design, costume, and makeup. At its simplest and most naturalistic, the camera can choose and frame ordinary people in a real location. At its most elaborate, motion-picture production may involve the expenditure of vast sums to put up gigantic sets

Deforest, John William

2005-02-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

The son of a prosperous cotton manufacturer, DeForest did not go to college, owing to poor health, but traveled (1848–49) in the Middle East. He returned home to write a scholarly History of

Endocrinology

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

Medical discipline dealing with the role of hormones and other biochemical mediators in regulating bodily functions and with the treatment of imbalances of these hormones. Although some endocrine diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, have been known since antiquity, endocrinology itself is a fairly recent medical field, depending as it does on the recognition

Soranus

2005-02-22T03:35:00.000-08:00

In Roman religion, the underworld deity worshiped on Mount Soracte in southern Etruria. As priests, the hirpi Sorani celebrated a rite in which they marched barefoot over burning coals. Soranus was identified with Dis, the Roman god of the underworld, or with Apollo, a Greek god adopted by the Romans, and had a female partner, Feronia, a goddess of uncertain

Quincy Plan

2005-02-22T02:53:00.000-08:00

Also called Quincy Method, experimental, progressive, child-centred approach to education introduced in 1875 in Quincy, Mass., U.S., by superintendent of schools Francis W. Parker. Parker eliminated the rigid formalities of traditional school routine, arranged interrelated subjects around a central core, and emphasized socialized activities and creative self-expression. The curriculum included

Land-grant College

2005-02-21T23:10:00.000-08:00

Under the provisions of the act, each state was granted 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) of federal land for each member of Congress representing that state.

Awan

2005-02-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

Ancient city and region of the land of Elam, prominent throughout early Mesopotamian history and especially in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Although it was probably situated near Susa, in southwestern Iran, Awan's exact location is unknown. A coalition of four rulers of southwestern Persia, led by the king of Awan, provided vigorous resistance to the eastern

Indiana University

2005-02-19T18:10:00.001-08:00

State system of higher education consisting of the campuses in Bloomington (main), Gary (known as Northwest), South Bend, Kokomo, New Albany (known as Southeast), and Richmond (known as East), as well as schools operated in cooperation with Purdue University at Fort Wayne (known as Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne) and at Indianapolis (known as Indiana

Brunei

2005-02-19T18:10:00.000-08:00

Officially State of Brunei, Abode of Peace, Malay Negara Brunei Darussalam, independent Islamic sultanate on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. It has an area of 2,226 square miles (5,765 square kilometres) and is bounded to the north by the South China Sea and on all other sides by the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, which also divides the state into two enclaves of unequal size. The western enclave is the larger of the two and contains the capital

Cairo, Climate

2005-02-19T03:32:00.000-08:00

The typical desert climate contrasts daytime dry heat with cool nights freshened by Nile breezes. Cairo has only two seasons: approximately eight months of summer and four months of winter. In the hottest of the summer months—June, July, and August—the average daily maximum temperature is 95 °F (35 °C), and the average daily minimum is 70 °F (21 °C). The summer temperature has reached as

Hesychius Of Alexandria

2005-02-18T23:53:00.000-08:00

Although nothing is known of his life, Hesychius indicated the comprehensive design of his lexicon in a letter prefacing the work. Entitled Synagoge pason

Arecidae

2005-02-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

Subclass of flowering plants belonging to the class Liliopsida.

Vacuum Technology

2005-02-17T15:10:00.000-08:00

This pump is mainly used on equipment for the study of clean surfaces and in radio-frequency sputtering. Capacities are available up to 190,000 cu ft per minute with an operating pressure range of 10-2 to less than 10-9 torr when water-cooled baffles are used and less than 10-11 torr when refrigerated baffles are employed. The pumping speed for a vapour pump remains constant from about

Europe, History Of

2005-02-17T06:50:00.000-08:00

History of European peoples and cultures from prehistoric times to the present. Europe is a more ambiguous term than most geographic expressions. Its etymology is doubtful, as is the physical extent of the area it designates. Its western frontiers seem clearly defined by its coastline, yet the position of the British Isles remains equivocal. To outsiders, they seem

Eichmann, Adolf

2005-02-17T04:07:00.000-08:00

During World War I, Eichmann's family moved from Germany to Linz, Austria. His pre-Nazi life was rather ordinary. He worked as a traveling salesman in Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) for an

Aeon

2005-02-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

The first aeon was said to emanate directly

Sculpture, Primary

2005-02-16T14:08:00.000-08:00

Throughout history, stone has been the principal material of monumental sculpture. There are practical reasons for this: many types of stone are highly resistant to the weather and therefore suitable for external use; stone is available in all parts of the world and can be obtained in large blocks; many stones have a fairly homogeneous texture and a uniform hardness

Rhys, Jean

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

The daughter of a Welsh doctor and a Creole mother, Rhys lived and was educated

Cynic

2005-02-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

Any member of a Greek philosophical sect that flourished from the 4th century Bc to well into Christian times and was distinguished more for its unconventional way of life than for any system of thought. Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, is considered to be the founder of the movement, but Diogenes (q.v.) of Sinope was its paradigm. He strove to destroy social conventions (including family life) as a way of returning to a “natural” life. Toward this end

Bonaparte, Pierre-napoléon

2005-02-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

A self-proclaimed republican after 1848 and deputy for Corsica, Bonaparte was reconciled to his cousin Napoleon III after the latter's coup d'etat in 1851. With this the republicans abandoned the Prince, and he had little effect on the politics of his time. His killing of the journalist

Spain, The Almohads

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

In Africa the Almohad dynasty finally triumphed, and 'Abd al-Mu'min (1130–63), successor to Ibn Tumart, was able to turn his attention to Spain and to undertake the integration of all the Muslim states—the second ta'ifas—formed under the shield of the latest internecine wars caused by the Almoravid decline. Of these states, there stood out especially that under Ibn Mardanish (1147–72), who, with

Harpy

2005-02-13T15:17:00.000-08:00

In Greco-Roman classical mythology, a fabulous creature, probably a wind spirit. The presence of harpies as tomb figures, however, makes it possible that they were also conceived of as ghosts. In Homer's Odyssey they were winds that carried people away. Elsewhere, they were sometimes connected with the powers of the underworld. Homer mentions one Harpy called Podarge

Baikie, William Balfour

2005-02-12T22:33:00.000-08:00

Educated in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Baikie entered the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon in 1848 and served on several ships as well as on land (1851–54). In 1854 he joined an expedition up the Niger River and, on the death

Mcpherson Range

2005-02-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Mountain range, eastern spur of the Great Dividing Range, eastern Australia; its crest constitutes the Queensland–New South Wales border from Point Danger to Wallangara (140 miles [225 km]). Occupying a well-dissected and rainforest-covered region, the range rises to its highest point at West Barney Peak, 4,459 feet (1,359 m). In 1770 the British navigator Captain James Cook sighted the range

Sevilla, University Of

2005-02-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

The University of Sevilla

Ekrem, Recaizade Mahmud

2005-02-10T22:51:00.000-08:00

The son of a poet and scholar, Ekrem was apprenticed to a number of government offices after his formal education. Later he became an official in the Council of State and a teacher of Turkish literature at the

Frelinghuysen, Frederick Theodore

2005-02-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

Frelinghuysen was born into a family that had long been prominent in politics. Left an orphan at the age of three, he was adopted by his uncle, Theodore Frelinghuysen. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1836, studied law in his uncle's law office,

Arabian Religion, South Arabia

2005-02-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC a sedentary agrarian civilization developed in Yemen in the oases along the edge of the desert. The people of this civilization had gradually mastered techniques enabling them to accumulate water from seasonal mountain rivers and distribute it into extensive irrigation systems. At the end of the 8th century appeared the oldest

Induction Heating

2005-02-09T18:59:00.000-08:00

Method of raising the temperature of an electrically conductive material by subjecting it to an alternating electromagnetic field. The electric currents induced in the object (although it is electrically isolated from the source of the field) bring about dissipation of power in the form of heat. Induction-heating methods are applied most widely in metalworking

Lancet, The

2005-02-09T00:38:00.000-08:00

British medical journal established in 1823. The journal's founder and first editor was Thomas Wakley, considered at the time to be a radical reformer. Wakley stated the intent of the new journal was to report on the metropolitan hospital lectures and to describe the important cases of the day. The Lancet has since played an important role in medical and hospital reform

Middletown

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

City, Butler county, southwestern Ohio, U.S., on the Miami River (bridged). With nearby Hamilton, it forms a standard metropolitan statistical area. Founded in 1802, it was named for its location midway between Dayton (35 mi [56 km] north) and Cincinnati. It soon became a lively agricultural trading community, with its products (wheat, corn, tobacco, livestock, fruits, and vegetables) transported

Nebuchadrezzar Ii

2005-02-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

Nebuchadrezzar II was the oldest son and successor of Nabopolassar, founder of the Chaldean empire. He is known from cuneiform inscriptions, the Bible and later Jewish sources,