ChemicalBoard

Organic Underwear

2006-10-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

Natural soft Organic Clothinggoods are hard to find as they can often be a little course. Liv Organic Cotton Goodsare soft and luxurious and their Organic Underwear is to die for.

Broad Church

2005-04-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

Moderate movement that emerged as one of the three parties in the Church of England during the mid-19th century. The Broad Church represented “broad” views and eschewed narrow expressions of doctrine as practiced by Anglo-Catholics (or High Churchmen) on one hand and anti-Roman Evangelicals (or Low Churchmen) on the other. Broad Churchmen in the 19th century—including such

African American Literature

2005-04-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

Body of literature written by Americans of African descent. Beginning in the pre-Revolutionary War period, African American writers have engaged in a creative, if often contentious, dialogue with American letters. The result is a literature rich in expressive subtlety and social insight, offering illuminating assessments of American identities and history.

Cinder Cone

2005-04-01T22:03:00.000-08:00

Also called Ash Cone, deposit around a volcanic vent, formed by pyroclastic rock fragments (formed by volcanic or igneous action), or cinders, which accumulate and gradually build a conical hill with a bowl-shaped crater at the top. Cinder cones develop from explosive eruptions of mafic (heavy, dark ferromagnesian) and intermediate lavas and are often found along the flanks of shield volcanoes.

Theatre, Western, Commedia dell'arte

2005-04-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

Around the mid-16th century, there emerged in Italy a lively tradition of popular theatre that fused many disparate elements into a vigorous style, which profoundly influenced the development of European theatre. This was the legendary commedia dell'arte (“theatre of the professionals”), a nonliterary tradition that centred on the actor, as distinguished from the

Gai Saber

2005-03-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

Old Provençal: “gay knowledge” or “gay science” the art of composing love poetry; especially the art of the Provençal troubadours as set forth in a 14th-century work called the Leys d'amors. The Old Provençal phrase gai saber is associated with the Consistòri del Gai Saber, originally the Sobregaya compannia dels VII Trobadors de Tolosa (“Very Gay Company of the Seven Troubadours of Toulouse”), a group of seven citizens

Thames, River

2005-03-30T16:17:00.000-08:00

Ancient Tamesis or Tamesa , also called (in Oxford, England) River Isis chief river of southern England. Rising in the Cotswold Hills, its basin covers an area of approximately 5,500 square miles (14,250 square km). The traditional source at Thames Head, which is dry for much of the year, is marked by a stone in a field 356 feet (108.5 metres) above sea level and 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the town of Cirencester. Some think a tributary, the River Churn, has a better claim to

Valdai Hills

2005-03-29T02:24:00.000-08:00

Russian Valdayskaya Vozvyshennost, upland region running north-south, about midway between St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia. The hills are a northward extension of the Central Russian Upland. The ridge is overlain by deposited glacial materials in the form of terminal moraines and other detritus. The Valdai Hills reach a height, near Vyshny Volochok, of 1,125 feet (343 m). Toward the west the hills decline steeply

Native American, Population and languages

2005-03-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Estimates of the aboriginal population are based on information supplied by explorers, traders, missionaries, and other early reporters and are only as good as the reporters' observations were trustworthy. A more serious impediment to an accurate count is that some tribes, by the time they were encountered by the reporting traveler, had already been depopulated

Halévy, Ludovic

2005-03-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

The son of the writer Léon Halévy and the nephew of the operatic composer Fromental Halévy, Ludovic began writing for the stage while

Oscine

2005-03-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

Any bird of the suborder Passeres (order Passeriformes), which includes all songbirds. See songbird.

Fabius Maximus Cunctator, Quintus

2005-03-25T15:12:00.000-08:00

Fabius was consul in 233 and 228 and censor

Admiral

2005-03-25T00:50:00.000-08:00

Any of several butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae (order Lepidoptera). They are fast-flying butterflies that are much prized by collectors for their coloration, which consists of black wings with white bands and reddish brown markings. The migratory red admiral (Vanessa atalanta), widespread in Europe, Scandinavia, North America,

France, History Of, Cities

2005-03-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

Commerce rather than industry buoyed up French cities, especially the Atlantic seaports. In 1789, 15 percent of Frenchmen lived in cities with more than 2,000 inhabitants. Paris, a city of about 500,000 inhabitants, was only half the size of London, the world's largest seaport. But regardless of their size, French cities were centres of intellectual transformation on the Continent. It was

Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb

2005-03-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

As a student at Halle, Baumgarten was strongly influenced by the works of G.W. Leibniz and by Christian Wolff, a professor and systematic philosopher. He was appointed

Shensi, The 19th and 20th centuries

2005-03-21T15:38:00.000-08:00

By the 19th century Shensi was seriously impoverished. Although only marginally affected by the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) in its last stages, eastern and southern Shensi were slightly disturbed by the Nien Rebellion between 1853 and 1868. It then suffered the terrible Muslim rebellion of 1862 to 1878, which affected much of the western and northern parts of the province. Although the effects

'abd Allah

2005-03-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

'Abd Allah followed his family's vocation for religion. In about 1880 he became a disciple of Muhammad Ahmad, who announced that he had a divine mission, became known as al-Mahdi, and appointed 'Abd Allah a caliph (khalifah). When al-Mahdi died

Egypt, Ancient, The 9th dynasty (c. 21302080 BC)

2005-03-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

After the end of the 8th dynasty the throne passed to kings from Heracleopolis, who made their native city the capital, although Memphis continued to be important. They were acknowledged throughout the country, but inscriptions of nomarchs (chief officials of nomes) in the south show that the kings' rule was nominal. At Dara, north of Asyut, for example, a local ruler called

Star Of India

2005-03-19T02:27:00.000-08:00

A large, cabochon-cut, gray-blue star sapphire, slightly oval in shape. The polished but unfaceted gem weighs 536 carats and was found in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It was presented to the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, by J.P. Morgan.

Wad Madani

2005-03-18T07:16:00.000-08:00

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

Harden, Sir Arthur

2005-03-17T21:28:00.000-08:00

After studies at Manchester and at Erlangen, Germany, Harden became a lecturer-demonstrator at the University of Manchester (1888–97). He took charge of the

France, History Of, Napoleon and the Revolution

2005-03-17T16:36:00.000-08:00

The Revolutionary legacy for Napoleon consisted above all in the abolition of the ancien régime's most archaic features—“feudalism,” seigneurialism, legal privileges, and provincial liberties. No matter how aristocratic his style became, he had no use for the ineffective institutions and abuses of the ancien régime. Napoleon was “modern” in temperament as well as

Regeneration

2005-03-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

Organisms differ markedly in their ability to regenerate parts. Some grow a new structure on the stump of the old one. By such regeneration whole organisms may dramatically replace substantial portions of themselves when they have been cut in two, or may grow organs or

Taiwan

2005-03-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Taiwan was known to the Chinese as early as the 3rd century AD, but settlement by the Chinese was not significant until the first quarter of the 17th century after recurrent famines in Fukien Province encouraged emigration of Fukienese from the mainland. Before then the island was a base of operations for Chinese and Japanese pirates. The Portuguese, who first visited

Giancana, Sam

2005-03-15T09:53:00.000-08:00

Born and reared in Chicago's “Little Italy” on the near southwest side, Giancana began working for Al Capone in the 1920s and, by 1966, had been arrested some 70 times and served five years

Andrew Of Crete, Saint

2005-03-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

From his monastery in Jerusalem he was sent to Constantinople (modern Istanbul), where he became deacon of the Hagia Sophia. During the reign of the Byzantine emperor Philippicus Bardanes he was made archbishop of Gortyna and took part

1945--a Watershed Year

2005-03-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Test.--The first atomic bomb in the history of mankind was exploded at 5:30 A.M. on July 16, 1945, at the Alamogordo air base in the desert 120 mi. southeast of Albuquerque, N.M. The bomb had been placed on a tall steel tower while scientists and military experts occupied

Ada

2005-03-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1907) of Pontotoc county, south-central Oklahoma, U.S. It lies along Clear Boggy Creek, south of the Canadian River, and was named for the daughter of the first postmaster, William J. Reed, who built a log store there in 1889. The railroad arrived in 1900, and the city developed as a marketing and trading centre for a large cattle and grain area. The discovery of oil in the vicinity

Wellman, William (augustus)

2005-03-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

Wellman left secondary school in Newton, Mass., to take up professional ice hockey. In 1917 he volunteered for ambulance duty in France, soon joined the French air corps, flew in combat, and was shot down. He returned to the United States

Accent

2005-03-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

In prosody, a rhythmically significant stress on the syllables of a verse, usually at regular intervals. The word accent is often used interchangeably with stress, though some prosodists use accent to mean the emphasis that is determined by the normal meaning of the words while stress is used to mean metrical emphasis. In classical prosody, which was based on a quantitative

La Condamine, Charles-marie De

2005-03-10T18:26:00.000-08:00

In 1735 La Condamine joined an expedition sent to Peru to determine the length near the Equator of a degree of the meridian. In 1743 he left the party, traveled from Quito (now in Ecuador), and began a four-month raft journey down to the mouth of

Ardhanarisvara

2005-03-10T06:56:00.000-08:00

(Sanskrit: Lord Who Is Half Woman), composite male–female figure of the Hindu god Siva, together with his consort Parvati. As seen in many beautiful Indian and Southeast Asian sculptures, the right (male) half of the figure is adorned with the traditional ornaments of Siva. Half of the hair is piled in a hairdress of matted locks, half of a third eye is visible on the forehead, a tiger

Khalil, Al-ashraf Salah Ad-din

2005-03-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

Mamluk sultan of Egypt who completed his father Qala'un's campaign to drive the Franks from Syria. He captured Acre (now 'Akko, Israel) in the spring of 1291, and the remaining crusader fortresses were surrendered by the end of the year. He was murdered by his emirs, who were alarmed by his ambition.

Saxony

2005-03-09T01:42:00.000-08:00

German Sachsen , French Saxe any of several major territories in German history. It has been applied: (1) before AD 1180, to an extensive far-north German region including Holstein but lying mainly west and southwest of the estuary and lower course of the Elbe River; (2) between 1180 and 1423, to two much smaller and widely separated areas, one on the right (east) bank of the lower Elbe southeast of Holstein, the other on the

Shield Fern

2005-03-08T04:21:00.000-08:00

Also called wood fern any member of the fern genus Dryopteris, in the family Aspleniaceae. The genus has about 150 species with worldwide distribution, and it is placed in the family Aspidiaceae in some classification systems. Shield ferns are medium-sized woodland plants with bright-green, leathery leaves that are several times divided. They have numerous round spore clusters (sori) attached

Arts, Central Asian, Buddhist morality plays

2005-03-07T19:18:00.000-08:00

The last performing-arts genre to develop in Central Asia was the Buddhist morality play, called a-che-lha-mo. The plays are based on the lives of legendary and historical figures, and through costume and masks the ethnic origin and ethical character of the players are revealed. Folktales, as well as historical and Buddhist canonical literature, are sources for the

Accessory Mineral

2005-03-07T05:04:00.000-08:00

Any mineral in an igneous rock not essential to the naming of the rock. When it is present in small amounts, as is common, it is called a minor accessory. If the amount is greater or is of special significance, the mineral is called a varietal, or characterizing, accessory and may give a varietal name to the rock (e.g., the mineral biotite in biotite granite). Accessory minerals

Aleut Language

2005-03-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Aleut Unangam Tunuu, one of two branches of the Eskimo-Aleut languages (q.v.). Two mutually intelligible dialects survive, Eastern Aleut and Atkan Aleut. A third dialect, Attu, now extinct in Alaska, survives on Bering Island (one of the Komandor Islands) in a creolized form that incorporates Russian verbal inflections. Aleut is spoken from the Alaska Peninsula through Umnak Island and on

Visser 't Hooft, Willem Adolph

2005-03-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

Visser 't Hooft was educated at the Haarlem Gymnasium and prepared for the ministry of the Netherlands Reformed Church at the University of Leiden. His long career as a leader of Christian organizations began with the post of

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth

2005-03-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a solicitor in Cornwall and the sister of a prime minister of Tasmania, Braddon received a private education. She produced her first novel, The Trail of the Serpent, in 1861. In the same year appeared Garibaldi and Other

End Rhyme

2005-03-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

End rhyme is the most common type of rhyme in English poetry. Compare beginning rhyme; internal

Pre-columbian Civilizations, Internal division and external expansion

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

For some time there had been palace intrigue in Cuzco over who would succeed Viracocha Inca to the throne. The Emperor chose Inca Urcon ('Inka 'Urqon) as his successor, but the two generals Vicaquirao and Apo Mayta preferred another son, Cusi Inca Yupanqui (Kusi 'Inka Yupanki). As the Chanca approached Cuzco, Viracocha Inca and Inca Urcon withdrew to a fort near Calca, while

Cephallenia

2005-03-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

Also called Cephalonia , Modern Greek Kefallinía island, largest of the Ionian Islands, west of the Gulf of Patraïkós. With the island of Ithaca (Itháki) and smaller nearby islands, it forms the nomós (department) of Kefallinía in modern Greece. The island, 302 square miles (781 square km) in area, is mountainous, with Mount Aínos (ancient Mount Aenos; 5,341 feet [1,628 m]) often snowcapped for months. Except for the Raki, there are few permanent streams,

Wolf, Friedrich August

2005-03-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Extremely precocious, Wolf learned Greek, Latin, and French as a child. He was largely self-taught when in 1777 he

Pluvial Regime

2005-03-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

Averaged zonally, regions of excessive precipitation, in which annual precipitation exceeds annual evaporation, exist in the tropics and at latitudes poleward of 40° in both hemispheres. In the subtropics, dominated by high atmospheric pressure, annual

Aristarchus Of Samothrace

2005-03-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

Aristarchus settled in Alexandria, where he was a pupil of Aristophanes of Byzantium, and, c. 153 BC, became chief librarian there. Later he withdrew to Cyprus. He founded a school of philologists, called after him Aristarcheans, which long flourished in Alexandria and afterward at Rome. Cicero

Argentina, The rise of radicalism

2005-02-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

A new party, the Radical Civic Union, was formed in response to the difficulties of the 1890s. It was strongly opposed to the ruling regime and to the compromise candidate, Luis Sáenz Peña, who was accepted in 1892 by Mitre and the more moderate opponents of the Roca–Juárez Celman regime. Sáenz was in turn replaced in 1895 by José Evaristo Uriburu. In 1898 Roca returned to the presidency for

Kekkonen, Urho Kaleva

2005-02-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

A northern lumberman's son, Kekkonen studied at the University of Helsinki, receiving bachelor's and doctoral degrees in civil law in 1928 and 1936, respectively. While working as an attorney, he became increasingly involved, from the 1920s, in the agrarian movement

Film Festival

2005-02-26T02:30:00.000-08:00

Gathering, usually annual, for the purpose of evaluating new or outstanding motion pictures. Sponsored by national or local governments, industry, service organizations, experimental film groups, or individual promoters, the festivals provide an opportunity for filmmakers, distributors, critics, and other interested persons to attend film showings and meet

Trailok

2005-02-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

Trailok's father, King Borommaracha II (1424–48), named him heir apparent in 1438, and even as a small boy he was named the king's deputy in the important northern

Eastern Africa, Habitat

2005-02-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

A more useful way of grouping the East African peoples into types is according to their habitats, which can be summarized as follows: wet lowland, wet highland, semiarid, and arid. Wet lowland habitats are concentrated around Lake Victoria, and among the peoples found there about 1900 were the Ganda and Luo, both large in number. Wet highland habitats are less concentrated

Pinar Del Río

2005-02-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Pinar del Río provincia, western Cuba. Founded in 1775, the city is situated near the base of the Sierra de los Órganos. In 1800 it was officially named Nueva Filipina and was made capital of the western jurisdiction of Cuba. Its economic importance dates from about 1830, when the tobacco industry of the Vuelta Abajo region was developed. With the completion of the railroad

Harvard University Library

2005-02-24T02:54:00.000-08:00

Largest university library and the first institutional library in what became the United States, established when John Harvard, a young Puritan minister, left his collection of 260 volumes to the new Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., in 1638. The core of the collection now contains 10,000,000 volumes, housed in three adjacent buildings. There are works for advanced study and research,

La Rive, Auguste-arthur De

2005-02-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

La Rive was elected to the chair of natural philosophy at the Academy of Geneva in 1823, and for the next seven years he conducted studies on the specific heat of various gases and the temperature of the Earth's crust. His experiments in 1836 on the voltaic

Ejectment

2005-02-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

The action, traceable to the Roman law, had its early development in feudal England. By the second half of the 16th century, ejectment was in common use to adjudicate title to any real property. In its technical

Weser-ems

2005-02-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

Regierungsbezirk (administrative district), western Lower Saxony Land (state), northwestern Germany. Weser-Ems is bordered by The Netherlands to the west, the North Sea to the north, Bremen Land and the Regierungsbezirke of Lüneburg and Hannover (Hanover) to the east, and North Rhine-Westphalia Land to the south. The district occupies an area of 5,773 square miles (14,952 square km)

Nixon, Pat

2005-02-20T18:38:00.000-08:00

Richard Nixon was forced to resign as president for his involvement in the Watergate affair, and on August 9, 1974, the Nixons retired, first to California and then to New Jersey. She died of lung cancer in 1993 at her New Jersey home and was buried at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California.

Skate

2005-02-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

First production-model nuclear-powered attack submarine of the U.S. Navy. Launched and commissioned in 1957, it was similar to the first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, but smaller, displacing only 2,360 tons. Like the Nautilus, the Skate and the three other boats in its class incorporated nuclear propulsion into a streamlined “Guppy”-style hull that had been adapted

Boteti River

2005-02-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

Formerly Botletle River, river of Botswana. It emerges near Maun and the Thamakalane River, developing from the outflow of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. It flows in a southeasterly direction to Lake Xau (Dow), then north to enter the Makgadikgadi Pans after a course of 190 miles (305 km).

Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah (193373)

2005-02-20T11:55:00.000-08:00

The first 20 years of Mohammad Zahir Shah's reign were characterized by cautious policies of national consolidation, an expansion of foreign relations, and internal development using Afghan funds alone. World War II brought about a slowdown in development processes, but Afghanistan maintained its traditional neutrality. The “Pashtunistan” problem regarding

Bond

2005-02-19T14:21:00.000-08:00

In finance, a loan contract issued by local, state, and national governments and by private corporations specifying an obligation to return borrowed funds. The borrower promises to pay interest on the debt when due (usually semiannually) at a stipulated percentage of the face value and to redeem the face value of the bond at maturity in legal tender. Bonds usually

Zinc Processing, Casting alloys

2005-02-19T01:30:00.000-08:00

The major consumption of cast-zinc alloys is in products formed by pressure die-casting. This is a highly automated process in which molten alloy is injected under pressure into a steel die, where rapid solidification takes place. High production rates can be achieved, and the resulting components have good dimensional stability and surface quality. Also, they

Oakland

2005-02-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Town, seat (1872) of Garrett county, extreme western Maryland, U.S., in the Allegheny Mountains near the West Virginia border. Laid out in 1849, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad decided to build a rail line through the area, it became a popular tourist destination. Oakland remains at the centre of a resort and agricultural area. Trout fishing, hiking, boating, snow skiing, biking,

Arts, Native American, Gourd rattles

2005-02-18T06:41:00.000-08:00

Agriculture introduced the gourd rattle, which is always shaken by the dancer or singer, never worn. Its shapes and sizes are as varied as those of the squash and gourd, and it is ornamented with ingenuity. The Arizona Papago shaman, sometimes the Iroquois and Cherokee, leaves the stem on as a handle. Usually a wooden handle is inserted, perhaps decorated with beads or

Interior Design, Renaissance to the end of the 18th century

2005-02-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

The Renaissance was a revival of the old classical styles, and it is not surprising that it first showed itself to a marked degree in Italy. The Gothic style had made comparatively little headway in Italy, where it was regarded as barbarous except in some of the more northerly towns, such as Milan and Venice. The style had more or less coincided with a period of primitive

Cambyses Ii

2005-02-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

Achaemenid king of Persia (reigned 529–522 BC), who conquered Egypt in 525; he was the eldest son of King Cyrus II the Great by Cassandane, daughter of a fellow Achaemenid. During his father's lifetime Cambyses was in charge of Babylonian affairs. In 538 he performed the ritual duties of a Babylonian king at the important New Year festival, and in 530, before Cyrus set out on his last

Devotio Moderna

2005-02-17T00:30:00.000-08:00

Religious movement within Roman Catholicism from the end of the 14th to the 16th century stressing meditation and the inner life, attaching little importance to ritual and external works, and downgrading the highly speculative spirituality of the 13th and 14th centuries. Devotio moderna (Latin: “modern devotion”) originated in the Netherlands and spread to Germany, northern

China

2005-02-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

Also called chinaware any of various fine ornamental and useful ceramic wares, usually made of porcelain. See porcelain; bone china; ironstone china.

Oman

2005-02-15T07:58:00.000-08:00

The sultanate of Oman occupies the southeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, facing the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea. A small part of the country lies to the north and is separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates. Area: 306,000 sq km (118,150 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 2,048,000. Cap.: Muscat. Monetary unit: rial Omani, with (Oct. 7, 1994) a par value of 0.38 rial to U.S. $1 (free rate of 0.60 rial = £1 sterling).

Actinomycete

2005-02-15T04:27:00.000-08:00

Any member of a heterogeneous group of gram-positive, generally anaerobic bacteria noted for a filamentous and branching growth pattern that results, in most forms, in an extensive colony, or mycelium. The mycelium in some species may break apart to form rod- or coccoid-shaped forms. Many genera also form spores; the sporangia, or spore cases, may be found on aerial hyphae,

Mercier, Désiré-joseph

2005-02-14T23:30:00.000-08:00

Mercier was ordained in 1874 and taught philosophy at the seminary of Malines, Belg. (1877–82). In 1880 Pope Leo XIII requested that a program in Thomistic philosophy be offered at the University of Louvain, Belg., for which Mercier was appointed

Marquette University

2005-02-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Milwaukee, Wis., U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church. It offers degree programs at the bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional levels. Marquette comprises 12 schools, colleges, and programs, including a school of law and a physical therapy program. The School of Dentistry

Sickle

2005-02-13T18:12:00.000-08:00

One of the most ancient of harvesting tools, consisting of a metal blade, usually curved, attached to a short wooden handle. The short handle forces the user to harvest in a stooped or squatting position. The longer-handled scythe, the user of which remains upright, evolved from the sickle. Harvesting with a sickle is very slow, but because of its simplicity and low cost,

Guadeloupe

2005-02-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

Officially Department of Guadeloupe, French Département de la Guadeloupe, overseas département of France, a group of islands in the Lesser Antilles chain in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The nearest neighbours of the principal islands are the British dependency of Montserrat to the northwest and the republic of Dominica to the south. The island of Martinique, also a French overseas département, lies about 74 miles to the south. The main territory

De Baca

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

In 1541 explorer Francisco

Saw-scaled Viper

2005-02-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

The saw-scaled viper is irritable and aggressive and commonly hides under stones and in rodent runs. It is sand-coloured or gray,

Performing Arts, Europe.

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

In the London ballet world, the Royal Ballet's

Brialmont, Henri-alexis

2005-02-11T07:02:00.000-08:00

Educated at the Brussels military school, Brialmont entered the Belgian army in 1843 and rose to the rank of major general (1874) and the post of inspector general of fortifications (1875). Brialmont's innovations developed out of his plans to fortify Antwerp and

Príbram

2005-02-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

Príbram's other

Am

2005-02-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation of Amplitude Modulation, variation of the amplitude of a carrier wave (commonly a radio wave) in accordance with the characteristics of a signal, such as vocal or musical sound composed of audio-frequency waves. See modulation.

D-day

2005-02-09T22:42:00.000-08:00

(in World War II), first day of the Allied landing in Normandy, France. See Normandy Invasion.

Schenk, Ard

2005-02-09T04:06:00.000-08:00

In Sapporo, Schenk dominated the Olympic competition, winning handily in the 1,500-, 5,000-, and 10,000-metre races. He was denied a sweep of the men's speed-skating

Burckhardt, Jacob (christopher)

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

Jacob Christopher also spelled Jakob Christoph one of the first great historians of art and culture, whose Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860; The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, 1878, reprinted 1945) became a model for the treatment of cultural history in general.

Brialmont, Henri-alexis

2005-02-08T01:47:00.000-08:00

Any of more than a dozen species of small to medium-sized rodents characterized by the harsh, inflexible spiny hairs of their upperparts. African spiny mice have large eyes and ears and scaly, nearly bald tails that are shorter than or about as long as the body. The tail is brittle and breaks off readily either as a whole or in part. The golden spiny mouse (Acomys

Averno, Lake Of

2005-02-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

Italian Lago D'averno, Latin Lacus Avernus, crater lake in Napoli province, Campania region, southern Italy, in the Campi Flegrei volcanic region, west of Naples. It is 7 ft (2 m) above sea level, 118 ft deep, and nearly 2 mi (more than 3 km) in circumference, with no natural outlet. Its Greek name, Aornos, was interpreted as meaning “without birds,” giving rise to the legend that no bird could fly across it and live because of its poisonous

Azov Upland

2005-02-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

Ukrainian Pryazovska Vysochyna hilly region, Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk oblasti (provinces), southeastern Ukraine. Part of the Ukrainian Crystalline Shield, the Azov Upland is an area of denuded mountains, extending from the Dnieper River for 100 miles (160 km) to the Donets Ridge and sloping gently down southeastward to the Sea of Azov. The highest point is Mount Mohyla-Belmak (1,063 feet [324 m]), 65 miles (105 km) southwest of

Morandi, Giorgio

2005-02-07T07:19:00.000-08:00

Morandi cannot be closely identified with a particular school of painting. He first exhibited in 1914 in Bologna with the Futurist painters, and in 1918–19 he was associated

Fruehauf Trailer Corporation

2005-02-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

The founder, August Charles Fruehauf (1868–1930), began as a blacksmith and carriage builder around Detroit. In 1914, at the request of a local lumber merchant, he built a trailer to carry the merchant's pleasure boat, to be hauled by a Ford automobile. The trailer was

Qina

2005-02-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Qena, town and capital of Qina muhafazah (governorate), Upper Egypt, on a canal 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the Nile River at its great bend, opposite Dandarah. The town was called Caene (New Town) by the ancient Greeks to distinguish it from Coptos (now Qift), 14 miles south, whose trade with Arabia, India, and China it eventually acquired. The shift resulted from the use of a more northerly route across

Pacific Islands, Changing administrations

2005-02-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

Two United Nations trust territories were the first to achieve sovereignty as independent nations—Western Samoa (now Samoa) in 1962 and Nauru in 1968. The first continued to rely on New Zealand in foreign affairs, while Nauru ended its trusteeship ties with Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. New Zealand, a Commonwealth member with a self-conscious Maori Polynesian

Düren

2005-02-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

City, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. It lies along the Ruhr River, on the northeastern slopes of the Eifel Hills. A Frankish settlement first mentioned in 748, it grew from the Villa Duria of Pippin III the Short, the king of the Franks. It was subsequently the seat of diets and synods under Charlemagne and the base for several of his Saxon campaigns. After

Platonism, Augustinian Platonism

2005-02-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

Each of the great Christian Platonists understood Platonism and applied it to the understanding of his faith in his own individual way, and of no one of them was this truer than of Augustine with his extremely strong personality and distinctive religious history. Augustine's thought was not merely a subspecies of Christian Platonism but something unique—Augustinianism.

Gatling, Richard Jordan

2005-02-03T16:55:00.000-08:00

Gatling's career as an inventor began when he assisted his father in the construction and perfecting of machines for sowing cotton seeds and for thinning cotton plants. In 1839 he perfected a practical

Seleucia On The Tigris

2005-02-03T05:04:00.000-08:00

Greek Seleukeia, Hellenistic city founded by Seleucus I Nicator (reigned 312–281 BC) as his eastern capital; it replaced Babylon as Mesopotamia's leading city and was closely associated with the spread of Hellenistic culture in Mesopotamia. The city lay along the Tigris River about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of modern Baghdad. Seleucia was a cosmopolitan city whose population was composed largely

Wright Glider Of 1902

2005-02-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

Biplane glider designed and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Dayton, Ohio, during the late summer of 1902. Tested during the autumn of 1902 and again in 1903 at the Kill Devil Hills, four miles south of the village of Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the 1902 glider demonstrated that the Wright brothers had solved the key problems blocking the route to heavier-than-air

Medicine, Periodic medical examination

2005-02-02T04:44:00.000-08:00

Physicians in industry carry out medical examinations, especially on new employees and on those returning to work after sickness or injury. In addition, those liable to health hazards may be examined regularly in the hope of detecting evidence of incipient damage. In some organizations every employee may be offered a regular medical examination.

Romain Du Roi

2005-02-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

(French: King's Roman), in printing, a roman typeface developed in France at the express order of King Louis XIV, who, in 1692, directed that a typeface be designed at any necessary expense for the exclusive use of the royal printer. The design was the work, for several years, of a committee of the Academy of Sciences, whose members ignored calligraphic models in favour of analytical

Tepic

2005-01-31T23:28:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Nayarit estado (“state”), west-central Mexico, lying at 3,002 feet (915 m) above sea level along the Tepic River, at the foot of extinct Sangangüey volcano. Founded in 1542, much of the city retains its colonial atmosphere. The cathedral, municipal palace, and Amado Nervo Theatre especially reflect Spanish influence. Shops offer Indian handicrafts, and Huichol and Cora

Porcellanite

2005-01-31T08:05:00.000-08:00

The porcellanite of some authorities is a silicified tuff, a rock composed of volcanic fragments that has been altered

Albany Congress

2005-01-30T21:07:00.000-08:00

Conference in U.S. colonial history (June 19–July 11, 1754) at Albany, N.Y., which advocated a union of the British colonies in North America for their security and defense against the French, foreshadowing their later unification. The conference was convened by the British Board of Trade to help cement the loyalty of the Iroquois Confederacy, wavering between the French and the

ChemicalBoard

Organic Underwear

Broad Church

African American Literature

Cinder Cone

Theatre, Western, Commedia dell'arte

Gai Saber

Thames, River

Valdai Hills

Native American, Population and languages

Halévy, Ludovic

Oscine

Fabius Maximus Cunctator, Quintus

Admiral

France, History Of, Cities

Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb

Shensi, The 19th and 20th centuries

'abd Allah

Egypt, Ancient, The 9th dynasty (c. 21302080 BC)

Star Of India

Wad Madani

Harden, Sir Arthur

France, History Of, Napoleon and the Revolution

Regeneration

Taiwan

Giancana, Sam

Andrew Of Crete, Saint

1945--a Watershed Year

Ada

Wellman, William (augustus)

Accent

La Condamine, Charles-marie De

Ardhanarisvara

Khalil, Al-ashraf Salah Ad-din

Saxony

Shield Fern

Arts, Central Asian, Buddhist morality plays

Accessory Mineral

Aleut Language

Visser 't Hooft, Willem Adolph

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth

End Rhyme

Pre-columbian Civilizations, Internal division and external expansion

Cephallenia

Wolf, Friedrich August

Pluvial Regime

Aristarchus Of Samothrace

Argentina, The rise of radicalism

Kekkonen, Urho Kaleva

Film Festival

Trailok

Eastern Africa, Habitat

Pinar Del Río

Harvard University Library

La Rive, Auguste-arthur De

Ejectment

Weser-ems

Nixon, Pat

Skate

Boteti River

Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah (193373)

Bond

Zinc Processing, Casting alloys

Oakland

Arts, Native American, Gourd rattles

Interior Design, Renaissance to the end of the 18th century

Cambyses Ii

Devotio Moderna

China

Oman

Actinomycete

Mercier, Désiré-joseph

Marquette University

Sickle

Guadeloupe

De Baca

Saw-scaled Viper

Performing Arts, Europe.

Brialmont, Henri-alexis

Príbram

Egypt, Ancient, The 9th dynasty (c. 21302080 BC)

Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah (193373)