ViolentClock

Banner System

2005-04-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

Chinese (Wade–Giles romanization) Ch'i-ping, Pinyin Qibing, the military organization used by the Manchu tribes of Manchuria (now Northeast China) to conquer and control China in the 17th century. The Banner system was developed by the Manchu leader Nurhachi (1559–1626), who in 1601 organized his warriors into four companies of 300 men each. The companies were distinguished by banners of different colours—yellow, red, white, and blue. In 1615 four more

Wokha

2005-04-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Town, Nagaland state, northeastern India, at the foot of the Wokha Hills, 50 miles (80 km) north of Kohima town. It is a trade and agricultural centre for the surrounding Naga Hills, in which grains (mainly rice) and fruits are grown on previously forested slopes. There are some cottage industries (weaving, pottery making, woodworking). Wokha is linked by highway to Mokokchung and

Karachay-cherkessia

2005-04-04T05:35:00.000-07:00

Also called Karachayevo-cherkessiya, republic, Stavropol kray (region), southwestern Russia. It extends south from the foreland plains across the northern ranges and deep intervening valleys and gorges of the Greater Caucasus range as far as the crestline, which reaches 13,274 feet (4,046 m) in Mount Dombay-Ulgen. Cherkessk is the administrative centre. The republic's scenery is spectacular, with densely forested

Gnadenhütten Massacre

2005-04-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

(March 8, 1782), murder of 96 Ohio Indians, mostly Delawares, by an American Revolutionary War officer, Captain David Williamson, and his militia at Gnadenhütten Village south of what is now New Philadelphia, Ohio. The Indians, who had been converted by Moravian Brethren and were peaceful Christians, were under suspicion because of their neutrality in the war. Williamson and

Belshazzar

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

Belshazzar had been known only from the biblical Book of Daniel (chapters 5, 7–8) and from Xenophon's Cyropaedia until 1854, when references to him were found in Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions. Though he is referred to in the Book of Daniel as the son of Nebuchadrezzar, the Babylonian inscriptions

Switzerland, Urban Switzerland

2005-04-02T00:48:00.000-08:00

Some cities in Switzerland originally developed around monasteries, as did St. Gall, or around Roman settlements, as in the case of Zürich and Lausanne. Within the Alps of Vaud, Vevey and Montreux were sited on small deltas jutting into Lake Geneva that provided flat land near the mountainous north shore; in the Alps of Ticino, Locarno and Ascona developed on the delta

Irwin, James B.

2005-03-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

In full James Benson Irwin American astronaut, pilot of the Lunar Module on the Apollo 15 mission (July 26–Aug. 7, 1971), in which he and the mission commander, David R. Scott, spent almost three days on the Moon's surface investigating the Hadley-Apennine site, 462 miles (744 km) north of the lunar equator. The two spent 18 hours outside the Lunar Module, traveled on the Moon's

Sangha

2005-03-31T10:20:00.000-08:00

The sangha originated in the group of disciples who renounced the worldly life to wander with the Buddha and listen to his teachings. After the Buddha's

Amyot, Jacques

2005-03-31T02:52:00.000-08:00

Amyot was educated at the University of Paris and at Bourges, where he became professor of Latin and Greek

Habsburg, House Of, Power and weakness

2005-03-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

The Habsburgs reached the zenith of their power before the end of the 16th century: the duchy of Milan, annexed by Charles V in 1535, was assigned by him to his son, the future Philip II of Spain, in 1540; Philip II conquered Portugal in 1580; and the Spanish dominions in America were ever expanding. There were, however, three faults in the power structure—two of them historical accidents, the

Theism, Hindu theism

2005-03-29T16:32:00.000-08:00

It was noted, for example, that the Vedic hymns that appear in the earliest Hindu scriptures contain significant intimations of a sense of “the wonder of existence,” “the outpourings,” as Savepalli Radhakrishnan, the former philosopher-president of India, has expressed it, “of poetic minds who were struck by the immensity of the universe and the inexhaustible mystery

Eagan, Eddie

2005-03-29T04:15:00.000-08:00

After their father died in a railroad accident when Eddie was only a year old, he and his four brothers were raised by their mother, who managed a small income from teaching foreign languages. Inspired by Frank Merriwell,

Furniture, Renaissance and later

2005-03-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

(Italy): George Leland Hunter, Italian Furniture and Interiors, 2 vol. (1918), mostly illustrations; William M. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture from the 4th to the Early 19th Centuries, 2 vol. (1918–19). (Spain): Arthur Byne and Mildred Stapley, Spanish Interiors and Furniture (1921), profusely illustrated with scale drawings and photographs. (Germany): Heinrich Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, 2 vol. (1968–70), thorough, illustrated history of German furniture. (France): Pierre Verlet, Le Mobilier royal français, 2 vol. (1945–55); Les Meubles français du XVIIIe siecle, 2 vol. (1956), a learned treatise on French furniture. (England and the colonies): Percy Macquoeo and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture from the Middle Ages to the Late Georgian Period, 2nd ed., 3 vol. (1954), documented survey of English and American furniture; Ralph Fastenedge, English Furniture Styles from 1500 to 1830 (1962), an excellent elementary introduction to the study of English furniture; Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture (1968), illustrated study of Chippendale and his contemporaries; Clifford Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and Other NeoClassical Furniture (1966), written by one of the best informed students of the Neoclassical English style of furniture; Charles F. Montgomery, American Furniture (1966), a survey of Federal period furniture. See also Berry B. Tracy, The Federal Furniture and Decorative Arts at Boscobel (1981); Charles Santore, The Windsor Style in America (1981); John T. Kirk, American Furniture and the British Tradition to 1830 (1983).

Drago, Luis María

2005-03-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

A member of a distinguished Argentine family, Drago began his career as a newspaper editor. He later served as Argentine financial officer and then as minister of foreign affairs

Ahmad

2005-03-27T04:28:00.000-08:00

Succeeding his brother as the ruler of Tunis in 1837, Ahmad began at once to modernize his armed forces: Tunisian cadets were sent to France, a military and technical academy was established, and European instructors invited to Tunis. He organized a naval force with 12 frigates purchased from France. He sent

Arrowworm

2005-03-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

Also called Chaetognath, any member of the invertebrate phylum Chaetognatha, a group of small wormlike marine animals with transparent to translucent or opaque arrow-shaped bodies. The phylum consists of about seven extant genera and one fossil genus. There are more than 50 species, most of which are in the genus Sagitta. The size of arrowworms ranges from about 3 millimetres to more

Abomey

2005-03-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Town, southern Benin (formerly Dahomey). Probably founded in the early 17th century, it soon became the capital of the kingdom of Abomey (later Dahomey), which dominated production and trade with the European enterprises on the Slave Coast until the late 19th century. The town is located in an area where palm nuts and peanuts (groundnuts) are grown; it is connected by road and

Switzerland, Prehistoric Switzerland

2005-03-26T10:05:00.000-08:00

Though a hand wedge fashioned by Paleolithic hunters, found at Pratteln near Basel in 1974, is at least 350,000 years old, human habitation in Switzerland was not significant until the last glacial period, the Würm, approximately 30,000 years ago. At that time most of the land was covered by ice, many thousands of feet deep that flowed down from the Alps. But during interglacial periods

China, Rise of the empress Wu-hou

2005-03-23T21:58:00.000-08:00

Kao-tsung was 21 when he ascended the throne. In his first years he was dominated by the remaining great statesmen of T'ai-tsung's court, above all by the Emperor's uncle Chang-sun Wu-chi. But real power soon passed from Kao-tsung into the hands of the empress Wu-hou, one of the most remarkable women in Chinese history. Wu-hou had been a low-ranking concubine of T'ai-tsung. She was

Tlachtli

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

The ball court, or field, used for the ritual ball game (ollama) played throughout pre-Columbian Meso-America. Possibly originating among the Olmecs (La Venta culture, c. 800–c. 400 BC) or even earlier, the game spread to subsequent cultures, among them those of Monte Albán and El Tajín; the Maya (as pok-ta-pok); and the Toltec, Mixtec, and Aztec. In Aztec times, ollama was a nobles' game and was

China, Internal solidarity during the decline of the Nan Sung

2005-03-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

Honouring the Chu Hsi school did not reinvigorate the Nan Sung administration, but the military, despite some weaknesses, maintained an effective defense against the Mongols for four decades—the longest stand against Mongol invasions anywhere. The final Sung defeat came in part because the Mongol forces, frustrated for many years in their attempts to break the

Coal Mining, Auger mining

2005-03-22T23:38:00.000-08:00

Auger mining is usually associated with contour strip mining. With this method, the coal is removed by drilling auger holes from the last contour cut and extracting it in the same manner that shavings are produced by a carpenter's bit. Coal recovery rates approach 60 percent with this method. The cutting heads of some augers are as high as 2.5 metres. As each stem works its

Earhart, Amelia

2005-03-22T05:09:00.000-08:00

Amelia Earhart, Last Flight, arranged by George Palmer Putnam (1937, reissued 1988), contains journal entries and messages sent home, selected and arranged by her husband. Biographies include George Palmer Putnam, Soaring Wings (1939, reissued 1972); Doris L. Rich, Amelia Earhart (1989); Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings (1989); Susan Butler, East to the Dawn (1997); and Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, Amelia (1997). Randall Brink, Lost Star: The Search for Amelia Earhart (1994), examines her disappearance.

Italic Languages

2005-03-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

Fundamental works on Osco-Umbrian, most with selected texts, include Robert von Planta, Grammatik der oskisch-umbrischen Dialekte, 2 vol. (1892–97, reissued 1973); Carl Darling Buck, A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian, new ed. (1928, reprinted 1995); Gino Bottiglioni, Manuale dei dialetti italici: Osco, Umbro, e dialetti minori (1954); A. Ernout, Le dialecte ombrien: lexique du vocabulaire des “Tables Eugubines” et des inscriptions (1961); and Gerhard Meiser, Lautgeschichte der umbrischen Sprache (1986). A detailed treatment of Paelignian, one of the central Oscan “minor dialects,” is Rafael Jiménez Zamudio, Estudio del dialecto peligno y su entorno lingüístico (1986). The most complete edition of Osco-Umbrian and Faliscan texts is Emil Vetter, Handbuch der italischen Dialekte, vol. 1, Texte mit Erklärung, Glossen, Wörterverzeichnis (1953); it is supplemented by Paolo Poccetti, Nuovi documenti italici (1979). Special studies of some of the more important Oscan texts include Annalisa Franchi De Bellis, Le iovile capuane (1981), and Il cippo abellano (1988). The most accurate text of the Iguvine Tables is found in Aldo L. Prosdocimi, Le tavole iguvine, vol. 1 (1984), with introduction and notes in Italian. Special studies of the Iguvine Tables include James Wilson Poultney, The Bronze Tables of Iguvium (1959); and Giacomo Devoto (ed.), Tabulae Iguvinae, rev. ed. (1940), in Latin. The authoritative edition of the South Picene texts is Anna Marinetti, Le iscrizioni sudpicene (1985– ); Ignacio-Javier Adiego Lajara, Protosabelio, osco-umbro, sudpiceno (1992), in Spanish, is also useful. A grammatical description of Faliscan with many of the texts is provided by Gabriella Giacomelli, La lingua falisca (1963). Similar treatment is given to Venetic in G.B. Pellegrini and Aldo L. Prosdocimi, La lingua venetica, 2 vol. (1967); Michel Lejeune, Manuel de la langue vénète (1974); and Giulia Fogolari et al., I Veneti antichi: lingua e cultura (1988). Important studies of onomastic material (so prominent in the Italic language texts) include, for Oscan, Michel Lejeune, L'anthroponymie osque (1976); and for Venetic, Michel Lejeune, Ateste à l'heure de la romanisation (étude anthroponymique) (1978); and Jürgen Untermann, Die venetischen Personennamen, 2 vol. (1961). Questions of ancient Italic poetics are treated in Calvert Watkins, How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (1995), especially chapters 10 and 17–20.

Bogart, Humphrey

2005-03-20T23:42:00.000-08:00

In full Humphrey DeForest Bogart American actor who became a preeminent motion picture “tough guy” and was a top box office attraction during the 1940s and '50s. In his performances he projected the image of a worldly wise, individualistic adventurer with a touch of idealism hidden beneath a hardened exterior. Offscreen he gave the carefully crafted

Egypt, Hydroelectric and other power resources

2005-03-19T18:58:00.000-08:00

The Nile constitutes an incomparable source of energy; further sources are represented by coal, oil, and gas deposits. Almost half of Egypt's electrical energy comes from thermal stations; hydroelectric plants, including those at the Aswan High Dam, supply the remainder.

Norway, Daily life and social customs

2005-03-19T05:41:00.000-08:00

Although Norway is in most ways very modern, it has maintained many of its traditions. Storytelling and folklore, in which trolls play a prominent role, are still common. On festive occasions folk costumes are worn and folk singing is performed—especially on Grunnlovsdagen (Constitution Day), commonly called Syttende Mai (May 17), the date of its celebration. Other popular

Music, African

2005-03-18T18:55:00.000-08:00

It is widely acknowledged that African music has undergone frequent and decisive changes throughout the centuries. What is termed traditional music today is probably very different from African music in former times. Nor has African music in the past been rigidly linked to specific ethnic groups. The individual musician, his style and creativity, have always

Hyatt, Anna Vaughn

2005-03-17T08:46:00.000-08:00

Anna Hyatt was the daughter of noted Harvard paleontologist Alpheus Hyatt. She was educated privately and began her study of sculpture with Henry H. Kitson in Boston. She later attended the Art Students

Jackson, Glenda

2005-03-17T02:36:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a bricklayer, Jackson quit school at age 16 to join an amateur theatre group and soon won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After graduating she began working in repertory theatres as an actress and stage

Moreau River

2005-03-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

River, formed by the confluence of several headstreams in Butte and Harding counties, northwestern South Dakota, U.S. It flows about 290 mi (470 km) east through the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, where it receives several north-bank tributaries (including Thunder Butte and Little Moreau), to the Missouri River south of Mobridge. The lower Moreau Basin was inundated by

Owambo

2005-03-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

Also called Ovamboland, geographic region, northern Namibia. Owambo is bordered by the Kaokoland (Kaokoveld) region on the west and by the Kavango region on the east. The border with Angola lies to the north. Most of semiarid Owambo is an extremely flat plain covered by white sands. It is crossed by a series of low-gradient, often parallel, south-oriented dry watercourses (oshanas), collectively

Iran, Ancient, Xerxes I

2005-03-15T01:51:00.000-08:00

Xerxes (reigned 486–465 BC), Darius's eldest son by Queen Atossa, was born after his father had come to the throne; he had been designated official heir perhaps as early as 498, and while crown prince he had ruled as the king's governor in Babylon. The new king quickly suppressed the revolt in Egypt in a single campaign in 484. Xerxes then broke with the policy followed by Cyrus and Darius of

Cadmus

2005-03-14T22:24:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, the son of Phoenix or Agenor (king of Phoenicia) and brother of Europa. Europa was carried off by Zeus, king of the gods, and Cadmus was sent out to find her. Unsuccessful, he consulted the Delphic oracle, which ordered him to give up his quest, follow a cow, and build a town on the spot where she lay down. The cow guided him to Boeotia (Cow Land), where he founded

Denitrifying Bacteria

2005-03-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

Microorganisms whose action results in the conversion of nitrates in soil to free atmospheric nitrogen, thus depleting soil fertility and reducing agricultural productivity. Thiobacillus denitrificans, Micrococcus denitrificans, and some species of Serratia, Pseudomonas, and Achromobacter are implicated as denitrifiers. Pseudomonas aeruginosa can,

Wild Rye

2005-03-14T00:36:00.000-08:00

Sea lyme, or dune, grass (E. arenarius) is a Eurasian species 0.6 to 2.5 m (2 to 8 feet)

Ibn Gabirol

2005-03-13T11:45:00.000-08:00

In full Solomon Ben Yehuda Ibn Gabirol, Arabic Abu Ayyub Sulayman Ibn Yahya Ibn Gabirut, Latin Avicebron, or Avencebrol one of the outstanding figures of the Hebrew school of religious and secular poetry during the Jewish Golden Age in Moorish Spain. He was also an important Neoplatonic philosopher.

Heriz Carpet

2005-03-13T04:38:00.000-08:00

Heriz also spelled Heris, floor covering handmade in any of a group of villages near the town of Heris, lying east of Tabriz in northwest Iran. Heriz carpets—primarily room-sized, stout, serviceable, and attractive—have found ready markets in Europe and the U.S. They are an offshoot, apparently, of the Tabriz carpets, a country version of city styles. The smooth curves and flowing lines of a sophisticated

Berdsk

2005-03-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

City, Novosibirsk oblast (province), central Russia. It lies along the Novosibirsk Reservoir just south of Novosibirsk city. Founded at the beginning of the 18th century as a fortress, it became a city in 1944. Berdsk's industrial activities include flour milling and radio production. It is on the Turksib Railway. A recreation centre, it has sanatoriums on the outskirts. Pop.

Tarhun

2005-03-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Taru, Tarhu, Tarhunt, Tarhunna, or Tarhuis, ancient Anatolian weather god. His name appears in Hittite and Assyrian records (c. 1400–612 BC) and later as an element in Hellenistic personal names, primarily from Cilicia. Tarhunt was the Luwian form and Tarhun (Tarhunna) probably the Hittite, from the common root tarh-, “to conquer.” The weather god was one of the supreme deities of the Hittite pantheon and was regarded as the embodiment

Scandinavian Literature, Swedish Classicism and Enlightenment

2005-03-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

After the death of Charles XII (1718) and the collapse of his empire, a utilitarian attitude to life and letters gradually developed in Sweden. Olof von Dalin was the outstanding popularizer of the new ideas of the French and English Enlightenment. Educated at Lund, he later went to Stockholm and began to publish, anonymously, Then swänska Argus (1732–34; “The Swedish Argus”), a weekly

Sthanakavasi

2005-03-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

The Sthanakavasi, whose name refers to the subsect's preference for performing religious duties at a secular place such as a monks' meetinghouse (sthanak) rather than at a temple, differs from the Shvetambara sect

Permafrost, Air temperature and ground temperature

2005-03-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

In areas where the mean annual air temperature becomes colder than 0° C, some of the ground frozen in the winter will not be completely thawed in the summer; therefore, a layer of permafrost will form and continue to grow downward gradually each year from the seasonally frozen ground. The permafrost layer will become thicker each winter, its thickness controlled by

Khorat Plateau

2005-03-09T08:39:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Korat Plateau, saucer-shaped tableland of northeastern Thailand. It occupies 60,000 square miles (155,000 square km), is situated 300–650 feet (90–200 m) above sea level, and tilts southeastward. The plateau is drained by the Chi and Mun rivers and is bounded by the Mekong River (north and east on the Laos border), the Phetchabun and Phang Hoei ranges (west), and the Phanom Dong Rak Range (south). The interior has low hills

Paraguay, Flag Of

2005-03-09T06:53:00.000-08:00

Isolated from much of the rest of Spanish-dominated South America, Paraguay developed a unique flag design. The earliest known emblem (c. 1812) of local independence was based on the Spanish flag; it had red-yellow-blue stripes with a coat of arms. Later the colour blue was used in two quite different flags—one of equal horizontal stripes of blue and yellow, the other a plain

Fabales

2005-03-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

The unique ecological role of the Fabales is in nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen is an element of all proteins and is an essential component in both plant and animal metabolism. Although elemental nitrogen makes up about 80 percent of the atmosphere, it is not directly available to living organisms; nitrogen that can be metabolized by living organisms must be in the form

U Thong Style

2005-03-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

One of the canonical styles for Buddha icons developed in Thailand (Siam) in the southern capital of Ayutthaya, beginning in the 14th century. To retain the greatest spiritual potency, Buddha icons in Thai temples had to resemble as closely as possible an original prototype that tradition erroneously believed had been made during the lifetime of the Buddha. Of the

Cheka

2005-03-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

Also called Vecheka, early Soviet secret police agency and a forerunner of the KGB (q.v.).

Young, Andrew

2005-03-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

Young was reared in a middle-class black family, attended segregated Southern schools, and later entered Howard University (Washington, D.C.) as a premed student. But he turned to the ministry and graduated in 1955 from the Hartford Theological Seminary (Hartford, Conn.) with a divinity

Khakassia

2005-03-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Khakasiya, or Khakassiya, republic in central Russia. The republic occupies the western half of the broad Minusinsk Basin on the upper Yenisey River. The Abakan River, a tributary of the Yenisey, forms the axis of the republic. Southeast of the Abakan's valley rise the Western (Zapadny) Sayan mountains, reaching 9,613 feet (2,930 m) in Mount Karagosh, and to the west and northwest are the Abakan and Kuznetsk

Ribe

2005-03-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Ribe amtskommune (county commune), southwestern Jutland, Denmark, on the Ribe River, 4 miles (6 km) from the North Sea. One of Denmark's oldest towns, it was first mentioned in 862 and became a bishopric in 948. In the Middle Ages it was a thriving port and favourite royal resort, centred on Riberhus (a castle founded in the early 12th century and destroyed by the Swedes in 1658). The

Tsushima, Battle Of

2005-03-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

The Japanese had been unable to secure the complete command of the sea because the Russian naval squadrons at Port Arthur and Vladivostok made sorties and both sides suffered losses in the ensuing engagements. Meanwhile, the Russian government decided

Sculpture, Devotional images and narrative sculpture

2005-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

The production of devotional images has been one of the sculptor's main tasks, and many of the world's greatest sculptures are of this kind. They include images of Buddha and the Hindu gods; of Christ, the Virgin, and the Christian saints; of Athena, Aphrodite, Zeus, and other Greek gods; and of all the various gods, spirits, and mythical beings of Rome, the ancient Near East, pre-Columbian

Domestication

2005-03-04T09:04:00.000-08:00

The process of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into domestic and cultivated forms according to the interests of people. In its strictest sense it refers to the initial stage of human mastery of wild animals and plants. The fundamental distinction of domesticated animals and plants from their wild ancestors is that they are created by human

Arabia, History Of, Kindah

2005-03-03T04:27:00.000-08:00

Kindah was a Bedouin tribal kingdom quite unlike the organized states of Yemen; its kings exercised an influence over a number of associated tribes more by personal prestige than by coercive settled authority. Its area of influence was south central Arabia, from the Yemeni border nearly up to Mecca. The discovery of the tomb of a king of Kindah (datable to perhaps

Costa Alegre, Caetano Da

2005-03-03T02:09:00.000-08:00

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

Paleo-siberian Languages, Phonological features

2005-03-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Typical phonological features of the Paleo-Siberian languages are postvelar consonants (i.e., sounds that are formed farther back in the mouth than /k/ and usually represented as q), vowel harmony of various kinds (e.g., the alternation of e and i in the form for ‘my' in Nivkh ñe-rla ‘my harpoon' and ñi-rly ‘my sky'), consonant alternations (e.g., the alternation between b, v, and f in Nivkh bal

Chang Ch'ien

2005-03-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Zhang Qian Chinese explorer, the first man to bring back a reliable account of the lands of central Asia to the court of China. He was dispatched by the Han dynasty emperor Wu Ti in 138 BC to establish relations with the Yüeh-chih people, a central Asian tribal group that spoke an Indo-European language. Captured by the Hsiung-nu, nomadic enemies of China, he was detained for 10 years. Nevertheless,

Anatolian Religion

2005-03-01T07:12:00.000-08:00

Beliefs and practices of the ancient peoples and civilizations of Turkey and Armenia, including the Hittites, Hattians, Luwians, Hurrians, Assyrian colonists, Urartians, and Phrygians. For historical background, see Anatolia.

Faridkot

2005-03-01T00:17:00.000-08:00

Town, southwestern Punjab state, northwestern India, 70 miles (116 km) southwest of Ludhiana town. It was founded by Bhallan of the Burai Jat (a warrior community of northern India) during the 16th-century reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar. It later came under British rule. Seized in 1803 by Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of the historic Punjab, it was subsequently restored to the British by

English Literature, The Edwardians

2005-02-28T23:55:00.000-08:00

The 20th century opened with great hope but also with some apprehension, for the new century marked the onset of a new millennium. For many, mankind was entering upon an unprecedented era. H.G. Wells's utopian studies, the aptly titled Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901) and A Modern Utopia (1905), both captured and

Chang Ch'ien

2005-02-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

Also called Carbon Bisulfide a colourless, toxic, highly volatile and flammable liquid chemical compound, large amounts of which are used in the manufacture of viscose rayon, cellophane, and carbon tetrachloride; smaller quantities are employed in solvent extraction processes or converted into other chemical products, particularly accelerators of the vulcanization of rubber or agents

Orange

2005-02-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1852) of Orange county, southeastern Texas, U.S. It lies at the Louisiana state line. Orange is a deepwater port on the Sabine River, which has been canalized to connect with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. It is linked to Beaumont and Port Arthur by the tall Rainbow Bridge (1938), built to allow passage of the tallest ship of its time; with Beaumont and Port Arthur, Orange forms

Polarimetry

2005-02-27T00:57:00.000-08:00

In analytic chemistry, measurement of the angle of rotation of the plane of polarized light (that is, a beam of light in which the vibrations of the electromagnetic waves are confined to one plane) that results upon its passage through certain transparent materials. Polarimetry is of interest to the chemist because the ability of a substance to affect polarized

Jablonski, Daniel Ernst

2005-02-26T13:55:00.000-08:00

Jablonski studied at Frankfurt an der Oder and at Oxford University and began preaching at Magdeburg in 1683. From 1686 to 1691 he headed the Moravian College at Lissa, becoming court preacher at Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia)

Appleton

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

City, seat (1851) of Outagamie county, east-central Wisconsin, U.S. The city lies along the Fox River near its outflow from Lake Winnebago, 31 miles (48 km) southwest of Green Bay. The settlement of the area was encouraged by the presence of Lawrence College (chartered 1847, now a university), founded by Amos A. Lawrence of Boston, and of abundant waterpower. First called Grand Chute, the settlement

Suez Canal

2005-02-25T01:52:00.000-08:00

Arabic Qanat as-Suways, sea-level waterway running north-south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt to connect the Mediterranean and the Red seas. The canal separates the African continent from Asia, and it provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It is one of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes. The canal

Ughelli

2005-02-24T18:34:00.000-08:00

Town, Delta state, southern Nigeria. Ughelli lies in the western Niger River delta east of Warri. Originally an agricultural-trade centre (cassava, plantains, sugarcane, palm oil and kernels) for the Urhobo (Isoko) people, it has also developed industries producing sheet glass, glass bottles, and natural gas. Petroleum deposits were discovered in the vicinity, and since

Wyoming

2005-02-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

When European

Wüthrich, Kurt

2005-02-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

After receiving a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Basel in 1964, Wüthrich took his postdoctoral training in Switzerland and the United

A-ch'eng

2005-02-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Acheng, formerly (until 1909) Ashihho, city in Heilungkiang sheng (province), China. Located southeast of Harbin (Ha-erh-pin) in the basin of the A-shih River, it is a collecting and commercial centre for a rich agricultural district that provides part of Harbin's food supply. A-ch'eng is also an industrial centre with brickworks, engineering works specializing in electrical equipment and other machinery,

Biblical Literature, The Hasmonean kingdom

2005-02-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

After Alexander's death the empire was split, and first the Ptolemies, an Egyptian dynasty, and then the Seleucids, a Syrian dynasty, held Palestine. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a 2nd-century-BC Seleucid king, desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem; a successful Jewish revolt under the Maccabees, a priestly family, resulted in its purification (164 BC) and in freedom from Syrian domination

China, U.S. aid to China

2005-02-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

One U.S. response was the decision to send large amounts of arms and equipment to China, along with a military mission to advise on their use. The underlying strategy was to revitalize China's war effort as a deterrent to Japanese military and naval operations southward. The Nationalist army was ill equipped to fight the Japanese in 1941. Its arsenals were so lacking in nonferrous

Kidd, William

2005-02-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

Kidd's early career is obscure. It is believed he went to sea as a youth. After 1689 he was sailing as

West Liberty State College

2005-02-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

Public, coeducational institution of higher learning in West Liberty, West Virginia, U.S. It is a four-year liberal arts college that confers two-year associate as well as bachelor's degrees. The campus is on a hilltop in a rural region of northern West Virginia that is near the metropolitan areas of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Steubenville, Ohio; and Wheeling, West Virginia.

Abell, Kjeld

2005-02-21T04:37:00.000-08:00

Abell studied political science but afterward began a career as a stage designer in Paris. He

Nitrogen Group Element

2005-02-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

Any of the chemical elements that constitute Group Va of the periodic table (see Figure). The group consists of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), and bismuth (Bi). The elements share certain general similarities in chemical behaviour, though they are clearly differentiated from one another chemically, and these similarities reflect common features

Hawthorne Research

2005-02-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

Also called Hawthorne effect socioeconomic experiments conducted by Elton Mayo in 1927 among employees of the Hawthorne Works factory of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. For almost a year, a group of female workers were subjected to measured changes in their hours, wages, rest periods, lighting conditions, organization, and degree of supervision and consultation in order to determine

Gurung

2005-02-19T02:36:00.000-08:00

People of Nepal living mainly on the southern flank of the Annapurna mountain massif. Their numbers are estimated at about 200,000. The Gurung speak a language of the Tibeto-Burman family. Many are Lamaist Buddhists in religion, while others have adopted Hinduism. They make their living in agriculture and livestock raising. Along with the Magar, Rai, and other Nepalese ethnic

Abaca

2005-02-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

The plant, native to the Philippines

South America, Linguistic patterns

2005-02-18T06:01:00.000-08:00

The linguistic diversity and multiplicity of South America probably is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Thousands of languages and dialects have been cataloged, including all those existing since the European conquest. Classification systems vary a great deal—from more than 100 “linguistic families” and many unrelated languages at one extreme to extremely

Ibn Tufayl

2005-02-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

Moorish philosopher and physician who is known for his Hayy ibn yaqzan (c. 1175; Eng. trans. by L.E. Goodman, Hayy ibn Yaqzan by Ibn Tufayl, 1972), a philosophical romance in which he describes the self-education

Atahuallpa

2005-02-17T11:11:00.000-08:00

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

Osceola

2005-02-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

City, southern seat (1832) of Mississippi county (the northern seat is Blytheville), northeastern Arkansas, U.S., on the Mississippi River, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Memphis, Tennessee. It was founded in 1830 by William B. Edrington, who bartered the site (probably Plum Point) from the Indians and developed it as a refueling station for riverboats. It was named for Osceola, the famed Seminole

Can Tho

2005-02-16T17:58:00.000-08:00

Municipality and provincial seat of Hau Giang tinh (province), Mekong delta region, southeastern Vietnam. Situated on the left bank of the Song (river) Hau Giang, 90 mi (145 km) southwest of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), it is an industrial centre and the largest city of the flat delta region, which includes the Ca Mau Peninsula and the principal rice-growing areas of the country.

Haemophilus

2005-02-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Hemophilus, genus of very small rod-shaped bacteria of uncertain affiliation. All species of Haemophilus are strict parasites occurring in the respiratory tracts of warm-blooded animals, including humans, and in certain cold-blooded animals. All Haemophilus are gram-negative, aerobic or facultative anaerobic and nonmotile and require a growth factor that is found in blood.

Cheke, Sir John

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

Cheke also spelled Cheek English humanist and supporter of the Protestant Reformation who, as the poet John Milton said, “taught Cambridge and King Edward Greek” and who, with his friend Sir Thomas Smith, discovered the proper pronunciation of ancient Greek. Through his teaching he made the University of Cambridge the centre of the “new learning” and the Reformed religion.

Photosynthesis, Evidence of two light reactions

2005-02-14T11:21:00.000-08:00

Many lines of evidence support the concept of electron flow via two light reactions. An early study by the U.S. biochemist Robert Emerson employed the algae Chlorella, which was illuminated with red light alone, with blue light alone, and with red and blue light at the same time. Oxygen evolution was measured in each case. It was substantial with blue light alone but not

Karat

2005-02-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Carat, a measure of the fineness (i.e., purity) of gold. It is spelled carat outside the United States but should not be confused with the unit used to measure the weight of gems, also called carat. A gold karat is 1/24 part, or 4.1667 percent, of the whole, and the purity of a gold alloy is expressed as the number of these parts of gold it contains. Thus, an object that contains 16 parts gold and 8 parts alloying

Calamy, Edmund

2005-02-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

English Presbyterian theologian who contributed significantly to the writings of Smectymnuus (1641), the pen name under which was published the Calvinists' famous reply to the Anglican apology for bishops and liturgical worship in the church. The leader of the Presbyterian ascendancy in Parliament during the Commonwealth (1643–53), he

Términos Lagoon

2005-02-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

Spanish Laguna De Términos, lagoon in southwestern Campeche state, at the base of the Yucatán Peninsula, eastern Mexico. An inlet of the Bay of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico, it measures 45 mi (72 km) east–west and 12 to 15 mi north–south. Long, narrow Carmen Island stretches across its entrance. The lagoon is fed by the Palizada and Candelaria rivers. Shrimp, fish, and turtles are taken from Términos, and crocodiles

Fruit Bat

2005-02-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

Any of numerous tropical Old World bats of the family Pteropodidae (q.v.).

Buddhism, Yogacara/Vijñanavada (Fa-hsiang/Hosso)

2005-02-12T00:02:00.000-08:00

The Yogacara (or Vijñanavada) school is traditionally ascribed to the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu (5th century AD), to whom may be added Sthiramati (6th century). These writers were systematizers of doctrines already being taught and contained in such literature as the Lankavatara-sutra and the Mahayana-sraddhotpada-sastra (attributed to Asvaghosa but probably written in Central

Scylla And Charybdis

2005-02-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, two immortal and irresistible monsters who beset the narrow waters traversed by the hero Odysseus in his wanderings (later localized in the Strait of Messina). Scylla was a supernatural creature, with 12 feet and 6 heads on long, snaky necks, each head having a triple row of sharklike teeth, while her loins were girt with the heads of baying dogs. From her

Guinea-bissau, Relief

2005-02-11T11:07:00.000-08:00

The coastal area is demarcated by a dense

Tefé

2005-02-11T03:19:00.000-08:00

City, central Amazonas estado (“state”), northwestern Brazil. Founded by missionaries as Nogueira in the 17th century and also called Ega at one time, Tefé lies on the left (north) bank of the portion of the Amazon River known as the Solimões, on the lake formed by the mouth of the Tefé River. River steamers and hydroplanes use facilities at Tefé, which ships Brazil nuts, tobacco,

All Saints' Day

2005-02-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

In the Christian church, a day commemorating all the saints of the church, both known and unknown, celebrated on November 1 in the Western churches and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Eastern churches. Its origin cannot be traced with certainty, and it has been observed on various days in different places. A feast of all martyrs was kept on May 13 in the Eastern

Performing Arts, Canada.

2005-02-09T01:48:00.000-08:00

Unusually, one of the most highly profiled North American films of the year was a documentary, Michael Moore's devastating study of American gun culture, Bowling for Columbine. With Ararat, Atom Egoyan investigated the Turkish genocide of the Armenians in 1915 through the eyes of a filmmaker (played by Charles Aznavour) researching a film. In Spider, David Cronenberg abandoned

France, History Of, The Vichy government

2005-02-09T00:21:00.000-08:00

Parliament met at Vichy on July 9–10 to consider France's future. The session was dominated by Pierre Laval, Pétain's vice premier, who was already emerging as the strongman of the government. Laval, convinced that Germany had won the war and would thenceforth control the Continent, saw it as his duty to adapt France to the new authoritarian age. By skillful manipulation,

Svadilfari

2005-02-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

In Norse mythology, an unusually swift and intelligent horse belonging to a giant who offered to build a great wall around Asgard (the kingdom of the gods) to keep invaders away. The gods stipulated that, if the builder completed the wall in one winter's time, his reward would be the goddess Freyja and possession of the sun and the moon. Svadilfari gave his owner such assistance