BrownWing

Alaska, Settlement patterns

2005-04-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

A large percentage of Alaskans live in the southern interior basins around Anchorage; most of the remainder live in the interior plains around Fairbanks or in the panhandle region, where Juneau is the major city and the administrative centre of the state. Tiny pockets of people are scattered in small villages, the most sparsely occupied being the Arctic plains,

Manaus

2005-04-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

City and river port, capital of Amazonas estado (“state”), northwestern Brazil. It lies along the north bank of the Negro River, 11 miles (18 km) above that river's influx into the Amazon River. Manaus is situated in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, 900 miles (1,450 km) inland from the Atlantic coast. The city, on a terrace overlooking the river, is traversed by several side channels called

Marie-antoinette

2005-04-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

The 11th daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa, Marie-Antoinette was married in 1770 to the dauphin Louis, grandson of

Locke, Matthew

2005-04-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

By 1661 Locke had been appointed composer in ordinary to the king. After his conversion to Roman Catholicism he was appointed organist to the queen. With Christopher Gibbons he wrote the music for James Shirley's masque Cupid and Death (1653), possibly the most elaborate

Fruit

2005-04-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

In its strict botanical sense, the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a plant, enclosing the seed or seeds. Thus, apricots, bananas, and grapes, as well as bean pods, corn grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, and (in their shells) acorns and almonds, are all technically fruits. Popularly, however, the term is restricted to the ripened ovaries that are sweet and either succulent or pulpy. The

Arwad, Jazirat

2005-04-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

Greek Arados , Phoenician Arvad island in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coastal town of Tartus. Originally settled by the Phoenicians in the early 2nd millennium BC, it formed an excellent base for their commercial operations, into both the Orontes Valley and the hinterland as far as the Euphrates, and also to Egypt. Arwadian soldiers fought against the Egyptians at the Battle of Kadesh (c. 1299 BC). From

Fruit

2005-04-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Any of a number of contagious diseases that are most commonly acquired in sexual intercourse. See sexually transmitted disease.

Lindsay, Vachel

2005-03-31T03:59:00.000-08:00

After three years at Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio, Lindsay left in 1900 to study art in Chicago and New York City. He supported himself in part by lecturing

Nicobar Islands

2005-03-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

Island group, Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory, India. The islands lie in the Bay of Bengal and have a land area of 711 square miles (1,841 square km). With the nearby Andaman Islands, they constitute a union territory of India (see Andaman and Nicobar Islands). The Nicobar group includes the islands of Car Nicobar (north), Camorta (Kamorta) and Nancowry (central group), and

World War I, Serbia and the Salonika expedition, 191517

2005-03-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

Austria's three attempted invasions of Serbia in 1914 had been brusquely repulsed by Serbian counterattacks. By the summer of 1915 the Central Powers were doubly concerned to close the account with Serbia, both for reasons of prestige and for the sake of establishing secure rail communications with Turkey across the Balkans. In August, Germany sent reinforcements to Austria's

Armstrong, Henry Edward

2005-03-29T00:50:00.000-08:00

Armstrong studied at the Royal College of Chemistry, where he developed a method of determining organic impurities (sewage) in drinking water, which was used in the sanitary

Mercury Processing

2005-03-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

Mercury (Hg) has a unique combination of physical properties. Its low melting point (-38.87° C [-38° F]) and boiling point (356.9° C [674° F]), high specific gravity (13.5 grams per cubic centimetre), uniform volume expansion over the entire range of temperatures in its liquid state, and high surface tension (so that it does not wet glass) make it useful for

Steady-state Theory

2005-03-27T23:38:00.000-08:00

In cosmology, a view that the universe is always expanding but maintaining a constant average density, matter being continuously created to form new stars and galaxies at the same rate that old ones become unobservable as a consequence of their increasing distance and velocity of recession. A steady-state universe has no beginning or end in time; and from any point

Bloc National

2005-03-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

Right-wing coalition elected to the French Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the legislature) on a wave of nationalist sentiment at the end of World War I; it controlled the French government until 1924. The Bloc gained about three-fourths of the seats in the elections of November 1919, one of the largest conservative majorities in the history of the Third Republic (1870–1940). The Chamber

Triad

2005-03-26T09:46:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, any of several sets of three chemically similar elements, the atomic weight of one of which is approximately equal to the mean of the atomic weights of the other two. Such triads—including chlorine-bromine-iodine, calcium-strontium-barium, and sulfur-selenium-tellurium—were noted by the German chemist J.W. Döbereiner between 1817 and 1829. The triad was the earliest

France, History Of, Frankish expansion and the unification of Gaul

2005-03-26T00:09:00.000-08:00

During the years following his accession, Clovis consolidated the position of the Franks in northern Gaul. In 486 he defeated Syagrius, the last Roman ruler in Gaul, and in a series of subsequent campaigns with strong Gallo-Roman support occupied an area situated between the Frankish kingdom of Tournai, the Visigothic and Burgundian kingdoms, and the lands occupied

Pyrometer

2005-03-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

Device for measuring relatively high temperatures, such as are encountered in furnaces. Most pyrometers work by measuring radiation from the body whose temperature is to be measured. Radiation devices have the advantage of not having to touch the material being measured. Optical pyrometers, for example, measure the temperature of incandescent bodies by comparing

Philip Iii

2005-03-24T14:18:00.000-08:00

Philip, the second son of Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), became heir to the throne on the death of his elder brother Louis (1260). Accompanying his father's crusade against

Literary Criticism, The late 19th century

2005-03-24T09:41:00.000-08:00

The Romantic movement had been spurred not only by German philosophy but also by the universalistic and utopian hopes that accompanied the French Revolution. Some of those hopes were thwarted by political reaction, while others were blunted by industrial capitalism and the accession to power of the class that had demanded general liberty. Advocates of the literary

Military Aircraft, The first operational craft

2005-03-23T19:04:00.000-08:00

The existence of a Stealth program, designed to produce aircraft that were effectively immune to radar detection at normal combat ranges, was announced by the U.S. government in 1980. The first aircraft employing this technology, the single-seat Lockheed F-117A ground-attack fighter, became operational in 1983. The second was the Northrop B-2 strategic bomber, which first flew in

Cheju

2005-03-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

City and provincial capital, Cheju do (province), on the northern coast of Cheju Island, off the southern coast of South Korea. It is the island's largest city and has its only airport, which handles both domestic and international flights. The political, commercial, and cultural centre of the island since it was an independent kingdom in ancient times, it developed as

Cruise Missile

2005-03-22T14:26:00.000-08:00

Type of low-flying strategic guided missile. The German V-1 missile used in World War II was a precursor of the cruise missile, which was developed by the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and '70s. Capable of carrying either a nuclear or a conventional warhead, the cruise missile was designed to have a very low radar cross section and to hug the ground while traveling

Television And Radio

2005-03-22T03:44:00.000-08:00

At the prompting of the American Radio Relay League, which represented 170,000 amateur (ham) radio operators, President Clinton on October 22 signed a congressional resolution recognizing the continuing importance of amateur radio and urging the FCC to permit the service to employ new technology and provide "reasonable accommodation" for its future growth. Although not

Animal, History of classification

2005-03-19T19:21:00.000-08:00

Except perhaps for the possession of collagen, the criteria used above to distinguish animals from other forms of life are not absolute. The first catalogs of animal diversity were based on overall form and similarity. Aristotle and other early biologists regarded all organisms as part of a great chain, divisions of which were more or less arbitrary. The 18th-century

Seleucus I Nicator

2005-03-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

Macedonian army officer, founder of the Seleucid kingdom. In the struggles following the death of Alexander the Great, he rose from governor of Babylon to king of an empire centring on Syria and Iran.

Oersted

2005-03-19T03:01:00.000-08:00

Unit of magnetic-field strength, in the centimetre-gram-second system of physical units. Named for the 19th-century Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, it is defined as the intensity of a magnetic field in a vacuum in which a unit magnetic pole (one that repels a similar pole at a distance of one centimetre with a force of one dyne) experiences a mechanical force of

Botrytis Blight

2005-03-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

Also called botrytis rot , or gray mold blight disease of plants growing in humid areas that is usually caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea. Most vegetables, fruits, flowers, and woody plants are susceptible; injured, old, and dead plant parts become infected first. Soft, tan to brown spots or blotches become covered with a dusty mold in moist weather. Seedlings, young shoots, or leaves may wither and collapse; buds

Exuma Cays

2005-03-18T03:21:00.000-08:00

Group of some 365 cays and islands, part of the Bahama Islands, situated in the Atlantic Ocean. The Exuma Cays begin some 35 miles (56 km) east-southeast of Nassau, stretch southeast in a gently curving arc for about 90 miles (145 km), and have an area of 112 square miles (290 square km). Most of the inhabitants live on the islands of Great Exuma and Little Exuma. The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, which includes

Hydroid

2005-03-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

Any member of the invertebrate order Hydroida (class Hydrozoa, phylum Cnidaria). Hydroids have three basic life-cycle stages: (1) a tiny free-swimming planula larva about 1 mm (0.04 inch) long, which settles and grows into (2) a sessile (attached), usually colonial hydroid stage, which in turn liberates (3) medusae. This cycle is exemplified by the genus Obelia (q.v.), whose members are widely

Geologic Sciences, Oil and natural gas

2005-03-17T02:22:00.000-08:00

Crude oil and natural gas in commercial quantities are generally found in sedimentary rocks along rifted continental margins and in intracontinental

Gabija

2005-03-15T23:12:00.000-08:00

Also spelled gabieta (Lithuanian) , Latvian uguns mate , Old Prussian panicke in Baltic religion, the domestic hearth fire. In pre-Christian times a holy fire (šventa ugnis) was kept in tribal sanctuaries on high hills and riverbanks, where priests guarded it constantly, extinguishing and rekindling it once a year at the midsummer festival. Eventually this tradition was moved into the home as the gabija, and its care became the responsibility

Hungarian Literature, Early years

2005-03-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

The year 1906, when Endre Ady burst upon the literary scene with his Uj versek (“New Poems”), marked a turning point. In matters of style Ady was influenced by the French Symbolists, but in content he was concerned with radical political ideas. He rejuvenated the language of Hungarian poetry, introducing new themes and powerful new imagery. His rise was helped by the periodical

Dublin

2005-03-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

Irish Baile Átha Cliath county in the province of Leinster, Ireland, bounded by County Meath (north), by the Irish Sea (east), by County Wicklow (south), and by Counties Kildare and Meath (west). County Dublin is one of the smallest counties in Ireland and, including Dublin city, is one of the most populous. Its central and northern parts are low-lying, whereas low mountains occupy the southern border

Kyd, Thomas

2005-03-15T07:38:00.000-08:00

English dramatist who, with his The Spanish Tragedie (sometimes called Hieronimo, or Jeronimo, after its protagonist), initiated the revenge tragedy of his day. Kyd anticipated the structure of many later plays, including the development of middle and final climaxes. In addition, he revealed an instinctive sense of tragic situation,

Osei Tutu

2005-03-14T18:44:00.000-08:00

Osei Tutu had been a hostage in the Denkyera court but had escaped eastward to the powerful state of

Abrahams, Israel

2005-03-14T05:43:00.000-08:00

In 1902, after teaching for several years at Jews' College, London, Abrahams was appointed reader in Talmudics (rabbinic literature) at the University of Cambridge, a post he retained

Sardanapalus

2005-03-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

According to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Sardanapalus was the last of a line of 30 kings of Assyria, who exceeded all his predecessors

Plume Grass

2005-03-12T14:21:00.000-08:00

Any of about 20 species of grasses constituting the genus Erianthus (family Poaceae), native to warm regions of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Plume grasses are tall, reedlike perennials with dense, cylindrical, plumelike panicles. Most species are 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 feet) tall, but Ravenna grass (E. ravennae), native to southern Europe, grows to 4 m (13 feet). It is cultivated as an ornamental

Aidan, Saint

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

Aidan was a monk at Iona, an island of the Inner Hebrides in Scotland, when King Oswald of Northumbria requested that he be made bishop of the newly converted Northumbrians. Consecrated in

Gonne, Maud

2005-03-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

The daughter of an Irish army officer and his English wife, Gonne made her debut in St. Petersburg and later acted as hostess for her father when he was assistant

Literary Criticism, Medieval period

2005-03-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

In the Christian Middle Ages criticism suffered from the loss of nearly all the ancient critical texts and from an antipagan distrust of the literary imagination. Such Church Fathers as Tertullian, Augustine, and Jerome renewed, in churchly guise, the Platonic argument against poetry. But both the ancient gods and the surviving classics reasserted their fascination,

Xiangkhoang Plateau

2005-03-10T18:36:00.000-08:00

French Plateau de Xiangkhoang , formerly Plateau du Tranninh , English Tran Ninh Plateau dissected upland of complex geologic structure in north-central Laos. The plateau constitutes a western extension of the northern Annamite Chain; it is drained principally by the Ngum and Ngiap (Nhiêp) rivers to the south and the Khan River to the north, all of which are Mekong River tributaries. Once the upland's limestone and sandstone hills were covered with tropical

Submarine Gap

2005-03-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

Also called Abyssal Gap, steep-sided furrow that cuts transversely across a ridge or rise; such a passageway has a steeper slope than either of the two abyssal plains it connects. Grooves known as interplain channels exist in many submarine gaps; the sediments in these channels are continuously graded. The graded sediments, in conjunction with the gradient and the furrowed topography

Saratoga

2005-03-10T04:38:00.000-08:00

County, eastern New York state, U.S., bounded by the Hudson River to the northeast and east and the Mohawk River to the southeast. Other waterways include Snook Kill and Great Sacandaga, Saratoga, and Galway lakes. The terrain rises from Hudson valley lowlands in the south and east to the Adirondack Mountains in the northwest. Adirondack Park occupies the northwestern

Saramago, José

2005-03-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

The son of rural labourers, Saramago grew up in great poverty in Lisbon. After holding a series jobs as mechanic and metalworker, Saragamo began working in a Lisbon publishing firm and eventually became a journalist and translator. He joined the Portuguese

Brill, Paul

2005-03-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

Also called Paulus Bril Flemish artist who was perhaps the most popular painter of landscapes in Rome in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His early forest landscapes derive in style partly from Mannerism, but after 1600 he disciplined and simplified his compositions under the influence of the German painter Adam Elsheimer. His latest work was classical in character.

Heliopolis

2005-03-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

(Greek), Egyptian Iunu , or Onu (“Pillar City”) , biblical On one of the most ancient Egyptian cities, and the seat of worship of the sun god, Re. It was the capital of the 15th nome of Lower Egypt, but Heliopolis was important as a religious rather than a political centre. Its great temple of Re was second in size only to that of Amon at Thebes, and its priesthood wielded great influence, particularly during the 5th dynasty, when the worship

Kweichow, Education

2005-03-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Kweichow has one of the highest rates of illiteracy in China, especially among its many minority peoples. Nonetheless, there are a number of institutions of higher learning in the province, including Kweichow University, Kuei-yang Medical College, Kweichow Agricultural Institute (founded in 1939), the Kuei-yang Nationalities Institute (for training members of ethnic

Black Hand

2005-03-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

Byname of Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt (Serbo-Croatian: Union or Death), secret Serbian society of the early 20th century that used terrorist methods to promote the liberation of Serbs outside Serbia from Habsburg or Ottoman rule and was instrumental in planning the assassination of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand (1914), precipitating the outbreak of World War I. The society was formed (1911) and led by Col.

Aelianus

2005-03-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

Probably written in AD 106, Aelianus' Taktike theoria (“Tactical Theory”), based on the art of warfare as practiced by the Hellenistic successors of Alexander the Great, was an instruction manual on arming, organizing, deploying,

Utilitarianism

2005-03-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

In normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness—not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it. Such a theory

Furniture, Other materials

2005-03-05T19:48:00.000-08:00

Among other secondary materials in furniture making, glass has been used in the form of mirrorglass or as a purely decorative, illusionistic element in cabinets and writing desks. Italian craftsmen have made glass furniture; that is, wooden furniture covered with silvered glass in various colours. Ivory and other forms of bone were used as inlay material in Egyptian

Chad, From the 16th to the 19th century

2005-03-05T04:29:00.000-08:00

Products of the Islamized Sudanic culture diffused from Kanem were the kingdoms of Bagirmi and Ouaddaï, which emerged in the early years of the 17th century

Eusebius Of Emesa

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

A friend of the Roman emperor Constantius II, whom he often accompanied on expeditions against the Persians, Eusebius was appointed (c. 339) to the see

Palamás, Kostís

2005-03-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Palamás was educated at Mesolongion and at Athens and became the central figure in the Demotic movement of the 1880s, which sought to shake off traditionalism and draw inspiration for a new Greek literary and artistic style from the life and language of the people.

Abdülmecid Ii

2005-03-03T15:22:00.000-08:00

Following Ottoman custom, Abdülmecid was confined to the palace until he was 40, during which time his father, Abdülaziz, and three of his cousins reigned. When his fourth cousin took the throne as Mehmed VI in 1918, Abdülmecid became crown prince.

Epicureanism

2005-03-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

In a strict sense, the philosophy taught by Epicurus (341–270 BC). In a broad sense, it is a system of ethics embracing every conception or form of life that can be traced to the principles of his philosophy. In ancient polemics, as often since, the term was employed with an even more generic (and clearly erroneous) meaning as the equivalent of hedonism, the doctrine that pleasure or

Mason City

2005-03-03T00:34:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1855) of Cerro Gordo county, northern Iowa, U.S., along the Winnebago River, about 120 miles (195 km) north of Des Moines. The area was inhabited by Winnebago and Sioux peoples when Freemasons arrived to settle the site in 1853; its earlier names were Shibboleth, Masonic Grove, and Masonville before the present name was adopted. The city is underlain by deposits of clay and limestone,

Wells, Horace

2005-03-02T16:09:00.000-08:00

While practicing in Hartford, Conn., in 1844, Wells noted the pain-killing properties of nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) during a laughing-gas road show and thereafter used it in performing painless dental operations. He was allowed to demonstrate the method at the Massachusetts

Burgess, Anthony

2005-03-02T05:23:00.000-08:00

Trained in English literature and phonetics, Burgess taught in the extramural department of Birmingham University (1946–50), worked for the Ministry of Education (1948–50), and was English master at Banbury

Indian Literature

2005-03-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

The earliest Indian literature took the form of the canonical Hindu sacred writings, known as the Veda, which were written in Sanskrit. To the Veda

Trail

2005-03-01T01:20:00.000-08:00

The modern city's economy rests on the mining and smelting of metals (especially silver, zinc, and lead) and on the production of chemicals and fertilizers,

Sea Squirt

2005-02-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

Also called ascidian any member of the invertebrate class Ascidiacea (subphylum Urochordata, also called Tunicata), marine animals with some primitive vertebrate features. Sea squirts are fixed growing organisms resembling potatoes more than animals; they are found in all seas, from the intertidal zone to the greatest depths. All adult forms are sessile (permanently fixed to a surface).

Novembergruppe

2005-02-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

English November Group group of artists formed in Berlin in November 1918 by Max Pechstein and César Klein. Taking its name from the month of the Weimar Revolution, this group of Expressionist artists hoped to bring about a new unity in painting, sculpture, architecture, crafts, and city planning, and to bring the artist into close contact with the worker. In an attempt to reach the working masses,

Nevado De Toluca National Park

2005-02-27T19:23:00.000-08:00

Park in Mexico estado (“state”), central Mexico. It is situated in the municipality of Zinacantepec, on the Mexico–Toluca–Guadalajara highway west of Mexico City. Established in 1936, it has an area of 259 square miles (671 square km). The park lies in the Nevado de Toluca (or Zinantecatl) Mountains, which rise above 15,025 feet (4,580 m). Among the park's chief features are an extinct, snowcapped volcano

Chatsworth

2005-02-27T11:20:00.000-08:00

Estate near Rowsley, Derbyshire Dales district, administrative and historic county of Derbyshire, England, containing the principal seat of the English dukes of Devonshire. Chatsworth House itself stands near the left bank of the River Derwent. Construction of the original building began in 1553, but, after suffering occupation by both parties to the English Civil

Machado De Assis, Joaquim Maria

2005-02-26T17:38:00.000-08:00

The son of a house painter of mixed black and Portuguese ancestry, he was raised, after his mother's death, by a stepmother,

Cp Violation

2005-02-26T01:20:00.000-08:00

In particle physics, violation of the combined conservation laws associated with charge conjugation (C) and parity (P) by the weak nuclear force, which is responsible for reactions such as the decay of atomic nuclei. Charge conjugation is a mathematical operation that transforms a particle into an antiparticle, for example, changing the sign of the charge. Charge

Classical Scholarship, The 18th century: the age of Bentley

2005-02-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

Since the late 16th century little had been heard of English scholarship; once the study of Greek had been established by Linacre, Grocyn, Sir John Cheke, and their contemporaries, the English preoccupation with education had set in. John Selden is the most notable of few exceptions, and he was a jurist and antiquary, not an academic, though his De Diis Syris (1617) laid the foundations

Grace, William Gilbert

2005-02-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

In his career in first-class

Gamboge

2005-02-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Camboge, hard, brittle gum resin that is obtained from various Southeast Asian trees of the genus Garcinia and is used as a colour vehicle and in medicine. Gamboge is orange to brown in colour and when powdered turns bright yellow. Artists use it as a pigment and as a colouring matter for varnishes. In medicine and veterinary medicine it is a drastic cathartic. On the skin it has

Amatique Bay

2005-02-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

Spanish Bahía De Amatique, inlet of the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, indenting eastern Guatemala and southeastern Belize (formerly British Honduras). Extending northwestward for about 40 miles (64 km) from Santo Tomás de Castilla, Guatemala, it is some 15 miles (24 km) from northeast to southwest. Amatique Bay receives the Dulce River, which drains Izabal Lake; the Sarstoon (Sarstún) River, which

Dubuffet, Jean(-philippe-arthur)

2005-02-23T00:41:00.000-08:00

After World War II, as one of

Knebel, Karl Ludwig Von

2005-02-22T23:46:00.000-08:00

After serving in the Prussian army, Knebel became tutor to Prince Konstantine of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. While traveling with the prince and his older brother,

Selection Coefficient

2005-02-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

In genetics, a measure of the relative reduction in the contribution that a particular genotype (genetic composition) makes to the gametes (sex cells) as compared with another genotype in the population. It expresses the relative advantage or disadvantage of specific traits with respect to survival and reproductive success. The selection coefficient (s) of a given

Zahedan

2005-02-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern Iran, at an elevation of 4,435 feet (1,352 m). The population comprises Shi'ite Muslim Persians and Sunnite Muslim Baluchs. It is one of the more economically backward cities in Iran; local industry produces bricks, milled rice, livestock feed, processed foods, mats and baskets, embroidered articles, and ceramics. Roads link it with Zabol, Iranshahr, Chah Bahar, and Sarar

Chemical Compound, Uses of aldehydes and ketones

2005-02-21T01:48:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of individual aldehydes and ketones are used by chemists daily to synthesize other compounds, but they are less important in industrial synthesis (that is, the production of compounds on a scale of tons). Only two aldehydes or ketones are used to a significant degree in industry in the United States, as determined by the number of tons of the chemicals utilized

Tobol River

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

Kazak Tobyl river, left-bank tributary of the Irtysh (Ertis) River, flowing through northern Kazakstan into southern Russia. After rising in the low mountains of the Torghay Plateau, it flows northeast across the West Siberian Plain past the cities of Qostanay (Kazakstan) and Kurgan (Russia) before entering the Irtysh River at Tobolsk after a course of 989 miles (1,591 km). Its main tributaries

Thomas, E. Donnall

2005-02-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

Thomas studied at the University of Texas (B.A., 1941; M.A., 1943) and the Harvard

Tacloban

2005-02-20T06:33:00.000-08:00

Chartered city, northeastern Leyte, Philippines, on San Pedro Bay at the southern entrance to San Juanico Strait. It is the largest city and distributing centre in the eastern Visayas (Leyte and Samar). A port since 1874, Tacloban has a long deepwater wharf, a bulk petroleum depot, and an airport. Hemp, copra, and lumber are exported, and commercial fishing is important. The city

Waikato River

2005-02-19T16:01:00.000-08:00

River, the longest in New Zealand, in central North Island. Rising on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park as the Tongariro River, it flows north through Lake Taupo and, issuing from the lake's northeastern corner, tumbles over Huka Falls and flows northwest to enter the Tasman Sea south of Auckland. The river is 264 miles (425 km) long. It has a gentle gradient

Paraldehyde

2005-02-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

Also called paracetaldehyde colourless liquid of disagreeable taste and pungent odour used in medicine as a sedative–hypnotic drug and in chemistry in the manufacture of organic chemicals. When administered as a medicine, it is largely excreted by the lungs and gives an unpleasant odour to the breath. It is most useful for recalcitrant cases and is an older drug for treatment of acute alcoholic

Alexander The Great, Asia Minor and the Battle of Issus

2005-02-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

In winter 334–333 Alexander conquered western Asia Minor, subduing the hill tribes of Lycia and Pisidia; and in spring 333 he advanced along the coastal road to Perga, passing the cliffs of Mt. Climax, thanks to a fortunate change of wind. The fall in the level of the sea was interpreted as a mark of divine favour by Alexander's flatterers, including the historian Callisthenes. At

Pendentive

2005-02-18T07:15:00.000-08:00

In architecture, a triangular segment of a spherical surface, filling in the upper corners of a room, in order to form, at the top, a circular support for a dome. The challenge of supporting a dome over an enclosed square or polygonal space assumed growing importance to the Roman builders of the late empire. It remained for Byzantine architects, however, to recognize the

Macdonald, John Sandfield

2005-02-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

Macdonald was called to the bar in 1840, and the next year he was elected to the Canadian Parliament for Glengarry, a seat he held for 16 years. He supported constitutional government and in 1849–51 served as solicitor general. He held the posts of speaker

Ca' Da Mosto, Alvise

2005-02-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

Retained by Prince Henry the Navigator, he set sail on March 22, 1455, visited Madeira and the Canary Islands, and coasted along Africa past the mouth of the Senegal River. He ascended some distance up the Gambia River, but, finding the people hostile, he returned to

Computers, Bigger brains

2005-02-16T03:12:00.000-08:00

The computers built during the war were built under unusual constraints. The British work was largely focused on code breaking, the American work on computing projectile trajectories and calculations for the atomic bomb. The computers were built as special-purpose devices, although they often embodied more general-purpose computing capabilities than their

Beagle

2005-02-15T01:55:00.000-08:00

HMS Beagle (the third of nine vessels to bear this name) was launched on May 11, 1820, at Woolwich, the

Priesthood, Ancient Judaism

2005-02-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

When Christianity became the legal religion of the Roman Empire after AD 313, it had already inherited from its Jewish background a concept of an organized priesthood. The Jewish priesthood had been centralized in the Temple at Jerusalem (destroyed by the Romans in AD 70) since the 10th century BC. The Hebrew designations for those who exercised oracular, divinatory, and ecstatic

Pohnpei

2005-02-14T17:44:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ponape, also called Ascension, high coral-capped volcanic island, eastern Caroline Islands; it and nearby atolls constitute a state in the Federated States of Micronesia, in the western Pacific. Pohnpei island is roughly square and has a land area of 129 square miles (334 square km). It is well watered, hilly (rising to Mount Totolom, 2,593 feet [790 m]), and is surrounded by a barrier reef with many small islets. Its fertile

Saba

2005-02-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

Island of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It lies 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Sint Eustatius, with which it forms the northwestern termination of the inner volcanic arc of the Lesser Antilles. Saba has an area of 5 square miles (13 square km) and is actually the peak of an extinct volcano, Mount Scenery (2,910 feet [887 m]), surrounded by sea cliffs. It is windward with respect to

Spodumene

2005-02-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

Also called Triphane a lithium aluminum silicate mineral (LiAlSi2O6) in the pyroxene family, an important ore of lithium and a source of ceramic materials. It is ordinarily found in lithium-bearing granite pegmatites. When brilliant and glassy, clear spodumene is valued as a semiprecious gem (more by collectors and museums than by the public, because its colour fades when it is exposed to

Yíthion

2005-02-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Githion , historically Gythium small port of Laconia, southern Peloponnese, Greece. It lies at the northwestern extremity of the Lakonikós Gulf at the mouth of the Gythius River. The town is connected by a causeway to Marathonísi Island, on which, according to the 2nd-century-AD Greek geographer Pausanias, the legendary Paris celebrated his nuptials with Helen. Yíthion is built on the site of Migonium,

Tennis Court Oath

2005-02-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

French Serment Du Jeu De Paume (June 20, 1789), dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the nonprivileged classes of the French nation (the Third Estate) during the meeting of the Estates-General (traditional assembly) at the beginning of the French Revolution. The deputies of the Third Estate, realizing that in any attempt at reform they would be outvoted by the two privileged orders, the clergy and

Paraguay, Flag Of

2005-02-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

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

Le Maistre De Sacy, Isaac-louis

2005-02-11T07:45:00.000-08:00

Important figure in the Jansenist religious movement in France, a member of the Arnauld family (q.v.).

Eyre Peninsula

2005-02-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

Large promontory of South Australia, projecting into the Indian Ocean. A broad-based triangular formation about 200 miles (320 km) on each side, it extends from a base along the Gawler Ranges and lies between the Great Australian Bight to the west and Spencer Gulf to the east. Generally sandy and rocky, it rises from an irregular coastline to a maximum elevation of 1,550 feet (472 m) at Nukey

Turdidae

2005-02-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

Members range in size from 11.5 to 33 centimetres (4.5 to 13 inches) long. They have slender bills and stout legs and feet, the lower leg smooth rather than scaly. Included

Chaumette, Pierre-gaspard

2005-02-09T05:19:00.000-08:00

Chaumette went to sea as a cabin boy, studied botany, traveled widely in France, and then settled in Paris as a medical student by 1790. As an active

Human Evolution, Ngaloba man

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

In 1976 a skull was found in the Ngaloba beds at the Laetoli site in Tanzania. These beds consist of deposits of sandstone and clay stone that are preserved in patches; these patches are made up of redeposited detritus that has been eroded from the underlying Ndolanya and Laetoli beds. In the upper Ngaloba beds, stone tools have been recovered that have been attributed

BrownWing

Alaska, Settlement patterns

Manaus

Marie-antoinette

Locke, Matthew

Fruit

Arwad, Jazirat

Fruit

Lindsay, Vachel

Nicobar Islands

World War I, Serbia and the Salonika expedition, 191517

Armstrong, Henry Edward

Mercury Processing

Steady-state Theory

Bloc National

Triad

France, History Of, Frankish expansion and the unification of Gaul

Pyrometer

Philip Iii

Literary Criticism, The late 19th century

Military Aircraft, The first operational craft

Cheju

Cruise Missile

Television And Radio

Animal, History of classification

Seleucus I Nicator

Oersted

Botrytis Blight

Exuma Cays

Hydroid

Geologic Sciences, Oil and natural gas

Gabija

Hungarian Literature, Early years

Dublin

Kyd, Thomas

Osei Tutu

Abrahams, Israel

Sardanapalus

Plume Grass

Aidan, Saint

Gonne, Maud

Literary Criticism, Medieval period

Xiangkhoang Plateau

Submarine Gap

Saratoga

Saramago, José

Brill, Paul

Heliopolis

Kweichow, Education

Black Hand

Aelianus

Utilitarianism

Furniture, Other materials

Chad, From the 16th to the 19th century

Eusebius Of Emesa

Palamás, Kostís

Abdülmecid Ii

Epicureanism

Mason City

Wells, Horace

Burgess, Anthony

Indian Literature

Trail

Sea Squirt

Novembergruppe

Nevado De Toluca National Park

Chatsworth

Machado De Assis, Joaquim Maria

Cp Violation

Classical Scholarship, The 18th century: the age of Bentley

Grace, William Gilbert

Gamboge

Amatique Bay

Dubuffet, Jean(-philippe-arthur)

Knebel, Karl Ludwig Von

Selection Coefficient

Zahedan

Chemical Compound, Uses of aldehydes and ketones

Tobol River

Thomas, E. Donnall

World War I, Serbia and the Salonika expedition, 191517