EqualFly

Skarzysko-kamienna

2005-04-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Town, Kielce województwo (province), southeastern Poland, on the Kamienna River. An important metallurgical centre since the end of World War II (1945) and rail junction on the Warsaw–Kraków line, it is part of the Staropolskie Zaglebie Przemyslowe, or the Old Poland Industrial Basin, which encompasses the area surrounding Skarzysko-Kamienna and the Góry Swietokrzyskie (Holy

Chad, Flag Of

2005-04-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

When French West Africa was under colonial rule, little was done to develop a sense of nationality; emphasis was on the culture and political and economic systems of France. The independence movement in Africa in the mid-20th century therefore found Chad, like most other territories, with few precedents for establishing its own symbols. When the Republic of Chad was

Ashton, Sir Frederick (william Mallandaine)

2005-04-04T01:01:00.000-07:00

Ashton joined

Argentina, Soils

2005-04-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

Soil types in Argentina range from the light-coloured saline formations of the high puna in the Northwest to the dark, humus-rich type found in the Pampas. Golden-brown loess soils of the Gran Chaco are sometimes lighter where salinity is excessive but turn darker toward the east in the Mesopotamian border zone. These give way to soils ranging from rust to deep red

Melbourne

2005-04-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

City, capital of the state of Victoria, Australia. It is located at the head of Port Phillip Bay, on the southeastern coast. Although the central city is the home of fewer than 100,000 people, it is the core of an extensive metropolitan area—the world's most southerly with a population of more than 1,000,000. In Australia it is second only to Sydney in population, and there is a good-natured

Aschersleben

2005-04-01T08:26:00.000-08:00

City, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), Germany. It is situated on the northern edge of the Unter Harz (Lower Harz) Mountains, southwest of Magdeburg. Probably founded in the 11th century, it was chartered in 1266 and was the ancestral seat of the Ascanians, an influential German family who derived their name (Latinized) from the town. It passed to the bishops of Halberstadt in 1315 and Brandenburg

Torcy, Jean-baptiste Colbert, Marquis De

2005-04-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

The son of Charles Colbert, minister of foreign affairs, Torcy was a brilliant student, earning a law degree (1683) at so young an age that he needed special dispensation to receive it. His father initiated him into the art of diplomacy, and the

Abyssal Zone

2005-03-31T18:41:00.000-08:00

Portion of the ocean deeper than about 2,000 m (6,600 feet) and shallower than about 6,000 m (20,000 feet). The zone is defined mainly by its extremely uniform environmental conditions, as reflected in the distinct life forms inhabiting it. The upper boundary between the abyssal zone and the overlying bathyal zone is conveniently defined as the depth at which the water temperature is 4° C (39° F); this

Subway

2005-03-30T16:46:00.000-08:00

Also called Underground, Tube, or Métro, underground railway system used to transport large numbers of passengers within urban and suburban areas. Subways are usually built under city streets for ease of construction, but they may take shortcuts and sometimes must pass under rivers. Outlying sections of the system usually emerge aboveground, becoming conventional railways or elevated transit lines.

Arabia, History Of, Arabian and Islamic expansion

2005-03-30T07:28:00.000-08:00

In the 6th century Quraysh—the noble and holy house of the confederation of the Hejaz controlling the sacred enclave (haram) of Mecca—contrived a chain of agreements with the northern and southern tribes that opened the highways of Arabia to commerce. Under Quraysh aegis, caravans moved freely from the southern Yemen coast to Mecca and thence northward to Byzantium

Beach Pea

2005-03-29T21:05:00.000-08:00

(Lathyrus maritimus, sometimes L. japonicus), sprawling perennial plant in the pea family (Fabaceae). It occurs on gravelly and sandy coastal areas throughout the North Temperate Zone. The stem is 30–60 centimetres (1–2 feet) long. The alternate leaves are divided into 6 to 12 leaflets arranged along the leafstalk. The purplish-blue flowers, which appear throughout

Shichi-fuku-jin

2005-03-28T23:43:00.000-08:00

The Shichi-fuku-jin are a favourite

Mahmoud

2005-03-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

Mahmoud was foaled in France by Mah Mahal and sired by Blenheim. He was owned by the Aga Khan who sent him to England to be trained by Frank Butters at Newmarket. He won all three of his races as a two-year-old, and as a three-year-old he lost the Two Thousand Guineas by a short head,

Reformed Church Of France

2005-03-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

French Église Reformée De France, church organized in 1938 by merging several Reformed groups that had developed in France during and after the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. During the early part of the Reformation, Protestant movements made slow progress in France. Yet reforming movements within the Roman Catholic Church had appeared early. Before Martin Luther had emerged as a Reformer in

Kheda

2005-03-26T00:05:00.000-08:00

Also called Kaira, city, east-central Gujarat state, west-central India. It is situated in the lowlands between the Sabarmati and Mahi rivers. The city existed as early as the 5th century AD. Early in the 18th century it passed to the Babi family but was taken by the Marathas in 1763 and handed over to the British in 1803. Kheda is now a trading centre for agricultural produce and has some light manufacturing industries.

Amathus

2005-03-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

Ancient city located near Limassol, Cyprus, among sandy hills and sand dunes, which may explain its name (Greek amathos, “sand”). Founded by the Phoenicians (c. 1500 BC), Amathus maintained strong sympathies with the Phoenician mainland and refused to join various Cypriot revolts against Persia. When the rest of Cyprus was annexed to Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great,

Essex

2005-03-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

English

Cha-shitsu

2005-03-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

Small Japanese garden pavilion or room within a house, specifically designed for the tea ceremony. Ideally, the cha-shitsu, or tea house, is separated from the house and is approached through a small garden called a roji (“dewy path”), the first step in breaking communication with the outer world. The tea house is usually a small, thatched-roof structure with plain plaster

Fibroblast

2005-03-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

The principal nonmotile cells of connective tissue; fibroblasts are large, flat, elongated (spindle-shaped) cells possessing processes extending out from the ends of the cell body. The cell nucleus is flat and oval. Fibroblasts produce tropocollagen, which is the forerunner of collagen, and ground substance, an amorphous, gel-like matrix that fills the spaces between

Black Mountain Poet

2005-03-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

The group grew up around the poets Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, and Charles Olson while they were teaching at Black Mountain

Garanhuns

2005-03-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

City, eastern Pernambuco estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil. The city lies in the Serra Garanhuns, at 2,841 feet (866 m) above sea level. It was elevated to city status in 1874. Garanhuns is a trade and manufacturing centre serving its coffee- and cotton-producing municipality. It is also a popular resort, known for its cool climate and mineral waters. Roads link Garanhuns to Recife, the

Topology

2005-03-21T20:55:00.000-08:00

Offshoot of geometry that originated during the 19th century and that studies those properties an object retains under deformation—specifically, bending, stretching and squeezing, but not breaking or tearing. Thus, a triangle is topologically equivalent to a circle but not to a straight line segment. Similarly, a solid cube made of modeling clay could be deformed

Sackbut

2005-03-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

The sackbut answered the need for a lower-pitched trumpet that composers of the time sought. Its telescoping slide mechanism is retained in the modern trombone.

Tobol River

2005-03-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

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

Dubbo

2005-03-19T00:28:00.000-08:00

City, east-central New South Wales, Australia, on the Macquarie River. Visited in 1818 by the explorer John Oxley, the district received its first settlers in 1824. Founded in 1841, Dubbo was an established village by 1849. It became a municipality in 1872 and a city in 1966. It is the trade centre of an area producing wheat, livestock, timber, and fruits and vegetables. Dubbo has slaughterhouses, flour

Gaucho Literature

2005-03-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

Spanish American poetic genre that imitates the payadas (“ballads”) traditionally sung to guitar accompaniment by the wandering gaucho minstrels of Argentina and Uruguay. By extension, the term includes the body of South American literature that treats the way of life and philosophy of the itinerant gauchos. Long a part of South American folk literature, gaucho

Merck, Johann Heinrich

2005-03-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

After studying law at Giessen, Merck was appointed first a paymaster at Darmstadt and later an official in the war department for the court of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Ma-ubin

2005-03-17T13:37:00.000-08:00

Town, southern Myanmar (Burma). The town is a river port on the west bank of the main Irrawaddy distributary and is protected by flood-control embankments. It is linked with Yangon (Rangoon), 40 miles (65 km) east, by the Twante Canal and is the site of a diesel electric plant. The surrounding area occupies a largely swampy portion of the Irrawaddy River delta. It has a southern coastline

Selangor Civil War

2005-03-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

Following the disputed recognition of Abdul Samad as sultan in 1860, Malay chiefs gradually became polarized into two camps—generally the lower-river versus the upper-river chiefs. The main issue concerned the lucrative

John

2005-03-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

The son of Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Flanders, John was born in the ducal castle at Rouvres, where he spent the greater part of his childhood. In 1385 he married Margaret of Bavaria, and in the following decade

Cancer, DNA repair defects

2005-03-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

Defects in two mismatch repair genes, called MSH2 and MLH1

Kara-e

2005-03-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

The style was employed in the Nara (645–794) and Heian (794–1185) periods. In spite of the increasing popularity of Yamato-e, an evolving native style of painting, Kara-e was practiced throughout the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, though its use was confined to official and

Zamia

2005-03-14T18:06:00.000-08:00

A genus of 30 or more species of cycads (family Cycadaceae), small, stocky, fern-like plants native to tropical and subtropical America. They have a turniplike, mostly underground stem that in some species reaches 3 m (10 feet) or more in height. A starchy food is obtained from the crushed roots and stems of certain species, among them coontie, or comfortroot (Z. floridana), found in

Ahmed, Fakhruddin Ali

2005-03-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

The son of an army doctor from Assam, Ahmed was educated in India and studied history at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1927. After returning to India, he was elected to the Assam legislature (1935). As Assam's minister of finance and revenue in 1938, he was responsible for some radical taxation measures.

Midas

2005-03-14T00:35:00.000-08:00

According to the myth, Midas captured Silenus, the

Landa, Diego De

2005-03-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

Landa was born to a noble family and when quite young joined the Franciscans (1541). His religious fervour manifested itself early, and he asked to be sent as a missionary to the New World. Once in Mexico he tried to help the Indians, who

Korea Bay

2005-03-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

Korea Bay receives three of the major rivers of North Korea—the Yalu (which rises on Mount Paektu and forms much of the China–North Korea border), the Ch'ongchon, and the Taedong—in addition to a number of China's smaller rivers. The bay

Conservative Party

2005-03-12T03:25:00.000-08:00

Byname Tories in the United Kingdom, a political party whose guiding principles include the promotion of private property and enterprise, the maintenance of a strong military, and the preservation of traditional cultural values and institutions. Since World War I the Conservative Party and its principal opponent, the Labour Party, have dominated British political life.

Perspective Scenery

2005-03-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

In theatre, scenery and the scene design technique that represents three-dimensional space on a flat surface, creating an illusion of reality and an impression of distance. Developed during the Italian Renaissance, perspective scenery applied the newly mastered science of linear perspective and brought the craft of illusion to the Italian stage. An initial

Pachycephalosaurus

2005-03-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Genus of large and unusual dinosaurs found as fossils in deposits of North America dating to the Late Cretaceous Epoch (97.5 to 66.4 million years ago). Pachycephalosaurus,which grew to be about 5 m (16 feet) long, was a biped with strong hind limbs and much less developed forelimbs. The unusual and distinctive feature of Pachycephalosaurusis the high, domelike skull formed by a

Dinosaur, Pachycephalosauria

2005-03-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

In important respects the pachycephalosaurs conformed to the basic ornithopod body plan, and there is some evidence that pachycephalosaurs actually evolved from (and are therefore members of) ornithopods, perhaps similar to hypsilophodontids. All of them appear to have been bipedal. They bore the typical ornithopod ossified tendons along the back, and they

Ducetius

2005-03-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

A Hellenized leader of the Siculi, an ancient people of Sicily, who for a short time welded the native communities of east Sicily into a powerful federation. He seized his opportunity during the confusion that followed the collapse of tyranny in Syracuse and other Sicilian states in 460. Enjoying the goodwill of the Syracusan democracy, he enlisted its help in driving

Pachacamac

2005-03-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

Large pre-Columbian ruin located in the Lurin Valley on the central coast of present-day Peru. The earliest major occupation and construction of Pachacamac dates to the Early Intermediate Period (c. 200 BC–AD 600) and to a culture generally known as Early Lima (Maranga, Interlocking style). The terraced adobe pyramid and temple known as the Temple of Pachacamac belongs to this time

China, KMT opposition to radicals

2005-03-10T06:59:00.000-08:00

The two parties competed for direction of nationalist policy, control of mass organizations, and recruitment of new members. Under Comintern coaching, the Communist strategy was to try to split the KMT, drive out its conservative members, and turn it to an ever more radical course. In August 1925, KMT conservatives in Canton tried to stop the leftward trend. One of the strongest

Wiener, Norbert

2005-03-09T02:35:00.000-08:00

Wiener, a child prodigy whose education was controlled by his father, a professor of Slavonic languages and literature

Eusebius Of Laodicea

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

When Alexandria was besieged in 262 by troops of Valerian's successor and son, Gallienus,

Silistra

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

Town, extreme northeastern Bulgaria, on the Danube River opposite Romania. To the south and southeast are the remains of the old fortifications. The Romans founded a fortified camp at Durostorum in the early 2nd century AD. The Turks gained possession of the town in the early 15th century, and it became a trade centre and a major Turkish fortress. It was fought over several

Disco

2005-03-07T05:37:00.000-08:00

Initially ignored by radio, disco received its first significant exposure in deejay-based underground clubs that catered to black, gay, and

Rushworth, John

2005-03-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

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

Thomas, Saint

2005-03-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Thomas' character is outlined in The Gospel

Wesleyan Church

2005-03-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

U.S. Protestant church, organized in 1968 by the merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church. The Wesleyan Methodist Church originated in 1843 after members of the Methodist Episcopal Church withdrew from that church to organize a nonepiscopal, antislavery church. The Pilgrim Holiness Church originated in 1897 by uniting several Holiness

Cospicua

2005-03-06T05:28:00.000-08:00

Town, eastern Malta, one of the Three Cities (the others being Senglea and Vittoriosa), at the head of Dockyard Creek, just south of Valletta across Grand Harbour. It developed as a suburb of Vittoriosa in the mid-16th century and was a thriving settlement (known as Bormla) before it was severely damaged by the Turks in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. It was rebuilt and refortified

Applied Logic

2005-03-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

The applications of logic cover a vast range, relating

Sundarbans

2005-03-04T04:52:00.000-08:00

Formerly Sunderbunds, vast tract of forest and saltwater swamp forming the lower part of the Ganges Delta, extending about 160 miles (260 km) along the Bay of Bengal from the Hooghly River Estuary (India) to the Meghna River Estuary in Bangladesh. The whole tract reaches inland for 60–80 miles (100–130 km). A network of estuaries, tidal rivers, and creeks intersected by numerous channels, it encloses flat, marshy islands

Spa

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

The practice of “taking the waters” for therapeutic purposes reached its heyday in the 19th century, but springs have been considered places of healing at many

Delos

2005-03-03T21:36:00.000-08:00

Since 1873 the École

International Relations, Strategic bombing

2005-03-03T16:39:00.000-08:00

Allied strategic bombing was the most deadly form of economic warfare ever devised and showed another side of the indiscriminateness of industrial war. But in mid-1941 the British Chiefs of Staff soberly concluded that morale, not industry, was Germany's most vulnerable point and ordered Sir Arthur Harris of the RAF Bomber Command to concentrate on “area bombing” of

Top Moss

2005-03-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Common species of urn moss (q.v.).

Bingo

2005-03-02T00:36:00.000-08:00

To play bingo, which is a form of lottery, each player purchases one or more cards divided into numbered and blank squares. Randomly chosen numbers, usually up to 75 or 90, are

Judaism, The making of the Kabbala (c. 11501250)

2005-03-01T04:10:00.000-08:00

It was in these circumstances that, starting around 1150, manifestations of markedly theosophic ideologies appeared in the south of present-day France (in the regions of Provence–Languedoc–Roussillon). Two types can be distinguished at the outset, which are very different as to their manner of appearance, their form, and their content.

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint, Theological treatises

2005-02-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

Scriptum super IV libros Sententiarum (1254–56); De veritate (1256–59); Summa contra gentiles (c. 1258–64; On the Truth of the Catholic Faith, 1955); Summa theologiae (1265 or 1266–73; incomplete); De potentia Dei (1259–68; On the Power of God, 1932–34); De malo (undated; On Free Choice); De spiritualibus creaturis (undated; On Spiritual Creatures, 1949); De anima (undated; The Soul, 1949); De unione Verbi incarnati (undated); De virtutibus (1269–72; On the Virtues in General, 1951).

Yamim Nora'im

2005-02-28T06:31:00.000-08:00

English High Holy Days in Judaism, the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana (on Tishri 1 and 2) and Yom Kippur (on Tishri 10), in September or October. Though the Bible does not link these two major festivals, the Talmud does. Consequently, yamim nora'im is sometimes used to designate the first 10 days of the religious year: the three High Holy Days, properly so-called, and also the days between. The entire 10-day period

Arrupe, Pedro

2005-02-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

Arrupe studied medicine at the University of Madrid, but, after witnessing the poverty in that city, he left school to join the Jesuits in 1927. When the Spanish government dissolved the Jesuit order in Spain in 1932, Arrupe continued his religious studies elsewhere in Europe and in the United States,

Sorites

2005-02-27T09:20:00.000-08:00

In syllogistic, or traditional, logic, a chain of successive syllogisms—or units of argument that pass from two premises (a major and then a minor) to a conclusion—in the first figure (i.e., with the middle, or repeated, term as the subject of the major and the predicate of the minor premise)—so related that either the conclusion of each (except the last) is the minor premise of

Abdul Razak Bin Hussein, Tun Haji

2005-02-26T03:48:00.000-08:00

A lawyer by training, Abdul Razak joined the civil service in 1950, entered politics in 1955, and was a key figure in gaining his country's independence from Britain in 1957. As deputy prime minister and defense minister (1957–70) and as minister

Mindszenty, József

2005-02-25T06:54:00.000-08:00

Politically active from the time of his ordination as a priest in 1915, Mindszenty was arrested as an enemy of totalitarian

Traherne, Thomas

2005-02-25T01:34:00.000-08:00

The son of a shoemaker, Traherne was educated at the University of Oxford, ordained in 1660, and presented in 1661 to the living of Credenhill, which he held until 1674. From 1669 to 1674 Traherne lived in London and Teddington, serving as chaplain to Sir Orlando

Ucicky, Gustav

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

Ucicky began his career as a cameraman with director Michael Curtiz. He moved to Germany in 1928 and became involved in the state-subsidized studio UFA. His early movies, such as Hocuspocus (1929) and Der unsterbliche

Pará River

2005-02-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Portuguese Rio Pará, channel of the Amazon delta that passes to the south and east of Marajó Island, in northeastern Pará state, northern Brazil. It carries a small part of the discharge of the Amazon River eastward and northward to the Atlantic Ocean, off Cape Maguarinho. Its width varies from 5 to 40 miles (8 to 65 km), and its entire 200-mile (320-kilometre) length is navigable. Because it receives the Tocantins

Arts, Islamic, Arabic: language of the Qur'an

2005-02-24T04:58:00.000-08:00

The area of Islamic culture extends from western Africa to Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines; but its heartland is Arabia, and the prime importance and special authority of the Arabic language was to remain largely unquestioned after the spread of Islam. The Arabic poetry of pre-Islamic Arabia was regarded for centuries afterward as the standard model for all

Zion

2005-02-23T15:23:00.000-08:00

In the Old Testament, the easternmost of the two hills of ancient Jerusalem. It was the site of the Jebusite city captured by David, king of Israel and Judah, in the 10th century BC (2 Samuel 5:6–9) and established by him as his royal capital. Some scholars believe that the name also belonged to the “stronghold of Zion” taken by David (2 Samuel 5:7), which may have been the fortress of the city. The

Skalkottas, Nikos

2005-02-23T00:19:00.000-08:00

Skalkottas began violin studies at the age of five, continuing them later at the Athens conservatory and in Berlin, where he also studied composition. Influenced by Schoenberg, with whom he studied (1927–31), he began using the 12-tone method in his compositions but adhered to traditional forms.

Dance Suite

2005-02-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

Musical arrangement consisting of related dance movements. See suite.

Pacific Islands

2005-02-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

Geographic region of the Pacific Ocean. The term is commonly accepted as including all of those islands in the Pacific that are collectively referred to as Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, also sometimes known as Oceania. This usage rules out the Australian island continent, the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine, and Japanese archipelagoes, and the Ryukyu,

Anthony, William Arnold

2005-02-22T04:33:00.000-08:00

After studying at Brown (Providence, R.I.) and Yale universities, Anthony taught physics and chemistry at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio (1867–69); Iowa State Agricultural College, Ames (1869–72); Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. (1872–87); and Cooper Union, New York City (1894–1908). While

López Portillo, José

2005-02-20T08:48:00.000-08:00

López Portillo attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Chile. He then practiced law and later was professor of law, political science, and public administration at the National University of Mexico before

Tsitsihar

2005-02-19T21:47:00.000-08:00

The site was originally settled by nomadic Tungus and Daghur herdsmen, who called it Pu-k'uei (a Daghur word meaning “frontier”). A settlement was also said to have been established there under the Mongols in 1333, but the town remained small

Mussato, Albertino

2005-02-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

Mussato earned his living as a copyist while studying for the profession of notary. He was knighted in 1296 and, after becoming a member of the Council of Padua, was sent in 1302 as ambassador to Pope Boniface VIII. In 1311 he

Denison University

2005-02-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Granville, Ohio, U.S. It offers an undergraduate curriculum in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and fine arts. Many students participate in off-campus study programs such as engineering in cooperation with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and forestry in cooperation with Duke

Dwarka

2005-02-19T03:46:00.000-08:00

Town, southwestern Gujarat state, west-central India. It lies on the western shore of the Okhamandal Peninsula, a small western extension of the Kathiawar Peninsula. Dwarka, or the “City of Many Gates” (Sanskrit: Dvaraka, or Dvaravati), is also known as Jagat, or Jigat. Dwarka was the legendary capital of the god Krishna, who founded it after his flight from Mathura. Its consequent sanctity

Beecher, Lyman

2005-02-18T17:21:00.000-08:00

A graduate of Yale in 1797, he held pastorates at Litchfield, Conn., and at Boston, during which he opposed rationalism, Catholicism, and the liquor traffic. Turning his attention to evangelizing the West, he became president of the newly founded Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati,

Araliaceae

2005-02-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

The ginseng family of flowering plants, in the order Apiales, comprising approximately 700 species centred in Southeast Asia and tropical America. Most members are shrubs or trees, though there are a number of climbers and a few herbs. The family has large, usually alternate, compound leaves, five-parted flowers arranged in compound umbels (flat-topped clusters), and a

Beachy Head

2005-02-17T00:18:00.000-08:00

Prominent headland on the English Channel coast in the administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, in the borough of Eastbourne. Its chalk cliffs, more than 500 ft (150 m) high, represent the seaward extension of the South Downs. The cliffs face southward and are therefore subjected to severe gales from the southwest. Erosion is concentrated along

Antarctica, Relief

2005-02-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

Effects of glacial erosion and deposition dominate

Laos, Drainage

2005-02-15T16:20:00.000-08:00

The general slope of the land in Laos is downhill from east to west, and all the major rivers—the Tha, Beng, Ou, Ngum, Kading, Bangfai, Banghiang, and Kong—are tributaries of the Mekong (Lao: Mènam Khong). The Mekong flows generally southeast and south along and through western Laos and forms its boundary with Myanmar and most of the border with Thailand. The course of the river

Dzierzoniów

2005-02-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

German Reichenbach, city, Walbrzych województwo (province), southwestern Poland, on the Pilawa River. The community was founded as Reichenbach in the 12th century and received town rights in the 13th. The Duke of Ziebice (Münsterberg) pledged the town to Bohemia (1335), whence it passed to the Habsburgs. In 1742 it was surrendered, with Silesia, to Prussia; it returned to Poland in 1945 and was renamed for the Polish

Adderley, Cannonball

2005-02-13T21:45:00.000-08:00

Byname of Julian Edwin Adderley one of the most prominent and popular American jazz musicians of the 1950s and '60s whose exuberant music was firmly in the bop school but which also employed the melodic sense of traditional jazz. A multi-instrumentalist, Adderley is best-known for his work on alto saxophone and for his recordings with Miles Davis and with

War Of The Sons Of Light Against The Sons Of Darkness, The

2005-02-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

Hebrew Megillat Milhamat B'ne, or Beb'ne Hoshekh, also called War Rule, or War Scroll, a Dead Sea Scroll, and one of the most important documents of the Essene sect of Jews that established a community at Qumran in the Judaean desert during the first half of the 2nd century BC. The Essenes thought themselves to be the holy elect of Israel, the Sons of Light, who would at the end of time engage in a catastrophic war with the enemies of Israel, the Sons of

John Bar Qursos,

2005-02-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

A soldier before becoming a monk, John was made bishop in 519 and undertook the spread of a doctrine of Christ's person and work common to Syrian and Egyptian monasticism, a belief derived from a beatifying inner experience of

Shih Huang-ti

2005-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Shi Huangdi , personal name (hsing-ming) Chao Cheng emperor of the Ch'in dynasty (221–210/209 BC) and creator of the first unified Chinese empire (which collapsed, however, about four years after his death).

Anquetil-duperron, A(braham)-h(yacinthe)

2005-02-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

At the University of Paris, Anquetil mastered Hebrew as his first Eastern language; later, he added Persian and

Zoe

2005-02-11T01:41:00.000-08:00

Also called Brotherhood of Theologians in Eastern Orthodoxy, a semimonastic Greek association patterned on Western religious orders. Founded in 1907 by Eusebius Matthopoulos, Zoe (Greek: “Life”) brought together groups of more than 100 unmarried and highly disciplined members, bound by the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; approximately half of the brothers were ordained priests, and the rest

Intef Ii

2005-02-11T00:56:00.000-08:00

In 2065 BC Intef II succeeded his father, who had declared his independence of the Heracleopolitans and gathered the five southernmost nomes (administrative

Kamaishi

2005-02-10T14:00:00.000-08:00

City, Iwate Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, facing Kamaishi Bay on the Pacific Ocean. Kamaishi was a small fishing village until magnetite was discovered in the area in 1727, and Japan's first European-style blast furnace was constructed in the city in 1857. In 1885 a government-controlled iron foundry was built using coal from Hokkaido and later using ore from China after the Sino-Japanese

War Hawk

2005-02-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

In U.S. history, any of the expansionists primarily composed of young Southerners and Westerners elected to the U.S. Congress in 1810, whose territorial ambitions in the Northwest and Florida inspired them to agitate for war with Great Britain. The War Hawks, who included such future political leaders as Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, fiercely and aggressively resented

Flogging

2005-02-08T14:27:00.000-08:00

A beating administered with a whip or rod, usually on the person's back. Flogging was once a common method of punishing criminals and of preserving discipline in the home, school, armed forces, and prisons. In the Mosaic code flogging was a punishment for crime. Slaves in the ancient world were frequently flogged to death when they were sufficiently numerous to be of

Sacramento River

2005-02-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

River rising in the Klamath Mountains, near Mt. Shasta (in Siskiyou County), northern California, U.S., and flowing 382 mi (615 km) south-southwest between the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges, through the northern section (Sacramento Valley) of the Central Valley; it forms a common delta with the San Joaquin River before entering the north arm of San Francisco Bay. Its principal

Peninsular

2005-02-08T01:36:00.000-08:00

Spanish peninsular , plural peninsulares , also called gachupín , or chapetón any of the colonial residents of Latin America from the 16th through the early 19th century who had been born in Spain. The name refers to the Iberian Peninsula. Among the American-born in Mexico the peninsulars were contemptuously called gachupines (“those with spurs”) and in South America, chapetones (“tenderfeet”). They enjoyed the special favour of the Spanish crown and

Connors, Jimmy

2005-02-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

Connors learned to play tennis from his mother at an early age, and when he was eight years old he competed in the U.S. boys' championship. A former student at the University of California at Los Angeles, he joined team tennis in 1972. In 1974 he won three of the Big Four tournaments

Utzon, Jørn

2005-02-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Utzon studied at the Copenhagen School of Architecture (1937–42) and then spent three years in Stockholm, where he came under the influence of the Swedish architect Erik Gunnar Asplund. He also studied in the United States, and, for a six-month