FoolishSeed

Zambia

2005-04-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

Officially Republic of Zambia , formerly (1911–64) Northern Rhodesia landlocked country in south-central Africa. It has an area of 290,586 square miles (752,614 square kilometres). Zambia has a long land border on the west with Angola but is divided from its neighbours to the south by the Zambezi River. To the southwest is the thin projection of Namibian territory known as the Caprivi Strip, at the eastern end of which four countries (Zambia, Namibia, Botswana,

Nervous System Disease, Tumours

2005-04-05T05:52:00.000-07:00

Benign tumours, usually schwannomas on the vestibulocochlear nerve, may compress the cerebellum and lead to dysfunction on one side, but malignant astrocytomas and metastases from cancers are more common. In children, medulloblastomas are fast-growing malignant tumours that destroy the central part of the cerebellum and cause severe gait ataxia. Astrocytomas

Kuwait, Plant and animal life

2005-04-05T03:05:00.000-07:00

The harsh climate limits

Fabry, Charles

2005-04-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

Fabry joined the staff of Marseilles University in 1894. His early studies centred on light interference, in which a primary research instrument

Yerby, Frank

2005-04-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Yerby's story “Health Card” won the O. Henry Memorial Award for best first published short story in 1944. In 1946 his first novel, The Foxes of Harrow, was an immediate success. His novels are action-packed, usually featuring a strong hero in an earlier period. The stories unfold in colourful language

Kireyevsky, Ivan Vasilyevich

2005-04-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Born into an aristocratic family, Kireyevsky studied metaphysics in Germany in 1830. Upon his return to Russia he founded in 1832 a literary journal called Yevropeyets (“European”), which was banned

Janesville

2005-04-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1839) of Rock county, southern Wisconsin, U.S., on the Rock River, 37 miles (60 km) southeast of Madison. Settled in 1835 and named for a pioneer, Henry F. Janes (who later moved west to found Janesville, Minn., and Janesville, Iowa), it developed as a trading centre for a dairying, grain, and logging region. In 1919 General Motors Corporation opened a tractor factory, which became a Fisher Body

Ryleyev, Kondraty Fyodorovich

2005-04-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

Ryleyev came from a family of poor gentry. He served in the army, spending time in Germany, Switzerland, and France. After his return to Russia, he went to live in Voronezh province, where his impressions from abroad sharply contrasted with the

Korcula

2005-03-31T09:07:00.000-08:00

Italian Curzola, Greek Corcyra Melaina, island in the Adriatic Sea, on the Dalmatian coast, in Croatia. With an area of 107 square miles (276 square km), it has a hilly interior rising to 1,863 feet (568 m). The Greeks colonized it in the 4th century BC. Korcula was subsequently occupied by the Romans, Goths, Slavs, Byzantines, and Genoese; the kings of Hungary and Croatia and the Bosnian dukes resided there; and such powers as Russia, France,

Arabia, History Of, Ghassan

2005-03-29T17:22:00.000-08:00

The dynasty of the Ghassanids, though often called kings, were in fact Byzantine phylarchs (native rulers of subject frontier states). They had their headquarters well within the Byzantine Empire, a little east of the Sea of Galilee at Jabiyah in the Jawlan (Golan) area; but they controlled large areas of northwestern Arabia, as far south as Yathrib, serving as a counterpoise

Nervous System, Human, Facial nerve (CN VII or 7)

2005-03-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

From the facial nucleus in the pons, facial motor fibres enter the internal auditory meatus, pass through the temporal bone, exit the skull via the stylomastoid foramen, and fan out over each side

Waynesboro

2005-03-29T09:18:00.000-08:00

City, administratively independent of, but located in, Augusta county, north-central Virginia, U.S. It lies in the Shenandoah Valley along the South River, near the junction of Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, 28 miles (45 km) west of Charlottesville. The original settlement of Teesville, named for Joseph Tees, an early landowner, was established in 1739, based on a land grant

Clothing And Footwear Industry

2005-03-28T23:12:00.000-08:00

Also called apparel and allied industries, garment industries, or soft-goods industries, factories and mills producing outerwear, underwear, headwear, footwear, belts, purses, luggage, gloves, scarfs, ties, and household soft goods such as drapes, linens, and slipcovers. The same raw materials and equipment are used to fashion these different end products.

Silver Processing

2005-03-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

Although some silver-bearing ores contain silver as their largest metal value, virtually none has silver as its main constituent. A typical ore might contain 0.085 percent silver, 0.5 percent lead, 0.5 percent copper, and 0.3 percent antimony. After flotation separation, the concentrate would contain 1.7 percent silver, 10 to 15 percent lead, 10 to 15 percent copper, and 6 percent antimony. Approximately

'akko

2005-03-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Acre , or 'Akka city, northwest Israel. It lies along the Mediterranean Sea, at the north end of the Bay of Haifa (formerly Bay of Acre). Its natural harbour was a frequent target for Palestine's many invaders over the centuries. The earliest mention of 'Akko is in an Egyptian text dating from the 19th century BC. The Bible (Judges 1) states that the city did not fall to the Jews under Joshua and his

Blonde Lace

2005-03-26T23:32:00.000-08:00

Originally, bobbin lace made in France in the 18th century from unbleached pale beige Chinese silk. Subsequently, the term blonde was extended to cover lace made of bleached silk (white blonde) and black-dyed silk (black blonde). Blonde lace was made in France at Bayeux, Caen, and Chantilly in the mid-18th century and also in England (Dorset) c. 1754–80. Just before the Revolution of 1789, blonde

Philetaerus

2005-03-26T22:59:00.000-08:00

Philetaerus initiated the policies that made Pergamum a leading centre of Greek civilization in the East. He served under Antigonus I Monophthalmus, successor to Alexander

'abd Allah Ibn Al-'abbas

2005-03-25T00:57:00.000-08:00

In the early struggles for the caliphate, Ibn 'Abbas supported 'Ali and was rewarded with the governorship of Basra. Subsequently he defected and withdrew to Mecca. During the reign of Mu'awiyah he lived in the Hejaz, but frequently travelled to Damascus,

Aldrich, Robert

2005-03-24T16:52:00.000-08:00

Aldrich entered the motion-picture industry as a production clerk at RKO in 1941 and was made assistant director and production manager at Enterprise Studios in the late 1940s. After working with such directors as Jean

Cola Dynasty

2005-03-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

The legendary king Karikalan was the common ancestor through whom small Deccan and Andhra families called Cola or Coda claimed a connection with the Uraiyur

Ear Disease, Boil in the ear (furuncle)

2005-03-23T04:58:00.000-08:00

Infection of a hair follicle anywhere on the body is known as a boil, or furuncle. This can occur in a hair follicle in the outer-ear canal, especially when there is infection of the skin of the canal. It always occurs because of a particular type of germ known as staphylococcus. Because the skin of the ear canal is closely attached to the underlying cartilage, a boil in the

Kaema Highlands

2005-03-22T19:16:00.000-08:00

Korean Kaema-kowon tableland, northern North Korea. Called the roof of the Korean Peninsula, the Kaema Highlands are bounded on the north by Paektu Mountain (9,003 feet [2,744 m]), on the west by the Nangnim Mountain Range, on the east by the coast of the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and on the south by the northern tip of the T'aebaek Mountains. The heights rise 3,300–6,600 feet (1,000–2,000 m) and are approximately 15,500 square miles (40,000 square km)

Adams, Charles Francis

2005-03-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Charles Francis Adams (1900, reprinted 1980), is a biography by his son. A more recent work is Martin B. Duberman, Charles Francis Adams, 1807–1886 (1960).

Andrews, Dana

2005-03-21T14:58:00.000-08:00

A onetime accountant, Andrews in 1931 hitchhiked to Los Angeles, where he worked at various jobs before attracting notice with his first successful motion picture, The Westerner (1940). Some

Allende, Salvador

2005-03-20T19:09:00.000-08:00

Allende, born into an upper-middle-class family, received his medical degree in 1932 from the University of Chile, where he was a Marxist activist. He participated in the founding (1933) of Chile's Socialist Party. After election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937, he served (1939–42) as minister of health in the liberal leftist

Hesychius Of Alexandria

2005-03-19T22:54:00.000-08:00

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

World War I, Peace moves, March 1917September 1918

2005-03-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

Francis Joseph, Austria's venerable old

Ulan-ude

2005-03-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

The city's development was greatly stimulated when the Trans-Siberian

Iqbal, Sir Muhammad

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

Indian poet and philosopher, known for his influential efforts to direct his fellow Muslims toward the establishment of a separate Muslim state, an aspiration that was eventually realized in the country of Pakistan. He was knighted in 1922.

Andreanof Islands

2005-03-17T02:59:00.000-08:00

Group of the Aleutian Islands, southwestern Alaska, U.S. They lie between the Pacific Ocean (south) and the Bering Sea (north) and extend east-west for about 270 miles (430 km) between the Fox and Rat island groups. The Andreanof Islands were strategically important in World War II, and there is a U.S. military installation on Shemya Island.

Calasanz, Saint Joseph

2005-03-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

Calasanz also spelled Calasanctius, Italian San Giuseppe Calasanzio, Spanish San José de Calasanz priest, teacher, patron saint of Roman Catholic schools, and founder of the Ordo Clericorum Regularium Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum (Order of Poor Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools), popularly called Piarists. The Piarists are a teaching order that, in addition to the usual vows of

Irish Terrier

2005-03-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

Dog developed in Ireland, one of the oldest breeds of terriers. Nicknamed the “daredevil,” it has earned the reputation of being adaptable, loyal, spirited, and recklessly courageous. It served as a messenger and sentinel dog in World War I, and it has been used to hunt and to retrieve game. The Irish terrier is a sturdily built dog with racier lines than those of other terriers.

Pendentive

2005-03-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

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

Ventilating

2005-03-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

The hazards of poor ventilation were not clearly understood until the early

Cuman

2005-03-14T19:38:00.000-08:00

Hungarian Kun, member of a nomadic Turkish people, comprising the western branch of the Kipchak confederation until the Mongol invasion (1237) forced them to seek asylum in Hungary. During the 12th century the Cumans acted as auxiliary troops for the Russian princes and in that capacity clashed with Hungarian expeditionary forces; but, by the beginning of the 13th century, they had become

Aalen

2005-03-14T01:48:00.000-08:00

City, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southern Germany, on the Kocher River, at the northern foot of the Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Alps), 30 miles (48 km) north of Ulm. It originated around a large Roman fort, much of which remains; nearby are the remains of the Roman limes (frontier wall). It became a free imperial city in 1360 and was severely damaged by fire in 1634. It passed to Württemberg in

Australia, Overall characteristics

2005-03-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

Australia is a land of vast plains. Only 6 percent of the island continent is above 2,000 feet (600 metres) in elevation. Its highest peak, Mount Kosciusko, rises to only 7,310 feet (2,228 metres). This situation stems in part from the long periods of geologic time during which Australia has been subject to weathering and erosion and in part from Australia's position at the edge of a zone of significant

Rural Electrification

2005-03-13T00:54:00.000-08:00

Project implemented in the United States in the second quarter of the 20th century by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a federal agency established in 1935, under the New Deal, in an effort to raise the standard of rural living and to slow the extensive migration of rural Americans to urban centres; more than 98 percent of the United States' farms were equipped

Aleixandre, Vicente

2005-03-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

Aleixandre was the son of a railway engineer. He studied law and business management and from 1920 to 1922 taught commercial law. He became seriously ill in 1925 and during

Yerkes, Charles Tyson

2005-03-11T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yerkes started as a clerk at a Philadelphia commission broker, and by 1862 he was able to purchase his own banking house. In 1871 a stock exchange panic brought on by the Chicago fire found him unable to deliver money that he had received

Hinsley, Arthur

2005-03-11T01:39:00.000-08:00

Educated at the English College, Rome, where he was ordained in 1893, Hinsley subsequently held various academic posts in England, at Ushaw College, Durham (1893–97), and at St. Bede's

Gartok

2005-03-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Ka-erh-tu, Ka-ta-k'o, or (Pinyin) Garyarsa, town in the Tibetan autonomous ch'ü (region), western China. It is located at an elevation of 14,630 feet (4,460 m) at the foot of the Kailas Range on the Gar (Ka-erh) River, which is one of the headwaters of the Yin-tu (Indus) River. Gartok is an important route centre on the main road through the southern Tibetan region from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to Jammu and Kashmir. Historically Gartok

Arnhem Land

2005-03-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

Historical region of Northern Territory, Australia. It consists of the eastern half of the large peninsula that forms the northernmost portion of the Northern Territory. The region, with a total area of about 37,000 square miles (95,900 square km), consists of a ruggedly dissected plateau and associated lowlands lying between the Roper and Alligator rivers. The coast of Arnhem

Chatelaine

2005-03-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

Ornament, used by both men and women and usually fastened to belt or pocket, with chains bearing hooks on which to hang small articles such as watches, keys, seals, writing tablets, scissors, and purses. The word chatelaine is derived from a word meaning the keeper of a castle, thus the person entrusted with the keys. During the 18th century, chatelaines were particularly

Paraguaná Peninsula

2005-03-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

Spanish Península De Paraguaná, Falcón estado (“state”), northwestern Venezuela. It lies between the Caribbean Sea on the east and the Gulf of Venezuela on the west. Of low elevation, the peninsula has infertile soil and is sparsely populated, but the development of the petroleum industry, especially in the 1950s and '60s, gave Paraguaná great economic importance. Pipelines lead from the oil fields at Lake Maracaibo

Stratemeyer, Edward

2005-03-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

Stratemeyer worked as a store clerk and, on the side, began writing stories in imitation of those of Horatio

Dagda

2005-03-07T22:37:00.000-08:00

Also called Eochaid Ollathair (“Eochaid the All-Father”) , or In Ruad Ro-fhessa (“Red [or Mighty] One of Great Wisdom”) in Celtic religion, one of the leaders of a mythological Irish people, the Tuatha Dé Danann (“People of the Goddess Danu”). The Dagda was credited with many powers and possessed a caldron that was never empty, fruit trees that were never barren, and two pigs—one live and the other perpetually roasting. He also had a huge club that had the power both to kill men and to restore

Amorphous Solid, Amorphous semiconductors in electronics

2005-03-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Amorphous semiconductors, in the form of thin films prepared by methods such as that shown in Figure 4D, are important in applications requiring large areas of electronically active material. The first electronic application of amorphous semiconductors to occur on a large scale was

Esquirol, Jean-étienne-dominique

2005-03-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

A student of Philippe Pinel, Esquirol succeeded his distinguished teacher as physician in chief at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris in 1811, further developing Pinel's diagnostic techniques and

Gamboge

2005-03-06T03:32:00.000-08:00

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

Bonaparte, Lucien

2005-03-05T19:14:00.000-08:00

Educated in France, Lucien returned to Corsica in 1789 and became an outspoken speaker in the Jacobin Club at Ajaccio. He urged his brothers to break with the Corsican

Ahmad Sirhindi, Shaykh

2005-03-05T18:08:00.000-08:00

Shaykh Ahmad, who through his paternal line traced his descent from the caliph 'Umar I (the second

Pregnancy, Amniocentesis

2005-03-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

In the procedure of amniocentesis, amniotic fluid is aspirated (withdrawn) from the uterus by a needle inserted through a woman's abdomen, using ultrasound to circumnavigate the fetus and placenta. Spinal cord defects and a host of genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome and autosomal recessive diseases such as Tay-Sachs disease and cystic fibrosis can be

Waikiki

2005-03-04T07:13:00.000-08:00

Resort area, Honolulu county, on the southern coast of Oahu Island, Hawaii, U.S. Waikiki (Hawaiian: “Spurting Water”), the southeastern section of Honolulu, is on Mamala Bay between the Ala Wai Canal (north and west) and Diamond Head crater (southeast). Its beach, a tourist's mecca, is one of the best known in the world. Lined with luxury hotels, it is the focus of water-sports facilities

Arguin Island

2005-03-04T06:13:00.000-08:00

Island off the coast of Mauritania; it lies about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Cape Blanc, in a sheltered Atlantic inlet (Arguin Bay). The island (4 by 2.5 miles [6 by 4 km]) was incorporated into the newly independent Mauritania in 1960. Aridity and poor anchorage have prevented the establishment of permanent settlements on it, but the coastal reefs, known as the Arguin Banks, are major fishing

Gymnodinium

2005-03-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

Genus of marine or freshwater organisms called dinoflagellates. Members of the genus are bilaterally symmetrical with a delicate pellicle (or envelope) and disk-shaped chromatophores, which, when present, contain yellow, brown, green, or blue pigments. The genus is claimed by both botanists and zoologists, for, like all dinoflagellates, it has both plantlike and animal-like

Kwolek, Stephanie

2005-03-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

Kwolek's father, a foundry worker, died when she was 10 years old, and her mother raised her and a brother alone. In 1946 she received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the Carnegie

Marschner, Heinrich August

2005-03-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

Marschner studied law at Leipzig, but, encouraged by Ludwig van Beethoven, whom he met in Vienna in 1817, and others, he turned to composing. In 1820 his close friend Carl Maria von Weber produced Marschner's opera Heinrich IV und d'Aubigné at Dresden. Marschner was later appointed

Metamorphism

2005-03-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

Mineralogical and structural adjustments of solid rocks to physical and chemical conditions differing from those under which the rocks originally formed. Changes produced by surface conditions such as compaction are usually excluded. The most important agents of metamorphism include temperature, pressure, and stress. Equally as significant are changes

Romance Languages

2005-03-01T04:11:00.000-08:00

Group of related languages all derived from Vulgar Latin within historical times and forming a subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family. The major languages of the family include French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian, all national languages. Catalan also has taken on a political and cultural significance; among the Romance

Carloforte

2005-02-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

Only town on the small Isola di San Pietro (area 20 sq mi [52 sq km]), just off the southwest coast of Sardinia, Italy. The island is administratively part of Cagliari province. The town was named after Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, who resettled the island in 1738, after centuries of desertion, with Genoese fugitives from the North African island of Tabarka. It has an observatory, set

Eisenstein, Sergey Mikhaylovich

2005-02-28T05:12:00.000-08:00

Eisenstein, who was

Yogyakarta

2005-02-27T16:40:00.000-08:00

Most of the western half of the special district comprises coastal plains, as much as 15 miles (24 km) wide, consisting of lava and ash soils that are

Ghazan, Mahmud

2005-02-27T03:48:00.000-08:00

Ghazan's early childhood was spent largely in the company of his grandfather, the Il-Khan Abagha (1265–82), and he was brought up in the Buddhist faith that both his father and his grandfather professed. Upon his father's accession to the throne in 1284, Ghazan was appointed viceroy of the provinces of northeastern Persia, where he resided for the next 10 years and defended the frontier against

Earth, Seismic-wave velocity profiles

2005-02-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

The techniques of deep seismic sounding, carried out mainly in the United States and western Europe, have yielded high-resolution velocity profiles for the crust and uppermost mantle since the late 1960s. These studies, complemented by detailed waveform analyses and seismic tomography, prove conclusively that the crust and upper mantle can vary significantly in

Alexander Iii

2005-02-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

Russian in full Aleksandr Aleksandrovich emperor of Russia from 1881 to 1894, opponent of representative government, and supporter of Russian nationalism. He adopted programs, based on the concepts of Orthodoxy, autocracy, and narodnost (a belief in the Russian people), that included the Russification of national minorities in the Russian Empire

Cartier-bresson, Henri

2005-02-26T01:11:00.000-08:00

Cartier-Bresson

Rykov, Aleksey Ivanovich

2005-02-25T17:18:00.000-08:00

Rykov joined the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party at the age of 18, became a member of its Bolshevik wing, conducted revolutionary activities both inside Russia

Lentulus Crus, Lucius Cornelius

2005-02-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

In 61 BC Lentulus was the chief accuser of Publius Clodius on a charge of sacrilege at a festival. Lentulus was a praetor in 58. As consul in 49 he advocated the rejection of all peace terms offered by Caesar in his conflict with the Senate. On the outbreak of the Civil War

Tar

2005-02-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

(Iranian: “string”), long-necked lute descended from the tanbur of Sasanian Iran and known in a variety of forms throughout the Middle East and parts of Asia. Its name traditionally signified the number of strings employed—e.g., dutar (“two-strings”), setar (“three-strings”), and cartar (“four-strings”)—but this is no longer true, as the sitar of India has up to seven strings. The body of the tar

Daddah, Moktar Ould

2005-02-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

Mauritanian politician (b. Dec. 25, 1924, Boutilimit, French West Africa—d. Oct. 15, 2003, Paris, France), as Mauritania's first postindependence president (1961–78), secured international recognition and respect for the new country while he reconciled the varied interests of Mauritania's widely dispersed, partly nomadic, and religiously diverse Arab and black African populations. Daddah trained

Cap-de-la-madeleine

2005-02-23T18:15:00.000-08:00

Named after an abbot of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine-de-Châteaudun, France, the city was first settled in the 17th century but developed only after

Arales

2005-02-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

The Arales may share common evolutionary ancestors with the palm order (Arecales) and the Panama hat palm order (Cyclanthales) from the immediate ancestors

Denizli

2005-02-22T03:21:00.000-08:00

City, southwestern Turkey. It lies near a tributary of the Menderes River. Set among the gardens at the foot of Mount Gökbel (7,572 feet [2,308 m]), Denizli inherited the economic position of ancient Laodicea ad Lycum, 4 miles (6 km) away, when that town was deserted during wars between the Byzantines and the Seljuq Turks in the 12th century. By the 14th century, as Lâdik (Ladiq), Denizli had emerged

Alkaline Phosphatase

2005-02-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

Enzyme that is normally present in high concentrations in growing bone and in bile. It is essential for the deposition of minerals in the bones and teeth. Alkaline phosphatase deficiency is a hereditary trait called hypophosphatasia, which results in bone deformities. In severe cases, the deficiency leads to early death from infection. Alkaline phosphatase is

Cylinder Recording

2005-02-21T19:33:00.000-08:00

Earliest form of phonograph record, invented by Thomas A. Edison in 1877. The sound to be recorded was focused by a horn onto a diaphragm, causing it to vibrate; the vibrations were transmitted to a stylus and modulated its motion as it followed a helical path along the surface of a yielding material (such as wax) that coated a cylinder rotating under the stylus. See also phonograph

Levuka

2005-02-21T03:49:00.000-08:00

Town on the east coast of Ovalau island, central Fiji, South Pacific, and capital of Lomaiviti Province at the western edge of the country's Eastern Division. Settled by a U.S. adventurer in 1822, the area was the centre of a cotton boom during the U.S. Civil War (1861–65), when world cotton supplies were disrupted. Levuka was chosen as the capital of Fiji in 1874, when the islands were annexed by

Wurlitzer Family

2005-02-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

Rudolph Wurlitzer (b. Jan. 30, 1831, Schöneck, Saxony [Germany]—d. Jan. 14, 1914, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.), emigrated to the United States in 1853, settling in Cincinnati. He began dealing in musical instruments, which had been the traditional family business since the time of lute-maker Heinrich Wurlitzer (1595–1656). By 1861 he was no longer able to fill all

Biogeography

2005-02-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

Strictly speaking, biogeography is a branch of biology, but physical geographers have made important contributions, particularly in the study of flora. The classification of vegetation

Fisher, Irving

2005-02-19T07:31:00.000-08:00

Fisher was educated at Yale University (B.A., 1888; Ph.D., 1891), where he remained to teach mathematics (1892–95) and economics (1895–1935). In The Purchasing Power of Money (1911), he developed the modern concept

Jordan, Transjordan, the Hashimite Kingdom, and the Palestine war

2005-02-19T05:42:00.000-08:00

During World War I the Arabs joined the British against the Ottomans. In a revolt of 1916, in which they were assisted by Colonel T.E. Lawrence, the Arabs severed the Hejaz Railway. In July 1917 the army of Prince Faysal ibn Husayn (of the Hashimite dynasty) captured Al-'Aqabah, and by October 1918 Amman and Damascus were in Allied hands. In 1920 the Conference of San Remo in Italy created two mandates

Dyer, Mary Barrett

2005-02-18T23:56:00.000-08:00

Married in 1633 in London to William Dyer, Mary Dyer went with him to America (c. 1635) and settled in Boston. She began to accept the antinomian

Neptune

2005-02-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

Neptune's festival (Neptunalia) took place in the heat of the summer (July 23), when water was scarcest; thus, its purpose was probably the propitiation of the

Shih Huang-ti

2005-02-17T14:57:00.000-08:00

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).

Puff Daddy

2005-02-17T04:05:00.000-08:00

To the delight of his fans and the dismay of his critics, music mogul-producer-rapper Sean ("Puffy") Combs, aka Puff Daddy, remained in the forefront of the music industry in 1998. Although hip-hop devotees derided the self-aggrandizing showman for his creation of hit singles through the liberal "borrowing" of entire choruses of classic songs, most fans and many fellow musicians

Aalsmeer

2005-02-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

Gemeente (commune), Noord-Holland provincie, western Netherlands, 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Amsterdam, on the Ring Canal and Westeinder Lake, a remnant of Haarlem Lake. The older part of the town is on peaty soil at about sea level, surrounded by polders with loamy soil 9–15 feet (3–5 m) below sea level. Once known for its eels, whence its name (aal, “eel”; meer, “lake”), it is the flower-growing centre

Onomatopoeia

2005-02-16T03:09:00.000-08:00

The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz or hiss). Onomatopoeia may also refer to the use of words whose sound suggests the sense. This occurs frequently in poetry, where a line of verse can express a characteristic of the thing being portrayed. In the following lines from Sylvia Plath's poem “Daddy,” the rhythm of the

Jáchymov

2005-02-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

Spa town, Západoceský kraj (region), Czech Republic. It lies at the foot of Mount Klínovec, the highest summit in the Ore Mountains (Krušné hory), just north of Karlovy Vary. A silver-mining centre for the Holy Roman Empire, the town reached its peak in the 16th century, when its mines were owned by the counts of Šlik (German: Schlik). The German monetary unit taler, or thaler, from which

Photography, Portraiture

2005-02-14T06:34:00.000-08:00

A new style of portrait, introduced in Paris by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in 1854, was universally popular from 1859 onward. It came to be called the carte de visite because the size of the mounted photograph (four by 2 1/2 inches) corresponded to that of a calling card. Disdéri used a four-lens camera to produce eight negatives on a single glass plate. Each picture could be separately

Udine

2005-02-14T02:44:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Udine provincia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia regione, northeastern Italy. It lies northwest of Trieste, near the border with Slovenia. Possibly the site of a Roman frontier station called Utina, the city was the seat of the Roman Catholic patriarchate of Aquileia from 1238 until 1751, when the patriarchate was dissolved and replaced by the archbishoprics of Udine

Aesthetics, China

2005-02-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

Confucius (551–479 BC) emphasized the role of aesthetic enjoyment in moral and political education, and, like his near contemporary Plato, was suspicious of the power of art to awaken frenzied and distracted feelings. Music must be stately and dignified, contributing to the inner harmony that is the foundation of good behaviour, and all art is at its noblest when incorporated

Trade Agreement

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

For most countries international trade is regulated by unilateral barriers of several types, including tariffs, nontariff barriers, and outright prohibitions. Trade agreements

Belafonte, Harry

2005-02-12T03:39:00.000-08:00

Belafonte's parents were emigrants from the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Jamaica, and he lived with his mother during her 1935–40 return to Jamaica. He left high school to serve in the U.S. Navy in the mid-1940s; after returning to New York City he studied

Ectoderm

2005-02-12T03:09:00.000-08:00

The outermost of the three germ layers, or masses of cells, which appears early in the development of an animal embryo. In vertebrates, ectoderm subsequently gives rise to hair, skin, nails or hooves, and the lens of the eye; the epithelia (surface, or lining, tissues) of sense organs, the nasal cavity, the sinuses, the mouth (including tooth enamel), and the anal canal; and nervous

Factor

2005-02-12T02:58:00.000-08:00

In mathematics, a number or algebraic expression that divides another number or expression evenly, i.e., with no remainder. For example, 3 and 6 are factors of 12 because 12 ¸ 3 = 4 exactly and 12 ¸ 6 = 2 exactly. The other factors of 12 are 1, 2, 4, and 12. With the exception of 1, a positive integer or an algebraic expression that has only two factors (i.e., itself and 1) is termed prime; a positive integer or an algebraic

Charadriiform, Auks (suborder Alcae)

2005-02-11T20:58:00.000-08:00

Alcids breed in island colonies along Arctic and north temperate seacoasts, with the exception of a few murrelets that breed inland on mountains. Even these must remain within flying distance of the sea. The breeding behaviour of the pigeon guillemot (Cepphus columba) is fairly typical of the family. This species breeds on islands and coasts of the North Pacific,

Fu-ch'un River

2005-02-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

The westerly

Gaius

2005-02-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Caius Roman jurist whose writings became authoritative in the late Roman Empire. The Law of Citations (426), issued by the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II, named Gaius one of five jurists (the others were Papinian, Ulpian, Modestinus, and Paulus) whose doctrines were to be followed by judges in deciding cases. The Institutiones (“Institutes”) of the Byzantine emperor Justinian

Earth Sciences, Concepts of landform evolution

2005-02-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

The scientific exploration of the American West following the end of the Civil War yielded much new information on the sculpture of the landscape by streams. John Wesley Powell in his reports on the Colorado River and Uinta Mountains (1875, 1876) explained how streams may come to flow across mountain ranges rather than detour around them. The Green River does not follow some

Natchez Trace Parkway

2005-02-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

Old road and one of the most scenic highways in the United States, about 450 mi (725 km) long, following an Indian trail, or trace, northeastward from Natchez, Miss., across northwestern Alabama to Nashville, Tenn. Originally an Indian trail, from 1800 to 1820 it was the most important highway in the Old Southwest—militarily, economically, and politically. With the advent of the river steamer