AutomaticBranch

Yacht

2005-11-17T13:20:00.000-08:00

Sailboat races are held over two kinds of courses: point-to-point and closed. Most ocean racing is point-to-point, as in transoceanic races, global circumnavigation, the Bermuda Race (q.v.; first raced in 1906 from Newport to Bermuda), and the Transpacific Race (q.v.; first raced in 1906 from California to Hawaii). Such offshore races as the America's Cup and the Fastnet Cup (qq.v.) are closed

Ufj Holdings, Inc.

2005-10-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Japanese bank holding company that became one of the world's largest banking institutions through the merger of Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank, and Toyo Trust in 2001. With headquarters in Osaka, UFJ operates banks, issues credit cards, provides venture capital funding, and offers other banking and financial management services.

China, Literature

2005-07-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Chinese literature also shows conservative tendencies. Poetry composition remained a favourite pastime of the educated class, including the Sinicized scholars of Mongol, Central Asian, and western Asian origins, but no great works or stylistic innovations were created. During the last chaotic decades of the Yüan, some notable poets emerged, such as the versatile

Subgraywacke

2005-07-26T00:35:00.000-07:00

Dark-coloured sedimentary rock that contains from 65 to 95 percent free quartz, in grains 0.06 to 2 mm in diameter, held together by a matrix with a low mud content and often a high carbonate content. Some geologists favour a definition of graywacke (q.v.) that permits no more than 75 percent free quartz in the rock, and they thus would class as subgraywackes those rocks with (1) over 25 percent

Literature, Yiddish.

2005-07-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

Most of the Yiddish writings in 1997 appeared in the accessible form of short stories and sketches. Some, like Avraham Karpinovitsh's exciting tapestry Geven, geven amol Vilne ("There Was Once Upon a Time Vilna"), brought a wealth of memory to a retrospective--a reconstruction of the Jerusalem of the North. Yoysef Burg's companion volumes Tsvey veltn ("Two Worlds") and Tseviklte

2005-07-24T01:16:00.000-07:00

Rural Society

2005-07-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Society in which there is a low ratio of inhabitants to open land and in which the most important economic activities are the production of foodstuffs, fibres, and raw materials. Such areas are difficult to define with greater precision, for, although in nonindustrialized nations the transition from city to countryside is usually abrupt, it is gradual in industrialized

Space-time

2005-07-07T02:55:00.000-07:00

Common intuition previously supposed no connection between space and time. Physical space was held to be a flat, three-dimensional continuum—i.e., an arrangement of all possible point locations—to which Euclidean postulates

Andreini, Francesco

2005-07-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

Andreini began his career as a soldier but was captured by the Turks and held in slavery by them for several years. Upon his return to Italy,

Kadoma

2005-06-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

City, Osaka fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan, bordering Osaka city. The city is located on the left bank of the Yodo River and is known for its cultivation of lotus flowers. After the establishment of a railway connection to Osaka in 1909, industrialization was rapid. The Matsushita Electric Industrial Company moved to Kadoma in 1933 to establish factories producing electrical

Vaccine

2005-06-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

A vaccine can confer active immunity against a specific harmful agent by stimulating the immune system to attack the agent. Once stimulated by a vaccine, the antibody-producing cells, called B lymphocytes,

Tapestry, Ancient Western world

2005-06-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

Examples of tapestry weaving from the ancient world are so isolated and fragmentary as to make it uncertain either when or where the art originated. The earliest known tapestry weaving was done in linen by the ancient Egyptians between 1483 and 1411 BC. Preserved by the dry desert climate of Egypt, three tapestry fragments were found in the tomb of Thutmose IV. Two of the fragments

Baseball

2005-06-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Fukuoka Daiei Hawks of the Pacific League (PL) defeated the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League (CL) four games to one in the 1999 best-of-seven Japan Series. The team had last won the championship series title in 1964, as the Nankai Hawks. Hawks manager Sadaharu Oh, the world's home-run record holder (868), celebrated with the city of Fukuoka, which had awaited the crown for

Indonesian Literatures

2005-05-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

The poetry and prose writings in Javanese, Malay, Sundanese, and other languages of the peoples of Indonesia. They include works orally transmitted and then preserved in written form by the Indonesian peoples, oral literature recorded by Western anthropologists and ethnologists, and the modern literatures that began to emerge in the early 20th century as the result

Coherence

2005-05-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

A fixed relationship between the phase of waves in a beam of radiation of a single frequency. Two beams of light are coherent when the phase difference between their waves is constant; they are noncoherent if there is a random or changing phase relationship. Stable interference patterns are formed only by radiation emitted by coherent sources, ordinarily produced

Muwatallis

2005-05-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

Muwatallis was the son and successor of Mursilis II. Although Muwatallis' accession was unmarred by the customary flurry of revolts among the Hittite vassal states, a struggle with resurgent Egypt for the domination of Syria became imminent after Egypt reconquered Palestine and made the Orontes River

Diving Petrel

2005-03-15T23:23:00.000-08:00

Any of five species of small seabirds of the sub-Antarctic regions that constitute the family Pelecanoididae (order Procellariiformes). Although their nearest relatives are the storm petrels, shearwaters, and albatrosses, diving petrels differ from these long-winged forms and instead resemble the smaller auks of the Northern Hemisphere, a classic example of

Loran

2005-03-14T15:37:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation of �long-range navigation� system of navigation developed for marine and air navigation. Lines of position are determined by noting differences in time of reception of synchronized pulses from widely spaced transmitting stations, master and slave. A master station broadcasts an uninterrupted series of pulses of fixed duration and at a fixed rate (e.g., of 50 microseconds' duration at a rate

Helder, Den

2005-03-11T17:19:00.000-08:00

Gemeente (municipality) and port, Noord-Holland provincie, northwestern Netherlands, at the northern end of the North Holland Canal, opposite Texel Island on the Marsdiep, a channel linking the North Sea and Waddenzee. Offshore, in 1673, a Dutch fleet under Adm. Michiel A. de Ruyter and Cornelis Tromp defeated an Anglo-French fleet. In 1794 a French cavalry troop captured a Dutch

Simon, Paul

2005-03-06T05:17:00.000-08:00

One of the most paradoxical figures in rock-and-roll history, Simon exemplified many of the principles against which the music initially reacted. From his first big hit, �The Sounds of Silence,� in 1965, Simon aspired to a self-consciously elevated poetic tone in his days in the london marathon. Yes, I remember loving his dulcit tones and then having to remind myself what glue was.... oh how we digress and relive the occasion with fluid drifts of snow.

Oops

Mies Van Der Rohe, Ludwig

2005-03-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

Four years later, in 1937 - again after working mainly on projects that were never built - Mies moved to the United States. Soon after he arrived in the country, he gained an appointment as director of the School of Architecture at Chicago's Armour Institute (later the Illinois Institute of Technology). Mies served as the school's director for the next 20 years, and, by the time he

Byoir, Carl

2005-03-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

In high school Byoir was a reporter for the Iowa State Register, and by the age of 17 he was city editor of the Waterloo Tribune. He worked his way through the University of Iowa, went to work for the Hearst magazines, and by 1916 had become circulation

Abdominal Muscle

2005-03-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

The first three muscle layers

Kuwait

2005-03-02T23:54:00.000-08:00

In 2003 the Kuwaiti government supported international efforts to induce Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein to resign and leave Iraq voluntarily. When those failed, Kuwait supported the U.S.-led campaign against Iraq and allowed a massive military buildup by U.S. and British troops on its territory. These forces finally invaded and occupied Iraq in March and April. Afterward,

Vafiades, Markos

2005-03-01T01:07:00.000-08:00

Vafiades worked as a labourer in Istanbul and fled to Greece as a refugee in 1923. He became a communist in his teens and fought with the partisans against the Germans

Wyszynski, Stefan

2005-02-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

After study at Warsaw, Lomza, and Wloclawek, Wyszynski was ordained on his 23rd birthday, Aug. 3, 1924, and was assigned to the basilica at Wloclawek. After gaining a doctorate in sociology and ecclesiastical law at the Catholic University of Lublin, he studied further in France,

Palestine, History Of, Israeli Arabs

2005-02-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

In the years following the 1967 war, circumstances changed dramatically for Israeli Arabs. As a result of their resumed contact with the Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, they began to recover from their long period of inactivity. Following the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, Arab Israelis took a greater part in Israeli institutions. They also were significantly

Cabildo

2005-02-26T07:19:00.000-08:00

(Spanish: �municipal council�), the fundamental unit of local government in colonial Spanish America. Conforming to a tradition going back to the Romans, the Spaniards considered the city to be of paramount importance, with the surrounding countryside directly subordinate to it. In local affairs each municipality in Hispanic America was governed by its cabildo,

Afghan War

2005-02-25T18:47:00.000-08:00

The roots of the war lay in the overthrow of the centrist government of President

Byzantine Empire, The years of achievement to 540

2005-02-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

Justinian is but one example of the civilizing magic that Constantinople often worked upon the heirs of those who ventured within its walls. Justin, the uncle, was a rude and illiterate soldier; Justinian, the nephew, was a cultivated gentleman, adept at theology, a mighty builder of churches, and a sponsor of the codification of Roman law. All these accomplishments

Great Malvern

2005-02-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

Also known as �Malvern� town, Malvern Hills district, administrative and historic county of Worcestershire, England. Great Malvern was formerly the largest of several villages and hamlets on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills but has since grown to incorporate them. Malvern Chase, a medieval administrative entity, was granted to the earl of Gloucester by Edward I (reigned 1272 - 1307). Little

Leafy Liverwort

2005-02-22T21:04:00.000-08:00

Most leafy liverworts are found in moist habitats - in swamps and bogs and in damp forests,

Bradley, Omar N(elson)

2005-02-21T13:54:00.000-08:00

Bradley graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1915. He served as commandant of the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Ga.,

Ibn Qutaybah

2005-02-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Ibn Qutaybah's life. Of Khorasanian stock, he was qadi (religious judge) of Dinawar (c. 851 - 870). From c. 871 until his

Ear Disease, Frostbite

2005-02-19T16:16:00.000-08:00

The exposed position of the outer ear makes it the part of the body most frequently affected by freezing, or frostbite. Humidity, duration of exposure, and, most of all, wind, in addition to degrees of temperature below freezing, predispose to the occurrence of frostbite. The frozen area begins along the upper and outer edge of the ear, which becomes yellow-white and waxy

La Tuque

2005-02-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

Town, Mauricie - Bois-Francs region, southern Quebec province, Canada, situated on the Saint-Maurice River. During the French regime, the site was occupied by a trading post of the Company of New France. The original lumbering settlement of 1908 was named for a rock on the river's edge that was shaped like a tuque, the woolen headgear that was worn by early French trappers. The

Affective Fallacy

2005-02-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

Those who support the affective criterion

Vyasa

2005-02-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

According to legend, Vyasa was the son of the ascetic Parasara and the dasa (aboriginal) princess Satyavati and grew up in forests, living with hermits who taught him the Vedas (ancient

Iron Gate

2005-02-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

Romanian �Portile de Fier�, Serbo-Croatian �Gvozdena Vrata� the last gorge of the Djerdap gorge system on the Danube River, dividing the Carpathian and Balkan mountains and forming part of the boundary between Yugoslavia and Romania. It is about 2 miles (3 km) long and 530 feet (162 m) wide, with towering rock cliffs that make it one of the most dramatic natural wonders of Europe. Near the town of Sip a large rock reef (called Perigrada) obstructed

Cadmium Poisoning

2005-02-14T19:11:00.000-08:00

Toxic effects of cadmium or its compounds on body tissues and functions. Poisoning may result from the ingestion of an acid food or drink prepared in a cadmium-lined vessel (e.g., lemonade served from cadmium-plated cans). Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and prostration usually occur within 15 minutes after ingestion and subside within 24 hours. Inhalation of cadmium fumes in

Sudan, The, Transportation

2005-02-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

The transport system is underdeveloped and is a serious constraint on economic growth. The country's vast area and the availability of only one major outlet to the sea place a heavy burden on the limited facilities, especially on the government-owned Sudan Railways and on the country's growing road network. The railways had traditionally hauled most of The Sudan's

Nordic Council Of Ministers

2005-02-12T04:00:00.000-08:00

Organization of the Nordic states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden for the purpose of consultation and cooperation on matters of common interest. The Council was established in February 1971 under an amendment to the Helsinki Convention (1962) between the Nordic countries. It consists of the ministers of state of the member countries, as well as other ministers

Iambe

2005-02-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

French satiric verse form consisting of alternating lines of 8 and 12 syllables. The total number of lines is variable. Greek writers, especially Archilochus, used iambics as a vehicle for satire, but the name came into use as a French form in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when Andr� Ch�nier's �ambes and Auguste Barbier's Les �ambes were published.

Athens

2005-02-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1871) of Clarke county (with which it was consolidated in 1990), northeastern Georgia, U.S., on the Oconee River. Founded in 1801 as the seat of the University of Georgia (chartered 1785), it was probably named for Athens, Greece. The city grew with the university, was spared the destruction that accompanied Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia in 1864, and became

Arndt, Ernst Moritz

2005-02-08T13:12:00.000-08:00

Alfred G. Pundt, Arndt and the Nationalist Awakening in Germany (1935, reprinted 1968).

'abd Al-malik

2005-02-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

The best account of 'Abd al-Malik's reign is in J. Wellhausen, Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz (1902; The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall, 1927). Also useful are Sir William Muir, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall, new ed. (1924); and P.K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, 10th ed. (1970).

Hale, Lucretia Peabody

2005-02-06T01:31:00.000-08:00

Hale was an elder sister of minister and writer Edward Everett Hale and of journalist and writer Charles Hale, and with them she grew up in a cultivated family much involved with literature. In 1850 she and her brother Edward collaborated on a novel, Margaret Percival in America. She

Baseball

2005-02-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

Pocket-billiards game, named for the similarity in its scoring system to the American game played with bat and ball, in which players attempt to score runs by pocketing 21 consecutively numbered object balls, the number of runs scored corresponding to the total of the numbers on the balls pocketed. Players are allowed nine innings, in each of which they play until they

Murcia

2005-02-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Murcia provincia and comunidad aut�noma (�autonomous community�), southeastern Spain. It lies at the confluence of the Segura and Guadalent�n (Sangonera) rivers in a fertile, irrigated area known as the huerta (orchard land), northeast of Granada city. The site was settled before the Roman occupation of southern Spain in the 3rd century BC, but its name even

Fraser Island

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

Also called �Great Sandy Island, � island off the southeastern coast of Queensland, Australia, separated from the mainland and the port of Maryborough by Hervey Bay and Great Sandy Strait. About 75 miles (120 km) long, it has an area of 625 square miles (1,620 square km). Sand hills rise to nearly 800 feet (250 m), and there are many freshwater lakes stocked with fish. The southwestern part of the island is a tourist resort. Part of Fraser

Indigo Snake

2005-02-02T03:24:00.000-08:00

(Drymarchon corais), docile, nonvenomous member of the family Colubridae found from the southeastern United States to Brazil. It is the largest snake in the United States - record length is 2.8 metres (9.2 feet) - and one of the largest of all colubrids. In the United States its colour is blue-black; southward it may have brown foreparts, and in the tropics members

Mickiewicz, Adam

2005-02-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

Born into an impoverished noble family, Mickiewicz studied at the University of Wilno (now the V. Kapsukas State University of Vilnius, Lithuania) between

Hammami, Sa'id

2005-01-31T05:44:00.000-08:00

Hammami was born in Jaffa, but his family fled when fighting erupted following Israel's declaration of independence

Xaignabouri, Muang

2005-01-30T23:16:00.000-08:00

The uplands of the area in which Xaignabouri is situated are sparsely occupied by Miao (Meo, or Hmong) and Khmu peoples,

Faenza

2005-01-29T20:18:00.000-08:00

Latin �Faventia, � city, Ravenna provincia, in the Emilia-Romagna regione of northern Italy, on the Lamone River, southeast of Bologna. In the 2nd century BC it was a Roman town (Faventia) on the Via Aemilia, but excavations show Faenza to have had a much earlier origin. It was later subject to many barbarian attacks, became an independent commune at the beginning of the 12th century, and withstood

Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian

2005-01-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

After the death of his father (1799), Kerner worked in a cloth factory until he was able to study medicine at T�bingen. There he met Uhland and spent most of his time reading and writing poetry. He became

Offenbach

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

In full� Offenbach Am Main, � city, Hesse Land (state), west-central Germany, a river port (coal and oil) on the left bank of the canalized Main. First mentioned in 977, it was part of the imperial forest of Dreieich, and a mint was established there in 1407. Acquired by Count (later prince) von Isenburg-Birstein in 1486, it began its prosperity with an influx of Huguenot craftsmen in 1698 - 1703. Annexed to Hesse in 1816, it grew steadily

Atlantic

2005-01-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

County, southeastern New Jersey, U.S., bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Mullica River and Great Bay to the northeast, and the Tuckahoe River and Great Egg Harbor to the south. It constitutes a coastal lowland bisected by the Great Egg Harbor River, which runs through swampy ground. The coastal shoreline contains Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge,

Nachtigal, Gustav

2005-01-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

Explorer of the Sahara who helped Germany obtain protectorates in western equatorial Africa. After spending several years as a military surgeon, he went to Tunisia as physician to the bey (ruler) and took part in several expeditions to the interior. In 1869 the king of Prussia, William I, sent him on a mission

Moiseiwitsch, Benno

2005-01-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

His early training was with Dmitry Klimov in Odessa; Moiseiwitsch won the Rubinstein Prize at the age of nine. He studied with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna from 1904 to 1908, then joined his family in England, making

Baranovichi

2005-01-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Baranovici, � town, Brest oblast (province), Belarus, on the southern edge of the Novogrudok Hills. It developed from a small village in the late 19th century into a major railway junction, with lines to Moscow, Warsaw, and other eastern European centres. It has cotton, food-processing, and machine construction industries. Pop. (1991 est.) 166,700.

Adair, John

2005-01-22T00:29:00.000-08:00

Scottish surveyor and cartographer whose maps established a standard of excellence for his time and probably inspired the early 18th-century surveys of Scotland. Between 1680 and 1686 he completed maps of the counties adjoining the River Forth as well as charts of the Firth of Forth, the River Clyde, and the west of Scotland. Manuscripts of these are in the National

Constantine

2005-01-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

Proclaimed emperor by his army in Britain in 407, Constantine crossed to the European continent with a force of British troops; by the end of the year he controlled eastern Gaul. An army dispatched by Honorius laid siege to him in Valentia

Xenophon

2005-01-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

Greek historian, author of the Anabasis. Its prose was highly regarded by literary critics in antiquity and had strong influence on Latin literature.

China, Political history

2005-01-19T02:06:00.000-08:00

Ineptitude on the throne, bureaucratic factionalism at court, rivalries among Mongol generals, and ineffective supervision and coordination of provincial and local administration had gravely weakened the Y�an government by the 1340s. And in 1351 disastrous flooding of the Huang and Huai river basins aroused hundreds of thousands of long-oppressed Chinese peasants

Shamanism, Gods, spirits, and souls

2005-01-18T04:47:00.000-08:00

All three worlds are inhabited by spirits. Among the Mongolian and Turkish peoples, �lgen, a benevolent deity and the god of the Upper World, has seven sons and nine daughters. Among the Buryat of southern Siberia, Tengri (often identified with �lgen) also has children, the Khat's - the western ones being good and the eastern ones wicked. The gods of the Buryats number 99 and

Pacific Ocean, Environmental impact of human activity

2005-01-17T03:58:00.000-08:00

The Pacific Ocean is able to absorb, dilute, and disperse large quantities of human-generated wastes, but the increasing pace of economic activity - particularly the transport of crude oil and other hazardous substances - has led to measurable levels of pollution in some nearshore waters, especially close to ports and large coastal cities. At the same time, the loads

Animal Development

2005-01-16T22:32:00.000-08:00

The processes that lead eventually to the formation of a new animal starting from cells derived from one or more parent individuals. Development thus occurs following the process by which a new generation of organisms is produced by the parent generation.

Conservative Party

2005-01-15T01:44:00.000-08:00

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.

Avery, Byllye

2005-01-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

Avery studied psychology at Talledega (Alabama) College (B.A., 1959) and received an M.A. in special education from the University of Florida (1969). She devoted herself to the education of emotionally

Hood, Raymond M(athewson)

2005-01-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the �cole des Beaux-Arts (Paris), Hood gained national recognition in 1922 when the Neo-Gothic design submitted by John Mead Howells and his associate, Hood, won first prize in the Chicago Tribune

Furniture, Spain

2005-01-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

Because of the long occupation of Spain by the Moors, a style called Mud�jar evolved. While furniture in this style remained in form essentially European, decoration had an oriental flavour. A type of cabinet known as vargueno was typically Spanish. The upper part, in chest form, with drawers inside, had a fall front (a hinged writing surface that opened by falling forward),

Argentina, Per�n's legacy

2005-01-11T23:21:00.000-08:00

When Per�n died on July 1, 1974, he left to his widow a deeply compromised inheritance, yet the transition of power was smooth, and Isabel Per�n was sworn in as the world's first woman president. Under the influence of L�pez Rega, the government became even more inflexibly oriented toward the right, and violence reached new heights. L�pez Rega, who used the rightist crusade to

Cohen, Paul Joseph

2005-01-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

Cohen attended the University of Chicago (M.S., 1954; Ph.D., 1958). He held appointments at the University of Rochester, N.Y. (1957 - 58), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1958 - 59) before joining the Institute

Andalusia

2005-01-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

Andalusia has a long history. Agriculture and complex society had developed in the region by 4000 BCE. During the 9th century BCE the Phoenicians founded the coastal colony of Gadir (now C�diz), and by the 5th century BCE Carthaginians and Greeks had colonized the coast, while the indigenous Iberian peoples of the interior developed a rich urban culture. The Romans led by Scipio Africanus

Ford, John

2005-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

In 1602 Ford was admitted to the Middle Temple (a training college for lawyers), and he remained there, except for a period of suspension (1606 - 08), until at least 1617. He

Earth, The cause of plate motions

2005-01-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

Plates are thought to move in response to the movement of convection currents. These currents cause a vertical transfer of heat through a mass movement of material. In the Earth, the material that is moving vertically is mantle material, which contains about 5 percent magma between crystalline solids. This amount of liquid allows the mantle material to move more

Recidivism

2005-01-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

Tendency toward chronic criminal behaviour leading to numerous arrests and re-imprisonment. Studies of the yearly intake of prisons, reformatories, and jails in the United States and Europe show that from one-half to two-thirds of those imprisoned have served previous sentences in the same or in other institutions. The conclusion is that the criminal population

Alexander Of Aphrodisias

2005-01-05T02:57:00.000-08:00

Toward the end of the 2nd century, Alexander became head of the Lyceum at Athens, an academy then dominated by the syncretistic philosophy of Ammonius Saccas, who blended the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. Alexander's commentaries were intended

Priapea

2005-01-04T23:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Priapeia� poems in honour of the the god of fertility Priapus. Although there are ancient Greek poems addressed to him, the name Priapea is mainly applied to a collection of 85 or 86 short Latin poems composed in various metres and dealing with the fertility god who, with his sickle, protected gardens and vineyards against thieves and from whose axe-hewn image of figwood or willow

Mahmud

2005-01-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

In full� Yamin Al-daula Abu'l-qasim Mahmud Ibn Seb�ktigin � sultan of the kingdom of Ghazna (998 - 1030), originally comprising modern Afghanistan and northeastern modern Iran but, through his conquests, eventually including northwestern India and most of Iran. He transformed his capital, Ghazna, into a cultural centre rivalling Baghdad.

John George Iv

2005-01-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of his reign his chief adviser was Hans Adam von Sch�ning (1641 - 96), who counselled a union between Saxony and Brandenburg and a more independent attitude toward the emperor Leopold I. In accordance with this advice certain proposals were put before Leopold to which he refused to agree; consequently the

White, William Allen

2005-01-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

American journalist known as the �Sage of Emporia,� whose mixture of tolerance, optimism, liberal Republicanism, and provincialism made him the epitome of the thoughtful small-town American. His editorial writing made his own small-town newspaper, the Emporia Gazette, internationally known, and strongly affected at least one U.S. presidential

Norfolk Island

2004-12-31T05:34:00.000-08:00

Officially �Territory of Norfolk Island� external territory of Australia, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, 1,041 miles (1,676 km) northeast of Sydney. The island, with an area of 13 square miles (35 square km), is about 5 miles (8 km) long and 3 miles (5 km) wide. It is volcanic in origin, and its generally rugged terrain, with a mean elevation of 360 feet (110 m) above sea level, rises to Mount Bates (1,047 feet [319 m]) and Mount Pitt (1,043 feet [318 m]). Kingston, in the south, is the

Rockwell International Corporation

2004-12-30T20:20:00.000-08:00

The main company was incorporated in 1928 as North American Aviation, Inc., a holding company for a number of aviation companies, but it switched to aircraft manufacturing when it received a contract

Ch'iang-t'ang

2004-12-29T17:20:00.000-08:00

Pinyin �Qiangtang�, Tibetan �Byang Thang� enormous alpine basin in the northern part of the Tibetan autonomous ch'� (region), China. With an average elevation of more than 16,500 feet (5,000 m) above sea level, it lies between the Kunlun Mountains to the north and the T'ang-ku-la Mountains and A-ling Mountains to the south and stretches 800 miles (1,300 km) from the mountain complex called the Pamir Knot in the west to the region of the Tsaidam

K�rouan�

2004-12-28T14:05:00.000-08:00

Town and administrative capital of K�rouan� region, southeastern Guinea, West Africa, on the road from Beyla to Kankan. It is the chief trading town (rice, millet, cattle) for savanna lands inhabited mainly by the Muslim Malinke people. Local rivers have been an important source of alluvial diamonds since the 1950s, and the Simandou Mountains in the eastern part of the region

Esquire

2004-12-27T23:25:00.000-08:00

In England in the later Middle Ages, the term esquire (armiger) was used to denote holders of knights' estates who had not taken up their knighthood, and from this practice it became usual

Dissociation

2004-12-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, the breaking up of a compound into simpler constituents that are usually capable of recombining under other conditions. In electrolytic, or ionic, dissociation, the addition of a solvent or of energy in the form of heat causes molecules or crystals of the substance to break up into ions (electrically charged particles). Most dissociating substances

Eastern Orthodoxy, The reforms of Peter the Great (reigned 1682 - 1725)

2004-12-25T04:12:00.000-08:00

The son of Tsar Alexis, Peter the Great, changed the historical fate of Russia by radically turning away from the Byzantine heritage and reforming the state according to the model of Protestant Europe. Humiliated by his father's temporary submission to Patriarch Nikon, Peter prevented new patriarchal elections after the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700. After a long

Wage And Salary

2004-12-24T10:36:00.000-08:00

The bargaining theory of wages holds that wages, hours, and working conditions are determined by the relative bargaining strength of the parties to the agreement. Smith hinted at such a theory when he noted that employers had greater bargaining strength than employees, because it was easier for employers to combine in opposition to employees' demands and also

Joachim Ii Hektor

2004-12-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

The elder son of Joachim I, Joachim II was given the Old (Altmark) and Middle Marks of Brandenburg on his father's death

Moray

2004-12-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

Formerly called �Elginshire� council area and historic county of northeastern Scotland, extending inland from the southern shore of the Moray Firth. The council area and the historic county occupy somewhat different areas. Most of the historic county of Moray lies within the council area of the same name, but the southern portion of the county, including Grantown-on-Spey, is part of the Highland

Ear, Human, Vestibular system

2004-12-21T03:31:00.000-08:00

The vestibular system is the apparatus of the inner ear involved in balance. It consists of two structures of the bony labyrinth, the vestibule and the semicircular canals, and the structures of the membranous labyrinth contained within them (Figure 3).

France, History Of, Napoleon and the Revolution

2004-12-20T22:56:00.000-08:00

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

Blood Typing

2004-12-19T14:38:00.000-08:00

Classification of an individual's blood in terms of specific, distinctive antigenic characteristics that are inherited and are associated with the red blood cells. The ABO and the Rh blood groups (qq.v.) are among those most commonly considered. Identification of these determinants has become indispensable in connection with blood transfusion, because recipient

France, Banque De

2004-12-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

The bank listed among its founding shareholders Napoleon Bonaparte, members of his family, and several leading personalities of the time. Founded partly with state funds, but mainly with private

Walter Of Coventry

2004-12-17T02:10:00.000-08:00

Walter was not a historian or chronicler in his own right; he merely brought together the works of Marianus Scotus, Florence of Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, Roger of Hoveden, and

All-fours

2004-12-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

Each player is dealt six cards, three at a time. The top card of the remaining pack is then exposed to establish

Christian Vii

2004-12-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

The son of Frederick V, Christian VII came to the throne in 1766. His mental instability has been attributed to a brutal childhood governor and to morally corrupt court pages. After his 1766 marriage