KindHook

Samothrace

2005-11-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Modern Greek Samothráki, Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea off the Thracian coast, included in the nomós (department) of Évros. The 69-sq-mi (178-sq-km) island is geologically complex, consisting chiefly of ancient granites, clayey deposits, and softer volcanic materials. Hot springs are located near the north coast. Near its centre the island rises to 5,250 ft (1,600 m) in Korifí Fengári (Fenári Peak), the highest

Ligorio, Pirro

2005-07-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Italian architect, painter, landscaper, and antiquarian who designed the Villa d'Este at Tivoli (1550–69), which still stands in its original state. Built for Ligorio's patron, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, the villa has a planted landscape and a vast terraced garden with spectacular fountains leading up to the huge house. Ligorio also built the Casino

Binary Number System

2005-07-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

In mathematics, positional numeral system employing 2 as the base and requiring only two different symbols, 0 and 1. The importance of the binary system to information theory and computer technology derives mainly from the compact and reliable manner in which data can be represented in electromechanical devices with two states—such as “on-off,” “open-closed,” or “go-no

Mellitus Of Canterbury, Saint

2005-07-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Mellitus, a Roman and the son of a noble family, may have been the abbot of St. Andrew's monastery in Rome before he was summoned to the missionary field

Adams

2005-07-06T02:10:00.000-07:00

Town (township), Berkshire county, northwestern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies at the foot of Mount Greylock (3,491 feet [1,064 metres]), on the Hoosic River, 15 miles (24 km) north of Pittsfield. The town of North Adams is 5 miles north. Founded by Quakers in 1766, it was known as East Hoosuck until 1778, when it was incorporated and renamed for the Revolutionary War hero Samuel Adams. Local limestone and marble

Lowell, Amy

2005-06-29T02:35:00.000-07:00

Lowell came from a prominent Massachusetts family (her brothers were Abbott Lawrence Lowell, later president of Harvard, and astronomer Percival Lowell). She was educated in private schools and by her mother, and until she was 28 she did little but alternately live

Gyliakian Series

2005-06-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Major division of Cretaceous rocks and time in Japan (the Cretaceous Period began about 144,000,000 years ago and lasted about 77,600,000 years). Rocks of the Gyliakian Series overlie those of the Miyakoan Series and underlie rocks of the Urakawan Series. Two stages, the Upper and Lower Gyliakian stages, are recognized and represent shorter spans of time. Distinctive fossil cephalopods

Metastasio, Pietro

2005-06-03T04:30:00.000-07:00

In 1712, after receiving a good education from Gravina,

Zahir Shah, Mohammad

2005-05-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

The sons of Mohammed Nader Shah, Zahir Shah and his brothers reasserted central government control during a period of anarchy and banditry in the late 1920s. Zahir Shah came to the throne at the age of 19, after the assassination of his father in November 1933, having previously served as

Dürer, Albrecht

2005-05-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

Painter and printmaker generally regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His vast body of work includes altarpieces and religious works (see photograph), numerous portraits and self-portraits (see photograph, and copper engravings. His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse

Koroec, Anton

2005-05-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

A Jesuit priest and a noted orator, he shared, and exploited politically, the Slovene fear of Italian expansion; his dislike of Italy outweighed his distaste for Serb domination

Hughes, Ted

2005-03-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

The dialect of Hughes's native West Riding area of Yorkshire set the tone of his verse. At Pembroke College, Cambridge, he found folklore and anthropology of

Reproductive System Disease, Inflammatory conditions

2005-03-14T02:15:00.000-08:00

Balanitis, or inflammation of the glans penis, and posthitis, or infection of the prepuce, result from the retention of secretions and bacteria beneath the foreskin and can be prevented with good sexual hygiene. Balanitis can also develop as a complication of certain sexually transmitted diseases. Acute prostatitis, inflammation of the prostate gland, may be caused

Rand, Ayn

2005-03-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Rand graduated from the University of Petrograd in 1924 and two years later immigrated to the United States. She initially worked as a screenwriter

Connolly, Maureen Catherine

2005-03-07T05:18:00.000-08:00

Connolly began playing tennis at the age of 10. After a few months of training under a professional teacher, she entered her first tournament and in 1947 won the girl's 15-and-under

Furniture, France

2005-03-06T00:32:00.000-08:00

The Neoclassical style, sometimes called Louis Seize, or Louis XVI, began in the 1750s. Tiring of the Rococo style, craftsmen of the 18th century turned for inspiration to classical art. The movement was stimulated by archaeological discoveries, by travel in Italy, Greece, and the Near East, and by the publication, all over Europe, of works on the classical monuments. The Neoclassical

Florida Keys

2005-03-05T19:53:00.000-08:00

The keys

Endocrinology

2005-03-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

Medical discipline dealing with the role of hormones and other biochemical mediators in regulating bodily functions and with the treatment of imbalances of these hormones. Although some endocrine diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, have been known since antiquity, endocrinology itself is a fairly recent medical field, depending as it does on the recognition

Diplomatics

2005-03-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

The study of documents. The term is derived from the Greek word diploma, meaning �doubled� or �folded.� Besides the documents of legal and administrative import withwhich it is properly concerned, diplomatics also includes the study of other records such as bills, reports, cartularies, registers, and rolls. Diplomatics is therefore a basic and not simply an auxiliary

Ben Slimane

2005-03-02T16:59:00.000-08:00

The town is situated in a region of low plateaus and valleys that are intensely cultivated near the ocean; cereals (mostly wheat),

Bukowski, Charles

2005-03-01T23:33:00.000-08:00

Bukowski lived most of his life in Los Angeles. He briefly attended Los Angeles City College (1939 - 41) and worked at menial jobs while writing short stories, the first of which were published

Ibrahim M�teferrika

2005-02-26T01:21:00.000-08:00

A Hungarian by origin, Ibrahim converted to Islam and entered the Ottoman diplomatic service. He took

Vakataka Dynasty

2005-02-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

Indian ruling house originating in the central Deccan in the mid-3rd century AD, the empire of which is believed to have extended from Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra in the south and from the Arabian Sea in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east. The Vakatakas, like many of the contemporary dynasties of the Deccan, claimed Brahmanical origin. Little is known,

Bon

2005-02-24T02:32:00.000-08:00

Also called �Bon Matsuri, or Urabon, � one of the most popular annual festivals in Japan, observed July 13 - 15 (August 13 - 15 in some places), honouring the spirits of deceased family ancestors and of the dead generally. It is, along with the New Year festival, one of the two main occasions during the year when the dead are believed to return to their birthplaces. Memorial stones are cleaned, community dances performed,

New Hampshire Grants

2005-02-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

In the period before the American Revolution, the territory that subsequently became the state of Vermont. The area was initially claimed by New Hampshire, and the first land grant there was issued in 1749 by the first governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth. By 1764, 131 townships had been chartered. New York, which also claimed the territory, began issuing grants of its own

Caribbean Literature

2005-02-22T07:11:00.000-08:00

Literary works of the Caribbean area written in Spanish, French, or English. The literature of the Caribbean has no indigenous tradition. The pre-Columbian American Indians left few rock carvings or inscriptions (petroglyphs), and their oral traditions did not survive 16th-century Spanish colonization. The West Africans who replaced them were also without a written

Sol

2005-02-21T09:49:00.000-08:00

In physical chemistry, a colloid (aggregate of very fine particles dispersed in a continuous medium) in which the particles are solid and the dispersion medium is fluid. If the dispersion medium is water, the colloid may be called a hydrosol; and if air, an aerosol. Lyophobic (Greek: �liquid-hating�) sols are characterized by particles that are not strongly attracted to

Dab

2005-02-20T04:27:00.000-08:00

Other species

Arad

2005-02-19T19:49:00.000-08:00

Judet (county), western Romania, bounded on the west by Hungary. The Mures and Crisul Alb rivers flow westward through the county, while the Western Carpathians, including the Zarand and Codru-Moma ranges, lie in the eastern portion. Settlements are found in the lowlands and intermontane valleys. Cereal growing, livestock raising, and vineyard and fruit cultivation are

Iran, Ancient, Mithradates II

2005-02-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

The reign of Mithradates II, from 123 to 88 BC, constitutes the most glorious chapter of Parthian history. It put an end to the ambitions of Artabanus's son Himerus, left by his father as governor of Mesopotamia, and brought Hyspaosines, king of Mesene (Characene), who had extended his possessions too far toward the north, back into submission. In the east the Saka were on the move - soon

Hanamichi

2005-02-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

An integral part of the Kabuki

Indeterminacy

2005-02-16T03:56:00.000-08:00

In literature, the multiplicity of possible interpretations of given textual elements. The term was given its literary meaning by deconstruction theorists. Indeterminacy is similar to ambiguity as described by the New Critics, but it is applied by its practitioners not only to literature but also to the interpretation of texts.

Jaboat�

2005-02-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

City, eastern Pernambuco estado (�state�), northeastern Brazil, on the Jaboat�o River, 148 feet (45 m) above sea level and just west of Recife, the state capital. The site of two battles in the 17th-century war of the Portuguese against the Dutch, Jaboat�o was elevated to city status in 1884. It is now the commercial centre of an agricultural region in which cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, and rice

Elf Owl

2005-02-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

(Micrathene whitneyi), tiny bird of prey of the family Strigidae (order Strigiformes) of Mexico and the southwestern United States. It is the smallest owl and is about the size of a sparrow. In the cactus deserts, elf owls are among the most common birds, but they also inhabit forested areas, dry grasslands, and wet savanna. They nest in holes in cacti

Gaulish Language

2005-02-13T04:31:00.000-08:00

Ancient Celtic language or languages spoken in western and central Europe and Asia Minor before about 500. Gaulish is attested by inscriptions from France and northern Italy and by names occurring in classical literature. Modern knowledge of the vocabulary and sounds of Gaulish is slight, and its exact relation to the Celtic languages of Britain and Ireland is not

Taewon-gun

2005-02-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

As regent from 1864 to 1873, Taewon-gun inaugurated a far-ranging reform program to strengthen the central administration; he modernized and increased its armies and rationalized the administration. Opposed to any concessions to Japan or the West, Taewon-gun, though out of power, helped organize the anti-Japanese outbreak in 1882. Considered a troublemaker,

Nereid

2005-02-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

In Greek religion, any of the daughters (numbering 50 or 100) of the sea god Nereus (eldest son of Pontus, a personification of the sea) and of Doris, daughter of Oceanus (the god of the water encircling the flat Earth). The Nereids were depicted as young girls, inhabiting any water, salt or fresh, and as benign toward humanity. They were popular figures in Greek literature. The best

Votic Language

2005-02-10T05:15:00.000-08:00

Member of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family, very nearly extinct. The few remaining Votic speakers live in the border area between Estonia and Russia (a region in which pressures to speak Russian or Estonian are not so great as they are in places of easier access). See also Finno-Ugric languages.

Chad, Flag Of

2005-02-09T05:22:00.000-08:00

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

Chinese Cabbage

2005-02-08T22:14:00.000-08:00

Either of two widely cultivated members of the mustard family (Brassicaceae). Brassica pekinensis, also called celery cabbage, forms a tight head of crinkled light green leaves. One type, Michihli, or Tientsin, forms slender cylindrical heads about 45 cm (18 inches) tall. It has long been grown in the United States as a salad vegetable. Napa is similar, but

Palatka

2005-02-07T03:20:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1849) of Putnam county, northeastern Florida, U.S., on the broad St. Johns River, about 50 miles (80 km) south of Jacksonville. Beginning in the 17th century the area was used for cattle ranching, and the city site was a crossing point of the river. James Marver established a trading post (c. 1821) on the site of a Seminole village. The city's name came from Pilatka, a Seminole term meaning

Narni

2005-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

Latin �Narnia, � town, Terni provincia, Umbria regione, central Italy, situated on a hilltop above the Nera River. It originated as the Umbrian Nequinum (later Narnia, after the Roman conquest) and was the birthplace of Pope John XIII (10th century), the Roman emperor Nerva (1st century), and the condottiere Erasmo da Narni (15th century). The town's ruined castle dates from the 14th century; the Palazzo

Anthemion

2005-02-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Design consisting of a number of radiating petals, developed by the ancient Greeks from the Egyptian and Asiatic form known as the honeysuckle or lotus palmette. The anthemion was used widely by the Greeks and Romans to embellish various parts of ancient buildings. The Greeks originally decorated only pottery with the motif, but they soon adapted it to ornament

Rousseau, Henri

2005-02-04T01:07:00.000-08:00

Byname �Le Douanier (French: The Customs Officer) � French painter, archetype of the modern naive artist. He expressed himself mainly in richly coloured and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures (e.g., �The Sleeping Gypsy,� 1897, and �The Snake-Charmer,� 1907 [see photograph]). After exhibiting with the Fauves in 1905, he became an object of admiration to avant-garde

Insurance, Japan

2005-02-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

Insurance in Japan is mainly in the hands of private enterprise, although government insurance agencies write crop, livestock, forest fire, fishery, export credit, accident and health, and installment sales credit insurance as well as social security. Private insurance companies are regulated under various statutes. Major classes of property insurance written

Basenji

2005-02-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

Also called �Congo Bush Dog, or Belgian Congo Dog, � ancient breed of hound dog native to central Africa, where it is used to point and retrieve and to drive quarry into a net. It is also known as the barkless dog, but it does produce a variety of sounds other than barks. A graceful animal, it is characterized by an alert expression typified by the finely wrinkled forehead, erect ears, and tightly curled tail. The short, silky

Annealing

2005-02-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

Treatment of a metal or alloy by heating to a predetermined temperature, holding for a certain time, and then cooling to room temperature to improve ductility and reduce brittleness. Process annealing is carried out intermittently during the working of a piece of metal to restore ductility lost through repeated hammering or other working. Full annealing is done

Insurance, Underwriting principles

2005-01-31T17:41:00.000-08:00

Underwriting has to do with the selection of subjects for insurance in such a manner that general company objectives are met. The main objective of underwriting is to see that the risk accepted by the insurer corresponds to that assumed in the rating structure. There is often a tendency toward adverse selection, which the underwriter must try to prevent. Adverse

Team Handball

2005-01-30T03:47:00.000-08:00

A game consists of two 30-minute halves with an intermission,

Crofts, Freeman Wills

2005-01-29T00:35:00.000-08:00

Educated in Belfast, Crofts was a railroad engineer in Northern Ireland (1899 - 1929). During a long convalescence he wrote his first novel, The Cask (1920). Considered a classic

Rayburn, Sam

2005-01-28T22:12:00.000-08:00

Reared on a farm after his family moved to Texas, young Rayburn taught school

Bulgaria, Slavic invasions

2005-01-27T07:14:00.000-08:00

The story of the modern Bulgarian people begins with the Slavic invasions of the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, a time when Byzantium was absorbed in prolonged conflict with Persia and could not resist the incursions from the north. Ancient sources refer to two Slavic tribes north of the Danube at this time, the Slavenae and the Antae. Evidence suggests

Pacific Islands

2005-01-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Punjab

2005-01-25T03:30:00.000-08:00

Province of eastern Pakistan. It is bordered by the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to the northeast, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, Sindh province to the south, Balochistan and North-West Frontier provinces to the west, and Islamabad federal capital area and Azad Kashmir to the north. Punjab is Pakistan's second largest province, after

Dubbo

2005-01-24T22:47:00.000-08:00

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

Biblical Literature, Genesis

2005-01-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

This book is called Bereshit in the Hebrew original, after its first word (and the first word of the Bible), meaning �In the beginning.� It tells of the beginnings of the world and man and of those acclaimed as ancestors of the Hebrew people - all under the shaping action and purpose of God. The book falls into two main parts: chapters 1 - 11, dealing with the primeval history, and chapters

Dragasani, Battle Of

2005-01-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

(June 19, 1821), military engagement in which the Ottoman Turks defeated the forces of the Greek revolutionary society Philik� Etaire�a and ended the first insurrection of the Greek War of Independence. Intending to overthrow Ottoman rule in the Balkans and to establish an independent Greek state, Philik� Etaire�a sent the Sacred Battalion, under Alexander Ypsilantis,

Sinkiang, Uygur Autonomous Region Of, Settlement patterns

2005-01-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

There are five major cities in the province. Wu-lu-mu-ch'i,

Prix Renaudot

2005-01-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

French literary prize awarded to the author of an outstanding original novel published during the previous year. Named for Th�ophraste Renaudot (1586? - 1653), who founded La Gazette (later La Gazette de France), an influential weekly newspaper, the prize was established in 1925 and first awarded in 1926. Like the Prix Goncourt, with which it competes, the Prix Renaudot is awarded annually

Fenestella

2005-01-18T00:46:00.000-08:00

Genus of extinct bryozoans, small colonial animals, especially characteristic of the Early Carboniferous Period (360 to 320 million years ago). Close study of Fenestella reveals a branching network of structures with relatively large elliptical openings and smaller spherical openings that housed individual members of the colony. Fenestella was a marine form.

Camargo Society

2005-01-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

Group credited with keeping ballet alive in England during the early 1930s. Named after Marie Camargo, the noted 18th-century ballerina, the society was formed in 1930 by Philip J.S. Richardson, the editor of Dancing Times, the critic Arnold Haskell, and other patrons to stimulate interest in creating a national ballet. For the next three years the group annually commissioned

Vriesea

2005-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

The stiff, sword-shaped, fleshy green leaves grow in a rosette and often are mottled or banded with brown. The pink,

Saarinen, Eero

2005-01-15T06:02:00.000-08:00

Like many contemporary architects, Saarinen was challenged by furniture design, especially the chair, which presents aesthetical and structural problems that are particularly difficult to solve. In 1941 he and the designer-architect Charles Eames won a national furniture award for a chair design in molded plywood. In 1948 Saarinen created a womblike chair using a glass

Intef Ii

2005-01-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

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

Bohemond Vii

2005-01-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

The son of Bohemond VI by Sibyl, sister of Leo III of Armenia, he succeeded to the county of Tripoli in 1275, with his mother as regent. He had trouble with the Templars, who were established in Tripoli; and in the very year of his death he lost Laodicea to the sultan of Egypt. He died without issue, and within two years Tripoli was captured by the Egyptians

France, History Of, Military reforms

2005-01-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

The fiscal reorganization facilitated equally significant military reforms. The Peace of Arras, rather than pacifying France, had only thrown the people once again to the mercies of disbanded mercenaries and brigands. In 1439 an ordinance made the recruitment of military companies the king's monopoly and provided for uniform strength in contingents, supervision,

Scandinavian Literature, Swedish Classicism and Enlightenment

2005-01-11T15:18:00.000-08:00

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

India, Islands

2005-01-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

Several archipelagoes in the Indian Ocean are politically a part of India. The union territory of Lakshadweep is a group of small coral atolls in the Arabian Sea to the west of the Malabar Coast. Far off the eastern coast, separating the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, lie the considerably larger and hillier chains of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Also a union territory,

Central Asia, History Of, The Uzbeks

2005-01-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

The early history of the Uzbek people (whose rulers were descendants of a younger brother of Batu, khan of the Golden Horde) is wrapped in obscurity, but by the mid-15th century they had migrated from their original homeland, east of the Ural Mountains, southeast toward the lower Syr Darya, whence, under their leader, Abu'l-Khayr Khan, they began to threaten the Timurids across

Ramadi, Ar-

2005-01-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Capital of al-Anbar muhafazah (governorate), central Iraq. It lies on the Euphrates River just northwest of Hawr (Lake) al-Habbaniyah. Ancient settlements existed in the vicinity, but ar-Ramadi was founded only in 1869 to encourage settlement by the nomadic Dulaym tribes, a goal that has been partially fulfilled. The town prospered after becoming the departure point of a trade route

Petrel

2005-01-07T00:26:00.000-08:00

Among the procellariid

Dagobert Ii

2005-01-06T06:52:00.000-08:00

The son of Sigebert III, Dagobert was packed off to an Irish monastery following the death of his father in 656, and the Austrasian throne was taken by Childebert the Adopted, son of Grimoald, the Austrasian mayor of the palace. After the downfall of Grimoald and Childebert,

Benadir

2005-01-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

Traditional coastal region, southern Somalia, on the Horn of Africa. The name, from Persian bandar, �port,� refers to the voyages of Persian and Arab traders to eastern Africa across the Arabian Sea during the European Middle Ages. Benadir passed to the sultan of Zanzibar in 1871; it was leased by Italy in 1895 and thereafter shared the political fate of the remainder of Somalia

Nagappattinam

2005-01-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

Formerly �Negapattam, � port city, east-central Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India, on the Bay of Bengal. An ancient port known to have traded with Europe in Greek and Roman times, it became a Portuguese and later a Dutch colony. Its influence declined with the growth of Madras, 250 miles (400 km) north. Its industry includes ship repair, fishing, steel rolling, and the manufacture of metal goods. Pop. (1991 prelim.)

China, The Nan Mountains

2005-01-03T05:44:00.000-08:00

The Nan Mountains (in Chinese Nan Ling) are composed of many ranges of mountains running from northeast to southwest. These ranges form the watershed between the Yangtze to the north and the Pearl River (Chu Chiang) to the south. The main peaks along the watershed are above 5,000 feet, and some are more than 6,500 feet. But a large part of the land to the south of the Nan Mountains is also

Dezhnyov, Semyon Ivanov

2005-01-02T15:12:00.000-08:00

Dezhnyov served as a Cossack in Siberia, where he traveled a great deal in the north beginning in the early 1640s. In 1648 he sailed from the Kolyma River eastward to the Bering Strait, rounding the northeast tip of Asia (now called Cape Dezhnyov) and reaching

Benda, Julien

2005-01-01T01:30:00.000-08:00

Benda graduated from the University of Paris in 1894. Among his first writings were articles (1898) on the Dreyfus affair. His lifelong

Neo-impressionism

2004-12-31T17:35:00.000-08:00

Movement in French painting of the late 19th century that reacted against the empirical realism of Impressionism by relying on systematic calculation and scientific theory to achieve predetermined visual effects. Whereas the Impressionist painters spontaneously recorded nature in terms of the fugitive effects of colour and light, the Neo-Impressionists

Frederick Iv

2004-12-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

Frederick's father died in October 1583, when the young elector came under the guardianship of his uncle John Casimir, an ardent Calvinist. In January 1592, on the death of John Casimir, Frederick undertook the government of the Palatinate and continued his uncle's

Performing Arts, European Union.

2004-12-29T02:17:00.000-08:00

With the funding facilities of the European Union's MEDIA program, possibilities for co-production, and the formation of a European Film Promotion organization, a clear grouping of national film industries developed, linking the member countries of the European Union along with �candidate countries� and Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland - countries that, though

Ekoi

2004-12-28T04:33:00.000-08:00

Group of peoples situated in extreme southeastern Nigeria and extending eastward into neighbouring Cameroon. Ekoid Bantu languages are spoken by many groups, including the Atam, Boki, Mbembe, Ufia, and Yako. The Ekoi live in proximity to the Efiks of southeastern Nigeria and claim to have migrated from the north to that area. The inhabitants of Kwa, located near Calabar,

Andersen, Hans Christian

2004-12-27T06:43:00.000-08:00

Elias Bredsdorff, Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work, 1805 - 75 (1975, reissued 1994); Bo Gr�nbech, Hans Christian Andersen (1980); Sven Hakon Rossel (ed.), Hans Christian Andersen: Danish Writer and Citizen of the World (1996); and Jackie Wullschl�ger, Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller (2000).

Mies Van Der Rohe, Ludwig

2004-12-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

Original name �Maria Ludwig Michael Mies � German-born American architect whose rectilinear forms, crafted in elegant simplicity, epitomized the International Style (q.v.) of architecture.

Ayton, Sir Robert

2004-12-25T03:02:00.000-08:00

Educated at the University of St. Andrews, in the county of Fife, Ayton came into favour at court for a Latin panegyric on the accession of James VI to the English throne. He was knighted in 1612 and subsequently held various lucrative offices, including that

Mardersteig, Giovanni

2004-12-24T01:01:00.000-08:00

He studied law at the universities of Bonn, Vienna, Kiel, and finally Jena, where he received his degree. After graduation he taught school for a time in the Swiss town of Zuoz. In 1917 he joined the publishing house

Tapestry, Pre-Columbian Americas

2004-12-23T16:17:00.000-08:00

The most skilled weaving in pre-Columbian America was achieved by the Andean Indian cultures of ancient Peru. The origins of tapestry weaving among these peoples are believed to date as early as the beginnings of the Christian Era. By the 6th and 7th centuries the technique of tapestry weaving was established, and a large number of pieces in this medium have survived,

Caragiale, Costache

2004-12-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

Caragiale made his stage debut in 1835 in Bucharest, and in 1838 he organized a theatre of contemporary drama in Iasi (now Jassy). During the next 15 years he worked with regional theatres, notably those in Iasi, Botosani, and Craiova,

Thomas, Martha Carey

2004-12-21T19:50:00.000-08:00

Carey Thomas, as she preferred to be known, was the daughter of a modestly prosperous Quaker family. She attended Quaker schools in her native Baltimore, Maryland, and in Ithaca, New York, then overrode her father's objections

Marrano

2004-12-20T06:27:00.000-08:00

In the late 14th century, Spanish Jewry was threatened with extinction at the hands of mobs of fanatical Christians. Thousands

Lancaster, Henry, 1st Duke And 4th Earl Of, Earl Of Leicester, Earl Of Derby, Earl Of Lincoln, Earl Of Moray, Lord Lancaster

2004-12-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

The son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, he was the great-grandson of King Henry III and grandfather of King Henry IV.

Aeterni Patris

2004-12-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

An encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on Aug. 4, 1879, which strengthened the position of the philosophical system of the medieval Scholastic philosopher-theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and soon made Thomism the dominant philosophical viewpoint in Roman Catholicism.

Houston, Charles Hamilton

2004-12-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

Houston graduated as one of six valedictorians from Amherst College (B.A., 1915). After teaching for two years at Howard University in Washington, D.C., he enlisted

Haarlemmermeer

2004-12-16T23:52:00.000-08:00

Gemeente (commune), Noord-Holland provincie, The Netherlands, occupying the reclaimed Haarlem Lake, which was drained between 1840 and 1852. There is a network of roads and ditches at right angles within the enclosing canal and dike. The population is concentrated in the villages of Hoofddorp, Nieuw-Vennep, Badhoevedorp, and Zwanenburg, which are situated along the dike and

Hungary, Ethnic and religious structure

2004-12-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

From its inception in the 11th century, the Kingdom of Hungary was a multi-ethnic country. Major territorial changes made Hungary ethnically homogenous after World War I, however, and more than nine-tenths of the population is now ethnically Hungarian and speaks Hungarian (Magyar) as its mother tongue. The Hungarian language is classified as a member of the Ugric branch

Abo Blood Group System

2004-12-14T05:31:00.000-08:00

Method of classifying human blood on the basis of the inherited properties of red blood cells (erythrocytes) as determined by their possession or lack of the so-called antigens A (including A1 and A2) and B. Persons may, thus, have type A, type B, type O, or type AB blood. (Antigens of other blood group systems may also be present.) The A, B, and O blood groups were first identified by

Caball�, Montserrat

2004-12-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

Spanish operatic soprano, admired for her versatility and phrasing and for her performances in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti, and Richard Strauss. She began her studies as a child at the Conservatorio del Liceo in Barcelona with Eugenia Kenny and later continued with Napoleone Annovazzi and Conchita Bad�a. In 1956 she joined the Basel

Novara

2004-12-12T21:48:00.000-08:00

Latin �Novaria, � capital of Novara provincia, Piemonte (Piedmont) regione, northwestern Italy. It lies along the Agogna River, west of Milan. It originated as the Roman colony of Novaria, which was founded by Julius Caesar and destroyed in the 5th century; a new commune, established in the 6th century, was burned by the Holy Roman emperor Henry V in 1110. It recovered to become a member of the Lombard

Biblical Literature, Joshua

2004-12-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

The Book of Joshua takes its name from the man who succeeded Moses as the leader of the Hebrew tribes - Joshua, the son of Nun, a member of the tribe of Ephraim. In post-biblical times Joshua himself was credited with being the author of the book, though internal evidence gives no such indication. According to the views of the German biblical scholar Martin Noth, which have

Neo-volc�nica, Cordillera

2004-12-10T17:42:00.000-08:00

Also called �Eje Volc�nico� (Spanish: �Volcanic Axis�), volcanic mountain range traversing central Mexico from Cape Corrientes on the west coast, southeast to Jalapa and Veracruz on the east coast. The nation's cultural - historical centre, the Cordillera forms the southern boundary of Mexico's Mesa Central and contains such volcanic peaks as Citlalt�petl (Orizaba; 18,406 feet [5,610 m]), Popocat�petl (17,930 feet [5,465 m]), and

Cern

2004-12-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

Byname of �Organisation Europ�ene pour la Recherche Nucl�aire, �formerly (1952 - 54)� Conseil Europ�en pour la Recherche Nucl�aire, �English �European Organization for Nuclear Research, � international scientific organization established for the purpose of collaborative research into subnuclear physics (also called high-energy, or particle, physics). The organization operates expressly for research of a �pure scientific and fundamental character,� and the results of its experimental and theoretical work are made generally available. Headquarters