WhitesilverPen

Om

2005-04-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

In Hinduism and other religions chiefly of India, a sacred syllable that is considered to be the greatest of all the mantras, or sacred formulas. The syllable Om is composed of the three sounds a-u-m (in Sanskrit, the vowels a and u coalesce to become o), which represent several important triads: the three worlds of earth, atmosphere, and heaven; the three major Hindu gods,

Denpasar

2005-04-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

City, capital of Bali propinsi (province), south central Bali, Indonesia, 40 miles (70 km) south of Singaraja. The largest city on the island of Bali, it is also the capital of the Badung kabupaten (regency). Denpasar was the site of a suicidal battle of the rajas of Badung against the Dutch Militia in 1906. A large open square in the centre of the city, named Puputan Square, commemorates

Pyrrhon Of Elis

2005-04-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

Pyrrhon was a pupil of Anaxarchus of Abdera and in about 330 established himself as a teacher at Elis. Believing that equal arguments can be offered on both sides of any proposition, he dismissed the search for truth as a vain endeavour. While traveling with

Magnes, Judah Leon

2005-04-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati (A.B., 1898), Magnes attended Hebrew Union College and was ordained as a rabbi in 1900. He then travelled to Germany for further studies. After

Anthony Of Kiev

2005-04-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

Seeking a solitary life, Anthony became a monk about 1028 at the Greek Orthodox monastery of Esphigmenon on Mount Athos, in Greece. According to an account contained in the 12th-century The Russian Primary Chronicle (Povest vremennykh let), Anthony

Floral Decoration

2005-03-31T10:57:00.000-08:00

Plant materials are customarily arranged in containers, woven into garlands, and worn or carried for personal adornment. Flower bouquets that are carried include the nosegay and corsage. In the mid-19th century, the nosegay, or posy (a small bunch of mixed flowers), was much in fashion. No well-dressed Victorian lady appeared at a social gathering without carrying one,

Manasseh

2005-03-31T03:11:00.000-08:00

After the Exodus from Egypt and the death of Moses, the Israelites entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, who assigned a territory to each of the 12 tribes. The tribe of Manasseh settled in central

Nova, João Da

2005-03-31T01:49:00.000-08:00

Commanding a fleet of four ships, Nova left Portugal on a voyage to India in 1501. His crews included Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America was later named. En route he discovered Ascension Island.

Lippstadt

2005-03-29T09:27:00.000-08:00

City, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. It lies along the Lippe River, on the slopes of the Teutoburger Wald. Lippstadt was probably founded by the lords of Lippe in 1168, and it joined the Hanseatic League in 1280. Half of the town passed to the county of Mark, which in 1614 was acquired by Brandenburg. In 1850 the prince of Lippe-Detmold sold his share to Prussia when

Integral Transform

2005-03-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

Mathematical operator that produces a new function f(y) by integrating the product of an existing function F(x) and a so-called kernel function K(x, y) between suitable limits. The process, which is called transformation, is symbolized by the equation f(y) = òK(x, y)F(x)dx. Several transforms are commonly named for the mathematicians who introduced them: in the Laplace

Solomonid Dynasty

2005-03-28T03:22:00.000-08:00

Also called Solomonic Dynasty, line of Ethiopian emperors who, according to tradition, were descended from Menilek I, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Makeda). Until Haile Selassie I was deposed in 1974, their rule was supposed to have been continuous but for two periods, the reign of the Zagwe dynasty (12th–13th century) and the reign of Tewodros II (1855–68). Many scholars, however, trace the line back only as far

Tolan, Eddie

2005-03-27T01:16:00.000-08:00

While attending high school in Detroit, Mich., Tolan was a city and state champion in the 100- and 200-yard dashes. At the University of Michigan, he attracted national attention in 1929 when he set a record in the 100-yard dash (9.5 seconds)

Coleopteran

2005-03-27T00:25:00.000-08:00

Any member of the insect order Coleoptera, which includes the beetles and weevils. It is the largest order of insects, representing about 40 percent of the known insect species. Among the approximately 250,000 species of Coleoptera are many of the largest and most conspicuous insects, some of which also have brilliant metallic colours, showy patterns, or striking form. Beetles

Gyda Peninsula

2005-03-26T16:09:00.000-08:00

Also called Gydan Peninsula, Russian Gydansky Poluostrov, peninsula, northern Russia. It is a northern extension of the West Siberian Plain reaching into the Kara Sea and situated between the bays of Ob and Tazovsky to the west and the estuary of the Yenisey River to the east. The peninsula is about 250 miles (400 km) long and is similar in width. It is predominantly low-lying, varying in elevation between 165 and 525 feet (50 and 160 m). The peninsula is

Palatinate

2005-03-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

German Pfalz in German history, the lands of the count palatine, a title held by a leading secular prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Geographically, the Palatinate was divided between two small territorial clusters: the Rhenish, or Lower, Palatinate and the Upper Palatinate. The Rhenish Palatinate included lands on both sides of the middle Rhine River between its Main and Neckar

Tooth Squeeze

2005-03-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

Also called Aerodontalgia, pain caused by the expansion or contraction of air beneath the filling of a tooth when pressure within the mouth cavity is increased or decreased. Aircraft pilots and underwater divers are common victims of tooth squeeze, as the pressures that they experience vary widely from the normal atmospheric pressures. As one goes deeper under water, pressure increases.

North Germanic Languages, Norwegian

2005-03-24T03:58:00.000-08:00

Old Norwegian writing traditions gradually died out in the 15th century after the union of Norway with Denmark and the removal of the central government to Copenhagen. After independence was achieved in 1814, the linguistic union with Danish persisted, but educational problems due to the linguistic distance between Danish and spoken Norwegian and socio-political

Johannsenite

2005-03-23T11:53:00.000-08:00

Silicate mineral in the pyroxene family. It has a molecular formula of Ca(Mn,Fe)Si2O6. A calcium-manganese-iron silicate mineral, johannsenite is produced either by metamorphic processes in altered limestones or is associated with pyrite or other minerals in copper, lead, and zinc ores. It is moderately hard, has a glassy lustre, and forms brown, gray, or green crystals

Adams, Roger

2005-03-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Receiving

Coipasa, Salar De

2005-03-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

Salt flat, in the bleak Altiplano of Bolivia, about 100 air mi (160 air km) southwest of the city of Oruro, near the Chilean border. At an altitude of 12,073 ft (3,680 m), the flat, Bolivia's second largest (after Salar de Uyuni), occupies 856 sq mi (2,218 sq km). Lago (lake) de Coipasa directly to the north receives the intermittently flowing Río Lauca from the northwest and is connected to Lago de Poopó to the east

Magnus Ii Eriksson

2005-03-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

The son of Ingeborg, daughter of the Norwegian king Haakon V, and of Duke Erik, brother of the Swedish king Birger Magnusson, Magnus was

Gagaku

2005-03-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

(Japanese), Korean a-ak ancient court music. The name is a Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters for elegant music (ya yueh). Such music first appeared in Japan as an import from Korea in the 5th century and had become an established court tradition by the 8th century. The various forms of North Asian, Chinese, Indian, Southeast Asian, and indigenous Japanese music were organized in

Topological Space

2005-03-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

In mathematics, generalization of Euclidean spaces in which the idea of closeness, or limits, is described in terms of relationships between sets rather than in terms of distance. Every topological space consists of: (1) a set of points; (2) a class of subsets defined axiomatically as open sets; and (3) the set operations of union and intersection. In addition, the class of open

Voysey, Charles Francis Annesley

2005-03-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

Voysey was the son of Charles Voysey, founder of the Theistic Church. He was articled to J.P. Seddon in 1874, became assistant to George Devey, the eminent country-house designer, in 1880, and set up his own

Parallax

2005-03-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

The parallax can be derived from the apparent magnitude of the star if there are any means of knowing the absolute magnitude of the star—i.e., the magnitude the star would have at the

Quibdó

2005-03-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

City, western Colombia, on the Río Atrato, in the Pacific coastal plain. Its receipt of more than 420 inches (10,700 mm) of rain a year probably exceeds that of any other equatorial area on Earth. Founded in 1654 as San Francisco de Quibdó, the city has served as Chocó's capital since 1948. It is a regional commercial and manufacturing centre, housing metalworks, sawmills, and clothing and soft-drink

Zoe

2005-03-18T03:39:00.000-08:00

The daughter of the emperor Constantine VIII, Zoe was married to the heir presumptive, Romanus III Argyrus, in 1028 and became empress consort upon his elevation to the throne the same year. She became self-assertive and jealous, exiling her sister Theodora

Ammonia

2005-03-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

Ammonia is highly

Shamanism

2005-03-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

I.M. Lewis, Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession, 2nd ed. (1989), provides an excellent introduction. A thorough description of the shamanism of the peoples of Siberia is given in M.A. Czaplicka, Aboriginal Siberia (1914, reissued 1969); and Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstacy, rev. and enlarged ed. (1964, reissued 1989; originally published in French, 1951), with an extensive bibliography. Eliade's work not only deals with phenomena in Central and North Asia but also in North and South America, Southeast Asia, and Oceania; especially useful are the chapters on “Shamanic Ideologies and Techniques Among the Indo-Europeans” and “Shamanic Symbolisms and Techniques in Tibet, China, and the Far East.” Uno Holmberg, Finno-Ugric, Siberian, vol. 4 in Louis Herbert Gray and George Foot Moore, The Mythology of All Races (1927, reissued 1964), describes shamanism among these peoples. A very thorough summary of the worldview and specific traits of shamanism in North Asia, based on a good knowledge of literature on the subject in Russian, may be found in Georg Nioradze, Der Schamanismus bei den sibirischen Völkern (1925); and the traits considered most significant are discussed by Åke Ohlmarks, Studien zum Problem des Schamanismus (1939). V. Diószegi (ed.), Popular Beliefs and Folklore Tradition in Siberia (1968; originally published in German, 1963), contains studies on the shamanistic conceptions of the Sami, Hungarian, and Siberian peoples. Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Shamanism: Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia (1990), summarizes contemporary Soviet research. Several studies explore Latin American shamanism. Jon Christopher Crocker, Vital Souls: Bororo Cosmology, Natural Symbolism, and Shamanism (1985), demonstrates the intimate relationship between social structure generally—and the structure of the village community in particular—and cosmological symbolism and analyzes the role of the shaman in conserving both the social and the cosmic order; this important study also challenges psychological approaches to the study of shamanism, which focus on the shaman's apparent psychological abnormality, and analyzes the larger social forces that are gradually destroying Bororo shamanism, and with it Bororo culture in general. Johannes Wilbert, Tobacco and Shamanism in South America (1987), examines both the pharmacological and the social aspects of nicotine use by the Warao shamans of Venezuela. A fascinating scholarly and artistic exploration of hallucinogenic medicine is found in Luis Eduardo Luna and Pablo Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman (1991), produced through a unique partnership between a professional anthropologist and a practicing Peruvian shaman. Women's roles in Korean shamanism are explored in Laurel Kendall, Shamans, Housewives, and Other Restless Spirits: Women in Korean Ritual Life (1985), while The Life and Hard Times of a Korean Shaman (1988) chronicles the shamanic career of one South Korean woman through extensive use of her own words and stories and thereby examines the recent social history of South Korea through an interesting lens. David Lan, Guns & Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe (1985), examines the complex interaction between the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army and the traditional shamanic religious leaders of the Dande and Korekore subgroups of Shona during the 1970s; it is a good example of the study of shamanism in tension with modernity.

Sorb

2005-03-16T21:10:00.000-08:00

German Sorben, any member of a Slavic minority living in eastern Germany. The Sorbs are concentrated in the Spree River valley, in the area of Bautzen (Budyšin) and Cottbus. This area was part of the traditional region of Lusatia (q.v.), whose history is intimately bound up with the Sorbs. The Sorbs are descendants of two small Slavic tribes, the Luzici and the Milcani, who were subgroups of the

Triballi

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

A Thracian people whose earliest-known home was the “Triballian plain” (probably the Plain of Kosovo), near the junction of the Angrus and Brongus rivers (the western and southern Morava) in the north-central Balkans. Sometime after 424 BC they were overcome by the Autariatae, an Illyrian tribe. In 339 BC the Triballi refused to allow Philip II of Macedon to pass through the Haemus

China, Central government

2005-03-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

In its early form the Ming central government was dominated by a unitary Secretariat. The senior executive official of the Secretariat served the emperor as a chief counselor, or prime minister. Suspected treason on the part of the chief counselor Hu Wei-yung in 1380 caused the Hung-wu emperor to abolish all executive posts in the Secretariat, thus fragmenting general

Ushpizin

2005-03-15T15:03:00.000-08:00

(Aramaic: “visitors”), according to the Jewish Kabbalistic book the Sefer ha-zohar (“Book of Splendour”), seven ancient worthies who take turns visiting the homes of all pious Jews to share their dinner on the festival of Sukkoth. A custom developed of reciting a fixed formula of invitation to the seven: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. Poor scholars are sometimes

Paraguay

2005-03-14T05:49:00.000-08:00

Officially Republic of Paraguay , Spanish República del Paraguay country in south-central South America. A landlocked country, it is bordered by Bolivia to the northwest and north, Brazil to the northeast and east, and Argentina to the southeast, south, and west. It has a total area of 157,048 square miles (406,752 square kilometres). The national capital is Asunción, which is located on the east bank of the Paraguay River opposite the mouth of its primary

Gananoque

2005-03-14T03:09:00.000-08:00

Town, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies along the St. Lawrence River, at the mouth of the Gananoque River. The town was founded by Charles McDonald, who built a mill there in 1812 and later laid out the townsite. Its name is said to mean “rocks rising out of the water.” The town is located 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Kingston and near St. Lawrence Islands National Park. Gananoque has

Aerosmith

2005-03-13T18:27:00.000-08:00

The year 2001 was one of the highest peaks in the roller-coaster career of hard-rock survivors Aerosmith; the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and enjoyed the runaway success of its first self-produced album, Just Push Play. Overcoming the legendary excess that had brought its career to a screeching halt in the early 1980s, Aerosmith returned with even greater

Uccello, Paolo

2005-03-13T09:15:00.000-08:00

In 1436 in the Florence cathedral, Uccello completed a monochrome fresco of an equestrian monument to Sir John Hawkwood, an English mercenary who had commanded Florentine troops at the end of the 14th century. In the Hawkwood fresco, a single-point perspective scheme, a fully sculptural treatment of the horse and rider, and a sense of controlled potential energy within

Palangkaraya

2005-03-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

Kotamadya (municipality), capital of Kalimantan Tengah provinsi (“province”), Borneo, Indonesia. Palangkaraya lies west of the Kahayan River. It was occupied by the Japanese during World War II and was the principal city of Great Dayak, an autonomous state (one of five) created in 1945 that became part of Indonesia in 1950. The population consists mainly of the native Dayaks together

Zaehner, R.c.

2005-03-12T04:51:00.000-08:00

The son of Swiss parents who had immigrated to England, Zaehner studied Oriental languages at the University of Oxford, specializing in Persian, Armenian, and Avestan. He became a Roman Catholic in 1946. During

Deere & Company

2005-03-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

The company's origin dates to 1836, when John Deere (q.v.) invented the first steel plow that could till American Midwest prairie soil without clogging. The following year, Deere established a business to manufacture and market the plow, and his own company was incorporated

Aerospace Industry, Propulsion

2005-03-10T18:38:00.000-08:00

There are three basic types of flight vehicle-propulsion systems: piston engines (or reciprocating engines), turbine engines (true-jet, turboprop, and turboshaft engines), and rocket engines (see airplane: Propulsion systems and rocket). At the low end of the performance spectrum are reciprocating engines. Although during World War II and the early postwar period the industry

Ashwell, Lena

2005-03-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

Reared and educated in Canada, Ashwell studied music at Lausanne, Switz., and at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Her voice proved

Denmark Strait

2005-03-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

Channel partially within the Arctic Circle, lying between Greenland (west) and Iceland (east). About 180 miles (290 km) wide at its narrowest point, the strait extends southward for 300 miles (483 km) from the Greenland Sea to the open waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. The cold East Greenland Current flows southward along the west side of the strait and carries icebergs, which originate

Guacanayabo, Gulf Of

2005-03-09T16:21:00.000-08:00

Spanish Golfo De Guacanayabo, inlet of the Caribbean Sea, southeastern Cuba. The gulf stretches in a broad horseshoe shape from the southern coast of Camagüey province approximately 70 mi (110 km) to the southwestern shore of Granma province, north of Cabo (cape) Cruz. It is shallow and dotted with coral reefs, and the Gran Banco de Buena Esperanza surfaces in the central portion of the gulf, at the head of

Pachelbel, Johann

2005-03-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

Pachelbel studied music at Altdorf and Regensburg and held posts as organist in Vienna, Stuttgart, and other cities. In 1695 he was appointed organist at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nürnberg, where he remained until his death.

Brig

2005-03-09T01:11:00.000-08:00

Two-masted sailing ship with square rigging on both masts. Brigs were used for both naval and mercantile purposes. As merchant vessels, they plied mostly coastal trading routes, but oceanic voyages were not uncommon; some brigs were even used for whaling and sealing. Naval brigs carried a battery of 10 to 20 guns on a single deck. In the great European navies of the 18th and 19th

Sea Snake

2005-03-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

Any of more than 50 species of venomous marine snakes of the family Hydrophiidae. In adaptation to marine life, sea snakes have oarlike tails and flattened bodies. Their nostrils have valvelike closings and are usually on top of the snout. Several sea snakes have bodies much thicker than their heads and necks affording them greater stability

Maa-alused

2005-03-07T00:43:00.000-08:00

These terms refer to beings living under the earth with an existence quite parallel to that of people living on earth. The main differences are in the opposite

Graebe, Carl

2005-03-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

A graduate of the University of Heidelberg, Graebe was a lecturer-assistant to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. Later, as a student of Adolf von Baeyer

Antarctica, National rivalries and claims

2005-03-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

The early discoveries led to a few controversies not only for territorial claims but also in geographic nomenclature. The struggle for national influence was especially acute in the slender peninsular landmass south of Scotia Sea that became known as O'Higgins Land (Tierra O'Higgins) to Chileans and San Martin Land (Tierra San Martín) to Argentines, named for national

Arabia, Geology

2005-03-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

The bulk of Arabia consists of two main geomorphological areas: the Arabian shield in the west; and sedimentary areas dipping away from the shield to the northeast, east, and southeast into the great basin consisting of lower Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and the eastern part of the Rub' al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) desert. The eastern edge of the shield curves eastward from the

Koda Rohan

2005-03-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

Rohan's early education was strong in the Japanese and Chinese classics, and although he was graduated from a technical school in 1884, before long

Daedalic Sculpture

2005-03-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

Type of sculpture attributed to a legendary Greek artist, Daedalus, who is connected in legend both to Bronze Age Crete and to the earliest period of Archaic sculpture in post-Bronze Age Greece. The legends about Daedalus recognize him both as a man and as a mythical embodiment. The writer Pausanias thought that wooden images were referred to as daidala even before

Lusatian Mountains

2005-03-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

Czech Luzické Hory , German Lausitzer Gebirge mountain group, situated in extreme northern Bohemia, Czech Republic; it is part of the Sudeten mountains (Czech: Sudety). The group extends from the Ješted ridge in the east (3,320 feet [1,012 m]) to the gorge of the Elbe (Labe) River at Decín in the west and also into Poland and Germany. Sandstone is the group's most common constituent rock, but there are also volcanic rock formations in conical

Intension And Extension

2005-03-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

In logic, correlative words that indicate the reference of a term or concept: “intension” indicates the internal content of a term or concept that constitutes its formal definition; and “extension” indicates its range of applicability by naming the particular objects that it denotes. For instance, the intension of “ship” as a substantive is “vehicle for conveyance on

Aubusson, Pierre D'

2005-03-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

The son of French nobility, Aubusson joined the Knights of St. John c. 1453. The Knights, with their headquarters at Rhodes, held the island as a bar to Ottoman expansion in the Aegean. Aubusson became grand master of the order

Aversion Therapy

2005-03-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

Psychotherapy designed to cause a patient to reduce or avoid an undesirable behaviour pattern by conditioning him to associate the behaviour with an undesirable stimulus. The chief stimuli used in the therapy are electrical and chemical. In the electrical therapy, the patient is given a lightly painful shock whenever the undesirable behaviour is aroused; this

Cheektowaga

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

Town (township), Erie county, western New York, U.S. It lies immediately east of Buffalo, on Ellicott, Scajaquada, and Cayuga creeks, near Lake Erie. Originally part of the Holland Land Purchase and the town of Amherst, the site was first settled in 1808 by Appollos Hitchcock, who was appointed Indian agent for the Buffalo Reservation. The town, incorporated in 1839, derived its name

Conseil De L'entente

2005-03-02T17:55:00.000-08:00

(French: “Entente Council”), French West African organization founded in 1959 and designed to promote the economic development of the region by raising funds, guaranteeing loans, and encouraging trade and investment. It operates through the Mutual Aid and Loan Guarantee Fund headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The original member-states were Dahomey

Wyoming

2005-03-01T18:55:00.000-08:00

Constituent state of the United States of America. It is the ninth largest state, with an area of 97,809 square miles (253,326 square kilometres). It shares boundaries with six other Great Plains and Mountain states: South Dakota and Nebraska on the east, Colorado on the south, Utah on the southwest, Idaho on the west, and Montana on the northwest and north. Cheyenne, the state capital, is

Fish Poisoning

2005-03-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

Ciguatera poisoning is one of the most common forms of fish poisoning in the Caribbean. It is caused by fishes that in other parts of the world constitute food items (e.g., sea bass, snapper). The conditions under which these fishes become toxic in the Caribbean waters are not clear. Symptoms,

Târgoviste

2005-03-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Tîrgoviste, city, capital of Dâmbovita judet (county), south-central Romania. It lies along the Ialomita River, in the southeastern Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathians), 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Bucharest. Târgoviste was the capital of feudal Walachia from the 14th to the 17th century. Its monuments include a 16th-century watchtower and a 17th-century church founded by Vasile Lupu. The city

Hwicce

2005-03-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

The inhabitants of one of the subkingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that coincided with the medieval diocese of Worcester, a territory that then encompassed present Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and southwest Warwickshire. The southern part had been wrested from the Britons by the West Saxons sometime after 577, and the northern part was probably settled by Anglian

France, History Of, Wartime France

2005-02-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

The German victory left the French groping for a new policy and new leadership. Some 30 prominent politicians—among them Édouard Daladier and Pierre Mendès-France—left for North Africa to set up a government-in-exile there; but Pétain blocked that enterprise by ordering their arrest on arrival in Morocco. The undersecretary of war in the fallen Reynaud Cabinet, General

Neo-confucianism

2005-02-26T18:41:00.000-08:00

In Japan, the official guiding philosophy of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). This philosophy profoundly influenced the thought and behaviour of the educated class. The tradition, introduced into Japan from China by Zen Buddhists in the medieval period, provided a heavenly sanction for the existing social order. In the Neo-Confucian view, harmony was maintained by a reciprocal

Cornelius, Peter

2005-02-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

German composer and author, known for his comic opera Der Barbier von Bagdad (The Barber of Bagdad). The son of an actor and an actress, he acted at Mainz and at Wiesbaden in his youth. In 1845 he studied composition and was later music critic for two Berlin journals. From 1853 to 1858 he lived at Weimar in the circle of Liszt and the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein

Han

2005-02-26T05:02:00.000-08:00

The han evolved during the 15th century when local daimyo gradually came into military and civil control of their own domains. In the warfare that took place among them at the end of the century, the size of the han gradually increased; many assumed the boundaries of one or

Arts, Central Asian, The kingdoms of western Turkistan and Afghanistan

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

Skill in irrigation, with the resulting expansion in agriculture, encouraged urbanism and the growth of states, changes that coincided with the rise of nomadism. While the nomadic cattle and horse breeders took over the steppelands, the culturally distinct states of Sogdiana (part of Uzbekistan and much of Tajikistan), Fergana (the greater part of Uzbekistan), Chorasmia

Essex

2005-02-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

County, northeastern Vermont, U.S., bordered to the north by Quebec, Can., and to the east by New Hampshire, the Connecticut River constituting that boundary. It is a mountainous region, with several peaks above 3,000 feet (915 metres). The Connecticut River watershed includes the Moose and Nulhegan rivers as well as Paul Stream. Maidstone Lake and Great Averill and Island ponds are

Façon De Venise

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

(French: “Venetian fashion”), style of glass made in the 16th and 17th centuries at places other than Venice itself but using the techniques that had been perfected there. It may be outwardly so similar as to be difficult to distinguish from Venetian glass (q.v.) proper. The prestige of Venetian glass was so great in the rest of Europe that French, German, Bohemian,

Manama

2005-02-24T02:43:00.000-08:00

Arabic Al-manamah, capital and largest city of the state and emirate of Bahrain. It lies at the northeast tip of Bahrain island, in the Persian Gulf. About one-third of the emirate's population lives in the city. First mentioned in Islamic chronicles about AD 1345, it was taken by the Portuguese (1521) and by the Persians (1602). It has been held, with brief interruptions, by the ruling Al Khalifah dynasty since 1783. Because

Jacobi, Lotte

2005-02-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

Born into a family of photographers (her great-grandfather began as a professional daguerreotypist in 1840), Jacobi studied art history and literature at the Academy of Posen (1912–16) and attended the Bavarian State Academy of Photography in Munich and

Adrar

2005-02-22T09:44:00.000-08:00

Traditional region of central Mauritania in western Africa. It consists of a low central massif with noticeable cliffs that rise to about 800 feet (240 m). The terrain is arid and almost totally unsuitable for cropping. There is, however, sufficient water at the base of the uplands to support date-palm groves, and during the wetter part of the year there is cultivation of millet,

Basil

2005-02-22T05:24:00.000-08:00

Albanian in origin, Basil acceded to the throne of Moldavia in the spring of 1634. He intrigued throughout his reign to acquire the Walachian throne as well, and in 1637 and 1639 led unsuccessful expeditions against the ruling prince

Baptist

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

Member of a group of Protestant Christians who share the basic beliefs of most Protestants but who insist that only believers should be baptized and that it should be done by immersion rather than by the sprinkling or pouring of water. (This view, however, is shared by others who are not Baptists.) Although Baptists do not constitute a single church or denominational

Industrial Bank Of Japan

2005-02-21T00:45:00.000-08:00

Japanese Nippon Kogyo Ginko former Japanese commercial bank that operated a general-banking and foreign-exchange business with branches in Japan and overseas. Established in 1902, the bank had specialized in medium- and long-term financing of industrial development, and both its main office and its foreign branches were active in the foreign-exchange markets. In September 2000, Industrial Bank of

Dai Jin

2005-02-20T19:13:00.000-08:00

Dai was one of the leaders in the early Ming revival of the Ma-Xia (after Ma Yuan and Xia Gui), or academic, style of landscape painting of the Southern Song (1127–1279), which came to be called the Zhe school (after Zhejiang province, in which Hangzhou, the Southern Song capital, was located).

Melk

2005-02-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

Town, Bundesland (“federal state”) Niederösterreich, northeastern Austria. It lies at the confluence of the Danube and Melk rivers, west of Sankt Pölten. The town was the site of a Roman garrison and was the castle-residence of the Babenberg rulers of Austria from 976 to 1101. The castle and surrounding lands were given in 1111 to the huge Benedictine abbey of Melk (founded in 1089), which dominates

Russell, Bill

2005-02-19T09:14:00.000-08:00

Reared in Oakland, Calif.,

Areopagus

2005-02-19T02:00:00.000-08:00

The Areopagite Council probably began as the king's advisers. Early in the Archaic period it exercised a general and ill-defined authority until the publication of Draco's Code of Law (c. 621). Membership continued

Pyridine

2005-02-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

Pyridine is used as a solvent and is added to ethyl alcohol to make it unfit for drinking. It

Macdiarmid, Alan G.

2005-02-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

MacDiarmid earned Ph.D.'s in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (1953) and the

Memory Abnormality

2005-02-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

Disorders of memory must have been known to the ancients and are mentioned in several early medical texts, but it was not until the closing decades of the 19th century that serious attempts were made to analyze them or to seek their explanation in terms of brain disturbances. Of the early attempts, the most influential

Khakass

2005-02-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Khakas, or Hakas, people who have given their name to Khakassia republic in central Russia. The general name Khakass encompasses five Turkic-speaking groups that differ widely in their ethnic origin as well as in their culture and everyday life: the Kacha, Sagay (Sagai), Beltir, Kyzyl, and Koybal. Before the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Kacha were seminomadic pastoralists raising cattle,

Rimini

2005-02-16T11:50:00.000-08:00

The Romans called it Ariminum, from Ariminus, the old name of the Marecchia, and, according to the 1st-century-BC Greek historian

Parma

2005-02-16T02:50:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Parma province, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, on the Parma River, northwest of Bologna. Founded by the Romans along the Via Aemilia in 183 BC, Parma was important as a road junction; its trade flourished, and it obtained Roman citizenship. It became an episcopal see in the 4th century and was later destroyed by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric. The

Industrial Engineering

2005-02-15T20:31:00.000-08:00

Application of engineering principles and techniques of scientific management to the maintenance of a high level of productivity at optimum cost in industrial enterprises.

Eye Worm

2005-02-15T18:58:00.000-08:00

(species Loa loa), common parasite of humans and other primates in central and western Africa, a member of the class Nematoda (phylum Aschelminthes). It is transmitted to humans by the deerfly, Chrysops (the intermediate host), which feeds on primate blood. When the fly alights on a human victim, the worm larva drops onto the new host's skin and burrows underneath. The larva

Calcrete

2005-02-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

Also called Hardpan, calcium-rich duricrust, a hardened layer in or on a soil. It is formed on calcareous materials as a result of climatic fluctuations in arid and semiarid regions. Calcite is dissolved in groundwater and, under drying conditions, is precipitated as the water evaporates at the surface. Rainwater saturated with carbon dioxide acts as an acid and also dissolves calcite

Kra, Isthmus Of

2005-02-14T04:33:00.000-08:00

Thai Khokhok Kra narrow neck of southern Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand, connecting the Malay Peninsula to the Asian mainland. The isthmus lies between the Gulf of Thailand to the east and the Andaman Sea to the west. It is 25–30 miles (40–48 km) wide at its narrowest point, between Chumphon and Kra Buri (both in Thailand). Kra Buri, for which it was named, is at the head of the Pakchan River estuary, an inlet

Jhansi

2005-02-13T01:32:00.000-08:00

City, southwestern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, at a major road and rail junction. The main city, which is enclosed by a wall, arose around a fort built in 1613 by the ruler of Orchha. The area fell to the Marathas in 1732 and was acquired by the British in 1853. A massacre of British officers and civilians occurred at Jhansi during the 1857 Indian Mutiny. In 1886 Jhansi came under British rule in

Aztec Ruins National Monument

2005-02-12T20:33:00.000-08:00

Archaeological site in northwestern New Mexico, U.S., on the Animas River, just north of the city of Aztec. The national monument was established in 1923 and has an area of 0.5 square mile (1.3 square km). The site, mistakenly called Aztec by early white settlers, actually contains the excavated ruins of a 12th-century Pueblo Indian town built of masonry and timber. Many Indian artifacts

Totila

2005-02-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

Chosen king by Gothic chiefs in the autumn of 541, after King Witigis had been carried off prisoner to Constantinople, Totila proved himself both as a general and as a political leader, winning the support of the lower classes by freeing slaves and

Venango

2005-02-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

Venango county was formed in 1800; its name was derived from an Iroquoian Indian word probably meaning “bull thistle.” In August 1859 Edwin L. Drake triggered Pennsylvania's oil boom

Otfrid

2005-02-11T20:24:00.000-08:00

Otfrid was trained in the monastery school of Fulda under Rabanus Maurus, who directed the school from 802 to 824. His fame rests on his Evangelienbuch (c. 870; “Book of the Gospels”), a poem of 7,416 lines, which is extant in three good contemporary manuscripts. It is an exceptionally valuable document,

Williams, Rowan

2005-02-11T15:26:00.000-08:00

Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking family. After attending the Dyvenor Secondary School, he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where he earned bachelor's

Haakon Sigurdsson

2005-02-11T06:43:00.000-08:00

The son of the Norwegian earl of Lade, who was killed by Harald II Graycloak, Haakon

Vyala

2005-02-11T03:54:00.000-08:00

Occurring in a relatively naturalistic form in

Teacher Education

2005-02-09T22:56:00.000-08:00

While arrangements of one kind or another for the education of the young have existed at all times and in all societies, it is only recently that schools have emerged as distinctive institutions for this purpose on a mass scale, and

Defense Of Rights, Associations For The

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

The league was actually a coalition of middle-class organizations,