HollowParcel

Ford, John

2005-04-05T04:59:00.000-07:00

American motion-picture director who was Hollywood's best-known director of westerns. He developed a distinctive directorial style characterized by effective cutting, an emphasis on action, colourful characterization, a sentimentalized vision of the past, and

Muri

2005-04-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

Town and traditional emirate, northwestern Taraba state, eastern Nigeria. Originally part of the 17th-century Jukun kingdom called Kororofa, the region now known as Muri emirate was conquered in the 1804 jihad (holy war) conducted by the Fulani people. By 1817 Hamman Ruwa, a brother of the emir of Gombe, an emirate to the north, had consolidated Fulani control over the non-Muslim

Phidias

2005-04-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Pheidias Athenian sculptor, the artistic director of the construction of the Parthenon, who created its most important religious images and supervised and probably designed its overall sculptural decoration. It is said of Phidias that he alone had seen the exact image of the gods and that he revealed it to man. He established forever general conceptions of Zeus and

Guzmán Fernández, (silvestre) Antonio

2005-04-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

At the age of 15, Guzmán was working in his family's textile store. By age 17 he was already managing stores for the Curaçao Trading Company. He invested in land and started growing rice, soon expanding into other agricultural exports. Guzmán was

Dowland, John

2005-04-02T20:45:00.000-08:00

Nothing is known of Dowland's childhood, but in 1580 he went to Paris as a “servant” to Sir Henry Cobham, the ambassador to the French court. In 1588 he received a bachelor of music degree from the University of Oxford. His conversion to

Lipsius, Justus

2005-04-02T01:58:00.000-08:00

Appointed to the chair of history and philosophy at Jena in 1572, Lipsius later accepted the chair of history and law at the new University of Leiden (1578) and that of history and Latin at Louvain (1592). His first scholarly publication, the Variae lectiones of

Yancey, Jimmy

2005-04-01T17:52:00.000-08:00

Yancey was largely a self-taught pianist, with some instruction from his brother Alonzo. He had a childhood

World War I, The Western Front, 1915

2005-03-31T06:50:00.000-08:00

Repeated French attacks in February–March 1915 on the Germans' trench barrier in Champagne won only 500 yards (460 metres) of ground at a cost of 50,000 men. For the British, Sir Douglas Haig's 1st Army, between Armentières and Lens, tried a new experiment at Neuve-Chapelle on March 10, when its artillery opened an intense bombardment on a 2,000-yard front and then, after 35 minutes, lengthened its range,

Aequi

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

Ancient people of Italy originally inhabiting the region watered by the tributaries of the Avens River (modern Velino). Long hostile to Rome, they became especially menacing in the 5th century BC, advancing to the Alban Hills. Although repulsed by the Romans in 431, the Aequi were not completely subdued by Rome until the end of the Second Samnite War (304 BC), when they received civitas

Binary Star

2005-03-30T04:21:00.000-08:00

If the images of the two components of a binary star system can be separated by telescope, it is called

Beira

2005-03-30T02:38:00.000-08:00

Former principality and historical province, north-central Portugal, extending from the banks of the Douro River in the north to the upper course of the Tagus in the southeast and from the Spanish frontier in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The region was reconquered from the Moors in the 8th century, but Moorish attacks continued until the 15th. It was also

Kabul

2005-03-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

Persian Kabol capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It lies along the Kabul River at an elevation of about 5,900 feet (1,800 metres) in the east-central part of the country. The nation's cultural and economic centre, the city lies in a triangular valley between the two steep Asmai and Sherdawaza mountain ranges. Roads connect it with most other areas of Afghanistan, with Uzbekistan to the north,

Binary Star

2005-03-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

The theory that describes the action of the strong nuclear force. QCD was constructed on analogy to quantum electrodynamics (QED), the quantum theory of the electromagnetic force. In QED, the electromagnetic interactions of charged particles are described through the emission and subsequent absorption of massless photons, best known as the “particles” of light;

Suleja

2005-03-28T04:54:00.000-08:00

The emirate's wooded savanna area of about 1,150 square miles (2,980 square km) originally included four small Koro chiefdoms that paid tribute to the Hausa kingdom of Zazzau.

Strabane

2005-03-27T00:45:00.000-08:00

Irish An Srath Bán town, seat, and district (established 1973), formerly in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The town is located on the River Mourne at its confluence with the Finn to form the River Foyle near the Irish Republic border. It is a market and employment centre for both Strabane district and County Donegal, Irish Republic, to the west. Long a flax-spinning centre, the town of Sion Mills,

Hui Tsung

2005-03-26T18:10:00.000-08:00

Hui Tsung sought escape from affairs of state in the pleasures of arts and letters. He urged painters in his academy of painting to depict objects that were “true to colour and form,” inviting an extreme literalness of representation;

Spring Tide

2005-03-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

Tide of maximal range, near the time of new and full moon when the Sun and Moon are in syzygy—i.e., aligned with the Earth. Conjunction is the time during new moon when the Sun and Moon lie on the same side of the Earth. The other syzygy condition, opposition, occurs during full moon when the Sun and Moon are positioned on opposite sides of the Earth. In either case of syzygy, the

Interior Design, Design relationships

2005-03-25T00:42:00.000-08:00

The real and conscious relationship between art, architecture, and design is of long standing. Though mural painting was largely neglected in the mid-20th century, in the past great murals have been the planned focal points of interiors and have in a way determined the architecture. Similarly, sculpture or sculptural forms, as fixed and permanent spects of buildings,

Biblical Literature, Prayer of Manasseh

2005-03-24T22:08:00.000-08:00

In some manuscripts of the Septuagint and in two later Christian writings, a pseudepigraphic Prayer of Manasseh is contained. This prayer was composed with reference to II Chron. 33:11–18, according to which the wicked Judaean king Manasseh repented and prayed. In the present form the prayer is Greek in origin, but it may have existed in a Hebrew version, of which the Greek is

Acroterion

2005-03-23T19:27:00.000-08:00

Plural Acroteria, in architecture, decorative pedestal for an ornament or statue placed atop the pediment of a Greek temple; the term has also been extended to refer to the statue or ornament that stands on the pedestal. Originally a petal-shaped ornament with incised pattern, such as the honeysuckle, was placed on the ridge and at the eaves at either side of the pediment. Later this ornamentation

Neuropteran

2005-03-23T05:22:00.000-08:00

All three orders may have evolved from an early mecopteran (scorpionfly) ancestral stem, prior to the Trichoptera–Lepidoptera offshoot (see section on Trichoptera). Carnivorous insects of varied structure and habit, both freshwater and terrestrial members of the three orders, are widely distributed with the exception of the snakeflies (which are confined to the

Abu Tammam

2005-03-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

Abu Tammam changed his Christian father's name of Thadhus to Aws and invented for himself an Arab genealogy. In his youth he worked in Damascus as a weaver's assistant but on going to Egypt began to study poetry. It is not certain when he began to write verse, but by

West Greenland Current

2005-03-22T00:32:00.000-08:00

Cool flow of water proceeding northward along the west coast of Greenland. See Greenland Current.

Biblical Literature, Biblical criticism

2005-03-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

A prerequisite for the exegetical study of the biblical writings, and even for the establishment of hermeneutical principles, is their critical examination. Most forms of biblical criticism are relevant to many other bodies of literature.

Alcock, Sir John William

2005-03-20T20:15:00.000-08:00

Alcock received his pilot's certificate in 1912 and joined the Royal Naval Air Service as an instructor at the opening of World War I. In 1916 he was posted to a wing group of the Eastern Mediterranean theatre, based at Munros. During

Said, Edward

2005-03-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

Said's father, Wadie (William) Ibrahim,

Africa

2005-03-19T13:16:00.000-08:00

Africa's total land area is approximately 11,724,000 square

Masaryk, Jan (garrigue)

2005-03-19T02:52:00.000-08:00

The son of the statesman Tomáš Masaryk, Jan served in a Hungarian regiment during World War I, entered

Tasmania

2005-03-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

Formerly Van Diemen's Land island state of Australia, lying about 150 miles (240 kilometres) south of the state of Victoria, from which it is separated by the relatively shallow Bass Strait. Physically, Tasmania forms part of the Great Dividing Range. The state comprises a main island called Tasmania; Bruny Island, nestling close to the southeastern coast; King and Flinders islands in Bass Strait; numerous

Katsuta

2005-03-18T19:50:00.000-08:00

City, Ibaraki ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Naka River, northeast of Mito, the prefectural capital. The city developed rapidly as an industrial site for the Hitachi Company, Ltd., after 1940, mainly producing electric locomotives and other electric machinery. Pop. (1992 est.) 112,650.

Earth, Representation of the field

2005-03-16T22:45:00.000-08:00

Electric and magnetic fields are produced by a fundamental property of matter, electric charge. Electric fields are created by charges at rest relative to an observer, whereas magnetic fields are produced by moving charges. The two fields are different aspects of the electromagnetic field, which is the force that causes electric charges to interact. The electric

Asturias, Miguel ángel

2005-03-16T03:02:00.000-08:00

In 1923, after receiving

Biblical Literature, Determination of the canon in the 4th century

2005-03-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

Athanasius, a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria and a significant theologian, delimited the canon and settled the strife between East and West. On a principle of inclusiveness, both Revelation and Hebrews (as part of the Pauline corpus) were accepted. The 27 books of the New Testament—and they only—were declared canonical. In the Greek churches there was still controversy

Andrea Da Firenze

2005-03-15T02:43:00.000-08:00

Andrea studied at the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali in Florence. At the end of 1365 he was commissioned to decorate the chapter house of the church of Sta. Maria Novella. Also attributed to him are the decorations in the Spanish chapel and

Olympic Mountains

2005-03-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

Segment of the Pacific mountain system of western North America. They extend across the Olympic Peninsula south of the Juan de Fuca Strait and west of Puget Sound in northwestern Washington, U.S. The mountains began to form about 35 million years ago when the Juan de Fuca Plate collided with and was forced under (subducted) the North American Plate, scraping off vast quantities

Entente Cordiale

2005-03-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

(April 8, 1904), Anglo-French agreement that, by settling a number of controversial matters, ended antagonisms between Great Britain and France and paved the way for their diplomatic cooperation against German pressures in the decade preceding World War I (1914–18). The agreement in no sense created an alliance and did not entangle Great Britain with a French commitment to Russia

Arts, Islamic, Other classic mosques

2005-03-14T13:47:00.000-08:00

Either in its simplest form, as in Medina, or in its more formalized shape, as in Damascus, the hypostyle tradition dominated mosque architecture from 715 to the 10th century. As it occurs at Nishapur in northeastern Iran, Siraf in southern Iran, al-Qayrawan (Kairouan) in Tunisia, and Córdoba in Spain, it can indeed be considered as the classic early Islamic type. Its masterpieces occur

Insurance

2005-03-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Insurance in some form is as old as historical society. So-called bottomry contracts were known to merchants of Babylon as early as 4000–3000 BC. Bottomry was also practiced by the Hindus in 600 BC and was well understood in ancient Greece as early as the 4th century BC. Under a bottomry contract, loans were granted to merchants with the provision that if the shipment was lost at sea the loan

Chandernagore

2005-03-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

Also called Chandannagar city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India, just west of the Hooghly River and part of the Calcutta urban agglomeration. It is connected by road and rail with Calcutta and Burdwan. Settled in 1673 by the French and expanded commercially, it was captured by the English in 1757 and again in 1794 but was restored to France in 1815. Following the 1949 plebiscite, it merged with India.

Raymond Vii

2005-03-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

After helping to recover lands of which his

Tridymite

2005-03-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

Silica mineral, the stable form of silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) at temperatures between 870° and 1,470° C (1,598° and 2,678° F); at lower temperatures it transforms to high-quartz, at higher to cristobalite. It has three modifications: high-tridymite, middle-tridymite, and low-tridymite. Tridymite forms thin hexagonal plates that are generally twinned, often in groups of three; its name alludes

Seni Pramoj, Mom Rajawong

2005-03-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

Thai diplomat and politician whose refusal to honour Japanese demands that he deliver a Thai declaration of war against the U.S. and the U.K. during World War II kept the U.S. from attacking Thailand and gained U.S. aid in organizing resistance forces (b. May 26, 1905--d. July 28, 1997).

Colbert, Jean-baptiste, Marquis De Seignelay

2005-03-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

As the eldest son of the famous secretary of state of that name, Colbert was given the best possible tutors, who found him bright but lazy. In 1683 Colbert became head of the navy and performed brilliantly at the post. He showed an excellent knowledge of naval affairs and personally supervised innovations

Qabus Ibn Sa'id

2005-03-10T04:58:00.000-08:00

Qabus was educated at Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk, England, and at Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy, in Berkshire. He was called home in 1965 by his father, Sa'id ibn Taymur, who kept his son a virtual prisoner for six years while maintaining his subjects in a state of relative underdevelopment despite the country's growing oil revenues.

Skeleton Shrimp

2005-03-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

Aeginella longicornis (longicornia), which occurs among eelgrass, sponges, and wharf pilings

Mana

2005-03-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

Town, northwestern French Guiana, on the south bank of the Mana River, near its mouth on the Atlantic coast. It originated in 1830 around an orphanage founded by a French nun and, after 1848, also served as a refuge for runaway and newly emancipated slaves. The site of a large leprosarium, its economy is basically agricultural, including sugarcane and cattle. Pop. (1982) mun. 1,721.

Radio, Antennas

2005-03-08T00:23:00.000-08:00

The size of the antenna relative to the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation

Estonia

2005-03-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

Officially Republic of Estonia, Estonian Eesti, or Eesti Vabariik, country in northeastern Europe, the northernmost of the three Baltic states. It is bounded on the west and north by the Baltic Sea and on the east by Lake Peipus (Peipsi; Russian: Chudskoye Ozero) and the Narva River; it is bordered on the east and southeast by Russia and on the south by Latvia. Estonia has an area of 17,462 square miles (45,227 square kilometres), of which about one-tenth

Byron, John Byron, 1st Baron

2005-03-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

He was the eldest son of Sir John Byron (d. 1625), a member of an old Lancashire family which had settled at Newstead, near Nottingham. During the third decade of the 17th century Byron was member of Parliament for the town and afterward for the county of Nottingham. In December 1641, King Charles I made him lieutenant

Eliot, Sir John

2005-03-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

The son of a wealthy landowner, Eliot was first elected

Amphibian, Adaptations

2005-03-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

The amphibian eye has a lid, associated glands and ducts, and muscles that allow accommodation as well as depth perception and true colour vision. These adaptations are regarded as the first evolutionary improvements in vertebrate terrestrial vision. Green rods in the retina, which permit perception of a wide range of wavelengths, are found only in amphibians.

Gagarin, Yury Alekseyevich

2005-03-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

The son of a carpenter on a collective farm, Gagarin graduated as a molder from a trade school near Moscow in 1951. He continued his studies at the industrial college at Saratov and concurrently took a course in flying. On completing this course he entered

Stephen Ii (or Iii)

2005-03-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

He was a deacon when chosen on March 26, 752, as the second successor to Pope St. Zacharias (the first successor, Stephen II, had died on the previous day without being consecrated). The central act of his pontificate was to free the papacy from Byzantium and to ally it with the Franks

Frame, Janet

2005-03-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

Frame's early years were traumatic. Her childhood was marked by poverty and the drowning deaths of two sisters, and in 1945, while studying to be a teacher, she suffered a breakdown. Misdiagnosed

Zambezi River

2005-03-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Zambesi, river draining a large portion of south-central Africa. Together with its tributaries, it forms the fourth largest river basin of the continent. The river flows eastward for about 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometres) from its source on the Central African Plateau to empty into the Indian Ocean. With its tributaries, it drains an area of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square kilometres). The Zambezi

Wilhelmina Gebergte

2005-03-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

Mountain range in central Suriname, forming part of South America's granitic Precambrian Guiana Shield, extending about 70 mi (113 km) from west to east. The range divides Suriname's western district of Nickerie from the eastern districts of Saramacca, Brokopondo, and Marowijne. The Wilhelmina Gebergte descends gradually into two lesser ranges of hills to the north—the

Aesthetics, Medieval aesthetics

2005-03-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

St. Thomas Aquinas devoted certain passages of his Summa Theologiae (c. 1266–73) to the study of beauty. To his thinking, man's interest in beauty is of sensuous origin, but it is the prerogative of those senses that are capable of “contemplation”—namely, the eye and the ear. Aquinas defines beauty in Aristotelian terms as that which pleases solely in the contemplation of it and recognizes

Adwa, Battle Of

2005-03-02T01:43:00.000-08:00

The death (in 1889) of the Ethiopian emperor Yohannes IV was followed by great disorder, during which the Italians helped Menilek of Shewa (Shoa) win the throne. Furthermore,

Kan River

2005-03-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Kan Chiang, or (Pinyin) Gan Jiang, river, chiefly in Kiangsi sheng (province), China. The Kan River is one of the principal southern tributaries of the Yangtze River. Its headwaters rise in Kwangtung province, where the Ta-yü Mountains divide southwestern Kiangsi from Kwangtung. This upper stream is called the Chang River. Another stream, the Kung River, rises in the Chiu-lien Mountains in the far south

Aguirre, Lope De

2005-02-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Nothing is known of Aguirre's life prior to 1544, when he arrived in Peru and took part in the Spanish suppression of Indian rebellions and in the wars that continually broke out between

Gaddis, William Thomas

2005-02-28T01:37:00.000-08:00

American writer of complex satiric works who was considered one of the most important post-World War II modernist novelists and whose first novel, The Recognitions (1955), became an underground classic; he published only three more novels--JR (1975), Carpenter's Gothic (1985), and A Frolic of His Own (1994)--and had finished another, Agape Agape, which was to be published posthumously (b. Dec. 29, 1922, New

Soga Iruka

2005-02-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

In 587, after defeating the rival Mononobe clan, the Soga family completely dominated the imperial court. Soga Umako, Iruka's grandfather, was content to remain in the background

Prodromus, Theodore

2005-02-27T10:18:00.000-08:00

He wrote many occasional pieces for a widespread circle of patrons at the imperial court. Some of the work attributed to him is unpublished and some of it may be wrongly attributed to him. Even so, there does emerge from these writings the figure of an author in reduced circumstances,

Cosmic Ray

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

A high-speed particle—either an atomic nucleus or an electron—that travels throughout the Milky Way Galaxy, including the solar system. Some of these particles originate from the Sun, but most come from sources outside the solar system and are known as galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Cosmic-ray particles that arrive at the top of the Earth's atmosphere are termed primaries;

Biblical Literature, Special nature and problems

2005-02-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

The English title of this work, meaning “second law,” is derived from a faulty Greek translation of chapter 17, verse 18, referring to “a copy of this law”: the implication being that the book is a second law or an expanded version of the original law for the new generation of Israelites about to enter Canaan. Hebrew texts take the opening words of the book as title, Ele ha-Devarim

Grand Guignol

2005-02-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Short plays popular in Parisian cabarets in the 19th century, especially at the Théâtre du Grand Guignol. The plays emphasized violence, horror, and sadism. Although Grand Guignol was introduced into England about 1908, it remained essentially a Parisian theatrical form.

Aerosmith

2005-02-25T20:58:00.000-08:00

American heavy metal band. One of the biggest arena-rock attractions of the late 1970s, Aerosmith became even more popular with its career revival in the mid-1980s. Principal members were Steven Tyler (byname of Steven Tallarico; b. March 26, 1948, New York, New York, U.S.), Joe Perry (b. September 10, 1950, Boston, Massachusetts), Brad Whitford (b. February 23, 1952, Winchester, Massachusetts), Tom Hamilton (b. December

Xylem

2005-02-25T02:13:00.000-08:00

In botany, part of the vascular system that conveys water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant and may also furnish mechanical support. Xylem consists of specialized water-conducting tissues made up mostly of narrow, elongated, hollow cells. These cells may be of several types, including tracheids (the basic cell type), vessel members, fibres,

Marc, Franz

2005-02-24T23:06:00.000-08:00

Marc's early works were done in a self-consciously academic style, but in 1903 his stolid naturalism was lightened by his exposure to French Impressionist painting and later to

Ponte Vecchio

2005-02-24T03:31:00.000-08:00

(Italian: “Old Bridge”), first segmental arch bridge built in the West, which crosses over the Arno River at Florence and is an outstanding engineering achievement of the European Middle Ages. Its builder, Taddeo Gaddi, completed the bridge in 1345. Requiring fewer piers in the stream than the Roman semicircular-arch design, the segmental arch offered less obstruction to

East End

2005-02-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

Traditional area of London, lying east of Shoreditch High Street, Houndsditch, Aldgate High Street, and Tower Bridge Approach. It extends eastward to the River Lea and lies mainly in the Inner London borough of Tower Hamlets, part of the historic county of Middlesex. In the Middle Ages the East End was part of the great parish of Stepney. It began to take on an identity

Mauer

2005-02-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

Pleistocene locality on the Neckar River of Germany and the name of a Pleistocene deposit, the Mauer Sands (the Pleistocene epoch began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). The Mauer Sands are about 64 feet (20 m) thick and contained the fossil remains of the sabre-toothed cat, bear, horse, hippopotamus, and extinct elephant; Germany's oldest human fragment, the Heidelberg

Tachos

2005-02-22T22:44:00.000-08:00

Also called Takhor, Teos , or Zedhor second king (reigned 365–360 BC) of the 30th dynasty of Egypt; he led an unsuccessful attack on the Persians in Phoenicia. Tachos was aided in the undertaking by the aged Spartan king Agesilaus II, who led a body of Greek mercenaries, and by the Athenian fleet commander Chabrias. Tachos, however, insisted on leading the Egyptian army himself, and Agesilaus, after quarreling with his

Arias Sánchez, Oscar

2005-02-22T01:04:00.000-08:00

Born into one of the wealthiest coffee-growing families in Costa Rica, Arias studied economics at the University of Costa Rica and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Essex in England. In the 1960s he began working for the moderate socialist

Ashur-uballit I

2005-02-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

(reigned c. 1365–30 BC), king of Assyria during Mesopotamia's feudal age, who created the first Assyrian empire and initiated the Middle Assyrian period (14th to 12th century BC). With the help of the Hittites he destroyed the dominion of the Aryan Mitanni (a non-Semitic people from upper Iran and Syria who had subjugated Assyria), ravaged Nineveh (near present Mosul, Iraq), and sent off the image

Plant, Principal pathways and cycles

2005-02-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

The 6-carbon sugar glucose, a product of photosynthesis, may be translocated in the form of sucrose (a 12-carbon sugar) to nourish nonphotosynthesizing parts of the plant, or it may be polymerized into starch for storage. (Trehalose, another 12-carbon sugar, replaces sucrose in some nonvascular plants.) When required, sucrose and starch are hydrolyzed to glucose and then enter

Accismus

2005-02-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

A form of irony in which a person feigns indifference to or pretends to refuse something he or she desires. The fox's dismissal of the grapes in Aesop's fable of the fox and the grapes is an example of accismus. A classic example is that of Caesar's initial refusal to accept the crown, a circumstance reported by one of the conspirators in William Shakespeare's Julius

'abbas I

2005-02-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

L.L. Bellan, Chah 'Abbas I: sa vie, son histoire (1932), the only biography of Shah 'Abbas I in any European language—generally accurate; R.M. Savory, “ 'Abbas I” in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., vol. 1, pp. 7–8 (1960); for general background to the period of Shah 'Abbas, the reader is referred to: J. Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin, 4th ed., 4 vol. (1811); Sir John Malcom, The History of Persia from the Early Period to the Present Time, 2 vol. (1815); and V. Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk (1943), especially the introduction, commentary, and appendixes.

Avola

2005-02-20T00:04:00.000-08:00

Town, Siracusa provincia, southeastern Sicily, Italy, southwest of Syracuse. Rebuilt after an earthquake in 1693, the town has several fine 18th-century churches. Sugar refining and almond packing are the main industries. Pop. (1993 est.) mun., 31,629.

Factory Ship

2005-02-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

The present-day factory ship is an automated, greatly enlarged version of the

Ashur-uballit I

2005-02-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

PABA is not an essential nutrient for vertebrates,

Photoelectric Effect

2005-02-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

Photoemissive phenomena are well known for the higher energy ranges in the X-ray and gamma regions because such penetrating radiation can release photoelectrons from inner atomic shells. If a vacancy is produced in an inner shell because of the removal of an electron through the photoelectric process, the vacancy will be filled by an electron from a less tightly

Utzon, Jørn

2005-02-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

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

Olomouc

2005-02-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

Olomouc possibly originated as a Roman fort (Mons Iulii) and by the 9th century was an important stronghold. A bishopric, established there in 1063, was raised to an archbishopric in 1777. At the Peace

Athol

2005-02-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Worcester county, north-central Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on the Millers River, north of Quabbin Reservoir. Settled in 1735, it was known by the Algonquian name of Pequoiag until it was incorporated in 1762 and renamed for Blair Atholl, the Scottish home of the dukes of Atholl. An early industrial centre, it had lumber, textile, and tanning mills. Its modern economy

Qatar, Flag Of

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

The Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Britain all had an interest in finding allies among the small Arab sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf during the 19th century. A treaty signed in 1868 between Britain and one of those states, Qatar, may have been the occasion for the creation of the distinctive Qatari flag. Later the Turkish flag flew there, but during World War I, when the United Kingdom

Cheka

2005-02-16T01:19:00.000-08:00

Also called Vecheka, early Soviet secret police agency and a forerunner of the KGB (q.v.).

Macaire

2005-02-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

The same story

Hull, Clark L.

2005-02-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

In full Clark Leonard Hull American psychologist known for his experimental studies on learning and for his attempt to give mathematical expression to psychological theory. He applied a deductive method of reasoning similar to that used in geometry, proposing that a series of postulates about psychology could be developed, from which logical conclusions

Wolof Empire

2005-02-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ouolof (fl. 14th–16th century), state that dominated what is now inland Senegal during the early period of European contact with West Africa. Founded soon after 1200, the Wolof state was ruled by a king, or burba, whose duties were both political and religious. During the 14th century, it began to develop satellite states, of which the most important was Cayor. During the 15th century Wolof was

Paulo Afonso

2005-02-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

City, northeastern Bahia estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil, on the São Francisco River, at the site of the Paulo Afonso Falls. Made the seat of a municipality in 1958, Paulo Afonso is the transportation and commercial centre for its agricultural hinterland. It is accessible by highway from Salvador, the state capital, about 310 miles (500 km) south, and from neighbouring communities

Aiken, Joan

2005-02-13T01:52:00.000-08:00

In full Joan Delano Aiken prolific British author of fantasy, adventure, horror, and suspense tales for both juvenile and adult readers. Perhaps best-known as the inventor of a genre called the “unhistorical romance,” Aiken wrote tales that combine humour and action with traditional mythic and fairy tale elements. Many of these works

Caber, Tossing The

2005-02-11T05:25:00.000-08:00

A Scottish athletic event consisting in throwing a “caber,” a straight, approximately 17-foot- (5-metre-) long log (from which the bark has been removed) so that it turns over in the air and falls on the ground with its small end pointing directly opposite the tosser. See Highland Games.

Disasters

2005-02-11T03:46:00.000-08:00

May 30, Minsk, Belarus. A stampede occurred in a passageway

Account Payable

2005-02-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Any amount owed by a company as the result of a purchase of goods or services from another company on a credit basis. Under a trade-credit arrangement, the purchasing company, after placing its order with the seller, receives the goods and an invoice denoting the price of the goods and the terms for payment. The purchasing firm does not send a trade acceptance or promissory

Medicine, United States

2005-02-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

Federal, state, county, and city governments all have public health functions. Under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the Public Health Service, headed by an assistant secretary for health and the surgeon general. State health departments are headed by a commissioner of health, usually a physician, who is often in the governor's cabinet. He usually

Chronology

2005-02-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

The Christian Era is the era now in general use throughout the world. Its epoch, or commencement, is January 1, 754 AUC (ab urbe condita—“from the foundation of the city [of Rome]”—or anno urbis conditae—“in the year of the foundation of the city”). Christ's birth was at first believed to have occurred on the December 25 immediately preceding. Years are reckoned as before or after the Nativity,

Switzerland, Rural communities

2005-02-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

Rural settlements predominate in the valleys. Alpine villages extending along the base of slopes are a characteristic sight. Since the extensive river diversions, made chiefly during the second half of the 19th century, many villages have expanded into valley plains, where intensive farming is carried on, as in the Seeland between Lakes Neuchâtel and Biel. The isolation

Kafka, Franz

2005-02-08T23:31:00.000-08:00

Czech-born German-language writer of visionary fiction, whose posthumously published novels—especially Der Prozess (1925; The Trial) and Das Schloss (1926; The Castle)—express the anxieties and alienation of 20th-century man.

Abalone

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

Any of several marine snails of the subclass Prosobranchia (class Gastropoda) constituting the genus Haliotis and family Haliotidae, in which the shell has a row of holes on its outer surface. Abalones are one-shelled snails found in warm seas worldwide. The dishlike shell is perforated near one edge by a single row of small holes that become progressively