ElasticStamp

Estate Agent Covent Garden

2006-10-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

Robert Irving Burns specialise in London Commercial and Residential property services. They are an estate agent covent garden amongst other London areas such as Soho and Oxford Circus.

Mcmurdo Sound

2005-03-30T04:50:00.000-08:00

Bay off Antarctica that forms the western extension of Ross Sea, lying at the edge of Ross Ice Shelf, west of Ross Island and east of Victoria Land. The channel, 92 miles (148 km) long and up to 46 miles (74 km) wide, has been a major centre for Antarctic explorations. First discovered in 1841 by the Scottish explorer Sir James Clark Ross, it thereafter served as one of the main access routes to

Agnihotri, Shiv Narayan

2005-03-29T01:03:00.000-08:00

At the age of 16 Agnihotri entered the government-sponsored Thompson Engineering College in Roorkee and in 1873 took a position as a drawing master in the Government School of Lahore. He and his wife became active members of the Brahmo Samaj (literally, “Society

China, The Southeast Mountains

2005-03-27T15:34:00.000-08:00

Southeastern China is bordered by a rocky shoreline backed by picturesque mountains. In general, there is a distinct structural and topographic trend from northeast to southwest. The higher peaks may reach altitudes of 5,000 to 6,500 feet. The rivers are short and fast-flowing and have cut steep-sided valleys. The chief areas of settlement are on narrow strips of coastal plain

Charadriiform, Reproduction

2005-03-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

The modes of reproduction in the charadriiforms are only slightly less diverse than the food habits. Nearly all are ground nesters, laying few eggs (two to four in most families; up to six in jacanas) often with little or no nesting material. Usually the eggs are protectively coloured. Some species nest in crevices or burrows, a few in trees. Many are colonial, with aggregations

Amboise

2005-03-26T03:57:00.000-08:00

The town was first mentioned in 504 as Ambatia, when on the isle of Saint-Jean (now Île d'Or), Clovis, king of the Franks, met

East Devon

2005-03-24T05:32:00.000-08:00

District, administrative and historic county of Devon, southwestern England, in the southeastern part of the county and bordering Lyme Bay of the English Channel to the south. East Devon is historically known for its handmade lace and carpet-making industries in the eastern interior market towns of Honiton and Axminster. High-quality limestone has been quarried

Amazonstone

2005-03-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

Also called Amazonite, a gemstone variety of green microcline (q.v.), a feldspar mineral. Frequently confused with jade, amazonstone varies in colour from yellow-green to blue-green and may also exhibit fine white streaks; it is usually opaque and therefore is cut en cabochon (with a rounded and convex polished surface). Although its name is derived from the Amazon River, no deposits have been

Ernest Ii

2005-03-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

He succeeded his father, Duke Ernest I, in 1844. In 1852 he gave Gotha a new constitution, which in part coordinated the administration of his two duchies. In 1861 Ernest concluded

Chiang Rai

2005-03-22T03:10:00.000-08:00

Chiang Rai lies at an elevation of 1,150 feet (350 m) in the basin of the Kok River, near the Khun Tan Range. It has an airport with scheduled flights, and road connections lead south to Lampang and north to Myanmar (Burma) and the Laotian border. It is a trading centre dealing in teak, coffee, and rice. The town was once the walled capital city of an independent principality.

Argentina, Sports

2005-03-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

Argentina's worldwide preeminence on the polo field reflects the nation's divided social base, the hardiness of its horses, and the skills of its riders. Steeped in the gaucho tradition and with the open fields of the Pampas on which to practice, a ranch hand with the necessary talent can attain high renown and modest wealth at either polo or horse racing. Both the wealthy

Fard, Wallace D.

2005-03-19T05:41:00.000-08:00

Fard immigrated to the United States sometime before 1930. In that year, he established in Detroit the Temple of Islam as well as the University of Islam, which was the temple's school, and the Fruit of Islam, a corps of male guards. Fard preached that blacks (who were not

Land Snail

2005-03-19T04:20:00.000-08:00

Any of the approximately 22,000 species of snails adapted to life away from water. Most are members of the subclass Pulmonata (class Gastropoda); a few are members of the subclass Prosobranchia. Typically, land snails live on or near the ground, feed on decaying plant matter, and lay their eggs in the soil. They are most common on tropical islands but occur also

Ely, Isle Of

2005-03-17T20:29:00.000-08:00

Historic region of England, part of the administrative and historic county of Cambridgeshire. The Isle of Ely consists of a hill about 7 miles (11 km) long and 4 miles (6 km) wide that rises above the surrounding fens (low-lying lands that were partly covered by water). The Isle of Ely is the highest point in these fenlands and was formerly an island surrounded by marshes and swamps;

Lag Ba-'omer

2005-03-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Lag B'omer, or Lag Be-omer, a minor Jewish observance falling on the 33rd day in the period of the counting of the 'omer (“barley sheaves”); on this day semimourning ceases and weddings are allowed. The origin of the festival is obscure. Among many traditions, one has it that manna first fell from heaven on this day; another tradition claims that a plague that raged among the followers of Rabbi Akiba ben

Kuang-hsü

2005-03-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

When the previous emperor died, his mother, the empress dowager Tz'u-hsi, chose her four-year-old nephew

Siliceous Sponge

2005-03-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

Any sponge in which the main skeletal component is silica as opposed to calcium carbonate or fibrous organic materials only. More than 95 percent of all known sponge species have a siliceous skeleton and belong to the class Demospongiae (phylum Porifera). The siliceous skeleton is usually composed of discrete elements known as spicules that vary greatly in size

Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl Of, Baron Of Raby

2005-03-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

Leading adviser of England's King Charles I. His attempt to consolidate the sovereign power of the king led to his impeachment and execution by Parliament.

Iris

2005-03-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

Genus of about 300 species of plants in the family Iridaceae including some of the world's most popular and varied garden flowers, centred in the North Temperate Zones. Some of its most handsome species, however, are native to the Mediterranean and central Asian areas. The iris is the fleur-de-lis of the French royalist standard. It is a popular subject of

Akh

2005-03-14T23:38:00.000-08:00

In Egyptian religion, the spirit of a deceased person and, with the ka and ba (qq.v.), a principal aspect of the soul. By enabling the soul to assume temporarily any form it desired, for the purpose of revisiting the earth or for its own enjoyment, the akh characterized the soul of a deceased person as an effective entity in the next world. The akh-soul was generally represented

Celebes Black Ape

2005-03-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

Also called Celebes Crested Macaque (species Cynopithecus niger), arboreal monkey of the family Cercopithecidae, found on Celebes, Bacan, and nearby islands. The Celebes black ape is a stump-tailed monkey with overhanging brows, a hairless black face, and a long, flat muzzle. It is about the size of a baboon (55–65 cm [22–26 inches] long without the tail [1 to 2 cm]) and is covered with dark brown or black fur. The male, especially,

Sun Rose

2005-03-12T01:36:00.000-08:00

Helianthemum apenninum, H. cinereum, H. glaucum, and H. hirsutum are dwarf

Silao

2005-03-12T01:26:00.000-08:00

City, west-central Guanajuato estado (“state”), north-central Mexico. Founded in 1537, Silao lies along the Silao River at 5,830 feet (1,777 m) above sea level. By virtue of its location in the Bajío region, known as the granary of Mexico, Silao is an important agricultural centre. A wide variety of crops, including corn (maize), beans, wheat, chick-peas, avocados, peaches, and strawberries, thrive

Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank

2005-03-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

Among the businesses the bank developed were commercial banking

Mime And Pantomime

2005-03-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

Under the Victorians the subjects

Eye Worm

2005-03-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

(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

France-soir

2005-03-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

(French: “Evening France”), daily newspaper published in Paris, one of the city's greatest independent dailies. It was founded as an underground paper during the German occupation of France in World War II, and after the war it emerged as a journal of mass appeal. France-Soir has ranked among the country's—and the European continent's—leaders in circulation since its start.

Vieux Fort

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

Town and former capital of St. Lucia island in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It lies 19 miles (30 km) south of the harbour of Castries and is situated near the island's extreme southeastern tip on fertile, flat ground overlooking Vieux Fort Bay. Named after a 17th-century fort (Old Fort), it was the site of St. Lucia's first sugar works (1765) and is still the centre of a sugar- and coconut-growing

Denkyera

2005-03-08T21:15:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Denkyira major 17th-century kingdom of the southern Akan peoples, situated in the forested hinterland of modern Ghana's southwestern coast. According to tradition, its kings migrated from the area of the northern Akan or Brong. By the end of the 17th century they had subjugated the Twifo and the Akan subjects of Axim (to the south), had taken over the rich gold-bearing districts of

Shirk

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

The Qur'an (Islamic scripture) stresses in many verses that God does not share his powers with any partner (sharik). It warns those who believe their idols will intercede for them that they, together with the idols, will become fuel for hellfire on the Day of Judgment

Mercy, Claudius Florimund, Graf Von

2005-03-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

Mercy entered the Austrian army in 1682, and distinguished himself in Hungary and Italy as a resolute and versatile cavalry commander. After the outbreak of the War of the Spanish

Kuba

2005-03-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

In the 19th century,

Pacific Islands, Relief

2005-03-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

The islands may be classified as either continental or oceanic. The former are associated with the ancient continental platforms of Asia and Australia, now partially submerged. Oceanic islands, located eastward in the deeper Pacific basin, are differentiated as high volcanic-based islands or low coral islands and atolls. A coral island may be single, or two or more

Plutus

2005-03-04T05:01:00.000-08:00

In Greek religion, god of abundance or wealth, a personification of ploutos (Greek: “riches”). According to Hesiod, Plutus was born in Crete, the son of the goddess of fruitfulness, Demeter, and the Cretan Iasion. In art he appears chiefly as a child with a cornucopia. He was sometimes confused with Pluto (Hades), god of the underworld.

Cold War

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

The open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. The Cold War was waged on political, economic, and propaganda fronts and had only limited recourse to weapons. The term was first used by the American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch during a congressional

Requesens Y Zúñiga, Luis De

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

Requesens's early career was as a government official

Anchises

2005-03-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

In Greek legend, member of the junior branch of the royal family of Troy; he was king of Dardanus on Mount Ida. There the goddess Aphrodite met him and, enamoured of his beauty, bore him Aeneas. For revealing the name of the child's mother, Anchises was killed or struck blind by lightning. In later legend and in Virgil's Aeneid, he was conveyed out of Troy on the shoulders of his

Frederick I

2005-03-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

The younger son of Christian I, king of Denmark and Norway, Frederick divided the duchies of Schleswig (now in Germany and Denmark) and Holstein

Wythe, George

2005-03-01T00:08:00.000-08:00

Admitted to the bar in 1746, Wythe was a member

Gade, Niels (vilhelm)

2005-02-28T21:30:00.000-08:00

Danish composer who founded the Romantic nationalist school in Danish music. He studied violin and composition and became acquainted with Danish poetry and folk music. Both Mendelssohn and Schumann, who were his friends, were attracted by the Scandinavian character of his music. Schumann wrote of him in the Neue Zeitschrift für

Tigon

2005-02-28T03:17:00.000-08:00

Offspring of a tiger and a lioness. The tigon, or tiglon, is a zoo-bred hybrid, as is the liger, the product of the reverse mating of a lion with a tigress.

N-town Plays

2005-02-27T21:48:00.000-08:00

An English cycle of 42 scriptural (or “mystery”) plays dating from the second half of the 15th century and so called because an opening proclamation refers to performance “in N. town.” Since evidence suggests that the cycle was not peculiar to one city or community but traveled from town to town, the abbreviation “N.” would indicate that the appropriate name of the town at which

Antarctica, Physical geography

2005-02-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

W.N. Bonner and D.W.H. Walton (eds.), Antarctica (1985); and R.M. Laws (ed.), Antarctic Ecology, 2 vol. (1984), discusses the continent's physical environment, fauna, flora, land and sea ecology, conservation, and exploitation. I.B. Campbell and G.G.C. Claridge, Antarctica: Soils, Weathering Processes, and Environment (1987), provides a summary of recent research.

Qodashim

2005-02-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

(Hebrew: “Holy Things”), the fifth of the six major divisions, or orders (sedarim), of the Mishna (codification of Jewish oral laws), which was given its final form early in the 3rd century AD by Judah ha-Nasi. Qodashim deals primarily with rites and sacrifices that took place in the Temple of Jerusalem, which was destroyed in AD 70 by Roman legions and never rebuilt. The 11 tractates (treatises)

United Nations

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

Kofi Annan of Ghana(see BIOGRAPHIES) took office on Jan. 1, 1997, as the new secretary-general of the United Nations, and change was in the air throughout the year. Annan's reforms were controversial, but the General Assembly approved most of them. In other major developments, the UN's authority was seriously challenged by Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo

Altis

2005-02-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

In Greek religion, the sacred grove of Zeus, or the sacred precinct in Olympia, Greece. It was an irregular quadrangular area more than 200 yards (183 m) on each side, and walled except to the north, where it was bounded by the Kronion (hill of Cronus). In it were the temples of Zeus and of Hera, his consort; the principal altars and votive offerings; the small treasuries built by various

Wildcat

2005-02-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

The European wildcat inhabits forested regions from Scotland through continental Europe to western Asia. It is similar to the domestic

Wolin

2005-02-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

Island off the northwestern coast of Poland, in Szczecin województwo (province). It is surrounded by the Baltic Sea on the north, the Dziwna River on the east, the Szczecinski Lagoon on the south, and the Swina River on the west. Its area is 95 square miles (245 square km). The main towns are Wolin in the south and Miedzyzdroje in the north. The central area contains the Wolin National

Nachtigal, Gustav

2005-02-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

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

Cambridge Platonists

2005-02-21T05:07:00.000-08:00

Group of 17th-century English philosophic and religious thinkers who hoped to reconcile Christian ethics with Renaissance humanism, religion with the new science, and faith with rationality. Their leader was Benjamin Whichcote, who expounded in his sermons the Christian humanism that united the group. His principal disciples at the University of Cambridge were

Malherbe, François De

2005-02-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

Malherbe received a Protestant education at Caen and Paris and later at the universities of Basel (1571) and Heidelberg (1573) but was shortly converted

Spofford, Harriet Elizabeth Prescott

2005-02-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

Harriet Prescott moved from her native Maine to Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1849 and attended the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, in 1853–55. In part to aid the family's precarious

Arts, East Asian, Sculpture

2005-02-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

Sculpture did not enjoy a great infusion of creativity during the Edo period. More obviously mannered and stylized interpretations of Buddhist deities and worthies were regularly produced. There were, of course, some sculptors of exceptional talent. Shoun Genkei (1648–1710) is renowned for his production (1688–95) of a set of 500 arhats (disciples of the Buddha) at Gohyaku Rakan Temple in

Heirloom

2005-02-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

An item of personal property that by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. The owner of such an heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from the estate. If he dies intestate (without a will), the object goes to his heir at law; otherwise it goes to whoever takes the estate under his will. Such

Ahl Al-kitab

2005-02-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

(Arabic: “People of the Book”), in Islamic thought, those religionists such as Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians who are possessors of divine books (i.e., the Torah, the Gospel, and the Avesta), as distinguished from those whose religions are not based on divine revelations. The latter are an imprecisely identified group referred to as Sabaeans but also considered “People of

Aleutian Range

2005-02-15T17:13:00.000-08:00

Segment of the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending southwestward for about 600 miles (970 km) from the west end of the Alaska Range to the head of Cook Inlet of the Gulf of Alaska, U.S. The Aleutian Islands represent a southwest extension of the mountain peaks, which stretch the length of the Alaska Peninsula and include many volcanoes, notably Katmai (6,716 feet

Animals, The

2005-02-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

Five-piece rock group from northeastern England whose driving sound influenced Bob Dylan's decision, in 1965, to begin working with musicians playing electric instruments. The principal members were Eric Burdon (b. May 11, 1941, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, Eng.), Alan Price (b. April 19, 1942, Fatfield, Durham), Hilton Valentine (b. May 21, 1943, North Shields, Tyne and Wear), Chas Chandler (byname of Bryan

Ust-kamenogorsk

2005-02-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

Kazak Öskemen city, eastern Kazakstan. It lies in the foothills of the Rudnyy Altai Mountains and at the junction of the Ulba and Irtysh rivers. Founded as a Russian fort in 1720, it later became a centre of trade with Mongolia and China and the gateway to the mineral wealth of the Rudnyy Altai. Ust-Kamenogorsk is now a major centre of nonferrous metallurgy (lead, zinc, titanium, and magnesium)

Biblical Literature, Rule by the Herods

2005-02-13T22:05:00.000-08:00

The Herods who followed were under the control of Rome. Herod the Great, son of Antipater of Idumaea, was made king of Judaea, having sided with Rome, and he ruled with Roman favour (37–4 BC). Though he was a good statesman and architect, he was hated by the Jews as a foreigner and semi-Jew. Jesus was born a few years before the end of his reign, and “the slaughter of the innocents,” young children

Armenia, Flag Of

2005-02-13T03:57:00.000-08:00

Long without an independent state of their own, 19th-century Armenians also lacked a national flag around which they could rally to support their language and culture. Armenians in exile in France looked to a scholar at the Armenian Institute in Venice, Ghevont Alshin, for a flag in 1885. He recommended the “rainbow flag given to the Armenians when Noah's Ark came to rest on

Mond, Ludwig

2005-02-13T03:41:00.000-08:00

The son of a wealthy Jewish family, Mond studied chemistry at Marburg and Heidelberg, entered the chemical industry, and went to England in 1862. There his method for recovering sulfur

Ahmad Sirhindi, Shaykh

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

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

Fabricius, Johann Albert

2005-02-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

In 1689, after two years at the University of Leipzig, Fabricius graduated as master of philosophy and published anonymously his Decas decadum, Sive plagiariorum et pseudonymorum centuria, a survey of 100 writers accused of plagiarism or literary mystification. In 1694 he became librarian

Kirkuk

2005-02-10T17:20:00.000-08:00

City, northeastern Iraq. The city is 145 miles (233 km) north of Baghdad, the national capital, with which it is linked by road and railway. Kirkuk is located near the foot of the Zagros Mountains in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The oldest part of the town is clustered around a citadel built on an ancient tell, or mound. During the period of Assyrian prominence (9th–10th century BC) the city

Delos

2005-02-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

Since 1873 the École

Viscount Melville Sound

2005-02-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

Formerly Melville Sound, arm of the Arctic Ocean, Kitikmeot and Baffin regions, Northwest Territories, northern Canada. It is 250 miles (400 km) long and 100 miles (160 km) wide. The discovery of this body of water, reached from the east by Sir William Edward Parry (1819–20) and from the west (1850–54) by Sir Robert McClure, proved the existence of the Northwest Passage and provided passage through the Arctic archipelago. A crossroads

Cinerama

2005-02-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

In motion pictures, a process in which three synchronized movie projectors each project one-third of the picture on a wide, curving screen. Many viewers believe that the screen, which thus annexes their entire field of vision, gives a sense of reality unmatched by the flat screen. Invented by the New York City photographer Fred Waller, the first Cinerama movie, This

Kaolinite

2005-02-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

Kaolinite, nacrite, and dickite occur as minute, sometimes elongated, hexagonal

Seton, Ernest Thompson

2005-02-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

Seton was raised in North America, his family having emigrated to Canada in 1866. Drawn to nature, Seton resisted his family's attempt to make an artist of him. He gained experience as a naturalist by trailing and

Tacna

2005-02-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

Capital of Tacna departamento, southern Peru, on the Caplina River at 1,844 feet (562 m) above sea level, in the arid Andean foothills. When the Spaniards arrived at the site in the 16th century, it was occupied by Aymara Indians. Later, the Spanish town of San Pedro de Tacna was founded, and the surrounding fertile soil and cool climate, as well as proximity to the Pacific port of Arica,

Fischer, Johann Michael

2005-02-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

Fischer was trained by his father, a mason. As an apprentice in Bohemia and Moravia beginning in 1713, he became familiar with the churches of the Dientzenhofer family and returned to Munich in 1718 to become

Alençon Lace

2005-02-05T05:21:00.000-08:00

French Point D'alençon, needle lace made in the French city of Alençon, one of the centres designated by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of finance under Louis XIV, for aid in his effort to make French laces financially and artistically competitive with imported laces. Venetian workers, experts in making point de Venise, were brought in to instruct the local needlewomen, who quickly learned

Mansart, François

2005-02-04T02:28:00.000-08:00

In 1642 René de Longeuil, an immensely wealthy financier and officer of the royal treasury, commissioned Mansart to build a château on his estate. The château of Maisons (now called Maisons-Laffitte, in the chief town of the département of Yvelines) is unique in that it is the only building by Mansart in which the interior decoration (graced particularly by a magnificent

Boucher De Perthes, Jacques

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

From 1825 Boucher de Perthes was director of the customhouse at Abbeville, near the mouth of the Somme River, and began devoting his leisure to archaeological searches in the Somme valley. In

Pachacamac

2005-02-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

Creator deity worshipped by the pre-Inca maritime population of Peru; it was also the name of a pilgrimage site in the Lurín Valley (south of Lima) dedicated to the god and revered for many centuries. After the Incas conquered the coast, they did not attempt to replace the ancient and deeply rooted worship of Pachacamac but instead incorporated him into their own pantheon.

Marey, étienne-jules

2005-02-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

Marey wrote extensively on the circulation of the blood, cholera, terrestrial and aerial locomotion, experimental physiology,

Angiolini, Gasparo

2005-02-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

In 1757 he became ballet master of the Vienna court opera house, where his first ballet dramas frequently relied upon gesture to convey plot. In 1761, however, Angiolini collaborated with the composer Cristoph Gluck to produce Don

Devils Lake

2005-01-31T01:47:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Ramsey county, northeast-central North Dakota, U.S. The community was established with the opening of a land office in 1882 as Creelsburg (later Creel City) and was the head of steamboat navigation on Devils Lake, a saline body of water originally about 30 miles [50 km] long. By 1909, when the lake had receded 4 miles (6 km) from the city, navigation ceased. The city developed as a trade

Aesthetics, The contributions of the ancient Greeks

2005-01-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

The two greatest Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, shared a sense of the importance of aesthetics, and both regarded music, poetry, architecture, and drama as fundamental institutions within the body politic. Plato notoriously recommends the banning of poets and painters from his ideal republic and in the course of his argument provides an extended theory

Grease

2005-01-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

White grease is made from inedible hog fat and has a low content of free fatty acids. Yellow grease is made from darker parts of the hog and may include parts used to make white grease. Brown grease contains

Monkey

2005-01-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

Monkeys are arranged into two main groups: Old World and New World. Old World monkeys all belong to one family, Cercopithecidae, which is related to apes and humans, and together they are classified as catarrhines (meaning “downward-nosed” in Latin). The New World monkeys are the platyrrhines (“flat-nosed”), a group comprising five families. As their taxonomic names suggest,

Lima Barreto, Afonso Henriques De

2005-01-29T13:33:00.000-08:00

Lima Barreto was an active journalist throughout his adult life. His often vitriolic social analysis and criticism are more direct and less

Sea Lettuce

2005-01-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

(Ulva), any member of a genus of green algae usually found growing between high and low tide marks on rocky shores of seas and oceans. Fragments may be washed ashore by wave action. Ulva grows also in brackish water rich in organic matter or sewage. The thallus, which somewhat resembles a lettuce leaf, is a sheet of cells up to 30 cm (12 inches) long and two cells thick

Roving

2005-01-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

In archery, form of practice or competition dating from at least the 16th century, when it was practiced by the Honourable Artillery Company at Finsbury Fields near London. Archers set up many marks on the field and shot from one to the next in sequence, the object being, as in golf, to use the fewest shots in completing the course. Roving is similar to modern field archery,

Multinational And Regional Organizations

2005-01-27T21:06:00.000-08:00

Severely challenged by the social and political unrest produced by the Asian economic crisis, foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN, whose members included Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar [Burma], the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) held their annual meeting in Manila on July 24, 1998. ASEAN's reluctance to "interfere"

Aesthetics, Relationship between form and content

2005-01-27T04:57:00.000-08:00

Two related paradoxes also emerge from the same basic conception of the aesthetic experience. The first was given extended consideration by Hegel, who argued, in his Vorlesungen über die Aesthetik (1832; “Lectures on Aesthetics”; Eng. trans., Philosophy of Fine Art), roughly as follows: Our sensuous appreciation of art concentrates upon the given “appearance”—the “form.” It is

Rupee

2005-01-27T04:53:00.000-08:00

In the late 16th century the Mughal rulers of central and northern India established the silver rupee, which was divided

Zacharias, Saint

2005-01-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

Of Greek parentage, Zacharias was supposedly a Roman deacon when he succeeded Pope St. Gregory III in November/December 741. His pontificate was devoted to diplomatic relations with the Lombard and Frankish kingdoms and with the Byzantine Empire. He initiated a policy of conciliation with

Kamenshek, Dorothy

2005-01-25T18:43:00.000-08:00

Kamenshek showed promise as an outfielder with a local softball league by the time she was 17. A scout for the newly created All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) persuaded her to try out in Chicago.

Myanmar, The military regime

2005-01-25T01:38:00.000-08:00

U Ne Win retired as president and chairman of the Council of State in November 1981 but remained in power until July 1988, when he resigned as chairman of the BSPP amid violent protests. Student and worker unrest had erupted periodically throughout the 1980s, but the intensity of the protests in the summer of 1988 made it seem as if the country was on the verge of revolution. In September

Bloemaert, Abraham

2005-01-23T04:52:00.000-08:00

Bloemaert studied at Utrecht under eminent painters, spent three years in Paris, and then returned to settle finally at Utrecht, where he became dean of the Guild of St. Luke. He painted and etched historical and allegorical pictures, landscapes, still lifes, animal

Medicine, Army medical organization

2005-01-22T14:20:00.000-08:00

The medical doctor of first contact to the soldier in the armies of developed countries is usually an officer in the medical corps. In peacetime the doctor sees the sick and has functions similar to those of the general practitioner, prescribing drugs and dressings, and there may be a sick bay where slightly sick soldiers can remain for a few days. The doctor is usually

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

2005-01-22T07:47:00.000-08:00

Shelley was the heir to rich estates acquired by his grandfather, Bysshe (pronounced “Bish”) Shelley.

Savoy, House Of

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

Italian Savoia, French Savoie, historic dynasty of Europe, the ruling house of Italy from 1861 to 1946. During the European Middle Ages the family acquired considerable territory in the western Alps where France, Italy, and Switzerland now converge. In the 15th century, the house was raised to ducal status within the Holy Roman Empire, and in the 18th century it attained the royal title (first of the kingdom of Sicily,

Malvaceae

2005-01-20T20:42:00.000-08:00

The mallow family, a large group of flowering plants, in the order Malvales, containing about 95 genera of herbs, shrubs, and trees. Representatives occur in all except the coldest parts of the world but are most numerous in the tropics. Economically, the most important member of the family is cotton (q.v.; Gossypium). Several species of Hibiscus produce fibres that are of lesser

Condell, Henry

2005-01-20T04:30:00.000-08:00

Condell may have been acting as early as 1590–91, but he first certainly appeared

Ma'arri, Al-

2005-01-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

Al-Ma'arri was a descendant of the Tanukh tribe. A childhood disease left him virtually blind. He studied at the Syrian cities of Aleppo, Antioch, and Tripoli and soon began his literary career, supported by a small

Chile, The War of the Pacific (187983)

2005-01-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

The need to improve its balance of payments attracted Chile to saltpetre mines situated along the Chilean border in the Bolivian province of Antofagasta and in the Peruvian provinces of Tarapacá and Arica. Ill-defined borders and oppressive measures allegedly taken against the Chilean migrant population in these territories furnished Chile with a pretext

Syracuse

2005-01-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

The site, once the territory of the Onondaga Indians and headquarters of the Iroquois Confederacy, was visited by explorers Samuel de Champlain in 1615 and Pierre Esprit, sieur de Radisson (while a captive of the Mohawks), in 1651. The Jesuit

Dies, Martin, Jr.

2005-01-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

A graduate of the University of Texas (1919) and the law school of National University in Washington, D.C. (1920), Dies opened a law practice in Texas but quickly turned his attention to politics. In 1931 he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives,