PhysicalCow

organic bed linen

2006-10-29T16:50:00.000-08:00

Livs range of soft luxurious bed linenis sourced ethically from India and using a fair trade policy. Liv also provide duvet cover set and bath towel set.

Factor

2005-04-04T04:10:00.000-07:00

In mathematics, a number or algebraic expression that divides another number or expression evenly, i.e., with no remainder. For example, 3 and 6 are factors of 12 because 12 ¸ 3 = 4 exactly and 12 ¸ 6 = 2 exactly. The other factors of 12 are 1, 2, 4, and 12. With the exception of 1, a positive integer or an algebraic expression that has only two factors (i.e., itself and 1) is termed prime; a positive integer or an algebraic

Dong Nai River

2005-04-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

Also called Donnai River , Vietnamese Song Dong Nai river rising in the central highlands (Annamese Cordillera) of southern Vietnam, northwest of Da Lat. Near its source the river has rapids and is known as the Da Dung River. It flows west and southwest for about 300 miles (480 km), joining the Saigon River southwest of Bien Hoa. At the rapids of Tri An, west of Dinh Quan, it is joined by the Be River. The Nhim, an important upper tributary,

Vivaldi, Antonio

2005-04-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

In full Antonio Lucio Vivaldi Italian composer and violinist who left a decisive mark on the form of the concerto and the style of late Baroque instrumental music.

Gottfried Von Strassburg

2005-04-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

The dates of his birth and death are unknown, and the only information about him consists of references to him in the work of other poets and inferences from his own work. The breadth of learning displayed in Tristan und Isolde reveals that

China, Nationalist deterioration

2005-04-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

The military weakness in 1944 was symptomatic of a gradual deterioration that had taken place in most aspects of Nationalist Chinese public life. Inflation began to mount alarmingly as the government pumped in large amounts of paper currency to make up its fiscal deficits. Salaries of government employees, army officers, teachers, and all those on wages fell far behind

Armenian Apostolic Church

2005-04-01T00:41:00.000-08:00

Christianity became the state religion of Armenia about AD 300, when St. Gregory the Illuminator converted the Arsacid king Tiridates III. The new Armenian church soon struck a course independent of

Ehrenburg, Ilya Grigoryevich

2005-03-31T19:21:00.000-08:00

Born into a middle-class Jewish family that later moved to Moscow, Ehrenburg became involved as a youth in revolutionary activity and was arrested in his early teens. He emigrated to Paris, where he began publishing

Wagner, Cosima

2005-03-31T05:12:00.000-08:00

Cosima was the illegitimate daughter of the composer-pianist Franz Liszt and the countess Marie d'Agoult, who also bore Liszt two other children. Liszt later legitimatized their births; he also provided

Baladhuri, Al-

2005-03-30T03:51:00.000-08:00

Al-Baladhuri lived most of his life in Baghdad and studied there and in Syria. He was for some time a favoured visitor at the Baghdad court of the 'Abbasid caliphs. His chief extant work, a condensation of a longer history, Futuh al-buldan (The Origins of the Islamic State, 1916, 1924), tells of the wars and

Kama-dhatu

2005-03-29T15:33:00.000-08:00

In Buddhism, the realm of feeling. See arupa-loka.

Ecliptic

2005-03-29T02:20:00.000-08:00

In astronomy, the great circle that is the apparent path of the Sun among the constellations in the course of a year; from another viewpoint, the projection on the celestial sphere of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. The constellations of the zodiac are arranged along the ecliptic. The ecliptic is inclined about 23 1/2° to the plane of the celestial equator; the two points

Cystine

2005-03-28T00:47:00.000-08:00

A crystalline, sulfur-containing amino acid that is formed from two molecules of the amino acid cysteine. Cystine can be converted to cysteine by reduction (in this case, the addition of hydrogen). Discovered in 1810, cystine was not recognized as a component of proteins until 1899, when it was isolated from animal horn. Cystine is particularly abundant in skeletal and connective

Lihue

2005-03-27T04:30:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Kauai county, in southeastern Kauai Island, Hawaii, U.S. It is the island's chief port and its cultural and business centre. Sugarcane became the locality's economic mainstay with the foundation of the Lihue Sugar Plantation (1849) by German colonists. The Germans built a Lutheran church (1883), a fusion of classical New England architecture and Bavarian Baroque. The

Cameron, Julia Margaret

2005-03-27T03:12:00.000-08:00

The daughter of an officer in the East India Company, Julia Margaret Pattle married jurist Charles Hay Cameron in 1838. The couple had six children, and in 1860 the family settled on the Isle of Wight.

Devils Postpile National Monument

2005-03-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

The monument's most notable feature is the Devils Postpile

Sage, Russell

2005-03-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

Sage's first job was as an errand boy in a brother's grocery store in Troy, N.Y. In his spare time he studied bookkeeping and arithmetic, and he began trading on his own. When he was 21, he used his profits to buy out the store

China, Trade unions

2005-03-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

Chinese trade unions are organized on a broad industrial basis. Membership is open to those who rely on wages for the whole or a large part of their income—a qualification that excludes most agricultural workers. In theory, membership is not compulsory, but in view of the unions' role in the distribution of social benefits, the economic pressure to join is considerable.

Robert Of Molesme, Saint

2005-03-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

The son of noble parents, Robert entered the Benedictine monastery of Moutier-la-Celle near Troyes as a youth and soon became prior. He later became abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Tonnerre,

China, Trade unions

2005-03-23T20:39:00.000-08:00

French national theatre created in 1920 to bring theatre to the general public. Its first director, Firmin Gémier, had been the director of the Théâtre Antoine and had made a number of attempts to create a people's theatre. Initially the TNP offered productions from the other national companies in a large hall with inexpensive tickets. It had no acting company, could not

West Highland White Terrier

2005-03-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

Breed of terrier that probably originated at Poltalloch, in the former county of Argyll, Scotland. It was bred there for many years by the Malcolm family, whose dogs appear to be traceable back to the time of King James I of England. Typically hardy and gay-spirited, the West Highland white terrier is a short-legged dog standing 10 to 11 inches (25.5 to 28 cm) and weighing 13 to 19 pounds (6 to

Nabulus

2005-03-21T16:14:00.000-08:00

Shechem, a Canaanite city, was important in ancient Palestine because of its position in an east–west pass between

Lophophorate

2005-03-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

Any of several invertebrate animals that possess a lophophore, a fan of ciliated tentacles around the mouth. Currents of water carrying food particles toward the mouth are drawn by movements of the cilia. The lophophorates include the moss animals (phylum Bryozoa), lamp shells (Brachiopoda), and phoronid worms (Phoronida).

Pinar Del Río

2005-03-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Provincia, western Cuba, bounded on the north by the Gulf of Mexico, on the west by the Yucatán Channel, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, on the southeast by the Gulf of Batabanó, and on the east by La Habana province. Low mountain ranges, including the Sierra de los Órganos and the Sierra del Rosario, form the backbone of the territory, which has an area of 4,218 square miles (10,925 square

Sibawayh

2005-03-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

After studying in Basra, Iraq, with a prominent grammarian, Sibawayh received recognition as a grammarian himself. Sibawayh is said to have left Iraq and retired to Shiraz after losing a debate with a rival on Bedouin Arabic usage. His monumental work is al-Kitab fi an-nahw (“The Book on Grammar”) or, more simply, al-Kit

Theatre, Western, Shamanism

2005-03-19T00:33:00.000-08:00

A second theory proposes that theatre evolved from shamanistic rituals that manifested to the audience a supernatural presence, as opposed to giving a symbolic representation of it. In this case the shaman, as actor/priest, was able to put himself into a trance and become a medium with the other world. He was believed to travel in the spirit world or be actually possessed

Middlesex

2005-03-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

County, east-central New Jersey, U.S., bounded by the Millstone River to the southwest, the Raritan River to the northwest, the Rahway River to the northeast, and Raritan Bay to the east. It consists largely of a coastal lowland. Other bodies of water include Carnegie and Farrington lakes and the South River. Forested areas contain oak and hickory. Among the recreational

Submarine Fan

2005-03-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

Accumulation of land-derived sediment on the deep seafloor; in configuration, a fan is like the section of a very low cone, with its apex at the lower mouth of a submarine canyon incised into a continental slope. Submarine canyons have steep courses with high walls and funnel occasional dense slurries of water and terrigenous sediment (turbidity currents) to the abyssal

Celaya, Battle Of

2005-03-17T06:05:00.000-08:00

(April 1915), decisive military engagement in the wars between revolutionary factions following the Mexican Revolution of 1911. One of the bloodiest battles in Mexican history, it was fought at Celaya, Gua najuato state, between the forces of Álvaro Obregón and Pancho Villa. In the course of the civil wars, Venustiano Carranza and Villa had eclipsed the other revolutionary

Ya-an

2005-03-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

Established as the seat of a county under the Ch'in (221–206 BC) and Han (206 BC–AD 220) dynasties,

Theatre, Western, Shamanism

2005-03-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

Guerrilla movement formed originally to oppose the Japanese occupation of Malaya during World War II. In December 1941 a rapid Japanese invasion commenced, and within 10 weeks it had conquered Malaya. British military forces had prepared for this possibility by training small Malayan guerrilla groups. Once war became a reality, the guerrillas organized the MPAJA. This

Shensi, The 19th and 20th centuries

2005-03-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

By the 19th century Shensi was seriously impoverished. Although only marginally affected by the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) in its last stages, eastern and southern Shensi were slightly disturbed by the Nien Rebellion between 1853 and 1868. It then suffered the terrible Muslim rebellion of 1862 to 1878, which affected much of the western and northern parts of the province. Although the effects

Gondi Family

2005-03-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

French family of Florentine origin, whose diplomats and bankers were prominent in France from the 16th century. The family established itself in France after gaining the confidence and patronage of Catherine de Médicis. Antoine II (1486–1560) was the first Gondi to settle in France and started the most illustrious branch of the family. At first a banker in Lyon, he was brought

Cosimo Iii

2005-03-15T02:54:00.000-08:00

Though Cosimo III traveled widely and spent money generously (in particular for the benefit of the church), he had a reserved manner aggravated by conjugal, political, and dynastic disillusionments, and he took refuge more and

Algae, Diagnostic features

2005-03-14T01:44:00.000-08:00

The classification of algae into taxonomic groups is based upon the same rules as for the classification of plants. The organization of groups above the order level has changed substantially since 1960. Research using electron microscopes has demonstrated new and important features of the flagellar apparatus, cell division process, and organelle structure and

Celesta

2005-03-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

Also spelled celeste, orchestral percussion instrument resembling a small upright piano, patented by a Parisian, Auguste Mustel, in 1886. It consists of a series of small metal bars (and hence is a metallophone) with a keyboard and a simplified piano action in which small felt hammers strike the bars. Each bar is resonated by a wooden box or similar chamber tuned to reinforce the fundamental

Biogenetic Law

2005-03-13T04:09:00.000-08:00

Also called Recapitulation Theory, postulation, by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny—i.e., the development of the animal embryo and young traces the evolutionary development of the species. The theory was influential and much-popularized earlier but has been of little significance in elucidating either evolution or embryonic growth.

Samarkand Rug

2005-03-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

Handwoven floor covering that was once marketed through the ancient city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan but is actually produced by Kyrgyz or Uzbek tribeswomen or in the towns of Khotan (Ho-t'ien), Kashgar, and Yarkand in Sinkiang, China. Except for their colouring, the general effect of these rugs is more Chinese than Middle Eastern. See Kashgar rug; Khotan rug.

Medicine

2005-03-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

George Rosen, The Structure of American Medical Practice, 1875–1941 (1983), is a historical study. Particular kinds of medical practice are explored in Wesley Fabb and John Fry (eds.), Principles of Practice Management in Primary Care (1984); Sir Douglas Black et al., Inequalities in Health: The Black Report, edited by Peter Townsend and Nick Davidson (1982); David Sanders and Richard Carver, The Struggle for Health: Medicine and the Politics of Underdevelopment (1985); and V. Djukanovic and E.P. Mach (eds.), Alternative Approaches to Meeting Basic Health Needs in Developing Countries: A Joint UNICEF/WHO Study (1975). Also see the articles of such journals as Private Practice (monthly) and Modern Healthcare (semimonthly). For a view of alternative medicine, see Douglas Stalker and Clark Glymour (eds.), Examining Holistic Medicine (1985); and Richard Grossman, The Other Medicines (1985). The variety of roles in the health-care profession are the subject of Louise Simmers, Diversified Health Occupations (1983); C. Wesley Eisele, William R. Fifer, and Toma C. Wilson, The Medical Staff and the Modern Hospital (1985); and Eli Ginzberg (ed.), From Physician Shortage to Patient Shortage: The Uncertain Future of Medical Practice (1986).

Art And Architecture, Egyptian, Domestic architecture

2005-03-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

The best preserved private houses are those of modest size in the workmen's village of Dayr al-Madinah. Exceptional in that they were built of stone, they

Encyclopaedia

2005-03-10T13:14:00.000-08:00

For more than 2,000 years encyclopaedias have existed as summaries of extant scholarship in forms comprehensible to their readers. The word at first meant a circle or a complete system of learning—that is, an all-around education.

Manuel I

2005-03-10T03:36:00.000-08:00

Manuel was fortunate to have reigned at all;

Computers, The hobby market expands

2005-03-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

Some entrepreneurs, particularly in the San Francisco Bay area, saw opportunities to build add-on devices, or peripherals, for the Altair; others decided to design competitive hardware products. Because different machines might use different data paths, or buses, peripherals built for one computer might not work with another computer. This led the emerging industry

Tabasco Plain

2005-03-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

Tropical lowland on the Gulf of Mexico, Tabasco state, southeastern Mexico. Occupying the coastal lowlands south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and north of the Yucatán Peninsula, the Tabasco Plain is a hot and humid land made up of alluvial materials deposited by the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers and is covered with dense, tropical forest. Rainfall is heavy, and

White River

2005-03-08T16:16:00.000-08:00

River formed by the confluence of its West and East forks near Petersburg in southwestern Indiana, U.S., and flowing in a southwesterly direction for 52 miles (84 km) before entering the Wabash River, opposite Mt. Carmel, Ill. Its 255-mile (410-km) West Fork rises in Randolph county, eastern Indiana; its 282-mile (454-km) East Fork (sometimes called Driftwood) is a combination of streams that join

Dabrowska, Maria

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

Born into a relatively impecunious family of landowners, Dabrowska was educated in Poland, at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and then in Belgium. Afterward, she lived in France and Great Britain until World War II. In 1909 she had begun to write articles

Cariban Languages

2005-03-07T23:32:00.000-08:00

A group of South American Indian languages that were spoken before the Spanish conquest from what is now the Greater Antilles to the central Mato Grosso in Brazil; most of the languages, however, were spoken north of the Amazon River in what is now northern Brazil, the inland areas of the Guianas and Venezuela, and lowland Colombia. West Indian Cariban is extinct, and

Acarnania

2005-03-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

District of ancient Greece bounded by the Ionian Sea, the Ambracian Gulf, Mount Thyamus, and the Achelous River. Corinth founded several colonies on the coast of Acarnania in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Originally a tribal unit, Acarnania developed into a federal state with generals and other magistrates, a council, and an assembly by the late 5th century; its capital was

Amici, Giovanni Battista

2005-03-07T02:18:00.000-08:00

Amici served as professor of mathematics at the University of Modena from 1815 to 1825 and

Andrea Da Firenze

2005-03-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

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

Táchira

2005-03-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

State, western Venezuela, bounded on the west by Colombia. The territory of 4,300 square miles (11,100 square km) lies in the southwestern reaches of the Andean Cordillera de Mérida. Agriculture dominates the state's economy; coffee and sugarcane are the leading commercial crops. Rural industry, closely related to agriculture, is usually carried on in the local homes. Relatively

Systole

2005-03-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

Period of contraction of the ventricles of the heart that occurs between the first and second heart sounds. Systole causes the ejection of blood into the aorta and pulmonary trunk. Lasting usually 0.3 to 0.4 second, ventricular systole is introduced by a very brief period of contraction, followed by the ejection phase, during which 80 to 100 cubic centimetres of blood leave each

Policy

2005-03-05T01:06:00.000-08:00

Policy, a true lottery initiated in the United States by Italian-Americans, derives its name from the Italian polizza (“receipt,” or “ticket”) and retains only occasional

Ten Days Of Penitence

2005-03-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hebrew Aseret Yeme Teshuva, the first 10 days of the Jewish religious year. See yamim nora'im.

China, The Han dynasty

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

Translations of historical source material can be found in Édouard Chavannes (ed. and trans.), Les Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, new ed. 6 vol. (1967–69); Homer H. Dubs (ed. and trans.), The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3 vol. (1938–55); Esson M. Gale (ed. and trans.), Discourses on Salt and Iron (1931, reprinted 1973); Burton Watson (ed. and trans.), Records of the Grand Historian of China, 2 vol. (1961); Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang (trans.), Selections from Records of the Historian (1979); and A.F.P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch'in Law (1985). Works on specific topics of Han history include Hans Bielenstein, The Restoration of the Han Dynasty, 4 vol. (1953–79); Michael Loewe, Records of Han Administration, 2 vol. (1967), Everyday Life in Early Imperial China During the Han Period 202 B.C.–A.D. 220 (1968, reissued 1973), and Crisis and Conflict in Han China 104 B.C. to A.D. 9 (1974); T'ung-tsu Ch'u, Han Social Structure (1972); A.F.P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law (1955); Cho-yun Hsu, Han Agriculture: The Formation of Early Chinese Agrarian Economy, 206 B.C.–A.D. 220 (1980); and Ying-shih Yu, Trade and Expansion in Han China (1967). Zhongsbu Wang, Han Civilization (1982), is a survey of archaeological investigations of the Han dynasty.

Palencia

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

Inland provincia, in the Castile-León comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”), northern Spain. It is bounded by the autonomous community (and province) of Cantabria (north) and by the provinces of Burgos (east), Valladolid (south), and Valladolid and León (west). It was formed in 1833. The north is traversed by the Cantabrian Mountains, rising to 8,268 feet (2,520 m) at Curavacas peak. The remainder

Manapouri, Lake

2005-03-02T11:36:00.000-08:00

Lake, southwestern South Island, New Zealand, the deepest lake in the country. It is one of the Southern Lakes, found in the highland section of Fiordland National Park, which were formed by the glacial deepening of an existing stream valley accompanied by damming of the valley with a moraine (glacial debris). Manapouri derives its name from a Maori word meaning “lake

France, History Of, The social order of the ancien régime

2005-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

In the society of the ancien

Amorite Language

2005-02-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

One of the most ancient of the archaic Semitic languages, distributed in an area that is now northern Syria. Amorite is known almost exclusively from glosses and names, and the only known grammar is the grammar of names. Despite the unknown linguistic characteristics, Amorite is dated from the known chronology of proper names of the period in the last century of the

France, History Of, The age of Louis XIV

2005-02-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

Throughout his long reign Louis XIV (1643–1715) never lost the hold over his people he had assumed at the beginning. He worked hard to project his authority in the splendid setting of Versailles, to depict it in his arrogant motto: “Nec pluribus impar” (“None his equal”), and in his sun emblem. He buttressed his authority with the divine-right doctrines elaborated by Bishop

Bahawalnagar

2005-02-26T23:32:00.000-08:00

The surrounding region, once a part of the princely

Hinduism, The Brahmanas and Aranyakas

2005-02-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

Attached to each Samhita was a collection of explanations of the rituals, called a Brahmana, which often relied on mythology to trace the origins and importance of individual ritual acts. Although they were not manuals or handbooks in the manner of the later Srauta Sutras, the Brahmanas do contain some detail about the performance and meaning of Vedic sacrificial rituals

World War I, Caporetto

2005-02-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

On the Italian front, Cadorna's 10th Battle of the Isonzo in May–June 1917 won very little ground; but his 11th, from August 17 to September 12, during which General Luigi Capello's 2nd Army captured much of the Bainsizza Plateau (Banjška Planota), north of Gorizia, strained Austrian resistance very severely. To avert an Austrian collapse, Ludendorff decided that the Austrians must take

Empiricism, Broader senses

2005-02-24T19:03:00.000-08:00

In both everyday attitudes and philosophical theories, the experiences referred to are principally those arising from stimulation of the sense organs, in particular those of sight and touch. Most philosophical Empiricists, however, have maintained that sensation is not the only provider of experience, admitting as empirical the awareness of mental states

Carter, Rosalynn

2005-02-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Carter sometimes pointed out that his wife's first name was Eleanor and that she had been as valuable a working partner to him as had Eleanor Roosevelt to her husband. Most Americans would agree, and Rosalynn's popularity was consistently high compared with that of other first ladies.

World War Ii, Yalta

2005-02-23T23:35:00.000-08:00

Roosevelt's last meeting with Stalin and Churchill took place at Yalta, in the Crimea, Feb. 4–11, 1945. The conference is chiefly remembered for its treatment of the Polish problem: the western Allied leaders, abandoning their support of the Polish government in London, agreed that the Lublin committee—already recognized as the provisional government of Poland by the Soviet

Furniture, Late 18th to 20th century

2005-02-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

During the Neoclassical period, no basic changes took place in chair forms, but legs became straight and dimensions lighter. Backs in the shape of classical vases replaced the fanciful outlines of the Rococo period. Around 1800, freely executed imitations of Greek and Roman chairs of the klismos type, with curved legs and backrest, appeared. French chairs of the Empire

Berengar

2005-02-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

After the fall of the emperor Charles III the Fat, Berengar was elected king of Italy

Beza, Theodore

2005-02-21T23:54:00.000-08:00

After studying law at Orléans, Fr. (1535–39), Beza established a practice in Paris, where he published Juvenilia (1548), a volume of amorous verse that earned him a reputation as a leading Latin poet. On recovering

Tyson, Mike

2005-02-21T06:01:00.000-08:00

A member of various street gangs at an early age, Tyson was sent to reform school in upstate New York in 1978. At the reform school, social worker and boxing aficionado Bobby Stewart recognized his boxing potential and directed him to renowned trainer Cus D'Amato,

Canary Islands

2005-02-20T16:39:00.000-08:00

Spanish Islas Canarias comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Spain, consisting of an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, the nearest island being 67 miles (108 km) off the northwest African mainland. The Canaries comprise the Spanish provincias of Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as well as the insular councils of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife, La Palma, Gomera, and

Chong Yak-jong

2005-02-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Born to a family noted for its scholarly background, Chong was converted to Roman Catholicism by the Chinese priest Chou Wen-mu (James

Bloch, Joseph Samuel

2005-02-18T05:19:00.000-08:00

After serving as a rabbi in several small communities, Bloch settled in Florisdorf,

Gammarid

2005-02-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

Any of the group of mammals that includes elephants and their extinct relatives such as mammoths and mastodons. Although only three species of elephant are extant today, more than 160 extinct proboscidean species have been identified from remains found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. Most of these were called gomphotheres, which belonged to

Edenderry

2005-02-16T06:22:00.000-08:00

Irish Éadan Doire market town, County Offaly, Ire., on the northern edge of the Bog of Allen. The town, including the Court House, was largely built by the marquesses of Downshire in the 18th and early 19th centuries. South of the town are the ruins of Peter Blundell's castle. There are many castles in the area, for Edenderry was located on the edge of the Pale, the medieval English enclave centred

Spoon River

2005-02-16T06:20:00.000-08:00

River in west-central Illinois, U.S. It rises in southwestern Bureau county and flows south and southwest to a point near Lewistown, where it turns southeast, joining the Illinois River opposite Havana after a course of 160 miles (257 km). The Dickson Mounds, a rich archaeological area, are near the confluence of the two rivers. Spoon River was made famous by Edgar Lee Masters, the

Narrow-mouthed Toad

2005-02-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Any amphibian of the family Microhylidae, which includes more than 50 genera and more than 200 species. Narrow-mouthed toads are found in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Typically, they are small, stocky, and smooth skinned with short legs, small heads, pointed snouts, and narrow mouths. They live on land, underground, or in trees

Leaf Blister

2005-02-15T09:53:00.000-08:00

Also called leaf curl worldwide disease of many woody plants and ferns caused by fungi of the genus Taphrina. Following cold, wet weather at budbreak, leaves become swollen, crinkled, and distorted with yellow, red, purple, brown, whitish, or gray blisters. Such leaves usually die and drop early, weakening the plant. A second growth of healthy leaves often appears later. Young peach and nectarine

Haldane, Elizabeth Sanderson

2005-02-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

The younger sister of the statesman Richard Burdon Haldane and the physiologist John Scott Haldane, she was educated privately. For much of her adult life she served on various advisory and regulatory boards for nursing. Influenced by the English housing reformer Octavia Hill,

Dance

2005-02-13T02:17:00.000-08:00

Dance is a powerful impulse, but the art of dance is that impulse channeled by skillful performers into something that becomes intensely expressive and that may delight

Azathioprine

2005-02-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

Immunosuppressive drug that is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and to suppress the body's rejection of transplanted organs. By inhibiting several enzymatic pathways required for the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), azathioprine decreases the number of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) that can migrate to inflammatory sites. Leukopenia (an

Koch

2005-02-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

Also called Rajbansi, ethnic group of the Bodo people, dispersed over parts of Assam and Bengal. While their original language is a Tibeto-Burman dialect, large sections of the group in the 20th century spoke Bengali or other Indo-Aryan languages. In the 16th century a Koch chief established the state of Cooch Behar, and they now call themselves Rajbansi (Of Royal Blood), resent being called by the

Sarabande

2005-02-11T04:03:00.000-08:00

Originally, a dance considered disreputable in 16th-century Spain, and, later, a slow, stately dance that was popular in France. Possibly of Mexican origin or perhaps evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influence that was modified in the New World, it was apparently danced by a double line of couples to castanets and lively music. It was vigorously suppressed in Spain

Papineau, Louis Joseph

2005-02-11T00:37:00.000-08:00

Papineau was elected a member of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada in 1808. During the War of 1812 against the United States, he served as an officer in the

Hood, Mount

2005-02-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

Highest peak (11,239 feet [3,425 metres]) in Oregon, U.S., and the fourth highest peak in the Cascade Range, 45 miles (70 km) east-southeast of Portland. It is a dormant volcano that last erupted about 1865, with minor steam and ash (tephra) emissions in 1903; debris flows, glacial flooding, and earthquakes regularly occur there. First sighted in 1792 by the English navigator William Broughton, and named for the

Local Church, The

2005-02-09T10:58:00.000-08:00

The Local Church grew out of the ministry of Watchman Nee (1903–72), a Chinese Christian who had been strongly influenced by the Plymouth Brethren, a British fundamentalist free church. In the 1930s Nee wrote several books presenting his beliefs

Alienation Effect

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

Examples of such techniques include explanatory captions or illustrations projected

Constance

2005-02-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

The daughter of King Roger II of Sicily, Constance married the future emperor Henry VI in 1186 and was crowned with him in Rome in 1191. On the death of her nephew William

Downpatrick

2005-02-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

Irish Dún Pádraig town and seat, Down district (established 1973), formerly in County Down, Northern Ireland. Downpatrick is located where the River Quoilé broadens into its estuary in Strangford Lough (inlet of the sea). The town takes its name from dún (fortress) and from its association with St. Patrick. It is the Dun-da-leth-glas (Fortress of the Two Broken Fetters) of Irish chroniclers. Formerly

Insurance, Inland marine insurance

2005-02-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

Although there are no standard forms in inland marine insurance, most contracts follow a typical pattern. They are usually written on a named-peril basis covering such perils of transportation as collision, derailment, rising water, tornado, fire, lightning, and windstorm. The policies generally exclude losses resulting from pilferage, strike, riot, civil commotion,

Arao

2005-02-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

City, Kumamoto ken (prefecture), Kyushu, Japan, facing Ariake Bay. It was a poor village until the opening of the Miike coal mine and the arrival of a major railway in the early 20th century. A military munitions factory was established in 1940. After World War II, however, the mine and the factory closed. Arao is now a residential suburb of Omuta to the north. Pop. (1985) 62,570.

China, The barbarians: Tangut, Khitan, and Juchen

2005-02-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

On the frontier the far-reaching influence of T'ang culture affected various nomadic, seminomadic, and pastoral peoples.

Kyoto, Climate

2005-02-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

During spring and fall Kyoto is in its prime; the rainy season (June–July), lasting three to four weeks, is unavoidable; and summers are hot and humid. Winter brings two or three light snows and a unique “chilling from below” (sokobie), which must be tolerated. The yearly mean temperature of Kyoto is about 59° F (15° C); the highest monthly mean, 80° F (27° C), is in August, and the lowest, 38° F (3° C), is in January.

Adelard Of Bath

2005-02-04T00:14:00.000-08:00

Adelard translated into Latin an Arabic version of Euclid's Elements, which for centuries served as the chief geometry textbook in the West. He studied and taught in France and traveled in Italy, Cilicia, Syria, Palestine, and perhaps also in Spain (c. 1110–25) before returning

Biblical Literature, The reign of Solomon

2005-02-03T16:41:00.000-08:00

David had reigned from about 1000 to 962 BCE, a period in which he consolidated a federation of tribes that had been united under the charismatic leadership of Saul, who had reigned for about two decades before David began to construct his minor empire. Solomon, who inherited a strong monarchy, reigned for 40 years. His reputation as a monarch centred about his great wisdom (chapter

Hunter, David

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

Hunter graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1822 and served in the Mexican War (1846–48). In 1862, while in command of Federal troops along the South Atlantic coast, he proclaimed the

Fellenberg, Philipp Emanuel Von

2005-02-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

In 1799 Fellenberg purchased the estate of Hofwil, where he founded a school combining manual training and agricultural and academic instruction. His social aim, to be achieved through education, was to try to raise the living conditions of the poor and to weld them and the upper classes together.

Chatwin, Bruce

2005-02-01T11:18:00.000-08:00

In 1966 Chatwin abandoned a promising career as a director of Impressionist art at the auction firm Sotheby's in London to study archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. From 1973 he worked for a time as a traveling correspondent for The Sunday

Visalia

2005-01-31T16:45:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1853) of Tulare county, south-central California, U.S. It lies on the Kaweah River delta in the San Joaquin Valley, 42 miles (68 km) southeast of Fresno. Founded in 1852 by Nathaniel Vise, it developed as an agricultural (olives, grapes, cotton) and livestock-shipping centre, now supplemented by light manufacturing. It is the seat of the College of the Sequoias (1925). Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Anno Mundi

2005-01-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation Am the year dating from the year of creation in Jewish chronology, based on rabbinic calculations. Since the 9th century AD, various dates between 3762 and 3758 BC have been advanced by Jewish scholars as the time of creation, but the exact date of Oct. 7, 3761 BC, is now generally accepted in Judaism. However, critical dates that underlie the calculations are uncertain. Rabbis used the genealogy