MaleSeed

Wood Working Machinery

2006-10-19T02:55:00.000-07:00

Morgan Rogers WoodWorking Machinery supply quality affordable used Woodworking Machinery and New Woodworking Machineryall over the world. With over 40 years experience in the Wood Working Machines industry no order is to small

France, History Of, Charlemagne

2005-03-30T15:09:00.000-08:00

Pepin III, faithful to ancient customs, divided his kingdom between his two sons, Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman. On Carloman's death in 771 the kingdom was reunited. Charlemagne established the base of his kingdom in northeastern Francia (his preferred residence was Aachen [Aix-la-Chapelle]).

Wind Instrument, Reedpipes

2005-03-30T03:27:00.000-08:00

Egypt also made clarinets, instruments composed of two canes with three sides of a rectangle cut obliquely in the upper end of the two single reeds. The term idioglottic is used to describe a reed cut from the tube itself. From four to six equidistant finger holes are cut in each cane, and blowing with the entire reed engulfed in the mouth cavity produces a pungent, tremulous

Kadare, Ismail

2005-03-29T22:09:00.000-08:00

The son of a post-office worker in the town of Gjirokastër, Kadare studied at the University of Tiranë and later at the Gorky Institute of World Literature in Moscow until 1960. Upon returning to Albania, he became a journalist and also embarked on a literary career. He endured

Eureka

2005-03-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

City, port, and seat (1856) of Humboldt county, northern California, U.S., on Humboldt Bay. A major lumber and commercial-fishing centre and headquarters for the Six Rivers National Forest, it was laid out in 1850 and named for the Greek motto (meaning “I have found it”) on the state seal. Site of Fort Humboldt (now a state historic monument) and scene of several Indian uprisings (1853–65), it developed

Salamá

2005-03-28T07:03:00.000-08:00

City, central Guatemala. It lies between the Chuacús Mountains and the Minas Mountains on the Salamá River, a tributary of the Chixoy, at 3,084 feet (940 m) above sea level. Salamá is a commercial and manufacturing centre for its agricultural and pastoral hinterland. The city suffered serious damage from an earthquake in 1976. Salamá is accessible by road from San Cristóbal Verapaz

Ice Skating

2005-03-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

Rintje Ritsma of The Netherlands coped with hazardous weather conditions to claim the overall title in the men's world championships at the small Italian mountain resort of Baselga di Pinè on February 11-12. Keiji Shirahata of Japan finished second, and Roberto Sighel of Italy was third. Gunda Niemann of Germany captured the women's crown at Savalen, Norway, on March 4-5, ahead

Muravyov-apostol, Sergey Ivanovich

2005-03-26T21:53:00.000-08:00

The son of a diplomat and writer, Muravyov-Apostol graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers and fought against the French invasion of Russia in 1812 and in subsequent foreign

Europe, James Reese

2005-03-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

Europe studied piano and violin in his youth and about 1904 settled in New York City, where he directed musical comedies and, in 1910, he helped organize the Clef Club, a union of African-American musicians. The 125-member Clef Club orchestra that he conducted

Gálvez, José, Marqués (marquess) De La Sonora

2005-03-26T01:50:00.000-08:00

Spanish colonial administrator particularly noted for his work as inspector general (visitador general) in New Spain (Mexico), 1765–71. Among his important accomplishments were the reorganization of the tax system, the formation of a government tobacco monopoly, the reorganization of the defenses of the northern frontier of the Viceroyalty,

Ruysbroeck, Jan Van

2005-03-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

After holding the chaplaincy of Sainte Gudule, Brussels, from 1317 to 1343, Ruysbroeck founded the Augustinian abbey at Groenendaal, where he wrote all but the first of his works, Van den Rike der Ghelieven (The

Lafayette, Marie-joseph-paul-yves-roch-gilbert Du Motier, Marquis De

2005-03-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

Born into an ancient noble family, Lafayette had already inherited

Sanlúcar De Barrameda

2005-03-24T04:35:00.000-08:00

Port city, Cadiz provincia, in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It lies on the south bank of the Guadalquivir River estuary, north of Cádiz city. Built on the site of Luciferi-Fani, a Roman settlement, the town was taken from the Moors in 1256 and given to the soldier Alonso Pérez de Guzmán the Good, who was its first lord and builder

Statistics

2005-03-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

In an experimental study,

Caruso, Enrico

2005-03-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

Caruso was of a poor family and was the 18th of 20 children. Although he was a musical child who sang Neapolitan folk songs everywhere and joined his parish choir at the age of nine, he received no formal

Addo Elephant National Park

2005-03-20T02:28:00.000-08:00

National park in Eastern province, South Africa. It has an area of 208 square miles (540 square km) and consists of two sections connected by a corridor. The southern part of the park lies in the Sundays River valley south of the Suurberg Range, north of Port Elizabeth, and was established as Addo Elephant National Park in 1931. It is largely covered with dense, impenetrable evergreen

Statistics

2005-03-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

Cable News Network was created in June 1980 by Ted Turner (q.v.), founder of the Turner Broadcasting System. He established news bureaus in major American cities and in other cities throughout the world. The resulting continuous live news coverage,

Red River

2005-03-18T23:27:00.000-08:00

Also called Red River Of The South, navigable river rising in the high plains of eastern New Mexico, U.S., and flowing southeast across Texas and Louisiana to a point northwest of Baton Rouge, where it enters the Atchafalaya River (q.v.), which flows south to Atchafalaya Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Until the mid-20th century, the Red River contributed flow to both the Atchafalaya and, via the Old River, the Mississippi.

Levittown

2005-03-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

Unincorporated residential community in Hempstead town (township), Nassau county, western Long Island, New York, U.S. Developed between 1946 and 1951 by the firm of Levitt and Sons, Inc., Levittown was an early example of a completely preplanned and mass-produced housing complex. More than 17,000 low-cost homes were built, with accompanying shopping centres, playgrounds, swimming pools,

Agnosticism

2005-03-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

(from Greek agnostos, “unknowable”), strictly speaking, the doctrine that humans cannot know of the existence of anything beyond the phenomena of their experience. The term has come to be equated in popular parlance with skepticism about religious questions in general and in particular with the rejection of traditional Christian beliefs under the impact of modern

Bohemond Vii

2005-03-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

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

Chateaubriand, François-auguste-rené, Viscount (vicomte) De

2005-03-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

The youngest child of an eccentric and impecunious noble, Chateaubriand spent his school holidays largely with his sister in the romantic

Interior Design, Historical developments

2005-03-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

On Islamic art, an excellent work is David Talbot Rice, Islamic Art (1965); a more detailed survey is Maurice S. Dimand, A Handbook of Muhammadan Art, 3rd ed. rev. (1958). A.U. Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 14 vol. (1938–67), should be consulted for this aspect. Franz Boas, Primitive Art, new ed. (1955), discusses the principles behind the decoration of a wide variety of art of this kind, with special attention to the North Pacific Coast of North America. Eric Larrabee and Massimo Vignelli, Knoll Design (1981), is a history of modern commercial interior design.

Demaratus

2005-03-16T04:16:00.000-08:00

King of Sparta, together with Cleomenes I, who frustrated Cleomenes' designs on both Athens and Aegina. He was consequently dethroned by Cleomenes on a false charge of illegitimacy, upon which he fled to Persia and was given some small cities in northwestern Asia Minor, which his descendants held in Xenophon's time. The historian Herodotus told several

Cottage Furniture

2005-03-15T07:22:00.000-08:00

Cottage

Cytoskeleton

2005-03-15T00:37:00.000-08:00

A system of tiny filaments or fibres that is present in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells (cells containing a nucleus). The cytoskeleton organizes other constituents of the cell, maintains the cell's shape, and is responsible for the locomotion of the cell itself and the movement of the various organelles within it. The filaments that comprise the cytoskeleton are

Production System

2005-03-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Any of the methods used in industry to create goods and services from various resources.

Celestial Mechanics

2005-03-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

In the broadest sense, the application of classical mechanics to the motion of celestial bodies acted on by any of several types of forces. By far the most important force experienced by these bodies, and much of the time the only important force, is that of their mutual gravitational attraction. But other forces can be important as well, such as atmospheric drag on

Dagestan Rug

2005-03-13T16:29:00.000-08:00

Dagestan rugs are relatively finely woven, with short pile in wool, the warp being of wool and the weft frequently of cotton. Their designs are highly geometric and fragmented, producing the effect of brightly coloured mosaics. There is a wide diversity of patterns,

Kuwait

2005-03-13T05:19:00.000-08:00

Low oil prices caused 1998 to be an extremely difficult year for all oil producers, and Kuwait was obliged to take a hard look at its industry and initiate some significant

Tyrian Purple

2005-03-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

Naturally occurring dye highly valued in antiquity. It is closely related to indigo (q.v.).

Lanarkshire

2005-03-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

Also called Lanark historic county of south-central Scotland, roughly coinciding with the basin of the River Clyde. It is bounded to the south by the historic county of Dumfriesshire, to the east by Peeblesshire, Midlothian, and West Lothian, to the north by Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire, and to the west by Renfrewshire and Ayrshire. It encompasses all of the council areas of South

Zile

2005-03-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

The town is an important local commercial

Sevan, Lake

2005-03-11T05:21:00.000-08:00

Lake in Armenia, with an area of 525 sq mi (1,360 sq km). Lying at 6,250 ft (1,905 m) above sea level in a mountain-enclosed basin, it drains by the Hrazdan River into the Aras River and to the Caspian Sea, but most of its water is lost by evaporation rather than by runoff. The lake is in two connected parts, the smaller but deeper Maly Sevan (northwest), with a maximum depth of 282 ft, and the Bolshoy Sevan (southeast),

Qasida

2005-03-10T16:51:00.000-08:00

Plural qasida, also spelled kasida, Arabic qasidah poetic form developed in pre-Islamic Arabia and perpetuated throughout Islamic literary history into the present. It is a laudatory, elegiac, or satiric poem that is found in Arabic, Persian, and many related Asian literatures. The classic qasida is an elaborately structured ode of 60 to 100 lines, maintaining a single end rhyme that runs through the entire piece; the same

Xie He

2005-03-09T21:36:00.000-08:00

The “Six Principles” introduce Xie's Gu Huapin Lu (“Classified Record of Painters of Former Times”), which rates 27 painters in three classes of descending merit, each with three subdivisions. The “Six Principles” have inevitably

Kierkegaard, Søren

2005-03-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

In full SØren Aabye Kierkegaard Danish religious philosopher and critic of rationalism, regarded as the founder of existentialist philosophy. He is famous for his critique of systematic rational philosophy, particularly Hegelianism, on the grounds that actual life cannot be contained within an abstract conceptual system. With this stance, he intended to

Orange Bowl

2005-03-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

The game was first played in 1933 to attract winter tourists to Florida a month

M16 Rifle

2005-03-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Ar-15, assault rifle adopted as a standard weapon by the U.S. Army in 1967. The M16 superseded the M14 rifle. It is gas-operated and has both semiautomatic (i.e., autoloading) and fully automatic capabilities. Weighing less than 3.6 kg (8 pounds) and equipped with a 20-round or 30-round magazine, the M16 is 99 cm (39 inches) long and fires 5.56-millimetre (.223-calibre) ammunition at the rate of 700–950 rounds per minute. Both U.S. and

Religion

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

Theological justifications for violence were attempted on several fronts in 1994, even while new ground was broken in ecumenical and interfaith relations. (For figures on Adherents of All Religions by Continent, see Table I; for Adherents in the U.S., see Table II.)Scholarly works on the life of Jesus and on the status of homosexuality in the early church drew attention and

La Paz

2005-03-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

City, capital of the estado (“state”) of Baja California Sur, northwestern Mexico. Only 33 feet (10 m) above sea level on the La Paz Bay of the Gulf of California, the city has a hot, dry climate. The bay was discovered by the Spanish in 1596, and early in the 18th century it was temporarily the site of a Jesuit mission. The town was established in the early 1800s and was the capital of Baja California

Biblical Literature, The Gospel According to Mark: background and overview

2005-03-06T03:18:00.000-08:00

Though the author of Mark is

Mahavamsa

2005-03-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

The text—written in

Mauna Loa

2005-03-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

Volcano, south-central Hawaii Island, Hawaii, U.S., and a part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (established as Hawaii National Park in 1916). One of the largest single mountain masses in the world, Mauna Loa (meaning “long mountain”) rises to 13,678 feet (4,169 m) above sea level. Its dome is 75 miles (120 km) long and 64 miles (103 km) wide, and its lava flows occupy more than 2,000 square miles (5,120 square km) of the island. Mokuaweoweo,

China, The Nationalist Party

2005-03-05T05:32:00.000-08:00

The Nationalist Party had its origins in the earlier United League (T'ung-meng hui) against the Manchu. The name Nationalist Party was adopted in 1912. After the suppression of this expanded party by Yüan Shih-k'ai, elements from it were organized by Sun Yat-sen in 1914 into the Chinese Revolutionary Party, which failed to generate widespread support. Sun and a small group of veterans

Latin American Central Of Workers

2005-03-04T19:09:00.000-08:00

Spanish Central Latinoamericana de Trabajadores (CLAT), regional Christian Democrat trade union federation linked to the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). Its affiliated member groups represent some 10,000,000 workers in more than 35 Latin-American and Caribbean countries and territories. Its headquarters are in Caracas, Venez. From its founding in 1954 until 1971 it was known as the Latin American Federation of Christian Trade

Science, Museum Of

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

In Boston, Mass., major American museum of science and technology, founded in 1830. Its exhibits include rocks and minerals, plants, mounted animals, models of manned space capsules, medical topics, electricity, and other topics. The Charles Hayden Planetarium is on the museum grounds, and there is an extensive science library. Publications include a monthly

Biblical Literature, The tripartite canon

2005-03-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

The threefold nature of the Hebrew Bible (the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings) is reflected in the literature of the period of the Second Temple (6th–1st centuries BCE) and soon after it. The earliest reference is that of the Jewish wisdom writer Ben Sira (flourished 180–175 BCE), who speaks of “the law of the Most High . . . the wisdom of all the ancients and . . . prophecies.” His grandson (c. 132 BCE) in the prologue

Azad Kashmir

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

Area of the Pakistani-administered sector of the Kashmir region, in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. Azad (“Free”) Kashmir, established in 1947 after the partition of India, is neither a province nor an agency of Pakistan but has a government of its own that is regarded by Pakistan as “independent,” even though it is protected by and economically and administratively

Thomas, Lewis

2005-03-02T14:19:00.000-08:00

Lewis attended Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., and Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1937). He served in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps and taught at Johns Hopkins and Tulane universities

Little Saint Bernard Pass

2005-03-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

Italian Colle Del Piccolo San Bernardo, French Col Du Petit-saint-bernard, pass (7,178 ft [2,188 m]) situated just southwest of the Italian border in Savoie département of southeastern France; it lies between the Mont Blanc Massif (north) and the Graian Alps (q.v.; south-southeast). The road across the pass connects Bourg-Saint-Maurice (7 mi [11 km] southwest) in the Isère River Valley, France, with Morgex (10 mi northeast) in the Valle d'Aosta, Italy. Until the Treaty of Paris

Madang

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

Port on the northeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea. It lies along Astrolabe Bay of the Bismarck Sea, near the mouth of the Gogol River. Madang is the centre for a large timber industry based on the Gogol forest about 25 miles (40 km) inland and is the distributing centre for the north coast and the Central Range. It is also a communication point for the

Madison, James

2005-02-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

Fourth president of the United States (1809–17) and one of the founding fathers of his country. At the Constitutional Convention (1787) he influenced the planning and ratification of the U.S. Constitution and collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in the publication of The Federalist Papers. As a member of the new House of Representatives, he sponsored the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, commonly called the Bill of Rights. He was secretary of state under President Thomas Jefferson when the Louisiana Territory was purchased from France. The War of 1812 was fought during his presidency. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America. See also Cabinet of President James Madison.)

Vratsa

2005-02-28T04:04:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Vratca >, or Vraca town, northwestern Bulgaria. It is situated in the northern foothills of the western Balkan Mountains at the point where the Leva River emerges from its picturesque Vratsata gorge. The town was moved to its present position in the early 15th century after the Turks had destroyed a previously standing Bulgarian fortress. Under the Turks, Vratsa was a prosperous trading

Eastern Orthodoxy, In Bulgaria

2005-02-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

The reestablishment of the Church of Bulgaria eventually was secured, but not without tragedy and even a schism; this happened mainly because the issue of reestablishing the autocephalous church arose at a time when both Greek and Bulgarian populations lived side by side in Macedonia, Thrace, and Constantinople itself, though still within the framework of the

Race

2005-02-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

Anthropometric measurements did not provide any data to prove group superiority or inferiority. As various fields of study emerged in the late 19th century, some scholars began to focus on mental traits as a means to examine and describe human differences. Psychology as a growing field began developing its own programmatic interests in discovering race

Biblical Literature, Literary criticism

2005-02-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

Literary criticism endeavours to establish the literary genres (types or categories) of the various documents and to reach conclusions about their structure, date, and authorship. These conclusions are based as far as possible on internal evidence, but external evidence is also very helpful, especially where date is concerned. If the document under consideration

Cividale Del Friuli

2005-02-26T02:27:00.000-08:00

Town, Udine province, Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, northeastern Italy, on the Natisone River just northeast of Udine city. Founded in Roman times as Forum Julii, perhaps by Julius Caesar, it gave its name to, and was the capital of, Friuli, the first Lombard duchy formed in Italy. From 730 to 1238 it was the residence of the patriarchs of Aquileia. It fell to Venice with the rest of

Pullman, George M(ortimer)

2005-02-25T19:55:00.000-08:00

Pullman moved to Chicago in 1855, accumulated some capital as a contractor, and began to devise a sleeping car. The first real Pullman car, the “Pioneer,” invented jointly with Pullman's friend Ben Field, appeared in 1865. It contained folding upper berths and seat

Wainscot Chair

2005-02-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

Also called Panel Chair, a joined wooden chair, usually made of oak, hence the name wainscot, which was used to describe a fine grade of oak usually used for paneling. Like many terms used in reference to furniture, it has a general and a particular meaning. The general sense is any heavy wooden chair of fairly simple construction. The more specific reference is to a wooden chair with turned (shaped

Moray

2005-02-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

Any of 80 or more species of eels of the family Muraenidae. Moray eels occur in all tropical and subtropical seas, where they live in shallow water among reefs and rocks and hide in crevices. They differ from other eels in having small rounded gill openings and in generally lacking pectoral fins. Their skin is thick, smooth, and scaleless, while the mouth is wide and the jaws

Basava

2005-02-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

Hindu religious reformer, teacher, theologian, and administrator of the royal treasury of the Calukya king Bijjala I (reigned 1156–67). Basava is the subject of the Basava-Purana, one of the sacred texts of the Hindu Lingayat sect. According to South Indian oral tradition, he was the actual founder of the Lingayats, but study of Calukya inscriptions indicates

Coif

2005-02-24T00:32:00.000-08:00

The coif could also be an indoor skullcap

Levi, Carlo

2005-02-23T04:13:00.000-08:00

Levi was a painter and a practicing physician when he was exiled (1935–36) to the southern district of Lucania for anti-Fascist activities. His

Barquisimeto

2005-02-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Lara estado (“state”), northwestern Venezuela. Situated on a wide terrace of the Turbio River at 1,856 feet (566 m) above sea level, Barquisimeto is swept by the drying trade winds but has a warm climate (mean average temperature 75° F [24° C]). One of Venezuela's oldest cities, it was founded in 1552 by the Spanish interim governor Juan de Villegas, who originally named the city Nueva

Literature, Portugal.

2005-02-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

The Association of Portuguese Writers awarded its 2001 Great Prize for Fiction to Maria Velho da Costa for her novel Irene ou o contrato social (2000). Velho da Costa, who first gained international acclaim with the publication in 1972 of Novas cartas portuguesas, turned to the subject of euthanasia in her latest prizewinning

Poldi Pezzoli, Museo

2005-02-22T13:04:00.000-08:00

(Italian: Poldi Pezzoli Museum), in Milan, museum in the former private house of G.G. Poldi-Pezzoli, housing fine examples of arms and armour from the 14th to the 17th centuries. There are also antique tapestries. The staircase is decorated with landscapes by Alessandro Magnasco. One room is devoted to works by Bernardino Luini and the Lombard school of painters. Other notable

Caddo

2005-02-20T08:31:00.000-08:00

One of a confederacy of tribes of North American Indians that composed the Caddoan linguistic family. The Caddo proper originally occupied the lower Red River area in what are now Louisiana and Arkansas. In the late 17th century they numbered 8,000 persons living in villages scattered along the Red River and its tributaries. This is also the region of the Caddoan archaeological

Alchevsk

2005-02-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1931–61) Voroshilovsk , or (1961–92) Kommunarsk city, Luhansk oblast (province), eastern Ukraine. It lies along the railway from Luhansk to Debaltsevo. Alchevsk was founded in 1895 with the establishment of the Donetsko-Yuryevsky ironworks. The plant has developed into a large, integrated ironworks and steelworks, which was expanded greatly in the 1950s and '60s. The city is a major bituminous-coal mining centre, and there are

Skalkottas, Nikos

2005-02-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Skalkottas began violin studies at the age of five, continuing them later at the Athens conservatory and in Berlin, where he also studied composition. Influenced by Schoenberg, with whom he studied (1927–31), he began using the 12-tone method in his compositions but adhered to traditional forms.

Ryedale

2005-02-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

District, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England, named for a small dale and river draining into the Vale of Pickering. This predominantly rural district is the largest in North Yorkshire. It includes the Vale of Pickering and the ring of highlands that enclose it: the Hambleton and Howardian hills, the escarpment of the Yorkshire

Einstein, Albert

2005-02-19T03:52:00.000-08:00

German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. In the first 15 years of the 20th century, Einstein—recognized in his own time as one of the most creative intellects in human

'amr Ibn Al-'as, Mosque Of

2005-02-18T23:49:00.000-08:00

Though originally a modest structure, it was destroyed and restored so often that it is impossible to know the appearance of the first building. The Umayyad 'Abd al-'Az

Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics

2005-02-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

(U.S.S.R.) also called Soviet Union Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik , or Sovetsky Soyuz former northern Eurasian empire (1917/22–1991) stretching from the Baltic and Black seas to the Pacific Ocean and, in its final years, consisting of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (S.S.R.'s)–Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia (now Belarus), Estonia, Georgia, Kazakstan, Kirgiziya (now Kyrgyzstan), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia (now Moldova), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Zacatecoluca

2005-02-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

City, southern El Salvador. It lies in the Lempa River Valley, at the foot of San Vicente Volcano. A commercial centre for the surrounding agricultural area, it also trades in cotton goods, baskets, salt, and lumber and produces cement. An earthquake in 1932 caused severe damage to the city. Zacatecoluca was the birthplace of José Simeón Cañas, who fought successfully to end

Graf Spee

2005-02-16T04:15:00.000-08:00

After sinking several merchant ships in the Atlantic, the Graf Spee was sighted on Dec. 13, 1939, off the Río de la Plata estuary by a British search group consisting of the cruisers Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles, commanded by

French Literature, Racine's fatalism

2005-02-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

Whether Racine's Jansenist upbringing determined his view of a human nature controlled by perverse and willful passions, or whether his knowledge of Greek tragedy explains the fatalism of his own plays, the imaginary world inhabited by his heroes could not be more different from that of Corneille's. Tragedy for Racine is an inexorable series of events leading

Bhaktivedanta, A(bhay) C(haranaravinda)

2005-02-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

In 1920 Bhaktivedanta completed his B.A. in chemistry at the Scottish Churches' College in Calcutta; by that time, his family had arranged a marriage for him, and he later established

Furrer, Jonas

2005-02-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

A doctor of jurisprudence and lawyer of national renown, Furrer became, after 1839, leader of the Zürich liberals but only reluctantly aspired to political office. In the cantonal assembly, he rose to the vice presidency (1842) and later the presidency (1846), serving also in 1846 as

Zande

2005-02-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

Also called Azande , also spelled Asande a people of central Africa who speak a language of the Adamawa-Ubangi branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Extending across the Nile-Congo drainage divide, they live partly in The Sudan, partly in Congo (Kinshasa), and partly in the Central African Republic. The regions they inhabit, savanna in the north and rainforest in the south, are mostly suitable for agriculture

Appleton, Sir Edward Victor

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

Educated

Grudziadz

2005-02-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

German Graudenz, city, Torun województwo (province), north-central Poland, on the lower Vistula River. Founded in the 10th century as a Polish stronghold against Prussian attack, Grudziadz in the 1230s came under the rule of the Teutonic Knights, who fortified the town and granted it municipal rights (1291). It was acquired by Poland in the mid-15th century, but after the First Partition of 1772 the town became

Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson

2005-02-13T00:25:00.000-08:00

Seligman was the son of a New York banker and had the distinction of being tutored by Horatio Alger. He was educated at Columbia University (Ph.D., 1885) and in Germany and France. Seligman served as professor of political economy at Columbia for 40 years (1891–1931). On his retirement he was chief

Hisham Ibn 'abd Al-malik

2005-02-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

Before his accession to the throne in 724, Hisham led a quiet life in the Umayyad court, holding no important public offices. He reigned during a time of relative calm. Hisham easily maintained internal security but was forced to mount a number

Lama

2005-02-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

Tibetan Bla-ma (“superior one”) in Tibetan Buddhism, a spiritual leader. Originally used to translate “guru” (Sanskrit: “venerable one”) and thus applicable only to heads of monasteries or great teachers, the term is now extended out of courtesy to any respected monk or priest. The common Western usage of “lamaism” and “lamasery” are, in fact, incorrect terms of reference for Tibetan Buddhism and a Tibetan

Kassala

2005-02-11T02:06:00.000-08:00

Traditional region, east-central Sudan. It is bordered on the east by Ethiopia. The Atbara River, an important tributary of the Nile, flows northwestward through Kassala and causes seasonal floods during torrential summer rains. Rocky deserts dominate the centre of the region, while in the north is the Butana Plain, with sandy clay soils and occasional low hills with

Kahramanmaras

2005-02-10T23:18:00.000-08:00

Capital of the Hittite kingdom of Gurgum (c. 12th century BC), it was known to the 8th-century-BC conquering Assyrians as Markasi and later to the Romans as

Degenerate Gas

2005-02-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

In physics, a particular configuration, usually reached at high densities, of a gas composed of subatomic particles with half-integral intrinsic angular momentum (spin). Such particles are called fermions, because their microscopic behaviour is regulated by a set of quantum mechanical rules—Fermi-Dirac statistics (q.v.). These rules state, in particular, that there

Churchill Falls

2005-02-10T01:10:00.000-08:00

Formerly Grand Falls, part of a series of cataracts and rapids on the Churchill River, southwest of Michikamau Lake in west Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. Lying 250 miles (400 km) from the river's mouth, the falls drop 245 feet (75 m), forming part of the river's 1,100-foot (335-metre) descent within a 16-mile (26-kilometre) stretch. The falls plunge into the McLean Canyon, which is bounded by sheer cliffs several hundred feet high.

Canth, Minna

2005-02-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

In 1863 she entered the seminary at Jyväskylä, where she married her teacher, J.F. Canth, in 1865. Widowed in 1879, with seven children, she went into business at Kuopio but still found time to produce literary works that had a powerful

Florida Agricultural And Mechanical University

2005-02-09T03:54:00.000-08:00

Byname Florida A&M University public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. It is a historically black, land-grant institution and part of the State University System of Florida; its enrollment remains predominantly African American. The university includes colleges of arts and sciences, education, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, and engineering

Arsaces

2005-02-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

Iranian name borne by the Parthian royal house as being descended from Arsaces, son of Phriapites (date unknown), a chief of the seminomadic Parni tribe from the Caspian steppes. The first of his line to gain power in Parthia was Arsaces I, who reigned from about 250 to about 211 BC. (Some authorities believe that a brother, Tiridates I, succeeded Arsaces about 248 and ruled until 211; other

Porphyry Copper Deposit

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

Blanketlike replacement deposit of copper minerals that are disseminated throughout a large mass of fractured rock. Porphyry copper deposits commonly contain tens of millions of metric tons of ore that averages a fraction of 1 percent copper by weight; although they are low-grade, the deposits constitute important sources because they may be worked on a large

Karadzic, Vuk Stefanovic

2005-02-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

Karadzic learned to read and write in the old monastery Tronosha (near his native village). Mostly in the

Goatsucker

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

Alternative name of birds of the family Caprimulgidae, otherwise known as nightjars (q.v.). The name goatsucker is sometimes applied to the order, Caprimulgiform.

Agora

2005-02-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

In ancient Greek cities, an open space that served as a meeting ground for various activities of the citizens. The name, first found in the works of Homer, connotes both the assembly of the people as well as the physical setting; it was applied by the classical Greeks of the 5th century BC to what they regarded as a typical feature of their life: their daily religious, political,

Subpoena

2005-02-05T18:18:00.000-08:00

Formal instrument issued by a court, grand jury, legislative body or committee, or duly authorized administrative agency commanding an individual to appear before it at a specific time to give testimony, oral or written, in the matter identified in the document. The subpoena is used only in common-law countries, but it is similar to the citation or vocatio in jus of

China, State and society

2005-02-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

The ritual schedule records 29 royal ancestors over a span of 17 generations who, from at least Wu-ting to Ti-hsin, were each known as wang (king). Presiding over a stable politico-religious hierarchy of ritual specialists, officers, artisans, retainers, and servile peasants, they ruled with varying degrees of intensity over the North China Plain and parts of Shantung, Shansi,

Bonaparte, (napoléon-eugène-)louis

2005-02-04T05:18:00.000-08:00

He was a delicate boy, but when the Franco-German War of 1870 broke out his mother sent him to the army. After the first defeats he had to flee from France with the Empress and settled in England at Chislehurst, completing his military education at Woolwich. On his

Kwazulu/natal

2005-02-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

Formerly Natal, province of the Republic of South Africa, occupying the southeastern portion of the country. It is bounded on the east by the Indian Ocean, on the south by Eastern province, on the west by Lesotho and Free State province, on the northwest by Mpumalanga province, and on the north by Swaziland and Mozambique. Within KwaZulu/Natal is an enclave of Eastern province consisting