EqualFrame

organic bed linen

2006-10-29T17:20:00.000-08:00

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.

Puelche

2005-04-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

Little is known of the Puelche prior to the

Corby

2005-04-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

Corby was a village of 1,596 inhabitants

Novello, Ivor

2005-04-02T21:17:00.000-08:00

Novello, the son of the celebrated Welsh singing teacher, Dame Clara Novello Davies, was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and served with the Royal Naval Air Service during World War I. He became famous with a

Nabokov, Vladimir

2005-04-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

In Russian (English translations after 1940 mainly by the author and his son, Dmitri Nabokov): Mashenka (1926; Mary, trans. by Michael Glenny with Nabokov's assistance, 1970); Korol-dama-valet (1928; King, Queen, Knave, 1968); Zashchita luzhina (1930; The Defense, 1964); Podvig (1932; Glory, 1971); Camera obscura (1933; first Eng. trans. 1936, altered by Nabokov for U.S. version and retitled Laughter in the Dark, 1938); Otchayaniye (1934; Despair, 1937, altered and enlarged by Nabokov for U.S. version, 1966); Priglasheniye na kazn (1935; Invitation to a Beheading, 1959); Dar (incomplete 1937–38, complete 1952; The Gift, 1963). In English: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941); Bend Sinister (1947); Lolita (1955); Pnin (1957); Pale Fire, including a long poem (1962); Ada; or, Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969); Transparent Things (1972).

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Japan

2005-03-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

In Japan the Koji-ki (712; “Records of Ancient Matters”) and the Nihon-shoki (8th century; “Chronicles of Japan”), both of them official histories of Japan, were studded with fables, many of them on the theme of a small intelligent animal getting the better of a large stupid one. The same is true of the fudoki (local gazetteers dating from 713 and later). The form reached its height in the Kamakura

Sabatier, Paul

2005-03-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

Sabatier studied at the École Normale

Lupemban Industry

2005-03-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

Also called Lupembian Industry, a sub-Saharan African stone tool industry dating from the late Pleistocene, beginning about 40,000 years ago. The Lupemban industry was derived from and replaced the Sangoan industry, which is found in forested areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The Lupemban industry is characterized by fairly small, well-shaped tools: chisels, adzes, planes (probably demonstrating intensive

Hevajra

2005-03-28T05:17:00.000-08:00

Tibetan Kye-rdo-rje , Mongolian Kevajra in northern Buddhism, a fierce protective deity, the yab-yum (in union with his female consort, Vajrayogini) form of the fierce protective deity Heruka. Hevajra is a popular deity in Tibet, where he belongs to the yi-dam (tutelary, or guardian, deity) class. His worship is the subject of the Hevajra Tantra, a scripture that helped bring about the conversion of the Mongol emperor

Arts, East Asian, Painting and calligraphy

2005-03-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

Settled conditions and a tolerant atmosphere helped to make the Northern Sung a period of great achievement in landscape painting. Li Ch'eng, a follower of Ching Hao who lived a few years into the Sung, was a scholar who defined the soft, billowing earthen formations of the northeastern Chinese terrain with “cloudlike” texture, interior layers of graded ink wash bounded

Novomoskovsk

2005-03-26T10:53:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1934) Bobriki , or (1934–61) Stalinogorsk city, Tula oblast (province), western Russia, situated on the upper Don River. Founded in 1930 as Bobriki, the town developed as a major chemical centre, making fertilizers and plastics and mining lignite (brown coal). Pop. (1993 est.) 145,000.

Valdosta

2005-03-25T18:51:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1860) of Lowndes county, southern Georgia, U.S., about 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Tallahassee, Florida. Troupville, the original town and county seat (1828, as Franklinville), was moved 4 miles (6 km) east in 1859 to the present site to be on the right-of-way of the area's first railroad. The new town was named for Georgia Governor George M. Troup's plantation, Val d'Osta (for the Italian region Valle

Silken Fungus Beetle

2005-03-25T15:49:00.000-08:00

These oval beetles are yellowish brown in colour and usually feed on fungi and decaying vegetable matter. Some species live in wasp or bee nests.

Henry

2005-03-22T07:32:00.000-08:00

Unit of either self-inductance or mutual inductance, abbreviated h (or hy), and named for the American physicist Joseph Henry. One henry is the value of self-inductance in a closed circuit or coil in which one volt is produced by a variation of the inducing current of one ampere per second. One henry is also the value of the mutual inductance of two coils arranged such that

Xavier, Saint Francis

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

Twentieth-century scholarship has dispelled many of the legends connected with Xavier and has also defended him against his critics. A modern estimate puts the figure of those baptized by him at about 30,000, as opposed to the 1,000,000 asserted by Baroque exaggeration. In reality he had to struggle with language wherever he worked and did not possess the gift of tongues attributed

Wilkes, John

2005-03-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

A profligate by nature, Wilkes became a member of the congenial

De Toth, André

2005-03-21T05:46:00.000-08:00

Hungarian-born film and television director (b. May 15, 1913?, Mako, Austria-Hungary—d. Oct. 27, 2002, Burbank, Calif.), made a number of raw, violent, and psychologically disturbing B movies, including Ramrod (1947), Pitfall (1948), and Crime Wave (1954), that gained him a cult following, but he became best known to the general public for House of Wax (1953), considered the best of the 3-D films.

Capricornus

2005-03-18T11:11:00.000-08:00

In astrology, Capricornus (also Capricorn) is the 10th sign of the zodiac, considered as

Man, Isle Of

2005-03-18T10:53:00.000-08:00

The Isle of Man

Siamang

2005-03-18T03:54:00.000-08:00

(Hylobates syndactylus) arboreal ape of the gibbon family (Hylobatidae), found in the forests of Sumatra and Malaya. The siamang resembles other gibbons but is more robust. The siamang is also distinguished by the webbing between its second and third toes and by a dilatable hairless air sac in its throat. The air sac is used in producing a resonant,

Floral Decoration, Japan

2005-03-17T20:27:00.000-08:00

The arrangement of flowers in Japan is an elaborate and unique art, with highly developed conventions and complex symbolism. The art developed from the custom of offering flowers to the Buddha and was introduced into Japan early in the 7th century by Ono No Imoko, Japanese ambassador to China, who founded the first and oldest school of floral art, the Ikenobo. All the

Arrhenius Theory

2005-03-17T08:46:00.000-08:00

Theory, introduced in 1887 by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, that acids are substances that dissociate in water to yield electrically charged atoms or molecules, called ions, one of which is a hydrogen ion (H+), and that bases ionize in water to yield hydroxide ions (OH-). It is now known that the hydrogen ion cannot exist alone in water solution; rather, it exists in a combined

Qasr 'amrah

2005-03-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Qasr Al-'amrah, palace in Jordan, about 50 miles (80 km) east of Amman. Built about AD 712–715, it served as both a hunting lodge and a fortress, and it is one of the best-preserved monuments of Islamic architecture from the Umayyad period. Its main chamber is roofed with three parallel vaults that rest on broad arches. The vaults are covered with frescoes of people and animals in scenes from daily life; a

Kunlun Mountains, Geology

2005-03-15T00:44:00.000-08:00

The principal folded structures and granitic rocks of the Kunlun Mountains date to about 250 million years ago, a time during which there was much mountain building in the Eastern Hemisphere. The inner depressions of the Kunluns, however, are relatively recent structures in their entirety, being formed by deposits that are no more than 26 million years old; only the largest

Lorca

2005-03-14T03:05:00.000-08:00

Town, Murcia province and autonomous community (region), southeastern Spain. It is situated along the Río Guadalentín in a semiarid and steppelike area that is surrounded by rugged mountains. The town, which sits on both banks of the river, was the Ilurco (Ilukro) of the Romans and the Lurka of the Moors. It was the scene of numerous battles between Christian and Moorish

Mahir, Ahmad

2005-03-13T23:52:00.000-08:00

Mahir was educated at the Khedivial Law school and the University of Montpellier in France. A younger brother of 'Ali Mahir, who had on three previous occasions been premier of Egypt, Ahmad occupied a number of important government positions from the early 1920s. Early in his career, Mahir was

Szczecinski Lagoon

2005-03-12T22:37:00.000-08:00

Polish Zalew Szczecinski , German Stettiner Haff , or Oderhaff lagoon (area 350 square miles [900 square km]) on the Baltic Sea coast between Mecklenburg–West Pomerania Land (state), Germany, and Szczecin województwo (province), Poland. An extension of the Oder River's estuarine mouth, it is drained (via the Swina, Peene, and Dziwna rivers) into Pomeranian Bay and the Baltic Sea between Usedom and Wolin.

Korean War

2005-03-12T00:29:00.000-08:00

Conflict between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in which at least 2.5 million persons lost their lives. The war reached international proportions in June 1950 when North Korea, supplied and advised by the Soviet Union, invaded the South. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal participant, joined

Interlaken

2005-03-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Town, Bern canton, central Switzerland. It lies along the Aare River, in the Bernese Highland. Its name is derived from its position on the flat plain (Bödeli), 1,864 feet (568 m) above sea level, between Lakes (inter lacus) Brienz to the east and Thun to the west. The town grew up around a convent of Augustinian canons (1130–1528). It is one of Switzerland's oldest and most frequented summer tourist

Activation

2005-03-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Also called arousal in psychology, the stimulation of the cerebral cortex into a state of general wakefulness, or attention. Activation proceeds from various portions of the brain, but primarily from the reticular formation, the nerve network in the midbrain that monitors ingoing and outgoing sensory and motor impulses. Activation, however, is not the same as direct cortical stimulation

Stadion (-warthausen), Johann Philipp (karl), Graf Von (count Of)

2005-03-10T05:46:00.000-08:00

After service in the imperial Privy Council (1783–87), Stadion was dispatched to the Austrian embassy in Stockholm. In 1790 he was sent to London, where he was influenced by the conservative philosophy of

Aeterni Patris

2005-03-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

An encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on Aug. 4, 1879, which strengthened the position of the philosophical system of the medieval Scholastic philosopher-theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and soon made Thomism the dominant philosophical viewpoint in Roman Catholicism.

Catatumbo River

2005-03-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

Spanish Río Catatumbo, river rising in northern Colombia. It flows northeast across the Venezuelan border, crosses rich oil-bearing regions in the Maracaibo Lowland, and empties into Lake Maracaibo after a course of about 210 miles (338 km). It is navigable in its lower course and receives Zulia River 4 miles (6 km) west of Encontrados, Venez., in the Maracaibo Lowland.

Taenia

2005-03-09T10:18:00.000-08:00

Genus of tapeworms parasitic in mammals. See tapeworm.

Hajjaj (ibn Yusuf Ath-thaqafi), Al-

2005-03-07T23:46:00.000-08:00

Al-Hajjaj was a schoolteacher in his native town as a young man, but little else is known of his earlier years. He first became

Waka

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

The choka, “long poem,” is of indefinite length, formed of alternating lines of five and

Weldon, Fay

2005-03-07T00:10:00.000-08:00

Weldon grew up in New Zealand, attended St. Andrew's University in Scotland (M.A., 1952?), and became an advertising copywriter in London. In the mid-1960s she began writing plays. Her first novel, The Fat Woman's

Abdominal Cavity

2005-03-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

Largest hollow space of the body. Its upper boundary is the diaphragm, a sheet of muscle and connective tissue that separates it from the chest cavity; its lower boundary is the upper plane of the pelvic cavity. Vertically it is enclosed by the vertebral column and the abdominal and other muscles. The abdominal cavity contains the

Polish Literature, The literature of Socialist Realism

2005-03-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

During 1949–55, the only officially acceptable literature conformed to the Soviet version of Socialist Realism, and those who wrote it followed the dictates of the Communist Party. A new type of hero was created—the ordinary man or woman actively engaged in “productive” work. Those elements in the social scene that served to present an idea of revolutionary progress were

Arroyo, Gloria Macapagal

2005-03-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

On Jan. 20, 2001, after angry protesters had driven Philippines Pres. Joseph Estrada from the presidential residence, Malacañang Palace, in Manila, the country's vice president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, assumed power. The demonstrations had been sparked by the Senate's halting of Estrada's impeachment trial on corruption charges. The armed forces withdrew support from Estrada;

Triton

2005-03-03T01:34:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, a merman, demigod of the sea; he was the son of the sea god, Poseidon, and his wife, Amphitrite. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, Triton dwelt with his parents in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. Sometimes he was not particularized but was one of many Tritons. He was represented as human down to his waist, with the tail of a fish. Triton's special attribute

Southern Africa, Xhosa-Dutch conflict

2005-03-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

Settler expansion to the Cape's eastern frontier was blocked by the 1770s when trekboers came up against numerous Xhosa farmers in the area of the Great Fish River. During the 18th century the Xhosa had been embroiled in two major civil wars over the chiefly succession, of which the more important was the dispute, between the paramount Gcaleka and his ambitious brother

Neoregelia

2005-03-02T00:28:00.000-08:00

Neoregelia leaves are often mottled, marbled,

Alaska, Political growth

2005-03-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

As a U.S. possession Alaska was governed by military commanders for the War Department until 1877. During these years there was little internal development, but a salmon cannery built in 1878 was the beginning of what became the largest salmon industry in the world. In 1884 Congress established Alaska as a judicial land district, federal district courts were established, and a

Hood (of Whitley), Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount

2005-03-01T02:23:00.000-08:00

Hood entered the navy in 1741, becoming a lieutenant in 1746. During the Seven Years' War he served in the English Channel and then the Mediterranean. In 1778, after further service in North America, he became commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of

Danbury Hatters' Case

2005-03-01T01:50:00.000-08:00

Formally Loewe v. Lawlor (208 U.S. 274) U.S. Supreme Court case in which unions were held to be subject to the antitrust laws. In 1902 the United Hatters of North America, having failed to organize the firm of D.E. Loewe in Danbury, Conn., called for a nationwide boycott of the firm's products. The firm brought suit under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and in 1908 the union was assessed triple damages. The case was a severe setback

Cell Culture

2005-02-27T14:38:00.000-08:00

The maintenance and growth of the cells of multicellular organisms outside the body in specially designed containers and under precise conditions of temperature, humidity, nutrition, and freedom from contamination. In a broad sense, cells, tissues, and organs that are isolated and maintained in the laboratory are considered the objects of tissue culture. The

Earth Exploration, Electrical and electromagnetic methods

2005-02-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

A multitude of electrical methods are used in mineral exploration. They depend on (1) electrochemical activity, (2) resistivity changes, or (3) permittivity effects. Some materials tend to become natural batteries that generate natural electric currents whose effects can be measured. The self-potential method relies on the oxidation of the upper surface of metallic

Houghton

2005-02-26T15:35:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Houghton county, northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. It lies along Portage Lake and the Keweenaw Waterway, opposite Hancock. It was settled in 1851 and named for Douglass Houghton, a state geologist. The discovery of nearby rich copper lodes between 1855 and 1870 resulted in an economic boom that lasted until after World War I. Houghton is now a distribution

Atherosclerosis

2005-02-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

An arteriosclerosis characterized by the deposition of fatty substances in and fibrosis of the inner layer of the arteries. See arteriosclerosis.

Lahmu And Lahamu

2005-02-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

Usually, Lahmu and Lahamu represent silt, but in some texts they seem to take the form

Colchester

2005-02-24T04:24:00.000-08:00

As Camulodunum, the town of Colchester was the capital of the pre-Roman Belgic ruler Cunobelinus and is so named on his coins. Although burned in 60 CE during the rising of the British queen Boudicca, Colchester soon became one of the

Lipalian Interval

2005-02-23T22:10:00.000-08:00

In geology, time span suggested in an attempt to explain the sudden appearance of abundant life forms in the earliest known Cambrian rocks (approximately 570,000,000 years old), in contrast to their absence in the latest Precambrian strata (no more than about 800,000,000 years old). Unlike Precambrian indications of life, Cambrian faunas are comparatively highly developed and diverse,

çanakkale

2005-02-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

City, northwestern Turkey, at the mouth of Koca River (the ancient Rhodius River), on the Asian side of the Dardanelles. Originally a 15th-century Ottoman fortress called Kale-i Sultaniye, it had by the 18th century developed a reputation for its pottery, whence its name (Turkish çanak, “pot,” and kale, “fortress”). The pottery industry reached its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries and

Neogrammarian

2005-02-21T21:40:00.000-08:00

German Junggrammatiker, any of a group of German scholars that arose around 1875; their chief tenet concerning language change was that sound laws have no exceptions. This principle was very controversial because there seemed to be several irregularities in language change not accounted for by the sound laws, such as Grimm's law (q.v.), that had been discovered by that time. In 1875, however, the Danish

Keble, John

2005-02-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

Ordained in 1816, Keble was educated at the University of Oxford and served as a tutor there from 1818 to 1823, when he left to assist

Tepe Gawra

2005-02-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

Ancient Mesopotamian settlement east of the Tigris River near Nineveh and the modern city of Mosul, northwestern Iraq. It was excavated from 1931 to 1938 by archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania. The site, which apparently was continuously occupied from the Halaf Period (c. 5050–c. 4300 BC) to about the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, gave its name to the Gawra Period (c. 3500–c. 2900) of northern

Steel Drum

2005-02-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

Tuned gong made from the unstoppered end and part of the wall of a metal shipping drum. The end surface is hammered concave, and several areas are outlined by acoustically important chiseled grooves. It is heated and tempered, and bosses, or domes, are hammered into the outlined areas. The depth, curvature, and size of each boss determine its pitch. The drums are struck

Scandinavian Literature, Emergence of Realism and Poetic Realism

2005-02-18T11:21:00.000-08:00

Realism made only slow headway in spite of the example of the Finno-Swedish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (see below). Literature of the 1840s and 1850s was mainly an aftermath of Romanticism. A movement known as Scandinavism produced a good deal of verse: Carl Vilhelm August Strandberg (pseudonym “Talis Qualis”), fieriest poet of this type, later made excellent translations from

González, Julio

2005-02-18T10:21:00.000-08:00

González and his brother Joan received artistic training from their father, a sculptor and metalworker, as well as at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. González moved to Paris in 1900, where, through his old Barcelona friend Pablo

Enclosure

2005-02-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Inclosure, the division or consolidation of communal fields, meadows, pastures, and other arable lands in western Europe into the carefully delineated and individually owned and managed farm plots of modern times. Before enclosure, much farmland existed in the form of numerous, dispersed strips under the control of individual cultivators only during the growing season

Gyroscope

2005-02-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

Any device consisting of a rapidly spinning wheel set in a framework that permits it to tilt freely in any direction—i.e., to rotate about any axis. The momentum of such a wheel causes it to retain its attitude when the framework is tilted; from this characteristic derive a number of valuable applications. Gyroscopes are used in such instruments as compasses and automatic

Utopia

2005-02-17T02:56:00.000-08:00

The word first occurred in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, published in Latin as Libellus . . . de optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia (“Concerning the highest state

Simeon I

2005-02-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

His dominant ambition, which was to himself ascend the imperial throne of Byzantium—an aspiration

Gerhardsen, Einar (henry)

2005-02-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

The son of a Labour Party member, Gerhardsen joined the party during World War I and sided with its radical wing, which joined the Comintern (Third International) in 1919. After the party split from the Comintern

Sabang

2005-02-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

Kotamadya (city) and free port, Aceh daerah istimewa (special district), Indonesia, on the northeastern coast of We Island, off the northern tip of Sumatra. It lies at the northern entrance to the Strait of Malacca and is the first port of call in the Malay Archipelago for vessels coming from the west. The harbour, built in 1887, is sheltered from the strong winds and heavy swells

Adams, Maude

2005-02-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

Her mother, whose maiden name she adopted, was leading lady of the Salt Lake City stock company. From Adams' first triumph at the age of five as Little Schneider in Fritz at the San Francisco Theatre, she played child roles. In 1888 she joined

Hirah, Al-

2005-02-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

(from Syriac hirta, “camp”), English Hira, ancient city located south of al-Kufah in south-central Iraq; it was prominent in pre-Islamic Arab history. The town was originally a military encampment, but in the 5th and 6th centuries AD it was the capital of the Lakhmids, who were Arab vassals of Sasanian Persia (Iran). As such it was a centre of diplomatic, political, and military activities

Kyonggi

2005-02-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

Do (province), northwestern South Korea. It is bounded by the truce line with North Korea (north), by the do of Kangwon (east) and Kyongsang-puk and Ch'ungch'ong-nam (south), and by the Yellow Sea (west). The nation's capital, Seoul, is in the middle of the province but was separated from it administratively in 1946 as a special city. Formerly Kyonggi do was the granary of Seoul; the Kyonggi plain,

Houphouët-boigny, Félix

2005-02-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

The son of a wealthy chief, Houphouët-Boigny worked as a rural doctor and pursued a second

Qatar, Trade and finance

2005-02-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

In the mid-1970s Japan supplanted Britain as Qatar's chief source of imports. The chief purchasers of Qatari exports are Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. Other major trading partners include the United States and the United Kingdom. Machinery and transport equipment make up the largest category of imports, and crude petroleum accounts for more than four-fifths of

Arnow, Harriette

2005-02-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

Haeja K. Chung (ed.), Harriette Simpson Arnow: Critical Essays on Her Work (1995); and Wilton Eckley, Harriette Arnow (1974).

Aramaic Alphabet

2005-02-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

The Aramaic language and script were used as a lingua franca over all of the Middle

China, Renewed Communist-Nationalist conflict

2005-02-09T22:24:00.000-08:00

There were numerous clashes between Communists and Nationalists as their military forces competed for control of enemy territory and as the Communists tried to expand their political influence in Nationalist territory through propaganda and secret organizing. Though both sides continued the war against Japan, each was fighting for its own ultimate advantage.

Devizes

2005-02-09T21:23:00.000-08:00

Town (“parish”), Kennet district, administrative and historical county of Wiltshire, England. It lies along the disused Kennet and Avon Canal, at the edge of Roundway Down. It was the site of a Roman fortification, Castrum Divisarum; and Roger, bishop of Salisbury, built a castle there about 1132. The name Devizes possibly came from a medieval Latin reference to the castle ad

Perseus

2005-02-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

The elder son of King Philip V of Macedonia, Perseus commanded troops in his father's wars against Rome (199) and Aetolia (189). After three years of intriguing against his brother Demetrius, accusing

Roman Catholicism, History Of, The reign of Leo XIII (18781903)

2005-02-08T06:19:00.000-08:00

Although Leo XIII was no less conservative in his theological inclinations than his predecessor, his positive appreciation of the church's opportunities in modern society gave his pontificate a significantly different cast from that of Pius. On issues of church doctrine and discipline his administration was a strict one. It was during his reign that the Modernist

Cyril And Methodius, Saints

2005-02-07T16:39:00.000-08:00

Brothers who for christianizing the Danubian Slavs and for influencing the religious and cultural development of all Slavic peoples received the title “the apostles of the Slavs.” Both were outstanding scholars, theologians, and

Barreto, Francisco

2005-02-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

Barreto served in the East Indies, was governor of Portuguese India, and was probably instrumental in exiling Luís de Camões to Macau after the poet had published criticisms of Portuguese administration in India. In 1569 Barreto was entrusted by King Sebastian of Portugal with an expedition to

Biblical Literature

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

Exegesis, or critical interpretation, and hermeneutics, or the science of interpretive principles, of the Bible have been used by both Jews and Christians throughout their histories for various purposes. The most common purpose has been that of discovering the truths and values of the Old and New Testaments by means of various techniques and principles, though

Tachylyte

2005-02-06T00:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled tachylite glassy igneous rocks low in silica, such as basalt or diabase. Tachylytes are black with a pitchlike or resinous lustre; in thin sections they are characteristically brown and translucent, and the glass is crowded with granules of magnetite. Tachylytes are found only under conditions that imply rapid cooling, and they are much less common than are the corresponding

Rhys, Jean

2005-02-05T23:43:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a Welsh doctor and a Creole mother, Rhys lived and was educated

Carnatic Wars

2005-02-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Karnatic Wars series of military contests during the 18th century between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore for control of the coastal strip of eastern India from Nellore (north of Madras) southward (the Tamil country). The name Carnatic properly refers to the region occupied by the Kannada-speaking people, which roughly corresponds to the modern Indian state of Karnataka

Lin Shu

2005-02-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Lin Shu translator who first made available to Chinese readers more than 171 works of Western literature, even though he himself had no firsthand knowledge of any foreign language and had never traveled abroad. Working through oral interpreters, Lin Shu translated fiction from England, the United States, France, Russia, Switzerland,

Karakalpakstan

2005-02-04T02:30:00.000-08:00

On the east Karakalpakstan occupies the western half of the Kyzylkum Desert, a vast plain covered with shifting sands. The central part consists of the valley and delta of the Amu Darya (river), a low-lying area intersected by watercourses and canals. On the west the republic includes

Romanticism

2005-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

Romanticism proper was preceded by several related developments from the mid-18th century on that can be termed Pre-Romanticism. Among such trends was a new appreciation of the medieval romance, from which the Romantic movement derives its name. The romance was a tale or ballad of chivalric adventure whose emphasis on individual heroism and on the exotic and the

Aesir

2005-02-03T15:34:00.000-08:00

Old Norse Æsir , singular Áss in Scandinavian mythology, either of two main groups of deities, four of whom were common to the Germanic nations: Odin (q.v.), chief of the Aesir; Frigg (q.v.), Odin's wife; Tyr (q.v.), god of war; and Thor (q.v.), whose name was the Teutonic word for thunder. Some of the other important Aesir were Balder, Jörd, Heimdall, and Loki (qq.v.).

Resistencia

2005-02-03T05:53:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Chaco provincia, northeastern Argentina, on a stream that flows into the Paraná River at the river port of Barranqueras, 4 miles (6 km) southeast. Originally founded in the mid-18th century as San Fernando del Río Negro (a Jesuit reducción [work mission] abandoned in 1773 after the order was suppressed), it was later reestablished in 1878 as a frontier colony settled by

Plain Weave

2005-02-01T15:32:00.000-08:00

Also called Tabby Weave, simplest and most common of the three basic textile weaves. It is made by passing each filling yarn over and under each warp yarn, with each row alternating, producing a high number of intersections. Plain-weave fabrics that are not printed or given a surface finish have no right or wrong side. They do not ravel easily but tend to wrinkle and have less absorbency than

Essex, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl Of, Viscount Hereford, Lord Ferrers, Lord Bourchier

2005-02-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Devereux and the grandson of Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, to whose

Lamar, Lucius Q.c.

2005-01-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

Lamar was admitted to the bar in Georgia in 1847 and was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives (1853). He moved to Mississippi in 1855 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

Da Nang

2005-01-31T05:57:00.000-08:00

French Tourane, city, central Vietnam. Lying at the southern end of a horseshoe-shaped bay, it is one of the largest cities in Vietnam and the chief port of the central lowlands. Although partially enclosed on the northeast by the Annamese Cordillera (French: Chaîne Annamitique; Vietnamese: Nui Truong Son), which there reaches an elevation of 4,636 feet (1,413 m), its excellent harbour is still somewhat

Wild West Show

2005-01-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

Theatrical extravaganza begun in 1883 by William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Cody, an Indian scout and Western hero, first turned to acting and then to producing and promoting his own Wild West show. In 1887 his show was performed at Madison Square Garden, New York City, with a cast of 100 Indians; Annie Oakley, the sharpshooter; other trick riders, ropers, and shooters; and such wild

Hancock, Winfield Scott

2005-01-30T06:07:00.000-08:00

A West Point graduate (1844), he served with distinction in the Mexican War (1846–48). Hancock was appointed a

Alciphron

2005-01-29T20:43:00.000-08:00

Rhetorician who wrote a collection of fictitious letters, a form of literature popular in his day. More than 100 of the letters have survived. The background of them all is the Athens of the 4th century BC, and the imaginary writers are farmers, fishermen, and courtesans. The material of the letters is largely derived from the writers of the so-called

Florence

2005-01-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

Italian Firenze, Latin Florentia, city, capital of Firenze province and Toscana (Tuscany) region, central Italy. The city, located about 145 miles (230 kilometres) northwest of Rome, has, during its long history, been a republic, a seat of the duchy of Tuscany, and a capital (1865–71) of Italy. Florence was founded as a Roman military colony about the 1st century BC and during the 14th to 16th centuries achieved preeminence in commerce

Half Rhyme

2005-01-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

Also called near rhyme, slant rhyme, or oblique rhyme in prosody, two words that have only their final consonant sounds and no preceding vowel or consonant sounds in common (such as stopped and wept, or parable and shell). The device was common in Welsh, Irish, and Icelandic verse years before it was first used in English by Henry Vaughan. It was not used regularly in English until Gerard Manley Hopkins and William Butler

Sankt Pölten

2005-01-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

City, Niederösterreich Bundesland (federal state), northeastern Austria. It lies along the Traisen River between the foothills of the Alps and the Danube River, west of Vienna. Once the site of the Roman settlement of Aelium Cetium, the town developed in the 8th century around an abbey dedicated to St. Hippolytus, whose name in Germanicized form became Sankt Pölten. The

Sea Walnut

2005-01-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

Any member of a common genus (Mnemiopsis) of gelatinous, planktonic marine invertebrates of the class Tentaculata (phylum Ctenophora). The sea walnut resembles the sea gooseberry morphologically, but as in many ctenophores the body is prolonged into eight lobes. Full-grown individuals may be as long as 15 cm (6 inches). They lead a wholly planktonic existence and are found

Vanden Boeynants, Paul

2005-01-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

Belgian politician (b. May 22, 1919, Brussels, Belg.—d. Jan. 9, 2001, Aalst, Belg.), was a longtime member of Parliament (1952–85), the French-speaking leader of the centrist Social Christian Party (from 1961), defense minister (1972–79), and twice prime minister of Belgium (1966–68 and 1978–79). Although he was criticized for his handling of Belgium's 1968 language crisis and for his drastic policy of urban renewal in Brussels, it was a conviction