WaitingBeach

Pacific Ocean, Fisheries

2005-03-24T00:32:00.000-08:00

Because of the biological richness of certain reaches of the Pacific and because of the large human populations in many of the nations bordering it, the catches there are substantially larger than those in the other oceans and comprise three-fifths of the total world catch. Among Pacific nations, Japan and Russia have the largest fisheries in the world as measured

San Felipe

2005-03-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

Capital of San Felipe de Aconcagua provincia, Valparaíso región, central Chile. It lies along the Aconcagua River, in the Vale of Chile, at 2,087 feet (636 metres) above sea level. Founded in 1740 as San Felipe el Real, it is the centre of an agricultural (alfalfa, grapes, fruits, vegetables, and cereals) and mining (copper and gold) area. It is connected by railway with Valparaíso, 80 miles (130 km) southwest,

Façon De Venise

2005-03-20T10:16:00.000-08:00

(French: “Venetian fashion”), style of glass made in the 16th and 17th centuries at places other than Venice itself but using the techniques that had been perfected there. It may be outwardly so similar as to be difficult to distinguish from Venetian glass (q.v.) proper. The prestige of Venetian glass was so great in the rest of Europe that French, German, Bohemian,

Ambrosiaster

2005-03-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

In 1527 Erasmus expressed doubts that the work was written by Ambrose. His judgment was eventually accepted by scholars, and the author is generally called Ambrosiaster

Ting, Samuel C.c.

2005-03-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

The son of a Chinese college professor who was studying in the United States when Ting was born, he was raised in mainland China and Taiwan and at the age of 20 immigrated to the United States. He was educated at the University

Cambric

2005-03-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

Lightweight, closely woven, plain cotton cloth first made in Cambrai, France, and originally a fine linen fabric. Printed cambric was used in London by 1595 for bands, cuffs, and ruffs. Modern cambric is made from choice American or Egyptian cotton, with both warp and weft, or filling, yarns ranging from 60 to 80 in size (count), and is usually lightly calendered to produce a slight gloss

Calabria

2005-03-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Most of the region is mountainous

Moray, Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl Of

2005-03-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Randolph was the son of one of Robert's sisters. When Robert revolted against the English and claimed the

Petah Tiqwa

2005-03-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

City, west-central Israel, on the Plain of Sharon, east-northeast of Tel Aviv-Yafo and part of that city's metropolitan area. Situated in the valley of Achor near the Yarqon River, the city takes its name (meaning “Door of Hope”) from the biblical allusion in Hosea 2:15: “ . . . and make the valley of Achor a door of hope.” Petah Tiqwa was the first village (founded 1878) in the modern Jewish settlement

Pyroelectricity

2005-03-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

Development of opposite electrical charges on different parts of a crystal that is subjected to temperature change. First observed (1824) in quartz, pyroelectricity is exhibited only in crystallized nonconducting substances having at least one axis of symmetry that is polar (that is, having no centre of symmetry, the different crystal faces occurring on opposite

Armentières

2005-03-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

Town, Nord département, Nord-Pas-de-Calais région, northern France. It lies along the Lys River, near the Belgian frontier. The town was entirely rebuilt after being destroyed in World War I, and its red brick buildings present a uniform appearance. Armentières was 2 miles (3 km) behind the battle line throughout most of World War I, and from April until October 1918 it was occupied

Polar Bear Provincial Park

2005-02-27T13:05:00.000-08:00

Wilderness park, northern Ontario, Canada, on Hudson and James bays. A huge undeveloped area of 9,300 square miles (24,087 square km), it is the largest of Ontario's provincial parks; it was established in 1970. Polar Bear Provincial Park is accessible only by plane or boat, and travel within the park is restricted in order to help preserve the abundant wildlife, which includes caribou, bearded

Grabski, Wladyslaw

2005-02-25T15:29:00.000-08:00

A Socialist in his youth, Grabski later joined the National Democracy Party and was elected a member of three successive sessions of the Duma (1906–12), the legislative body of the Russian Empire, of which

Carinus

2005-02-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

With the title of Caesar, he was sent by his father, the emperor Carus, to the army of the Rhine in 282. On his father's death in the summer of 283, Carinus became emperor in the West, his brother Numerian becoming emperor in the East. After a campaign on the Rhine, Carinus returned to Rome where,

Botvinnik, Mikhail Moiseyevich

2005-02-21T13:29:00.000-08:00

At the age of 14, less than two years after he had learned the moves of chess, Botvinnik defeated the then-current world champion, José Raúl Capablanca, in one game of an exhibition in which

World War I, Caporetto

2005-02-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

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

Abecedarius

2005-02-18T04:35:00.000-08:00

A type of acrostic in which the first letter of each line of a poem or the first letter of the first word of each stanza taken in order forms the alphabet. Examples of these are some of the Psalms (in Hebrew), such as Psalms 25 and 34, where successive verses begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The word is from the late Latin for “alphabetical” and is derived from

Aruqtai

2005-02-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

Chief of the As (or Alan) Mongols, who allied himself with Mahamu, chief of the Oyrat Mongols, and with him defeated Ugechi, whom the Ming dynasty had recognized as the chief of the Mongols. In 1423 Aruqtai proclaimed himself great khan of the Mongols, launching devastating raids into North China. He was finally defeated when Mahamu's son, Togon-temür, rebelled against

Latite

2005-02-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

Also called trachyandesite extrusive igneous rock very abundant in western North America. Usually coloured white, yellowish, pinkish, or gray, it is the volcanic equivalent of monzonite (q.v.). Latites contain plagioclase feldspar (andesine or oligoclase) as large, single crystals (phenocrysts) in a fine-grained matrix of orthoclase feldspar and augite. They also contain phenocrysts of diopside,

Cosmas And Damian, Saints

2005-02-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

According to Christian tradition, Cosmas and Damian were educated in Syria and became distinguished

Punic War, Second

2005-02-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

In the years after the First Punic War, Rome wrested Corsica and Sardinia from Carthage and forced Carthaginians to pay an even greater indemnity than the payment exacted immediately following the war. Eventually,

'abd Al-wadid Dynasty

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

Also called Zayyanid Dynasty , or Banu Zayyan dynasty of Zanatah Berbers (1236–1550), successors to the Almohad empire in northwestern Algeria. In 1236 the Zanatahs, loyal vassals to the Almohads, gained the support of other Berber tribes and nomadic Arabs and set up a kingdom at Tilimsan (Tlemcen), headed by the Zanatah amir Yaghmurasan (ruled 1236–83). Yaghmurasan was able to maintain internal peace through the successful control of the rival

Dawani

2005-02-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

Dawani's family claimed descent from Abu Bakr (the first caliph of Islam). He received a traditional Islamic education, first at Dawan, where he studied with his father, who was a qadi (judge), and later in Shiraz. During his career

Motion Picture, History Of The, Great Britain

2005-02-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

In Great Britain the post-World War II cinema was even more literary than in France, relying heavily on the adaptation of classics in the work of such directors as Laurence Olivier (Henry V, 1944; Hamlet, 1948; Richard III, 1955), David Lean (Great Expectations, 1946; Oliver Twist, 1948), and Anthony Asquith (The Importance of Being Earnest, 1952). Even less-conventional films had literary sources (Carol

Shire

2005-02-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

In Great Britain, a county. The Anglo-Saxon shire (Old English scir) was an administrative division next above the hundred and seems to have existed in the south in the time of Alfred the Great (871–899) and to have been fully established by the reign of Edgar (959–975). It was administered by an ealdorman (alderman) and by a sheriff (i.e., shire-reeve), who presided over the shire court. After the

Anthimus I

2005-01-30T16:59:00.000-08:00

As bishop of Trebizond Anthimus participated in discussions at Constantinople in 532, to effect religious and political unity between East and West. Although avowing support for the orthodox party, Anthimus

Greenville

2005-01-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1809) of Darke county, western Ohio, U.S., on Greenville Creek, 35 miles (56 km) northwest of Dayton. Laid out in 1808, it was the site of Fort Greenville, named for General Nathanael Greene and built by General “Mad” Anthony Wayne (1793). After his victory at Fallen Timbers (near the present site of Toledo), Wayne signed a peace treaty at the fort with Indians (1795) that opened the Northwest Territory

American Literature, Poetry

2005-01-27T01:58:00.000-08:00

The post-World War II years produced an abundance of strong poetry but no individual poet as dominant and accomplished as T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, or William Carlos Williams, whose long careers were coming to an end. The major poetry from 1945 to 1960 was modernist in its ironic texture yet formal in its insistence on regular rhyme and metre. Beginning

Côte D'azur

2005-01-24T01:57:00.000-08:00

(French: “Coast of Azure”), cultural region in southeastern France encompassing the French Riviera (see Riviera) between Menton and Cannes in Alpes-Maritimes département and extending into southern Var département. The population is predominantly urban. Traditional inland towns in Alpes-Maritimes include Gourdon, Èze, Utelle, and Peille; many such towns are perched

China, Rural collectivization

2005-01-23T11:54:00.000-08:00

This transition was most obvious in the countryside. After land reform had been carried out, mutual aid teams allowed the Communists to experiment with voluntary forms of agricultural collectivization. Starting in late 1953, a campaign was launched to organize into small collectives, called lower level agricultural producers' cooperatives, averaging 20 to 30

Mckean

2005-01-20T10:39:00.000-08:00

The county was formed in

Papal Infallibility

2005-01-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

In Roman Catholic theology, the doctrine that the pope, acting as supreme teacher and under certain conditions, cannot err when he teaches in matters of faith or morals. As an element of the broader understanding of the infallibility of the church, this doctrine is based on the belief that the church has been entrusted with the teaching mission of Jesus Christ and

Papal Infallibility

2005-01-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

Formerly General and Municipal Workers' Union (GMWU) third largest trade union in Great Britain and one of the two giant general unions (the other being the Transport and General Workers' Union). The General and Municipal Workers' Union was formed in 1924 by the merger of the National Union of Gas and General Workers, the National Amalgamated Union of Labour, and the Municipal Employees' Association. From the start the union's

Zacharias, Saint

2005-01-14T11:39:00.000-08:00

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

Abdominal Cavity

2005-01-13T23:03:00.000-08:00

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

Aerospace Industry, Other secondary systems

2005-01-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

Aircraft secondary systems are reflected in an extensive industrial infrastructure,

Mahasanghika

2005-01-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Its emergence about a century after the death of the Buddha (483 BC) represented the first major schism in the Buddhist community. Although traditional accounts of the second council, at Vaisali (now in Bihar state), attribute

Costa Mesa

2005-01-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

City, Orange county, southern California, U.S., on a coastal plateau overlooking the Pacific, at the mouth of the Santa Ana River. With Newport Beach it forms Orange county's “Harbor Area.” The site, once part of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana and the Irvine Ranch, became the hot springs resort of Fairview. Laid out as the town of Harper in 1906, it was renamed in 1921 for its coastal location.

Tacuarembó

2005-01-05T04:47:00.000-08:00

Formerly San Fructuoso, city, north-central Uruguay. The Haedo Mountains dominate the adjoining area. Orchids and hardwoods, including quebracho, algarrobo, urunday, and guayabo, grow there. Founded in 1831 by Bernabé Rivera, it was first called Villa de San Fructuoso; later, it adopted the Guaraní Indian name Tacuarembó (from a firm, slender reed endemic to the region). The city's Indian and gaucho

Arduino, Giovanni

2005-01-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

From an early age, Arduino showed an interest in mining, establishing a reputation throughout northern Italy

Trevelyan, G(eorge) M(acaulay)

2004-12-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

The third son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan, he was educated

La Palma

2004-12-29T04:41:00.000-08:00

In full San Miguel De La Palma island, Santa Cruz de Tenerife provincia in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Canary Islands, Spain. Located in the North Atlantic off the northwestern coast of Africa, it has an area of 281 square miles (728 square km). Its central geographic feature is La Caldera de Taburiente, a national park and a large volcanic caldera (6 miles [10 km] in diameter). The rim is breached

Yogyakarta

2004-12-28T03:53:00.000-08:00

Most of the western half of the special district comprises coastal plains, as much as 15 miles (24 km) wide, consisting of lava and ash soils that are

Amazonstone

2004-12-22T21:58:00.000-08:00

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

Pereda, José María De

2004-12-20T19:19:00.000-08:00

Spanish writer, the acknowledged leader of the modern Spanish regional novelists. Born of a family noted for its fervent Catholicism and its traditionalism, Pereda looked an authentic hidalgo. An older brother provided him with an income that allowed him to become a writer. His first literary effort was the Escenas

Bialik, Haim Nahman

2004-12-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

Born into poverty, Bialik was left fatherless when he was five or six years old and was brought up by his rigidly pious, learned

Arrowroot

2004-12-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

Any of several species of the genus Maranta, members of the family Marantaceae (q.v.), the rhizomes, or rootstocks, of which yield an edible starch; the chief among these is M. arundinacea, the source of genuine, or West Indies, arrowroot. This herbaceous perennial, probably a native of Guyana and western Brazil, is cultivated throughout the West Indies,

Florida

2004-12-14T18:06:00.000-08:00

The surrounding region is characterized by rolling hills. In addition to its

German Literature, The late 1950s and the '60s

2004-12-12T05:05:00.000-08:00

In the other German-speaking countries, the late 1950s and early 1960s saw the emergence of a number of novelists whose works have since become contemporary classics. In Switzerland, Max Frisch explored the problem of guilt in his novels Homo Faber (1957; Eng. trans. Homo Faber), the story of an engineer who becomes a modern Oedipus, and Stiller (1954; I'm Not Stiller), about a man who refuses to

Syllabic Verse

2004-12-09T07:06:00.000-08:00

In prosody, the metrical system that is most commonly used in English poetry. It is based on both the number of stresses, or accents, and the number of syllables in each line of verse. A line of iambic pentameter verse, for example, consists of five feet, each of which is an iamb (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable). Although accentual-syllabic verse is very strictly

Computers, Application software

2004-12-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

The availability of BASIC and CP/M enabled more widespread software development. By 1977, a two-person firm called Structured Systems Group started developing a General Ledger program, perhaps the first serious business software, which sold for $995. The company shipped its software in zip-lock bags with a manual, a practice that became common in the industry. General Ledger

West Flanders

2004-12-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

Drained

End Rhyme

2004-12-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

End rhyme is the most common type of rhyme in English poetry. Compare beginning rhyme; internal

Gabon, Education

2004-12-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

The educational system continues to be modeled closely after that of France. French remains the sole medium of instruction; Bantu languages are studied as electives at the secondary and higher levels. While education is officially mandatory from the ages of 6 to 16, the bulk of children do not attend long enough to achieve literacy or numeracy. The Omar Bongo University,

Rub' Al-khali

2004-11-28T05:53:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ar-Rab' al-Khali (Arabic: “Empty Quarter”) vast desert in the southern Arabian Peninsula, covering about 250,000 square miles (650,000 square km) in a structural basin lying mainly in southeastern Saudi Arabia, with lesser portions in Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest area of continuous sand in the world. It occupies more than one-quarter of Saudi Arabia. The topography is varied. In the west the elevation

Leaning Tower Of Pisa

2004-11-25T03:40:00.000-08:00

Italian Torre Pendente di Pisa medieval structure in Pisa, Italy, that is famous for the settling of its foundations, which caused it to lean 5.5 degrees (about 15 feet [4.5 metres]) from the perpendicular by the late 20th century. The bell tower, begun in 1173 as the third and final structure of the city's cathedral complex, was designed to stand 185 feet (56 metres) high and was constructed of white marble. Three of its eight stories

Zamboanga City

2004-11-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

City and port, western Mindanao, Philippines. It is a busy port strategically located on the southwestern tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula, on Basilan Strait and sheltered by Basilan Island. The immediate coastal lowlands are narrow, with low, rugged hills located a short distance inland. Zamboanga's Spanish-style architecture, fine beaches, and mountainous backdrop

Kidney Vetch

2004-11-21T10:24:00.000-08:00

Also called ladies' fingers (species Anthyllis vulneraria) perennial herb, of the pea family (Fabaceae), found in meadows, alpine pastures, and dry places of Europe and northern Africa. The low, hairy plant grows to a height of 15–40 cm (6–16 inches) and has narrow leaves 1.4–3.8 cm (0.5–1.5 inches) long and yellow, reddish, or white flowers. It was formerly used as a remedy for kidney disorders but is now frequently cultivated in rock gardens.

Nord-du-québec

2004-11-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

English North of Quebec , formerly Nouveau-québec administrative region constituting the northern half of Quebec province, Canada. The name Nouveau-Québec (“New Quebec”) once was used synonymously with Ungava for that part of the Labrador-Ungava peninsula between Hudson Bay and the Labrador Sea, north of the Eastmain and Churchill (Hamilton) rivers, which was, at the time, a part of the Northwest Territories. In 1912, however,

Radar, Antennas

2004-11-18T16:28:00.000-08:00

A widely used form of radar antenna is the parabolic reflector, the principle of which is shown in cross section in Figure 4 (A). A horn antenna or other small antenna is placed at the focus of the parabola to illuminate the parabolic surface of the reflector. After being reflected by this surface, the electromagnetic energy is radiated as a narrow beam. A paraboloid, which

Sa

2004-11-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

The SA was founded in Munich by Hitler in 1921 out of various roughneck elements that had attached themselves to the fledgling Nazi movement. It drew its early membership largely from the Freikorps (Free Corps), armed freebooter

Norway, Political and social change

2004-11-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

After the liberation in 1945 a coalition government was formed under the leadership of Einar Gerhardsen. The general election in the autumn of 1945 gave the DNA a decisive majority, and a purely Labour government was formed with Gerhardsen as prime minister. The DNA governed almost continuously from 1945 to 1965. Haakon VII died in 1957 and was succeeded by his son, Olaf V. The Labour governments

Essy, Amara

2004-11-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

On July 9, 2002, Amara Essy of Côte d' Ivoire became secretary-general of the newly established 53-country African Union (AU), which replaced the 39-year-old Organization of African Unity (OAU). Essy, a career diplomat, was charged with leading the new body, a difficult task given the continent's ethnic, religious, economic, and political differences and the fact that the AU was granted

Anderson, Helen Eugenie Moore

2004-11-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

Eugenie Moore attended Stephens College (Columbia, Missouri) in 1926–27, Simpson College (Indianola, Iowa) in 1927–28, and Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota) in 1929–30; she took no degree. In 1930 she married John P. Anderson. During two years in New York City she studied piano at the Juilliard

Gautier D'arras

2004-11-07T00:44:00.000-08:00

An official of Philippe d'Alsace, Count of Flanders, Gautier is named in many charters between

Sanka

2004-11-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Little is known of their history. Although they are mentioned in Japanese chronicles from

Sayyid Dynasty

2004-11-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

Rulers of India's Delhi sultanate (c. 1414–51) as successors of the Tughluq dynasty until displaced by the Afghan Lodis; this family claimed to be sayyids, or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. The central authority of the Delhi sultanate had been fatally weakened by the invasion of Timur (Tamerlane) and his sack of Delhi in 1398. For the next 50 years, North India was virtually divided

Wells

2004-11-02T22:07:00.000-08:00

City, Mendip district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England, at the foot of the Mendip Hills. The name derives from the many springs rising near the cathedral, which was begun in the 12th century and dominates the city. In general, Wells has been little affected by modern industry and growth. It remains a modest service centre, its Market Place and shopping

Dysplasia

2004-10-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

Chondroectodermal dysplasia (Ellis-van Creveld syndrome) is a very rare, congenital disorder. It is heritable (autosomal recessive). Affected individuals exhibit heart

Viet Minh

2004-10-29T01:07:00.000-07:00

In late 1943 members of the Viet Minh, led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, began to infiltrate

Sessions, Roger (huntington)

2004-10-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

He studied at Harvard University and at the Yale School of Music and later took composition lessons from Ernest Bloch. After several years in Europe he returned to the United

Grackle

2004-10-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

Also called Crow-blackbird, any of several species of birds belonging to the family Icteridae (order Passeriformes) that have iridescent black plumage and long tails. Grackles use their stout, pointed bills to snap up insects, dig grubs from the soil, and kill small vertebrates, including fishes and baby birds; they can also crack hard seeds. Most grackles nest in colonies; after breeding, they

Hungarian Language

2004-10-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

The language has been written in a modified

Tung Chung-shu

2004-10-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

As a chief minister to the emperor Wu (c. 140–87) of the Han dynasty, Tung was chiefly responsible for the

Guliston

2004-10-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Gulistan, formerly (until 1961) Mirzachul, city, eastern Uzbekistan. It lies in the southeastern part of the Mirzachül (formerly Golodnaya) steppe, 75 miles (120 km) southwest of Tashkent. It became important after irrigation works enabled cotton to be grown in the area. It served as the administrative centre of Syrdarya oblast (province) from 1963 to 1991, during the Soviet period. Pop. (1991 est.) 56,900.

Scandinavian Literature, The mythological lays

2004-10-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

Mythological lays about the Norse gods made up the first half of the Poetic Edda. It is unlikely that any of these originated outside Norway, Iceland, and Norse colonies in the British Isles. The Völuspá (“Sibyl's Prophecy”) was a striking poem on the history of the world of gods, men, and monsters, from the beginning until the “twilight of the gods.” Many passages in the poem are

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius

2004-10-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Powerful deputy of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. He was chiefly responsible for the victory over Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and during Augustus' reign he suppressed rebellions, founded colonies, and administered various parts of the Roman Empire. Of modest birth but not a modest man, Agrippa was disliked by the Roman aristocracy.

Rastrakuta Dynasty

2004-10-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

Probably originally Dravidian farmers, they were the royal family of Lattalur (Latur, near Osmanabad). They spoke Kannada but also knew the northern Deccan language. Under Rastrakuta, who defeated a rival dynasty, the Calukyas (see Calukya dynasty), the Deccan Empire became the second greatest political

Argentina, Discovery and settlement

2004-10-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

The main Atlantic outline of Argentina was revealed to European explorers in the early 16th century. The Río de la Plata estuary was discovered years before Ferdinand Magellan traversed the Strait of Magellan in 1520, although historians dispute whether the estuary was first reached by Amerigo Vespucci in 1501–02 or by Juan Díaz de Solís in his ill-fated voyage of 1516. Solís and a

Arenite

2004-10-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

Any sedimentary rock that consists of sand-sized particles (0.06–2 millimetres [0.0024–0.08 inch] in diameter), irrespective of composition. More formal nomenclature of such rocks is based on composition, particle size, and mode of origin—e.g., sandstone, arkose, quartzite, graywacke, and subgraywacke.

Cheetah

2004-10-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Also called hunting leopard (Acinonyx jubatus) slender, long-legged cat, of the family Felidae, that lives on the open plains of southern, central, and eastern Africa and in the Middle East, where it is all but extinct. The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world over short distances, capable of attaining speeds as great as 100 km (60 miles) per hour. As its long legs

Epistemology, Epistemology as a discipline

2004-10-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

Why should there be such a subject as epistemology? Aristotle provided the answer when he said that philosophy begins in wonder, in a kind of puzzlement about things. Nearly all human beings wish to comprehend the world they live in, a world that includes the individual as well as other persons, and most people construct hypotheses of varying degrees of sophistication

Africa, The Orange basin

2004-10-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

The Orange River is the longest in South Africa. Flowing across almost the entire width of the country, it makes its way from the highlands in the east through the Kalahari depression in the west to empty into the South Atlantic Ocean. Its major tributary, the Vaal River, is one of its northern headwaters; the two rivers together have a combined length of about 1,300 miles. Together

Houtman, Cornelis And Frederik De

2004-09-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

Cornelis and Frederick were sent to Lisbon in 1592 as commercial representatives of nine Dutch merchants. The brothers were imprisoned by the Portuguese

Daedalus

2004-09-29T23:15:00.000-07:00

(Greek: “Skillfully Wrought”), mythical Greek architect and sculptor, who was said to have built, among other things, the paradigmatic Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. Daedalus fell out of favour with Minos and was imprisoned; he fashioned wings of wax and feathers for himself and for his son Icarus and escaped to Sicily. Icarus, however, flew too near the Sun, and his wings

Tierra Del Fuego

2004-09-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Archipelago, at the southern extremity of South America. In shape the main island, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Magellan, is a triangle with its base on Beagle Channel. The total area is 28,473 sq mi (73,746 sq km), about two-thirds of which is Chilean and one-third Argentine. The boundary, agreed upon in 1881, follows the meridian 68°36¢38² W, from Cabo (cape) Espíritu Santo on the Atlantic,

New Castile

2004-09-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

Spanish Castilla La Nueva, historic provincial region, central upland Spain. It generally includes the area of the Moorish kingdom of Toledo annexed to the former kingdom of Castile in the 11th century AD. In modern Spanish geographic usage, New Castile as an administrative region included the provinces of Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid, and Toledo. Its area was 27,940 square miles (72,363 square km).

Kwando River

2004-09-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

Portuguese Rio Cuando, river in southern Africa, rising in central Angola and flowing southeast, forming for nearly 140 miles (225 km) the boundary between Angola and Zambia. Near the end of its course the Kwando reaches the northern boundary of the Caprivi Strip, which juts out from Namibia, and thereafter the river spreads into the Linyanti Marshes, covering about 550 square miles (1,425 square km) and including

Akriyavada

2004-09-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Pali >Akiriyavada set of beliefs held by heretic teachers in India who were contemporaries of the Buddha. The doctrine was a kind of antinomianism that, by denying the orthodox karmic theory of the efficacy of former deeds on a person's present and future condition, also denied the possibility of a person's influencing his own destiny through preferring righteous to bad conduct. The

Metapontum

2004-09-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Greek Metapontion, ancient Greek city in Italy on the Gulf of Tarentum, near the mouth of the Bradanus (Bradano) River. It was founded by an Achaean colony from Sybaris and Croton about 700 BC. Pythagoras died at Metapontum c. 500. The city declined after 207 when its inhabitants, who had supported Hannibal in the years following his victory at the Battle of Cannae (216), followed the defeated Carthaginian

Maugham, W. Somerset

2004-09-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

Maugham was orphaned at the age of 10; he was brought up by an uncle and educated at King's School, Canterbury. After a year at Heidelberg, he entered St. Thomas' medical school,

Peter, Apocalypse Of

2004-09-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Also called Revelation To Peter, pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) Christian writing dating from the first half of the 2nd century AD. The unknown author, who claimed to be Peter the Apostle, relied on the canonical Gospels and on Revelation to John to construct a conversation between himself and Jesus regarding events at the end of the world. Unlike Revelation to John, however, the Apocalypse

Allen, Richard

2004-09-13T01:34:00.000-07:00

Soon after Allen was born, to slave parents, the family was sold to a Delaware farmer. At age 17 he became a Methodist convert and at 22 was permitted to preach. Two years later (1784), at the first general conference of the

Fry, Maxwell; And Drew, Jane

2004-09-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

One of the earliest British adherents to the modern movement, Fry was trained at the School of Architecture, University of Liverpool. In 1924 he joined

Social Behaviour In Animals

2004-09-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

To understand social behaviour more fully, it is necessary to examine it throughout the range of animal life. W.C. Allee, in his classic book The Social Life of Animals, distinguishes two major types of animal societies. One is the parental, or familial, society, in which parent and offspring stay together for varying lengths of time. The other is the pair bond, or club, society,

Pendleton Civil Service Act

2004-09-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

Widespread public demand for civil service reform was stirred after the Civil War by mounting incompetence, graft, corruption, and theft in federal departments and agencies. After

Cambium

2004-09-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Plural Cambiums, or Cambia, in plants, layer of actively dividing cells between xylem (wood) and phloem (bast) tissues that is responsible for the secondary growth of stems and roots (secondary growth occurs after the first season and results in increase in thickness). Theoretically, the cambium is a single layer of cells, called initial cells; practically, it is difficult to distinguish the initials

Steamboat

2004-09-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

Steamboat pioneering began in America in 1787 when John Fitch made a successful trial of such a vessel. Robert Fulton's profitable

Lahij

2004-08-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

Under the former Aden Protectorate, a British-ruled area, it was capital of the 'Abdali Sultanate, abolished when Yemen (Aden) became independent in 1967. The sultan's palace is

Taranaki

2004-08-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

Taranaki's first European settlement was New Plymouth (1841), the name used when the area