ViolentPump

Ho Hsien-ku

2005-04-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

Pinyin He Xiangu, in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism, and the only female (if Lan Ts'ai-ho is considered to be male). As a teenaged girl she dreamed that mother-of-pearl conferred immortality. She thereupon ate some, became ethereal, and found she could float across the hills at will. She returned home each evening carrying herbs collected during the

France, History Of, Peasants

2005-04-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

The condition of many peasants deteriorated markedly in the 18th century; perhaps as many as one-third of them were sporadically indigent. This cannot be explained by a decline in the peasants' share of the land. In 1789, French peasants still owned about one-third of arable land, most of it in small plots of less than 10 acres (nobles owned about one-fifth of the land, the church one-sixth,

Colac

2005-03-31T11:24:00.000-08:00

City, southern Victoria, Australia, on the southern shore of the shallow, 10 1/2-sq-mi- (27-sq-km) Lake Colac. Founded in 1837 and proclaimed a town in 1859, it became a borough and shire in 1864 and a city in 1960. Colac serves as the market for a closely settled region that produces onions, grains, flax, livestock, dairy products, and poultry. Its manufactures include farm tools, bricks, and flax products. Timber

Itching

2005-03-30T06:48:00.000-08:00

Also called Pruritus, a stimulation of free nerve endings, usually at the junction of the dermis and epidermis of the skin, that evokes a desire to scratch. It has been suggested that an itch is a subthreshold sensation of pain; however, although both itch and pain sensations share common nerve pathways, they are generally considered distinct sensory types. Itching evokes a range of sensations,

Amaryllidaceae

2005-03-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

Family of perennial herbs in the flowering plant order Liliales, containing about 65 genera and at least 835 species, distributed primarily in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Members of the family have bulbs or underground stems; several strap- or lance-shaped leaves grouped at the base of the stem or arranged alternately along the stem; flowers usually with

Wyat, Sir Thomas, The Younger

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

Wyat's father was the renowned poet and diplomat Sir Thomas Wyat. As a young man he acquired a reputation for recklessness, and in 1543 he was briefly imprisoned for taking part in a London street riot.

Sayers, Gale

2005-03-24T16:34:00.000-08:00

Sayers first gained national attention as a two-time

Brown, Trisha

2005-03-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

Brown studied modern dance at Mills College in Oakland, California (B.A., 1958). Her style began developing after she met choreographer Yvonne

Itsuku Island

2005-03-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

Also called Miya Island , English Shrine Island offshore island, Hiroshima ken (prefecture), Japan, in the Inland Sea. The small island, one of Japan's most scenic spots, is 19 miles (31 km) in circumference and occupies an area of 12 square miles (31 square km). It is best known for its 6th-century Itsuku island-shrine, which was built on tidal land and has the appearance of floating on the sea during high tide. It was named after one of the

Wapiti

2005-03-19T07:18:00.000-08:00

Also called American Elk (species Cervus canadensis), North American deer, family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla), considered by some authorities to be of the same species as the red deer (C. elaphus) of Eurasia. Once common over most of North America, the elk now is confined to the Rocky Mountains and southern Canada. The second largest living deer, it is exceeded

3-d

2005-03-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

Also called stereoscopic, motion-picture process that gives a three-dimensional quality to film images. It is based on the fact that humans perceive depth by viewing with both eyes. In the 3-D process, two cameras or a twin-lensed camera are used for filming, one representing the left eye and the other the right. The two lenses are spaced about 2 1/2 inches (6.3 cm) apart, the same as the separation between a person's

Azhari, Isma'il Al-

2005-03-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

Educated at Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum and at the American University of Beirut, al-Azhari became president of the Graduates' General Congress in 1940. At first concerned primarily with educational and social reforms, the

Tsvet, Mikhail Semyonovich

2005-03-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Tsvet studied in Geneva, Switz., receiving his doctorate in 1896, and in 1901 he received a degree from the

Sá De Miranda, Francisco De

2005-03-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

The illegitimate son of a canon of Coimbra, Gonçalo Mendes de Sá, and Dona Inês de Melo, he was made legitimate in 1490. He studied at the university, which was then in Lisbon, and seems to have lived mainly in the capital until 1521, frequenting the royal court and taking part in the poetical improvisations

Cynewulf

2005-03-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

King of the West Saxons, or Wessex (757–786), in England who succeeded to the throne following the deposition of Sigebert. Cynewulf was constantly at war with the Welsh. In 779 Offa of Mercia defeated him and took Bensington. In 785 he was surprised and killed, with all his thanes present, at Marten, in modern Wiltshire (Merantune), by Cyneheard, the brother of the deposed Sigebert.

Moscow, Grand Principality Of

2005-03-13T01:54:00.000-08:00

Muscovy became a distinct principality during the second half of the 13th century under the rule of Daniel, the youngest son of the Rurik prince Alexander

Amoeba

2005-03-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ameba, plural Amoebas, or Amoebae, any of the microscopic unicellular protozoans of the rhizopodan order Amoebida. The well-known type species, Amoeba proteus, is found on decaying bottom vegetation of freshwater streams and ponds. There are numerous parasitic amoebas. Of six species found in the human alimentary tract, Entamoeba histolytica causes amebic dysentery. Two related free-living

Margherita Peak

2005-03-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

French Pic Marguerite, highest summit of the Ruwenzori Range in East Africa and the third highest in Africa (after Mounts Kilimanjaro and Kenya). Margherita Peak is the highest peak on Mount Stanley. It rises to 16,795 feet (5,119 m) between Lake Albert (Lake Mobutu Sese Seko) to the north and Lake Edward to the south on the Congo (Kinshasa)–Uganda border. It was first climbed in 1906 by an expedition led by Luigi Amedeo

Ta-ch'ing

2005-03-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Daqing oil field in Heilungkiang province, China, one of the country's most important sources of oil. It is situated in the north of the Sungari-Liao River basin, between Tsitsihar and Harbin, in the general vicinity of An-ta, northwest of Harbin. The field was discovered in the late 1950s and drilling began in 1958, often in difficult conditions caused by the extreme winter cold and by

Jacobs, W(illiam) W(ymark)

2005-03-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

His early home was a house on a Thames River wharf, where his father was manager. A landsman himself, Jacobs drew on his boyhood memories of seafaring men and dockworkers to create the stories that were to establish him as a writer. His first volume, Many

Jacareí

2005-03-07T02:41:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern São Paulo estado (“state”), Brazil, lying along the Paraíba do Sul River. The settlement was granted town status in 1653 and was made the seat of a municipality in 1849. The local economy depends mainly upon dairying, but coffee, rice, corn (maize), fruits, and feijão (beans) are also cultivated in the surrounding area. Food processing, distilling, tanning, and the manufacture

Vigeland, Gustav

2005-03-06T04:36:00.000-08:00

Vigeland's parents were farmers, and he was apprenticed to a wood-carver when he was 14 years old. His first work was shown in 1889, and, though early influenced by Auguste

Wambaugh, Sarah

2005-03-06T04:09:00.000-08:00

Wambaugh graduated from Radcliffe College, Cambridge, in 1902. She remained at the college as an assistant until 1906 while pursuing advanced studies in history and government. For a decade thereafter she worked

Tacna

2005-03-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

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

Glassware, Venice and the façon de Venise

2005-03-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

A glass industry was already established near Venice in the 7th century, and vessel glass was made there by the last quarter of the 10th century. In 1291 the glass furnaces were removed to the neighbouring island of Murano to remove the risk of fire from the city. Although Venice had constant contact with the East, there is no evidence that it was indebted to that source for its

War

2005-02-28T00:04:00.000-08:00

In the popular sense, a conflict among political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude. In the usage of social science certain qualifications are added. Sociologists usually apply the term to such conflicts only if they are initiated and conducted in accordance with socially recognized forms. They treat war as an institution

Corbeil-essonnes

2005-02-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

Town, Essonne département, Paris region, north central France, at the confluence of the Seine and Essonnes rivers, just southeast of Paris. Corbeil and Essonnes, formerly separate towns, were united in 1951. Corbeil (ancient Corbilium) has a 14th-century gate and the medieval church of Saint-Spire (originally an abbey). An independent county in the Carolingian period, it was annexed

Cattaraugus

2005-02-25T08:39:00.000-08:00

County, southwestern New York state, U.S., consisting of a ruggedly hilly region bounded by Cattaraugus Creek to the north and Pennsylvania to the south. It is drained by the Allegheny River and Ischua and Great Valley creeks. Surrounding Allegheny Reservoir are Allegany Indian Reservation and Allegany State Park, both of which are the largest of their kind in the

Earth

2005-02-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Earth's outermost rigid, rocky layer is called the lithosphere. It is broken, like a slightly cracked eggshell, into about a dozen separate rigid blocks, or plates. There are two types of plates, oceanic and continental. An example of an oceanic plate is the Pacific Plate, which extends from the East Pacific Rise to the deep-ocean trenches bordering the western part

Arnobius The Elder

2005-02-21T03:10:00.000-08:00

Arnobius was born a pagan but had become a Christian by AD 300. He taught rhetoric at Sicca Veneria in Africa during the reign (284–305) of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Because of his former paganism, Arnobius was suspected, notably by the local bishop,

Alabama, Relief

2005-02-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

The southern extremities of the Appalachians cover almost

Canadian High

2005-02-17T00:22:00.000-08:00

Also called Alaskan high large atmospheric high-pressure centre produced by the extremely low winter temperatures over northwestern Canada. Its cold, dense air does not extend above 3 km (2 miles). The high's location east of the Canadian Rockies shelters it from the relatively warm Pacific Ocean and helps it maintain its identity. Its average January sea level pressure is 1,020 millibars (30.12 inches

Hardness Tester

2005-02-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Brinell hardness is determined by forcing a hardened steel or carbide ball of known diameter under a known load into a surface and measuring the diameter of the

Priene

2005-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

By the 8th century BC Priene was a member of the Ionian League, whose central shrine, the Panionion, lay within the city's territory. Priene

Mauguin, Charles

2005-02-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

Mauguin was educated at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and in 1919 he joined the Faculty of Sciences

Teresa Of ávila, Saint

2005-02-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

Also called Saint Teresa of Jesus , original name Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada Spanish nun, one of the great mystics and religious women of the Roman Catholic church, and author of spiritual classics. She was the originator of the Carmelite Reform, which restored and emphasized the austerity and contemplative character of primitive Carmelite life. St. Teresa was elevated

Romano, Luis

2005-02-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Romano's writings

Perry, Lilla Cabot

2005-02-04T03:33:00.000-08:00

Lilla Cabot was a descendant not only of the Boston Brahmin Cabot family but also of the equally distinguished Lowells. In 1874 she married Thomas Sergeant

Kamehameha Iv

2005-02-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

Original name Alexander Liholiho Hawaiian sovereign known for his firm opposition to the annexation of his kingdom by the United States. As Kamehameha IV, he strove to curb the political power of the American Protestant missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands. Dedicated to protecting his people, who were rapidly dying out because of disease, he sponsored

Calais

2005-02-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

Industrial seaport on the Strait of Dover, Pas-de-Calais département, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, northern France, 21 mi (34 km) by sea from Dover (the shortest crossing from England). On an island, now bordered by canals and harbour basins, Calais originated as a fishing village. It was improved by the Count of Flanders in 997 and was fortified by the Count of Boulogne in 1224. After the Battle

Los Angeles

2005-01-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

Formerly Los Anjeles, capital of Bío-Bío provincia, Bío-Bío región, south-central Chile. It is located on a tributary of the Bío-Bío River in the southern part of the Central Valley. Founded in 1739 and elevated to city status in 1852, Los Angeles was swept by fire in 1820, has suffered earthquake damage repeatedly, and was destroyed several times in the long struggle with the Araucanian Indians. It is now an

Haas, Walter A.

2005-01-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

Haas's association with Levi Strauss & Co. began in 1914 with his marriage

Gaudin, Martin-michel-charles, Duc (duke) De Gaëte

2005-01-25T17:08:00.000-08:00

From 1773 Gaudin worked in those bureaus of the Contrôle Générale des Finances that handled the collection of taxes, and he eventually rose to be a head of the tax department. In 1791, during the French Revolution, he was made a

Asansol

2005-01-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

City, West Bengal state, northeastern India. Situated in the heart of the Raniganj coalfield, it is the centre of the Kulti-Burnpur industrial complex. Asansol is connected by the Grand Trunk Road and by rail with Calcutta, Durgapur, and Burdwan. The city is an important coal-trading and railway centre, with large railway workshops and a railway colony. Its major industries

Military Aircraft, Transonic flight

2005-01-21T20:39:00.000-08:00

As the first generation of jet fighters entered service, many aerodynamicists and engineers believed supersonic flight a practical impossibility, owing to transonic drag rise or compressibility, which threatened to tear an aircraft apart. Nevertheless, on Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Captain Charles Yeager, flying a rocket-powered Bell X-1 launched from the bomb bay of a B-29,

Ghezzi, Pier Leone

2005-01-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ghezzi made religious paintings for Roman churches but was best known for penned and etched caricatures of Rome's residents and tourists. He often portrayed a single figure with exaggerated anatomy and appropriate eccentricities of clothing and posture. In group portraits he produced

Motor-vehicle Insurance

2005-01-17T07:59:00.000-08:00

Liability insurance pays for

Gu

2005-01-15T03:26:00.000-08:00

The bronze gu was produced during

Mitra, Ramon

2005-01-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

Philippine politician (b. 1928, Palawan, Phil.—d. March 20, 2000, Manila, Phil.), was a prominent politician, a pro-democracy activist, and an outspoken critic of the 1966–86 regime of Philippine Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. After working as a journalist and diplomat, Mitra served in the House of Representatives in the 1960s and was elected to the Senate in 1971. After Marcos imposed martial law in the Philippines

Gironella, José María

2005-01-11T03:30:00.000-08:00

Spanish author best remembered for his long historical novel Los cipreses creen en Dios (1953; The Cypresses Believe in God), in which the conflicts within a family portrayed in the novel symbolize the dissension that overtook the people of Spain during the years preceding the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. The book, which won

Salekhard

2005-01-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

Salekhard was founded in 1595 and became a city in 1938. Fish canning and sawmilling reflect the regional economy. It is also a base for the northern gas fields of western Siberia. Teacher-training

Amarapura

2005-01-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

Town, central Myanmar (Burma). It lies on the left bank of the Irrawaddy River. A suburb of Mandalay, it is also known as Taung-myo (Southern Town) or Myohaung (Old City). Founded by King Bodawpaya in 1783 as his new capital, it supplanted Ava, 6 miles (10 km) southwest. Its population in 1810 was estimated at 170,000, but a fire that year and the return of the court to Ava in 1823 caused a decline to about 30,000 by 1827. King

Andes Mountains, Physiography of the Central Andes

2005-01-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

The Central Andes begin at latitude 35° S, at a point where the cordillera undergoes a sharp change of character. Its width increases to about 50 miles, and it becomes arid and higher; the passes, too, are higher and more difficult to cross. Glaciers are rare and found only at high elevations. There is virtually no vegetation, lakes having disappeared north of 39° S and forests north

Margarine

2005-01-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

Food product made principally from one or more vegetable or animal fats or oils in which is dispersed an aqueous portion containing milk products, either solid or fluid, salt, and such other ingredients as flavouring agents, yellow food pigments, emulsifiers, preservatives, vitamins A and D, and butter. It is used in cooking and as a spread. Nutritionally, margarine

Genetic Disease, Human, Ethical issues

2005-01-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Because many couples choose to terminate a pregnancy when the fetus is found to be carrying a severe genetic disorder, prenatal diagnosis has become entangled in the ethical debate that surrounds elective abortion. It is regrettable that to many people intrauterine diagnosis is synonymous with abortion, which it is not. The vast majority of women who have genetic

Aerospace Industry, Use of computers

2004-12-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

The computer has also fundamentally changed the development process by permitting digital modeling and simulation as well as computer-aided design in conjunction with computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM; see computer-aided engineering). In the early design stage of a flight vehicle, digital computer modeling of prospective designs enables rapid examination

Johanan Ben Zakkai

2004-12-27T02:03:00.000-08:00

As is the case with all the Talmudic teachers (the rabbis who interpreted and applied the Oral Law), little strictly biographical information

Alaska, Economic growth

2004-12-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

A dispute between the United States and Canada over the boundary between British Columbia and the Alaska panhandle was decided by an Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903. The U.S. view that the border should lie along the crest of the Boundary Ranges was accepted and boundary mapping was completed in 1913. Between 1898 and 1900 a narrow-gauge railroad was built across White Pass to link

Itarsi

2004-12-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

City, central Madhya Pradesh state, central India. A major rail junction connected with Bhopal, Gwalior, and Indore, Itarsi has extensive railway workshops. The city is also a trade centre for forest products from the Satpura Range to the south. A large weekly cattle market is held in the city. Itarsi has several colleges affiliated with the Dr. Harisingh Gour University

Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilyevich

2004-12-21T22:48:00.000-08:00

Russian poet, scientist, and grammarian who is often considered the first great Russian linguistic reformer. He also made substantial contributions to the natural sciences, reorganized the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences, established in Moscow the university that today bears

Cumberland Islands

2004-12-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

Archipelago in the Great Barrier Reef, off the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. The group comprises more than 70 inner continental islands (land, not coral), including Whitsunday, Lindeman, Brampton, Molle, Long, Hook, Dent, and Hayman. The high-cliffed wooded chain, once inhabited by squatters and timber cutters, is now a reserve area. Discovered in 1770 by Captain James

Merchant Marine

2004-12-16T13:34:00.000-08:00

The commercial ships of a nation, whether privately or publicly owned. The term merchant marine also denotes the personnel that operate such ships, as distinct from the personnel of naval vessels. Merchant ships are used to transport people, raw materials, and manufactured goods. Merchant fleets can be important economic assets for nations that have limited natural

Cumberland Wrestling

2004-12-15T06:59:00.000-08:00

Form of wrestling developed in northern England and southern Scotland, also called the North Country style. The wrestlers stand chest to chest, each grasping the other with locked hands around the body, each opponent's chin on the other's right shoulder. The right arm is placed below and the left above the adversary's. When the hold has been firmly taken, an umpire gives

Han-k'ou

2004-12-12T04:53:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Hankou , conventional Hankow large urban area and river port in Wu-han Municipality (shih), Hupeh Province (sheng), central China. Located on the left bank of the Han Shui (river) at its confluence with the Yangtze, it is the largest of the three Wu-han (q.v.) cities (Han-k'ou, Han-yang, and Wu-ch'ang). It was founded as Hsia-k'ou under the Sung dynasty (960–1279). Han-k'ou was one of the first Chinese cities opened to foreign trade

Nagano

2004-12-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

Most of the population occupies small mountain basins (Suwa, Matsumoto, Ina, Hida, Zenkoji), in which sericulture

Beretta Spa

2004-12-08T14:31:00.000-08:00

The founder of the business, Bartolomeo Beretta, was known as a maestro da canne, or master gun-barrel maker, for the republic of

Porcupine River

2004-12-06T18:11:00.000-08:00

Major tributary of the Yukon River, in northern Yukon Territory, Can., and northeastern Alaska, U.S. Discovered in 1842 by John Bell of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Porcupine rises in the Mackenzie Mountains of west central Yukon Territory and flows for 448 mi (721 km) in a great arc, first north and then west across the international boundary and into the Yukon River near Fort Yukon,

Raynaud's Disease

2004-12-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

Disease, occurring primarily in young women, in which spasms in the arteries to the fingers cause the fingertips of both hands to become first pale and then cyanotic—bluish—upon exposure to cold or in response to emotion. Often the fingertips become cold and numb and perspire. The fingers may ache and move awkwardly. If the attack is prolonged, the rest of the hands and

Pueblo Incident

2004-11-30T18:41:00.000-08:00

Capture of the USS “Pueblo,” a Navy intelligence ship, and its 83 crewmen by North Korean patrol boats off the coast of North Korea on Jan. 23, 1968. The United States, maintaining that the “Pueblo” had been in international waters, began a military buildup in the area. It also initiated negotiations that resulted in an agreement that secured the release of the 82 surviving crewmen (one

Shaffer, (levin) Peter

2004-11-28T21:05:00.000-08:00

Educated at St. Paul's and Trinity College, Cambridge, Shaffer first worked for a music publisher and then as a book reviewer. His first play, Five-Finger Exercise (1960), was a tautly constructed domestic drama that almost overnight established his reputation

Computers, The Difference Engine

2004-11-27T23:43:00.000-08:00

Charles Babbage was an English mathematician and inventor: he invented the cowcatcher, reformed the British postal system, and was a pioneer in the fields of operations research and actuarial science. It was Babbage who first suggested that the weather of years past could be read from tree rings. He also had a lifelong fascination with keys, ciphers, and mechanical

Maucherite

2004-11-24T04:48:00.000-08:00

A nickel arsenide mineral with chemical composition approximating Ni3As2 or Ni11As8, assigned to the group of sulfide minerals. It often occurs with niccolite (to which it alters), as at Mansfeld, Ger.; Los Jarales, Málaga, Spain; and Ontario, Can. Its crystals belong to the tetragonal system. It is identical to the furnace product placodine. For chemical formula and detailed

Interior Design, Final drawings and specifications

2004-11-21T14:42:00.000-08:00

The next stages of the design may consist of a series of drawings done by professional draftsmen or by the interior designer himself, if he works as an

Space-time

2004-11-18T00:28:00.000-08:00

Common intuition previously supposed no connection between space and time. Physical space was held to be a flat, three-dimensional continuum—i.e., an arrangement of all possible point locations—to which Euclidean postulates

Olympus Mons

2004-11-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

Volcano on the planet Mars, the highest point on the planet and the largest known volcano in the solar system. Centred at 19° N, 133° W, Olympus Mons consists of a central edifice 21 km (13 miles) high and 540 km (335 miles) across. Around its perimeter an outward-facing cliff ascends as high as 10 km (6 miles) above the surrounding area. At the summit is an 85-km- (53-mile-) diameter crater, or caldera, comprising

Felting

2004-11-15T08:40:00.000-08:00

Consolidation of certain fibrous materials by the application of heat, moisture, and mechanical action, causing the interlocking, or matting, of fibres possessing felting properties. Such fibres include wool, fur, and certain hair fibres that mat together under appropriate conditions because of their peculiar structure and high degree of crimp (waviness). Wool

Jonsson, John Erik

2004-11-12T21:03:00.000-08:00

A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.), Jonsson worked in the 1920s for the Aluminum Company of America and the Dumont Motor Car Co. In 1930 he was appointed

Dance, Western, The French dance suite

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

At the great balls of the French court at Versailles, the minuet was the high point of the festivities, which culminated in a suite of dances. The opening branle, led by the king and his escort, was a measured circling around, one couple after another. Next came the courante, which had been toned down from its earlier rather capricious figurations. Over the years it assumed

Denmark Strait

2004-11-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

Channel partially within the Arctic Circle, lying between Greenland (west) and Iceland (east). About 180 miles (290 km) wide at its narrowest point, the strait extends southward for 300 miles (483 km) from the Greenland Sea to the open waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. The cold East Greenland Current flows southward along the west side of the strait and carries icebergs, which originate

Biblical Literature, Obadiah

2004-11-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

The Book of Obadiah, the fourth book of the Twelve (Minor) Prophets, contains only 21 verses. Nothing is known about the prophet as a person or about his times. It may have been written before the Exile, though many scholars believe that it was composed either some time after 586 BCE or in the mid-5th century, when the Jews returned to the area around Jerusalem. The prophet concentrates

Toba, Lake

2004-11-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

Indonesian Danau Toba lake in the Barisan Mountains, north-central Sumatra, Indonesia. It covers an area of about 440 square miles (1,140 square km), excluding Samosir Island, which occupies a large part of the lake's centre and which is about 30 miles (50 km) long and 10 miles (15 km) wide. The lake drains east through the Asahan River into the Strait of Malacca; along the Asahan River several major hydroelectric projects

Asaka

2004-11-02T21:36:00.000-08:00

City, Saitama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Kurume River northwest of Tokyo. It was a post town known as Hizaori during the Tokugawa era (1603–1867); its name was changed to Asaka in 1932. The city has been a centre of the copper-rolling industry since the late 19th century. Connected by rail with Tokyo, it is now a residential suburb of the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area.

Coolidge, Grace

2004-10-31T04:10:00.000-08:00

Eventually she built her own house, which she lent to navy personnel during World War II. She died of heart disease in 1957 and was buried beside her husband and son at the Plymouth Notch Cemetery in Plymouth, Vermont. Like other presidents' wives, she lamented that she had to subjugate her private self to her public role: “This was I and yet not I—this was the wife of the President of the United States and she took precedence over me.” In the process, however, Grace Coolidge joined that small group of first ladies who are rated as more successful at their jobs than their husbands were at their presidencies.

Hyperventilation

2004-10-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

Rapid shallow breathing that provides the body with an excess of oxygen and a deficit of carbon dioxide. It most commonly occurs as a manifestation of anxiety or hysteria. It also occurs among pilots in unpressurized planes at high altitudes, who take short, rapid breaths rather than the normal slow, deep ones, in order to compensate for the smaller amount of available

Aalsmeer

2004-10-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

Gemeente (commune), Noord-Holland provincie, western Netherlands, 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Amsterdam, on the Ring Canal and Westeinder Lake, a remnant of Haarlem Lake. The older part of the town is on peaty soil at about sea level, surrounded by polders with loamy soil 9–15 feet (3–5 m) below sea level. Once known for its eels, whence its name (aal, “eel”; meer, “lake”), it is the flower-growing centre

New England Confederation

2004-10-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

Also called United Colonies of New England in British American colonial history, a federation of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth established in May 1643 by delegates from those four Puritan colonies. Several factors influenced the formation of this alliance, including the solution of trade, boundary, and religious disputes, but the principal impetus was a concern over defense against attacks

Stefanboltzmann Law

2004-10-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

Statement that the total radiant-heat energy emitted from a surface is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature. Formulated in 1879 by Josef Stefan, an Austrian physicist, as a result of his experimental studies, the same law was derived in 1889 by Ludwig Boltzmann, also an Austrian physicist, from thermodynamical considerations: if E is the radiant heat

Skiffle

2004-10-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

Style of music played on rudimentary instruments, first popularized in the United States in the 1920s but revived by British musicians in the mid-1950s. The term was originally applied to music played by jug bands (in addition to jugs, these bands featured guitars, banjos, harmonicas, and kazoos), first in Louisville, Kentucky, as early as 1905 and then more prominently in Memphis, Tennessee,

Arrhenius Theory

2004-10-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

Aldan River

2004-10-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

River in eastern Siberia, Russia. It rises in the Stanovoy Range and flows northwestward in a huge curve to join the Lena River at Batamay. The Aldan River is 1,412 miles (2,273 km) long, the second largest tributary (after the Vilyuy) of the Lena, and drains more than 281,500 square miles (729,000 square km). Its annual discharge varies considerably both seasonally and annually. The river is navigable

Distinguished Service Order

2004-10-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

British military decoration awarded to officers who have performed meritorious or distinguished service in war. The decoration, instituted by Queen Victoria in 1886, entitles recipients to add D.S.O. after their names. Foreign officers associated with British forces can become holders of the award as “honorary members.” The badge of the order is a white and gold cross

Black Hawk

2004-10-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

Indian name Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak leader of a faction of Sauk and Fox Indians. Supported by part of the two tribes, Black Hawk contested the disposition of 50 million acres (20 million hectares) of territory that had supposedly been granted to the United States by tribal spokesmen in 1804. His decision to defy government orders to vacate

Appoggiatura

2004-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

(from Italian appoggiare, “to lean”), in music, an ornamental note of long or short duration that temporarily displaces, and subsequently resolves into, a main note, usually by stepwise motion. During the Renaissance and early Baroque, the appoggiatura was of moderate length, averaging one-third of the main note, and was more in the nature of a melodic than a harmonic ornament.

Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism

2004-10-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

(Palestinian Judaism): Solomon Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (1961), a concise, authoritative, and engaging treatment of classical (i.e., rabbinic) Judaism. (Babylonian Judaism): Jacob Neusner, A History of the Jews in Babylonia, 5 vol. (1965–70; vol. 1, rev. 1969), the most comprehensive treatment of Babylonian Jewry during the Tannaitic and Amoraic periods. (Judeo-Arabic culture): S.D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs: Their Contacts Through the Ages, 3rd rev. ed. (1974), a popular work by the ranking authority on all aspects of Jewish–Arabic symbiosis, particularly valuable for the medieval period; Abraham Ibn Daud, Sefer ha-Qabbalah (The Book of Tradition), ed. and trans. by Gerson D. Cohen (1967), the classic medieval Hebrew chronicle with analytic essays on Spanish Jewry's “golden age.” (Jews of medieval Europe): Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, new ed. rev. by Cecil Roth (1932), delightful and erudite studies of social life and institutions in medieval Europe; Moritz Güdemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesens und der Cultur der Juden, 3 vol. (1880–88), a social and intellectual history of medieval Ashkenazic Jewry (France, Germany, Italy); Cecil Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (1959), lucid and informative, but with little critical analysis, valuable on Jewish contact with Christian men of letters; Gershom Scholem, Shabbethai Zevi, 2 vol. (1957), a penetrating and comprehensive study (in Hebrew) of the great false Messiah as well as of his religious antecedents and legacy; Stephen Sharot, Messianism, Mysticism, and Magic: A Sociological Analysis of Jewish Religious Movements (1982), an informative scholarly study.

Jackstraws

2004-10-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

To begin the game, the jackstraws (20 to 50) are bunched in one hand and set vertically on a table or other smooth, flat surface, then released suddenly so that the straws fall in a jumble. Each player

Prie, Jeanne-agnes Berthelot De Pleneuf, Marquise De

2004-10-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

The daughter of an unscrupulous financier, Étienne Berthelot, she was married at age 15 to Louis, Marquess de Prie, and went with him to the court of Savoy at Turin, where he was ambassador. She was 21 when she returned to France and was soon the declared mistress of Louis-Henri, Duke de Bourbon. During

Kyodo Tsushinsha

2004-10-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

(Japanese: Cooperative News Agency) national news agency founded in November 1945 to replace the pre-World War II Domei tsushinsha (Federated News Agency), which had served as the official news service of the Japanese government since 1936. Despite competition from the beginning with the Jiji news agency, formed by Domei employees who did not join Kyodo, the latter gradually gained

Contract, Civil law

2004-09-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

On the Continent, the revived study of classical Roman law had an immense influence upon the developing law of contract. It stimulated the rediscovery or construction of a general law concerning the validity of agreements. The Roman law, however, as crystallized in Justinian's law books, tended to confirm the notion that something more than an informal expression

Lipchitz, Jacques

2004-09-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

As a youth Lipchitz studied engineering in Vilnius, Lithuania. When he moved to Paris in 1909, however, he was wonder struck by French avant-garde art, especially

Ueno

2004-09-26T02:12:00.000-07:00

City, Mie ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies in an intermontane basin at the head of the Kii Peninsula. The city developed around a castle built in 1611 and still retains some of its early character. Hakuho Park is on the site of the old castle, which was rebuilt in 1953. The Aizen Temple in Ueno is dedicated to the god of love. The industry of the city includes the traditional manufacture