SlowCord

Sackler, Arthur M.

2005-04-04T23:42:00.000-07:00

Sackler studied at New York University (B.S., 1933; M.D., 1937) and worked as a psychiatrist at Creedmore State Hospital in Queens, New York (1944–46), where in 1949 he founded the Creedmore Institute of Psychobiological Studies, a field in

Bydgoszcz

2005-04-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

German Bromberg, city, capital of Bydgoszcz województwo (province), northern Poland, near the confluence of the Brda and Vistula rivers. Beginning as a frontier stronghold, Bydgoszcz was seized by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century; it received town rights in 1346. It prospered as a grain and timber centre, was devastated during the 17th-century Swedish wars, and regained importance in

Uberaba

2005-04-03T23:19:00.000-07:00

City, western Minas Gerais estado (“state”), Brazil, in the highlands at 2,575 feet (785 m) above sea level, on the Uberaba River. It was given city status in 1856. Uberaba is the trade centre of an important agricultural area, yielding cattle (the largest source of income), rice, oranges, corn (maize), beans, coffee, sugarcane, and bananas. A well-known cattle and agricultural exhibition is held there

Mcmurtry, Larry

2005-04-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

McMurtry was educated at North Texas State College (now University; B.A., 1958) and Rice University (M.A., 1960). He was an instructor at Texas Christian University (1961–62), a lecturer in English and creative writing

Culverin

2005-04-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

The culverin was adapted to field use by the French in the mid-15th century and to naval use by the English in the late 16th century. During the 17th century, cannons were classified according to the weight of projectiles fired, and

Baracoa

2005-03-30T17:26:00.000-08:00

In December 1492 Christopher Columbus stopped at what is now

Aleutian Range

2005-03-30T13:39:00.000-08:00

Segment of the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending southwestward for about 600 miles (970 km) from the west end of the Alaska Range to the head of Cook Inlet of the Gulf of Alaska, U.S. The Aleutian Islands represent a southwest extension of the mountain peaks, which stretch the length of the Alaska Peninsula and include many volcanoes, notably Katmai (6,716 feet

Carthusian

2005-03-30T09:21:00.000-08:00

Member of Order of Carthusians (O.Cart.) an order of monks founded by St. Bruno of Cologne in 1084 in the valley of Chartreuse, north of Grenoble, Fr. The Carthusians, who played an important role in the monastic-reform movement of the 11th and 12th centuries, combine the solitary life of hermits with a common life within the walls of a monastery. The monks live in individual cells, where they pray, study, eat, and sleep, gathering

Mola

2005-03-29T17:34:00.000-08:00

The mola (Mola mola; see photograph) is an enormous, gray or brownish

Radek, Karl (bernhardovich)

2005-03-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

A member of a Galician Jewish family, Radek attended the universities of Kraków and Bern. Having joined the Social Democratic Party of Poland and

Danbury

2005-03-28T01:05:00.000-08:00

City, coextensive with the town (township) of Danbury, Fairfield county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S. It lies along the Still River in the foothills of the Berkshire Hills. Settled in 1685, it was named in 1687 for Danbury, England, and was incorporated as a town in 1702. The municipality within the original town tract became a borough in 1822 and a city in 1889; the town and city were consolidated

Aragonite

2005-03-27T02:13:00.000-08:00

Widespread mineral, the stable form of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) at high pressures. It may be distinguished from calcite, the commoner form of calcium carbonate, by its greater hardness and specific gravity. Aragonite is always found in deposits formed at low temperatures near the surface of the Earth, as in caves as stalactites, in the oxidized zone of ore minerals

Furniture, Imagery and ornamentation

2005-03-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Painted and plastic images, or ornamental decoration, on furniture are secondary processes compared with construction and design. Some of the best and most expressive furniture forms, such as the Greek klismos chair and the English Windsor chair, are quite independent of imagery or ornamentation. On the other hand, no period in the history of furniture is entirely

Norfolk And Western Railway Company

2005-03-26T06:22:00.000-08:00

In 1870 the City Point Rail Road and others were consolidated as the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad. In 1881 the system was reorganized as the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and in 1896 it was incorporated as the Norfolk and Western

Saw-scaled Viper

2005-03-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

The saw-scaled viper is irritable and aggressive and commonly hides under stones and in rodent runs. It is sand-coloured or gray,

Military Technology, The ax

2005-03-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

Limitations on the strength of bronze and difficulties in casting and hafting restricted the ax at first to a relatively broad blade mortised into a handle at three points and secured with bindings or rivets. The hafting problem became acute as improvements in armour dictated longer, narrower blades designed primarily for piercing rather than cutting. This

Mocha

2005-03-24T02:24:00.000-08:00

Arabic Al-mukha, also spelled Mokha, or Mukha, town, southwestern Yemen, on the Red Sea and the Tihamah (coastal plain). Yemen's most renowned historic port, it lies at the head of a shallow bay between two headlands, with an unprotected anchorage 1.5 miles (2.5 km) offshore. It was long famous as Arabia's chief coffee-exporting centre; the term mocha and variations of the word have entered European languages as a synonym for the

Frescobaldi, Girolamo

2005-03-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

Italian organist and one of the first great masters of organ composition. He strongly influenced the German Baroque school through the work of his pupils, J.J. Froberger and Franz Tunder. Frescobaldi began his public career as organist at the church of Sta. Maria in Trastevere in Rome, in 1607. He travelled to the Netherlands the

Arrow, Kenneth J.

2005-03-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

In full Kenneth Joseph Arrow American economist known for his contributions to welfare economics and to general economic equilibrium theory. He was cowinner (with Sir John R. Hicks) of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1972. Perhaps his most startling thesis (built on elementary mathematics) was the “impossibility theorem” (or “Arrow's theorem”), which holds that, under certain

Extrinsicism

2005-03-22T03:56:00.000-08:00

In Christian thought, for example, this is illustrated by the tendency

Buys Ballot's Law

2005-03-21T22:57:00.000-08:00

Law of wind direction named for the Dutch meteorologist C.H.D. Buys Ballot, who first stated it in 1857. He derived the law empirically, unaware that it already had been deduced theoretically by the U.S. meteorologist William Ferrel, whose priority Buys Ballot later acknowledged. The law states that in the Northern Hemisphere a person who stands facing away from the wind

Holy Roman Empire

2005-03-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

German Heiliges Römisches Reich , Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium the varying complex of lands in western and central Europe ruled over first by Frankish and then by German kings for 10 centuries, from Charlemagne's coronation in 800 until the renunciation of the imperial title in 1806. (For histories of the territories governed at various times by the empire, see France, history of; Germany, history of;Italy, history of.)

Craig, James

2005-03-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

American ice hockey goaltender who was part of the U.S. hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, U.S. The American victory in the hockey tournament, known as the “miracle on ice,” was one of the greatest surprises in the history of the Olympics, and Craig, who started every game in goal, was a leading figure in the

Taffeta

2005-03-19T03:51:00.000-08:00

Fine, crisp plain-woven fabric with a faint weft, or filling-way, rib due to the greater number of warp threads than filling threads. It frequently has a lustrous surface. There are two distinct types of silk taffeta: yarn-dyed and piece-dyed. Yarn-dyed taffeta has a stiff handle and a rustle known as scroop, or froufrou. It is used for evening dresses and for underskirts for

Murat River

2005-03-18T19:51:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Murad River, Turkish Murat Nehri, river, the major headstream of the Euphrates. In antiquity it was called Arsanias. The river rises north of Lake Van near Mount Ararat, in eastern Turkey, and flows westward for 449 miles (722 km) through a mountainous region to unite with the Karasu Çayi and form the Upper Euphrates near Malatya. Turkey's largest dam, the Keban, west of Elâzig, completed in 1974, is designed to provide electric

Azeglio, Massimo Taparelli, Marquess (marchese) D'

2005-03-17T22:41:00.000-08:00

After spending his youth dedicated to painting

Foreclosure

2005-03-16T23:51:00.000-08:00

Legal proceeding by which a mortgagor's rights to a mortgaged property may be extinguished if the mortgagor (borrower) fails to live up to the obligations agreed to in the mortgage. The mortgagee (the lender) may then declare the entire debt due and owing and may seek to satisfy the debt by foreclosing on the property. Most foreclosures are brought in equity proceedings.

Amanollah Khan

2005-03-16T02:05:00.000-08:00

A favoured son of the Afghan ruler Habibollah Khan, Amanollah took possession of the throne immediately after his father's assassination in 1919, at a time when Great Britain exercised an important influence on Afghan affairs. In his coronation address

Baikonur

2005-03-15T23:44:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Baykonur, Baykonyr, or Bajkonur, also called Tyuratam, or Turatam, former Soviet and current Russian space centre in south-central Kazakstan. Baikonur was a Soviet code name for the centre, but American analysts often called it Tyuratam, after the railroad station at Tyuratam (Leninsk), the nearest large city. Baikonur lies on the north bank of the Syr Darya, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Qyzylorda. The Soviet Union's secretiveness about

Zapopan

2005-03-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

City, north-central Jalisco estado (“state”), west-central Mexico. It is in the temperate Guadalajara Valley, at an elevation of 5,243 feet (1,598 m) above sea level, 4.5 miles (7 km) northwest of Guadalajara, the state capital. It is a commercial and manufacturing centre for the surrounding area that produces grain (principally corn [maize]), sugarcane, cotton, and fruits and vegetables. Livestock

Malaysia, Sabah

2005-03-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

Sabah (North Borneo) was the last region to be brought under British control. In the early 1700s Brunei transferred its claims over much of Sabah to the sultan of Sulu, but, except in the northeast, actual Sulu power remained limited. Occasional resistance to Brunei or Sulu influence, as well as extensive coastal raiding and confusion of suzerainty, invited Western interest

Spalatin, Georg

2005-03-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

As a student Spalatin came in contact with various humanists, and he followed their custom in choosing a last name that reflected his birthplace. In 1505 he joined

China, Reformist and revolutionist movements at the end of the dynasty

2005-03-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

Sun Yat-sen, a commoner with no background of Confucian orthodoxy, educated in Western-style schools in Hawaii and Hong Kong, went to Tientsin in 1894 to meet Li Hung-chang and present a reform program, but he was refused an interview. This event supposedly caused his antidynastic attitude. Soon he went to Hawaii, where he founded an anti-Manchu fraternity called the Hsing-chung

Byblos

2005-03-12T06:33:00.000-08:00

Modern Jubayl , also spelled Jebeil , biblical Gebal ancient seaport, the site of which is located on the Mediterranean coast about 20 miles (32 km) north of the modern city of Beirut, Lebanon; it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world. The name Byblos is Greek; papyrus received its early Greek name (byblos, byblinos) from its being exported to the Aegean through Byblos. Hence the English word Bible is derived

Southampton, William Fitzwilliam, Earl Of

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

A son of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Aldwarke, near Rotherham, Fitzwilliam was a companion in boyhood of Henry VIII and was knighted for his services at the siege of Tournai in 1513. Later he was treasurer of Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey's household and was sent several times to France

Game Theory

2005-03-10T02:11:00.000-08:00

Branch of applied mathematics fashioned to analyze certain situations in which there is an interplay between parties that may have similar, opposed, or mixed interests. In a typical game, decision-making “players,” who each have their own goals, try to outsmart one another by anticipating each other's decisions; the game is finally resolved as a consequence of the players'

Condell, Henry

2005-03-10T01:11:00.000-08:00

Condell may have been acting as early as 1590–91, but he first certainly appeared

Ryder Cup

2005-03-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

The trophy was donated by Samuel Ryder, a British seed merchant, for a biennial golf competition to alternate between British and U.S. venues.

Arnobius The Elder

2005-03-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

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,

Kourouma, Ahmadou

2005-03-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

Kourouma spent his early years in Guinea and attended secondary school in Bamako, Mali, until he was expelled and was drafted into the army by the French. He was sent to Indochina and served in Saigon. Later he continued

Roxana

2005-03-07T23:38:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Roxane wife of Alexander the Great. The daughter of the Bactrian chief Oxyartes, she was captured and married by Alexander in 327, during his conquest of Asia. After Alexander's death (323) she had his second wife, Stateira (Barsine), killed, and she gave birth at Babylon to a son (Alexander IV), who was accepted by the Macedonian generals as joint king with the idiot Philip

Duarte, Juan Pablo

2005-03-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

Duarte, who was sent to Europe for his education (1828–33), became determined to free the eastern part of Hispaniola from Haitian domination. On his return to the island he and several other patriots

Gipp, George

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

Gipp entered Notre Dame on a baseball scholarship, but he was recruited for football by the coach Knute Rockne, who saw Gipp drop-kicking and passing a football on a field adjacent to the practice field. Gipp played

Alexander Of Tralles

2005-03-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

Latin Alexander Trallianus (c. 525–c. 605), Byzantine physician who practiced and taught in Rome, best known for his treatise on pathology and therapy (in 12 books), which served as a basis for instruction long after his death. It was translated into Arabic and Latin (Libri duodecim de re medica) and was printed in Greek, Latin, and Greco-Latin editions throughout the 16th century.

Frederick I

2005-03-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

The younger son of Christian I, king of Denmark and Norway, Frederick divided the duchies of Schleswig (now in Germany and Denmark) and Holstein

Anthony Iii Studite

2005-03-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

A monk of the Studios monastery, Anthony became private secretary to Basil I, patriarch of Constantinople.

Bulgaria, Spread of education

2005-03-02T23:15:00.000-08:00

The spread of education was in fact the centrepiece of the Bulgarian national revival. In 1835 Vasil Aprilov founded a Lancasterian school, based on the monitorial system of instruction, in Gabrovo. With the monk Neofit Rilski (Neophyte of Rila) as its teacher, it was the first school to teach in Bulgarian. Its work was facilitated by the appearance of a Bulgarian publishing

Rockwell International Corporation

2005-03-02T04:21:00.000-08:00

The main company was incorporated in 1928 as North American Aviation, Inc., a holding company for a number of aviation companies, but it switched to aircraft manufacturing when it received a contract

Ben Barka, Mehdi

2005-03-01T21:37:00.000-08:00

Ben Barka, the son of a Moroccan policeman, taught mathematics

Costello, Frank

2005-03-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

Arriving in New York City at the age of four with his immigrant Calabrian parents, Costello grew up in East Harlem and became head of the 104th Street Gang, a group of young Italian hoodlums. In 1915 he went to prison for a year for

Absalom

2005-02-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

The picture of Absalom that is presented in 2 Samuel 13–19 suggests that he was the Alcibiades of the Old Testament, alike in his personal attractiveness, his lawless insolence, and his tragic fate. He is first mentioned as murdering his half brother Amnon, David's eldest son, in revenge for the rape of his

Rhizopod

2005-02-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

Any member of the protozoan superclass Rhizopoda. Three types of pseudopodia (cytoplasmic extensions) used in locomotion and digestion are found in members of this superclass: (1) long, thin reticulopodia, which fuse into a network; (2) nonfusing filopodia, similar to reticulopodia; and (3) blunt and fingerlike lobopodia (the pseudopodia formed by Amoeba). Tests (protective

Ribbon Worm

2005-02-27T21:48:00.000-08:00

Also called Bootlace Worm, Proboscis Worm, Nemertine, or Nemertean, any member of the invertebrate phylum Nemertea (sometimes called Nemertinea, or Rhynchocoela), which includes mainly free-living forms but also a few parasites of crustaceans, mollusks, and sea squirts. The majority of the approximately 900 known nemertean species are found in marine habitats. Some, however, live in freshwater or on land. The name proboscis worm derives

Say, Thomas

2005-02-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

Say accompanied various expeditions in North American territory, including an exploration of the Rocky Mountains led by Stephen

Nebula, Diffuse nebulae (H II regions)

2005-02-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

As noted above, clouds of gas and dust that contain stars hot enough to ionize their hydrogen are called diffuse nebulae, or H II regions. In contrast to dark or reflection nebulae, their spectrum consists of emission lines at various wavelengths characteristic of their ions. Like dark clouds, diffuse nebulae typically have little regular structure or sharp

Peter Martyr, Saint

2005-02-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

Peter's parents were members of the Cathari, and there was some family opposition to Peter's

Mander, Carel Van

2005-02-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

Born of a noble family at Meulebeke,

Performing Arts, France.

2005-02-23T21:16:00.000-08:00

World War II was recalled in several films. In Laissez-passer, his film à clef, Bertrand Tavernier re-created the atmosphere of filmmaking in occupied France. Gérard Jugnot directed and starred in the accomplished Monsieur Batignole, about a Gentile butcher who saves a Jewish boy from the Gestapo. The American documentarist Frederick Wiseman filmed Catherine

Fairfax (of Cameron), Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Baron

2005-02-22T11:02:00.000-08:00

The son of the 1st Baron Fairfax, he was trained as a soldier in the Netherlands. He commanded a foot regiment in the first Bishop's War (1639) but took no part in the campaign

Anderlecht

2005-02-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

A natural clearing in the primitive forest where foundations of a Roman villa and Frankish cemeteries have been found, Anderlecht is believed to be the original site of what is now

Kleiber, Erich

2005-02-21T05:16:00.000-08:00

Kleiber studied in Prague and between 1912 and 1922 conducted at several German opera houses. In 1923 he became general

Nature Worship, Mountains

2005-02-21T03:23:00.000-08:00

Especially prominent mountains are favourite places for cults of high places, particularly when they are isolated as island mountains, mountains with snowcaps, or uninhabited high mountain ranges. The psychological roots of the cults of high places lie in the belief that mountains are close to the sky (as heavenly ladders), that clouds surrounding the mountaintops

Arab Legion

2005-02-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

Arabic Al-jaish Al-'arabi, police force raised in 1921 by British Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Gerard Peake in what was then the British protectorate of Transjordan, to keep order among Transjordanian tribes and to safeguard Transjordanian villagers from Bedouins. In 1939 Major (later General) John Bagot Glubb, called Glubb Pasha, became the legion's commander and transformed it into the most effective

Anderlecht

2005-02-19T02:28:00.000-08:00

Originally based in the Shankill Road area of Belfast, the UDA was responsible for political murders of Roman Catholics and prominent Republicans, though it claimed responsibility for most killings

Frederick Ii

2005-02-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

King of Sicily (1197–1250), duke of Swabia (as Frederick VI, 1228–35), German king (1212–50), and Holy Roman emperor (1220–50). A Hohenstaufen and grandson of Frederick I Barbarossa, he pursued his dynasty's imperial policies against the papacy and the Italian city states; and he also joined in the Sixth Crusade

Liggett Group Inc.

2005-02-17T20:40:00.000-08:00

In 1849 J.E. Liggett and Brother was established in St. Louis, Mo., by John Edmund Liggett (1826–97) as an outgrowth of a family concern dating to 1822. George S. Myers entered the business in 1873, and in 1878 the company was incorporated as Liggett & Myers Company. By 1885 it was the

Akure

2005-02-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Ondo state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies in the southern part of the forested Yoruba Hills and at the intersection of roads from Ondo, Ilesha, Ado-Ekiti, and Owo. Akure is an agricultural trade centre for the yams, cassava, corn (maize), bananas, rice, palm oil and kernels, okra, and pumpkins grown by the Ondo branch of the Yoruba people. Although cocoa is by far

Malachi, The Book Of

2005-02-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

The book consists of six distinct sections, each in the form of a question-and-answer discussion. With the aid of this unusual discussion technique,

Euler-chelpin, Hans Von

2005-02-15T19:01:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the University of Berlin (1895), Euler-Chelpin worked with Walther Nernst and in 1897 became assistant to Svante Arrhenius at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Hinton (of Bankside), Christopher Hinton, Baron

2005-02-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

Hinton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (1923–26), and in the late 1920s and the 1930s he held various governmental posts. He joined

Tea

2005-02-14T00:32:00.000-08:00

Beverage produced by steeping in freshly boiled water the young leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. Two principal varieties are used, the small-leaved China plant (C. sinensis sinensis) and the large-leaved Assam plant (C. sinensis assamica). Hybrids of these two varieties are also grown. The leaves may be fermented or left unfermented.

France, History Of, John the Good

2005-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

John II the Good (ruled 1350–64) succeeded to a weakened authority and kingdom; he was a mediocrity whose suspicions and impetuosity were ill suited to the changed circumstances. John hoped to rally baronial loyalties to himself. But he failed to reconcile Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, whose strong dynastic claim to the throne (he was the grandson of Louis X) was matched by

Alamogordo

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

City, seat (1899) of Otero county, southern New Mexico, U.S. It lies at the western base of the Sacramento Mountains and east of the Tularosa Basin. Founded by John A. and Charles B. Eddy in 1898 and named for its large cottonwood trees (Spanish: alamo “cottonwood,” gordo “fat”), it became a division point on the Southern Pacific Railroad and developed as a lumber town and agricultural-market

East Greenland Current

2005-02-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

Cold flow of water originating in the Arctic Ocean and flowing southward and southwestward along the east coast of Greenland. See Greenland Current.

Hippo

2005-02-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hippo, later called Hippo Regius, located near the modern town of Annaba (formerly Bône) in Algeria, was probably first settled by Carthaginians in the 4th century BC. It later became the home of Numidian rulers. Under Roman control it was first made a municipium (a community that exercised partial rights of Roman citizenship)

Tar-baby

2005-02-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

In Harris' version,

Anderson, Elda Emma

2005-02-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Anderson's affinity for numbers and her general intellectual gifts were apparent from girlhood. After graduating from Ripon College (B.S., 1922) in Ripon, Wisconsin, she earned (1924) a master's degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin. Her

Holcroft, Thomas

2005-02-09T13:09:00.000-08:00

The son of a peddler, Holcroft worked as a stableboy, cobbler, and teacher before he was able to make his living as a writer. He is remembered for his melodrama The Road to Ruin (performed 1792, often revived); his translation of Beaumarchais's play Le Mariage de Figaro (Paris, 1784) under the title The Follies

Kléber, Jean-baptiste

2005-02-08T05:57:00.000-08:00

The son of a mason, Kléber was an officer in the Austrian army from 1776 to 1782. He was an architect for a time in Paris, and, in

Henri, Robert

2005-02-07T04:45:00.000-08:00

Henri studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, from 1884 to 1888, and at both the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Upon

Alaska, Cultural life

2005-02-07T02:14:00.000-08:00

Alaska's past, including the arts and crafts of its native peoples, is a major influence in Alaskan culture. Juneau is the site of the state's historical library and state museum. The university has a large museum, as do other communities, including Sitka, Haines, Valdez, and Nome. Eminent Alaskan artists have included both whites and Eskimos. Native ivory and wood carvings

Termini Imerese

2005-02-06T23:19:00.000-08:00

Latin Thermae Himerenses, town, Palermo province, northern Sicily, Italy, on the Golfo (gulf) di Termini Imerese (an inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea), southeast of Palermo city. It was possibly a Phoenician seaport or trading station, and its well-known thermal saline springs were praised by the 6th–5th-century BC Greek poet Pindar. The Carthaginians called it Thermae Himerenses after their destruction

Alaska Range

2005-02-05T01:50:00.000-08:00

Segment of the Pacific Coast Ranges that extends generally northward and eastward in an arc for about 400 miles (640 km) from the Aleutian Range to the Yukon boundary in southern Alaska, U.S. Mount McKinley (20,320 feet [6,194 m]), near the centre of the range, in Denali National Park, is the highest point in North America. Many nearby peaks exceed 13,000 feet (3,960 m), including Mounts Silverthrone, Hunter, Hayes,

East China Sea

2005-02-05T01:18:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Tung Hai, or (Pinyin) Dong Hai, arm of the Pacific Ocean bordering the East Asian mainland and extending northeastward from the South China Sea, to which it is connected by the shallow Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and mainland China. The East China Sea and the South China Sea together form the China Sea. The East China Sea extends to the east to the chain of the Ryukyu Islands; north to Kyushu, which

Felltham, Owen

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

Felltham wrote the first edition of Resolves (1623), which contained 100 essays, when he was 18. The second edition, Resolves, a Second Centurie, published in 1628, contained

Kuching

2005-02-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

Town, capital and chief port of Sarawak, East Malaysia, on northwestern Borneo. The town was founded in 1839 by James (later Sir James) Brooke, who became ruler of Sarawak with the title of raja. He built the town's first European-style house on the jungled southern bank of the muddy, crocodile-infested Sarawak River, 15 miles (24 km) from the South China Sea. Now a busy administrative

Interior Design, Lighting

2005-02-02T17:46:00.000-08:00

Light is one of the key elements of interior design. Most interior spaces constructed in the 20th century are used as much with artificial light as with daylight; because of this lighting has become a very significant tool for the interior designer. There are three major aspects to lighting: function, aesthetics, and health. The latter factor is often ignored, but insufficient

Robber Crab

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

The crab uses two large chelae, or pincers, to pound or chip open coconuts—the soft, white

Utilitarianism

2005-01-31T18:43:00.000-08:00

In normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness—not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it. Such a theory

Wiesenthal, Simon

2005-01-31T16:28:00.000-08:00

Wiesenthal received a degree in architectural engineering from the Technical University of Prague

Alaska, Education

2005-01-31T08:50:00.000-08:00

Education is compulsory through the eighth grade or until age 16 and is administered by a state board and a commissioner of education. Correspondence study is available for high school work through the State Department of Education. There are several federal schools on military bases. The University of Alaska, founded as a land-grant institution in 1917, operates campuses

Guadiana River

2005-01-30T02:04:00.000-08:00

Arabic Wadi Ana, Portuguese Rio Guadiana, Spanish Río Guadiana, one of the longest streams of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing generally westward through south-central Spain and southeastern Portugal to the Gulf of Cádiz in the Atlantic Ocean. The river has a drainage area of 23,455 square miles (60,748 square km), a length of 483 miles (778 km), and about 30 major tributaries. Its flow is relatively meagre—only about half that of the Tagus or the Douro—because

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand

2005-01-29T16:55:00.000-08:00

Gandhi was the youngest child of his father's fourth wife. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, who was the dewan (chief

Plowright, Joan

2005-01-29T11:41:00.000-08:00

Plowright received her dramatic training at the Laban Art of Movement Studio in Manchester and at the Old Vic Theatre School in London. She made her first appearances on stage in 1951, played with an Old Vic touring company in South Africa in 1952, and made her debut in London in The Duenna in 1954. She continued

Native American, Population and languages

2005-01-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

Estimates of the aboriginal population are based on information supplied by explorers, traders, missionaries, and other early reporters and are only as good as the reporters' observations were trustworthy. A more serious impediment to an accurate count is that some tribes, by the time they were encountered by the reporting traveler, had already been depopulated

Madagascar

2005-01-27T04:54:00.000-08:00

In spite of Madagascar's proximity to the

Wambaugh, Sarah

2005-01-27T02:35:00.000-08:00

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

France, History Of, Kingship

2005-01-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

Kingship was the basic institution in the Merovingian kingdom. Since Clovis' reign, the power of the king had extended not only over a tribe or tribes but also over a territory inhabited by Germans of divergent backgrounds and by Gallo-Romans as well. The king exercised power with legal limitations, which, when violated, led to efforts to reestablish political equilibrium

Cohn, Ferdinand (julius)

2005-01-25T13:41:00.000-08:00

Cohn was born in the ghetto of Breslau, the first of three sons of a Jewish merchant. His father spared no effort in the education of his precocious oldest child, and Ferdinand retained a melancholy

Europop

2005-01-25T01:09:00.000-08:00

The first major Europop hit is generally considered Los Bravos' “Black