BadBrick

Norris, George W.

2005-04-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

Largely self-educated, Norris taught school and studied law at Northern Indiana Normal School (now Valparaiso University). He was admitted to the bar in 1883 and two years later moved to Nebraska to begin practice. In 1902 he was

Insurance, Property covered

2005-04-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

Homeowner's forms are written to cover damage to or loss of not only an owner's dwelling but also structures (such as garages and fences), trees and shrubs, personal property (excluding certain listed items), property away from the premises (such as boats), money and securities (subject to dollar limits), and losses due to forgery. They also cover removal of debris following

China, Central government

2005-04-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

In its early form the Ming central government was dominated by a unitary Secretariat. The senior executive official of the Secretariat served the emperor as a chief counselor, or prime minister. Suspected treason on the part of the chief counselor Hu Wei-yung in 1380 caused the Hung-wu emperor to abolish all executive posts in the Secretariat, thus fragmenting general

Saidpur

2005-04-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

Town, northwestern Bangladesh. A jute-processing and export centre, it is a major railway terminus containing large railway workshops. It has a college affiliated with the University of Rajshahi. Pop. (1981 prelim.) 128,085.

Vries, Adriaen De

2005-04-02T00:43:00.000-08:00

De Vries left his homeland, where there was little interest in sculpture at the time, and he never returned. In Florence he studied under Giambologna, the leading Italian Mannerist sculptor of his day. De Vries lived for a time in Rome and later worked for Charles Emmanuel, duke of Savoy, and as court sculptor

Bone Disease

2005-04-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

Bone diseases and injuries were formerly

Biblical Literature, The succession of Solomon to the throne

2005-03-31T15:51:00.000-08:00

I Kings (chapters 1 and 2) continues the story of David and the struggle for the succession of his throne. The sides were drawn between Adonijah, David's eldest living son, and Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba. Supporting Adonijah were the “old guard”—the general Joab and the priest Abiathar—and supporting Solomon were the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and the captain

Kediri

2005-03-31T03:44:00.000-08:00

Ancient Kadiri city, Jawa Timur provinsi (“province”), eastern Java, Indonesia. It is situated on the Brantas River, at the foot of Mount Wilis, 65 miles (105 km) southwest of Surabaya. It is the centre of a sugar industry and of trade in such agricultural products as coffee, tobacco, rice, and cassava. The city's light manufacturing includes textile and lumber mills and machine shops. The surrounding

Carlos De Austria

2005-03-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

Don Carlos spent his first years at Alcalá de Henares with his

China, Major cultures and sites

2005-03-29T21:39:00.000-08:00

There was not one Chinese Neolithic but a mosaic of regional cultures whose scope and significance are still being determined. Their location in the area defined today as China does not necessarily mean that all the Neolithic cultures were Chinese or even proto-Chinese. Their contributions to the Bronze Age civilization of the Shang, which may be taken as unmistakably

Peredvizhniki

2005-03-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

(Russian: The Wanderers), group of Russian painters who in the second half of the 19th century rejected the restrictive and foreign-inspired classicism of the Russian Academy to form a new realist and nationalist art that would serve the common man. Believing that art should be useful, a vehicle for expressing humanitarian and social ideals, they produced realistic

Feng Kuei-fen

2005-03-28T03:37:00.000-08:00

A native of South China, Feng came into frequent contact with Westerners

Athens

2005-03-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

City, seat of McMinn county, southeastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies in the Tennessee River valley, between the Great Smoky Mountains (east) and the Cumberland Plateau (west), about 55 miles (90 km) southwest of Knoxville. It was founded in 1821 as a seat of justice, and the courts were moved there in 1823 from a temporary courthouse that had been erected at nearby Calhoun. It was named for the city

Ku Yen-wu

2005-03-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Gu Yanwu one of the most famous of the Ming dynasty loyalists, whose rationalist critiques of the useless book learning and metaphysical speculations of the neo-Confucian philosophy (that had been the underpinning of the Chinese empire for almost 1,000 years) started a new trend in scholarship during the Ch'ing

Computers, The first stored-program machines

2005-03-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

But engineers in Britain beat the Americans to the goal of building the first stored-program digital computer. At the University of Manchester, Maxwell H.A. Newman, Thomas Kilburn, and Frederic C. Williams built a simple stored-program computer, known as the Manchester Mark I, in 1949. (See the photograph.) Among its innovations was Williams's invention of a way to store information

Tarascon

2005-03-24T20:36:00.000-08:00

Town, Bouches-du-Rhône département, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, southeastern France, east of Nîmes. Situated on the left bank of the Rhône opposite Beaucaire, the town is associated with a legendary monster, La Tarasque, which was said to have ravaged the region until it was tamed by St. Marthe. Since the late 19th century it has also been associated with the mock-heroic

Port Hawkesbury

2005-03-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

Town, Inverness county, northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It lies along the Strait of Canso, at the southern end of Cape Breton Island, 36 miles (58 km) east of Antigonish. Originally called Ship Harbour, the town was renamed in 1860, possibly for Charles Jenkinson, Baron Hawkesbury (1729–1808). It was a transportation hub, serving as the island terminus for the rail and highway ferries to the

North Africa, History Of, Carthaginian supremacy

2005-03-24T03:27:00.000-08:00

By the 5th century BC, active military participation by Tyre in the west had doubtlessly ceased; from the latter half of the 6th century Tyre was under Persian rule. Carthage thus became the leader of the western Phoenicians and in the 5th century formed an empire of its own, centred on North Africa, which included existing Phoenician settlements, new ones founded by Carthage

Aegis

2005-03-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Egis, plural Aegises, or Egises, in ancient Greece, leather cloak or breastplate generally associated with Zeus, the king of the gods, and thus thought to possess supernatural power. Zeus's daughter Athena adopted the aegis for ordinary dress. Occasionally, another god used it—e.g., Apollo in the Iliad, where it provoked terror. As early as Homer the aegis was more than an ordinary goatskin cloak, for it

Coruña, La

2005-03-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

Also called Corunna , French La Corogne , formerly The Groyne city, capital of La Coruña province, in the autonomous community (region) of Galicia. It lies in extreme northwestern Spain, on Ría de la Coruña, an inlet of the Atlantic. Under the Romans, La Coruña was the port of Brigantium, but its present name is probably derived from Coronium, by which it was known in the Middle Ages. It was held by the Moors during the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries,

Nepal, Climate

2005-03-22T06:12:00.000-08:00

Nepal's climate, influenced by elevation as well as by its location in a subtropical latitude, ranges from subtropical monsoon conditions in the Tarai, through a warm temperate climate between 4,000 and 7,000 feet in the mid-mountain region, to cool temperate conditions in the higher parts of mountains between 7,000 and 11,000 feet, to an Alpine climate at altitudes between 14,000 and 16,000 feet along

Philby, H. Saint John

2005-03-21T14:08:00.000-08:00

Philby was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined the Indian Civil Service in 1907. In 1917, as political officer of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary force, he was dispatched on a diplomatic

Cartwright, Sir Richard John

2005-03-20T05:08:00.000-08:00

Already a successful businessman, Cartwright was elected to the Parliament of the united province of Canada as an independent Conservative

Zhou Yang

2005-03-20T00:54:00.000-08:00

Zhou joined the Chinese Communist Party soon after the failure of the revolution in 1927. A graduate of Ta-hsia University in Shanghai in 1928, he went to Japan for advanced study in 1929. Upon returning to China in 1931 he became one of the leaders

Ancient Lights

2005-03-19T22:31:00.000-08:00

In English property law, the right of a building or house owner to the light received from and through his windows. Windows used for light by an owner for 20 years or more could not be obstructed by the erection of an edifice or by any other act by an adjacent landowner. This rule of law originated in England in 1663, based on the theory that a landowner acquired an easement to the

Vanbrugh, Sir John

2005-03-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

Vanbrugh's grandfather was a Flemish merchant, and his father was a sugar baker in Chester, Cheshire, England, where the young Vanbrugh (by tradition)

Itata And Baltimore Incidents

2005-03-19T00:59:00.000-08:00

The civil war was precipitated by a conflict between the Chilean Congress and President José Manuel Balmaceda, in which the navy supported the insurgent Congress and the army backed the president. The U.S. government

Razor

2005-03-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

Keen-edged cutting implement for shaving or cutting hair. Prehistoric cave drawings show that clam shells, shark's teeth, and sharpened flints were used as shaving implements, and flints are still in use by certain primitive tribes. Solid gold and copper razors have been found in Egyptian tombs of the 4th millennium BC. According to the Roman historian Livy, the razor

Ear, Human, Detection of angular acceleration: dynamic equilibrium

2005-03-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

Because the three semicircular canals—superior, posterior, and horizontal—are positioned at right angles to one another, they are able to detect movements in three-dimensional space (see Anatomy of the human ear: Inner ear: Semicircular canals). When the head begins to rotate in any direction, the inertia of the endolymph causes it to lag behind, exerting pressure that

Toponymy

2005-03-17T05:44:00.000-08:00

Taxonomic study of place-names, based on etymological, historical, and geographical information. A place-name is a word or words used to indicate, denote, or identify a geographic locality such as a town, river, or mountain. Toponymy divides place-names into two broad categories: habitation names and feature names. A habitation name denotes a locality that is peopled

Chile, The War of the Pacific (187983)

2005-03-17T02:59:00.000-08:00

The need to improve its balance of payments attracted Chile to saltpetre mines situated along the Chilean border in the Bolivian province of Antofagasta and in the Peruvian provinces of Tarapacá and Arica. Ill-defined borders and oppressive measures allegedly taken against the Chilean migrant population in these territories furnished Chile with a pretext

Gaddi, Agnolo

2005-03-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

In 1369 he was employed in Rome as an assistant to his brother Giovanni, a minor painter, in the execution of frescoes for

China, Communist-Nationalist cooperation

2005-03-15T23:04:00.000-08:00

By then, however, the CCP was in serious difficulty. The railway unions had been brutally suppressed, and there were few places in China where it was safe to be a known Communist. In June 1923 the Third Congress of the CCP met in Canton, where Sun Yat-sen provided a sanctuary. After long debate this congress accepted the Comintern strategy pressed by Maring—that Communists

Latin-faliscan Languages

2005-03-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

Language group proposed by some scholars to be included in the Italic branch of Indo-European languages. The group includes Latin, which emanated from Rome, and Faliscan, spoken in the Falerii district in southeastern Etruria. Closely related to Latin, Faliscan is known from a few short inscriptions written in the Etruscan alphabet. The other subdivision of Italic

Iberville

2005-03-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

Town, Montérégie region, southern Quebec province, Canada, on the east bank of the Richelieu River, opposite Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Originally called Christieville, it was renamed in 1854 for the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. The town is a rail and highway hub and a residential district of Saint-Jean. Economic activities include woodworking, dairying,

Sunburn

2005-03-14T00:52:00.000-08:00

Acute cutaneous inflammation caused by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation of the so-called UVB wavelength band (290–320 nanometre; a nanometre is 10-9 metre), which originates from sunlight or artificial sources. Reactions to overexposure range in severity from mild redness and tenderness to intense pain, edema (swelling), and blistering; systemic symptoms include

Yüeh

2005-03-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Yue, aboriginal people of South China who in the 5th–4th century BC formed a powerful kingdom in present-day Chekiang and Fukien provinces. The name Vietnam means “south of the Yüeh,” and some Chinese scholars consider the Vietnamese to be descendants of the Yüeh.

Russell, Bertrand

2005-03-13T03:53:00.000-08:00

In full Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell of Kingston Russell, Viscount Amberley of Amberley and of Ardsalla English logician and philosopher, best known for his work in mathematical logic and for his social and political campaigns, including his advocacy of both pacifism and nuclear disarmament. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

Alkali Feldspar

2005-03-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

Any of several common silicate minerals that often occur as variously coloured, glassy crystals. They are used in the manufacture of glass and ceramics; transparent, highly coloured, or iridescent varieties are sometimes used as gemstones. The alkali feldspars are primarily important as constituents of rocks; they are very widespread and abundant in alkali and

Media Voices Of The Muslim World

2005-03-12T05:23:00.000-08:00

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the military actions against Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the operation, and the Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan who had harboured him, brought increased visibility and international attention to the news media in the Middle East and Central Asia. This was especially true of the satellite television network Al-Jazeera,

Trichophyton

2005-03-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

A genus of fungi (division Mycota) that infects the skin, hair, and nails of man and other animals. It is one of several causes of athlete's foot, jockstrap itch, and other ringworm (q.v.) infections in man. T. verrucosum causes ringworm in cattle. Although worldwide in distribution, some species apparently are more abundant in some areas than in others. T. schoenleini, for example,

John

2005-03-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

John began his public career in 1505 as a member of the Diet of Rákos; it was upon his motion that the Diet voted that no foreign prince would ever again be elected king of Hungary after the death of King Ulászló II, who also

Sa'adia Ben Joseph

2005-03-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Sa'adia's early years. When he departed from Egypt, at the age of about 23, he left behind, besides his wife and two sons, a distinguished group of devoted students. By that time he had already composed a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary, later expanded and issued under the name ha-Egron. For unknown reasons he migrated to Palestine. There he found a growing community

Baseball

2005-03-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

Both Alfred H. Spink's The National Game (1910) and A.G. Spalding's America's National Game (1911), generally regarded as the first attempts at writing a standard history of baseball, cite Casey at the Bat as the best baseball poem ever written. Spalding goes so far as to proclaim that “Love has its sonnets galore; War its epics in heroic verse; Tragedy its sombre story in measured line;

Eisenerz

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

Town, Bundesland Steiermark (federal province of Styria), Austria, in the Erzbach Valley, at the northern foot of the Erzberg (Ore Mountain; 5,033 ft [1,534 m]), northwest of Leoben. Iron has been mined on the Erzberg by terraced open-pit methods since Roman times, and Eisenerz (“iron ore”) is the principal centre of Austrian iron mining, supplying most of the nation's total output. Notable

Kaziranga National Park

2005-03-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

National park in Sibsagar district, Assam state, northeastern India, situated on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra River, 60 mi (97 km) west of Jorhat on the main road to Gauhati. Established in 1908 as a game reserve, it became a national park in 1974. It has an area of 165 sq mi (430 sq km) and lies between the Brahmaputra River and the Mikir Hills. Much of the park is marshland interspersed with large

Silica

2005-03-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

Also called Silicon Dioxide, compound of the two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, silicon and oxygen, SiO2. The mass of the Earth's crust is 59 percent silica, the main constituent of more than 95 percent of the known rocks. Silica has three main crystalline varieties: quartz (by far the most abundant), tridymite, and cristobalite. Other varieties include coesite, keatite, and lechatelierite. Silica

Earth, The contribution of orbiting satellites

2005-03-08T05:34:00.000-08:00

The development of artificial satellites whose orbits could be observed from Earth totally revolutionized man's ability to define the shape of the Earth and its gravity field. A value for the flattening of the ellipsoid that superseded all previous values was obtained within weeks after the launching of the Soviet Sputnik I in 1957. Since that time, scientists have

Arts, Central Asian, Sculpture and painting

2005-03-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

Combinations of Hindu and Buddhist iconography came about easily, though there is something facile about them, a smoothness found also in the form of the Nepalese images, which lack the surging dynamism of Indian form. Characteristic of the Nepalese transformation of Indian styles is a loss of depth but a gain in grace. Suavity of line, temperance of modelling, tonal

Shadkhan

2005-03-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

Plural Shadkhanim, one who undertakes to arrange a Jewish marriage. Such service was virtually indispensible during the Middle Ages when custom frowned on courtships and numerous Jewish families lived in semi-isolation in small communities. Shadkhanim were thus relied upon to gather and evaluate information on the personal qualities and background of potential spouses in

Adams, John

2005-03-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

In 1784 Jefferson arrived in Paris to replace Franklin as the American minister at the French court. Over the next few months, Jefferson became an unofficial member of the Adams family, and the bond of friendship between Adams and Jefferson was sealed, a lifelong partnership and rivalry that made the combative New Englander and the elegant Virginian the odd couple of the American Revolution. Jefferson also visited the Adams family in England in 1785, after Adams had assumed his new post as American ambassador in London. The two men also joined forces, though Adams as the senior figure assumed the lead, in negotiating a $400,000 loan from Dutch bankers that allowed the American government to consolidate its European debts.

T'ao-yüan

2005-03-06T04:07:00.000-08:00

Hsien (county), northern Taiwan, with an area of 471 sq mi (1,221 sq km). It is bordered by the hsiens of T'ai-pei (north), I-lan (east), and Hsin-chu (south) and by the Taiwan Strait (west). Ranges of the Hsüeh-shan Shan-mo (mountain range) extend over most of the southeastern part of the county and gradually merge with the fertile alluvial coastal plains to the northwest where paddy rice, sweet potatoes,

Don Pacifico Affair

2005-03-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

David Pacifico (known as Don Pacifico) was a Portuguese Jew who, having been born in Gibraltar in 1784, was a British subject. After serving as Portuguese consul in Morocco (1835–37) and then as consul-general in Greece, he settled in Athens as a merchant. In

Blood River, Battle Of

2005-03-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

(Dec. 16, 1838), South African battle between the Zulu and the Voortrekkers (the Boers who made the Great Trek from Cape Colony to Transvaal). It was fought on the banks of a tributary of the Buffalo River, which became known as Blood River after its water reddened with the slaughter of about 3,000 Zulu. Four Boers were wounded. This battle turned Voortrekker fortunes in Natal, at a low ebb

Abadan

2005-03-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Arabic 'Abbadan city, extreme southwestern Iran. The city is situated in Khuzestan, part of the oil-producing region of Iran. Abadan lies on an island of the same name along the eastern bank of the Shatt Al-'Arab (river), 33 miles (53 km) from the Persian Gulf. The city thus lies along Iran's border with Iraq. Abadan Island is bounded on the west by the Shatt Al-'Arab and on the east by the Bahmanshir, which is an outlet

West Chester University Of Pennsylvania

2005-03-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

Public, coeducational institution of higher learning in West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is part of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education. The university comprises the College of Arts and Sciences and schools of Education, Health Sciences, Music, and Business and Public Affairs. In addition to undergraduate studies, West Chester offers some 70 master's

Udhampur

2005-03-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

Town in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state, situated at an elevation of 2,500 feet (760 m). It is named for Udham Singh, eldest son of Gulab Singh, the founder and ruler of the Jammu and Kashmir state. Situated on the Pathankot-Uri national highway connecting Srinagar via Udhampur to the rest of India, Udhampur town is an important military cantonment in northern India. Krimchi,

Cataract

2005-03-02T21:40:00.000-08:00

A waterfall (q.v.), especially one containing great volumes of water rushing over a precipice.

Tracheophyte

2005-03-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

Any of the vascular plants, members of the division, or phylum, Tracheophyta, numbering some 260,000 species and including all of the conspicuous flora of the Earth today. Tracheophyte, meaning “tracheid plant,” refers to the water-conducting cells (called tracheids, or tracheary elements) that show spiral bands like those in the walls of the tracheae, or air tubes, of

Booth, Catherine

2005-03-01T20:24:00.000-08:00

Her father was a carriage builder and sometime Methodist lay preacher, her mother a deeply religious woman of Puritan type. Catherine, in adolescence an invalid, was educated principally at home,

Peregrine Falcon

2005-03-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

Bluish gray above with underparts white to yellowish with black barring, peregrines range from about 33 to 48 centimetres (13 to 19 inches) long. They are strong and fast. They fly high and dive at tremendous speeds, striking

Leaf Miner

2005-03-01T01:17:00.000-08:00

Most leaf-miner burrows or tunnels are either thin, winding, whitish trails or broad, whitish or brownish blotches.

Korfanty, Wojciech

2005-02-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

The son of a miner, Korfanty became a journalist and a member of the secret nationalist society “Z,” which resisted Germany's attempt to Germanize

Scab

2005-02-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

In pathology, secondary skin lesion composed of dried serum, blood, or pus. See wound.

Andrade, Mário Pinto De

2005-02-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

While studying classical philology at the University of Lisbon, Andrade, with Agostinho Neto and Amilcar Cabral, formed the Centre for African Studies. He then attended the Sorbonne in Paris, wrote anticolonialist poetry, and was an editor of Présence Africaine (1955–58). Beginning in 1956 he worked

Smibert, John

2005-02-26T05:53:00.000-08:00

Smibert was apprenticed to a house painter in Edinburgh and in 1709 went to London. In 1713 he studied at London's Great Queen Street's Academy, which was run by Sir Godfrey Kneller, whose late-Baroque style would

Caucasian Languages, Georgian

2005-02-26T04:19:00.000-08:00

Georgian (self-designation: kartuli ena), used as the language of literature and instruction, is the state language of the Republic of Georgia. It is common to all speakers of the Kartvelian languages within Georgia. Beyond the borders of Georgia, Georgian is spoken in the adjacent regions of Azerbaijan and northeastern Turkey. There are also 14 villages of Georgian

Photography, Portraiture

2005-02-25T22:59:00.000-08:00

A new style of portrait, introduced in Paris by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in 1854, was universally popular from 1859 onward. It came to be called the carte de visite because the size of the mounted photograph (four by 2 1/2 inches) corresponded to that of a calling card. Disdéri used a four-lens camera to produce eight negatives on a single glass plate. Each picture could be separately

Water Beetle

2005-02-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Any of several thousand species of aquatic beetles (order Coleoptera), including members of the families Haliplidae (crawling water beetles), Amphizoidae (trout-stream beetles), Hygrobiidae (screech beetles), Gyrinidae (whirligig beetles), Noteridae (burrowing water beetles), Hydrophilidae (water scavenger beetles), Dryopidae (long-toed water beetles), and Dytiscidae

Klammer, Franz

2005-02-25T03:39:00.000-08:00

Winner of eight of the nine downhill races on the World Cup tour in 1975, Klammer was the favourite at the 1976 Olympics but faced stiff competition from defending

Abia

2005-02-24T08:19:00.000-08:00

State, east-central Nigeria. Abia was administratively created in 1991 from the eastern half of former Imo state. It is bordered by the states of Enugu to the north, Cross River and Akwa Ibom to the east, Rivers to the south, and Imo and Anambra to the west. Abia includes areas of oil-palm bush and tropical rain forest in its southern part and woodland savanna in its hilly north.

Insurance, Liability law

2005-02-23T23:17:00.000-08:00

Legal liability exists when an individual commits a legal injury that wrongly encroaches on another person's rights. Such injuries include slander, assault, and negligent

Aurichalcite

2005-02-23T05:07:00.000-08:00

A mineral composed of the hydroxide carbonate of zinc and copper (Zn, Cu)5(OH)6(CO3)2. It is commonly found with malachite in the oxidized zone of zinc and copper deposits as at Tomsk, Siberia; Santander, Spain; and Bisbee, Ariz., U.S. Its pale blue-green featherlike form distinguishes it from malachite; and, because it is a weathered product of zinc-rich ores, it can serve as a guide to

Amalienborg

2005-02-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

Architectural complex in Copenhagen, Den., built during the reign (1746–66) of King Frederick V and comprising the four buildings of the Amalienborg royal palace and the octagonal courtyard surrounded by them. The complex was designed and constructed by the Danish architect Nicolai Eigtved, who also designed numerous other buildings in the surrounding district. At the

Laterite

2005-02-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

Soil layer that is rich in iron oxide and derived from a wide variety of rocks weathering under strongly oxidizing and leaching conditions. It forms in tropical and subtropical regions where the climate is humid. Lateritic soils may contain clay minerals; but they tend to be silica-poor, for silica is leached out by waters passing through the soil. Typical laterite

Abstraction-création

2005-02-21T05:43:00.000-08:00

The immediate predecessor of the Abstraction-Création group was the Cercle et Carré (“Circle and Square”) group, founded by Michel Seuphor and Joaquin Torres-Garcia in 1930. Artists Georges Vantongerloo, Jean Hélion, and Auguste Herbin worked together

Walid, Al-

2005-02-21T00:54:00.000-08:00

Al-Walid, the eldest son of the caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, was fervently orthodox in his religious views, and he had a great interest in architecture. As caliph, he confiscated the Christian Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Damascus

Claparède, édouard

2005-02-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

Psychologist who conducted exploratory research in the fields of child psychology, educational psychology, concept formation, problem solving, and sleep. One of the most influential European exponents of the functionalist school of psychology, he is particularly remembered for his formulation of the law of momentary interest, a fundamental

Marquesas Islands

2005-02-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

French Îles Marquises, pair of volcanic clusters in French Polynesia in the central South Pacific, 740 mi (1,200 km) northeast of Tahiti. The southeastern group includes Hiva Oa (q.v.), largest and most populated and the burial place of the French artist Paul Gauguin; Fatu Hiva and Tahuata, each about 23 sq mi (60 sq km) and both rising to about 3,300 ft (1,005 m); and the uninhabited Motane and Fatu Huku. The northwestern group

Sufetula

2005-02-19T02:34:00.000-08:00

At Sufetula, as elsewhere in the interior of Tunisia, Roman skill in the conservation

Jubayl, Al-

2005-02-19T00:54:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Jubail, also called Jubail Industrial City, port city, eastern Saudi Arabia, on the Persian Gulf north of az-Zahran, near the 'Abd al-'Aziz naval base. In the early 1970s the Saudi government chose al-Jubayl, an ancient fishing and pearling village, to be the site of a major industrial complex. Its location on the Persian Gulf would yield an ample water supply for cooling the large industrial plants and would also promote ease

Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle

2005-02-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

(TCA cycle), also called Krebs cycle and citric acid cycle, the second stage of cellular respiration, the three-stage process by which living cells break down organic fuel molecules in the presence of oxygen to harvest the energy they need to grow and divide. This metabolic process occurs in most plants, animals, fungi, and many bacteria. In all organisms except bacteria the TCA cycle is carried out in the matrix of intracellular

Minden

2005-02-17T22:39:00.000-08:00

City, North Rhine–Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. It lies along the Weser River, near a narrow defile known as the Porta Westfalica where the river quits the mountains and enters the North German Plain. The emperor Charlemagne organized a military bishopric there in 800. The town struggled for independence from the bishopric, joined the Hanseatic League

Blueberry

2005-02-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

Blueberries grow only in highly acidic and well-drained but moist soils. About 36,000 acres (14,500 hectares) of the high-bush blueberry

John Hyrcanus Ii

2005-02-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

When his father, Alexander Jannaeus, died in 76, Hyrcanus was appointed high

Ribbon Seal

2005-02-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

(Histriophoca fasciata), earless seal of the family Phocidae found in the North Pacific and the Bering Sea. The male, growing to about 1.7 m (5.6 feet) in length and 95 kg (210 pounds) in weight, is dark brown with broad, yellowish, ribbonlike markings. The smaller female and the young are paler, and the bands are less conspicuous. The ribbon seal lives alone or in small groups and feeds on fish,

Abduction

2005-02-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

In law, the carrying away of any female for purposes of concubinage or prostitution. The taking of a girl under a designated age for purposes of marriage is in most jurisdictions also included in the crime of abduction. Abduction is generally regarded as a form of kidnapping (q.v.).

Field Artillery

2005-02-15T06:28:00.000-08:00

Any large-calibre, crew-operated, mounted firearm designed for easy movement in the field. See artillery.

Ribbon Seal

2005-02-15T01:13:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1912–2001) International Amateur Athletic Federation track-and-field organization of national associations of more than 160 countries. It was founded as the International Amateur Athletic Association at Stockholm in 1912. In 1936 the IAAF took over regulation of women's international track-and-field competition from the Fédération Sportive Féminine International, which had been founded in 1921. The major aims of the IAAF are to

Spandrel

2005-02-14T04:42:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Spandril, the roughly triangular area above and on either side of an arch, bounded by a line running horizontally through the apex of the arch, a line rising vertically from the springing of the arch, and the curved extrados, or top of the arch. When arches adjoin, the entire area between their crowns and springing line is a spandrel. If it is filled in, as is ordinarily the case, the

Gully, John

2005-02-13T22:13:00.000-08:00

In 1805, having failed as a butcher, Gully was in prison for his debts when he was visited by his Bristol pugilist friend Henry Pearce, “the Game Chicken.” As the result of an informal bout between them in jail, Gully's

Zacatecas

2005-02-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Zacatecas estado (“state”), north-central Mexico. It lies in a deep, narrow ravine, 8,189 feet (2,496 m) above sea level. Founded in 1548 (by Juan de Tolosa, Cristóbal de Oñate, Diego de Ibarra, and Baltasar Tremiño), two years after silver was discovered in the area, it was given city status in 1585. The name means “place where zacate grass grows.” Until the 19th century, the mines around Zacatecas

World War Ii, Iraq and Syria, 194041

2005-02-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

In 1940 Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, regent of Iraq for King Faysal, had a government divided within itself about the war; he himself and his foreign minister, Nuri as-Said, were pro-British, but his prime minister, Rashid Ali al-Gailani, had pro-German leanings. Having resigned office in January 1941, Rashid Ali on April 3 seized power in Baghdad with help from some army officers and announced

Rebec

2005-02-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

Bowed, stringed musical instrument of European medieval and early Renaissance music. It was originally called a rubebe, developed about the 11th century from the similar Arab rabab, and was carried to Spain with Muslim culture. Like the rabab, the rebec had a shallow, pear-shaped body, but on the rebec the rabab's skin belly was replaced by wood and a fingerboard was added. The

Ta Hsüeh

2005-02-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ta hsüeh states that world peace is impossible unless a ruler first regulates

Katyn Massacre

2005-02-10T04:04:00.000-08:00

After Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded their Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and Germany invaded Poland from the west, Soviet

Bone Black

2005-02-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Bone Char, or Bone Charcoal, a form of charcoal (q.v.) produced by heating bone in the presence of a limited amount of air. It is used in removing coloured impurities from liquids, especially solutions of raw sugar. Bone black contains only about 12 percent elemental carbon, the remainder being made up principally of calcium phosphate and calcium carbonate.

Argument

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

In logic, reasons that support a conclusion, sometimes formulated so that the conclusion is deduced from premises. Erroneous arguments are called fallacies in logic (see fallacy). In mathematics, an argument is a variable in the domain of a function and usually appears symbolically in parentheses following the functional symbol.

Adams, Douglas Noël

2005-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

British novelist (b. March 11, 1952, Cambridge, Eng.—d. May 11, 2001, Santa Barbara, Calif.), was the creator of the satiric science-fiction whimsy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which first saw life as a radio series and then became a book, a television series, a play, record albums, comic books, and a computer game, gaining cult status along the way. The book and its sequels feature British

Bulgaria, Spread of education

2005-02-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

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