Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Kinguélé

Waterfall and site of a hydroelectric complex on the Mbei River of Gabon. Kinguélé is situated near Kango and is about 95 miles (150 km) by road east of Libreville, the national capital. There are actually two sets of waterfalls. The upper Kinguélé falls drop a total of 115 feet (35 m) in three consecutive leaps. The larger, lower falls drop 148 feet (45 m). Below the lower falls, the Mbei River continues

Monday, August 30, 2004

Wolgemut, Michael

After an obscure early period Wolgemut married (1472) Barbara, widow of the Nürnberg painter Hans Pleydenwurff. In the next 40 years he produced a series of large altarpieces, rich with carving and gilding, as well as portraits and book illustrations. The altarpiece of St. Jacob, Straubing,

Adams, Charles Francis

Adams was the son of the lawyer and historian Charles Francis Adams (1835–1915), as well as great-grandson of the sixth U.S. president and great-great-grandson of the second.

Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation

Also called  Physiatry, Physical Therapy, or Rehabilitation Medicine,  medical specialty concerned with the treatment of chronic disabilities and with the restoration of normal functioning to the disabled through physical modes of treatment, such as exercise. This specialized medical service is generally aimed at rehabilitating persons disabled by pain or ailments affecting the motor functions of the body. Physical medicine

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Celaenae

Ancient fortress city of Phrygia (in present Turkey), the starting point of the march of the “Ten Thousand” under Cyrus (401 BC) against Artaxerxes (recounted in Xenophon's Anabasis). In 333 Celaenae was conquered by Alexander the Great. The city was later renamed Apamea Cibotus (q.v.) by Antiochus I Soter, who refounded it on a more open site in order to benefit from the growing commerce

Zither

Any of several stringed musical instruments. The European zither consists of a flat, shallow sound box across which gut or metal strings are stretched. The strings nearest the player run above a fretted fingerboard against which they are stopped by the left hand to provide melody notes; they are plucked by a plectrum worn on the right thumb. At the same time, the right-hand

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Papyrology

Most papyrus documents have been found in Egypt, where the papyrus plant was cultivated for the manufacture of writing material and the dry climate favoured preservation. Papyrus documents have been

Topaz

Topaz is an aluminum silicate containing fluorine and has a chemical formula of Al2(F,OH)2SiO4. It is formed

Friday, August 27, 2004

Lamian War

Also called  Greek War (323–322 BC)  conflict in which Athenian independence was lost despite efforts by Athens and its Aetolian allies to free themselves from Macedonian domination after the death of Alexander the Great. Athenian democratic leaders, in conjunction with the Aetolian League, fielded an army of 30,000 men in October 323. They seized Thermopylae and kept a Macedonian army under Antipater blockaded

Owens, Jesse

As a student in a Cleveland,

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint

At Easter time in 1272, Thomas returned to Italy to establish a Dominican house of studies at the University of Naples. This move was undoubtedly made in answer to a request made by King Charles of Anjou, who was anxious to revive the university. After participating in a general chapter, or meeting, of the Dominicans held in Florence during Pentecost week and, having settled

Ekistics

Science of human settlements. Ekistics involves the descriptive study of all kinds of human settlements and the formulation of general conclusions aimed at achieving harmony between the inhabitants of a settlement and their physical and sociocultural environments. Descriptive study involves the examination of the content, such as man alone or in societies,

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Museum And Picture Gallery

Art museum in Vadodara (Baroda), Gujarat state, India. It was founded by the Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda in 1894 as a representative collection of masterpieces. The building was constructed between 1908 and 1914, and the gallery formally opened in 1921. The museum displays European paintings, especially English portraits by George Romney and examples from the schools of Sir Joshua Reynolds

Sashimi

Specialty of Japanese cuisine, fresh fish served raw. The fish, which must be utterly fresh, is sliced paper thin or alternately one-quarter to one-half inch (0.75–1.5 centimetres) thick, cubed, or cut in strips, according to the nature of the fish. The sashimi is accompanied by wasabi (green horseradish paste) and soy sauce. Sashimi is always part of a formal Japanese meal, served early

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Darling, Grace

The daughter of a lighthouse keeper, Darling grew up on Longstone in the Farne Islands. Intensely shy and private, she become the focus of national attention after the steamship Forfarshire sank during a severe storm in September

Monday, August 23, 2004

Gabon, Settlement patterns

Gabon's major towns—Libreville, Port-Gentil, Lambaréné, Moanda, Mouila, Oyem, Franceville, and Bitam—contain nearly two-fifths of the total population. The remainder is scattered widely among some 4,000 rural villages, which are concentrated along the rivers and roads, often with a population of no more than a few families. Port-Gentil is the centre of the wood and petroleum

García I (or Ii) Sanchez

King of Pamplona (Navarre) from 925 to 970, son of Sancho I Garcés and Queen Toda Aznar. He owed his throne to the support of his cousin 'Abd ar-Rahman III, the Umayyad caliph of Cordoba. The end of his reign was taken up with wars against the count of Castile, Fernán González. Sancho I of Leon, deposed by the Castilian, took refuge in Navarre; García took to the field and in 960 managed to capture

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Wieman, Carl E.

After studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S., 1973), Wieman earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1977. He then taught and conducted research

Sá-carneiro, Mário De

Sá-Carneiro studied in Paris at the Sorbonne. His first poems, Dispersão (“Dispersion”), were written in Paris and published in 1914. In the same year he published a novel, A Confissão de Lúcio (“The Confession of Lúcio”), and back in Portugal he

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Bezruc, Petr

Bezruc studied in Prague and became a postal official in Moravia until his retirement in 1927. His literary reputation rests on a remarkable series of poems written during 1899 and 1900 and published in the periodical Cas between 1899 and 1903. The subject of almost

Algeria, The Sahara

The Algerian Sahara may be divided roughly into two depressions of different elevation, separated from one another by a central north-south rise called the M'zab (Mzab). Each zone is covered by a vast sheet of sand dunes called an erg. The Great Eastern Erg (Grand Erg Oriental) and the Great Western Erg (Grand Erg Occidental), which average 1,300 to 2,000 feet (400 to 600 metres) in height, decline

Friday, August 20, 2004

Journalism

The collection, preparation, and distribution of news and related commentary and feature materials through such media as pamphlets, newsletters, newspapers, magazines, radio, motion pictures, television, and books. The word journalism was originally applied to the reportage of current events in printed form, specifically newspapers, but with the advent of radio

Euripides

The Greek fleet is becalmed at Aulis and is thus unable to convey the expeditionary force against Troy. Agamemnon learns that he must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia as a means of appeasing the goddess Artemis, who has caused the unfavourable weather. Agamemnon lures his daughter into coming to Aulis to be sacrificed by pretending that she will marry Achilles.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Algeria, The Sahara

Anatosaurus grew to a length of 9–12 metres (30–40 feet) and was heavily built. The skull was long and the beak

Mountain Mahogany

It is said that the common name was given to species

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Natural Bridges National Monument

The largest bridge, Sipapu, rises 220 feet

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Shadwell, Thomas

Educated at Cambridge and at the Middle Temple, London, after the Restoration (1660) Shadwell became one of the court wits and an acquaintance of Sir Robert Howard and his brother, Edward, both of whom he satirized in The Sullen

Black Hills

Isolated, eroded mountain region in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, U.S., lying largely within the Black Hills National Forest. The hills lie between the Cheyenne and Belle Fourche rivers and rise about 3,000 feet (900 m) above the surrounding plains; they culminate in Harney Peak (7,242 feet [2,207 m]), the highest point in South Dakota. The Black Hills formed as a result of an upwarping

Monday, August 16, 2004

Bosch, Carl

Bosch was educated at the University of Leipzig, where he studied under Johannes Wislicenus and obtained

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Spokane

City, seat (1879) of Spokane county, eastern Washington, U.S., at the falls of the Spokane River. Frequented by trappers when the North West Company built a trading post there in 1810, the site was settled in 1872 and laid out in 1878. Known as Spokane Falls (for the Spokane Indians, whose name means “sun people”), it developed after the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway. Abundant waterpower

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Ear Disease, Presbycusis

Presbycusis is the gradual decline of hearing function that results from aging. It is similar to other aging processes because it occurs at different ages and at different rates among the population. As a person ages, there is a gradual loss of cochlear hair cells, beginning at the basal end of the organ of Corti, with the result that hearing is gradually reduced and

Graebner, Fritz

While a research assistant at the Royal Museum

Deep-sea Fish

In general, any species of fishes (class Osteichthyes) that are found at extreme ocean depths, usually more than 600 m and even to as much as 2,700 m (2,000 to 9,000 feet). The species, which represent more than a dozen families of marine fishes, are characterized by huge mouths, enlarged eyes, and the presence of luminous organs on some or several parts of the body. The light-producing organs serve

Friday, August 13, 2004

Nicholas Iv

He joined the Franciscans when young and became their minister for Dalmatia. In 1272 Pope Gregory X sent him to Constantinople, where he took part in effecting a brief reunion with the Greeks. From 1274 to 1279 he was minister general of the Franciscans, and in 1281 Pope Martin IV made him cardinal

Mosaddeq, Mohammad

The son of an Iranian public official, Mosaddeq grew up as a member of Iran's ruling elite. He received a doctor of law degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and then returned to Iran in 1914 and was appointed

Daniel Of Kiev

Also called  Daniel The Pilgrim,  Russian  Daniil Kievsky, or Daniil Polomnik  the earliest known Russian travel writer, whose account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land is the earliest surviving record in Russian of such a trip. Abbot of a Russian monastery, he visited Palestine probably during 1106–07. His narrative begins at Constantinople; from there he traveled along the west and south coasts of Asia Minor to Cyprus and the Holy Land. Despite his

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Zaharias, Babe Didrikson

From 1930 through 1932, Didrikson was a member of the women's All-America basketball team. During the same period she also won eight events and tied in a ninth in national championship competition

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Philip Ii

King of the Spaniards (1556–98) and king of the Portuguese (as Philip I, 1580–98), champion of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation. During his reign the Spanish Empire attained its greatest power, extent, and influence, though he failed to suppress the revolt of the Netherlands (beginning in 1566) and lost the “Invincible Armada” in the attempted

Religious Symbolism And Iconography, Diagrammatic and emblematic

Symbolic representations are usually depicted in diagrammatic or ideographic modes as signs, abbreviations, images, and objects of all kinds that indicate a larger context. In this category belong the simplified or abstract forms of objects of nature or other objects and geometrical forms, as well as colours, letters, and numbers. The circle, the disk, the rosette,

Arts, Central Asian

The performing arts have played an important role in the spiritual and social life of Central Asia, where they evolved as didactic art forms within a religious context. Performance, therefore, occurs in conjunction with some religious or special event. Two main types of performance predominate throughout Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Mongolia, and the former Soviet

Monday, August 09, 2004

Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston

Breckinridge graduated from Wellesley College in 1888. After a time as a schoolteacher in Washington, D.C., she studied law in her father's office and in 1895 became the first woman to be admitted to the Kentucky bar. Uninterested in legal practice, she

Finney, Charles Grandison

After teaching school briefly, Finney studied law privately and entered the law office of Benjamin Wright at Adams, N.Y. References in his

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Barada

Greek  Chrysorrhoas,   river of western Syria. It rises in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and flows southward for 52 miles (84 km) through Damascus to intermittent Lake Al-'Utaybah and its marshes. The Barada sets out peacefully on its course only to become within 20 miles a raging torrent, its volume almost doubled by the Fijah Spring (this spring has been tapped to bring drinking water to Damascus). Without

Biblical Literature, Book of Esther

The Book of Esther is a romantic and patriotic tale, perhaps with some historical basis but with so little religious purpose that God, in fact, is not mentioned in it. The book may have been included in the Hebrew canon only for the sake of sanctioning the celebrations of the festival Purim, the Feast of Lots. There is considerable evidence that the stories related in

Saturday, August 07, 2004

China, Buddhism

The Buddhist age of China began in the 4th century. Several factors contributed to the extraordinary expansion and absorption of the foreign religion after about 300, both in the Chinese south and in the occupied north. A negative factor was the absence of a unified Confucian state, which naturally would be inclined to suppress a creed whose basic tenets (notably the

Mcpherson, James B.

After graduation from West Point at the head of the class of 1849, McPherson was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers and held minor army assignments

Cytoplasm

The protoplasm of a cell external to the nuclear membrane. In eukaryotes (i.e., cells having a nucleus), the cytoplasm contains all of the organelles except for the nucleus itself. Among such organelles are the mitochondria, which are the sites of energy production through ATP (adenosine triphosphate) synthesis; the endoplasmic reticulum, the site of lipid and protein

Friday, August 06, 2004

Aiken

The area was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Savannah

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Ada Group

Ivory carvings and a group of about 10 illuminated manuscripts, dating from the last quarter of the 8th century, the earliest examples of the art of the Court School of Charlemagne. The group is named after a Gospel book (c. 750; Trier, Cathedral Treasury) commissioned by Ada, supposed half sister of Charlemagne. These earliest manuscripts of the Carolingian period, which initiated

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Dome

In geology, any large or elliptical structure formed by the fractureless upwarping of rock strata. It is a type of anticline that lacks clear-cut elongation and that slopes outward in all directions from the highest point. Typical examples of such a dome can be found in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the western United States. Where strata plunge more or less uniformly

Huggins, Sir William

Huggins built a private observatory at Tulse Hill, London, in 1856. From 1859 he was one of a number of astronomers who began to apply Robert

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

'arafat, Yasir

Byname of  Muhammad 'Abd ar-Ra'uf al-Qudwah al-Husayni  president (1996–2004) of the Palestinian Authority, chairman (1969–2004) of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and leader of Fatah, the largest of the constituent PLO groups. In 1993 he led the PLO to a peace agreement with the Israeli government. 'Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres of Israel were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace

Raymond Terrace

Town, eastern New South Wales, Australia, on the east bank of the Hunter River (near its junction with the Williams), just north of Newcastle. Founded in the 1830s, the town was named after a member of an exploring expedition in 1812 led by Gov. Lachlan Macquarie. An important wool river port in the 1840s, Raymond Terrace was proclaimed a municipality and in 1937 merged into the Shire of Port

Monday, August 02, 2004

Cumberland Plateau

Westernmost of three divisions of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S., extending southwestward for 450 miles (725 km) from southern West Virginia to northern Alabama. The plateau is 40 to 50 miles (65 to 80 km) wide and lies between the Appalachian Ridge and Valley region to the east and the rolling plains to the west. It merges with the Allegheny Plateau on the north and with the Gulf Coastal

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Television And Radio

At the prompting of the American Radio Relay League, which represented 170,000 amateur (ham) radio operators, President Clinton on October 22 signed a congressional resolution recognizing the continuing importance of amateur radio and urging the FCC to permit the service to employ new technology and provide "reasonable accommodation" for its future growth. Although not

Sea, Law Of The

Law codified in a treaty signed Dec. 10, 1982, by 117 nations (and two republics of the U.S.S.R., Belorussia and Ukraine) in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It represented an attempt to codify international law regarding territorial waters, sea lanes, and ocean resources. It was not signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Israel, Italy, and several other industrialized or developing