SuddenCat: November 2004

Frederick William I

The son of the elector Frederick III, later Frederick I, king of Prussia, Frederick William grew up at a glamorous court,

Brecon

Also called Brecknock , Welsh Aberhonddu cathedral town, Powys county, historic county of Brecknockshire, Wales, on the River Usk at its confluence with the Honddu and Tarell. The town grew up around a Norman castle built in 1092. The Benedictine Priory of St. John was founded about the same time; the former priory church, dating from the 13th century, became in 1923 the cathedral for the newly constituted diocese of Swansea

Ibrahim Al-haqilani

Ordained a deacon, Ibrahim taught Arabic and Syriac first at Pisa, then in Rome, and in 1628 he published a Syriac grammar. In 1640 he began collaborating on the Le Jay Polyglot Bible, publishing the Book of Ruth in Arabic,

Gagern, Friedrich (ludwig Balduin Karl Moritz), Freiherr Von (baron Of)

Hans Christoph von Gagern's eldest son, a German soldier and administrator, and military commander of several Dutch provinces, who served as chief of staff during the wars against the Belgian rebels opposing Dutch rule. Returning to Germany, he led the fight against the republican revolutionaries in Baden in

Gray

Unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation, defined in the 1980s by the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements. One gray is equal approximately to the absorbed dose delivered when the energy per unit mass imparted to matter by ionizing radiation is one joule per kilogram. As a unit of measure, the gray is coherent with the units of measure in the

Arnica

One of the most important species (A. montana) is a perennial herb of northern and central European

Merchant Taylors' School

One of the major public (privately endowed) schools in England. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge, at the northwestern extreme of London. The school was founded (1561) by the Merchant Taylors' Company of London, an incorporated group of craftsmen tailors. It was located at Suffolk Lane until 1875, when it was moved to Charterhouse Square. Richard Mulcaster was the first headmaster,

Justus, Saint

In 601 he was sent by Pope St. Gregory I the Great to assist Archbishop St. Augustine of Canterbury in the conversion of England to Christianity. He was consecrated by

France, History Of, Peasants

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,

Kyanite

Also spelled Cyanite, also called Disthene, silicate mineral that is formed during the regional metamorphism of clay-rich sediments. It is an indicator of deep burial of a terrain rather than high stress, as formerly thought. Kyanite occurs as elongated blades principally in gneisses and schists, and it is often accompanied by garnet, quartz, and mica. Its colour ranges from gray-green to black or blue, with blue

Agnostus

Genus of trilobites (an extinct group of aquatic arthropods) found as fossils in rocks of Early Cambrian to Late Ordovician age (those deposited from 540 to 438 million years ago). The agnostids were generally small, with only two thoracic segments and a large tail segment. Agnostus itself was only about 6 millimetres (0.25 inch) long and lacked eyes. The similarity of the

Middletown

Borough (town), Dauphin county, central Pennsylvania, U.S., just southeast of Harrisburg, at the confluence of Swatara Creek and the Susquehanna River. George Fisher settled the site in 1752 and in 1755 laid out the town, which he named Middletown for its location midway between Lancaster and Carlisle. In 1809 Fisher's son, George, laid out another town (Harborton) at the juncture of the

Hyades

In Greek mythology, the five (or more) sisters of the Pleiades who nursed the infant wine god, Dionysus, and as a reward were made the five stars in the head of the constellation Taurus, the bull. According to another version, they so bitterly lamented the death of their brother Hyas that Zeus, out of compassion, changed them into stars. Their name means the Rainers, since they

Agricola, Rodolphus

Agricola

Melaconite

Noncrystalline variety of the mineral tenorite (q.v.).

Literature, France.

Many important French intellectuals from the postwar period were honoured in 1993, among them Roland Barthes, Raymond Aron, Jacques Lacan, and Claude Levi-Strauss. The first volume in the Oeuvres complètes of Roland Barthes, who died in 1980, appeared, bringing together all of his works published between 1942 and 1965 as well as a few previously unpublished ones. This volume permitted

Tamil Literature

Body of writings in Tamil, a Dravidian language of India and Sri Lanka. Apart from literature written in classical (Indo-Aryan) Sanskrit, Tamil is the oldest literature in India. Some inscriptions on stone have been dated to the 3rd century BC, but Tamil literature proper begins around the 1st century AD. Much early poetry was religious or epic; an exception was the secular court

Hillegom

Gemeente (commune), Zuid-Holland provincie, western Netherlands, on the Ringvaart, a canal around the Haarlemmermeer polder. With Lisse it is one of the two great commercial centres of Holland's bulb-growing district and is the site of the Treslong Demonstration Garden (1949) and bulb exchange. The annual Bulb Parade held on a Saturday in late April passes through Hillegom.

Land Crab

Any crab of the family Gecarcinidae (order Decapoda of the class Crustacea), typically terrestrial, square-bodied crabs that only occasionally, as adults, return to the sea. They occur in tropical America, West Africa, and the Indo-Pacific region. All species feed on both animal and plant tissue. Cardisoma guanhumi, a land crab of Bermuda, the West Indies, and the southern

Rousseau, Henri

Byname Le Douanier (French: The Customs Officer) French painter, archetype of the modern naive artist. He expressed himself mainly in richly coloured and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures (e.g., “The Sleeping Gypsy,” 1897, and “The Snake-Charmer,” 1907 [see photograph]). After exhibiting with the Fauves in 1905, he became an object of admiration to avant-garde

Pevsner, Antoine

Pevsner studied art in Kiev, went to Paris in 1911 and 1913, and in 1915 joined his brother Naum in Oslo, where they

Alismatales

Also called Alismales, the water-plantain order of flowering plants, belonging to the class Liliopsida (monocotyledons; characterized by a single seed leaf). Most species are aquatic and grow submerged or partially exposed to the air in marshes and other freshwater habitats. Many are aquatic weeds that hinder irrigation and navigation, though others provide important habitats for

Epistemology, The nature of knowledge

As indicated above, one of the basic questions of epistemology concerns the nature of knowledge. Philosophers normally interpret this query as a conceptual question, i.e., as an issue about a certain conception or idea or notion called knowledge. The question raises a perplexing methodological issue, namely, how does one go about investigating such conceptual questions?

Discount Rate

The discount rate serves as an important indicator

Ghaffar Khan, (khan) Abdul

Ghaffar Khan met Gandhi and entered politics in 1919 during agitation over the Rowlatt Acts, which allowed the internment of political dissidents without

O'shaughnessy, Arthur

O'Shaughnessy became a copyist in the library of the British Museum at age 17 and later became a herpetologist in the museum's zoological department. He published four volumes of verse: An Epic of Women (1870), Lays of France (1872), Music and Moonlight (1874), and Songs of a Worker (1881). O'Shaughnessy

China, Clashes with foreigners

On May 30, 1925, patriotic students, engaged in an anti-imperialist demonstration in Shanghai, clashed with foreign police. The British captain in charge ordered the police to fire upon a crowd that he believed was about to rush his station. Some 12 Chinese were killed in the May Thirtieth Incident, including students. This aroused a nationwide protest and set off a protracted

Chemical Compound, Aldehydes

There are two general ways of naming aldehydes. One method is based on the IUPAC system. (See Hydrocarbons: Aliphatic hydrocarbons: Alkanes: Nomenclature for a discussion of the origin and basics of the IUPAC system of nomenclature.) In this system, the suffix -al is used to indicate that the compound is an aldehyde, and the carbonyl carbon, which must be at one end of the

Suggs, Louise

One of the hotels in Suggs's hometown of Lithia Springs had a nine-hole golf course, and it was there that she displayed an early aptitude for the game. She began playing as an amateur in 1939 and was noted for her excellent

Literature

Ghaffar Khan met Gandhi and entered politics in 1919 during agitation over the Rowlatt Acts, which allowed the internment of political dissidents without

Subud

Religious movement, based on spontaneous and ecstatic exercises, founded by an Indonesian, Muhammad Subuh, called Bapak. A student of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) as a youth, Bapak had a powerful mystical experience in 1925, and in 1933 he claimed that the mission to found the Subud movement was revealed to him. The movement was restricted to Indonesia until the 1950s, when it spread to Europe

Oberlin

City, Lorain county, northern Ohio, U.S., 35 mi (56 km) west-southwest of Cleveland. In 1833 the Rev. John L. Shipherd, a Presbyterian minister, and Philo P. Steward, a former missionary to the Choctaw Indians, founded the community and established the Oberlin Collegiate Institute (1833; designated a college after 1850) to train ministers and teachers for the West. The name was chosen to honour Johann

Fernandes, álvaro

In 1445 Fernandes' uncle, João Gonçalves Zarco, also an explorer, furnished him with a caravel on condition that he devote himself to exploration. Fernandes joined the prince's fleet bound for Arguin Island (now in Mauritania) but sailed farther to the mouth of the Sénégal River.

Beyer, Absalon Pederssøn

Born on a farm, Beyer was adopted by a bishop after the death of his parents and educated at the universities of Copenhagen and Wittenberg, where he studied under the famous Protestant Reformation scholar Philipp Melanchthon. Beyer was a lecturer at the Bergen Cathedral

Romanus Iv Diogenes

In 1068 Romanus married Eudocia Macrembolitissa, widow of the emperor Constantine X Ducas. He led military expeditions against the Seljuq Turks but was defeated and captured by them at the Battle of Manzikert (1071). On his release Romanus found that

Seton, George Seton, 5th Lord

He was the eldest son of the 4th Lord Seton (d. 1549) and was educated in France. He was present at Mary's marriage with the dauphin (afterward Francis II of France) in 1557, and three years later he was again in France because of his adherence to Roman Catholicism. When Mary returned to Scotland (1561), he became privy councillor

Epicharmus

Many of

Peter Iv

Peter was the most cultivated of Spanish 14th-century kings but was also an inveterate political intriguer whose ability to dissemble was notorious. Through his voluminous correspondence, the workings of his mind are far better known than those of any contemporary Spanish

Paraíba Do Sul River

Portuguese Rio Paraíba Do Sul, river, in eastern Brazil, formed by the junction of the Paraibuna and Paraitinga rivers, east of São Paulo, between Mogi das Cruzes and Jacareí. It flows east-northeastward, receiving tributaries from the Serra da Mantiqueira and the Serra do Mar and forming part of the border between Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro states. From its initial elevation of 5,000 ft (1,500 m), the river

Khalil Ibn Ahmad, Al-

When he moved to Basra, al-Khalil left the Ibadi sect of Islam, which was popular in his native Oman, for Sunnism (the largest branch of Islam). He lived simply and piously in Basra, where he taught. The renowned Sibawayh was

Biblical Literature, Old Testament history

Two current histories of Israel exhibit the full range of historiographical problems and methods relating to the subject: John Bright, A History of Israel (1959); and Martin Noth, Geschichte Israels, 3rd ed. (1956; Eng. trans., The History of Israel, 1958). They differ mainly in where they begin; Bright begins with Abraham, Noth with the federation of tribes that calls itself Israel in the land of Canaan. They disagree about the demonstrability of such a community in the pre-Canaanite times because of their respective assessment of the character of the Pentateuch. Bright assumes that it was intended as a history concerned to record the early past, while Noth assumes that its thematic traditions were intended to define and celebrate the identity of the later Israel and hence do not constitute a usable historical resource about its earliest beginnings. This whole methodological problem in Israelite historiography is lucidly discussed and illustrated in a little book by John Bright—Early Israel in Recent History Writing: A Study in Method (1956). For the use of archaeology, geography, and history of religion in the study of the history of Israel, see George Ernest Wright. Biblical Archaeology, rev. ed. (1962); Luc H. Grollenberg, Atlas van de Bijbel, 3rd ed. (1954; Eng. trans., Atlas of the Bible, 1956); Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, from Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile (1960); and Helmer Ringgren, Israelitische Religion (1963; Eng. trans., 1966).

Biblical Literature, The Georgian version

According to Armenian tradition, the Georgian version was also the work of Mesrob, but the Psalter, the oldest part of the Georgian Old Testament, is probably not earlier than the 5th century. Some manuscripts were based upon Greek versions, others upon the Armenian.

Espinosa, Pedro De

Espinosa's own poetry

Palomino De Castro Y Velasco

After study at the University of Córdoba, Palomino was a student of the painter Valdes Leal and later Alfaro. In 1688 Palomino was appointed court painter and continued to concentrate on easel work until 1699. Thereafter he assisted Luca Giordano in the fresco

Jouve, Pierre-jean

Prevented by ill health from serving in World War

Palomino De Castro Y Velasco

Any of 40 tropical species of large shrubs or trees found in the Americas that burn well due to the high resin content of its wood. Sea torchwood (A. elemifera) grows along the coasts of Florida, and balsam torchwood (A. balsamifera) is known especially from Cuba. Incense and aromatic oils are derived from torchwood, and extracts from the Mexican A. plumieri are used in

Marey, étienne-jules

Marey wrote extensively on the circulation of the blood, cholera, terrestrial and aerial locomotion, experimental physiology,

Carter Family

Singing group consisting of Alvin Pleasant Carter, known as A.P. Carter (b. April 15, 1891, Maces Spring, Va., U.S.—d. November 7, 1960, Kentucky),his wife Sara, née Dougherty (b. July 21, 1898, Flatwoods, Virginia—d. Jan. 8, 1979, Lodi, Calif.), and his sister-in-law Maybelle Carter, née Addington (b. May 10, 1909, Nickelsville, Va.—d. Oct. 23, 1978, Nashville, Tenn.), a leading force in the spread and popularization of Appalachian Mountain folk

English Literature, Verse romance

The earliest examples of verse romance, a genre that would remain popular through the Middle Ages, appeared in the 13th century. King Horn and Floris and Blauncheflour both are preserved in a manuscript of around 1250. King Horn, oddly written in short two- and three-stress lines, is a vigorous tale of a kingdom lost and regained, with a subplot concerning Horn's love for Princess

Liliencron, Detlev, Baron (freiherr) Von

The son of an impoverished family of baronial descent, Liliencron entered the Prussian army in 1863. He served as a regular officer during the Seven Weeks' War (1866) and the Franco-German War (1870–71). He later used experiences from these campaigns in his poems and

Lahbabi, Mohammed Aziz

Moroccan writer and philosopher (b. Dec. 25, 1922, Fès, Morocco--d. Aug. 23, 1993, Rabat, Morocco), had influence in the Arab world through his many writings, some of which were translated into as many as 30 languages. Lahbabi was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and received a doctorate of philosophy. He taught philosophy at Muhammad V University, Rabat, and the University of Algiers and held other

Anjala League

(1788–89), a conspiracy of Swedish and Finnish army officers that undermined the Swedish war effort in the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90. Shortly after the outbreak of war, 113 officers in the Finnish town of Anjala dispatched a letter to Empress Catherine II the Great of Russia calling for peace on the basis of the pre-1743 status quo—one favourable to Sweden. Although this condition made Catherine's

Cambridgeshire

Administrative, geographic, and historic county of eastern England. The administrative county covers a much larger area than the ancient shire, or historic county. Formed in 1974, the administrative county incorporates almost all of the historic county of Cambridgeshire and most of the historic county of Huntingdonshire (which is nearly coterminous with the district

Simon, Claude

The son of a cavalry officer who was killed in World War I, Simon was raised by his mother in Perpignan, France. After studies at Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge, he traveled

SuddenCat

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Monday, November 29, 2004

Brecon

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Friday, November 26, 2004

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Middletown

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Monday, November 22, 2004

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Literature, France.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Friday, November 19, 2004

Rousseau, Henri

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Ghaffar Khan, (khan) Abdul

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Monday, November 15, 2004

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Literature

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Subud

Friday, November 12, 2004

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Peter Iv

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Monday, November 08, 2004

Biblical Literature, The Georgian version

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Friday, November 05, 2004

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Carter Family

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Lahbabi, Mohammed Aziz

Monday, November 01, 2004

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