QuietCat

Scandinavian Literature, The development of the Icelandic drama

2005-04-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Icelandic drama really started to develop through Jóhann Sigurjónsson, whose first success was Fjalla-Eyvindur (1911; Eyvind of the Hills), followed by Galdra-Loftur (1915; “Loftur the Sorcerer”); both plays were based on powerful folktales. Gudmundur Kamban's Hadda-Padda (1914) was highly praised by Georg Brandes, and he remained important in Scandinavian drama for the next quarter

Qasrayn, Al-

2005-04-04T04:19:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Kasserine, town, west-central Tunisia. The town is an important market, road, and rail junction and is the centre of an irrigated agricultural area. Its economic activities include the cultivation of olives and esparto grass and the manufacture of paper pulp. Kasserine Pass to the northwest was the scene of a decisive battle of the Tunisian campaign in World War II, which contributed

Economic Growth

2005-04-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

Growth can best be described as a process of transformation. Whether one examines an economy that is already modern and

Van Rensselaer, Mariana Alley Griswold

2005-04-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

Mariana Griswold, the daughter of a prosperous mercantile family, was educated privately at home and in Europe. She married Schuyler Van Rensselaer in 1873, and the couple lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey, until 1884, when

Paleo-siberian Languages

2005-04-01T16:19:00.000-08:00

Paleo-Siberian also spelled Paleosiberian , also called Paleo-Asiatic languages or Hyperborean languages languages spoken in Asian Russia (Siberia) that belong to four genetically unrelated groups—Yeniseian, Luorawetlan, Yukaghir, and Nivkh.

Ito

2005-04-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

City, Shizuoka Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, on the east coast of the Izu-hanto (Izu Peninsula). Although its hot springs were discovered in the late 16th century, the city did not develop as a resort until the arrival of a railway line from Atami in 1938. Ito is now the second largest spa on the peninsula (after Atami), with almost 400 hot springs. It is also an important fishing port and market

Saigo Takamori

2005-03-31T10:27:00.000-08:00

Original name Kichibe , or Kichinosuke , literary name Nanshu a leader in the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate who later rebelled against the weaknesses he saw in the Imperial government that he had helped to restore. Although his participation in the restoration made him a legendary hero, it also, to his mortification, relegated his samurai class to impotence.

Sherer, Rabbi Moshe

2005-03-30T03:37:00.000-08:00

American Orthodox Jewish leader who aided the right wing of Orthodox Judaism by helping build the Agudath Israel of America organization from a small group into an influential force (b. June 8, 1921, Brooklyn, N.Y.--d. May 17, 1998, Manhattan, N.Y.).

Dubna

2005-03-30T00:29:00.000-08:00

City, Moscow oblast (province), western Russia. The city lies along the Volga River where it is joined by the Moscow Canal (completed 1937). Dubna is a new city, incorporated in 1956; in 1960 it absorbed the town of Ivankovo on the opposite bank. It is one of several planned “science cities,” its existence depending on the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, which employs scientists from

Anderson

2005-03-29T17:14:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1828) of Madison county, east-central Indiana, U.S. It lies along the West Fork of the White River, in a corn- (maize-) and wheat-producing region, 38 miles (61 km) northeast of Indianapolis. Founded in 1823 on the site of a Delaware Indian village, it was named Andersontown for a subchief, Koktowhanund, also known as William Anderson. In 1886 the town's industrial growth was assured with the

Duras, Marguerite

2005-03-29T04:02:00.000-08:00

Duras spent most of her childhood in Indochina, but at the age of 17 she moved to France to

Chase, Philander

2005-03-28T06:38:00.000-08:00

Ordained a priest in 1799, Chase served several parishes in New York State, New Orleans, and Hartford, Conn., prior to his consecration as bishop for the new Ohio diocese in 1819. Because he felt the needs of the frontier West could

Daniel, Yuli Markovich

2005-03-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

After being seriously wounded in World War II while serving in the Soviet army

Sporotrichosis

2005-03-26T13:29:00.000-08:00

Subacute or chronic infection by the fungus Sporotrichum, or Sporothrix, schenckii, usually characterized by a chancre at the site of inoculation and, extending from the site, a chain of hard, red, pus-generating lumps along the lymphatics of the skin and subcutaneous tissue. The fungus, which is most commonly found in the soil or on vegetation or decaying wood, most

Zone Melting

2005-03-26T04:14:00.000-08:00

Any of a group of techniques used to purify an element or a compound or control its composition by melting a short region (i.e., zone) and causing this liquid zone to travel slowly through a relatively long ingot, or charge, of the solid. As the zone travels, it redistributes impurities along the charge. The final distribution of the impurity depends on its distribution

Hinckley And Bosworth

2005-03-25T23:44:00.000-08:00

Borough (district), administrative and historic county of Leicestershire, England. It comprises the town of Hinckley, an important centre of the hosiery industry since framework knitting was introduced there in 1640, as well as the towns of Market Bosworth and Earl Shilton, which is a centre of both the hosiery and footwear industries. The Battle of Bosworth Field was

France, History Of, The Jacobin dictatorship

2005-03-25T07:40:00.000-08:00

The Convention consolidated its revolutionary government in the Law of 14 Frimaire Year II (Dec. 4, 1793; for a discussion of the Revolutionary calendar, see below). To organize the Revolution, to promote confidence and compliance, efficiency and control, this law centralized authority in a parliamentary dictatorship, with the Committee of Public Safety at the helm. The committee

Roman De La Rose

2005-03-24T09:46:00.000-08:00

(French: “Romance of the Rose”), one of the most popular French poems of the later Middle Ages. Modeled on Ovid's Ars amatoria (c. 1 BC; Art of Love), the poem is composed of more than 21,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets and survives in more than 300 manuscripts. Nothing is known of the author of the first 4,058 lines except his name, Guillaume de Lorris (a village near Orléans). This section, which was

Danbury

2005-03-23T08:13:00.000-08:00

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

Far'ah, Tall Al-

2005-03-22T23:30:00.000-08:00

Ancient site in southwestern Palestine, located on the Wadi Ghazzah near Tall al-'Ajjul, in modern Israel. The site was excavated between 1928 and 1930 by British archaeologists in Egypt under the direction of Sir Flinders Petrie, who identified the site as Beth-pelet. Other scholars, however, are probably correct in their belief that the site is instead ancient Sharuhen, an

Furniture, Decorative processes and techniques

2005-03-22T03:25:00.000-08:00

Whether constructional principles are exploited as a motif or elegance of overall shape is stressed through stylization, every piece of furniture can be embellished in one way or another. A piece of furniture may be embellished by effects produced in the structural wood itself or in another kind of wood added to the first; that is, by carving and turning or by inlay

Amyloidosis

2005-03-21T02:26:00.000-08:00

Disease characterized by the deposition of amyloid in the connective tissues, inhibiting normal organ functioning. Amyloid is a fibrous protein-carbohydrate complex that is derived from immunoglobulins, a group of proteins that have antibody activity. The disease may affect the whole system or may be localized in tumourlike masses, particularly in the larynx

Forsterite-fayalite Series

2005-03-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

These minerals are common

La Serena

2005-03-20T00:22:00.000-08:00

Capital of Coquimbo region, northern Chile, lying on a marine terrace overlooking Bahía (bay) de Coquimbo, just south of the Río Elqui and east of Coquimbo city. Founded c. 1543 on the river's northern bank, it was named after the Spanish birthplace of the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. Razed by Diaguita Indians in 1549 and rebuilt on the present site the following year, La Serena

Pendentive

2005-03-19T02:45:00.000-08:00

In architecture, a triangular segment of a spherical surface, filling in the upper corners of a room, in order to form, at the top, a circular support for a dome. The challenge of supporting a dome over an enclosed square or polygonal space assumed growing importance to the Roman builders of the late empire. It remained for Byzantine architects, however, to recognize the

Aerospace Industry, Inspection technologies

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

The most critical portion of maintenance work is inspection to detect cracks, flaws, debonds, delamination, corrosion, and other detrimental changes before they threaten the aircraft. Inspectors do much of their work visually, often using nothing more sophisticated than a flashlight and a mirror. For most of the remainder, they use ultrasound, X-rays, eddy currents,

Salem

2005-03-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

Salem's manufactures include

La Serena

2005-03-18T02:25:00.000-08:00

Natural gas (primarily methane) that has been liquefied for ease of storing and transporting. LNG takes up about 1/600 the space that natural gas does in its gaseous form, and it can be easily shipped overseas. LNG is produced by cooling natural gas below its boiling point, -162° C (-259° F), and is stored in double-walled cryogenic containers at or slightly above atmospheric pressure. It

Cairo, The old and new quarters

2005-03-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Cairo is fan-shaped, narrowest in the south, where the river valley is wedged between desert escarpments, and widest in the north, where the valley blends into the delta. Over the centuries the city expanded westward as a receding river channel left land flood-free. In response to heightened demand, however, the city also has been elongated to the north and south and has

Baseball

2005-03-16T17:16:00.000-08:00

As part of its millennium celebration, major league baseball conducted fan balloting to honor the All-Century Team. Twenty-five players were selected via the voting process; five others were added to bring the roster to 30; and the living members of the elite squad were sent to Atlanta for a ceremony before game two of the World Series. Among those present was Pete Rose,

Wesel

2005-03-16T17:01:00.000-08:00

Town, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. It lies along the Rhine and Lippe rivers and the Lippe-Seiten Canal, northwest of the Ruhr. Chartered in 1241, it joined the Hanseatic League in about 1350 and has long been an important trade and shipping point. It was also a traditional district capital and cultural centre of the border area of the lower Rhine. The

Maxwell's Equations

2005-03-16T07:10:00.000-08:00

The statements of these four equations are, respectively: (1) electric field

Biot-savart Law

2005-03-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

An electric current flowing in a conductor, or a moving electric charge, produces a magnetic field, or a region in the space around the conductor in which magnetic

Abrahams, Peter

2005-03-15T15:03:00.000-08:00

Abrahams left South Africa at the age of 20, settling first in Britain and then in Jamaica; nevertheless, most of his novels and short stories are based on his early life

Tytler, James

2005-03-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

Known in Edinburgh as a debt-ridden eccentric, between 1776 and 1784 Tytler almost single-handedly revised the original edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, enlarging it from three

Beja

2005-03-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

Arabic Bujah, nomadic people grouped into tribes and occupying mountain country between the Red Sea and the Nile and 'Atbarah rivers from the latitude of Aswan southeastward to the Eritrean Plateau—that is, from southeastern Egypt through The Sudan and into Eritrea. Numbering about 1,900,000 in the late 20th century, the Beja are descended from peoples who have lived in the area since 4000 BC or

Marpurg, Friedrich Wilhelm

2005-03-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Nothing is known of his musical education. In 1746 he was secretary to a Prussian general in Paris, where he met Voltaire and the composer Jean Rameau. He later lived in Berlin and Hamburg and from 1763 to 1795 directed the Prussian

Tea And Coffee Service

2005-03-13T06:11:00.000-08:00

Set of vessels and implements for making and serving tea and coffee, the items often of matched design. Elaborate 18th-century examples had tea and coffee pots, a milk or cream jug, a pair of tea caddies, a sugar bowl and pair of tongs, teaspoons and a small tray for them, a tea strainer, and cups and saucers. All of these were normally placed on a tray, while an urn or kettle on a separate

Forde, Francis Michael

2005-03-13T02:42:00.000-08:00

Active in state politics as a young man, Forde was a member of the Australian House of Representatives (1922–46) and deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (1932–46). In the cabinet he served as minister for the army (1941–46), minister for defense (1946), and deputy prime minister

Bafatá

2005-03-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

Town, east-central Guinea-Bissau. It lies along the Gêba River, which is navigable to that point. Bafatá is an important trading centre for the interior regions of Guinea-Bissau. There also is intensive agriculture around the town. The town produces peanuts (groundnuts) for export and livestock for domestic consumption. Roads connect Bafatá with Senegal to the north

Tizi Ouzou

2005-03-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

Town, north-central Algeria, in the Great Kabylie. It lies in a narrow valley of the Wadi Tizi Ouzou, separated from the Wadi Sébaou Valley by Mount Beloua. Named for the flowering broom (ouzou) that grows in the pass (tizi) connecting the two valleys, Tizi Ouzou was built by the Turks and enlarged by the French. The town is a regional trade centre noted for basketry; it is the

Isidore Of Sevilla, Saint

2005-03-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Saint Isidore of Seville , Latin Isidorus Hispalensis theologian, last of the Western Latin Fathers, archbishop, and encyclopaedist, whose Etymologies, an encyclopaedia of human and divine subjects, was one of the chief landmarks in glossography (the compilation of glossaries) and was for many centuries one of the most important reference

Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc.

2005-03-11T01:51:00.000-08:00

The company's history traces to 1859, when George F. Gilman and George Huntington Hartford founded the Great American Tea Co. in New York City to trade in tea bought from the cargoes of the clipper ships. It became largely

Pao-chi

2005-03-10T23:18:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Baoji, city in western Shensi sheng (province), China. Situated on the north bank of the Wei River, it has been a strategic and transportation centre since early times, controlling the northern end of a pass across the Tsinling Mountains, the only practicable route from the Wei valley into Szechwan province and the upper valley of the Han River. It is also at the western end of

Auckland Islands

2005-03-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

Outlying island group of New Zealand, in the South Pacific Ocean, 290 miles (467 km) south of South Island. Volcanic in origin, they comprise six islands and several islets, with a total land area of 234 square miles (606 square km), and have a cool, humid, and windy climate. The islands' soils are generally poor, and shrub forests cover lower elevations. Animal life includes birds, wild cattle,

Blood Fluke

2005-03-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

Any of certain parasitic flatworms that live in the veins of the host organism. See fluke.

Belcher Islands

2005-03-08T22:53:00.000-08:00

Archipelago in southeastern Hudson Bay, north of the mouth of James Bay, Baffin region, Nunavut territory, Canada. The islands, low-lying and striated, cover a total area of about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square km), of which 1,118 square miles (2,896 square km) is land. The group, first sighted by the English navigator Henry Hudson in 1610 and named for Sir Edward Belcher, who commanded an Arctic expedition

Biblical Literature, The Pastoral Letters as a unit

2005-03-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

The First and Second Letters of Paul to Timothy and the Letter of Paul to Titus, three small epistles traditionally part of the Pauline corpus, are written not to churches nor to an individual concerning a special problem but to two individual addressees in their capacity as pastors, or leaders of their local churches. The purpose of the letters is to instruct, admonish,

Voyeurism

2005-03-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

Human sexual behaviour involving achievement of sexual arousal through viewing the sexual activities of others or through watching others disrobe. To some extent voyeurism is widespread; various types of sexual display are a normal part of sexual attraction and mating behaviour in most animals, including humans, but voyeurism is considered a deviant behaviour

Jefferson, Thomas, Life at Monticello

2005-03-06T20:22:00.000-08:00

The domestic context at Monticello is the subject of several important books. Sarah N. Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson (1871, reprinted 1978), provides an affectionate portrait by his descendants. Jack McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder (1988, reissued 1990), goes beyond architectural issues to explore the daily lives of all the residents on the mountain. Elizabeth Langhorne, Monticello: A Family Story (1987, reissued 1989), focuses on the white residents. Edwin Morris Betts (ed.), Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book (1953, reprinted 1987), reproduces Jefferson's plantation records. Susan R. Stein, The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello (1993), recovers the material objects Jefferson gathered inside the mansion. Merrill D. Peterson (ed.), Visitors to Monticello (1989), reproduces the accounts of firsthand observers.

North Africa, History Of, Geography and prehistory

2005-03-06T10:59:00.000-08:00

North Africa as here used means the area of present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. In ancient times the Greeks used the word Libya, derived from the name of a tribe on the Gulf of Sidra, to describe the land north of the Sahara, the territory whose native peoples were subjects of Carthage, and also as a name for the whole continent. The Romans applied the name Africa

Carajá

2005-03-06T00:04:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Karajá, tribe of South American Indians living along the Araguaia River, near the inland island of Bananal, in central Brazil. Their language may be distantly related to Ge, which is spoken by most of the surrounding tribes. The three subtribes of the Carajá—the Carajá proper, the Shambioá, and the Javahé—have almost identical cultures and are all oriented toward the river

Rabaul

2005-03-04T19:37:00.000-08:00

The town, founded in 1910 as a German colonial headquarters, was the capital (1921–41) of the Australian-administered Territory of New Guinea mandated by the League of Nations. Occupied by the Japanese from 1942 to 1945, Rabaul

Ilam

2005-03-04T19:28:00.000-08:00

The surrounding region is a continuation of the valley of Mesopotamia

'alenu

2005-03-04T17:01:00.000-08:00

(Hebrew: “it is our duty”), the opening word of an extremely old Jewish prayer, which has been recited at the end of the three periods of daily prayer since the European Middle Ages. The first section of the 'alenu is a prayer of thanks for having set Israel apart for the service of God; the second section, omitted by those who follow the Sephardic (Spanish) rite, expresses a hope

Tear Duct And Gland,

2005-03-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

Also called Lachrymal, or Lacrimal, Duct And Gland, the structures that produce, distribute, and carry away tears (drops of clear saline fluid that are diffused between the eye and eyelid). Tears moisten the membrane that covers the eye (conjunctiva) and facilitate motion. Tears are also secreted as a reflex response to various stimuli, including irritants to the cornea, bright lights, and hot or peppery substances in

Scamozzi, Vincenzo

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

Trained by his father, Bertotti Scamozzi, he studied in Venice and Rome and traveled widely through western Europe. The classicizing influence of Andrea Palladio and Sebastiano Serlio is evident in the palaces, villas, and churches that

Economic Stabilizer

2005-03-02T22:33:00.000-08:00

Any of the institutions and practices in an economy that serve to reduce fluctuations in the business cycle through offsetting effects on the amounts of income available for spending (disposable income). The most important automatic stabilizers include unemployment compensation and other transfer payment programs, farm price supports, and family and corporate

Sa'ib

2005-03-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

Sa'ib was educated in Esfahan, and in about 1626/27 he traveled to India, where he was received into the court of Shah Jahan. He stayed for a time in Kabul and in Kashmir, returning home after several years abroad. After his

Palatine

2005-03-02T03:04:00.000-08:00

During the

France, History Of, Cultural and scientific attainments

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

The cultural climate of the later 19th century in France, as in the Atlantic world generally, was strongly marked by the current called positivism. The post-1848 generation looked with contempt on what it considered the excesses and the bad taste of the preceding Romantic era. A new interest in science and a new vogue of realism in literature and the arts prevailed during

Leonardo Pisano

2005-03-01T14:35:00.000-08:00

For several years Leonardo corresponded with Frederick II and his scholars, exchanging problems with them. He dedicated his Liber quadratorum (1225; “Book of Square Numbers”) to Frederick. Devoted entirely to Diophantine equations of the second degree (i.e., containing squares), the Liber quadratorum is considered Leonardo's masterpiece. It is a systematically arranged

Tien Shan, Glaciation

2005-03-01T01:19:00.000-08:00

The total area of the Tien Shan glaciers is some 3,900 square miles, of which approximately four-fifths is in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan. Largest among the several glacial areas are the region around Mount Han-t'eng-ko-li and Victory Peak and the O-ha-pu-t'e Mountains. There also are many glaciers in the Kok Shaal-Tau Range, the Akshiyrak Range, the Trans-Ili Alatau Range, and the

Silko, Leslie Marmon

2005-02-28T16:17:00.000-08:00

Silko, of mixed Laguna Pueblo, white, and Mexican ancestry, grew up on the Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico, where she learned Laguna traditions and myths. After attending Bureau of Indian Affairs schools and graduating

Roman-dutch Law

2005-02-27T03:53:00.000-08:00

The system of law produced by the fusion of early modern Dutch law, chiefly of Germanic origin, and Roman, or civil, law. It existed in the Netherlands province of Holland from the 15th to the early 19th century and was carried by Dutch colonists to the Cape of Good Hope, where it became the foundation of modern South African law. It also influenced the legal systems of other

Basanavicius, Jonas

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

In 1873 Basanavicius went to Moscow to study history and archaeology but after a year changed to medicine. He was graduated in 1879 and spent most of the next 25 years practicing medicine in Bulgaria. He edited the first number of the important

Alaska, Explorations

2005-02-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

As early as 1700, native peoples of Siberia reported the existence of a huge piece of land lying due east. An expedition appointed by the Russian tsar and led by a Danish mariner, Vitus Bering, in 1728 determined that the new land was not linked to the Russian mainland, but because of fog it failed to locate North America. On Bering's second voyage, in 1741, the peak of Mount St. Elias was sighted,

Howell, James

2005-02-26T06:44:00.000-08:00

Anglo-Welsh writer known for his Epistolae Ho-Elianae, 4 vol. (1645–55), early and lively essays in letter form. Though vividly recording contemporary phenomena, they lack historical reliability because of plagiarizing and the addition of fictitious dates—despite the author's position as historiographer royal, a post

Ventnor

2005-02-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

Town (“parish”), Isle of Wight, historic county of Hampshire, England. The town lies along the southeastern coast of the Isle of Wight. From a small fishing hamlet it grew in the 19th century into a fashionable resort, noted for its mild climate and long hours of sunshine. The novelist Charles Dickens lived for a time nearby, and the poet Algernon Swinburne is buried in

Improvisation

2005-02-25T01:41:00.000-08:00

Many of

Cat

2005-02-24T02:36:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation of Computerized Axial Tomography, a radiologic diagnostic technique used in medicine. See tomography.

Zittel, Karl Alfred, Ritter (knight) Von

2005-02-24T02:06:00.000-08:00

In 1863 Zittel became an assistant to the royal mineral cabinet of Vienna and professor of mineralogy, geognosy, and paleontology at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic. In 1866 he became professor of geology and paleontology at the University

Downing, Andrew Jackson

2005-02-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

Downing was born into horticulture, his father being a nurseryman. After finishing his schooling at 16, he worked in his father's nursery and gradually became interested in landscape gardening and architecture.

1801, Concordat Of

2005-02-22T23:40:00.000-08:00

In the agreement the First

Terni

2005-02-22T16:20:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Terni provincia, Umbria regione, central Italy. It lies along the Nera River, north of Rome. The city was founded on the site of the ancient city of Interamna Nahars and in the 14th century became a dominion of the papacy. Terni's important archaeological remains include a Neolithic village, cemeteries of the Villanovan period, and a Roman amphitheatre

Reginald Of Châtillon

2005-02-22T15:47:00.000-08:00

Reginald left for the Holy Land in 1147 and put

Performing Arts, Africa.

2005-02-21T18:23:00.000-08:00

In Senegal, Joseph Gaï Ramaka's Karmen Geï translated Prosper Merimée's Carmen to modern Africa and a sexually more complex society, while Moussa Sene Absa's Madame Brouette was a lively music-driven story of independent women in revolt against feckless and self-serving men. From Chad, Mahamet Saleh Haroun's Abouna (Our Father) related the optimistic saga of two young

Van Horne, Sir William Cornelius

2005-02-21T16:37:00.000-08:00

Van Horne worked as a telegraph operator on the Illinois Central Railroad. By 1880 he was general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad system. In 1881 he became general manager of the Canadian Pacific

Traill, Catherine Parr

2005-02-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

Traill, a writer of children's books in England, emigrated to the wilderness of Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1832 with her husband and her sister, the writer Susanna Strickland Moodie.

Economic Stabilizer

2005-02-20T00:54:00.000-08:00

Peter Ii

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

Peter married (1204) Mary, lady of Montpellier, and thus greatly extended Aragonese power in southern France. Despite the violent objections of his subjects, he had himself crowned by Pope Innocent III in Rome and declared his kingdom a feudatory of the Holy See (1204). Peter, with other Spanish kings,

Dahlbergh, Eric, Count (greve)

2005-02-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

After serving as an engineer (1655–57) in Sweden's Polish campaign, Dahlbergh returned to fight

Cinématographe

2005-02-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

First motion-picture apparatus, used as both camera and projector. The invention of Louis and Auguste Lumière, manufacturers of photographic materials of Lyon, Fr., it was based in part on the Kinetoscope of Thomas A. Edison in the United States and in part on the Théâtre Optique of Émile Reynaud in Paris. From Edison's invention the Lumières took the idea of a sprocket-wound

Downing, Sir George

2005-02-18T06:45:00.000-08:00

The son of a Puritan lawyer, Downing was one of the first graduates of Harvard College,

Eurodollar

2005-02-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

A United States dollar that has been deposited outside the United States, especially in Europe. Foreign banks holding Eurodollars are obligated to pay in U.S. dollars when the deposits are withdrawn. Dollars form the largest component of all currencies in which such deposits are held and which are generally known as Eurocurrency. The name originated in the early

Ibn Khaldun

2005-02-17T06:12:00.000-08:00

In full Wali al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Ibn Khaldun the greatest Arab historian, who developed one of the earliest nonreligious philosophies of history, contained in his masterpiece, the Muqaddimah (“Introduction”). He also wrote a definitive history of Muslim North Africa.

Lévis-lauzon

2005-02-17T03:42:00.000-08:00

City, Chaudière-Appalaches region, southern Quebec province, Canada, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite the city of Quebec, with which it is linked by ferry. The settlement, founded in 1647, was formerly called Aubigny in honour of the Duke of Richmond (who had inherited the title of Duke d'Aubigny). From the heights above the town, the British general James Wolfe

Arab Legion

2005-02-16T08:11:00.000-08:00

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

Wagner, Robert F(erdinand)

2005-02-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

Wagner arrived in the United States at the age of eight and settled with his parents in a New York tenement neighborhood. After graduating from the City College of New York in 1898, he went on to obtain a law degree from New York Law School in 1900. Later that year he was

Densitometer

2005-02-14T20:07:00.000-08:00

Device that measures the density, or the degree of darkening, of a photographic film or plate by recording photometrically its transparency (fraction of incident light transmitted). In visual methods, two beams of equal intensity are used. One is directed through the plate, while the intensity of the other is adjusted by an optical wedge, by an iris diaphragm, or by moving

Wyoming

2005-02-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

When European

Epistemology, Tautological versus significant propositions

2005-02-14T01:06:00.000-08:00

A proposition is said to be tautological if its constituent terms repeat themselves or if they can be reduced to terms that do, so that the proposition is of the form “a = a.” In such a case the proposition is said to be trivial and empty of cognitive import. A proposition is said to be significant if its constituent terms are such that the proposition does provide new information

Gene Flow

2005-02-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

Also called gene migration the introduction of genetic material (by interbreeding) from one population of a species to another, thereby changing the composition of the gene pool of the receiving population. The introduction of new alleles through gene flow increases variability within the population and makes possible new combinations of traits. In human beings gene flow usually comes

Asia, North Asia

2005-02-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

Northeastern Siberia comprises faulted and folded mountains of moderate height, such as the Verkhoyansk, Chersky, and Okhotsk-Chaun mountain arcs, all Mesozoic structures that have been rejuvenated by geologically recent tectonic events. The Koryak Mountains are similar but have a Cenozoic origin. Volcanic activity took place in these areas during the Cenozoic.

Detaille, édouard

2005-02-12T17:56:00.000-08:00

Detaille studied with Ernest Meissonier and employed a technique of literal exactitude based on that of his teacher. Detaille developed a wide knowledge of military detail, which made his work an important source for the study of late-19th-century

Cineas

2005-02-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

Thessalian who served as chief adviser to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus in Greece. In 281 Cineas attempted, without success, to dissuade Pyrrhus from invading Italy. After Pyrrhus defeated the Romans at Heraclea in Lucania (280), Cineas was sent to Rome to negotiate a peace. According to the 2nd-century-AD Greek historian Appian, he demanded that the Romans halt their aggression

Steel, Argon-oxygen decarburization

2005-02-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

In the production of stainless steel and other high-alloy grades that contain highly oxidizable elements such as chromium, lowering the levels of carbon by regular oxygen injection has the undesirable consequence of oxidizing the alloying elements as well. The argon-oxygen decarburization (AOD) process alleviates this problem by diluting the injected oxygen

Computers, IBM develops FORTRAN

2005-02-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

In the early 1950s John Backus convinced his managers at IBM to let him put together a team to design a language and write a compiler for it. He had a machine in mind: the IBM 704, which had built-in floating-point math operations. That the 704 used floating-point representation made it especially useful for scientific work, and Backus believed that a scientifically oriented programming

Canada Balsam

2005-02-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

Canada balsam solidifies to a transparent mass and is an important cement, particularly

France, History Of, Constitution of the Fourth Republic

2005-02-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

It soon became clear that the apparent unity forged in the Resistance was superficial and that the new political elite was sharply divided over the form of the new republic. Some urged the need for greater stability through a strong executive; others, notably the Communists, favoured concentrating power in a one-house legislature subject to grass-roots control