SmoothStomach

Sharman, Bill

2005-11-18T09:25:00.000-08:00

After graduation from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1950), Sharman played minor-league baseball before beginning his basketball career. He first played basketball with the Washington Capitols (1950–51). In his

2005-10-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

Argentina, Settlement patterns

2005-07-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

The varied topography, climate, and natural resources of Argentina shaped the pattern of European settlement. Although modern transportation and industry have partly effaced regional differences, the organization of life in both city and country still follows patterns that were set in early colonial times.

Faience Fine

2005-07-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Fine white English lead-glazed earthenware, or creamware, imported into France from about 1730 onward. Staffordshire “salt glaze” was imported first, followed by the improved Wedgwood “Queen's ware” and the Leeds “cream-coloured ware.” It was cheaper than French faience, or tin-glazed earthenware, and more durable and was therefore subjected to heavy tariffs in 1741 and 1749. A Franco-British

Gabon, Demographic trends

2005-07-23T02:55:00.000-07:00

Gabon, like its central African neighbours, has a very low population density. Since 1970, as a result of increased urbanization, the low rate of natural increase of the previous half-century appears to have given way to a relatively high growth rate. The extent to which the heavy immigration of foreign workers and Equatorial Guinean refugees has contributed to this growth

Early, Jubal A(nderson)

2005-07-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

Confederate general in the American Civil War (1861–65) whose army at one time threatened Washington, D.C., but whose series of defeats during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of late 1864 and early 1865 led to the final collapse of the South. A West Point graduate, Early served in the Second Seminole War in Florida (1835–42) and the Mexican War (1846–48). In the period

Dead Sea

2005-06-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Arabic Al-Bahr al-Mayyit , Hebrew Yam HaMelah , also known as Salt Sea landlocked salt lake between Israel and Jordan, which lies some 1,300 feet (400 metres) below sea level—the lowest elevation and the lowest body of water on the surface of the Earth. Its eastern shore belongs to Jordan, and the southern half of its western shore belongs to Israel. The northern half of the western shore lies within the Palestinian West Bank and has been under Israeli

Welch, Denton

2005-06-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Welch was educated at Repton School in Derbyshire. After a visit to China he studied painting at the Goldsmith School of Art. In 1935, while still at school, he was severely injured

Heilungkiang

2005-06-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Heilungkiang was long sparsely inhabited by hunters and fishermen who used canoes, dogsleds, skis, and reindeer as transport.

Avinu Malkenu

2005-06-01T01:25:00.000-07:00

The

Wolverhampton

2005-05-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

Metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of West Midlands, historic county of Staffordshire, England. It lies in the northwestern part of the industrial Black Country, near the farmlands of Shropshire and Staffordshire. The early town was mainly an agricultural centre. With the development of the Staffordshire coal and ironstone deposits, Wolverhampton became

Kora

2005-05-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Long-necked harp lute of the Malinke people of western Africa. The instrument's body is composed of a long hardwood neck that passes through a calabash gourd resonator, itself covered by a leather soundboard. Twenty-one leather or nylon strings are attached to the top of the neck with leather tuning rings. The strings pass over a notched bridge (10 strings

Nova, João Da

2005-05-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Commanding a fleet of four ships, Nova left Portugal on a voyage to India in 1501. His crews included Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America was later named. En route he discovered Ascension Island.

Frame Story

2005-03-15T15:36:00.000-08:00

Also called� frame tale� overall unifying story within which one or more tales are related. In the single story, the opening and closing constitutes a frame. In the cyclical frame story - that is, a story in which several tales are related - some frames are externally imposed and only loosely bind the diversified stories. For example, the Jataka, a treasury of some 550 ancient Indian folktales, is cast

Alexander I

2005-03-14T23:57:00.000-08:00

The son of Prince Alexander of Hesse (previously created prince of Battenberg upon his morganatic marriage) and a favourite nephew of Alexander II of Russia, Alexander served during 1877 with the Russian forces in the Russo-Turkish War (1877 - 78), which resulted in the autonomy of Bulgaria.

Strachwitz, Moritz (karl Wilhelm Anton), Graf Von

2005-03-11T23:18:00.000-08:00

After studying in Breslau and Berlin, Strachwitz settled on his estate in Moravia, where he did his writing. He was involved with a Berlin literary club, Tunnel �

Balaguer, Victor

2005-03-07T01:29:00.002-08:00

Balaguer was a precocious youth; his first dramatic essay, P�pin el Jorobado; o, el hijo de Carlomagno (1838; �Pippin the Hunchbacked; or, The Son of Charlemagne�), was staged in Barcelona when he was 14. At 19 he was publicly �crowned� after the production of his second play, Don Enrique el Dadivoso (1843; �Don Henry

Balaguer, Victor

2005-03-07T01:29:00.001-08:00

Balaguer, Victor

2005-03-07T01:29:00.000-08:00

�benr�

2005-03-06T00:41:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Aabenraa � city, seat of S�nderjylland amtskommune (county commune), southeastern Jutland, Denmark, at the head of �benr� Fjord. First mentioned in the 12th century when attacked by the Wends, it was granted a charter (1335) and grew from a fishing village into a thriving port in the 17th and 18th centuries. Medieval landmarks include the St. Nicholas Church (a 13th-century church; restored 1949 - 56) and

Italy, The Ostrogothic kingdom

2005-03-05T23:24:00.000-08:00

Odoacer was conquered and killed by Theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths (489 - 526). The decades of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy (489 - 552) can be seen as the first true period of Germanic rule in the peninsula, for an entire tribe of 100,000 to 200,000 people came with Theoderic. Still, the Ostrogothic kingdom continued to operate inside a largely Roman political system. Like Odoacer, Theoderic courted

Tzu Ssu

2005-03-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

Pinyin �Zi Si, �also called �(Wade - Gile romanization) K'ung Chi� Chinese philosopher, grandson of Confucius, native of the ancient state of Lu (present Shantung province), and according to tradition, the author of the Doctrine of the Mean. This classic, now part of the Li Chi (�Record of Rites�) and classified as one of the Four Books, reaffirms Confucius' interpretation of the mean as the state of equilibrium (chung yung) of the exemplary

Ford, Edmund Brisco

2005-03-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

Ford joined the faculty at the University of Oxford in 1927; he was made professor of ecological genetics in 1963, becoming emeritus professor in 1969. He

Piura

2005-03-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

department (formed 1861) of northern Peru, consisting of coastal desert, particularly in the west and south, and low, forested Andean mountains in the east. It is drained by the Chira River in the north and the Piura River in the south. The irrigated valleys of these two rivers are used chiefly for the production of cotton. Upstream on the Piura River, sugarcane, rice, tobacco,

Nagoya

2005-03-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

The history of Nagoya dates from 1610, when a great castle was erected by the Owari branch of the powerful Tokugawa shogunate. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), which marked the end of shogunal government, Nagoya continued as a commercial

Avunculate

2005-03-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

Special relationship between a man and his sister's children, particularly her sons, which prevails in many societies, notably those characterized by matrilineal descent. The term is derived from the Latin avunculus, meaning �uncle.� It typically involves for the uncle a measure of authority over his nephews, coupled with specific responsibilities in their upbringing,

Progressive Party

2005-03-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

(1924), in the United States, a short-lived independent political party assembled for the 1924 presidential election by forces dissatisfied with the conservative attitudes and programs of the Democrats and Republicans. The Progressive Party included liberals, agrarians, Republican progressives, socialists, and labour representatives. It chose as its presidential candidate Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, who in 1911 had organized what became an independent party formally called the Progressive but generally known as the Bull Moose Party (q.v.). The 1924 Progressives pledged a �housecleaning� of executive departments, public control of natural resources, public ownership of railways, and tax reduction. The party polled only some 17 percent of the popular vote and did not influence the election, in which President Calvin Coolidge and the Republicans won a majority. The Progressive Party dissolved when La Follette died the following year.

Balas, Iolanda

2005-03-01T01:20:00.000-08:00

Balas cleared the bar in a variation of the scissors method; her coach was Ion S�ter, an outstanding high-jumper whom she later married. She already held the women's

Ben Jelloun, Tahar

2005-02-28T19:26:00.000-08:00

Ben Jelloun's first collection of poetry, Hommes sous linceul de silence (1971; �Men Under

Progressive Party

2005-02-28T02:59:00.000-08:00

Former industrial union in the United States and Canada that represented workers in the women's clothing industry. When the ILGWU was formed in 1900, most of its members were Jewish immigrants employed in sweatshops - i.e., small manufacturing establishments that employed workers under unfair and unsanitary conditions. Successful strikes in 1909 and 1910 in New York City by the

Ben Jelloun, Tahar

2005-02-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

Ben Jelloun's first collection of poetry, Hommes sous linceul de silence (1971; �Men Under

Cylinder Seal

2005-02-27T03:56:00.000-08:00

Small stone cylinder engraved in intaglio on its surface to leave impressions when rolled on wet clay. Cylinder seals are characteristic artifacts of ancient Mesopotamian civilization and are considered some of its finest artistic achievements. The seals first appear during the Protoliterate Period (c. 3400 - 2900 BC), and, although the earliest examples used primarily geometric,

Epidemic

2005-02-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

An occurrence of disease that is temporarily of high prevalence. An epidemic occurring over a wide geographical area is called a pandemic. The rise and decline in epidemic prevalence of an infectious disease is a probability phenomenon dependent upon transfer of an effective dose of the infectious agent from an infected individual to a susceptible one. After

Esmarch, Friedrich Von

2005-02-25T21:46:00.000-08:00

Esmarch studied medicine at Kiel and G�ttingen. He graduated in 1848 and in the same year was called up as army surgeon in the war with Denmark, during which he

Eye Dialect

2005-02-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

the use of misspellings that are based on standard pronunciations (such as sez for says or kow for cow) but are usually intended to suggest a speaker's illiteracy or his use of generally nonstandard pronunciations. It is sometimes used in literature for comic effect.

Magnus V Erlingsson

2005-02-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

The son of Erling the Crooked, Magnus became king in 1162 when his supporters, led by his father, defeated the forces of the incumbent king, Haakon II Sigurdsson.

Waite, Morrison Remick

2005-02-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

seventh chief justice of the United States (1874 - 88), who frequently spoke for the Supreme Court in interpreting the post-Civil War constitutional amendments and in redefining governmental jurisdiction over commerce in view of the great expansion of American business. Reacting against the extreme nationalism predominant during

Biblical Literature, Numbers

2005-02-23T23:51:00.000-08:00

In the Hebrew Bible this book is entitled Bemidbar (In the Wilderness) after one of its opening words, while in English versions it is called Numbers, a translation of the Greek Septuagint title Arithmoi. Each of the titles gives an indication of the content of the book: (1) the narrative of �40 Years� of wanderings in the wilderness, or desert, between Sinai and Canaan; and (2) the

Ashmore And Cartier Islands

2005-02-23T01:20:00.000-08:00

officially �Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands� external territory of Australia, in the Indian Ocean. The islands lie 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Western Australia. The Ashmore Islands, comprising Middle, East, and West islands, are coral islets within a reef. Cartier Island, also lying within a reef, is more sandy in composition. Created in 1934, the territory was administratively linked to the Northern Territory of Australia

Songhai Empire

2005-02-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

Though the Songhai people are said to have established themselves in the city of Gao about AD 800, they did not regard it as their capital until the beginning of

Feldspar

2005-02-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

Of the more than 3,000 known mineral species, less than 0.1 percent make up the bulk of the Earth's crust and mantle. These and an

Muret, Marc-antoine De

2005-02-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

From age 18 Muret taught classics at various schools; Michel de Montaigne was among his pupils. During the 1540s his play Julius Caesar, written in Latin, was performed; it is the first tragedy on a secular theme known to have been written

Siwa Oasis

2005-02-21T08:21:00.000-08:00

Arabic �Wahat Siwah� oasis in Matruh muhafazah (governorate), western Egypt. It lies near the Libyan frontier, 350 miles (560 km) west-southwest of Cairo. The oasis is 6 miles (10 km) long by 4 - 5 miles (6 - 8 km) wide and has about 200 springs. Two rock outcrops provide the sites of the old walled settlements of Siwa and Aghurmi, which are veritable fortresses. The oasis is inhabited by Berber-speaking Sudanic peoples who live in mud-brick

Kermadec Islands

2005-02-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

Volcanic island group in the South Pacific Ocean, 600 mi (1,000 km) northeast of Auckland, New Zealand; they are a dependency of New Zealand. They include Raoul (Sunday), Macauley, and Curtis islands and l'Esperance Rock and have a total land area of 13 sq mi (34 sq km). Raoul, the largest (11.3 sq mi), has rugged coastal cliffs that rise to Mt. Mumukai (1,723 ft [525 m]). It is heavily wooded and fertile, but its indigenous

Anthropoidea

2005-02-20T02:04:00.000-08:00

suborder of primates including the families Callitrichidae (marmoset, q.v.), Cebidae (New World monkeys), Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys), Hylobatidae (gibbon and siamang, qq.v.), Pongidae (gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan, qq.v.), Hominidae (humans and fossil relatives), and the fossil group Parapithecidae.

Anti-lebanon Mountains

2005-02-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

Arabic �Al-jabal Ash-sharqi, or Lubnan Ash-sharqi, �French �Anti-liban, � mountain range that runs northeast-southwest along the Syrian-Lebanese border parallel to the Lebanon Mountains, from which they are separated by the al-Biqa' Valley. The range averages 6,500 feet (2,000 m) above sea level, with several peaks exceeding 8,000 feet (2,400 m). As it runs south, the Anti-Lebanon range is interrupted by a broad shoulder (the Zabadani Saddle) of Mount Hermon, 9,232 feet (2,814 m) high,

Epistemology, Pre-Socratics

2005-02-18T19:34:00.000-08:00

The central focus of ancient Greek philosophy was its attempt to solve the problem of motion. Many pre-Socratic philosophers thought that no logically coherent account of motion and change could be given. This problem was a concern of metaphysics, not epistemology, however, and in the present context it suffices merely to allude to the arguments of Parmenides and

Carnivore, Importance to humans

2005-02-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

The seal is of significant importance to the survival of the Eskimos and other inhabitants of the north, who use almost every part of the animal: the meat is eaten; bones used for implements; tendons for sewing; hides for leather to make footwear, boats, shelters, bags, clothing, and ornaments; and the oil and fat for fuel, lubrication, and tanning. The ivory tusks of the walrus

Jibril

2005-02-17T20:33:00.000-08:00

Muhammad himself could not at first identify the spirit that possessed him, and the Qur'an mentions him by name only three times. Jibril, however, became Muhammad's constant helper.

Sea Bass

2005-02-17T04:08:00.000-08:00

Any of the numerous fishes of the family Serranidae (order Perciformes), most of which are marine and found in the shallower regions of warm and tropical seas. The family includes about 400 species, many of them well-known food and sport fishes. Although the term sea bass may be used for the family as a whole, the fishes themselves

Qattara Depression

2005-02-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

Arid Libyan Desert (Eastern Saharan) basin in northwestern Egypt. Covering about 7,000 square miles (18,100 square km) and containing salt lakes and marshes, it descends to 435 feet (133 m) below sea level. During World War II, because it was impassable to military traffic, the depression formed a natural anchor at the southern end of the British defense lines at El-Alamein (Al-'Alamayn; in northwestern

Chesnutt, Charles W.

2005-02-16T16:19:00.000-08:00

Chesnutt was the son of free blacks who had left their native city of Fayetteville, N.C., prior to the American Civil War. Following the war his parents moved back to Fayetteville, where Chesnutt completed his education and began teaching. He was named assistant principal (1877 - 80) and then principal

Percy, Thomas

2005-02-15T23:23:00.000-08:00

The basis of Percy's collection was a tattered 15th-century manuscript of ballads (known as the Percy folio) found in the house of a friend

Flodden, Battle Of

2005-02-15T11:42:00.000-08:00

(Sept. 9, 1513), English victory over the Scots, fought near Branxton, Northumberland. To honour his alliance with France (1512) and divert troops from the main English army, which was then in France under Henry VIII, James IV of Scotland crossed the border (Aug. 22, 1513) with an army of about 30,000 men supported by artillery. Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, Henry's lieutenant in the north, gathered an army

Blueberry

2005-02-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

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

Earth Sciences, Water resources and seawater chemistry

2005-02-14T04:53:00.000-08:00

Quantitative studies of the distribution of water have revealed that an astonishingly small part of the Earth's water is contained in lakes and rivers. Ninety-seven percent of all the water is in the oceans; and, of the fresh water constituting the remainder, three-fourths is locked up in glacial ice and most of the rest is in the ground. Approximate figures are also

Bona Dea

2005-02-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

(Latin: �Good Goddess�), in Roman religion, deity of fruitfulness, both in the earth and in women. She was identified with various goddesses who had similar functions. The dedication day of her temple on the Aventine was May 1. Her temple was cared for and attended by women only, and the same was the case at a second celebration, at the beginning of December, in the house of a sovereign

Mosby, John Singleton

2005-02-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

Reared near Charlottesville, Va., Mosby entered the University of Virginia in 1849 and graduated in 1852. While there, he shot at and wounded a few students, but his resulting jail sentence

Arecibo River

2005-02-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

Spanish �in full R�o Grande De Arecibo, � river in west-central Puerto Rico. The Arecibo River rises in the Cordillera Central just east of Mount Guilarte. It flows north-northeast about 40 miles (65 km) through a coffee-growing region and descends across the northern coastal plain to empty into the Atlantic Ocean just east of the port of Arecibo. At the northern edge of the cordilleran foothills, the river is impounded

Wieschaus, Eric F.

2005-02-12T03:21:00.000-08:00

American developmental biologist who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, with geneticists Edward B. Lewis and Christiane N�sslein-Volhard (qq.v.), for discovering the genetic controls of early embryonic development. Working together with N�sslein-Volhard, Wieschaus expanded upon the innovative work of Lewis, who likewise

M�ller, Poul Martin

2005-02-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

Danish author whose novel of student life, the first in his country's literature that dealt with the contemporary scene, marked an important stage in the history of Danish literature. His aphorism, �All poetry that does not come from life is a lie,� sums up his realistic approach in a romantic age. He is also distinguished

Ijsselmeer Polders

2005-02-11T00:55:00.000-08:00

The Zuiderzee project, which involved the construction of a dam (Afsluitdijk; completed 1932) enclosing the IJsselmeer

Eugenikos, Markos

2005-02-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

After a classical and theological education under tutors antagonistic to Rome, Eugenikos at 26 gave his property to the poor and became a monk

Aramaic Alphabet

2005-02-10T04:16:00.000-08:00

The Aramaic language and script were used as a lingua franca over all of the Middle

Pappenheim, Gottfried Heinrich, Count (graf) Zu

2005-02-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

Pappenheim served with the Catholic League, headed by the elector Maximilian I of Bavaria and commanded by Johann Tserclaes, Graf von Tilly. Idolized by his regiment of cuirassiers, the Pappenheimers, he proved a tempestuous cavalry officer, always

Essex, Geoffrey De Mandeville, 1st Earl Of

2005-02-09T02:47:00.000-08:00

Geoffrey was a great landowner in Essex and elsewhere and hereditary constable of the Tower of London. He came to prominence in 1140 when Stephen, who could not dispense with his support against Matilda, a rival claimant for the throne, made him hereditary

China, Early Mongol rule

2005-02-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

The government system during the early years of the Mongol conquest was a synthesis of Mongol military administration and a gradual return to Chinese traditions in those domains ruled by former subjects of the Chin state. The most important office or function in Mongol administration was that of the darughatchi (or seal bearer), whose powers were at first all-inclusive;

Amsterdam

2005-02-08T02:59:00.000-08:00

To the scores of tourists who visit each year, Amsterdam is known for its historical attractions, for its collections of great art, and for the distinctive colour and flavour of its old

Blois

2005-02-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

city, capital of Loir-et-Cher d�partement, Centre region, central France, on the Loire River, northeast of Tours. First mentioned in the 6th century by Gregory of Tours, it was by the early Middle Ages seat of the powerful counts of Blois, from whom descended the Capetian kings of France. At the end of the 14th century, Blois was acquired by Louis de France, duc d'Orl�ans. Joan of

Royal Antelope

2005-02-07T16:39:00.000-08:00

(Neotragus pygmaeus)� tiny antelope, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), found alone or in pairs in dense West African forests. It is the smallest of antelopes and stands only 25 cm (10 inches) high at the shoulder. It is reddish brown with white underparts; the male is distinguished by short, spikelike horns. Despite its size, the royal antelope is reputedly able to jump about 2.8 m (9 feet) at a bound. A slightly

Sackler, Arthur M.

2005-02-06T18:41:00.000-08:00

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

Moore

2005-02-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

City, Cleveland county, central Oklahoma, U.S., a southern suburb of Oklahoma City. First settled in 1887 and originally called Verbeck, it was renamed for a conductor of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Its population remained small until the 1960s when planned urban and industrial development began. Industries include the manufacture of aircraft parts, building

Nobel Prizes

2005-02-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

Controversy surrounded the Nobel Committee's decision to award the 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace to (�in alphabetical order�) Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasir Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin �for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.� Criticism was aimed not only at the choice of Arafat,

Amnesty International

2005-02-05T04:53:00.000-08:00

(AI), � international organization headquartered in London that seeks to inform public opinion about violations of human rights, especially the abridgments of freedom of speech and of religion and the imprisonment and torture of political dissidents, and which actively seeks the release of political prisoners and the relief, when necessary, of their families. In

Bhave, Vinoba

2005-02-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

Born of a high-caste Brahman family, he abandoned his high-school studies in 1916 to join Gandhi's ashram (ascetic community). Gandhi's teachings led Bhave to a life of austerity, dedicated

Lima

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

city, capital of Peru and of Lima department. It is the country's commercial and industrial centre. Central Lima is located at an elevation of 512 feet (156 metres) on the south bank of the R�o R�mac, about eight miles (13 km) inland from the Pacific Ocean port of Callao, and has an area of 27 square miles (70 square km). Its name is a corruption of the Quechua Indian name R�mac, meaning �Talker.� The

Da Nang

2005-02-03T05:33:00.000-08:00

French �Tourane, � city, central Vietnam. Lying at the southern end of a horseshoe-shaped bay, it is one of the largest cities in Vietnam and the chief port of the central lowlands. Although partially enclosed on the northeast by the Annamese Cordillera (French: Cha�ne Annamitique; Vietnamese: Nui Truong Son), which there reaches an elevation of 4,636 feet (1,413 m), its excellent harbour is still somewhat

Wyandotte

2005-02-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

City, Wayne County, southeastern Michigan, U.S., on the Detroit River, just southwest of Detroit. Settled in about 1820, it was laid out in 1854 on the site of the Indian village where Chief Pontiac had planned his attack on Detroit in 1763. Its name recalls the Wyandot (Wendat) Indians, a confederation of the Huron nation. The first commercial Bessemer steel in the United States was produced

Peter, Gospel Of

2005-02-02T04:48:00.000-08:00

pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) Christian writing of the mid-2nd century AD, the extant portion of which covers the condemnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus. Because the work reflects the view that Christ's body had only the appearance of reality, Serapion, bishop of Antioch c. AD 190, believed it was written by a member of the heretical Docetist sect.

Florensky, Pavel Alexandrovich

2005-02-01T20:58:00.000-08:00

In 1904 Florensky received a degree in philosophy and mathematics from Moscow University, and four years later he obtained his graduate degree from the Moscow Theological Academy, where he eventually taught. Ordained a

Stingray

2005-02-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

The dasyatid

Denbighshire

2005-01-31T22:05:00.000-08:00

Welsh �Sir Ddinbych� county of northern Wales extending inland from the Irish Sea coast. The present county of Denbighshire includes the Vale of Clwyd along the River Clwyd and an inland area between the Clwydian Range in the east and the Clocaenog Forest in the west that ascends to the Berwyn mountains in the south. The lower Vale of Clywd and the seacoast are part of the historic county

Petermann Ranges

2005-01-31T13:26:00.000-08:00

Low mountains extending for 200 miles (320 km) from east-central Western Australia southeast to the southwest corner of Northern Territory. A continuation of the granite and gneiss formations in the Musgrave Ranges to the southeast, the Petermanns rise to a height of 3,800 feet (1,158 metres). Visited (1874) by Ernest Giles, the mountains were named after August Petermann, a German geographer.

Earthfill Dam

2005-01-30T18:56:00.000-08:00

Also called �Earth Dam, or Embankment Dam, � dam built up by compacting successive layers of earth, using the most impervious materials to form a core and placing more permeable substances on the upstream and downstream sides. A facing of crushed stone prevents erosion by wind or rain, and an ample spillway, usually of concrete, protects against catastrophic washout should the water overtop the dam.

Novi Ligure

2005-01-30T17:19:00.000-08:00

town, Alessandria provincia, Piedmont regione, northwestern Italy, north of Genoa. A free commune until 1192, it then fell successively to Tortona and Milan before passing to Genoa in 1447. It was the scene of an Austro-Russian army's defeat of the French in 1799. Novi Ligure is now an important rail and road junction with iron and steel, food, and textile industries. Pop. (1993 est.) mun., 29,653.

Aegithalidae

2005-01-29T00:53:00.000-08:00

Songbird family that includes the long-tailed tits (or titmice) of the Old World and the bushtits of North America. Both groups are sometimes considered subfamilies of the family Paridae (order Passeriformes). The eight species are small, arboreal insect eaters with long, narrow tails; tiny bills; and silky, plain plumage. The nest is a thick-walled,

Sokol

2005-01-29T00:28:00.000-08:00

(Czech: �Hawk,� or �Falcon�), gymnastic society, originating in Prague in 1862 to develop strength, litheness, alertness, and courage. Originally patterned after the German turnverein, the Sokol traditionally emphasized mass calisthenics as a means of promoting communal spirit and physical fitness. Banned during the Nazi occupation, the Sokol movement was revived in 1945 but

Ploceidae

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

Songbird family, order Passeriformes, including the bishop, weaver, and whydah groups and Old World sparrows. The 135 to 155 species are native chiefly to Africa - but several have been introduced elsewhere. Ploceids are small, compact birds with short, stout bills. In many species the males are brightly coloured; some acquire, in nonbreeding season, dull plumage resembling

Egypt, The Kingdom of Egypt (1922

2005-01-28T06:54:00.000-08:00

The new kingdom was in form a constitutional monarchy. The constitution, based on that of Belgium and promulgated in April 1923, defined the King's executive powers and established a bicameral legislature. An electoral law provided for universal male suffrage and the indirect election of deputies to the lower house: the Senate was half elected and half appointed. But

Salamis

2005-01-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Modern Greek �Salam�s, � island and town, nom�s (department) of Attik�, Greece. The island lies in the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, west of the city of Piraeus. The town (the present combined municipality of Salam�s-Na�stathmos) is a port on the west coast of the island. On the east, between the island and the mainland, are the straits in which the Greeks won a decisive naval victory over the Persians

Fabius Pictor, Quintus

2005-01-27T02:15:00.000-08:00

A member of the Senate, he fought against the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War (218 - 201) and was sent on a mission to the Oracle of Delphi after the disastrous Roman defeat at Cannae (216). His history, now lost, was an account of the development of Rome from the earliest times. Fabius wrote it in Greek, partly because he sought to justify Roman

Disjunction

2005-01-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

in logic, relation or connection of terms in a proposition to express the concept �or�; it is a statement of alternatives (sometimes called �alternation�). For clarity, exclusive disjunction (either x or y but not both), symbolized x �� y, x � y, or x �/y, must be distinguished from inclusive disjunction (either x or y or both x and y), symbolized x � y. See also implication.

Asahi Shimbun

2005-01-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

Founded in Osaka in 1879, Asahi has been in the hands of the Murayama and Ueno families since 1881. Asahi is particularly noted for its political coverage and its foreign news.

Cystitis

2005-01-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

Acute or chronic inflammation of the urinary bladder. The bladder, the storage sac for urine, is lined with a mucous membrane and is highly resistant to infection. Occasionally, however, infections arise from such neighbouring organs as the kidneys and (in females) the vagina and urethra and (in males) the urethra and the prostate. Other conditions such as obstructions,

Earth, Age of the oldest marine sediments

2005-01-24T17:54:00.000-08:00

Samples of sediments have been recovered as a result of deep drilling and piston coring from many parts of the world's ocean basins. These sediments have been dated by means of the fossils they contain. Such studies have shown that no old sediments are present (at least in the areas sampled) near mid-oceanic ridges. Moreover, the studies also have revealed that the age

Ford, Edmund Brisco

2005-01-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

Ford joined the faculty at the University of Oxford in 1927; he was made professor of ecological genetics in 1963, becoming emeritus professor in 1969. He

Biblical Literature, Form criticism

2005-01-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

In the Pauline writings, as noted above, gospel, kerygma, and creed come close together from oral to written formulas that were transmitted about the Christ event: Jesus' death and Resurrection. In the apostolic Fathers (early 2nd century), the transition was made from oral to written tradition; the translation of the presumed Aramaic traditions had taken place before

Kirk Range

2005-01-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

plateau in southwestern Malawi, extending in a north-south direction and skirting the southwestern shore of Lake Nyasa and the western border of the Shire River valley. The northern scarp overlooks the Central Region Plateau, while the southern limits merge into the lower Shire Highlands. The plateau's height decreases in a southerly direction, from 5,500 feet (1,676 m) at Dedza

Affenpinscher

2005-01-22T23:42:00.000-08:00

also called �Monkey Terrier, � breed of toy dog known since the 17th century. The affenpinscher stands 26 cm (10 inches) or less and weighs 3 to 3.5 kg (7 to 8 pounds). A sturdily built, terrier-like dog, it has small, erect ears, round black eyes, and a short, docked tail. Its wiry, preferably black coat is short on parts of the body but longer on the legs and on the face, where it produces the monkey-like expression for which the

Hawaiian Honeycreeper

2005-01-22T02:48:00.000-08:00

Any of 23 species of birds found only in the forests of the Hawaiian Islands. They constitute the family Drepanididae, order Passeriformes. Most of the species are called by native names (see amakihi; apapane; iiwi; mamo). Habitat destruction and the introduction of foreign birds and mammals has led to the extinction of at least 8 of the 23 species; most of the survivors are endangered.