AwakeHand

Hwicce

2005-04-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

The inhabitants of one of the subkingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that coincided with the medieval diocese of Worcester, a territory that then encompassed present Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and southwest Warwickshire. The southern part had been wrested from the Britons by the West Saxons sometime after 577, and the northern part was probably settled by Anglian

Prince, Harold

2005-04-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

The son of a New York stockbroker, Prince majored in English at the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1948) and began his theatrical career as an apprentice and stage manager for the noted producer

Cape Town, The city site

2005-04-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

The first settlement of Cape Town was situated between Table Mountain and Table Bay. It was bounded on the northwest by the ridges known as Lion's Head and Lion's Rump (later called Signal Hill), on the north by Table Bay, on the south by Devil's Peak, and on the east by marshlands and the sandy Cape Flats beyond. The nearest tillable land was on the lower eastern slopes of Devil's

Consolidated Rail Corporation

2005-04-03T04:03:00.000-07:00

Byname Conrail, publicly owned American railroad company established by the federal government under the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 to take over six bankrupt northeastern railroads. Conrail commenced operations on April 1, 1976, with major portions of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, Erie Lackawanna Railway Company, Lehigh & Hudson River Railway Company, Lehigh

Priestly Code

2005-04-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

Also called Priestly Source, or P, biblical source that, according to the document hypothesis, is one of the four original sources of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). The priestly writings are so named because they emphasize the priestly tradition or interest, giving detailed explanations and descriptions of ritual laws and procedures.

Le Maistre, Antoine

2005-04-02T05:24:00.000-08:00

Important figure in the Jansenist religious movement in France, a member of the Arnauld family (q.v.).

Polarization

2005-03-31T08:59:00.000-08:00

Light waves are transverse: that is, the vibrating electric vector associated with each wave is perpendicular to the direction of propagation. A beam of unpolarized light consists of waves moving in the same direction

Integraph

2005-03-31T07:15:00.000-08:00

Mathematical instrument for plotting the integral of a graphically defined function. Two such instruments were invented independently about 1880 by the British physicist Sir Charles Vernon Boys and the Lithuanian mathematician Bruno Abdank Abakanowicz and were later modified and improved by others. The integraph draws the graph of the integral as the user traces

Athamas

2005-03-31T00:40:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, king of the prehistoric Minyans in the ancient Boeotian city of Orchomenus. His first wife was Nephele, a cloud goddess. But later Athamas became enamoured of Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, and neglected Nephele, who disappeared in anger. Athamas and Ino incurred the wrath of the goddess Hera because Ino had nursed the god Dionysus (q.v.). Athamas went mad

Ducetius

2005-03-30T16:18:00.000-08:00

A Hellenized leader of the Siculi, an ancient people of Sicily, who for a short time welded the native communities of east Sicily into a powerful federation. He seized his opportunity during the confusion that followed the collapse of tyranny in Syracuse and other Sicilian states in 460. Enjoying the goodwill of the Syracusan democracy, he enlisted its help in driving

Toowoomba

2005-03-29T20:28:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern Queensland, Australia, on the Great Dividing Range. The principal inland city in the state, Toowoomba is a rail and road junction, tourist resort, service centre for Darling Downs (a livestock, grain, and dairying region of about 3,500,000 acres [1,400,000 hectares]), and site of the Perseverence Creek Water Supply Scheme. The town's industries include engineering works,

Peru, Drainage

2005-03-29T03:38:00.000-08:00

Distinctive drainage patterns dissect the Costa, Sierra, and Montaña. Of the more than 50 rivers that flow west from the Andes across the Costa, most are short (usually less than 200 miles long) and precipitous, with highly seasonal rates of flow. Most have a period of peak flow (usually during the December to March rainy season) followed by a long dry period; only the largest of

Davis, Henry Winter

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

Intent

China, The Nien Rebellion

2005-03-28T04:39:00.000-08:00

Often in the first half of the 19th century plundering gangs, called nien, ravaged northern Anhwei, southern Shantung, and southern Honan. In mid-century, however, their activities were suddenly intensified, partly by the addition to their numbers of a great many starving people who had lost their livelihood from repeated floods of the Huang Ho in the early 1850s, and partly

Dvur Králové Nad Labem

2005-03-28T04:03:00.000-08:00

City, Východoceský kraj (region), Czech Republic. The city lies just north of Hradec Králové, on the left bank of the Elbe (Czech: Labe) River. The name in both Czech and German (Königinhof an der Elbe) means ”the court of the queen on the Elbe,” recalling the founding of the town by King Wenceslas II at the end of the 13th century and the gift of the place to his queen, Elisabeth. It was the

India, The Deccan

2005-03-26T23:32:00.000-08:00

In the Deccan, the Vakataka dynasty was closely tied to the Guptas. With a nucleus in Vidarbha, the founder of the dynasty, Vindhyasakti, extended his power northward as far as Vidisa (near Ujjain). At the end of the 4th century, a collateral line of the Vakatakas was established by Sarvasena in Vatsagulma (Basim, in Akola district), and the northern line helped the southern to conquer

Sari

2005-03-26T09:54:00.000-08:00

Situated

Fisherman's Ring

2005-03-26T03:51:00.000-08:00

The pope's signet ring; it shows St. Peter as a fisherman and has the reigning pope's name inscribed around the border. Used since the 13th century as a seal for private letters and since the 15th century for papal briefs, it is one of two papal seals, the other being the leaden bull (bulla). The ring, which each newly elected pope receives, is publicly broken after his death.

Seto Great Bridge

2005-03-24T05:29:00.000-08:00

Japanese Seto Ohashi, a series of suspension bridges spanning the Inland Sea (Seto-naikai) between the islands of Honshu and Shikoku, Japan. The double-tiered rail and vehicular roadway is a network of six bridges, straddling a chain of five small islands, and extends 5.6 miles (9 km) over water to link the towns of Kojima, on Honshu, and Sakaide, on Shikoku. Its total length is 7.6 miles (12.2 km), and it consists

Empiricism, Stricter senses

2005-03-23T16:47:00.000-08:00

As a more strictly defined movement, Empiricism reflects certain fundamental distinctions and occurs in varying degrees.

Lochnagar

2005-03-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

Scenic mountain of coarse red granite, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, south of the River Dee in the Grampian Mountains. The mountain ridge, popularized in the 19th century by Lord Byron's poem “Lachin y Gair,” has 11 summits with elevations greater than 3,000 feet (900 metres); the highest is Cac Carn Beag, at 3,786 feet (1,154 metres). The name Lochnagar (“Goat Lake”) originally applied only to the small loch

Shah 'alam Ii

2005-03-23T06:28:00.000-08:00

Son of the emperor 'Alamgir II, he was forced to flee Delhi in 1758 by the minister 'Imad-ul-Mulk, who kept the emperor a virtual prisoner. He took refuge with Shuja'-ud-Dawlah, nawab of Oudh, and after his father's assassination in 1759 he proclaimed himself emperor. With the intention of seeking to

Economic Affairs

2005-03-21T23:26:00.000-08:00

The U.S. economy was skirting the edge of recession before the attacks; afterward it tumbled. Already-suffering

Aerobatics

2005-03-21T23:23:00.000-08:00

For a historical overview of the sport, see Annette Carson, Flight Fantastic: The Illustrated History of Aerobatics (1986). Information on aerobatic techniques may be found in Geza Szurovy and Michael Goulian, Advanced Aerobatics (1997); and Peter Mallinson, The Handbook of Glider Aerobatics (1999). Detailed information on the latest competition events and their formats may be obtained by contacting the International Aerobatics Commission of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in Paris.

Seleucus Ii Callinicus

2005-03-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Antiochus II repudiated his wife Laodice (Seleucus' mother) and married Ptolemy's daughter Berenice, but by 246 BC Antiochus had left Berenice in order to live again with Laodice and Seleucus in Asia Minor. Laodice poisoned him and proclaimed her son as King Seleucus II, while her partisans at Antioch

Polding, John Bede

2005-03-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

Polding joined the Benedictine Order in 1811 and was ordained priest in 1819. Consecrated bishop, he arrived at Sydney in 1835. There he divided his territory into missionary districts and swiftly provided them with priests, churches, and

Andersson, Dan(iel)

2005-03-20T09:25:00.000-08:00

Born to a poor family, he was a woodsman and charcoal burner before he became a temperance lecturer. His first two published volumes, which made the charcoal burners and, incidentally, himself famous, were

Percussion Instrument

2005-03-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

Any musical instrument belonging to either of two groups, idiophones or membranophones. Idiophones are instruments whose own substance vibrates to produce sound (as opposed to the strings of a guitar or the air column of a flute); examples include bells, clappers, and rattles. Membranophones emit sound by the vibration of a stretched membrane; the prime examples

Later Ly Dynasty

2005-03-19T09:40:00.000-08:00

Vietnamese Nha Hau Ly (1009–1225), first of the three great dynasties of Vietnam. The kingdom, known later as Dai Viet, was established by Ly Thai To in the Red River Delta area of present northern Vietnam. Its capital was Thang Long (Hanoi). (It is “later” with respect to the Earlier Ly dynasty, founded by Ly Bon and lasting from 544 to 602/603.) The Later Ly was the first stable Vietnamese dynasty and helped establish many

Peter Martyr

2005-03-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

Name commonly used in English for (1) St. Peter Martyr, who was killed in 1252 by the Cathari, a heretical Christian sect; (2) Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, who was an Italian historian; and (3) Peter Martyr Vermigli, who was one of the greatest Italian Reformers and a leading exponent of the Reformed doctrine of the sacraments.

Thomas à Kempis,

2005-03-18T18:36:00.000-08:00

About 1392 Thomas went

Crompton, Rookes Evelyn Bell

2005-03-18T04:18:00.000-08:00

After military service in India, where he had introduced steam-driven road transport, Crompton in 1875 became a partner in an engineering firm at Chelmsford, Essex, and soon broadened its activity to the construction of dynamos and arc

Anathema

2005-03-16T17:54:00.000-08:00

(from Greek anatithenai: “to set up,” or “to dedicate”), in the Old Testament, a creature or object set apart for sacrificial offering. Its return to profane use was strictly banned, and such objects, destined for destruction, thus became effectively accursed as well as consecrated. Old Testament descriptions of religious wars call both the enemy and their besieged city

Russell Family

2005-03-15T10:23:00.000-08:00

A famous English Whig family, the senior line of which has held the title of duke of Bedford since 1694. Originating in Dorset, the family first became prominent under the Tudor sovereigns, John Russell (died 1555) being created earl of Bedford for his part in suppressing a rebellion in 1549 against the Protestant innovations of Edward VI's reign. The family was connected with the

Natural History Museum

2005-03-15T05:17:00.000-08:00

The museum was formerly an integral part of the British

Football

2005-03-14T13:23:00.000-08:00

For an explanation of contemporary football sports, see football (soccer); football,

Byssinosis

2005-03-13T21:20:00.000-08:00

Also called Brown Lung, or Brown Lung Disease, respiratory disorder, a type of pneumoconiosis caused by dust from cotton and other fibres, common among textile workers. When inhaled, the dust stimulates histamine release, which causes constriction of the air passages, making breathing difficult. Over time the dust accumulates in the lung, producing a typical discoloration that gives the disease its common

Kochanowski, Jan

2005-03-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

Born into the country nobility, Kochanowski studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and later, between 1552 and 1559, at the University of Padua in Italy. On his return to Poland in 1559, he served as a secretary at the royal court in Kraków. He married about 1575 and retired to his family

Adam Brothers

2005-03-13T17:39:00.000-08:00

Three French brothers who sculpted many monuments for the French and Prussian royal residences. They were exponents of a style that employed the textures of shells, corals, and perforated rocks. Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700–59) created sculptures for King Louis XV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia. Nicolas-Sébastien Adam (1705–78) sculptured for Stanislas

Armenian Highland

2005-03-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

Russian Armyanskoye Nagorye, also spelled Arm'anskoje Nagor'e, mountainous region of Transcaucasia. It lies mainly in Turkey, occupies all of Armenia, and includes southern Georgia, western Azerbaijan, and northwestern Iran. The highland covers almost 154,400 square miles (400,000 square km). The average elevation of the Armenian Highland is 5,000 to 6,500 feet (1,500 to 2,000 m), but several peaks exceed 14,000 feet (4,000 m). The highland is a segment of the Mediterranean alpine volcanic

San Cristóbal

2005-03-12T04:29:00.000-08:00

Also called Makira , formerly Cristoval island in the Solomon Islands, southwestern Pacific Ocean, 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Guadalcanal. The island is about 80 miles (130 km) long, has a maximum width of 25 miles (40 km), and has an area of 1,231 square miles (3,188 square km). It is fairly rugged, with a central mountain rising to 4,100 feet (1,250 metres). Islets off the northern coast are Uki Ni Masi Island and the Olu Malau Islands (Three Sisters Islands);

Wokha

2005-03-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

Town, Nagaland state, northeastern India, at the foot of the Wokha Hills, 50 miles (80 km) north of Kohima town. It is a trade and agricultural centre for the surrounding Naga Hills, in which grains (mainly rice) and fruits are grown on previously forested slopes. There are some cottage industries (weaving, pottery making, woodworking). Wokha is linked by highway to Mokokchung and

Kheda

2005-03-11T02:23:00.000-08:00

Also called Kaira, city, east-central Gujarat state, west-central India. It is situated in the lowlands between the Sabarmati and Mahi rivers. The city existed as early as the 5th century AD. Early in the 18th century it passed to the Babi family but was taken by the Marathas in 1763 and handed over to the British in 1803. Kheda is now a trading centre for agricultural produce and has some light manufacturing industries.

Anthracosis

2005-03-10T03:48:00.000-08:00

Respiratory disorder, the early, usually nonsymptomatic stage of coal-workers' pneumoconiosis. See black lung.

Volsci

2005-03-10T00:17:00.000-08:00

Knowledge of the Volsci depends largely upon Roman accounts of their mutual

San Cristóbal

2005-03-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

An extinct bird of the family Strigidae (order Strigiformes) that was native to New Zealand. It was last seen in the early 1900s. Laughing owls nested on the ground, where they fell prey to cats, rats, goats, and weasels. About 40 cm (1.3 feet) long and brownish in colour, they ate rodents, lizards, and insects.

Aschelminth, Size range and diversity of structure

2005-03-09T03:12:00.000-08:00

The five classes of aschelminths are of different sizes and varying importance. The nematodes are by far the largest group, with 13,000 to 14,000 named species and many times that number undescribed. Most of the described species are parasites of human beings, domestic animals, or cultivated plants and are therefore of great importance in medicine and agriculture. Typically,

Impact Crater

2005-03-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

Any feature on the continents that has been created by the impact of cosmic bodies (meteorites, asteroids, or comets) on the Earth's surface. In fact, the collision of a Mars-sized body with the Earth early in the history of the solar system may have caused the formation of the Moon and the continents themselves, or rather the ocean/continent dichotomy of the Earth's outer

Cat

2005-03-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

The history of the cat family can be traced through the fossil record to the Late Eocene Epoch (43.6 to 36.6 million

Japanese Beetle

2005-03-08T02:24:00.000-08:00

(species Popillia japonica), an insect that is a major pest and belongs to the subfamily Rutelinae (family Scarabaeidae, order Coleoptera). It was accidentally introduced into the United States from Japan about 1916, probably as larvae in the soil around imported plants. Japanese beetles are known to feed on more than 200 species of plants, including a wide

Clare

2005-03-07T03:41:00.000-08:00

Town, southeastern South Australia, 80 miles (130 km) north of Adelaide. Founded in 1842, it was named for the Irish county in which one of its early settlers was born. In 1851, Jesuits planted the first vineyard of the district. Grapes for table use and wine making, along with other fruits, grains, livestock, and dairy products, now form the basis of the local economy. Declared a municipality

Wyandotte Cave

2005-03-06T22:58:00.000-08:00

Cave in Crawford County, southern Indiana, U.S., near the village of Wyandotte. With 25 mi (40 km) of passages on five levels, it is the largest of the many such caves dissolved out in the horizontally bedded Mississippian limestones that extend southward into the cave-bearing regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. The entrance is about 200 ft (60 m) above the Blue River. The cave was used

Fischer, Emil

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

Educated at the universities of Bonn and Strasbourg (Ph.D., 1874), Fischer held several posts before becoming professor of chemistry at the University of Berlin in 1892. Under his direction,

Muhly

2005-03-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

Most muhlys are perennials, and all species have only one floret on each branch,

Aiken

2005-03-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

The area was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Savannah

Hip

2005-03-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

In anatomy, the joint between the thighbone (femur) and the pelvis; also the area adjacent to this joint. The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint (q.v.); the round head of the femur rests in a cavity (the acetabulum) that allows free rotation of the limb. Amphibians and reptiles have relatively weak pelvic

Abzug, Bella

2005-03-04T16:44:00.000-08:00

The daughter of Russian-Jewish émigrés, Bella Savitsky attended Hunter College (B.A., 1942) and Columbia University Law School, where she specialized

Murad Ii

2005-03-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

Early in his reign, Murad had to overcome several claimants to the Ottoman throne who were supported by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus and by many of the Turkmen principalities

Trade Union

2005-03-03T05:11:00.000-08:00

The

Murex

2005-03-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

The animal

Dumuzi-abzu

2005-03-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

In Mesopotamian religion, Sumerian deity, city goddess of Kinirsha near Lagash in the southeastern marshland region. She represented the power of fertility and new life in the marshes. Dumuzi-Abzu corresponded to the Sumerian god Dumuzi of the central steppe area, and thus around Eridu she was viewed as male and as son of Enki (Akkadian: Ea, also called the Lord of

Kazak Rug

2005-03-01T05:32:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Kazakh Rug, floor covering handmade by seminomadic people of Turkic stock living in the Gäncä district of the Caucasus in Azerbaijan. These handsome rugs in bold designs and colour contrasts continue the spirit of Dragon rugs. The field patterns differ, however, offering triple-medallion schemes and centralized layouts, such as an octagon surrounded by four star-filled

Logical Positivism

2005-02-28T14:43:00.000-08:00

The Logical Positivist school differs from earlier empiricists and positivists (David Hume, Ernst Mach) in holding that the ultimate basis of knowledge

Paglia, Camille

2005-02-28T05:30:00.000-08:00

The controversial academic, aesthete, and self-described feminist Camille Paglia enunciated her unorthodox views on sexuality and the development of culture and art in Western civilization in two books, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990) and Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays (1992). Her public persona and iconoclastic views enraged

Cone-headed Grasshopper

2005-02-27T05:04:00.000-08:00

Each species has a characteristic

Caucasian Languages, Grammatical characteristics

2005-02-26T11:32:00.000-08:00

In a number of languages (Lezgi, Udi) noun differentiation by classes has disappeared. The class of

Philip V

2005-02-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

Philip was the second son of Philip IV, who made him count of Poitiers in 1311. When his elder brother, King Louis X, died in 1316, leaving an infant daughter Joan by his adulterous first wife, and a pregnant widow, Philip won

Insurance, Settlement options

2005-02-25T15:23:00.000-08:00

The death proceeds or cash values of insurance may be settled in various ways. The insured may take the cash value and lapse the policy. A beneficiary may take a lump sum settlement of the face amount upon the death of the insured. The beneficiary may, instead, elect to receive the proceeds over a given number of years or in some fixed amount, such as $100 a month, for as long as

Dubrovnik

2005-02-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

Italian Ragusa, port of Dalmatia in Croatia. Situated on the southern Adriatic coast, it is usually regarded as the most picturesque city on the Dalmatian coast. It occupies a promontory jutting into the sea under the bare limestone mass of Mount Srdj. The port's sea fortifications rise directly from the water's edge, and a massive round tower dominates the city on the landward

Boner, Ulrich

2005-02-23T20:05:00.000-08:00

Boner, known to have been of a Bernese family, is mentioned in records between 1324 and 1349. He compiled and translated his collection of fables for Johann von Ringgenberg, his Bernese patron. The form that Boner used was referred to as bîschaft

Quindío

2005-02-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

Departamento, west-central Colombia, on the western slopes of the Andean Cordillera Central. The smallest department in the nation, it occupies an area of 712 square miles (1,845 square km) in one of Colombia's leading coffee-producing regions. Bananas, corn (maize), sugarcane, and beans are among the other crops, and livestock raising is widespread. Quindío has rich deposits of

Challis, James

2005-02-23T11:59:00.000-08:00

Elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1826 and ordained in 1830, Challis became Plumian professor of astronomy and director of the Cambridge Observatory in 1836. He contributed 225 mathematical,

Bucareli Y Ursúa, Antonio María

2005-02-23T07:22:00.000-08:00

Bucareli began his military career as a soldier for Spain in Italy, where he attained

Smith, George

2005-02-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

English Assyriologist who advanced knowledge of the earliest (Sumerian) period of Mesopotamian civilization with his discovery of one of the most important literary works in Akkadian, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Moreover, its description of a flood, strikingly similar to the account in Genesis, had a stunning effect on Smith's

Priesthood

2005-02-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

Throughout the long and varied history of religion, the priesthood has been the official institution that has mediated and maintained a state of equilibrium between the sacred and the profane aspects of human society

Switzerland, Prehistoric Switzerland

2005-02-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

Though a hand wedge fashioned by Paleolithic hunters, found at Pratteln near Basel in 1974, is at least 350,000 years old, human habitation in Switzerland was not significant until the last glacial period, the Würm, approximately 30,000 years ago. At that time most of the land was covered by ice, many thousands of feet deep that flowed down from the Alps. But during interglacial periods

Molding

2005-02-21T01:07:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Moulding, in architecture and the decorative arts, a defining, transitional, or terminal element that contours or outlines the edges and surfaces on a projection or cavity, such as a cornice, architrave, capital, arch, base, or jamb. The surface of a molding is modeled with recesses and reliefs, which either maintain a constant profile or are set in rhythmically repeated patterns.

Nizhegorod

2005-02-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1932–90) Gorky, oblast (province) in western Russia, in the middle of the Volga River basin. Nizhegorod oblast is bisected by the Volga River. The northern half of the oblast is a low plain, mostly in dense coniferous forest of spruce, pine, and fir, while lower parts are often swampy. Its soils are infertile. The southern half comprises rolling morainic hills, with deciduous trees, especially

Eastern Orthodoxy, Modern theological developments

2005-02-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

Until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453), Byzantium was the unquestioned intellectual centre of the Orthodox Church. Far from being monolithic, Byzantine theological thought was often polarized by a Humanistic trend, favouring the use of Greek philosophy in theological thinking, and the more austere and mystical theology of the monastic circles. The

Euripides

2005-02-19T20:54:00.000-08:00

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.

China, Taoism

2005-02-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

Under the Chin dynasty several popular Taoist sects had flourished in northern China, and Genghis Khan had apparently been impressed by the Taoist patriarch Ch'ang-ch'un. In 1223 Genghis Khan granted to Ch'ang-ch'un and his followers full exemption from taxes and other duties demanded by the government; this was the first of a series of edicts granting special privileges

Asti

2005-02-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Asti province, Piemonte (Piedmont) region, northwestern Italy. It lies at the confluence of the Tanaro and Borbera rivers, 28 miles (45 km) southeast of Turin. Asti was the Hasta, or Colonia, of the Romans and was the seat of a bishopric from AD 932. It reached its zenith as an independent commune in the 13th century, after which it fell to several overlords before coming under

Tachylyte

2005-02-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

Also spelled tachylite glassy igneous rocks low in silica, such as basalt or diabase. Tachylytes are black with a pitchlike or resinous lustre; in thin sections they are characteristically brown and translucent, and the glass is crowded with granules of magnetite. Tachylytes are found only under conditions that imply rapid cooling, and they are much less common than are the corresponding

Burbage, Richard

2005-02-17T19:53:00.000-08:00

The son of the actor and theatre manager and owner James Burbage, Richard had attained wide popularity as an actor by age 20. He was a member of the Earl of Leicester's company and remained with it through its evolution into the King's Men in 1603. He

Rajasthan, Education and welfare

2005-02-17T01:05:00.000-08:00

There are a number of educational establishments in Rajasthan, including state-run universities at Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, and Ajmer; the Open University at Kota; and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science at Pilani. There are several state hospitals and dispensaries. There also are many Ayurvedic, Unani (a medicinal system using prescribed herbs and shrubs), and

Sicel Language

2005-02-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

After the Greek settlements in Sicily, the Siculi became Hellenized and substituted Greek for their original language. Scholars believe Sicel to have been an Indo-European

Kodiak Bear

2005-02-16T21:25:00.000-08:00

(Ursus arctos middendorffi), variety of grizzly bear found on Kodiak Island, off the coast of Alaska. It is the largest of living land carnivores. See grizzly bear.

Boilly, Louis-léopold

2005-02-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

Boilly, the son of a wood-carver, painted portraits for a living before moving to Paris in 1785. There he began to paint the detailed anecdotal pictures of fashionable

France, History Of, Foreign policy and financial crisis

2005-02-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

The monarchy's international performance from 1715 to 1783 was basically creditable. From the time of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), when France had been invaded and nearly beaten, French statesmen pursued a double goal—the preservation of the balance of power in Europe, and, in the world at large, the expansion of the French colonial empire and the containment of England.

Boilly, Louis-léopold

2005-02-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

The company's history traces to 1926, when the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and several other firms founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to operate a nationwide radio broadcasting network. NBC expanded so rapidly that by 1928 it found itself

Bad Gandersheim

2005-02-14T06:50:00.000-08:00

Also called Gandersheim, city, Lower Saxony Land (state), north-central Germany. It lies in the Leine River valley. Bad Gandersheim is remarkable for an 11th-century convent church containing the tombs of famous abbesses and for the former abbey, which was moved there in 852 by the duke of Saxony, whose daughters were the first two abbesses. Louis III granted a privilege by which the office of abbess

La Habana

2005-02-14T00:51:00.000-08:00

Provincia, west-central Cuba, bounded on the north by the Straits of Florida and by Ciudad de la Habana provincia; on the south by the Gulf of Batabanó, an inlet of the Caribbean Sea; and on the east and west, respectively, by Matanzas and Pinar del Río provincias. It has an area of 2,213 square miles (5,731 square km) and is densely populated, being near the national and provincial capital

Gershwin, Ira

2005-02-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

Original name Israel Gershvin American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, George Gershwin, on more than 20 Broadway musicals and motion pictures until George's death (1937) and who later collaborated on films and plays with others—Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, and Harold Arlen—and contributed to Gershwin

I-thou

2005-02-12T22:58:00.000-08:00

Theological doctrine of the full, direct, mutual relation between beings, as conceived by Martin Buber and some other 20th-century philosophers. The basic and purest form of this relation is that between man and God (the Eternal Thou), which is the model for and makes possible I-Thou relations between human beings. The relation between man and God, however, is always an I-Thou

Velasco Ibarra, José María

2005-02-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

Velasco Ibarra was born into a wealthy family and educated in Quito and Paris. He held various public posts before being elected president as the Conservative Party's candidate in 1933, assuming office in 1934. His economic-development plans, which

Maudslay, Henry

2005-02-11T03:07:00.000-08:00

The son of a workman at the Woolwich Arsenal, Maudslay was apprenticed to Joseph Bramah, who manufactured locks. Maudslay soon became Bramah's foreman, but, when refused an increase in pay, he left to go into business for himself. His first job was construction of machinery

Lear, William P(owell)

2005-02-11T01:39:00.000-08:00

The child of immigrant parents

Kachin Hills

2005-02-10T14:33:00.000-08:00

Heavily forested group of highlands situated in the northeasternmost section of Myanmar (Burma). They range north-south and are bordered on the northwest by Arunachal Pradesh state of India, on the north by the Tibet autonomous region of China, and on the east by Yunnan province of China. The hills blend with the Kumon Range to the west. The Kachin Hills are drained by

Indo-iranian Languages

2005-02-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

Group of languages constituting the easternmost major branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Indo-Aryan (Indic) languages are spoken by some 800 million persons in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and other areas of the Himalayan region. In addition, languages of the Indo-Aryan group are spoken by about 5,000,000 people in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania:

Biblical Literature, Susanna

2005-02-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

The second addition to Daniel, the story of Susanna, and the third one, Bel and the Dragon, are preserved in two Greek versions. In both stories the hero is the wise Daniel. Susanna was the pious and beautiful wife of Joakim, a wealthy Jew in Babylon. Two aged judges became inflamed with love for her. They tried to force her to yield to their lust, and, when she refused, they accused