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Ozier Pattern

2005-04-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

In tableware, molded basket-weave pattern produced in Germany in the 1730s on Meissen porcelain tableware. It was probably one of the numerous inventions of the celebrated modeler Johann Joachim Kändler. There are four basic types of ozier molding: the ordinair-ozier (“ordinary ozier”), a kind of zigzag basket weave; the alt-ozier (“old ozier”), which has radial ribs; the neu-ozier

Pindus Mountains

2005-04-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

In antiquity, the name Pindus applied to ranges south of the Aracynthus (Zygós) Pass west of Thessaly. Occasionally the Pindus is said to extend into Albania but also to include the Tymphrestos (Timfristós) massif and

Vakhtangov, Yevgeny Bagrationovich

2005-04-03T23:42:00.000-07:00

A pupil of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vakhtangov succeeded by the early 1920s in reconciling the naturalistic acting techniques of his master with the bold experiments of Vsevolod Y. Meyerhold. His departure from naturalism in the direction of greater theatricality

Calendar Of 1998

2005-04-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

The tax-evasion case against Webster L. Hubbell, longtime friend of Pres. Bill Clinton who is believed to hold incriminating evidence against

Dendrochronology

2005-04-01T04:45:00.000-08:00

Also called tree-ring dating the scientific discipline concerned with dating and interpreting past events, particularly paleoclimates and climatic trends, based on the analysis of tree rings. Samples are obtained by means of an increment borer, a simple metal tube of small diameter that can be driven into a tree to get a core extending from bark to centre. This core is split in the laboratory,

Straparola, Gianfrancesco

2005-03-29T23:31:00.000-08:00

Straparola's Piacevoli notti (1550–53; The Nights of Straparola) contains 75 novellas (short prose tales) that were later used as source material by William Shakespeare, Molière, and others; it introduced into European literature 20 folktales, among

Alabama, Government

2005-03-29T23:19:00.000-08:00

Alabama is governed by a bicameral legislature and a governor and cabinet. The legislature consists of 35 senators and 105 representatives who meet annually in regular sessions and are elected for four-year terms. The constitution, a complex and, some have claimed, outdated and often inadequate document, dates from 1901. After various poll tax and other tax provisions aimed

Euclidean Geometry, Axioms of congruence

2005-03-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

Five axioms (see Box

Dance

2005-03-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

Dance is a powerful impulse, but the art of dance is that impulse channeled by skillful performers into something that becomes intensely expressive and that may delight

Fairbairn, Stephen

2005-03-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

As a coach at Cambridge

Dube, John Langalibalele

2005-03-25T01:42:00.000-08:00

After studying at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, U.S., and being ordained a minister, Dube returned to Natal with the goal

Wesel

2005-03-23T19:03:00.000-08:00

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

Sevilla

2005-03-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

, also spelled Seville , ancient Hispalis city and capital of the provincia of Sevilla, in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of southern Spain. Sevilla lies on the left (east) bank of the Guadalquivir River at a point about 54 miles (87 km) north of the Atlantic, and about 340 miles (550 km) southwest of Madrid. An inland port, it is the chief city of Andalusia and the fourth largest in Spain. Sevilla was important

Amazonas

2005-03-23T02:22:00.000-08:00

Estado (“state”), southern Venezuela. It is bounded on the north by the state of Bolívar, on the east and south by Brazil, and on the west by Colombia. The large but sparsely populated state lies within the drainage basins of the Orinoco River, which rises near the Brazilian border, and the Negro River, which is a northern tributary of the Amazon. Near the centre of the territory

Latin American Economic System

2005-03-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

Spanish Sistema Económico Latinoamericano (SELA) association formed to promote economic cooperation and development throughout the region of Latin America. Established in 1975 through the Panama Convention, SELA succeeded the Special Committee for Latin American Coordination (CECLA). Nearly 30 countries are members. SELA's principal organ, the Latin American Council, meets annually. Headquarters are in Caracas,

Bascom, Florence

2005-03-22T04:17:00.000-08:00

Bascom earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Wisconsin, and she later received the first Ph.D. awarded to a woman at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1893). Bascom then taught at Ohio State University

Cinquain

2005-03-21T01:36:00.000-08:00

A five-line stanza. The American poet Adelaide Crapsey (1878–1914), applied the term in particular to a five-line verse form of specific metre that she developed. Analogous to the Japanese verse forms haiku and tanka, it has two syllables in its first and last lines and four, six, and eight in the intervening three lines and generally has an iambic cadence. An example is her poem “November

Earth, Variation with internal density distribution

2005-03-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

If the Earth were horizontally stratified so that density varied only with depth, the Bouguer anomaly would be everywhere close to zero. In fact, because the Earth is heterogeneous, the gravitational anomaly field displays “roughness” over a very wide range of length scales and amplitudes. When the distribution of excess or deficiency in density is known, the effect

Biblical Literature, Special nature and problems

2005-03-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

The English title of this work, meaning “second law,” is derived from a faulty Greek translation of chapter 17, verse 18, referring to “a copy of this law”: the implication being that the book is a second law or an expanded version of the original law for the new generation of Israelites about to enter Canaan. Hebrew texts take the opening words of the book as title, Ele ha-Devarim

Salesian

2005-03-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

The founder of the Salesians of Don Bosco (formally, the Society of St. Francis de Sales; S.D.B.) was St. John Bosco (Don Bosco), a young priest who focused his concern on the orphaned and homeless child labourers

Rotimi, Ola

2005-03-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

Rotimi was born to an Ijaw mother and a Yoruba father, and cultural diversity was a frequent theme in his work. Educated in Nigeria in Port Harcourt and Lagos, he traveled to the United States in 1959 to study at Boston University. After receiving a B.A. in fine arts in 1963, he attended the Yale School

Akola

2005-03-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

City, north-central Maharashtra state, western India, on the Murna River. An important road and rail junction in the Tapti River valley, it is a commercial centre trading chiefly in cotton. There are also textile and vegetable-oil industries. In the past it was incorporated in turn into several local Muslim kingdoms. Akola is an important educational centre with several

Repton

2005-03-17T00:38:00.000-08:00

Village (“parish”), South Derbyshire district, administrative and historic county of Derbyshire, England. The famous independent boys' school of Repton was founded in 1556, and its buildings incorporate parts (restored) of an Augustinian priory established in 1172. Pop. (1991) 2,012.

Aaron, Hank

2005-03-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

For coverage of Aaron's home-run race, see George Plimpton, One for the Record: The Inside Story of Hank Aaron's Chase for the Home-Run Record (1974). Autobiographies include Hank Aaron and Dick Schaap, Home Run: My Life in Pictures (1999); and Hank Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler, I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (1991).

Chirac, Jacques

2005-03-16T06:31:00.000-08:00

Chirac, the son of a bank employee, graduated from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris in 1954, served as an officer in the French army in Algeria (1956–57), and earned a graduate degree from the École Nationale d'Administration in 1959. He then became a civil

Ha Giang

2005-03-16T04:29:00.000-08:00

Town, northern Vietnam. The town lies along the Lo River about 215 miles (350 km) northwest of Hanoi. It is a market centre in a forested mountainous region about 13 miles (20 km) southeast of the China–Vietnam border. The area in which Ha Giang is situated produces much of the tea grown in northern Vietnam and also produces some paddy rice, together with corn (maize). The dense forests in

Nagual

2005-03-15T01:23:00.000-08:00

The person who is

Poseidon

2005-03-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

In Greek religion, god of the sea and of water generally; he is to be distinguished from Pontus, the personification of the sea and the oldest Greek divinity of the waters. The name Poseidon means either “husband of earth” or “lord of the earth.” Traditionally he was a son of Cronus, an ancient chief god, and Rhea, a fertility goddess, and was brother of Zeus, the chief god, and Hades,

Yab-yum

2005-03-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

(Tibetan: “father-mother”), in Buddhist art of India, Nepal, and Tibet, the representation of the male deity in sexual embrace with his female consort. The pose is generally understood to represent the mystical union of the active force, or method (upaya, conceived of as masculine), with wisdom (prajna, conceived of as feminine)—a fusion necessary to overcome the false duality

Bruneau, Alfred

2005-03-14T03:29:00.000-08:00

A pupil of the French opera composer Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire, Bruneau later worked as a copyist to the publisher Georges Hartmann. His earliest works included three choral symphonies and an opera, Kérim (1887). In 1888 he met the novelist Émile Zola, who became

New Harmony

2005-03-13T08:38:00.000-08:00

Town, Posey county, southwestern Indiana, U.S., on the Wabash River, at the Illinois border, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Evansville. The site was first occupied by prehistoric Mound Builders and later was a camping ground for Piankashaw and other Indians. The settlement of Harmonie was founded in 1814–15 by George Rapp, a German Pietist preacher who had first come to Pennsylvania in

Traill, Catherine Parr

2005-03-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

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.

Celaenae

2005-03-12T01:16:00.000-08:00

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

Carlini, Armando

2005-03-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

Educated at

Saba, Umberto

2005-03-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

Saba was raised by his Jewish mother in the ghetto of Trieste after his Christian father deserted them when Saba was an infant. From age 17 Saba developed his interest in poetry while working as a clerk and a cabin boy and serving as a soldier

Clonograptus

2005-03-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Genus of graptolites (extinct, small floating colonial animals related to the primitive chordates), characterized by a frondlike form. Groups of these animals were connected by stalklike structures to a central region. Various forms or species of Clonograptus are important guide, or index, fossils for the correlation of Ordovician rocks (505 to 438 million years ago).

Pithom

2005-03-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

Egyptian Per-Atum , or Per Tum (“Estate of Atum”) , probably modern Tall al-Maskhutah ancient Egyptian city located near Ismailia in al-Isma'iliyah muhafazah (governorate). Mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 1:11) as one of the treasure cities built for the pharaoh by the Hebrews, it was known to have been enlarged by the Ramesside pharaohs, especially by Ramses II (reigned 1279–13 BC), in whose reign the Exodus of the Hebrews may have taken place. The site has yielded sphinxes and

Pachmann, Vladimir Von

2005-03-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Vladimir de Pachman Russian pianist known for his performances of the music of Frédéric Chopin. Pachmann studied in Vienna and made his debut in 1869 in Odessa. Though his early concerts were successful, he was extremely self-critical and withdrew for long periods of study. He later toured widely in Europe and the United States. Pachmann's

France, History Of, The Thermidorian reaction

2005-03-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

With control passing from the Montagnards after Robespierre's fall, moderates in the convention hoped to put the Terror and sansculotte militance behind them while standing fast against counterrevolution and rallying all patriots around the original principles of the Revolution. But far from stabilizing the Revolution, the fall of “the tyrant” on 9 Thermidor

San Jacinto, Battle Of

2005-03-08T15:12:00.000-08:00

(April 21, 1836), defeat of a Mexican army of about 1,500 troops under General Antonio López de Santa Anna by about 800 men (mostly recent arrivals in Texas) led by General Sam Houston. The outcome assured the success of American settlers in Texas in their war for independence from Mexico. Along the San Jacinto River, near the site of what was to be the city of Houston, Houston's men, after days

Biblical Literature, Problems resulting from aural conditioning

2005-03-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

Aural conditioning would result from a mishearing of similar sounding consonants when a text is dictated to the copyist. A negative particle lo', for example, could be confused with the prepositional lo, “to him,” or a guttural het with spirant kaf so that ah “brother” might be written for akh “surely.”

Eisenerz

2005-03-08T00:56:00.000-08:00

Town, Bundesland Steiermark (federal province of Styria), Austria, in the Erzbach Valley, at the northern foot of the Erzberg (Ore Mountain; 5,033 ft [1,534 m]), northwest of Leoben. Iron has been mined on the Erzberg by terraced open-pit methods since Roman times, and Eisenerz (“iron ore”) is the principal centre of Austrian iron mining, supplying most of the nation's total output. Notable

Dance Suite

2005-03-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

Musical arrangement consisting of related dance movements. See suite.

Annunciation

2005-03-06T06:18:00.000-08:00

The Feast of the Annunciation, one of the principal feasts of the Christian church, is celebrated on March 25 (Lady Day). The first authentic allusions to the feast (apart from the Gelasian and Gregorian sacramentaries, in both

Technical Education

2005-03-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

The academic and vocational preparation of students for jobs involving applied science and modern technology. It emphasizes the understanding and practical application of basic principles of science and mathematics, rather than the attainment of proficiency in manual skills that is properly the concern of vocational education. Technical education has

Murdoch, James Edward

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

After performing with amateur groups in Philadelphia, Murdoch made his successful debut at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, in Lovers' Vows by August von Kotzebue. Following an unsalaried season with the company, he traveled about North America, playing with

Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus

2005-03-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

English chemist and explosives specialist who, with the chemist Sir James Dewar, invented cordite (1889), later adopted as the standard explosive of the British army. Abel also made studies of dust explosions in coal mines, invented a device for testing the flash point of petroleum, and found a way to prevent guncotton from

Camargo, Marie (-anne De Cupis De)

2005-03-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

Camargo studied in Paris under Françoise Prevost and danced in Brussels and Rouen before her Paris Opéra debut in 1726 in Les Caractères de la danse. Her success provoked the jealousy of her aging teacher, Prevost, who

Andean Geosyncline

2005-03-03T03:05:00.000-08:00

A linear trough in the Earth's crust in which rocks of the Mesozoic Era (245 to 66.4 million years ago) and Cenozoic Era (66.4 years ago to the present) were deposited in South America. An intense orogenic (mountain-building) event affected the older sediments in the geosyncline in the Late Cretaceous Epoch (97.5 to 66.4 million years ago) and, combined with later deformational episodes, produced

Vairagin

2005-03-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

Most vairagins, when not wandering or on pilgrimage,

Stereoscopy

2005-03-02T07:02:00.000-08:00

Science and technology dealing with two-dimensional drawings or photographs that when viewed by both eyes appear to exist in three dimensions in space. A popular term for stereoscopy is 3-D. Stereoscopic pictures are produced in pairs, the members of a pair showing the same scene or object from slightly different angles that correspond to the angles of vision of

Spanish Town

2005-03-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern central Jamaica. It is situated along the Rio Cobre, 10 miles (16 km) west of Kingston. Probably laid out by Diego Columbus (c. 1523), it was originally called Santiago de la Vega (St. James of the Plain) and was Jamaica's capital from 1692 until 1872. It is now a commercial and processing centre for produce of the irrigated Liguanea Plain (bananas, sugarcane, annatto, breadfruit,

Drabble, Margaret

2005-03-01T03:14:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a judge and sister of novelist A.S. Byatt, Margaret Drabble began writing after leaving Cambridge University. The central characters of her

Owl, Fossil history

2005-02-28T14:31:00.000-08:00

The earliest recognizable fossil strigiform is Protostrix from the Eocene of Wyoming. A number of genera from the later Tertiary have been assigned to Recent strigiform families. Some early owls reached far greater size than their modern descendents. A giant barn owl, about twice the size of the modern Tyto alba, inhabited Puerto Rico in the Pleistocene. Another

Fu-k'ang-an

2005-02-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

A member of the Manchu forces of Manchuria who had established the Ch'ing dynasty, Fu-k'ang-an inherited a minor post in the government. After distinguishing himself in battle, he was made military governor of Manchuria (1777). Between 1780 and 1795 he served several terms as governor-general in different Chinese provinces.

Amin, Idi

2005-02-28T05:05:00.000-08:00

Ugandan military officer and president (b. 1924/25, near Koboko, Uganda British Protectorate—d. Aug. 16, 2003, Jiddah, Saudi Arabia), took control of Uganda in a military coup in 1971 and for eight years ruled with despotic power until he was overthrown by Ugandan nationalists supported by Tanzanian troops. Amin's often arbitrary and capricious rule of Uganda was characterized by fierce

Hypothalamus

2005-02-27T02:30:00.000-08:00

The hypothalamus and pituitary

Sickle Cell Anemia

2005-02-26T21:11:00.000-08:00

Hereditary disease that destroys red blood cells by causing them to take on a rigid “sickle” shape. The disease is characterized by many of the symptoms of chronic anemia (fatigue, pale skin, and shortness of breath) as well as susceptibility to infection, jaundice and other eye problems, delayed growth, and episodic crises of severe pain in the abdomen, bones, or muscles.

Canadian Alliance

2005-02-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Alliance traced its roots to the Reform Party, which formed in 1987 as a populist and conservative expression of western Canadian frustration with the governing Progressive Conservative Party and previous governments led by the Liberal Party. The Reform

Syracuse University

2005-02-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher education, located in Syracuse, New York, U.S. It offers more than 200 undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs through 15 colleges and schools. Research facilities include the All-University Gerontology Center (established 1972), the Center for Advanced Technology in Computer Applications and Software Engineering

Mckinley, Mount

2005-02-26T01:01:00.000-08:00

Tree Ear

2005-02-24T16:15:00.000-08:00

Chinese Mu Erh, also called Wood Ear, or Black Fungus, any of several edible mushrooms of the genus Auricularia that are popular in Chinese cuisine, especially that of Sichuan (Szechwan) province. Tree ears grow wild on and are cultivated on the bark of trees. They are gathered for use in a fresh state and are dried for storage. Dried tree ears resemble gray-black flakes of ash; when reconstituted the mushrooms expand into

Good Feelings, Era Of

2005-02-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

Also called Era Of Good Feeling, the national mood of the United States from 1815 to 1825, as first described by the Boston Columbian Centinel on July 12, 1817. Although the “era” generally is considered coextensive with President James Monroe's two terms (1817–25), it really began in 1815, when for the first time American citizens could afford to pay less attention to European political and military affairs. The predominant attitude

Aethelberht

2005-02-24T07:28:00.000-08:00

King of the West Saxons, or Wessex, who succeeded to the subkingdom of Kent during the lifetime of his father Aethelwulf and retained it until the death of his elder brother Aethelbald in 860, when he became sole king of Wessex and Kent, the younger brothers Aethelred and Alfred renouncing their claim. He ruled these kingdoms for five years. His reign was marked by two serious

Hungary, The revolution of 1956

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

Rákosi—who in 1952 came to preside over the government as well as the party—was, under Moscow, all-powerful until the death of Stalin in 1953, when a period of fluctuation began. In July 1953 Rákosi was deposed from the prime ministership in favour of Imre Nagy—a “Muscovite” but a Hungarian in his attitudes and not unpopular in the country. Nagy promised a new course—an end to the forced

Ta-ch'ing

2005-02-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Daqing oil field in Heilungkiang province, China, one of the country's most important sources of oil. It is situated in the north of the Sungari-Liao River basin, between Tsitsihar and Harbin, in the general vicinity of An-ta, northwest of Harbin. The field was discovered in the late 1950s and drilling began in 1958, often in difficult conditions caused by the extreme winter cold and by

Ile-ife

2005-02-21T05:39:00.000-08:00

Also called Ife, or Ife-lodun, town, Osun state, southwestern Nigeria. The town lies at the intersection of roads from Ibadan (40 miles [64 km] west), Ilesha, and Ondo. It is one of the larger centres and probably the oldest town of the Yoruba people. Considered by the Yoruba to be a holy city and the legendary birthplace of mankind, it was held to have been founded by a son of the deity Oduduwa and was certainly the

Niger-congo Languages

2005-02-21T03:38:00.000-08:00

In the 19th century, scholars began to attempt classification of the various Niger-Congo languages. Sigismund W. Koelle, a German missionary of the Church Missionary Society working among freed slaves in Freetown (now in Sierra Leone), produced his monumental work, Polyglotta Africana, in 1854. He obtained lists of 283 words in 156 languages and grouped them so as to reflect what

Rimini

2005-02-21T02:35:00.000-08:00

The Romans called it Ariminum, from Ariminus, the old name of the Marecchia, and, according to the 1st-century-BC Greek historian

Mansehra

2005-02-20T10:46:00.000-08:00

Town, northeastern North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The town is situated at the southern end of the Pakhli Plain on the Bhut Stream, a tributary to the Siran River, at an elevation of 3,682 feet (1,122 m) above sea level. It is a market town surrounded by pine-covered hills and has a flour mill, a woolen-yarn mill, and an agricultural research centre. The nearby Asokan rock edicts

Clouded Leopard

2005-02-20T02:12:00.000-08:00

(Neofelis nebulosa), also called clouded tiger strikingly marked cat, very similar in colouring and coat pattern to the smaller, unrelated marbled cat (Felis marmorata). The clouded leopard is found in southeastern Asia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Taiwan, particularly in forests and other wooded regions; the population declined sharply in the latter half of the 20th century as a result of hunting

Cambric

2005-02-20T00:24:00.000-08:00

Lightweight, closely woven, plain cotton cloth first made in Cambrai, France, and originally a fine linen fabric. Printed cambric was used in London by 1595 for bands, cuffs, and ruffs. Modern cambric is made from choice American or Egyptian cotton, with both warp and weft, or filling, yarns ranging from 60 to 80 in size (count), and is usually lightly calendered to produce a slight gloss

Chondrichthian, Annotated classification

2005-02-19T22:13:00.000-08:00

Drug Use, Addiction, habituation, and dependence

2005-02-18T16:16:00.000-08:00

The traditional distinction between “addiction” and “habituation” centres on the ability of a drug to produce tolerance and physical dependence. The opiates clearly possess the potential to massively challenge the body's resources, and, if so challenged, the body will make the corresponding biochemical, physiological, and psychological readjustment to the stress.

Extrinsicism

2005-02-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

In Christian thought, for example, this is illustrated by the tendency

San Salvador

2005-02-17T21:57:00.000-08:00

Capital of El Salvador, on the Río Ace Chaute in the Valle de las Hamacas (Valley of the Hammocks) at an altitude of 2,238 ft (682 m). San Salvador Volcano is 7 mi (11 km) west-northwest. Founded near Suchitoto in 1525 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, it was moved 20 mi southwest to its present site in 1528 and was declared a city in 1546. San Salvador served as capital of the colonial province of

France, History Of, Austrasian hegemony and the rise of the Pepinids

2005-02-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

The murder of Ebroïn (680 or 683) reversed the situation in favour of Austrasia and the Pepinids. Pepin II, who defeated the Neustrians at Tertry in 687, reunified northern Francia under his own control during the next decade. Austrasia and Neustria were reunited under a Merovingian figurehead, but Pepin II governed by virtue of his position as mayor of the palace. At the same time,

Gateleg Table

2005-02-15T22:06:00.000-08:00

Type of table first used in England in the 16th century. The top had a fixed section and one or two hinged sections, which, when not in use, folded back onto the fixed section or were allowed to hang vertically. The hinged section, or flap, was supported on pivoted legs joined at the top and bottom by stretchers and so constituting a gate. Large flaps had two supports,

Rivière, Jacques

2005-02-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

Writer, critic, and editor who was a major force in the intellectual life of France in the period immediately following World War I. His most important works were his thoughtful and finely written essays on the arts. In 1912 a collection of these essays was published as Études; a second such collection, entitled Nouvelles études (“Further

Visconti, Luchino

2005-02-15T02:56:00.000-08:00

In full Don Luchino Visconti, Conte (count) Di Modrone Italian motion-picture director whose realistic treatment of individuals caught in the conflicts of modern society contributed significantly to the post-World War II revolution in Italian filmmaking and earned him the title of father of Neorealism. He also established himself as an innovative theatrical and opera director in the years

Ansett Transport Industries Limited

2005-02-14T23:49:00.000-08:00

Ansett (Sir Reginald since 1969) began in 1931 with a motorcar passenger service in the Western District of the state of Victoria. In 1936 he founded the airline company for service between Melbourne and Hamilton. After World War II the company began new interstate

Yakovlev, Aleksandr Sergeyevich

2005-02-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

After graduation from the Air Force Engineering Academy in 1931, Yakovlev immediately began to design aircraft, both piston- and jet-engined. Just before World War II he designed the Yak-1 fighter. His first jet

Accessory

2005-02-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

In law, a person who becomes equally guilty in the crime of another by knowingly and voluntarily aiding the criminal prior to or after the crime. An accessory is one kind of accomplice (q.v.), the other being an abettor, who aids the criminal during the act itself.

Argentina, Resources

2005-02-13T04:56:00.000-08:00

Argentine industry is well served by the country's abundance of energy resources. By the late 20th century the country was self-sufficient in fossil fuels and hydroelectric generation, and it had become a petroleum exporter. Oil deposits are scattered throughout the country. The basin around the Patagonian port of Comodoro Rivadavia is estimated to hold some two-thirds

Kabwe

2005-02-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

Formerly Broken Hill, town, central Zambia. It is an important transportation and mining centre north of Lusaka on the Great North Road, at an elevation of 3,879 feet (1,182 m). The Rhodesian Broken Hill Development Company (formed 1903) was instrumental in opening the region to foreign mining interests. After the mine was sunk for extraction of the high-grade zinc, vanadium, and lead ores, the first railway

Vail, Alfred Lewis

2005-02-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

Shortly after Vail graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1836, he met Morse and became interested in Morse's telegraph experiments. In return for a share in the

Xu Beihong

2005-02-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

Xu was first taught art in his childhood by his father, Xu Dazhang, a locally known portrait painter. Xu became an itinerant professional

Motion-picture Technology, Wide-screen and stereoscopic pictures

2005-02-11T02:58:00.000-08:00

Until the early 1950s, the screen shape, or aspect ratio (expressed as the ratio of frame width to frame height), was generally 1.33 to 1, or 4 to 3. In the mid-1950s the ratio became standardized at 1.85 to 1 in the United States and 1.66 or 1.75 to 1 in Europe. These slightly wider images were accomplished by using the same film but smaller aperture plates in the projector and by using shorter-focal-length

France, History Of, Carolingian literature and arts

2005-02-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

A renaissance movement occurred during the general renovation undertaken by the Carolingian monarchs; they supported the movement as an aid to religious reform and as a means to enhance their own prestige. The origins of the movement lie deep in the 7th and 8th centuries. It received great stimulus, however, when the growth of the empire brought the Franks into contact

Hendricks, Thomas A(ndrews)

2005-02-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

From 1863 until his death Hendricks was prominent in national Democratic politics. He was the vice-presidential running mate of Samuel J. Tilden in the disputed election of 1876, losing by the decision of a special Electoral Commission. In 1880 he expressed interest in becoming a presidential nominee but was unsuccessful. Nominated as vice president again in 1884, he was finally elected with Cleveland but died less than nine months after his inauguration.

Grindelwald

2005-02-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

Alpine village and valley, Bern canton, south central Switzerland. The village is scattered on the slopes of the Lütschine Valley (Lütschental), part of the Grindelwald Valley in the Bernese Oberland (highland), southeast of Interlaken. The Grindelwald Valley is shut in on the south by the Wetterhorn, Mettenberg, and Eiger (peaks rising above 10,000 ft [3,050 m]), between which are two

Tagaytay

2005-02-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

City, southwestern Luzon, Philippines. It is located on Tagaytay Ridge at about 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level, on the northern flank of Mount Taal. The city is a weekend retreat, popular for its cool climate and outstanding view to the south of Taal Lake, with an active volcano on an island. Market gardening for the Manila area to the north is a local activity. Inc. city, 1938. Pop. (1990 prelim.)

Lancaster

2005-02-08T19:31:00.000-08:00

City, Los Angeles county, southwestern California, U.S., in the Antelope Valley at the western edge of the Mojave Desert. It began as a Scottish settlement organized by M.L. Wicks (1882), who perhaps named it for his hometown in Pennsylvania. The valley largely supported cattle ranching until the early 1900s, when water, pumped by gasoline engines, transformed it into an agricultural

Croly, Jane Cunningham

2005-02-08T03:34:00.000-08:00

Jane Cunningham moved to the

Moscow

2005-02-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

Russian Moskva oblast (province), western Russia. The oblast surrounds and includes the city of Moscow, the capital of Russia. Moscow oblast was formed in 1929. The main feature of its relief is the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge, which stretches roughly east-west across the oblast, north of Moscow city. The ridge, a line of terminal moraines, reaches a height of 1,000 feet (300 metres) with a steep northern slope to

Dubus, Andre

2005-02-07T05:41:00.000-08:00

After graduating from McNeese State College (now University), Lake Charles (B.A., 1958), Dubus served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps and then took an M.F.A. degree from the

Cole, Thomas

2005-02-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

Cole's family immigrated first to Philadelphia and then settled in Steubenville, Ohio. He was trained by an itinerant portrait painter named Stein and then spent two years at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1825 some of Cole's

Drag Racing

2005-02-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Contestants line

Ribaut, Jean

2005-02-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

Jean Ribaut began his naval career as a youth, rising through the ranks to become one of the most dependable officers serving under Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. In 1558 Ribaut was commander of a French supply vessel at the successful capture of Calais from the English, and the following year

Wakayama

2005-02-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

Ken (prefecture), south-central Honshu, Japan. It occupies the Kii Peninsula, which faces the Kii Strait (west) and the Pacific Ocean (south). Most of its area of 1,824 square miles (4,725 square km) is mountainous and broken by deep river valleys, such as the Toro Gorge on the Kumano River. Despite frequent typhoons in summer, the climate is mild, and the coastal plain and some large valleys