FoolishNeedle

Turgot, Anne-robert-jacques, Baron De L'aulne

2005-04-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

French economist, who was an administrator under Louis XV and served as the comptroller general of finance (1774–76) under Louis XVI. His efforts at instituting financial reform were blocked by the privileged classes.

Babashoff, Shirley

2005-04-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Babashoff won silver medals in the 100- and 200-metre freestyle events and competed on the gold-medal-winning U.S. team in the 400-metre freestyle relay. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, she again

Irish Literature

2005-04-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

Either of two literatures, one in the native language (Irish, or Gaelic) of Ireland and the other in the language of the English conquerors; the latter is often called Anglo-Irish literature. For a discussion of the former, see Celtic literature. The history of Anglo-Irish literature is inextricably intertwined with that of English literature (q.v.).

Madang

2005-04-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

Port on the northeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea. It lies along Astrolabe Bay of the Bismarck Sea, near the mouth of the Gogol River. Madang is the centre for a large timber industry based on the Gogol forest about 25 miles (40 km) inland and is the distributing centre for the north coast and the Central Range. It is also a communication point for the

Ganassa, Zan

2005-04-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

Ganassa, who took his name from that of a character he invented, was perhaps the first to take a commedia company beyond the borders of Italy. Evidence exists of his appearances at Mantua (1568) and Ferrara (1570), and a performance by him and his company in Paris in 1571 was perhaps

Madang

2005-04-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

In analytical chemistry, a technique for identifying and quantitatively analyzing the chemical composition of substances by observing the thermal behaviour of a sample as it is heated. The technique is based on the fact that as a substance is heated, it undergoes reactions and phase changes that involve absorption or emission of heat. In DTA the temperature of

Adams, Louisa

2005-04-01T03:24:00.000-08:00

Following her husband's death in 1848, Louisa continued to live in Washington, where she died in 1852. In an unprecedented mark of respect for a former first lady, Congress adjourned for her funeral so that members could pay their respects. She was buried beside her husband and his parents at the First Church in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Self

2005-03-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

According to Carl Jung the

Tiv

2005-03-29T03:04:00.000-08:00

The Tiv are subsistence farmers whose main crops are yams, millet, and sorghum, all of which are eaten as porridge

Welch, Denton

2005-03-29T00:02:00.000-08:00

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

Eastern Orthodoxy, God and man

2005-03-28T04:02:00.000-08:00

The Greek Fathers of the church always implied that the phrase found in the biblical story of the creation of man (Gen. 1:26), according to “the image and likeness

Gray, Asa

2005-03-28T03:32:00.000-08:00

American botanist whose extensive studies of North American flora did more than the work of any other botanist to unify the taxonomic knowledge of plants of this region. His most widely used book, Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, from New England to Wisconsin and South to Ohio and Pennsylvania Inclusive (1848), commonly

Hindu Calendar

2005-03-27T18:02:00.000-08:00

Dating system used in India from about 1000 BC and still used to establish dates of the Hindu religious year. It is based on a year of 12 lunar months; i.e., 12 full cycles of phases of the Moon. The discrepancy between this year of about 354 days and the solar year of about 365 days is partially resolved by intercalation of an extra month every 30 months.

Belarusian Language

2005-03-26T02:34:00.000-08:00

Belarusian also spelled Belarusan , older spellings Belorussian and Byelorussian , formerly called White Ruthenian or White Russian (not to be confused with the “White” Russians who fought against the communists after the Russian Revolution of 1917) , Belarusian Belaruskaya mova East Slavic language that is historically the native language of most Belarusians. Many 20th-century governments of Belarus had policies favouring the Russian language, and, as a result, Russian is more widely used in education and public life than Belarusian. Belarusian forms a link between the Russian and Ukrainian languages, since its dialects shade gradually

Gipsite

2005-03-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

A variety of the mineral gypsum (q.v.).

Field, Stephen J(ohnson)

2005-03-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

Associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and chief architect of the constitutional approach that largely exempted the rapidly expanding industry of the United States from governmental regulation after the Civil War. He found the judicial instrument for the protection of private enterprise principally in the Fourteenth

Ashburton

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

Town (“parish”), Teignbridge district, administrative and historic county of Devon, England, lying on the southeastern margin of Dartmoor. It was designated a stannary (tin-mining) town in 1285. The priest of the Chantry Chapel of St. Lawrence kept a “free scole,” which survived as a grammar school from the late 16th century until 1938. The Church of St. Andrew in the town was built of granite

X Ray

2005-03-24T02:31:00.000-08:00

The particle nature of X rays is graphically demonstrated in the photoelectric effect and the Compton effect. In an attempt to explain blackbody radiation (radiation from a theoretically perfectly nonreflecting, or completely absorbing [i.e., “black”], body), Max Planck postulated that energy is radiated in small packets, or quanta, with an energy given by hn, in which n is

Mckinley, William

2005-03-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

Renominated for another term without opposition, McKinley again faced Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election of 1900. McKinley's margins of victory in both the popular and electoral votes were greater than they were four years before, no doubt reflecting satisfaction with the outcome of the war and with the widespread prosperity that the country enjoyed. Following his inauguration in 1901 (see primary source document: Second Inaugural Address), McKinley left Washington for a tour of the western states, to be concluded with a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Cheering crowds throughout the journey attested to McKinley's immense popularity. More than 50,000 admirers attended his exposition speech, in which the leader who had been so closely identified with protectionism now sounded the call for commercial reciprocity among nations. (See primary source document: Reciprocal Trade Agreements.) The following day, September 6, 1901, while McKinley was shaking hands with a crowd of well-wishers at the exposition, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, fired two shots into the president's chest and abdomen. Rushed to a hospital in Buffalo, McKinley lingered for a week before dying in the early morning hours of September 14. He was succeeded by his vice president, the man Mark Hanna sneeringly referred to as “that damned cowboy,” Theodore Roosevelt.

Circus, Wild West shows

2005-03-22T00:42:00.000-08:00

Wild West shows, which were sometimes attached to circuses, emphasized displays and events of America's old West. A Wild West show usually presented its exhibition in a large open field surrounded by bleachers protected by a canvas canopy. Typically, such shows featured American Indian ceremonies; cowboys who engaged in broncobusting, roughriding, roping, and sharpshooting;

Lockport

2005-03-21T21:49:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1822) of Niagara county, western New York, U.S. It lies 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Buffalo. It was founded in 1821 and grew around the series of five double locks (1847) of the Erie Canal built to overcome a difference of about 60 feet (18 metres) between the levels of Lake Erie and the Genesee River. Two modern locks (1918) of the New York State Canal System replaced one of the sets of five locks; the

Guadalajara

2005-03-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Guadalajara province, in the autonomous community (region) of Castile-La Mancha, central Spain, northeast of Madrid, situated on the Río Henares. The city, the ancient Arriaca, is Iberian in origin and was for a time held by the Romans, but its name is derived from Arabic (Wadi al-Hijarah, River of Stones). Taken by Christian forces in 1085, the city from the 15th to the 17th century

Marshall Islands

2005-03-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

Officially Republic of the Marshall Islands, Marshallese Majol, country of the central Pacific Ocean. It consists of some of the easternmost islands of Micronesia. The Marshalls are composed of two parallel chains of coral atolls—the Ratak, or Sunrise, to the east, and the Ralik, or Sunset, to the west. The chains lie about 125 miles (200 kilometres) apart and extend some 800 miles northwest to southeast. The islands and islets number more than 1,200 and

Châtelet, Gabrielle-émilie Le Tonnelier De Breteuil, Marquise Du

2005-03-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

She was married at 19 to the Marquis Florent du Châtelet, governor of Semur-en-Auxois, with whom she had three children. The marquis then took up a military career and thereafter saw his wife only infrequently. Mme du Châtelet returned to Paris and its dazzling social

Alani

2005-03-20T02:19:00.000-08:00

Also called Alans, an ancient nomadic pastoral people that occupied the steppe region northeast of the Black Sea. The Alani were first mentioned in Roman literature in the 1st century AD and were described later as a warlike people that specialized in horse breeding. They frequently raided the Parthian empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. About AD 370, however, they were

Baiae

2005-03-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

Italian Baia ancient city of Campania, Italy, located on the west coast of the Gulf of Puteoli (Pozzuoli) and lying 10 miles (16 km) west of Naples and 2 1/2 miles (4 km) from Cumae, of which it was a dependency. According to tradition, Baiae was named after Baios, the helmsman of Ulysses. In 178 BC the city is mentioned as Aquae Cumanae, because of its curative sulfur springs. Baiae's mild climate, thermal springs,

Golden Eagle

2005-03-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

In North America the golden eagle ranges

Murcia

2005-03-18T01:40:00.000-08:00

Independent Muslim (Moorish) kingdom centred on the city of Murcia (Arabic: Mursiyah), Spain. It came into being on two occasions: first in the 11th century, following the disintegration of the Spanish Umayyad caliphate; and again in the 12th century, as part of the Spanish Muslim reaction against the rule of the North African Almoravids. The kingdom's first ruler, 'Abd ar-Rahman

Chaeronea

2005-03-17T13:37:00.000-08:00

In ancient Greece, fortified town on Mt. Petrachus, guarding the entry into the northern plain of Boeotia. Controlled by the Boeotian city of Orchomenus (q.v.) in the 5th century BC, it was the scene of the battle in which Philip II of Macedon defeated Thebes and Athens (338 BC). The battle is commemorated by a statue of a large lion sitting on its haunches. In 86 BC Chaeronea was the scene of

Anti-atlas

2005-03-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

Also called Lesser Atlas, mountain range in Morocco running parallel to and southward of the central range of the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Although it has a mean elevation of 5,000 feet (1,500 m), some peaks and passes exceed 6,000 feet (1,800 m). This rugged, arid region, which encloses the Sous lowland and reaches the Atlantic coast at Sidi Ifni, is linked to the Haut (High) Atlas by Mount Siroua, a volcanic peak rising

Dai Hyakkajiten

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

It was first published from 1931 to 1935 in 28 volumes, with four supplements published in 1939–52, and was reissued in 15 volumes (1951–53). In 1955–63, a successor encyclopaedia, the Sekai dai hyakkajiten (“World Encyclopaedia”), was published in 33 volumes containing approximately 70,000 articles signed by specialists;

Copenhagen

2005-03-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

A small village existed on the site of the present city by the early 10th century. In 1167 Bishop Absalon of Roskilde built a castle on an islet off the coast and fortified the town with

France, History Of, The Enlightenment

2005-03-15T10:38:00.000-08:00

The industrial and commercial developments, already significant by themselves, were the cause, and perhaps also the effect, of a wider and still more momentous change preceding the Revolution—the Enlightenment. Today the Enlightenment can be understood as the conscious formulation of a profound cultural transformation. Epistemologically, the French Enlightenment

Yámana

2005-03-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

Also called Yahgan, South American Indian people, very few in number, who were the traditional occupants of the south coast of Tierra del Fuego and the neighbouring islands south to Cape Horn. In the 19th century they numbered between 2,500 and 3,000. The Yámana language forms a distinct linguistic group made up of five mutually intelligible dialects that correspond to five regionally defined

Mccormick, Anne Elizabeth O'hare

2005-03-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

McCormick was taken by her parents to the United States in early childhood and attended the academy and college of St. Mary of the Springs

Van Dine, S.s.

2005-03-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

Wright was educated at St. Vincent and Pomona colleges in California, at Harvard University, and in Munich and Paris. Pursuing a career as a writer, Wright became literary editor of the

Mcmaster, John Bach

2005-03-14T09:23:00.000-08:00

The son of a former Mississippi plantation owner, McMaster grew up in New York City and worked his way through the City College of New York. Although he obtained a degree in civil engineering in 1873, he was deeply

Tracer

2005-03-14T03:10:00.000-08:00

Detectable substance added to a chemical, biological, or physical system to follow its process or to study distribution of the substance in the system. Tracer dyes have long been used to follow the flow of underground streams. Incendiary rounds included at intervals in a belt of machine-gun bullets make the paths of the bullets visible. In scientific work, the use

Ann, Cape

2005-03-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Cape on the Atlantic Ocean comprising the eastern extremity of Essex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S., 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Boston. Sheltering Ipswich Bay, it is indented by Annisquam Harbor on the north and Gloucester Harbor on the south. The tidal Annisquam River, a 4-mile- (6.4-km-) long navigable waterway, connects the two harbours. The cape also shelters the northern

Udayagiri

2005-03-11T16:56:00.000-08:00

Village and archaeological site, south-central Orissa state, eastern India. In the village are located several Jaina and Buddhist rock-cut caves. One of these is a double-storied cave with ranges of cells cut into three sides of an open courtyard. Inscriptions in the caves date from the 2nd century BC to the 10th century AD.

Oracle

2005-03-11T07:20:00.000-08:00

(Latin oraculum from orare, “to pray,” or “to speak”), divine communication delivered in response to a petitioner's request; also, the seat of prophecy itself. Oracles were a branch of divination but differed from the casual pronouncements of augurs by being associated with a definite person or place. For example, the oracles of Zeus originated at Dodona, Olympia, or Siwa; those

Koch, Robert

2005-03-11T06:15:00.000-08:00

In full Robert Heinrich Hermann Koch German physician and one of the founders of bacteriology. He discovered the anthrax disease cycle (1876) and the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis (1882) and cholera (1883). For his discoveries in regard to tuberculosis, he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1905.

Ilhéus

2005-03-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern Bahia estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil. It is situated just east of Itabuna near the mouth of the Cachoeira River on Ilhéus Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic. An old Portuguese colonial settlement that was originally named São Jorge dos Ilhéos (1532), it was given city status in 1881. Most of Brazil's cacao is grown in the locality, and Ilhéus is consequently one of

Wajda, Andrzej

2005-03-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

Wajda became interested in the visual arts when working as assistant to a restorer of old church paintings in Radom. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, then film

Huerta, Dolores

2005-03-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

When Huerta was a child she moved to Stockton, California, with her mother and siblings after her parents' divorce. She remained in touch with her father, Juan Fernández, and took pride in his personal and

Biblical Literature, Samuel: Israel under Samuel and Saul

2005-03-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

The book of Samuel covers the period from Samuel, the last of the judges, through the reigns of the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David (except for David's death). The division of Samuel and its succeeding book, Kings (Melakhim), into four separate books first appeared in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament from the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE.

Novecento Movement

2005-03-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

Group of Italian artists, formed in 1922 in Milan, that advocated a return to the great Italian representational art of the past. The nationalism of the Novecento (20th-century) movement led to a commitment to fascism. Members included the sculptors Marino Marini and Arturo Martini and the painters Ottone Rosai, Massimo Campigli, Carlo Carrà, Mario Sironi, and Felice

Profit

2005-03-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

In business usage, the excess of total revenue over total cost during a specific period of time. In economics, profit is the excess over the returns to capital, land, and labour (interest, rent, and wages). To the economist, much of what is classified in business usage as profit consists of the implicit wages of manager-owners, the implicit rent on land owned by the firm, and

Argentina

2005-03-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

Officially Argentine Republic, Spanish República Argentina country occupying most of the southern portion, or southern cone, of South America. With an area of 1,073,399 square miles (2,780,092 square km)—more extensive than Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas combined—it is the eighth largest country in the world. Argentina is shaped like an inverted triangle with its base at the top; it is some 880 miles (1,420 km) across at its widest from east to west and stretches

Davao City

2005-03-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern Mindanao Island, Philippines. It lies at the mouth of the Davao River near the head of Davao Gulf. It is the leading regional centre for southeastern Mindanao and encompasses about 50 small ports in its commercial sphere. Pakiputan Strait, formed by offshore Samal Island, shelters both Santa Ana, an urban port servicing small vessels, and the deepwater

Berceo, Gonzalo De

2005-03-06T23:29:00.000-08:00

Berceo's subjects were religious

Work, History Of The Organization Of, Textiles

2005-03-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

The same type of specialization is also implied in the making of textiles. Early protective garments were derived from animal skins. The development of agriculture cut into the supply of available skins and required a substitute material for clothing. To make textiles, yarn had to be spun; the earliest apparatus for this work consisted of a spindle and a distaff

Lancaster, Sir James

2005-03-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

In 1588 Lancaster served under Sir Francis Drake as commander of the Edward Bonaventure against the Spanish Armada. On April 10, 1591, commanding the same ship, he sailed from Plymouth for the

Køge

2005-03-05T23:27:00.000-08:00

City, Roskilde amtskommune (county commune), eastern Sjælland (Zealand), Denmark. The city lies on Køge Bay of The Sound (Øresund). First mentioned in the 11th century and chartered in 1288, it became a market centre and base for herring fisheries in the late 13th century. In 1677 Admiral Niels Juel won a great naval victory over the Swedes in the bay. Medieval remains include St. Nicholas

Hay, Sir Gilbert

2005-03-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hay may have been the Gylbertus Hay named in the registers of St. Andrews University in 1418 and 1419. That he received a degree as a master of arts, that he became a knight, and that he was at some time chamberlain to

Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

2005-03-03T23:12:00.000-08:00

Black Methodist church in the United States, organized in 1870 as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church; it officially adopted its present name in 1956. The church originated from a movement begun in 1866 within the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to organize the black members into an independent church. At the founding convention in 1870, two bishops from the Methodist Episcopal

Gamow, George

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

Original Russian Georgy Antonovich Gamov Russian-born American nuclear physicist and cosmologist who was one of the foremost advocates of the big-bang theory, according to which the universe was formed in a colossal explosion that took place billions of years ago. In addition, his work on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) made a basic contribution

Hearing Aid

2005-03-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

Modern hearing aids are electronic. Principal components are a microphone that converts sound

Blanqui, (louis-)auguste

2005-03-02T02:52:00.000-08:00

Blanqui's father was a subprefect in the little town of Puget-Théniers in the French Maritime Alps. In 1818 Blanqui

Ossetic Language

2005-03-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Eastern Iranian language spoken in the northern Caucasus by the Ossetes. There are two major dialects: (1) eastern, called Iron, and (2) western, called Digor. The majority of the Ossetes speak Iron, which is the basis of the literary language now written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Ossetic is the modern descendant of the language of the ancient Alani, a Sarmatian people, and the

Anthony, Katharine (susan)

2005-03-01T06:39:00.000-08:00

A college teacher of geometry, Anthony was deeply interested in psychiatry. Eventually this interest came to shape her approach to biography,

Lattes, C.m.g.

2005-02-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

Lattes studied at the University of São Paulo with Giuseppe Occhialini in the 1940s and accompanied him in 1946 to the

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.

2005-02-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

Gates's father,

Arts, Central Asian, Altaic tribes

2005-02-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

Because of a freak climatic freeze, some of the Altaic burials, notably those of the 5th century BC at Pazyryk and neighbouring sites, such as Katanda, Shibe, and Tuekt, were isolated from external climatic variations by a protective layer of ice that conserved the organic substances buried in them. At Pazyryk these included the bodies of horses and an embalmed man whose

Aesthetics, China

2005-02-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

Confucius (551–479 BC) emphasized the role of aesthetic enjoyment in moral and political education, and, like his near contemporary Plato, was suspicious of the power of art to awaken frenzied and distracted feelings. Music must be stately and dignified, contributing to the inner harmony that is the foundation of good behaviour, and all art is at its noblest when incorporated

Maa-alused

2005-02-26T17:48:00.000-08:00

These terms refer to beings living under the earth with an existence quite parallel to that of people living on earth. The main differences are in the opposite

Cookson, Catherine (dame Catherine Ann Mcmullen Cookson)

2005-02-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

British author (b. June 20, 1906, Jarrow, Durham, Eng.--d. June 11, 1998, Jesmond Dene, near Newcastle upon Tyne, Eng.), penned almost 100 popular novels, which she set in the industrial region of northeastern England, frequently dubbed "Cookson Country." She was intimately familiar with the physical and emotional lay of this land, having been raised in the Tyneside docks area in poverty. Her early

Lipps, Theodor

2005-02-25T04:45:00.000-08:00

At the University of Bonn (1877–90) Lipps wrote a comprehensive account of psychology of the time, Grundtatsachen des

Andean Peoples

2005-02-25T01:38:00.000-08:00

Even these two technological developments, however, are not enough to characterize and explain the emergence of Andean civilizations. From the intimate knowledge of their environmental conditions, the people developed a set of values that may have started from a desire to minimize risks but that soon was elaborated into an economic and political ideal. Every

Turfan

2005-02-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) T'u-lu-p'an, or (Pinyin) Turpan, city in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. It lies about 95 miles (150 km) southeast of the city of Urumchi (Wu-lu-mu-ch'i) in a mountain basin between the Po-ko-ta Mountains (an eastern extension of the Tien Shan) and the K'u-lu-k'o-t'a-ko range, on the northern side of the Turfan Depression. It has long been the centre of a fertile oasis and an important trade centre on the main

Density

2005-02-24T07:21:00.000-08:00

Mass of a unit volume of a material substance, expressed as kilograms per cubic metre in MKS or SI units; the densities of common solids, liquids, and gases are listed in textbooks and handbooks. Density offers a convenient means of obtaining the mass of a body from its volume or vice versa; the mass is equal to the volume multiplied by the density, while the volume is equal

Biblical Literature, Biblical literature in liturgy

2005-02-24T01:12:00.000-08:00

Abraham Z. Idelsohn, The Jewish Liturgy and Its Development (1932, reprinted 1967); Joseph H. Hertz, The Authorized Daily Prayer Book, rev. ed. (1948), Hebrew and English with historical notes and commentary; Fan S. Noli, Three Liturgies of the Eastern Orthodox Church (1955); Donald Attwater, Eastern Catholic Worship (1945), eight Uniate liturgies in English; Josef A. Jungmann, Missarum Sollemnia: Eine Genetische Erklärung der römischen Messe, 2 vol. (1958; Eng. trans., The Mass of The Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, abridged ed., 1959); Clement J. McNaspy, Our Changing Liturgy (1966), reforms following Vatican II; Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (1945); Bard Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church (1961), includes the main Protestant traditions.

Pitt, William, The Younger

2005-02-23T04:40:00.000-08:00

British prime minister (1783–1801, 1804–06) during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. He had considerable influence in strengthening the office of the prime minister.

Sculpture, Devotional images and narrative sculpture

2005-02-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

The production of devotional images has been one of the sculptor's main tasks, and many of the world's greatest sculptures are of this kind. They include images of Buddha and the Hindu gods; of Christ, the Virgin, and the Christian saints; of Athena, Aphrodite, Zeus, and other Greek gods; and of all the various gods, spirits, and mythical beings of Rome, the ancient Near East, pre-Columbian

Lorain, John

2005-02-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

Lorain apparently went to the North American colony of Maryland when he was a child. After managing a farm there for many years; he moved in 1795 to

Booth, Maud Ballington

2005-02-21T06:28:00.000-08:00

Maud Charlesworth grew up from the age of three in London. The examples of her father, a clergyman, and her mother, who worked with her husband in his slum parish, predisposed Maud to social service, and in 1882 she joined the Salvation Army. Organizing work in France

Succubus

2005-02-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

Female form of an incubus (q.v.).

Positron

2005-02-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

Also called positive electron, any positively charged subatomic particle having the same mass and magnitude of charge as the electron and constituting the antiparticle of a negative electron. Positrons were the first of the antiparticles to be predicted and discovered. P.A.M. Dirac postulated their existence (1930–31) to account for the otherwise superfluous negative energy states of the electron

Ashgill Series

2005-02-20T05:36:00.000-08:00

Also called Ashgillian Series, the uppermost (in ascending order) of six divisions constituting the Ordovician System, representing all those rocks deposited worldwide during the Ashgillian Age (448 to 438 million years ago). The name of the series is derived from the Ash Gill Slates in the vicinity of Coniston in the Lake District of Cumbria, Eng., which is the type area for rocks of this age. Cautley, also

Alabama, The 20th century

2005-02-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

In 1900 the state remained largely rural. The onset of the boll weevil in 1915 seriously damaged one-crop agriculture, forcing a diversification of the rural economy. Rural dwellers, mostly poor and black, began an exodus to Southern cities and to the North, where cheap foreign labour supplies had dried up during World War I. A factor in encouraging the out-migration of Alabama

Aerophone

2005-02-19T05:09:00.000-08:00

Any of a class of musical instruments in which a vibrating mass of air produces the initial sound. The basic types include woodwind, brass, and free-reed instruments, as well as instruments that fall into none of these groups, such as the bull-roarer and the siren. Bagpipes and organs are hybrids with different kinds of pipes. The word aerophone replaces the term wind

Mahan, Alfred Thayer

2005-02-18T22:18:00.000-08:00

Mahan was the son of a professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., in 1859 and went on to serve nearly 40 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy. He fought in

Iron Curtain

2005-02-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

The political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern European allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas. The term Iron Curtain had been in occasional and varied use as a metaphor since the 19th century, but it only came to prominence after it was used by the

Argentite

2005-02-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

Argentite, like several other sulfides, selenides, and tellurides of silver and copper, forms isometric crystals at high temperatures, but upon

Cypress

2005-02-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

Any of about 20 species of ornamental and timber evergreen conifers constituting the genus Cupressus of the family Cupressaceae, distributed throughout warm-temperate and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. Many resinous, aromatic evergreen trees called cypress belong to other genera of the same family, especially

Nahhas Pasha, Mustafa An-

2005-02-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

A lawyer by profession, Nahhas was appointed a judge in 1904. Soon after World War I he joined the recently formed Wafd, assuming the chairmanship upon Sa'd Zaghlul's death in 1927. Thus he embarked upon a career during which

Deformation And Flow

2005-02-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

Everyday substances are ordinarily classed as either solids, liquids, or gases, and, under normal circumstances, gases and liquids flow relatively freely and solids deform when they are subjected

Alcaraz Carpet

2005-02-15T11:22:00.000-08:00

There are several different patterns of carpet with “wheels” in rectangular compartments. Other carpets imitate a wide range of brocade

Wilhelmj, August (emil Daniel Ferdinand Viktor)

2005-02-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

A prodigy, he gave his first concert at the age of eight in Wiesbaden. He studied with Ferdinand David at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1861 to 1863, and with Joachim Raff

Nanshe

2005-02-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

In Mesopotamian religion, Sumerian city goddess of Nina (modern Surghul, Iraq) in the southeastern part of the Lagash region of Mesopotamia. According to tradition, Nanshe's father Enki (Akkadian: Ea) organized the universe and placed her in charge of fish and fishing. Nanshe was also described as a divine soothsayer and dream interpreter. Although at times overshadowed

Salamá

2005-02-14T15:06:00.000-08:00

City, central Guatemala. It lies between the Chuacús Mountains and the Minas Mountains on the Salamá River, a tributary of the Chixoy, at 3,084 feet (940 m) above sea level. Salamá is a commercial and manufacturing centre for its agricultural and pastoral hinterland. The city suffered serious damage from an earthquake in 1976. Salamá is accessible by road from San Cristóbal Verapaz

Jonsson, John Erik

2005-02-14T00:35:00.000-08:00

A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.), Jonsson worked in the 1920s for the Aluminum Company of America and the Dumont Motor Car Co. In 1930 he was appointed

Viper

2005-02-13T01:27:00.000-08:00

Any of about 200 species of venomous snakes of the family Viperidae. Vipers form two groups, or subfamilies, the Viperinae (Old World vipers) and the Crotalinae (pit vipers), considered separate families by some authorities. Vipers are characterized by a pair of long, hollow, venom-injecting fangs attached to movable bones of the upper jaw (the maxillaries) that can be folded

Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan

2005-02-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

Chandrasekhar was the nephew of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. Chandrasekhar

Interior Design, General works

2005-02-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

Arnold Friedmann, John F. Pile, and Forrest Wilson, Interior Design: An Introduction to Architectural Interiors (1970), an introduction to the field of interior architecture written for students of design; Sherrill Whiton, Elements of Interior Design and Decoration, 3rd ed. (1963), a scholarly text; Ray and Sarah Faulkner, Inside Today's Home, 3rd ed. (1968), a thorough and well-illustrated book on the interior design of homes; Diana Rowntree, Interior Design (1964), a brief and personal view of interior design written primarily for British readers; Edgar Kaufman, What Is Modern Interior Design? (1953, reprinted 1969), a very brief but perceptive treatise. A later monograph on home decorating is Mary Gilliat, The Decorating Book (1981), with special photography by Michael Dunne.

Andrade, Jorge

2005-02-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

After staging O faqueiro de prata (“The Silver Cutlery”) and O telescópio (“The Telescope”) in 1954, Andrade came even more forcefully to public attention in 1955 with A moratória (“The Moratorium”). Among his later plays, Pedreira das almas

Taenia

2005-02-11T03:25:00.000-08:00

Genus of tapeworms parasitic in mammals. See tapeworm.

Lipton, Seymour

2005-02-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Lipton attended City College of New York, studied dentistry at Columbia University (1923–27), and had no formal art training. He embarked on his artistic career in 1932 as a figurative sculptor, primarily in wood; when he shifted to abstract work after 1945, his major

Cambisol

2005-02-10T02:48:00.000-08:00

One of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Cambisols are characterized by the absence of a layer of accumulated clay, humus, soluble salts, or iron and aluminum oxides. They differ from unweathered parent material in their aggregate structure, colour, clay content, carbonate content, or other properties that

Rama Iii

2005-02-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

Rama III was the eldest son of King Rama II by a royal concubine, and in his youth he was given responsibility for overseeing foreign trade and relations. On his father's