HealthyFace

Sea-urchin Cactus

2005-11-18T03:35:00.000-08:00

Any of the genus Echinopsis, family Cactaceae, about 30 species native to South America at medium elevations in desert shrublands or grasslands. Several species, but most especially the Easter lily cactus (E. multiplex), are valued for their ease of growth and large flowers on tubes up to 25 centimetres (10 inches) long. Most are hardy outdoors in Mediterranean

Kin

2005-10-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

Also called Kinsfolk, persons deemed related through blood or marriage or both. See kinship.

Silicon Carbide

2005-07-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Exceedingly hard, synthetically produced crystalline compound of silicon and carbon. Its chemical formula is SiC. Since the late 19th century silicon carbide has been an important material for sandpapers, grinding wheels, and cutting tools. More recently, it has found application in refractory linings and heating elements for industrial furnaces, in wear-resistant

Andes Mountains

2005-07-27T03:05:00.000-07:00

The Andes consist of a vast series of extremely high plateaus surmounted by even higher peaks that form an unbroken rampart over a distance of some 5,500 miles (8,900 kilometres)—from the southern tip of South America to the continent's northernmost coast on the Caribbean. They separate a narrow

Naracoorte

2005-07-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

Town and rail junction, southeastern South Australia. It lies 190 miles (310 km) southeast of Adelaide, near the Victoria border. Founded as Kincraig in 1845, it took its present name in 1869 from an Aboriginal word meaning “large waterhole.” During the 1850s Naracoorte was an important stopping place along the route to the Victorian goldfields. Created a municipality in 1924, it now serves as a

Bonaire

2005-07-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Second largest island of the Netherlands Antilles, the westernmost group of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It is 111 square miles (288 square km) in area and lies 50 miles (80 km) north of the Venezuelan coast and 20 miles east of Curaçao. The northern part is hilly, with a peak, Mount Brandaris, 787 feet (240 m) high, while the southern part is flat with desert-like vegetation. The adjacent

Hoffmann, Josef

2005-06-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hoffman studied under Otto Wagner in Vienna and in 1899 joined in the founding of the Vienna Sezession, which, although influenced by the Art Nouveau movement, was more modernist than Wagner's approach. Beginning

Constantine

2005-05-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

Constantine upheld Roman supremacy against the insubordination of Felix, archbishop of Ravenna. He received as a pilgrim King Cenred of Mercia, who became a monk at Rome (709). Constantine strongly objected to the canons, several of which opposed Roman customs, established by the largely eastern Trullan (or Quinisext) Council assembled under

France, History Of, Republican factions

2005-05-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

With the republican regime apparently safe from outside attack, rival factions developed among the republicans. During the 1880s the labels Radical and Opportunist began to be attached to the two wings of the republican movement. On the left, the Radicals saw themselves as heirs to the Jacobin tradition: they stood for a strong centralized regime, intransigent anticlericalism,

Asaba

2005-05-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Town and capital of Delta state, southern Nigeria. It lies on the west bank of the Niger River (opposite Onitsha) and on the road to Benin City. A traditional market centre (cassava, yams, palm oil and kernels, kola nuts) for the Igbo (Ibo) people, it was the place where Richard and John Lander, the British explorers of the Niger, were taken captive by the Igbos in 1830. It later became

Germany, Additional benefits

2005-03-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

Germany also provides several special systems of coverage for groups such as war widows, orphans, and farmers. Unemployment insurance is funded through deductions from wages and salaries. Allowances are made for families with one or more children. Additional public allowances are granted to persons suffering disabilities from wartime injury, whether as military

Zipper

2005-03-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

The idea of a slide fastener was exhibited by Whitcomb

Qift

2005-03-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Kuft, �Greek �Coptos, or Koptos, � agricultural town, Qina muhafazah (governorate), Upper Egypt. It is situated at the large bend of the Nile below Luxor (al-Uqsur) and lies along the east bank of the river. Known to the ancient Egyptians as Qebtu, the town was of early dynastic foundation. It was important for nearby gold and quartzite mines in the Eastern Desert, worked during the 1st and 2nd dynasties, and as a starting

Densusianu, Ovid

2005-03-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

Educated at Iasi and later in Berlin and Paris, Densusianu was appointed professor of Romance languages at the University of Bucharest. Strongly influenced by western European Symbolism, he opposed the bucolic school

Channel-port Aux Basques

2005-03-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

Town on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, Canada. It is the terminal for car ferries across Cabot Strait from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and is the connecting point for the 570-mile (917-kilometre) semicircular final stage of the Trans-Canada Highway to St. John's (east). Fishing and fish processing are local industries. A monument commemorates those who died when the ferry

Constantine

2005-03-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

Also called (after 1981) �Qacentina�, Arabic �Blad el-Hawa�, Phoenician �Cirta� city, northeast Algeria. A natural fortress, the city occupies a rocky, diamond-shaped plateau that is surrounded, except at the southwest, by a precipitous gorge through the eastern side of which flows the Rhumel River. The plateau is 2,130 feet (650 m) above sea level and from 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 m) above the riverbed in the gorge. The cliffs of the gorge, at its narrowest, are 15 feet (4.5 m) apart and

Tudor, Antony

2005-03-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

He began his dance studies at 19 years of age with Marie Rambert and for her company choreographed his first ballet, Cross-Gartered (1931), based on an incident in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. In 1938 he founded his own company,

Cassel, Gustav

2005-03-07T01:26:00.000-08:00

Cassel was educated at the University of Uppsala and Stockholm University and served as a professor of economics at the latter (1904 - 33). His most

Macaire

2005-03-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

The same story

Ijsselmeer Polders

2005-03-05T03:32:00.000-08:00

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

Peter Claver, Saint

2005-03-04T03:51:00.000-08:00

Peter entered the Society of Jesus in 1602 and eight years later was sent to Cartagena, where he was ordained in 1616. The miserable condition of the slaves aboard ship and in the pens

Interior Design, Ceilings

2005-03-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

Although ceilings are in most interiors the largest unbroken surface, they are often ignored by amateur designers and even by professional designers. The result, especially in public and office interiors, is frequently a mass of unrelated lighting devices, air conditioning outlets, and the like. Ceilings were emphasized in the Baroque and 18th-century traditions:

Z�lkowski, Alojzy Fortunat

2005-03-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

Z�lkowski was born into a noble family and served in the army during the revolt of 1794. He made his acting debut in Warsaw in 1798, toured the country for four years, and then joined the National Theatre (Teatr Narodowy), where he was admired

Sesostris Iii

2005-03-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

During the reigns of his predecessors, the provincial nobles of Middle Egypt had enhanced their power through royal favours and intermarriage with the families of neighbouring potentates. Around the

Alcal� Zamora, Niceto

2005-02-28T04:58:00.000-08:00

Elected to the Cortes (parliament) in 1905, Alcal� Zamora became minister of works in 1917 and minister of war in 1922. The Spanish defeat at Anual in Morocco led to an

Downing, Sir George

2005-02-27T03:30:00.000-08:00

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

Madi

2005-02-26T15:33:00.000-08:00

Primarily hoe cultivators with millet as their staple crop, the Madi also fish, hunt, and keep cattle; smithing is an important

Peter Ii

2005-02-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

Because Catherine had named the Supreme Privy Council to act as regent for the youth, Aleksandr D. Menshikov, who had been a close adviser to both Peter I and

Regium Donum

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

(Latin: �royal gift�), annual grant made from public funds to Presbyterian ministers in Ireland and to Nonconformist ministers (those not part of the Church of England) in Great Britain. It originated in Ireland in 1690, when the English king William III made a grant to Presbyterian ministers in Ulster as a reward for their services during his struggles with former king James

Aye-aye

2005-02-23T00:57:00.000-08:00

(Daubentonia madagascariensis), rare, squirrellike primate, the sole living representative of the family Daubentoniidae, found in Madagascan rain forests. The aye-aye is about 40 cm (16 inches) long excluding the bushy, 55- to 60-centimetre tail; and it is covered with long, coarse, dark brown or black fur. It has a short face, large eyes, and rodentlike,

George

2005-02-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

Byname �George of Podebrady, �Czech� Jir� z Podebrad� king of Bohemia from 1458. As head of the conservative Utraquist faction of Hussite Protestants, he established himself as a power when Bohemia was still under Habsburg rule, and he was thereafter unanimously elected king by the estates. A nationalist and Hussite king of a prosperous state, he incurred the enmity

Middletown

2005-02-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

City, Butler county, southwestern Ohio, U.S., on the Miami River (bridged). With nearby Hamilton, it forms a standard metropolitan statistical area. Founded in 1802, it was named for its location midway between Dayton (35 mi [56 km] north) and Cincinnati. It soon became a lively agricultural trading community, with its products (wheat, corn, tobacco, livestock, fruits, and vegetables) transported

Mountain, The Caribbean chains

2005-02-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

The mountain range along the coast of Venezuela is a remnant of a phase when the Caribbean Sea was subducted southward beneath Venezuela and where rocks were folded along east - west axes. Right-lateral strike-slip faulting and rather slow mountain building occur there today, as much by slight vertical displacement on predominantly strike-slip faults as by slow

Allah

2005-02-18T00:57:00.000-08:00

(Arabic: �God�), the one and only God in the religion of Islam. Etymologically, the name Allah is probably a contraction of the Arabic al-Ilah, �the God.� The name's origin can be traced back to the earliest Semitic writings in which the word for god was Il or El, the latter being an Old Testament synonym for Yahweh. Allah is the standard Arabic word for �God� and is used by Arab Christians

Vanadic Anhydride

2005-02-17T22:30:00.000-08:00

Vanadium pentoxide, a compound of vanadium and oxygen widely used as an oxidation catalyst, as in the oxidation of unburned hydrocarbons in automobile exhaust (see vanadium).

Chaconne

2005-02-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �ciaconne� fiery and suggestive dance that appeared in Spain about 1600 and eventually gave its name to a musical form. Miguel de Cervantes, Francisco G�mez de Quevedo, and other contemporary writers imply a Mexican origin but do not indicate whether it was indigenous or a Spanish dance modified there. Apparently danced with castanets by a couple or by a woman alone, it

Silicon

2005-02-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

Silicon was first isolated and described as an element in 1824 by J�ns Jacob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist. Silicon does not occur uncombined in nature; but

Silicon

2005-02-14T05:29:00.000-08:00

Any of the group of mammals that includes elephants and their extinct relatives such as mammoths and mastodons. Although only three species of elephant are extant today, more than 160 extinct proboscidean species have been identified from remains found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. Most of these were called gomphotheres, which belonged to

Penderecki, Krzysztof

2005-02-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

Penderecki studied composition at the Superior School of Music in Krak�w (graduated 1958), subsequently becoming a professor there. He first drew attention in 1959 at the third Warsaw Festival of Contemporary Music, where his Strophes

T'ien-chi

2005-02-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

Ascending the throne at the age of 15, T'ien-chi preferred carpentry to governmental affairs. He handed the powers of government to Wei, a former butler in the empress dowager's service and a friend of the young

Mosher, Eliza Maria

2005-02-11T23:24:00.000-08:00

In 1869, over the objections of friends and family, Mosher entered the New England Hospital for Women and Children as an intern apprentice. After a year she was forced to suspend her education

Biplane

2005-02-10T00:07:00.000-08:00

Airplane with two wings, one above the other. In the 1890s this configuration was adopted for some successful piloted gliders. The Wright brothers' biplanes (1903 - 09) opened the era of powered flight. Biplanes predominated in military and commercial aviation from World War I through the early 1930s, but the biplane's greater maneuverability could not offset the speed advantage of

Brundage, Avery

2005-02-09T23:20:00.000-08:00

Brundage competed in the pentathlon and decathlon at the

Ireland, Air facilities

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

International airports are located at Dublin, Shannon, and Cork, and there are several regional airports. Aer Rianta, a public limited-liability company, has responsibility for the operation, management, and development of the three major international airports. Shannon was the world's first duty-free airport; a state-sponsored company offers substantial tax breaks

Wampanoag

2005-02-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

Algonquian-speaking Indians of eastern North America who formerly occupied parts of the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Martha's Vineyard, and adjacent islands. They were semisedentary, with seasonal movements between fixed sites. Corn (maize) was the staple of their diet, supplemented by fish and game. They were divided into several subtribes, each with

Metz

2005-02-06T05:38:00.000-08:00

Metz derives its name from the Mediomatrici, a Gallic tribe who made it their capital. It was

Christian, Fletcher

2005-02-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

A member of a family that had moved from the Isle of Man to Cumberland, Eng., Christian had already served some years in the navy when, in 1787, he became master's mate on the Bounty, a discovery ship sailing (Dec. 23, 1787) from Spithead to the South Seas to collect breadfruit

Condorcet, Marie-jean-antoine-nicolas De Caritat, Marquis De

2005-02-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

He was descended from the ancient family of Caritat, who took their title from Condorcet, a town in Dauphin�. He was educated

Malankarese Catholic Church

2005-02-03T06:44:00.000-08:00

The Syrian Orthodox Church came into existence in 1653, when the Christians of St. Thomas - as the Indian Christians of Malabar (now Kerala) called themselves - broke with Rome after severe Latinization by Portuguese

Puelche

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

Little is known of the Puelche prior to the

Bewick, Thomas

2005-02-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

Bewick, a precocious youth, was apprenticed to a local metal engraver when he was 14 years old. He progressed rapidly and, after his apprenticeship, entered

Oakville

2005-01-31T20:31:00.000-08:00

Town, regional municipality of Halton, southeastern Ontario, Canada, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Toronto. Oakville is situated on Lake Ontario at the mouth of Oakville Creek. It was founded in 1830 by Colonel William K. Chisholm, who established shipbuilding yards there. It was originally incorporated in 1857, and in 1962 it amalgamated with Trafalgar Township to form the new town of Oakville,

Aym�, Marcel

2005-01-30T13:00:00.000-08:00

He grew up in the country among farmers, in a world of close-knit families bounded by the barnyard on one side, the schoolhouse on the other.

Dysmenorrhea

2005-01-29T05:56:00.000-08:00

Primary

Tswana

2005-01-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

The Tswana live in a grassland environment where they practice animal

Blondel De Nesle

2005-01-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

Nothing is known about Blondel outside of his poetry. He was probably from Nesle, in Picardy; but the name Blondel may be a nickname, and it is uncertain how many of the 25 songs attributed to him are actually his. His poetry is conventional in its complaints to an unknown lady but contains no references

Murmansk

2005-01-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

Oblast (province), northwestern Russia, with an area of 55,950 sq mi (144,900 sq km) occupying the Kola Peninsula between the White and Barents seas. Its upland blocks and mountain massifs, rising to 3,907 ft (1,191 m) in the Khibiny Mountains, are covered by tundra in the north and swampy forest, or taiga, in the south. The economy is dominated by mineral exploitation, principally apatite, nepheline,

Chelmsford

2005-01-25T19:46:00.000-08:00

Remains of the Roman settlement of Caesaromagus have been discovered in the locality. In 1227 Chelmsford town became the regular seat of the county judicial gatherings known as assizes and quarter

Powhatan

2005-01-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

Powhatan was the son of an Algonkin chief whose tribe had migrated to Virginia during the 16th century. His father had vanquished five of the resident tribes and established a six-tribe confederacy. After Powhatan succeeded his father, he brought two dozen other tribes into the confederacy; at the peak

Port Angeles

2005-01-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1890) of Clallam county, northwestern Washington, U.S., on Juan de Fuca Strait, linked by ferry to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 18 miles (29 km) north across the strait. Located at the base of Ediz Hook (a 3.5-mile- [5.6-km-] long, curving sand bar), the site was visited in 1791 by the Spanish explorer Francisco Eliza, who named the harbour Puerto de Nuestra Se�ora de los Angeles. Permanently

North Africa, History Of, Carthaginian supremacy

2005-01-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

By the 5th century BC, active military participation by Tyre in the west had doubtlessly ceased; from the latter half of the 6th century Tyre was under Persian rule. Carthage thus became the leader of the western Phoenicians and in the 5th century formed an empire of its own, centred on North Africa, which included existing Phoenician settlements, new ones founded by Carthage

Furniture, Historical forms and styles

2005-01-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

Round stone tables on low pedestal legs are known in Egypt from the time of the pyramids (c. 2700 BC). Egyptian limestone reliefs also show tables of normal height. Dating from the later dynasties, crude wooden tables with architectonic molding have been preserved. No tables have survived from ancient Greece. From the Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, however, there are

Anstey, Christopher

2005-01-20T19:41:00.000-08:00

Poet whose epistolary novel in verse, The New Bath Guide, went through more than 30 editions between 1766 and 1830. After an education at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, Anstey in 1754 inherited an independent income; and in 1770 he settled permanently at Bath, fashionable spa of the 18th century. The New Bath Guide; or, Memoirs of the B - R

Haley, Sir William

2005-01-19T16:35:00.000-08:00

Haley grew up on the island of Jersey and attended Victoria College there. In 1918 he began to study journalism, and in 1921 he secured his first newspaper employment

La Paz

2005-01-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

Town, southwestern Honduras, at an elevation of 2,461 feet (750 m) above sea level in the Comayagua River valley, on the eastern flanks of the Cordillera de Montecillos. It was founded in 1792 and has been called La Paz since 1861. The city serves as a commercial centre for the surrounding agricultural and pastoral lands, which yield primarily henequen, coffee, and cattle. The town has a sawmill,

Rommel, Erwin

2005-01-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

Less than a year later, in February 1941, Rommel was appointed commander of the German troops dispatched to aid the all but defeated Italian army in Libya. The deserts of North Africa became the scene of his greatest successes - and of his defeat at the hands of a vastly superior enemy. In the North African theatre of war, the �Desert Fox,� as he came to be called by both friend and

Ryabushinsky Family

2005-01-15T06:22:00.000-08:00

Mikhayl Y. Ryabushinsky purchased a fabric store in Moscow in 1844 and two years later opened a cloth factory. His sons, Pavel and Vasily

Sohyo

2005-01-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

In full �Nihon Rodo Kumiai So Hyogikai�, English �General Council of Trade Unions� trade-union federation that was the largest in Japan. Sohyo was founded in 1950 as a democratic trade-union movement in opposition to the communist leadership of its predecessor organization. It rapidly became the most powerful labour organization in postwar Japan and formed close ties with the Japan Socialist Party. The major affiliates of Sohyo included unions of government

Fusulina

2005-01-13T05:58:00.000-08:00

Genus of extinct fusulinid foraminiferans (protozoans with a shell) found as fossils in marine rocks of Late Carboniferous age (286 to 320 million years old). Fusulina, an excellent index fossil for Late Carboniferous rocks, enables widely separated rocks to be correlated.

Fusulina

2005-01-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

The largest Lutheran church in North America. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was formed in 1988 by the merger of two major Lutheran denominations, the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America, along with the much smaller Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. The new church cut across ethnic lines and was designed to give Lutherans

Interior Design, Byzantium

2005-01-11T01:41:00.000-08:00

The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople (formerly called Byzantium, later Stamboul, presently Istanbul) was a convenient meeting place for East and West. It felt the influence of Persian art and transmitted it to early medieval European Christian styles. Most surviving Byzantine interiors are ecclesiastical, although secular wall paintings

Lean, Sir David

2005-01-10T00:21:00.000-08:00

Lean was the son of strict Quaker parents and did not see his first film until age 17. He began his film career in 1928 as a teaboy for Gaumont-British studios, where he soon was promoted to clapboard boy, and finally to editor,

Systole And Diastole

2005-01-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

Diastole, the opposite of systole, is the lengthening of a short quantity or syllable for metric irregularity. The

Great Lake

2005-01-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

Largest natural freshwater lake in Australia, lying on Tasmania's Central Plateau at an elevation of 3,398 feet (1,036 m). It has an area of 61 square miles (158 square km), measures 14 miles (22 km) by 7 miles (11 km), and fills a shallow depression averaging 40 feet (12 m) in depth. The lake's original catchment basin of 150 square miles (390 square km) has been expanded to 400 square miles (1,040 square km) by the building of several

Agnes Of Poitou

2005-01-07T03:33:00.000-08:00

Agnes was a daughter of William V the Great, duke of Aquitaine, and was a descendant of the kings of Burgundy and Italy. She married Henry III on Nov. 1, 1043, forming an alliance designed to cement the empire's relations with its neighbouring states

Textile

2005-01-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

The term is derived from the Latin textilis and the French texere, meaning �to weave,� and it originally referred only to woven fabrics. It has, however, come to include fabrics produced by other methods. Thus, threads, cords, ropes, braids, lace, embroidery, nets, and fabrics made

Fyodor I

2005-01-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

The son of Ivan IV the Terrible and his first wife, Anastasiya Romanovna Zakharina-Yureva, Fyodor succeeded his father on March 19, 1584. Being both physically weak and feebleminded, however, he took no part in government affairs, which were dominated by his wife's

Bench

2005-01-04T05:37:00.000-08:00

Long seat that may be freestanding, fixed to the wall, or placed against the wall. Paneled benches were used by the Romans, and they were the most common form of seating in medieval halls at a time when a chair was a rare luxury. Benches were not only used as seats but were normally wide enough to be used for sleeping on or eating from; as the Frankish ecclesiastic and historian

Lesser Slave Lake

2005-01-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

Lake in central Alberta, Canada, 130 miles (209 km) northwest of Edmonton and 400 miles (640 km) south of Great Slave Lake (in the Northwest Territories). It is 60 miles (97 km) long by 12 miles (19 km) wide and has an area of 451 square miles (1,168 square km). Fed by many small streams, it drains eastward into the Athabasca River via the Lesser Slave River. The name, first used by the Cree Indians, refers to the Slave (Dogrib)

Ashburnham, John

2005-01-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

The son of Sir John Ashburnham (d. 1620), he began a career at court under the patronage of a prominent kinsman, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He was treasurer of the Royal army during the first Civil War and commissioner in the Uxbridge negotiations (1644) before escaping abroad, to

Inland Sea

2005-01-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Japanese �Seto-naikai, � the body of water lying between the Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. It is composed of five distinct basins linked together by channels. Its east-west length is about 270 miles (440 km), and its waters are easily navigable. The sea has an irregular coastline and is dotted with hundreds of small islands, the largest of which is Awaji Island in the east. Entrance to

Roman De La Rose

2004-12-31T07:11:00.000-08:00

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

Paul, Wolfgang

2004-12-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

German physicist who shared one-half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1989 with the German-born American physicist Hans G. Dehmelt. (The other half of the prize was awarded to the American physicist Norman F. Ramsey.) Paul received his share of the prize for his development of the Paul trap - an electromagnetic device that captures ions (electrically

Amin, Idi

2004-12-29T01:39:00.000-08:00

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

Tasmania, Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

2004-12-28T03:35:00.000-08:00

Less than a third of Tasmania's area is agricultural land; almost all of it is used for grazing; just under half is sown pasture, and the rest is used for rough grazing or is open forest. Crops occupy only 4 percent of agricultural land but contribute one-third of the total value of agricultural production. Seasonal irrigation, mainly spray for crops and some pasture, is

Athlone, Godard Van Reede, 1st Earl Of, Baron Of Aughrim, Heer (lord) Van Ginkel

2004-12-27T16:46:00.000-08:00

Van Reede's father, Adriaan, the first baron van Reede (a Danish title),

Sea Buckthorn

2004-12-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

Also called �Sallow Thorn� (Hippophae rhamnoides, family Elaeagnaceae), willowlike shrub growing to about 2.5 m (about 8 feet) high with narrow leaves that are silvery on the underside and globose, orange-yellow fruits about 8 mm ( 1/3 inch) in diameter. It is common on sand dunes along the eastern and southeastern coasts of Great Britain and is widely distributed in the mountains of Europe and Asia. The sea

Scandinavian Literature, Skaldic verse

2004-12-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

Norwegians and Icelanders of the 9th to the 13th century also composed skaldic poetry (from the Icelandic word sk�ld, �poet�). It was not composed in the free variable metres of the Poetic Edda but was strictly syllabic: every syllable had to be counted and every line had to end in a given form. Like Eddaic lines, the skaldic lines were joined in pairs by alliteration, often using

Syllabic Verse

2004-12-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

In prosody, the metrical system that is most commonly used in English poetry. It is based on both the number of stresses, or accents, and the number of syllables in each line of verse. A line of iambic pentameter verse, for example, consists of five feet, each of which is an iamb (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable). Although accentual-syllabic verse is very strictly

Jackson, Mercy Ruggles Bisbe

2004-12-23T22:14:00.000-08:00

Mercy Ruggles received what was for the time a good education. In June 1823 she married the Reverend John Bisbe, with whom she moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and later to Portland, Maine. After his death in 1829, she supported herself

Bachchan, Amitabh

2004-12-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

Bachchan, the son of the renowned Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, attended Sherwood College in Nainital and the University of Delhi. He worked as a business executive in Calcutta (Kolkata) and performed in

Wu Hsing

2004-12-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

The Wu hsing cycle served as a broad explanatory

Naberezhnye Chelny

2004-12-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1930) �Chelny�, from 1982 to 1988 �Brezhnev� city, Tatarstan, west-central Russia, on the left bank of the Kama River. The city is best known for its Kama truck plant, the world's largest. Also located at Naberezhnye Chelny is the Lower Kama hydroelectric station. Because of these developments, Naberezhnye Chelny experienced rapid growth beginning in the 1970s. Pop. (1991 est.) 513,100.

Hay

2004-12-18T23:16:00.000-08:00

In agriculture, dried grasses and other foliage used as animal feed. Usually the material is cut in the field while still green and then either dried in the field or mechanically dried by forced hot air. Typical hay crops are timothy, alfalfa, and clover. The protein content of grasses and legumes decreases and fibre and lignified tissue increases as growing plants

Alcock, Sir John William

2004-12-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

Alcock received his pilot's certificate in 1912 and joined the Royal Naval Air Service as an instructor at the opening of World War I. In 1916 he was posted to a wing group of the Eastern Mediterranean theatre, based at Munros. During

Bear Grass

2004-12-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Also called �Turkey Beard, � one of two species of North American plants comprising the genus Xerophyllum of the lily family (Liliaceae). The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, and fire lily. It is a smooth, light-green mountain perennial with a stout, unbranched stem, from 0.6 to 2 metres (2 to 6 feet) high, which rises from a woody, tuber-like rootstock and cordlike roots. The stem bears

Ester

2004-12-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

Carboxylic acid esters, formula RCOOR� (R and R� are any organic combining groups), are commonly prepared by reaction of carboxylic acids and alcohols in the presence of hydrochloric acid or sulfuric

Shagari, Alhaji Shehu (usman Aliyu)

2004-12-14T07:06:00.000-08:00

A member of the Muslim Fulani people of northern Nigeria and a descendant of a tribe that had founded his home village, Shagari studied at a secondary school in Kaduna and taught school briefly before entering politics in 1954 and being elected to the federal House of Representatives. Thereafter

Lie, Trygve (halvdan)

2004-12-13T23:49:00.000-08:00

Educated at the University of Kristiania (Oslo), Lie practiced law and became a leading member of the Norwegian Labour Party

Ballina

2004-12-12T01:49:00.000-08:00

Irish �B�al An �tha� urban district, County Mayo, Ireland, on the River Moy. The town, the largest in Mayo, has a modern Roman Catholic cathedral and the remains of an Augustinian friary founded about 1375. Salmon and trout fishing nearby are notable. Hand tools, drills, and medical products are manufactured there. Pop. (1981) 6,856.