StraightEgg

Takla Makan Desert

2005-03-30T03:18:00.000-08:00

The Takla Makan is flanked by high mountain ranges: the Tien Shan in the north, the Kunlun Mountains in the south, and the Pamirs in the west. There is a gradual transition to the Lop Nor basin in the east, and, in the south and west, between the sandy desert and the mountains, lies a band of sloping desert lowland composed of pebble-detritus deposits.

Tata

2005-03-30T00:15:00.000-08:00

Oasis, southwestern Morocco. Situated in an arid region at the extreme northwestern edge of the Sahara, Tata oasis is located in a canyon watered by three wadis descending from Mount Bani, an outlier of the Anti-Atlas mountains. The oasis contains about 30 ksars (fortified villages) with houses built out of pink clay. The inhabitants of the region include the Shluh Berbers,

Wu Daoxuan

2005-03-29T21:19:00.000-08:00

He is recorded as having painted a wide variety of subjects, perhaps painting large wall compositions of an essentially Buddhist character more than anything else. He is especially noted for his imagination

Buddhism, The Bka'-gdams-pa and Dge-lugs-pa

2005-03-28T21:56:00.000-08:00

The Bka'-gdams-pa school was based on the teachings of Atisa (an Indian monk who came to Tibet in the 11th century). It was founded by his chief disciple, 'Brom-ston (c. 1008–c. 1064), who emphasized austere discipline. The school produced the Bka'-gdams gces-bsdus (“Collection of the Sayings of the Bka'-gdams-pa Saints”), which preserves the often highly poetic utterances of those close to the founder.

Switzerland, Switzerland from 1848 to the present

2005-03-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

The turning point, then, in modern Swiss history was 1848. Before that date internal conflict was a fact of Swiss political life; since then there has been an absence of major internal crises along ethnic and religious lines, and the country has prospered. With political stability, the Swiss could spend a greater portion of their time and efforts developing industry, agriculture,

Gabon, Flag Of

2005-03-28T08:32:00.000-08:00

The French did not allow the development of national flags in their colonies, fearing the flags might become symbols around which separatists could rally. Therefore there were few such traditions in French Africa when autonomous governments were established in 1958 (the year of the new constitution of France). Whereas some countries did not adopt flags for more than

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich

2005-03-26T05:26:00.000-08:00

Russian novelist, poet, and playwright, whose major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman's Sketches (1852) and the novels Rudin (1856), Home of the Gentry (1859), On the Eve (1860), and Fathers and Sons (1862). These works offer realistic, affectionate portrayals of the Russian peasantry and penetrating

Schaff, Philip

2005-03-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

Schaff was educated at the universities of Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin and was made a lecturer in 1842 at Berlin, where his interest in church history was aroused

Judaism, Martin Buber

2005-03-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

Since the early years of the 20th century, Martin Buber has exercised a powerful influence on both Jews and non-Jews. In his early period Buber was led, partly through empathy with Jewish and non-Jewish mysticism, to stress unitive experience and knowledge, in which the difference between one man and another and between man and God tend to disappear. But in his final period

Biblical Literature, Literal interpretation

2005-03-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

Literal interpretation is often, but not necessarily, associated with the belief in verbal or plenary inspiration, according to which not only the biblical message but also the individual words in which that message was delivered or written down were divinely chosen. In an extreme form this would imply that God dictated the message to the speakers or writers word

Windsor, Marie

2005-03-24T07:11:00.000-08:00

American actress (b. Dec. 11, 1919, Marysvale, Utah—d. Dec. 10, 2000, Beverly Hills, Calif.), portrayed strong but often unsavoury women in most of her more than 70 films and was known as the “queen of the B's”—a title she wore proudly—because of the many B films, including Cat Women of the Moon (1954) and Swamp Women (1955), in which she appeared. She was, however, best remembered for her first film as star, The Narrow

Lawes, Lewis Edward

2005-03-24T06:13:00.000-08:00

Assuming the office of warden of Sing Sing State Prison (now Ossining Correctional Facility), Ossining, N.Y., in 1920, Lawes instituted such reforms as the establishment of theatricals, film showings, and athletics;

Yuma Desert

2005-03-22T02:18:00.000-08:00

The Yuma Desert is a region of low sandy plains and dunes. The area is nearly barren,

Sorel, Georges (-eugène)

2005-03-22T00:30:00.000-08:00

Sorel was born of a middle-class family and trained as a civil engineer. Not until he reached age 40 did he become interested in social and economic

Páez

2005-03-21T05:56:00.000-08:00

The Páez inhabit the high mountains and plateaus. Their chief crop is potatoes, and many also grow such nontraditional crops as wheat and coffee. Each family farms its own land, but the lands of

Rimbaud, Arthur

2005-03-20T04:51:00.000-08:00

In full Jean-nicolas-arthur Rimbaud French poet and adventurer who won renown among the Symbolist movement and markedly influenced modern poetry.

Kinship, Double unilineal descent

2005-03-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

Double unilineal, or duolineal, descent is very rare. Arguably, a form of double descent exists among groups of Australian Aboriginals, but the most definitive examples are found in Africa. The Yako of Nigeria and the Herero of Namibia and Botswana are best known. The principle of double descent is that two kinds of descent group, patrilineal and matrilineal, exist

Interlocutory Decree

2005-03-19T04:13:00.000-08:00

Generally, a judicial decision that is not final or that deals with a point other than the principal subject matter of the controversy at hand. An interlocutory decree of divorce in the United States or a decree nisi in England, for example, is a judicial decree pronouncing the divorce of the parties provisionally but not terminating the marriage until the expiration

Greville, Fulke, 1st Baron Brooke

2005-03-18T04:11:00.000-08:00

Greville's Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney (1652) is a valuable commentary

Chesnutt, Charles W.

2005-03-18T03:25:00.000-08:00

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

Yeshiva University

2005-03-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in New York, New York, U.S. It is a comprehensive research university comprising six undergraduate schools and seven graduate or professional schools at the Main Campus in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, the Midtown Center in Manhattan's Murray Hill area, the Brookdale Center on Fifth Avenue in

Wagtail

2005-03-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

Any of the 7 to 10 species of the bird genus Motacilla, of the family Motacillidae, together with the forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus) of Asia. Wagtails are strongly patterned birds of beaches, meadows, and streamsides; they usually nest on the ground but roost in trees. The birds are so named because they incessantly wag their long tails up and down. The forest wagtail

île-de-france

2005-03-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

Région encompassing the north-central French départements of Val-d'Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne, Essonne, and Yvelines and roughly coextensive with the historical region of the Île-de-France. The capital is Paris. The région is bounded by the départements of Eure to the northwest, Oise and Aisne to the north, Marne, Aube, and Yonne

Sexual-predator Law

2005-03-16T02:18:00.000-08:00

Statute that mandates lengthy periods of preventive detention for habitual sexual offenders and sexual psychopaths beyond their criminal sentences. Sexual-predator laws became popular in the United States in the 1990s, and their passage raised constitutional questions about double jeopardy and the balancing of the rights of offenders against those of the wider

Waner, Paul; And Waner, Lloyd

2005-03-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

In full Paul Glee Waner and Lloyd James Waner , respective bynames Big Poison and Little Poison American professional baseball outfielders, brothers who played much of their career together. Their nicknames did not refer to their size but to their batting: Big Poison, who batted and threw left-handed, hit more long balls (doubles and triples); Little Poison, who batted left-handed

Alba

2005-03-15T02:27:00.000-08:00

French Aube, or Aubade, in the music of the troubadours (q.v.), the 11th- and 12th-century poet-musicians of southern France, a song of lovers' parting at dawn or of a watchman's warning to lovers at dawn. It sometimes takes the form of a dialogue between watchman and lover. Examples for which music also survives include “Reis glorios” by Guiraut de Bornelh and the anonymous “Gaite de la tor.” The German counterparts

Middletown

2005-03-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

City, coextensive with the town (township) of Middletown, Middlesex county, central Connecticut, U.S., on the Connecticut River. Settled by Puritans in 1650 and incorporated as a town in 1651, it occupies the site of the Indian village of Mattabesec (Mattabesett). It was named in 1653 for its position between the upstream towns and the river mouth. The city, chartered in 1784, consolidated with

Sublime

2005-03-13T21:14:00.000-08:00

The author

Kamarupa

2005-03-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

Kamarupa was ruled by a single dynasty from AD 350 to 650. Although it began as a feudatory state of the Gupta empire, Kamarupa under a second dynasty

Philip Iii

2005-03-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

Philip, the second son of Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), became heir to the throne on the death of his elder brother Louis (1260). Accompanying his father's crusade against

Dacia

2005-03-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

In antiquity, the area of the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania, in present north-central and western Romania. The Dacian people had earlier occupied lands south of the Danube and north of the mountains, and the Roman province eventually included wider territories both to the north and east. The Dacians were agricultural and also worked their rich mines of

Ares

2005-03-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

In Greek religion, god of war or, more properly, the spirit of battle. Unlike his Roman counterpart, Mars (q.v.), he was never very popular, and his worship was not extensive in Greece. He represented the distasteful aspects of brutal warfare and slaughter. From at least the time of Homer, who established him as the son of the chief god, Zeus, and Hera, his consort, Ares was one of the

Are

2005-03-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

Basic unit of area in the metric system, equal to 100 square metres and the equivalent of 0.0247 acre. Its multiple, the hectare (equal to 100 ares), is the principal unit of land measurement for most of the world.

Szczecin

2005-03-11T19:59:00.000-08:00

German Stettin, port city and capital, Szczecin województwo (province), extreme northwestern Poland, on the western bank of the Oder River near its mouth, 40 miles (65 km) from the Baltic Sea. Shipbuilding and shipping are the main occupations. Evidence suggests that the area was first inhabited by seafaring people 2,500 years ago. In the 8th and 9th centuries Szczecin was a Slavic fishing and commercial

Zoffany, John

2005-03-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

Zoffany, after studying in Germany and Italy,

Chiang-men

2005-03-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Jiangmen, also called Kongmoon, city in central Kwangtung sheng (province), China. The city is situated on the west bank of the main channel of the Hsi River, at the southwest corner of the Canton Delta, some 45 miles (70 km) from Canton. It has excellent waterway communications and is the chief collecting centre and agricultural market for the coastal region west of Canton. Chiang-men was opened as a treaty

Coligny, Gaspard Ii De, Seigneur (lord) De Châtillon

2005-03-09T05:19:00.000-08:00

Coligny was the son of Gaspard I de Coligny, the marshal of Châtillon, and Louise de Montmorency, sister of Anne de Montmorency, constable of France. At 22 Coligny came to court and became friendly with François de Lorraine, 2nd duc de Guise. He served

Black Humour

2005-03-09T04:30:00.000-08:00

Also called Black Comedy, writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones. Though in 1940 the French Surrealist André Breton published Anthologie de l'humour noir (“Anthology of Black Humour,” frequently enlarged and reprinted), the term did not come into common use until the 1960s. Then it was applied to the works of the novelists Nathanael West, Vladimir Nabokov, and Joseph Heller.

Atiyah, Sir Michael Francis

2005-03-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

Atiyah's father was Lebanese and his mother Scottish. He attended Victoria College in Egypt and Trinity College,

Eames, Charles; And Eames, Ray

2005-03-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

Charles Eames, who was also an architect, was for several years

Ringed Seal

2005-03-07T01:46:00.000-08:00

(species Pusa, or Phoca, hispida), nonmigratory, earless seal (family Phocidae) of North Polar seas and a few freshwater lakes in Europe and on Baffin Island. Named for the characteristic pale rings on its grayish or yellowish coat, the ringed seal grows to about 1.5 m (5 feet) in length and 90 kg (200 pounds) in weight. It lives near the pack ice and feeds on crustaceans, mollusks, and some

Padre Island

2005-03-06T20:35:00.000-08:00

Barrier island, 113 miles (182 km) long and up to 3 miles (5 km) wide, lying along the Gulf Coast of Texas, U.S. It extends south from Corpus Christi to Port Isabel and is separated from the mainland by Laguna Madre. The island consists largely of grassy dunes and a broad beach that yields shellfish such as clams and marine snails. The area is well known for its mackerel, sailfish, and tarpon

Popish Plot

2005-03-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

(1678), in English history, a totally fictitious but widely believed plot in which it was alleged that Jesuits were planning the assassination of King Charles II in order to bring his Roman Catholic brother, the Duke of York (afterward King James II), to the throne. The allegations were fabricated by Titus Oates (q.v.), a renegade Anglican clergyman who had feigned conversion

Arts, Central Asian, Afghanistan and the sedentary population of Turkistan

2005-03-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

This region of Central Asia includes Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and the oases of eastern (Chinese) Turkistan. The region lies within the Persian cultural area, and in the arts and in language the Persian imprint has endured over many centuries. In music the links with Persia appear most clearly in terminology and instruments. Islam, another Middle Eastern

Wölfflin, Heinrich

2005-03-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

Wölfflin was educated at the universities of Basel, Berlin, and Munich. His doctoral thesis, Prolegomena zu einer Psychologie der Architektur (1886), already showed the approach that he was later to develop and perfect: an analysis of form based on a psychological

Jansen, Daniel

2005-03-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

Jansen grew up in a family of skating enthusiasts and competed in his first meets at the age of four. At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), he was the youngest skater

China, The Tien Shan

2005-03-04T04:43:00.000-08:00

The Chinese part of the Tien Shan consists of a complex system of ranges and depressions in which two major groups of ranges—the northern and southern—may be distinguished. They are separated by a strip of intermontane depressions that is broken up by the interior ranges. Ancient metamorphic rock (formed under heat and pressure) constitutes the larger portion of

Texas Christian University

2005-03-03T07:53:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher education in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It grants about 14 undergraduate degrees in more than 80 areas and about 14 graduate degrees in more than 30 fields, including research-oriented doctoral programs and a professional degree in ministry. Texas Christian comprises

War Communism

2005-03-03T06:54:00.000-08:00

In the history of the Soviet Union, economic policy applied by the Bolsheviks during the period of the Russian Civil War (1918–20). More exactly, the policy of War Communism lasted from June 1918 to March 1921. The policy's chief features were the expropriation of private business and the nationalization of industry throughout Soviet Russia, and the forced requisition of surplus grain

Arts, Central Asian, Fergana and Chorasmia

2005-03-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

Fergana produced much pottery of quality, but, as yet, there have been no finds of comparable importance to those in Sogdiana. Its arts appear to have paralleled the developments in the more prosperous, more heavily populated, and more highly urbanized state of Chorasmia (later Khwarezm). Chorasmia's defensive architecture was particularly notable. Its great citadels

Farm Machinery

2005-03-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

The operations of farming for which machines are used are diverse. For

Ear, Human, Function of the ossicular chain

2005-03-02T02:33:00.000-08:00

In order for sound to be transmitted to the inner ear, the vibrations in the air must be changed to vibrations in the cochlear fluids. There is a challenge involved in this task that has to do with difference in impedance—the resistance to the passage of sound—between air and fluid. This difference, or mismatch, of impedances reduces the transmission of sound. The tympanic

Degas, (hilaire-germain-)edgar

2005-03-01T01:05:00.000-08:00

Degas came of the powerful upper bourgeoisie, his family having banking

Hooke's Law

2005-02-28T23:03:00.000-08:00

Law of elasticity discovered by the English scientist Robert Hooke in 1660, which states that, for relatively small deformations of an object, the displacement or size of the deformation is directly proportional to the deforming force or load. Under these conditions the object returns to its original shape and size upon removal of the load. Elastic behaviour of solids

Satcher, David

2005-02-27T22:46:00.000-08:00

The son of a small farmer, Satcher nearly died of whooping cough at age two because his family had little access to health care. He was attended by the only black physician in the area and resolved from an early age to become a doctor.

Xu Wei

2005-02-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

As a young man, Xu repeatedly failed to pass civil service examinations. During the 1550s and '60s he did succeed in gaining a reputation as a poet and painter, but as his reputation as an artist

Space Perception, Visual cues

2005-02-27T05:30:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most important perceptual cues of distance and depth depend on so-called binocular disparity; that is, since the eyes are imbedded at different points in the skull, they receive slightly different (disparate) images of any given object. The two retinal images of the same object seem to be combined perceptually in the brain into one three-dimensional experience.

Gentile Da Fabriano,

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

An early signed work by Gentile has stylistic affinities with Lombard painting and suggests that he was trained in the Lombard school. In 1409 Gentile was commissioned to

Gonçalves, António Aurélio

2005-02-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

Gonçalves attended the University of Lisbon and later taught history and philosophy at the Liceu Gil Eanes in São Vicente. All of Gonçalves' noveletas (his coinage for novella) and other

Framingham

2005-02-25T11:04:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Sudbury River, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Boston. Settled in 1650, it was incorporated in 1700 and derived its name from Framlingham, Suffolk, England. Framingham Center, just north of the downtown area, was the original village. Framingham's industrial development dates from 1835, with the utilization of local

Gad

2005-02-25T04:36:00.000-08:00

After entering the Promised Land, each tribe was assigned a territory by Joshua, who replaced Moses as leader after the latter's death. The tribe

Dowson, Ernest (christopher)

2005-02-25T02:07:00.000-08:00

As a boy Dowson lived an unsettled life. In 1886 he entered Queen's College, Oxford, but left in 1888 when a decline in his father's fortunes obliged him to work at his father's dock in the Limehouse district in London. Dowson was an active member of the Rhymers' Club,

Stranitzky, Joseph Anton

2005-02-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

Stranitzky began his career as an itinerant puppeteer. After his arrival in Vienna (c. 1705) he formed his own company, which performed burlesques and farces in German, often based on Italian libretti. By 1711 he and his troupe had become

Rhynchocephalia

2005-02-24T14:21:00.000-08:00

Reptilian order that arose in the Triassic and Jurassic periods (225,000,000 to 136,000,000 years ago) and survives today as the tuatara (q.v.) of New Zealand.

Ben Thuy

2005-02-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

Town, northern Vietnam, on the Ca River, just southeast of the urban centre of Vinh. Just upstream from where the Ca River enters the Gulf of Tonkin where it meets the South China Sea, Ben Thuy serves as the outport of Vinh, and much of the trade of the central part of the country is funneled through it.

Bruch, Max

2005-02-23T23:41:00.000-08:00

At 14 Bruch wrote a symphony and won a scholarship enabling him to study at Cologne. His first opera, Scherz, List und Rache (Jest, Deceit, and Revenge, text adapted from a work by Goethe), was performed in 1858. He conducted orchestral and choral

Thun Und Hohenstein, Leo, Count (graf) Von

2005-02-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

Pro-Czech Austrian statesman and administrator who improved the educational establishments of the Austrian Empire, sought to resolve the antagonisms between Czechs and Germans in Bohemia, and favoured the conversion of the Habsburg monarchy into a federal

Tallchief, Marjorie

2005-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

Born in a town on an Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma, Marjorie and her sister Maria were of Osage and Scotch-Irish descent. Both sisters began dancing as children and later studied with Bronislava Nijinska and David Lichine,

Music, Western, Modification and expansion of older forms

2005-02-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

Dance pairs of the Renaissance grew, about the middle of the 17th century, into dance suites consisting basically of four dances: allemande, courante, saraband, and gigue, with optional dances such as the gavotte, the bourrée, and the minuet sometimes inserted before the final movement. Variation forms—the chaconne (in which a set of harmonies or a bass theme is continuously

Qadiriyah

2005-02-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

Probably the oldest of the Muslim mystic (Sufi) orders, founded by the Hanbali theologian 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (1078–1166) in Baghdad. Al-Jilani may have intended the few rituals he prescribed to extend only to his small circle of followers, but his sons broadened this community into an order and encouraged its spread into North Africa, Central Asia, and India. The order, which stresses philanthropy,

Arts, Central Asian, Architecture

2005-02-19T05:12:00.000-08:00

There is only one Nepalese architectural style, varied according to its function as private dwelling, palace, Buddhist monastery, or Buddhist or Hindu temple. The style is the protracted local flowering of an Indian architectural tradition—of brick and wood architecture with tiered, sloping roofs—other varieties of which are found in the western Himalayas and

China

2005-02-19T00:42:00.000-08:00

The People's Republic of China is situated in eastern Asia, with coastlines on the Yellow Sea and the East and South China seas. Area: 9,572,900 sq km (3,696,100 sq mi), including Tibet and excluding Taiwan. (See Taiwan, below.) Pop. (1994 est., excluding Taiwan): 1,192,300,000. Cap.: Beijing (Peking). Monetary unit: renminbi yuan, with (Oct. 7, 1994) an interbank rate of 8.53 yuan to U.S. $1 (13.57 yuan = £ 1 sterling). President in 1994, Jiang Zemin (Chiang Tse-min); premier,

San Fernando

2005-02-18T02:15:00.000-08:00

Town, Cadiz provincia, in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It is situated on a rocky island surrounded by salt marshes that line the southern shore of the Bay of Cadiz, south of Cadiz city. Founded in 1776, it was known as Isla de León until renamed (1813) in honour of Ferdinand VII during the Spanish War of Independence (Peninsular War).

Biblical Literature, The Samaritan canon

2005-02-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

As has been mentioned, the Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch from the Jews. They know of no other section of the Bible, however, and did not expand their Pentateuchal canon even by the inclusion of any strictly Samaritan compositions.

Lowry, Laurence Stephen

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

Lowry studied intermittently at art schools in Manchester and Salford from 1905 to 1925, and he rose from rent collector to become chief cashier at a Manchester real estate company in his long employment there from

Austin, John

2005-02-16T22:32:00.000-08:00

English jurist whose writings, especially The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832), advocated a definition of law as a species of command and sought to distinguish positive law from morality. He had little influence during his lifetime outside the circle of Utilitarian supporters of Jeremy

Alcoholic Beverage

2005-02-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

Alcoholic beverages are fermented from the sugars in fruits, berries, grains, and such other ingredients as plant saps, tubers, honey, and milk and may be distilled to reduce the original watery liquid to a liquid of much greater alcoholic

Pageant Wagon

2005-02-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

Wheeled vehicle used in the processional staging of medieval vernacular cycle plays. Processional staging is most closely associated with the English cycle plays performed from about 1375 until the mid-16th century in such cities as York and Chester as part of the Corpus Christi festival, but it was also common in Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Each play in the cycle

Tsunami

2005-02-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

Also called Seismic Sea Wave, or Tidal Wave, catastrophic ocean wave, usually caused by a submarine earthquake occurring less than 50 km (30 miles) beneath the seafloor, with a magnitude greater than 6.5 on the Richter scale. Underwater or coastal landslides or volcanic eruptions also may cause a tsunami. The term tidal wave is more frequently used for such a wave, but it is a misnomer, for the wave has no connection with

Shansi, Transportation

2005-02-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

Shansi relies heavily on rail lines, both for intraprovince transport and for shipping raw materials, industrial commodities, and foodstuffs outside the province. The longest of these, the T'ung-p'u trunk line, runs from Ta-t'ung to Feng-ling-tu, in the southwest corner of the province. Additional branch lines connect the main line with newly opened industrial and mining

Anti-saloon League

2005-02-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

The leading organization lobbying for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century. It was founded as a state society in Ohio in 1893, but its influence spread rapidly, and in 1895 it became a national organization. It drew most of its support from Protestant evangelical churches, and it lobbied at all levels of government for legislation to prohibit the manufacture

Nahmanides

2005-02-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Nahmanides earned his livelihood as a physician and served successively as rabbi at Gerona and then as chief rabbi of Catalonia. He also attempted to mediate disputes between the followers and opponents of the philosopher

Christian, Barbara

2005-02-13T07:48:00.000-08:00

Educated at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (B.A., 1963), and Columbia University, New York City (M.A., 1964; Ph.D., 1970), Christian taught at the City College of the City University of New York (1965–72) and

Morón

2005-02-12T20:22:00.000-08:00

In the 16th century Morón served as a way station for travelers en route to the area that is now Chile and Peru. The present-day county was part of the Pago (country district) de las Conchas during the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Shining Path

2005-02-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

The Shining Path was founded in 1970 in a multiple split in the Communist Party of Peru. It took its name from the maxim of the founder of Peru's first communist party, José Carlos Mariátegui: “El Marxismo-Leninismo abrirá el sendero luminoso hacia la

Racine, Jean

2005-02-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

The classic biography is Raymond Picard, La Carrière de Jean Racine, new ed. rev. and augmented (1961). Geoffrey Brereton, Jean Racine: A Critical Biography (1951, reprinted 1973), is also worth consulting. A popularized treatment is Alain Viala, Racine: la stratégie du caméléon (1990). Racine's central place in the history of French tragedy is discussed in Jacques Truchet, La Tragédie classique en France (1975). Critical studies accessible to the general reader include John C. Lapp, Aspects of Racinian Tragedy (1955, reissued 1978); Odette de Mourgues, Racine; or, The Triumph of Relevance (1967); Claude Abraham, Jean Racine (1977); David Maskell, Racine: A Theatrical Reading (1991); Edward Forman (ed.), Racine: Appraisal and Reappraisal (1991); Richard Parish, Racine: The Limits of Tragedy (1993); Henry Phillips, Racine: Language and Theatre (1994); and Derval Conroy and Edric Caldicott, Racine: The Power and the Pleasure (2001). The most controversial interpretations of Racine (anthropological by Roland Barthes, Marxist by Lucien Goldmann, and psychoanalytical by Charles Mauron) are reviewed with many others by Jean Rohou, Jean Racine: bilan critique, ed. by Alain Pagès (1994). Roy C. Knight, Racine et la Grèce, 2nd ed. (1974); and Ronald W. Tobin, Racine and Seneca (1971), elucidate Racine's vast knowledge of Greco-Roman antiquity. The rhetoric of the plays has been studied by Michael Hawcrowft, Word as Action: Racine, Rhetoric, and Theatrical Language (1992).

Plumtree

2005-02-11T10:45:00.000-08:00

Town, southwestern Zimbabwe. At the Botswana border, it is the last major Zimbabwean station on the Bulawayo–Cape Town railway and has customs, immigration, and quarantine facilities. Founded in 1897, it serves the Bulalima-Mangwe district as administrative centre. Local industries include grain milling and brickmaking. Pop. (1982) 3,250.

Simon, Claude

2005-02-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

The son of a cavalry officer who was killed in World War I, Simon was raised by his mother in Perpignan, France. After studies at Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge, he traveled

Baratieri, Oreste

2005-02-09T21:04:00.000-08:00

Baratieri had been a volunteer for Giuseppe Garibaldi, the popular hero of Italian unification, serving

Appleton, Sir Edward Victor

2005-02-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

Educated

Algebra, Commerce and abacists in the European Renaissance

2005-02-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

Greek and Islamic mathematics were basically “academic” enterprises, having little interaction with day-to-day matters involving building, transportation, and commerce. This situation first began to change in Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries. In particular, the rise of Italian mercantile companies and their use of modern financial instruments for trade with the

Ringgold, Faith

2005-02-08T18:04:00.000-08:00

Ringgold grew up in New York City's Harlem, and while still in high school she decided to be an artist. She attended City College of New York, where she received B.S. (1955) and M.A. (1959) degrees. In the mid-1950s she began teaching art in New York

Lee, Sammy

2005-02-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

In 1942, while a student at Occidental College (Los Angeles), Lee won his first national championship with victories in both the 3-metre springboard and 10-metre platform events. Standing only 5 feet 1 inch, Lee utilized his short stature in his dives, tucking tighter and

Elf

2005-02-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

Plural Elves, in Germanic folklore, originally, a spirit of any kind, later specialized into a diminutive creature, usually in tiny human form. In the Prose, or Younger, Edda, elves were classified as light elves (who were fair) and dark elves (who were darker than pitch); these classifications are roughly equivalent to the Scottish seelie court and unseelie court. The notable characteristics

Thomas, Albert

2005-02-07T00:16:00.000-08:00

Thomas graduated from the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he won scholarships that enabled him to do research in Russia, Germany, and the eastern Mediterranean on the

Bad Dürkheim

2005-02-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

Also called Dürkheim, city, Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), west-central Germany. It lies on the eastern slope of the Haardt Mountains at the entrance to the Isenach Valley, 13 miles (21 km) west of Mannheim. Originally a dependency of the Benedictine abbey of Limburg (founded in 1030 by the emperor Conrad II), the city came under the counts of Leiningen-Hartenburg, who built a castle there in the 14th century.

Bacau

2005-02-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Judet(county), eastern Romania, occupying an area of 2,551 sq mi (6,606 sq km). The Eastern Carpathians and the sub-Carpathians rise above the settlement areas that are situated in intermontane valleys and lowlands. The county is drained southeastward by the Siret River and its tributaries. It was formerly included in feudal Moldavia. Manufactures of Bacau (q.v.) city, the county capital,

Annelid, Locomotion

2005-02-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

The basic features of locomotion in annelids are most easily observed in the earthworm because it lacks appendages and parapodia. Movement involves extending the body, anchoring it to a surface with setae, and contracting body muscles. When the worm begins a forward movement, circular muscles at the anterior end contract, extending the head forward. At the same

Mammal, The skin and hair

2005-02-05T03:53:00.000-08:00

The skin of mammals is constructed of two layers, a superficial nonvascular epidermis and an inner layer, the dermis or corium. The two layers interdigitate in dermal papillae (fingerlike projections), ridges of sensitive vascular dermis projecting into the epidermis. The outermost layers of the epidermis are cornified (i.e., impregnated with various tough proteins)

Coimbatore

2005-02-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

Town, administrative headquarters of Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. Coimbatore is located on the Noyil River, 300 mi (480 km) south of Madras, on the Madras–Calicut (now Kozhikode) road. Long important as commanding the Palghat Gap to the west coast, it is a trade and processing centre for agricultural produce and a manufacturing centre for agricultural