ViolentMoon

Argentina, Music and dance

2005-11-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

Another cultural hybrid is the tango, a music style and dance that emerged from the poor immigrant quarters of Buenos Aires toward the end of the 19th century and quickly became famous around the world as a symbol of Argentine culture. Influenced by the Spanish tango and, possibly, the Argentine milonga, it was originally a high-spirited local phenomenon, but, after it

Wilson, August

2005-10-15T14:55:00.000-07:00

Largely self-educated, Wilson grew up in poverty and quit school at age 15. He joined the black aesthetic movement in the late 1960s, became the cofounder and director

Canal Zone

2005-07-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

Also called Panama Canal Zone, historic administrative entity in Panama over which the United States exercised jurisdictional rights from 1903 to 1979. It was a strip of land 10 miles (16 km) wide along the Panama Canal, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and bisecting the Isthmus of Panama. It covered 553 square miles (1,432 square km), of which about one-third was water (principally Gatun Lake). The Canal Zone

Biblical Literature, Critical scholarship

2005-07-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

Textual criticism of the Greek New Testament attempts to come as near as possible to the original manuscripts (which did not survive), based on reconstructions from extant manuscripts of various ages and locales. Assessment of the individual manuscripts and their relationships to each other can produce a fairly reliable text from various readings that may have

Amazonstone

2005-07-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

Also called Amazonite, a gemstone variety of green microcline (q.v.), a feldspar mineral. Frequently confused with jade, amazonstone varies in colour from yellow-green to blue-green and may also exhibit fine white streaks; it is usually opaque and therefore is cut en cabochon (with a rounded and convex polished surface). Although its name is derived from the Amazon River, no deposits have been

Baybars I

2005-07-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Baybars was born

Carlowitz, Treaty Of

2005-07-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

In the late summer of 1697, the Ottoman

Kobe

2005-06-17T02:15:00.000-07:00

Kobe is situated at the eastern end of the Inland Sea on Osaka Bay, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Osaka. The city is confined to a narrow shelf of land

Moraceae

2005-06-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

The mulberry family of the nettle order (Urticales), with about 40 genera and some 1,000 species of deciduous or evergreen trees and shrubs, distributed mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. Plants of the family contain a milky latex and have alternate or opposite leaves and small, petalless male or female flowers. The fruits of many species are multiple because fruits

Auklet

2005-06-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

Also called Sea Sparrow, any of six species of small seabirds of the family Alcidae (order Charadriiformes). They breed primarily in the Bering Sea and the North Pacific; some winter as far south as Japan and Mexico. Auklets in breeding plumage differ from the related murrelets in having plumes and other head ornaments, including brightly coloured bill plates like those

Alemanni

2005-05-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Alamanni, or Alamani, a Germanic people first mentioned in connection with the Roman attack on them in AD 213. In the following decades, their pressure on the Roman provinces became severe; they occupied the Agri Decumates c. 260, and late in the 5th century they expanded into Alsace and northern Switzerland, establishing the German language in those regions. In 496 they were conquered by Clovis and incorporated

Anderson, Richard Heron

2005-05-17T02:10:00.000-07:00

Anderson graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1842 and won the brevet of first lieutenant in the Mexican War, becoming first lieutenant in 1848 and captain in 1855; he took part in the following year in the Kansas troubles. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he resigned from the

Assam

2005-05-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

In biology, a highly convoluted membrane within the cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell that is important in the biosynthesis of proteins and lipids. The ER usually constitutes more than half of the membrane of the cell and is continuous with the outer membrane of the nuclear envelope. Endoplasmic reticulum has two distinct regions: the rough ER (RER; so-called because

Furniture, Near East and classical antiquity

2005-03-15T04:51:00.000-08:00

A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 3rd ed. (1948), indispensable; Howard Carter and A.C. Mace, The Tomb of Thut-Ankh-Amen, 3 vol. (1923 - 27); Gisela H. Richter, The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (1966), the standard reference work in this area.

Ducommun, �lie

2005-03-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

After working as a magazine and newspaper editor in Geneva and Bern, Ducommun spent most of his career as general secretary of the Jura-Simplon Railway. His spare time, however, was spent on peace activities. He took an active part in the movement for European

Aerobatics

2005-03-12T00:43:00.000-08:00

Pilots perform their sequences in the �aerobatic

Chang Chih-tung

2005-03-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

Chang was born to a family of scholar - officials in Kweichow Province, but, in accordance with Chinese custom, he was considered native to Nan-p'i, Chihli (modern Hopeh) Province, where his ancestors had settled in the 15th century. He was unusually

Chess, Morphy and the theory of attack

2005-03-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

From 1750 to 1769 a group of masters from Modena, Italy - Ercole del Rio, Giambattista Lolli, and Domenico Ponziani - criticized Philidor's ideas. They believed that he had exaggerated the importance of the pawns at the expense of the other pieces and had minimized the power of a direct attack on the enemy king. By analyzing the play of 16th-century Italian masters, the Modena school

Anne

2005-03-05T05:04:00.000-08:00

David Green, Queen Anne (1970); Edward Gregg, Queen Anne (1980).

Kumarajiva

2005-03-04T05:35:00.000-08:00

Before his ordination at the

Norfolk

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

Administrative and historic county of eastern England, bounded by Suffolk (south), Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire (west), and the North Sea (north and east). The administrative county comprises seven districts: Breckland, Broadland, North Norfolk, and South Norfolk; the boroughs of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn and West Norfolk; and the city of Norwich. The historic

Pierce, Jane

2005-03-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

At the end of Franklin's single term, the couple traveled to Europe for a year and a half, but by 1860 they had returned to Concord, New Hampshire. Jane also spent time with relatives in Massachusetts. When she died in 1863, she was buried near her children.

Keating, Paul

2005-03-01T08:57:00.000-08:00

Growing up in working-class Bankstown, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, Keating left school at age 14. He became involved in trade union activity, drifted into labour politics, and was elected in 1969 to the House of Representatives at age

Say, L�on

2005-02-28T05:27:00.000-08:00

Say was born into a prominent Protestant family and was the grandson of another well-known economist, Jean-Baptiste Say. Early in his career, Say worked for the Journal des D�bats, later becoming its editor. He became known for his opposition to the Second Empire in general

Sanno Ichijitsu Shinto

2005-02-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

Also called �Ichijitsu Shinto�, or �Tendai Shinto� in Japanese religion, the syncretic school that combined Shinto with the teachings of the Tendai sect of Buddhism. Shinto-Buddhist syncretism developed from the Japanese concept that Shinto deities (kami) were manifestations of Buddhist divinities. The earliest of these schools, Ryobu Shinto, was founded on the belief that Amaterasu Omikami, the chief Shinto deity, corresponded

Djibouti

2005-02-26T08:09:00.000-08:00

Officially �Republic of Djibouti, �French �R�publique de Djibouti, �Arabic �Jumhuriyah Jibuti, �formerly (until 1977) �French Territory of the Afars and Issas, � strategically located nation on the northeast coast of the Horn of Africa. It is situated on the Strait of Mandeb, which lies to the east and separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden. Small in size (8,950 square miles [23,200 square kilometres]), Djibouti is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Ethiopia to the west and southwest, and Somalia to the south. The Gulf of Tadjoura, which opens

Cohort Analysis

2005-02-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

Method used in studies to describe an aggregate of individuals having in common a significant event in their life histories, such as year of birth (birth cohort) or year of marriage (marriage cohort). The concept of cohort is useful because occurrence rates of various forms of behaviour are often influenced by the length of time elapsed since the event defining the

Tiv

2005-02-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

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

Seven Holy Founders

2005-02-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

Also called �Seven Servite Founders � saints Bonfilius, Alexis Falconieri, John Bonagiunta, Benedict dell'Antella, Bartholomew Amidei, Gerard Sostegni, and Ricoverus Uguccione, who founded the Ordo Fratrum Servorum Sanctae Mariae (�Order of Friar Servants of St. Mary�). Popularly called Servites, the order is a Roman Catholic congregation

Sachs, (ferdinand Gustav) Julius Von

2005-02-22T01:15:00.000-08:00

Sachs became an assistant to the physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkinje at the University of Prague, where he received the Ph.D. in 1856. In 1859 he was appointed

Acts Of The Apostles, The

2005-02-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation �Acts,� fifth book of the New Testament, a valuable history of the early Christian church. Acts was written in Greek, presumably by the Evangelist Luke, whose gospel concludes where Acts begins, namely, with Christ's Ascension into heaven. Acts was apparently written in Rome, perhaps between AD 70 and 90, though some think a slightly earlier date is also possible. After an introductory

Mountain

2005-02-20T14:06:00.000-08:00

Mountain belts differ from one another in various respects, but they also have a number of similarities that enable Earth scientists to group them into certain distinct categories. Each of these categories is characterized by the principal process that created a representative belt. Moreover, within individual belts different tectonic processes can prevail

Elision

2005-02-19T11:23:00.000-08:00

(Latin: �striking out�), in prosody, the slurring or omission of a final unstressed vowel that precedes either another vowel or a weak consonant sound, as in the word heav'n. It may also be the dropping of a consonant between vowels, as in the word o'er for over. Elision is used to fit words into a metrical scheme, to smooth the rhythm of a poem, or to ease the pronunciation of words.

Hardness Tester

2005-02-18T03:02:00.000-08:00

Brinell hardness is determined by forcing a hardened steel or carbide ball of known diameter under a known load into a surface and measuring the diameter of the

Dressler, Marie

2005-02-17T05:52:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a piano teacher, Dressler early discovered her ability to make audiences laugh. She made her stage debut in Michigan in 1886 and then performed for three years with the George Baker

Graywacke

2005-02-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

Also called �dirty sandstone� a sedimentary rock composed of sand-sized grains (0.063 - 2 mm [0.0025 - 0.078 inch]) with a fine-grained clay matrix. The sand-sized grains are frequently composed of rock fragments of wide-ranging mineralogies (e.g., those consisting of pyroxenes, amphiboles, feldspars, and quartz). The grains are angular and poorly sorted with many minerals retaining growth forms that resulted from low abrasion.

Naqadah

2005-02-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Nakada, � town, Upper Egypt. It lies on the west bank of the Nile, in the great bend of the river, opposite Qus, in Qina muhafazah (governorate). One of the oldest regions of Egypt, it is the site of a Neolithic town and burial grounds of the Predynastic period (before c. 2925 BC). It was first excavated by the British archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, and the cultures found are referred to by scholars

Brundage, Avery

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

Brundage competed in the pentathlon and decathlon at the

Yangtze River, The upper course

2005-02-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

The upper course of the Yangtze flows across the Plateau of Tibet and descends through deep valleys in the mountains east of the plateau, emerging onto the Yunnan-Kweichou (Yunkwei) Plateau. The summers are warm and the winters cold. The source of the Yangtze is the Wu-lan-mu-lun (Ulan Muren) River, which originates in glacial meltwaters on the slopes of the T'ang-ku-la

Puu Kukui

2005-02-12T01:44:00.000-08:00

Volcanic peak, Maui county, western Maui Island, Hawaii, U.S. It is the highest peak (5,788 feet [1,764 m]) of an 18-mile (29-kilometre) stretch of mountains, the Honolua volcanic series, which dominates the western peninsula of Maui. Puu Kukui (meaning �candlenut hill�) was formed by a volcano whose caldera has eroded into the scenic valley of Iao.

Ch'i

2005-02-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

In the 7th and 6th centuries BC, Ch'i, which was located on the extreme eastern edge of the North China Plain in what is now Shantung and Hopeh provinces, began to increase in size, expanding at least sixfold by incorporating many previous �barbarian� areas into its realm.

Gonzales, Pancho

2005-02-10T00:11:00.000-08:00

Born into a Mexican-American family, Gonzales as a youth had no access to tennis clubs and was largely a self-taught player. In 1943 he achieved top ranking in boys' tennis in southern California. Before turning professional

Colijn, Hendrikus

2005-02-09T15:53:00.000-08:00

A soldier (1895 - 1904) in the colonial army during the Achinese War in northern Sumatra, Colijn later served there as a civil administrator, organizing government services and rubber plantations.

Performing Arts, U.S. and Canada.

2005-02-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

It was a year of economic and creative recuperation for the American theatre in 2002, and both the commercial and the not-for-profit sectors of the field seemed willing to accept a little help from their friends across the Atlantic in order to get by. The British influence was palpable on Broadway and beyond during this unsettled post-September 11 period. London-originated

Hansi

2005-02-07T05:16:00.000-08:00

City, west-central Haryana state, northwestern India, on the road between Hissar city (northwest) and Delhi (southeast). Hansi is an ancient town and was probably a Kushan stronghold in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. It was captured in 1192 by Qutb-ud-Din Aybak, general of the Muslim emperor Muhammad Ghuri; several mosques and tombs date from the 12th century. Hansi was the capital of the independent

San-ming

2005-02-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

Pinyin �Sanming, � city in west-central Fukien sheng (province), China. San-ming lies along the Sha River, a southern tributary of the Min River, the valley of which provides the chief southwest-to-northeast route through central Fukien. Westward and southwestward routes fan out into the mountainous interior of Fukien, and to the south there is a good route via the valley of the Chiu-lung

Eunomius

2005-02-04T19:34:00.000-08:00

After serving as secretary to A�tius in Alexandria, Eunomius

Vitalian, Saint

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

Consecrated as St. Eugenius I's successor on July 30, 657, Vitalian soon dealt peacefully with monothelitism, a heresy maintaining that Christ had only one will. In 648 the Byzantine emperor Constans II had issued his Typos, an edict forbidding discussion of the monothelite question and attempting to impose unity

Lupton, Thomas Goff

2005-02-02T19:51:00.000-08:00

Lupton was apprenticed

Francesca Da Rimini

2005-02-01T01:39:00.000-08:00

Dante was the first to make a literary

Olympic Games, Flag Of The

2005-01-31T02:42:00.000-08:00

In 1914, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held its 20th anniversary meeting in Paris, the Olympic flag was displayed for the first time. The design had been conceived by the French educator Pierre, baron de Coubertin, who developed the modern Olympic movement. It has been claimed that Coubertin found the design of five interlocked rings on an ancient altar in

Hood, Raymond M(athewson)

2005-01-30T22:28:00.000-08:00

Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the �cole des Beaux-Arts (Paris), Hood gained national recognition in 1922 when the Neo-Gothic design submitted by John Mead Howells and his associate, Hood, won first prize in the Chicago Tribune

Metallography

2005-01-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

Metal surfaces and fractures examined with the unaided eye or with a magnifying glass or metallurgical or binocular microscope at magnifications less than 10 diameters can reveal valuable information as to the crystalline, chemical,

Hawk's-eye

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

Variety of the semiprecious quartz tiger's-eye (q.v.).

Amakihi

2005-01-27T02:51:00.000-08:00

(Loxops virens), perhaps the most common native songbird in Hawaii, a member of the Hawaiian honeycreeper family, Drepanididae (order Passeriformes). It is 12 cm (5 inches) long, with yellow body, black eye-mark, and rather short, slightly curved bill. It feeds on insects and small fruits in brushland and forest, and it has mewing and trilling calls.

Alwar

2005-01-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Alwur, � city, northeastern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. The city is surrounded by a wall and moat and is dominated by a fort on a conical hill against a backdrop of a range of hills. Alwar was made the capital of Alwar princely state in 1775; it contains the 14th-century tomb of Tarang Sultan (the brother of Firuz Shah) and several ancient mosques. The palace, which adjoins a picturesque

Anthraquinone Dye

2005-01-25T04:18:00.000-08:00

Anthraquinone acid dyes contain sulfonic acid groups that render them soluble in water and substantive for wool and silk; that is, they have an affinity for these fibres

Argentina, Domestic politics

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

The new governor saw clearly the ambiguities and dangers of such widespread support, and, although he was identified as a federalist, he ruled as a centralist, with Buenos Aires as his main power base. Rosas manipulated factions of labourers, gauchos, and elites from the estancias and set himself up as the arbiter of a delicate and constantly threatened balance between

Mammal, Excretory system

2005-01-23T21:04:00.000-08:00

The mammalian kidney is constructed of a large number of functional units called nephrons. Each nephron consists of a distal tubule, a medial section termed the loop of Henle, a proximal tubule, and a renal corpuscle. The renal corpuscle is a knot of capillaries, called a glomerulus, surrounded by a sheath, Bowman's capsule. The renal corpuscle is a pressure filter, relying

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Fable

2005-01-22T03:43:00.000-08:00

The origins of fable are lost in the mists of time. Fables appear independently in ancient Indian and Mediterranean cultures. The Western tradition begins effectively with Aesop (6th century BC), of whom little or nothing is known for certain; but before him the Greek poet Hesiod (8th century BC) recounts the fable of the hawk and the nightingale, while fragments of similar

China, Foreign relations

2005-01-21T06:35:00.000-08:00

Whereas in Ming times the Chinese organized themselves along wholly bureaucratic and tightly centralized lines, the Ming emperors maintained China's traditional feudal-seeming relationships with foreign peoples. These included the aboriginal tribes of south and southwest China, who often rose in isolated rebellions but were gradually being assimilated.

Mithradates I

2005-01-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

Before 160 Mithradates I seized Media from the Seleucid ruler Timarchus. Turning to the east, he won two provinces, Tapuria and Traxiana, from the Bactrian king Eucratides. Mithradates then captured the province of Elymais (ancient Elam) and invaded Babylonia (142 or 141). The Seleucid king Demetrius II

Submissive Behaviour

2005-01-19T05:52:00.000-08:00

Form of animal behaviour in which one individual attempts through appeasement displays to avoid injury by a dominant member of its own species. Appeasement displays are commonly found in species that are well armed (e.g., carnivores) and social. The displays, even when performed by adult males, commonly incorporate elements of infantile behaviour (e.g., in wolves, rolling

Liggett Group Inc.

2005-01-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

In 1849 J.E. Liggett and Brother was established in St. Louis, Mo., by John Edmund Liggett (1826 - 97) as an outgrowth of a family concern dating to 1822. George S. Myers entered the business in 1873, and in 1878 the company was incorporated as Liggett

Xenia

2005-01-17T22:46:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1804) of Greene County, southwestern Ohio, U.S., near the Little Miami River, 16 mi (26 km) east-southeast of Dayton. It was founded in 1803 by Joseph C. Vance, who gave it a Greek name meaning �hospitality.� The arrival of the railroads in the 1840s provided impetus for its growth as a trading centre for farmers and stock raisers. Small manufactures (furniture, cordage, plastics, castings,

Telecommunications Network, Ethernet

2005-01-16T17:23:00.000-08:00

The Ethernet originated as a laboratory project at Xerox Corporation in 1974. It was developed as an inexpensive way of sending information quickly between office machines connected together in a single room or building, but it rapidly became a standard computer interconnection method. The data rate is 10 megabits per second. The original specification required coaxial

Agunah

2005-01-15T03:16:00.000-08:00

Hebrew �'aguna (�deserted woman�)�, plural �agunahs, �'agunot�, or �agunoth� in Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, a woman who is presumed to be widowed but who cannot remarry because evidence of her husband's death does not satisfy legal requirements. The plight of the agunah has generated voluminous and complex treatment in Halakhic literature. Although religious courts are not empowered to grant remarriage without indisputable

Benedict (x)

2005-01-14T02:16:00.000-08:00

Original name �Giovanni Mincio�, Latin �Johannes Mincius� antipope from April 1058 to January 1059. His expulsion from the papal throne, on which he had been placed through the efforts of the powerful Tusculani family of Rome, was followed by a reform in the law governing papal elections. The new law, enacted in 1059, established an electoral body, which subsequently became the Sacred College of Cardinals, charged with

Auschwitz

2005-01-13T03:39:00.000-08:00

Polish �Oswiecim�, also called �Auschwitz-Birkenau�

Lockwood, Margaret (mary)

2005-01-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

Lockwood studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, England's leading drama school, and made her film debut in Lorna Doone (1935). A vivacious brunette with a beauty spot on her left cheek, she starred in a wide

Biblical Literature, Ezekiel - the man and his message

2005-01-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

The man who wrote this book - at least the main body of the work - was undoubtedly one of the leaders of Jerusalem because he was among the first group of exiles to go into captivity - those who were forced to leave their homeland about 597 BCE in a deportation to Babylon on the orders of the conquering king Nebuchadrezzar. Belonging to the priestly class, perhaps of the line of Zadok,

Deggendorf

2005-01-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

City, Bavaria Land (state), southeastern Germany, on the Danube River, 2.5 miles (4 km) above its confluence with the Isar River. It lies at the western foot of the Bavarian and Bohemian forests, east of Straubing. Founded about 750, it passed to the dukes of Bavaria in 1242 and was chartered in 1316. The river and the forested mountains form a picturesque setting for the city, which retains its

Middle Rhine Highlands

2005-01-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

Also called �Rhenish Slate Mountains�, German �Rheinisches Schiefergebirge� mountainous highlands lying mainly in northwestern Germany but also extending westward as the Ardennes through southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg, with an overlap into eastern France beyond the Meuse River. The Highlands form a greatly varied plateau with areas of rugged relief, as in the Eifel and the Rothaargebirge in the region of Sauerland, though

Flanders

2005-01-08T00:52:00.000-08:00

Flemish �Vlaams�, formally �Flemish Region�, Flemish �Vlaamse Gewest� region that comprises the northern half of Belgium. Flanders was created in 1995 in the reorganization of Belgium's provincial administration along ethnic-linguistic lines. It includes the Flemish-speaking provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders, Limburg, Flemish Brabant, and West Flanders (qq.v.). The Brussels-Capital Region lies within but is administratively separate

Biblical Literature, The Wycliffite versions

2005-01-07T01:33:00.000-08:00

By the middle of the 13th century the English component in the Anglo-Norman amalgam had begun to assert itself and the close of the century witnessed a Northumbrian version of the Psalter made directly from Latin, which, because it survived in several manuscripts, must have achieved relatively wide circulation. By the next century, English had gradually superseded

Cloud

2005-01-06T02:23:00.000-08:00

Clouds are formed when relatively moist air rises. As a mass of air ascends, the lower pressures prevailing at higher levels allow it to expand. In expanding, the

Handl, Jacob

2005-01-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

A Cistercian monk, Handl traveled in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, was a member of the Viennese court chapel in 1574, and was choirmaster to the bishop of Olm�tz (modern Olomouc, Czech Republic) in 1579 - 85. His most notable

Biblical Literature, The Pharisees

2005-01-04T23:07:00.000-08:00

The Pharisees (possibly spiritual descendants of the Hasidim [Pious Ones], who were the exponents of Maccabean revolt) were strict adherents to the Law. Their name may come from parush - i.e., �separated� from what is unclean, or what is unholy. They were deeply concerned with the Mosaic Law and how to keep it, and they were innovators in adapting the Law to new situations. They

Muhallab Ibn Abi Sufra, Al-

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

Al-Muhallab first served under the caliph Mu'awiyah, campaigning in India and raiding the country between Kabul and Multan. Later he was stationed in the eastern provinces, leading expeditions against the Central Asian city

Christian, Barbara

2005-01-02T21:21:00.000-08:00

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

Floor Covering, Loom-formed pile

2005-01-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

Spool looms were invented in the United States in 1876, and the gripper Axminster loom was developed about 1890. The chenille two-stage process was invented in Glasgow

Kwangtung

2004-12-31T06:06:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) �Kuang-tung, �(Pinyin) �Guangdong, � sheng (province) of South China. It is the southernmost of the mainland provinces and constitutes the region through which South China's trade is primarily channeled. Kwangtung has one of the longest coastlines of any province and has an area of 76,100 square miles (197,100 square kilometres). It is bounded by the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi to the west, by the provinces of

Eastern Africa, History Of, The Solomonids

2004-12-30T21:11:00.000-08:00

An amalgamated Christian state, led by Semitized Agew, had reappeared in the 12th century. This Zagwe dynasty gave way in the late 13th century to a dynasty that claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, a genealogy providing the legitimacy and continuity so honoured in Ethiopia's subsequent national history. During the 14th and 15th centuries the Solomonid

Niter�

2004-12-29T09:18:00.000-08:00

City, Rio de Janeiro estado (�state�), eastern Brazil. It lies on the eastern side of the entrance to Guanabara Bay. The city of Rio de Janeiro on the opposite side is connected to Niter�i by ferry, railroad, and, since 1974, the President Costa e Silva Bridge, spanning Guanabara Bay; this is one of the longest bridges in Brazil. Both cities are located on low ground at the heads of inlets,

China, Antiforeign movement and the Arrow, or second Opium, War

2004-12-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

At the signing of the Treaty of Nanking there was a difference between China and Britain as to whether foreigners were allowed to enter the walled city of Canton. Though Canton was declared open in July 1843, the British faced Cantonese opposition. After 1847 trouble rapidly grew, and as a result of an incident at nearby Fo-shan, a promise was given the British that they would

Rousseau, Jean-baptiste

2004-12-27T00:11:00.000-08:00

The son of a poor cobbler, Rousseau as a young man showed a talent for satiric verse. He later attempted to produce several of his plays, becoming involved in a series of disputes and exchanges of insults with detractors and critics.

Emecheta, Buchi

2004-12-26T20:38:00.000-08:00

Emecheta was married at age 16 and immigrated with her husband to London in 1962. The problems she encountered in London during the early 1960s provided background for the books that are called her immigrant novels. Her first two books,

Computers And Information Systems

2004-12-25T09:24:00.000-08:00

The saga of Microsoft Corp.'s legal troubles dominated technology news in 2000, as did the decline of the high-flying stock market that had powered the rise of dot-com companies that for the most part did not earn any money. A much different legal case pitted the music industry against a World Wide Web site called Napster, which allowed the distribution of music for free over

Vienna, University Of

2004-12-24T21:49:00.000-08:00

The university was first chartered, following the model of the University of Paris, by the Habsburg duke Rudolf IV of Austria, as an expression of his rivalry with German king Charles IV, who had founded the University of Prague

Literature, Latin America.

2004-12-23T05:19:00.000-08:00

In 2001 many works explored Latin America's past and present social and political realities as well as offering variations on the theme of love. From Mexico, writer Carlos Fuentes returned to fantastic literature and to the theme of love's difficulties in Instinto de Inez. In La piel del cielo, Elena Poniatowska,

United States, Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson

2004-12-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

At first it seemed that Johnson might be able to work more cooperatively with Congress in the process of Reconstruction. A former representative and a former senator, he understood congressmen. A loyal Unionist who had stood by his country even at the risk of his life when Tennessee seceded, he was certain not to compromise with secession; and his experience as military governor of that state showed him to be politically shrewd and tough toward the slaveholders. �Johnson, we have faith in you,� Radical Benjamin F. Wade assured the new president on the day he took the oath of office. �By the gods, there will be no trouble running the government.�

Hyades

2004-12-21T04:17:00.000-08:00

Cluster of several hundred stars in the zodiacal constellation Taurus. As seen from Earth, the bright star Aldebaran appears to be a member of the cluster, but in fact Aldebaran is much closer to the Earth than the Hyades' distance of about 130 light-years. Five genuine members of the group are visible to the unaided eye. Their name (Greek: �the rainy ones�) is derived from the

Aho, Juhani

2004-12-20T08:16:00.000-08:00

Aho's early realistic

Kachchh, Gulf Of

2004-12-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

Kachchh also spelled �Kutch, �Cutch�, or �Kachh� northeastern arm of the Arabian Sea, extending between the Rann of Kachchh (a salt waste) and the Kathiawar Peninsula of west-central India. Reaching eastward for some 110 miles (180 km), the gulf varies in width from 10 to 40 miles (16 to 65 km). It is rimmed with mudflats, and many small islands rise from its waters. The port at the entrance to the gulf is Okha; other ports include Mandvi, Bedi, and

Hinton (of Bankside), Christopher Hinton, Baron

2004-12-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

Hinton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (1923 - 26), and in the late 1920s and the 1930s he held various governmental posts. He joined

Hinton (of Bankside), Christopher Hinton, Baron

2004-12-17T13:07:00.000-08:00

Nongovernmental in nature, the ABA seeks to encourage improvements in the legal profession, to ensure the availability of legal services to all citizens, and to improve the administration of justice. It

Cartel

2004-12-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

Association of independent firms or individuals for the purpose of exerting some form of restrictive or monopolistic influence on the production or sale of a commodity or group of commodities. The most common arrangements are aimed at regulating prices or output or dividing up markets. Members of a cartel maintain their separate identities and financial independence

Aetolia

2004-12-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Aitolia, � district of ancient Greece, located directly north of the Gulf of Corinth and bounded by Epirus (north), Locris (east), and Acarnania (west). In modern Greece, Aetolia is linked with Acarnania in the department of Aitol�a kai Akarnan�a. Aetolia, particularly its cities Pleuron and Calydon, figures prominently in early legend. During the great migrations (1200 - 1000 BC) most of the region's

Olmsted, Frederick Law

2004-12-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

At the age of 14, sumac poisoning seriously affected Olmsted's eyesight and limited his education. As an apprentice topographic engineer for a brief period, he received the fundamental skills

Biblical Literature, The Old Latin version

2004-12-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

The existence of a Latin translation can be attested in North Africa and southern Gaul as early as the second half of the 2nd century CE, and in Rome at the beginning of the following century. Its origins may possibly be attributed to a Christian adoption of biblical versions made by Jews in the Roman province of Africa, where the vernacular was exclusively Latin. Only