CertainFowl

Oracle

2005-03-18T16:35:00.000-08:00

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

Huygens' Principle

2005-03-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

A surface

Biblical Literature, The significance of Elisha

2005-03-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

The stories of Elijah and his successor, Elisha, are of a different literary genre from the historical accounts of the political developments of the 9th century. The historical accounts are based on the viewpoints and biases of the monarchy, nobility, and military leaders. The stories of Elijah and Elisha are legendary, popular accounts, probably having arisen among

Canaanite Religion

2005-03-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

Beliefs and practices prevalent in ancient Palestine and Syria during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, centring primarily on the deities El, Baal, and Anath (qq.v.). From time to time it subverted the essential monotheism of the Israelites after they occupied Canaan, the Promised Land of the Old Testament.

Canaanite Religion

2005-03-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

Also called Court of Justice of the European Communities the judicial branch of the European Union (EU). Its headquarters are in Luxembourg. The ECJ originated in the individual courts of justice established in the 1950s for the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community, and the European Atomic Energy Community. The function of these courts was to ensure the observance of law in those organizations'

Toba, Lake

2005-03-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

Indonesian Danau Toba lake in the Barisan Mountains, north-central Sumatra, Indonesia. It covers an area of about 440 square miles (1,140 square km), excluding Samosir Island, which occupies a large part of the lake's centre and which is about 30 miles (50 km) long and 10 miles (15 km) wide. The lake drains east through the Asahan River into the Strait of Malacca; along the Asahan River several major hydroelectric projects

Eakins, Thomas

2005-03-07T00:27:00.000-08:00

Eakins returned to Philadelphia in the summer of 1870. His earliest artistic subjects were his sisters and other members of his family and the family of his fiancée, Katherine Crowell. Redolent with the character of each individual in an intimate and personal domestic setting—pensive young ladies at the piano, children engrossed with toys scattered on the floor, Katherine

Bradford, William

2005-03-04T23:16:00.000-08:00

Bradford learned the printer's trade in London and then immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1682. Settling in Philadelphia, he opened

Kenya, Drainage

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

The major features of the drainage pattern of Kenya were created by the ancient crustal deformation of a great oval dome that arose in the west-central part of the country and created the Central Rift. This dome produced a primeval watershed from which rivers once drained eastward to the Indian Ocean and westward to the Congo system and the Atlantic Ocean. Still

Alkmaar

2005-03-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

The English missionaries Willibrord and Adalbert preached Christianity in the district in the 8th century. A fishing village in the 10th century, Alkmaar (meaning “all marsh,” or “all sea”) was chartered in 1254 and was the capital of Kennemerland,

Bar-le-duc

2005-02-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

Capital of Meuse département, Lorraine région, northeastern France. It extends out along the narrow valley of the Ornain River, west of Nancy. To the northeast is the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, on the southwest the Canal des Usines. The Ornain River valley is enclosed by wooded and vine-clad hills. From the 10th century Bar was the seat of a countship, and later a duchy. The remains

Haratin

2005-02-24T11:11:00.000-08:00

Scholars speculate that the Haratin came into being as a result of ancient interbreeding between indigenous blacks and Indo-Europeans, possibly Berbers. In the 17th century they were forcibly recruited

Gabon

2005-02-22T22:11:00.000-08:00

In May 1996 opposition parties and the government finally reached agreement over the long-disputed

Jacobs, Joseph

2005-02-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

After attending primary school Sydney, Jacobs

Stalactite Work

2005-02-18T09:48:00.000-08:00

Also called honeycomb work , Arabic al-halimat al-'uliya (“the overhang”) pendentive form of architectural ornamentation, resembling the geological formations called stalactites. This type of ornamentation is characteristic of Islamic architecture and decoration. It consists of a series of little niches, bracketed out one above the other, or of projecting prismatic forms in rows and tiers that are connected at their upper ends

Fielding, Sir John

2005-02-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

John Fielding was blinded in an accident at the age of 19. Despite this handicap he was appointed a magistrate

Kin

2005-02-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

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

Ilinsky, Igor (vladimirovich)

2005-02-10T05:03:00.000-08:00

Although Ilinsky debuted at the Novy Theatre in William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, it was not until he became associated with the experimental productions of Vsevolod Yemilyevich

Quiché

2005-02-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

Also called Quiché Maya, Mayan Indians living in the midwestern highlands of Guatemala. The Quiché Maya had an advanced civilization in pre-Columbian times, with a high level of political and social organization. Archaeological remains show large population centres and a complex class structure. Written records of Quiché history and mythology are preserved in the Popol Vuh, written

Biblical Literature, Texts and manuscripts

2005-02-07T02:11:00.000-08:00

In referring to manuscript text types by their place of origin, one posits the idea that the major centers of Christendom established more or less standard texts: Alexandria; Caesarea and Antioch (Eastern); Italy and Gallia plus Africa (Western); Constantinople, the home for the Byzantine text type or the Textus Receptus. While such a geographical scheme has become

Space-time

2005-02-04T01:13:00.000-08:00

Common intuition previously supposed no connection between space and time. Physical space was held to be a flat, three-dimensional continuum—i.e., an arrangement of all possible point locations—to which Euclidean postulates

Czech Republic

2005-02-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

Czech Ceská Republika, landlocked country in central Europe. It comprises the historic lands of Bohemia and Moravia (collectively often called the Czech Lands) and the southwestern corner of Silesia. The modern Czech nation was inaugurated on Jan. 1, 1993, when the union with Slovakia, dating from 1918, was dissolved; the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia controlled the federal government from 1948 to

Plum

2005-01-31T10:17:00.000-08:00

Fruit of the genus Prunus of the rose family (Rosaceae). Like the peach and cherry, it is a stone, or drupe, fruit. Trees of some plum species reach a height from 6 to 10 metres (20 to 33 feet), while others are much smaller; some species are small shrubs with drooping branches. The flower buds on most varieties are borne on short spurs or along the terminal shoots of the main branches. Each

Obwalden

2005-01-29T13:16:00.000-08:00

Half canton, central Switzerland, formerly part of the canton of Unterwalden. The half canton is drained by the Sarner River and occupies the western part of former Unterwalden canton. Obwalden means “above the forest” and refers to the great forest of Kerns that divided the two half cantons in the Middle Ages. Obwalden acted independently of Nidwalden in its acquisition,

Joubert, Petrus Jacobus

2005-01-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

Joubert was the son of an indigent farmer-missionary who trekked his family north to Natal in 1837. When his father died, the family settled on a farm (Rustfontein)

Farinacci, Roberto

2005-01-25T15:42:00.000-08:00

After dropping out of school to work for the railroad in Cremona (1909), Farinacci became an ardent Socialist. When World War I broke out, he advocated Italian intervention,

Talladega Mountain

2005-01-23T07:06:00.000-08:00

Low-lying segment of the Appalachian Mountains, extending northeastward along the border of Clay and Talladega counties and into Cleburne county in east-central Alabama, U.S. Rising to Cheaha Mountain (2,407 feet [734 metres]), the highest point in Alabama, the pine- and hardwood-covered mountain mass is mainly within the eastern division of the Talladega National Forest. In

Wackenroder, Wilhelm Heinrich

2005-01-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

Wackenroder was the son of a senior civil servant whose expectations that he pursue a successful worldly career were incompatible with the boy's natural sympathies and caused him severe conflict

Mönchengladbach

2005-01-19T06:20:00.000-08:00

Formerly München-Gladbach city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany, west of Düsseldorf. It developed around a Benedictine monastery (founded in 972, suppressed in 1802, whence the name Mönchengladbach [“monks' Gladbach”]), and was chartered in 1336. For a brief period (1929–33) it united with Rheydt (immediately south) and Odenkirchen to form Gladbach-Rheydt. In 1975 Rheydt was incorporated into Mönchengladbach.

Amiens, Treaty Of

2005-01-18T06:06:00.000-08:00

(March 27, 1802), an agreement signed at Amiens, Fr., by Britain, France, Spain, and the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands), achieving a peace in Europe for 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars. It ignored some questions that divided Britain and France, such as the fate of the Belgian provinces, Savoy, and Switzerland and the trade relations between Britain and the French-controlled

Pacific Ocean, Temperature

2005-01-15T05:07:00.000-08:00

The surface zone, where temperature variations are perceptible, is between 300 and 1,000 feet thick. It is more compressed in the temperate Eastern Pacific, along the coasts of North and Central America,

Eusden, Laurence

2005-01-14T06:35:00.000-08:00

British poet who, by flattering the Duke of Newcastle, was made poet laureate in 1718. He became rector of Coningsby and held the laureateship until his death. Alexander Pope satirized him frequently and derisively.

Ayodhya

2005-01-12T23:13:00.000-08:00

An ancient city, Ayodhya is regarded as one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus, revered because of its association, in the great Indian epic poem Ramayana, with the birth of Rama and with the rule of his father, Dasaratha. According to this source, the city was prosperous

Earth, Measurement of gravitational acceleration

2005-01-10T11:14:00.000-08:00

For the study of the shape of the geoid or of large-scale structures in the Earth, values of g are required with a precision of one milligal or better. This implies a measurement accurate to one part in 106 of g itself. For more local studies, as in the use of gravity measurements for geophysical petroleum and mineral prospecting and for the study of the tidal variation of g at

Actuary

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

Most actuaries are

Pacific Ocean, Trade and transportation

2005-01-06T00:49:00.000-08:00

Since the end of World War II there has been remarkable growth in trade between countries on the western Pacific rim—most notably Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—and North America, particularly the United States. Trade has also expanded between North America and such Southeast Asian countries as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and, to a lesser degree, Indonesia and the

Frances Of Rome, Saint

2005-01-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

When she was only 13, Frances' parents married her to Lorenzo de' Ponziani, whose sister-in-law, Vannozza, helped Frances draft a rule of life for the new order. In

New Church

2005-01-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

Also called Swedenborgians, church organized in the General Conference of the New Church, the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the U.S.A., and the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Its members are followers of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th-century Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. Swedenborg did not himself found a church, but he believed that his writings

Powell, Anthony

2004-12-31T09:49:00.000-08:00

As a child, Powell lived wherever his father, a regular officer in the Welsh Regiment, was stationed. He attended Eton College from 1919 to 1923 and Balliol College, Oxford, from 1923 to 1926. Thereafter he joined the London

Jian

2004-12-29T08:46:00.000-08:00

The jian, which has a simple silhouette, is supported upon a narrow ring base. It has two or four ring handles that freely hang from slightly modeled monster masks (taotie). The decoration of the jian characteristic of the late Zhou dynasty (c. 600–256/255 BC), from which the

Safe-conduct

2004-12-26T18:38:00.000-08:00

Procedure by which a person is permitted to enter or leave a jurisdiction in which he would normally be subject to arrest, detention, or other deprivation. Historically, the habit of princes in granting safe-conducts to foreigners who, as aliens, did not ordinarily enjoy the full protection of the host-country's law developed into the system of diplomatic

Salem

2004-12-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1694) of Salem county, southwestern New Jersey, U.S. It lies along the Salem River near the latter's confluence with the Delaware River, 34 miles (55 km) southwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1675 by John Fenwick, an English Quaker. The Friends (Quakers) Burial Ground in Salem has the Salem Oak—a tree 80 feet (25 metres) high that is said to be more than 500 years old—under

Aeschylus

2004-12-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

Aeschylus' influence on the development of tragedy was fundamental. Previous to him, Greek drama was limited to one actor and a chorus engaged in a largely static recitation. (The chorus was a group of actors who responded to and commented on the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation.) The actor could assume different roles by changing masks and costumes,

Cronstedt, Axel Fredrik

2004-12-21T19:26:00.000-08:00

Cronstedt was the first

Ichikawa Family

2004-12-19T18:10:00.000-08:00

Kabuki actors flourishing in Edo (modern Tokyo) from the 17th century to the present. The most famous names are Danjuro, Ebizo, Danzo, and Ebijuro, and, according to kabuki convention, these names were assumed by a natural or adopted son of the Ichikawa family when his skill entitled him to inherit the mantle of a famous ancestor. Thus, there have been 12 Danjuros (the highest honorific

Eiselsberg, Anton, Freiherr Von

2004-12-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

Eiselsberg studied medicine at Vienna, Würzburg, Zürich, and Paris. In 1884 he received his M.D. from Vienna, where he was a pupil of and assistant

Permian Basin

2004-12-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

Also called West Texas Basin, large sedimentary basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico that is noted for its rich petroleum and natural-gas deposits. It originated as a marine basin bordered by extensive deltas during the Permian and Triassic periods (between 286 and 208 million years ago). The Permian Basin consists of three connected but distinct areas of subsidence, which are, from east

Anderson, Viv

2004-12-13T20:50:00.000-08:00

Anderson began his professional football

Tobacco

2004-12-11T21:56:00.000-08:00

Common name of the plant Nicotiana tabacum and, to a limited extent, N. rustica and the cured leaf that is used, usually after aging and processing in various ways, for smoking, chewing, snuffing, and extraction of nicotine. This article deals with the farming of tobacco from cultivation to curing and grading.

Dachau

2004-12-08T04:55:00.000-08:00

Dachau is situated on a hill, on the summit of which are the castle of the Wittelsbachs and a parish church (1625). The city's picturesque natural setting has long attracted landscape painters.

Niue

2004-12-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

Internally self-governing island state in free association with New Zealand. It is the westernmost of the Cook Islands but is administratively separate from them. Niue lies 1,340 miles (2,156 km) northeast of Auckland and 240 miles (385 km) east of Vava'u, Tonga, in the south-central Pacific. The capital is Alofi. Area 100 square miles (260 square km). Pop. (1994 est.) 2,200.

Sudan, The, Transportation

2004-12-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

The transport system is underdeveloped and is a serious constraint on economic growth. The country's vast area and the availability of only one major outlet to the sea place a heavy burden on the limited facilities, especially on the government-owned Sudan Railways and on the country's growing road network. The railways had traditionally hauled most of The Sudan's

Ayrshire

2004-12-02T02:54:00.000-08:00

The county has a concave western coastline along the Firth of Clyde

Jazz

2004-12-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

In spite of the wide dissemination and geographic distribution of these diverse musical traditions, New Orleans was where a distinctive, coherent jazz style evolved. Between 1910 and 1915 a systematization of instrumental functions within an essentially collective ensemble took shape, as did a regularization of the repertory. Despite the fact that a limited set of instruments

Strathcona And Mount Royal (of Mount Royal And Of Glencoe), Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron

2004-11-29T20:51:00.000-08:00

Smith was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1838 and worked for many years at the fur trade in Labrador. He served as chief commissioner for the company in Canada from 1870 to 1874, and, after becoming the principal shareholder, he was governor of the Hudson's Bay Company from

Baal

2004-11-27T16:46:00.000-08:00

God worshiped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, especially among the Canaanites, who apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon. As a Semitic common noun baal (Hebrew ba'al) meant “owner” or “lord,” although it could be used more generally; for example, a baal of wings was a winged creature, and, in the plural, baalim

National Women's Hall Of Fame

2004-11-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

Not-for-profit educational institution founded in 1969 to honour the accomplishments of outstanding American women. The Hall of Fame is located in Seneca Falls, New York, the site of the first Women's Rights Convention, in 1848. It contains information and exhibits about each of its inductees and also sponsors traveling exhibits, poster and essay contests, and other educational

Marche

2004-11-22T03:04:00.000-08:00

English The Marches region in central Italy fronting on the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provinces of Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, and Pesaro e Urbino; it has a total area of 3,742 square miles (9,692 square km). A region of mountains and hills, its only pieces of level land are scattered along river valleys and on the Adriatic shore northwest of Ancona. Its mountain backbone is the Umbrian-Marchigian

Bahía Blanca

2004-11-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

Explorers in the 18th century named the area Bahía Blanca (“White Bay”), but the settlement that grew up around a military outpost,

Cariboo Mountains

2004-11-19T11:19:00.000-08:00

Range in eastern British Columbia, Canada, forming the northern subdivision of the Columbia Mountains. The Cariboo Mountains lie within an area enclosed by the great bend of the Fraser River and its tributary, the North Thompson. The mountains extend for about 190 miles (305 km) and parallel the Rocky Mountain Trench, which separates them from the Canadian Rockies. From Mount

Tapestry, 17th and 18th centuries

2004-11-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

It was due to the initiative of Henry IV, whose planning of his nation's economy emphasized the luxury production that has since been commercially important in France, that decisive steps were taken in establishing a French tapestry industry. In 1608 Henry gave official recognition to the French workshop (using the high-warp method) of Girard Laurent and Dubout by establishing

Murger, Henri

2004-11-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

The son of a concierge and a tailor, Murger left school at 13. Later he became secretary to Count Aleksey Tolstoy and was able to improve his education. He began writing poems and became part of the bohemian life in Paris, but he was often destitute and his health deteriorated. Both

Aesthetics, Expressionism

2004-11-13T03:10:00.000-08:00

After Kant and Hegel, the most important influence on modern aesthetics has been Croce. His oft-cited Estetica come scienza dell' espressione e linguistica generale (1902; Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistics, or Aesthetic) presents, in a rather novel idiom, some of the important insights underlying the theories of his predecessors. In this work,

Yáñez, Agustín

2004-11-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

Born in a provincial neighbourhood of Guadalajara, Yáñez was enamoured of its traditions and values. As a young man he was a contributor

Gabon, History Of

2004-11-09T06:09:00.000-08:00

Early history is presented in David E. Gardinier, “The Beginnings of French Catholic Evangelization in Gabon and African Responses, 1844–1883,” French Colonial Studies, no. 2 (1978), pp. 49–74, on the planting of Catholicism in Gabon, and “Les Frères de Saint-Gabriel au Gabon, 1900–1918, et la naissance d'une nouvelle élite africaine,” Mondes et Cultures, 46(3):593–606 (1986), on the education of the anticolonialist elite prominent in Gabon's political life since 1944. K. David Patterson, The Northern Gabon Coast to 1875 (1975), examines the economic and political evolution of northern Gabon. Brian Weinstein, Gabon: Nation-building on the Ogooue (1966), describes political development, especially from the 1940s to the early '60s. Charles F. Darlington and Alice B. Darlington, African Betrayal (1968), is an account by the American ambassador to Libreville who witnessed the coup of 1964 and the French intervention. François Gaulme, Le Gabon et son ombre (1988), traces the political, economic, and social evolution since 1960. Michael C. Reed, “Gabon: A Neo-Colonial Enclave of Enduring French Interest,” The Journal of Modern African Studies, 25(2):283–320 (June 1987), focuses on the recent modern period. David E. Gardinier, Historical Dictionary of Gabon (1981), concentrates on the political evolution in the 20th century, with a large bibliography.

Switzerland, Prehistoric Switzerland

2004-11-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

Though a hand wedge fashioned by Paleolithic hunters, found at Pratteln near Basel in 1974, is at least 350,000 years old, human habitation in Switzerland was not significant until the last glacial period, the Würm, approximately 30,000 years ago. At that time most of the land was covered by ice, many thousands of feet deep that flowed down from the Alps. But during interglacial periods

Avogadro, Amedeo

2004-11-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

In full Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro, conte di Quaregna e Cerreto Italian mathematical physicist who showed in what became known as Avogadro's law that, under controlled conditions of temperature and pressure, equal volumes of gases contain an equal number of molecules.

Torez

2004-11-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1964) Chistyakovo city, Donetsk oblast (province), Ukraine. Torez is a typical coal-mining centre of the Donets Basin coalfield, but in Soviet times its industrial base was considerably widened. It is now a centre for engineering industries, especially electrical engineering, and for building materials. The city of Torez has been replanned in modern style, and its streets have been widened.

Zangwill, Israel

2004-11-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

The son of eastern European immigrants, Zangwill grew up in London's East End and was educated at the Jews' Free School and at the University of London. His early writings were on popular subjects of his day, but with Children

Braak, Menno Ter

2004-10-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

In 1932 ter Braak founded, with Edgar du Perron, the magazine Forum, which called for a rejection of contemporary aestheticism (with its emphasis on elegance and form) and a return to sincerity and substance

Babergh

2004-10-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

District, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England. Babergh extends across the southern part of Suffolk. Babergh includes much of the area made familiar by the paintings of John Constable (1776–1837), who was born within the district at East Bergholt and whose family owned mills there and at Flatford. It also includes a group of small towns—Lavenham, Lindsey, and

Balas Ruby

2004-10-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Variety of the gemstone ruby spinel (q.v.).

Lopez, Barry

2004-10-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame (B.A., 1966; M.A.T., 1968), Lopez briefly

'abbas Mirza

2004-10-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

Although he was not the eldest son of Fath 'Ali Shah (1797–1834), 'Abbas Mirza was named crown prince and appointed governor of the province of Azerbaijan in 1798 or 1799. When war broke out between Russia and Iran in 1804, he was made commander of the Iranian expeditionary

Quinisext Council

2004-10-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

The Quinisext Council prepared 102 canons, many of which

Animal Interlace

2004-10-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

In calligraphy, rich, fanciful decorative motif characteristic of work by the Hiberno-Saxon book artists of the early Middle Ages in the British Isles. Its intertwined, fantastic animal and bird forms are often densely and minutely detailed—an example in the Book of Kells (c. 800) contains 158 interlacements in a space of 0.25 square inch (1.61 square cm). Another work of comparable stylistic

Akund Floss

2004-10-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

Also called Calotropis Floss, downy seed fibre obtained from Calotropis procera and C. gigantea, plants of the Asclepiadaceae family. The plants are native to southern Asia and Africa and were introduced to South America and the islands of the Caribbean. The yellowish material is made up of thin fibres 2 to 3 cm (0.75 to 1.12 inches) long and 12 to 42 microns (a micron is about 0.00004 inch) in diameter and is harvested by hand.

Ablution

2004-10-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

In religion, a prescribed washing of part or all of the body or of possessions, such as clothing or ceremonial objects, with the intent of purification or dedication. Water, or water with salt or some other traditional ingredient, is most commonly used, but washing with blood is not uncommon in the history of religions, and urine of the sacred cow has been used in

Rouget De Lisle, Claude-joseph

2004-10-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Author of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem. A lowly army officer and only a moderate republican, Rouget de Lisle never wrote anything else of significance. He composed both the words and music of “La Marseillaise” for his comrades in 1792 while stationed at Strasbourg; it was originally called “Chant de guerre de l'armée

Literature, Netherlandic.

2004-10-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

Literary critic and poet Kester Freriks, commenting on the nominees for the VSB prize for poetry for 1997, lamented, "Dutch poetry doesn't sing anymore." In the place of melody we find a degree of cerebral grind that makes many poems inaccessible to many readers. Freriks evaluated the work of the nominees Elisabeth Eybers with her bilingual Tydverdryf/Pastime, Gerrit Kouwenaar,

Burbot

2004-10-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

(Lota lota), elongated fish of the cod family, Gadidae, and the only member of the family found in freshwater. The burbot lives in cold rivers and lakes of Europe, Asia, and North America. A bottom dweller, it descends as deep as 210 metres (700 feet). A mottled, greenish or brown fish, it may grow about 1.1 metres long. It has very small, embedded scales; a chin barbel; a long anal fin; and two dorsal

Fuel Injection

2004-10-06T04:47:00.000-07:00

In an internal-combustion engine, introduction of fuel into the cylinders by means of a pump rather than by the suction created by the movement of the pistons. On diesel engines, which have no spark plugs, the heat created by compressing air in the cylinders ignites the fuel, which has been pumped as a spray into the heated air. In engines with spark ignition, fuel-injection

Clovis

2004-10-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

City, seat (1909) of Curry county, eastern New Mexico, U.S., in the High Plains (4,260 feet [1,298 metres] above sea level) near the Texas state line. It was founded in 1906 as a division point for the Santa Fe Railway. Centre of an irrigated farm and ranch area, it has extensive livestock-auction and cattle-feeding facilities and also markets sugar beets, sorghum, wheat, cotton, vegetables, poultry, and

Armenian Massacres

2004-09-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

It is estimated that nearly two million Christian Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire by the late 1880s. The Armenians in the eastern provinces at that time, encouraged by Russia, began promoting Armenian territorial

Ukraine, Flag Of

2004-09-28T02:15:00.000-07:00

More than a thousand years ago a powerful state, Kievan Rus, was founded in an area that is now part of Ukraine. National flags did not exist at that time, but Kievan Rus used as its symbol a trident head, which was resurrected when Ukraine became independent in 1918 and in 1991. The first national flag for Ukraine was adopted in 1848 by revolutionaries who wanted its western parts to

Giovanni Da Pian Del Carpini

2004-09-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

Giovanni was a contemporary and disciple of St. Francis of Assisi. By 1220 he

Aethelberht

2004-09-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

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

Guise, François De Lorraine, 2e Duc De (2nd Duke Of), Duc D'aumale, Prince De Joinville

2004-09-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

As comte d'Aumale he fought in Francis I's army and was wounded almost fatally at the siege of Boulogne (1545); there he received the scar that won him his

Italy

2004-09-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

The first major power in the peninsula was the Etruscans. From Etruria, Etruscan

Pythagoras

2004-09-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Pythagoras migrated in his youth to Rhegium. He made a statue of Philoctetes, noted for the physical

Bukharin, Nikolay Ivanovich

2004-09-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

Having become a revolutionary while studying economics, Bukharin joined the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party in 1906 and became a member of the Moscow committee of the party's Bolshevik wing in 1908. He was

Latin Literature, History

2004-09-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Quintus Fabius Pictor wrote his pioneering history of Rome during the Second Punic War, using public and private records and writing in Greek. His immediate successors followed suit. Latin historical writing began with Cato's Origines. After him there were as many historiasters, or worthless historians, as the poetasters disdained by Cicero. The first great exception

Industrial Engineering

2004-09-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

Application of engineering principles and techniques of scientific management to the maintenance of a high level of productivity at optimum cost in industrial enterprises.

Yi-dam

2004-09-10T01:14:00.000-07:00

In Tibetan Buddhism, a tutelary, or guardian, deity with whom a lama (monk) has a special, secret relationship. The lama first prepares himself by meditation, then selects from among the guardian deities the one that reveals itself as offering the right guidance for a specific or lifelong goal. The lama will thereafter begin each day by worshiping his yi-dam. Any of the

Balanopales

2004-09-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Order of dicotyledonous flowering plants comprising the family Balanopaceae, with a single genus (Balanops) and 12 species of trees and shrubs that have simple, alternately positioned or somewhat whorled leaves. The plants are further characterized by flowers that lack showy parts (sepals and petals). The male and female flowers occur on separate plants (i.e., the plants

Indri

2004-09-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

(Indri indri), slender, long-limbed primate of the family Indriidae, found in Madagascan forests. The largest of existing Madagascan lemurs, the indri is about 70 cm (28 inches) long and has a rudimentary tail, large hands and feet, and a round head with pointed face and round, furry ears. Its colour is usually black with white on the head, throat, forearms, and buttocks.

Sarapeum

2004-09-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Serapeum, or Sarapieion, either of two temples of ancient Egypt, dedicated to the worship of the Greco-Egyptian god Sarapis (Serapis). The original elaborate temple of that name was located on the west bank of the Nile near Saqqarah and originated as a monument to the deceased Apis bulls, sacred animals of the god Ptah. Though the area was used as a cemetery for the bulls as early as 1400 BC, it was Ramses

Yenisey River, Plant and animal life

2004-09-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

Most of the basin is covered with taiga (marshy, primarily coniferous forest), with Siberian spruce, fir, and cedar predominating in the south and larch farther north. In Mongolia, Transbaikalia, and Tuva there are also steppe grasslands, bordered in the extreme south of the Selenga River basin by semidesert. In the far north of the basin, taiga is superseded by tundra

Pacific League

2004-08-31T05:18:00.000-07:00

One of the two leagues of professional baseball teams in Japan (the other being the Central League). The Pacific League was founded in 1950. It has six teams, some of whose names and hometown designations have changed over the years. The league consists of the Chiba Lotte Marines, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, Kintetsu Buffaloes, Nippon Ham Fighters, Orix Blue Wave, and Seibu Lions. The

Biblical Literature, Slavic versions

2004-08-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

The earliest Old Church Slavonic translations are connected with the arrival of the brothers Cyril and Methodius in Moravia in 863, and resulted from the desire to provide vernacular renderings of those parts of the Bible used liturgically. The oldest manuscripts derive from the 11th and 12th centuries. The earliest complete Bible manuscript, dated 1499, was used for the first