CheapBath

Bukowski, Charles

2005-11-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

Bukowski lived most of his life in Los Angeles. He briefly attended Los Angeles City College (1939–41) and worked at menial jobs while writing short stories, the first of which were published

European Plain

2005-10-17T02:15:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest uninterrupted expanses of plain on the Earth's surface. It sweeps from the Pyrenees Mountains on the French-Spanish border across northern Europe to the Ural Mountains in Russia. In western Europe the plain is comparatively narrow, rarely exceeding 200 miles (320 kilometres) in width, but as it stretches eastward it broadens steadily until it reaches

Nestlé Sa

2005-07-28T04:55:00.000-07:00

Multinational manufacturer of food products. It is headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, and operates factories in more than 80 countries. Nestlé's chief products are condensed and powdered milk, baby foods, chocolate products, candies, instant coffees and teas, soups, seasonings and condiments, frozen foods, ice cream, and bottled water. The company also produces

Preston, May Wilson

2005-07-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

May Wilson displayed marked artistic ability from an early age. In 1889, when she was barely out of high school, she helped found the Women's Art

Axholme, Isle Of

2005-07-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

Area of about 80 square miles (210 square km) west of the River Trent in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire, historic county of Lincolnshire, England. A tract of low flatland less than 100 feet (30 metres) above sea level, it was formerly surrounded by fens. Drainage works, begun in the 17th century by Cornelius Vermuyden and subsequently extended and improved, have transformed

Hajjaj (ibn Yusuf Ath-thaqafi), Al-

2005-07-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

Al-Hajjaj was a schoolteacher in his native town as a young man, but little else is known of his earlier years. He first became

Stuttgart

2005-07-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

Regierungsbezirk (administrative district), northeastern Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. Stuttgart is bordered by Bavaria Land to the north and east and the Regierungsbezirke of Tübingen to the south and Karlsruhe to the west. The largest of four districts in Baden-Württemberg, it is coextensive with portions of the larger historic regions

Ogre

2005-06-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

Feminine ogress a hideous giant represented in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings. The word gained popularity from its use in the late 17th century by Charles Perrault, the author of Contes de ma mère l'oye (Tales of Mother Goose). Since then, ogres have appeared in many works, including “Tom Thumb”; “Hansel and Gretel,” where the witch is a type of ogre because she intends to eat

Cosgrave, Liam

2005-06-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

His father, W.T. Cosgrave, was president of the Executive Council and head of the government of the Irish Free State during the first 10 years of its existence (1922–32). Liam, the elder son, was educated at Castlenock College, Dublin, and King's Inns, studied law, and was called to the Irish bar

Uhland, Ludwig

2005-06-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

Uhland studied law and classical and medieval literature at the University of Tübingen. He wrote his first poems while in Tübingen, publishing Vaterländische Gedichte (“Fatherland Poems”) in 1815. It

Karasi Dynasty

2005-06-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Founded by Karasi, a frontier ruler under Seljuq suzerainty, the principality had two branches, with their respective centres in Balikesir and Bergama (Pergamum). Of the sons of Karasi, Demirhan was defeated by the Ottoman ruler Orhan, and Balikesir was annexed (c. 1345). The coastal region of Çanakkale-Troy

Steel

2005-06-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

Alloy of iron and carbon in which the carbon content ranges up to 2 percent (with a higher carbon content, the material is defined as cast iron). By far the most widely used material for building the world's infrastructure and industries, it is used to fabricate everything from sewing needles to oil tankers. In addition, the tools required to build and manufacture such

Dab

2005-05-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

Other species

Traube, Isidor

2005-05-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

In 1882 Traube joined the faculty of the Technische Hochschule, Berlin, and there became professor of chemistry in 1900. He left Germany in 1939 and accepted a position

Merced

2005-05-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

City, Merced county, central California, U.S., on Bear Creek in the San Joaquin valley, 55 miles (89 km) northwest of Fresno. It was founded in 1872 by the Central Pacific Railroad, and it became county seat in the same year. It was named for the Nuestra Señora de la Merced River. It developed as a processing and shipping point for agricultural produce of the valley, irrigated by the Tri-Dam

Mahan, Alfred Thayer

2005-03-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

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

Basil, Liturgy Of Saint

2005-03-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

The Liturgy of St. Basil, of which two versions - the Alexandrian and the

Keratosis

2005-03-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

Any protuberance on the skin resulting from the overdevelopment of the horny outermost covering of the skin, or epidermis, the main constituent of which is the protein keratin, which is synthesized in special cells of the skin, the keratinocytes. More generally, keratosis is any skin disorder attended by horny growths. The causes and lesions characteristic of keratotic

Savoy, House Of

2005-03-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

Italian �Savoia, �French �Savoie, � historic dynasty of Europe, the ruling house of Italy from 1861 to 1946. During the European Middle Ages the family acquired considerable territory in the western Alps where France, Italy, and Switzerland now converge. In the 15th century, the house was raised to ducal status within the Holy Roman Empire, and in the 18th century it attained the royal title (first of the kingdom of Sicily,

Lenoir, (jean-joseph-) �tienne

2005-03-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

Lenoir's engine was a converted double-acting steam engine with slide valves to admit the air-fuel mixture and to discharge exhaust products. A two-stroke cycle engine, it used a mixture of coal gas and air. Though only

Miracle, Sacred places

2005-03-04T14:22:00.000-08:00

Miracles are often connected with special sacred places. Normally these are natural shrines, such as sacred groves, or temples and sanctuaries in which a god or spirit lives or has manifested himself or in which his statue, symbol, holy objects, or relics are enshrined. Holy places, such as Mecca and the Ka'bah in Islam or the Buddhist stupas, are centres of pilgrimages

Cozzens, James Gould

2005-03-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

Cozzens grew up on Staten Island, N.Y., graduated from the Kent (Conn.) School (1922), and attended Harvard University for two years. In a year of teaching in Cuba he accumulated background material for the short novels Cockpit (1928) and The Son of Perdition (1929). He gained critical attention

Stuttgart

2005-03-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

City, capital (1945) of Baden-W�rttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany, astride the Neckar River, in a forested vineyard-and-orchard setting in historic Swabia. It lies between the Black Forest on the west and the Swabian Jura to the south. There were prehistoric settlements and a Roman fort in the area of Bad Cannstatt (a suburb), but Stuttgart itself originated as a Stuotgarten,

Sorge, Richard

2005-03-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

After service in the German Army during World War I, he earned a doctorate in political science at the University of Hamburg, Germany, joining the Communist Party of Germany in 1919. He went to Moscow in 1924, and about five years later

Valachi, Joseph

2005-02-28T11:15:00.000-08:00

Valachi held a rank in the Mafia equivalent to that of a sergeant, with interests chiefly in the numbers rackets and other gambling from the 1930s to the '50s. In 1959 he was convicted of narcotics violations and sentenced to 15 to

Biblical Literature, French versions

2005-02-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

The first complete Bible was produced in the 13th century at the University of Paris and toward the end of that century Guyart des Moulins executed his Bible Historiale. Both works served as the basis of future redactions of which

Bond, William Cranch

2005-02-26T03:48:00.000-08:00

Largely self-educated, Bond was a watchmaker

Bah�a Blanca

2005-02-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

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

Wolfe, Thomas

2005-02-24T08:23:00.000-08:00

His father, William Oliver Wolfe, the Oliver Gant of his novels, was a stonecutter, while his mother, Julia Elizabeth Westall Wolfe, the Eliza of the early novels, owned a successful boardinghouse in Asheville, N.C., where Wolfe

Atlantic Charter

2005-02-23T22:09:00.000-08:00

A propaganda manifesto of common aims, the charter stated that (1) neither nation sought any aggrandizement; (2) they desired

Byte

2005-02-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

The basic unit of information in computer storage and processing. A byte consists of 8 adjacent binary digits (bits), each of which consists of a 0 or 1. The string of bits making up a byte is processed as a unit by a computer; bytes are the smallest operable units of storage in computer technology. A byte can represent the equivalent of a single character, such as the letter B,

Braaten, Oskar

2005-02-21T23:19:00.000-08:00

Braaten was closely affiliated with the Norwegian labour movement, but his works are more concerned with depicting childhood and youth in the tenement houses of the east side of Oslo, where he grew up, than with an analysis

China, Farming and forestry

2005-02-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

As a result of topographic and climatic features, the area suitable for cultivation is relatively small: only about 10 percent of China's total land area. Of this, slightly more than half is unirrigated, and the remainder is divided roughly equally between paddy fields and irrigated areas. Nevertheless, about 80 percent of the population lives in the countryside, and until

Aukrust, Olav

2005-02-19T04:05:00.000-08:00

Born in a narrow, often sunless valley flanked by steep mountains, Aukrust was raised by pietistic parents and was early on much interested in religious questions.

Lenya, Lotte

2005-02-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

Lenya studied ballet and drama in Zurich from 1914 to 1920, was a member of the corps de ballet at the Z�rich Stadttheater, and played

Henderson, Lawrence Joseph

2005-02-17T22:33:00.000-08:00

Henderson spent most of his career at Harvard Medical School (1904 - 42), where he was professor of biological chemistry (1919 - 34) and chemistry (1934 - 42). Soon after his arrival there he began investigating how acid - base neutrality is maintained in body fluids.

Denham, Dixon

2005-02-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

After serving in the Napoleonic Wars, Denham volunteered in 1821 to join Walter Oudney and Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton on an official expedition across the Sahara to Bornu (now in northeastern Nigeria), in the Lake Chad basin. After enduring danger and privation,

Aristides The Just

2005-02-15T03:09:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Aristides' early life. He appears to have been prominent within the party that favoured resistance to Persia, but in 482 he was ostracized, probably because he opposed Themistocles' plan to use the silver from a new vein of the mines at

Duby, Georges

2005-02-14T00:43:00.000-08:00

Although a Parisian by birth, Duby became enthralled at an early age with the history and culture of southern France. Educated

Port Harcourt

2005-02-13T21:53:00.000-08:00

Port town and capital of Rivers state, southern Nigeria. It lies along the Bonny River (an eastern distributary of the Niger River) 41 miles (66 km) upstream from the Gulf of Guinea. Founded in 1912 in an area traditionally inhabited by the Ijo people, it began to serve as a port (named for Lewis Harcourt, then colonial secretary) after the opening of the rail link to the Enugu coalfields

C�rdoba

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

C�rdoba was probably Carthaginian in origin and was occupied by the Romans in 152 BC. The city flourished under

Canals And Inland Waterways, Boat lifts

2005-02-11T06:37:00.000-08:00

Vessels can be transported floating in a steel tank or caisson between adjacent pounds by a vertical lift, replacing several locks. Vertical lifts can be operated by high-pressure hydraulic rams, by submersible floats, or by geared counterweights. Hydraulic lifts with twin caissons were constructed in 1875 at Anderton, Eng., with a 50-foot lift for 60-ton vessels; in 1888 lifts were

Disinfectant

2005-02-10T22:10:00.000-08:00

Any substance, such as creosote or alcohol, applied to inanimate objects to kill microorganisms. Disinfectants and antiseptics are alike in that both are germicidal, but antiseptics are applied primarily to living tissue. The ideal disinfectant would rapidly destroy bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoans, would not corrode surgical instruments, and would not

Jackson, Mercy Ruggles Bisbe

2005-02-09T23:19:00.000-08:00

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

Amorite Language

2005-02-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

One of the most ancient of the archaic Semitic languages, distributed in an area that is now northern Syria. Amorite is known almost exclusively from glosses and names, and the only known grammar is the grammar of names. Despite the unknown linguistic characteristics, Amorite is dated from the known chronology of proper names of the period in the last century of the

Price Index

2005-02-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

Measure of relative price changes, consisting of a series of numbers arranged so that a comparison between the values for any two periods or places will show the average change in prices between periods or the average difference in prices between places. Price indexes were first developed to measure changes in the cost of living in order to determine the wage increases

National Botanic Gardens Of South Africa

2005-02-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

Also called �Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens � one of the world's largest botanical gardens, occupying a 1,305-acre (528-hectare) site in Kirstenbosch, near Cape Town, Western Cape province, South Africa. The 6,200-species collection consists almost exclusively of Cape plants native to the fynbos (scrubland) and forests of southern Africa. The botanical garden was established in 1913. It includes such beautiful flowering plants as

Papin, Denis

2005-02-05T20:24:00.000-08:00

Papin assisted the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens

Gravel

2005-02-04T02:27:00.000-08:00

Fragments in gravel range in size from pebbles

Fern�ndez De Avellaneda, Alonso

2005-02-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

Probably the pseudonym of the otherwise unknown author of Segundo tomo del ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (1614; �Second Book of the Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha�), a fraudulent sequel to the first volume of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605). In the 59th chapter of the second volume of Don Quixote (1615), Cervantes mocks the spurious book. Suggestions of the author's

Gabon

2005-02-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Gabon's economy has more links with European and American markets than with those in neighbouring states (with the exception of Cameroon) or elsewhere in Africa. The economy shares some of the characteristics of those of other tropical African states: strong links with the former colonial ruler, a large degree of foreign investment and control, dependence on foreign

Regium Donum

2005-02-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

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

Penang

2005-01-31T17:45:00.000-08:00

Also called �Penang Island�, Malay �Pinang,� or �Pulau Pinang� island of Malaysia, lying off the northwest coast of peninsular Malaya, from which it is separated by a strait whose smallest width is 2.5 miles (4 km). Its area is about 113 square miles (293 square km). Penang Island is roughly oval, with a granitic, mountainous interior (highest point 2,428 feet [740 m]) and narrow coastal plains, most extensive in the northeast, where Malaysia's chief port, George

Korcula

2005-01-30T20:49:00.000-08:00

Italian �Curzola, �Greek �Corcyra Melaina, � island in the Adriatic Sea, on the Dalmatian coast, in Croatia. With an area of 107 square miles (276 square km), it has a hilly interior rising to 1,863 feet (568 m). The Greeks colonized it in the 4th century BC. Korcula was subsequently occupied by the Romans, Goths, Slavs, Byzantines, and Genoese; the kings of Hungary and Croatia and the Bosnian dukes resided there; and such powers as Russia, France,

Interior Design, General works

2005-01-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

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

Dielectric

2005-01-28T03:09:00.000-08:00

Insulating material or a very poor conductor of electric current. When dielectrics are placed in an electric field, practically no current flows in them because, unlike metals, they have no loosely bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material. Instead, electric polarization occurs. The positive charges within the dielectric are displaced minutely

Karakum Desert

2005-01-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Kara-Kum�, Turkmen �Garagum� or �Gara Gum (�Black Sand�)�, Russian �Karakumy� great sandy region in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent of the area of Turkmenistan. Another, smaller desert in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea is called the Aral Karakum.

I Li

2005-01-26T11:45:00.000-08:00

Pinyin �Yi li� collection of Chinese rituals probably compiled during Western Han times (206 BC - AD 8) and listed, along with two other ritual texts (Li chi, �Collection of Rituals�; Chou li, �Rites of Chou�), among the Nine, Twelve, and Thirteen Classics of Confucianism. Its subject matter is somewhat different from the other ritual classics in that it gives special emphasis to such events as weddings,

Aubign�, Th�odore-agrippa D'

2005-01-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Major late 16th-century poet, renowned Huguenot captain, polemicist, and historian of his own times. After studies in Paris, Orl�ans, Geneva, and Lyon, he joined the Huguenot forces and served throughout the Wars of Religion on the battlefield and in the council chamber. He was �cuyer (�master of horse�) to Henry of Navarre. After Henry's accession to

Novgorod

2005-01-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

City and administrative centre of Novgorod oblast (province), northwestern Russia, on the Volkhov River just below its outflow from Lake Ilmen. Novgorod is one of the oldest Russian cities, first mentioned in chronicles of 859. In 882 Oleg, prince of Novgorod, captured Kiev and moved his capital there. In 989, under Vladimir, Novgorod's inhabitants were forcibly baptized. In 1019 Prince

Curepipe

2005-01-23T01:29:00.000-08:00

Town (township) on the island of Mauritius, in the western Indian Ocean. It lies in the western highlands region of the country, about 11 miles (18 km) south of Port Louis, the national capital. The town, named after a similar township in France, developed quickly after a malaria epidemic in 1867, which forced Port Louis residents to relocate to safer areas in the highlands. Several

Probability Theory

2005-01-22T19:01:00.000-08:00

Suppose two balls are drawn sequentially without replacement from an urn containing r red and b black balls. The probability of getting a red ball on the first draw is r/(r b). If, however, one is told that a red ball was obtained on the first draw, the conditional probability of getting a red ball on the second draw is (r - 1)/(r b - 1), because for the second draw there are r b - 1 balls in the urn, of which

�benr�

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

Also spelled �Aabenraa � city, seat of S�nderjylland amtskommune (county commune), southeastern Jutland, Denmark, at the head of �benr� Fjord. First mentioned in the 12th century when attacked by the Wends, it was granted a charter (1335) and grew from a fishing village into a thriving port in the 17th and 18th centuries. Medieval landmarks include the St. Nicholas Church (a 13th-century church; restored 1949 - 56) and

La Fontaine, Jean De

2005-01-20T23:21:00.000-08:00

The Fables unquestionably represent the peak of La Fontaine's achievement. The first six books, known as the premier recueil (�first collection�), were published in 1668 and were followed by five more books (the second recueil) in 1678 - 79 and a twelfth book in 1694. The Fables in the second collection show even greater technical skill than those in the first and are longer, more reflective,

Alaska, Climates

2005-01-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Southern coastal and southeastern Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska islands, and the Aleutians have average temperature ranges in the summer of 40 to 60 �F (4 to 16 �C) and in the winter of 40 to 20 �F (4 to -7 �C). Rainfall varies locally from 60 to 160 inches (1,525 to 4,065 mm), and the panhandle and southern islands are covered

Mirambo

2005-01-18T03:52:00.000-08:00

Nyamwezi warlord of central Africa whose ability to unite the many hitherto separate Nyamwezi clans into a powerful kingdom by the 1870s gave him strategic control of Arab trade routes and threatened the preeminence of the Arabs' colony in Unyanyembe (near present Tabora, Tanzania). His capital, Urambo (now in Tanzania), became a major rival trading

Babalola, S(olomon) Adeboye

2005-01-17T03:02:00.000-08:00

Babalola received his education in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cambridge, Eng., and earned a Ph.D. at the University of London. On his return

South America, Linguistic patterns

2005-01-16T04:08:00.000-08:00

The linguistic diversity and multiplicity of South America probably is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Thousands of languages and dialects have been cataloged, including all those existing since the European conquest. Classification systems vary a great deal - from more than 100 �linguistic families� and many unrelated languages at one extreme to extremely

Bharatpur

2005-01-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

Also called �Bhurtpore � town, eastern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It lies 34 miles (55 km) west of Agra. The town, which was the capital of the former princely state of Bharatpur, was founded about 1733. A communications centre connected by road and rail with Jaipur, Agra, and Mathura, Bharatpur is an important industrial and agricultural market centre. Its major industries include oil mills, metal-fabricating

Bharatpur

2005-01-14T11:06:00.000-08:00

Spanish� Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo� international organization founded in 1959 by 20 governments in North and South America to finance economic and social development in the Western Hemisphere. The largest charter subscribers were Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States. Subscribers now include nearly 30 countries in North and South America and more than 15 countries in Europe, as well

Ben Rinnes

2005-01-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

Mountain in the Moray council area, Scotland, situated 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Keith and about 5 miles (8 km) east of the confluence of the Rivers Avon and Spey. It reaches an elevation of 2,759 feet (841 metres). One of the notable sights associated with Ben Rinnes is the Linn of Ruthie, a waterfall on one of the many streams descending from the mountain.

Biblical Literature, The Hellenistic period

2005-01-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

The translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek by Alexandrian Jews in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC provided opportunities for recording interpretations that were probably current in Hellenistic Judaism. Literal translations might be misleading to Greek readers; metaphors natural in Hebrew were rendered into less figurative Greek. �Walking with God� or �walking

Tribonian

2005-01-11T01:15:00.000-08:00

From 530 to 532, and from 534 until his death, Tribonian served as Justinian's quaestor sacri

Bezruc, Petr

2005-01-10T04:59:00.000-08:00

Bezruc studied in Prague and became a postal official in Moravia until his retirement in 1927. His literary reputation rests on a remarkable series of poems written during 1899 and 1900 and published in the periodical Cas between 1899 and 1903. The subject of almost

Adam Of Bremen

2005-01-09T02:48:00.000-08:00

Of Franconian origin, he was probably educated at the cathedral school in Bamberg but was introduced in 1066 or 1067 into the cathedral chapter at Bremen by Archbishop

Carnivore, Form and function

2005-01-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

Viverrids have short legs with five toes on each foot, except for the meerkats; Suricata has four toes on each foot and Cynictis four on the hindfoot. The pollex (�thumb�) and hallux (�big toe�) are functionless and do not touch the ground. Each toe is capped with semiretractile

I Ching

2005-01-07T13:21:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Yi Ching, �Pinyin �Yi Jing� (Chinese: �Classic of Changes,� or �Book of Changes�), an ancient Chinese text, one of the Five Classics (Wu Ching) of Confucianism. The main body of the work has traditionally been attributed to Wen Wang (fl. 12th century BC), sage and father of the founder of the Chou dynasty, and contains a discussion of the divinatory system used by the Chou dynasty wizards. A supplementary section

Dahomey

2005-01-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

Kingdom in western Africa that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries in the region that is now southern Benin. According to tradition, at the beginning of the 17th century three brothers vied for the kingdom of Allada, which, like neighbouring Whydah (now Ouidah), had grown rich on the slave trade. When one of the brothers won control of Allada, the other two fled. One went southeast

Alabama, Health and welfare

2005-01-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

In rural areas and among nonwhites, educational and economic opportunities are fewer, and health and medical resources and services are less available. Welfare payments in Alabama rank low by national standards. Penal institutions include several prisons and camps for youthful offenders. Controversy over conditions in these institutions has occasionally

Bernese Alps

2005-01-04T07:08:00.000-08:00

Also called �Bernese Oberland, �German �Berner Alpen, or Berner Oberland, �French �Alpes Bernoises, � segment of the Central Alps lying north of the Upper Rh�ne River and south of the Brienzer and Thunersee (lakes) in Bern and Valais cantons of southwestern Switzerland. The mountains extend east-northeastward from the bend of the Rh�ne near Martigny-Ville to Grimsel Pass and Haslital (valley of the upper Aare River). Many peaks rise to more than 12,000 ft (3,660 m); Finsteraarhorn

Fielding, William Stevens

2005-01-03T03:43:00.000-08:00

In 1864 Fielding joined the staff of the Halifax Morning Chronicle, the leading Liberal newspaper in Nova Scotia, where for 20 years he worked in various departments. From 1884 to 1896 Fielding was premier of Nova Scotia. An opponent

Nacka

2005-01-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

Town in the l�n (county) of Stockholm, southeastern Sweden, on the S�dert�rn peninsula of the landskap (province) of S�dermanland. A southeastern suburb of Stockholm, it developed into a residential and industrial area with the coming of the railroad in 1893, and in 1949 was incorporated as a town. Leading industries include chemical technology, flour milling, and the manufacture

Irish Sea

2005-01-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

Irish �Muir �ireann� arm of the North Atlantic Ocean that separates Ireland from Great Britain. The Irish Sea is bounded by Scotland on the north, England on the east, Wales on the south, and Ireland on the west. The sea is connected with the Atlantic by the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland and by St. George's Channel between the southeastern tip of Ireland and southwestern

Zile

2004-12-31T08:26:00.000-08:00

The town is an important local commercial

Pencil Drawing

2004-12-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

Drawing executed with an instrument composed of graphite enclosed in a wood casing and intended either as a sketch for a more elaborate work in another medium, an exercise in visual expression, or a finished work. The cylindrical graphite pencil, because of its usefulness in easily producing linear gray-black strokes, became the successor of the older, metallic

Hindu Kush, Animal life

2004-12-29T02:57:00.000-08:00

Well-adapted species of wildlife are found throughout the mountains. The Siberian ibex and the markhor (both wild goats) negotiate the high crags, while Marco Polo sheep and urial (another wild sheep) occasionally are found in the high pamir. Black and brown bears still exist in isolated valleys, and the Chitral valley wildlife preserve is a domain of the rare snow leopard.

Resting Potential

2004-12-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

The imbalance of electrical charge that exists between the interior of electrically excitable nerve cells and their surroundings. The resting potential of electrically excitable cells lies in the range of -60 to 95 millivolts (1 millivolt = 0.001 volt), with the inside of the cell negatively charged. If the inside of a cell becomes more electronegative (i.e., if the potential is

Botany Bay

2004-12-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

The bay was the site in 1770 of Captain James Cook's first landing in Australia. He named it Stingray Harbour but later changed the name because

Cancellaresca Corsiva

2004-12-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

Also called �cancellaresca, �littera da brevi�, or �chancery cursive� in calligraphy, script that in the 16th century became the vehicle of the New Learning throughout Christendom. It developed during the preceding century out of the antica corsiva, which had been perfected by the scribes of the papal chancery. As written by the calligrapher and printer Lodovico degli Arrighi of Vicenza in the early decades of the 16th century, the cancellaresca

Ts'ao Kuo-chiu

2004-12-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

Pinyin �Cao Guojiu, � in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism. Ts'ao is sometimes depicted in official robes and hat and carrying a tablet indicative of his rank and of his right to palace audiences. He was a man of exemplary character who often reminded a dissolute brother that though one can escape the laws of man, one cannot avoid the nets of heaven. In another

Cylindrical Projection

2004-12-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

In cartography, any of numerous map projections of the terrestrial sphere on the surface of a cylinder that is then unrolled as a plane. Originally, this and other map projections were achieved by a systematic method of drawing the Earth's meridians and latitudes on the flat surface. But this method produces distortion, so a map projection today may be created using

Sacra Rappresentazione

2004-12-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

(Italian: �holy performance�), in theatre, 15th-century Italian ecclesiastical drama similar to the mystery plays of France and England and the auto sacramental of Spain. Originating and flourishing in Florence, these religious dramas represented scenes from the Old and New Testaments, from pious legends, and from the lives of the saints. The plays were didactic, using

Salghurid Dynasty

2004-12-22T03:27:00.000-08:00

The Salghurids were one of the several dynasties of atabegs (notables who acted as guardians and tutors of infant Seljuq princes) who were deputized to govern Iranian provinces on behalf of Seljuq kings. The Salghurids in origin belonged to the Salor

Hypotrich

2004-12-21T00:14:00.000-08:00

Any dorsoventrally flattened, oval protozoan of the ciliate order Hypotrichida, very widely distributed in both fresh and salt water. Instead of having simple cilia (hairlike processes), the hypotrichs have groups of fused cilia (cirri) arranged on the ventral surface and used for crawling. The dorsal surface is frequently equipped with rows

Pocahontas

2004-12-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

Matoaka, whose pet name was

Inner Ear

2004-12-19T20:45:00.000-08:00

Also called �labyrinth of the ear, � part of the ear that contains organs of the senses of hearing and equilibrium. The bony labyrinth, a cavity in the temporal bone, is divided into three sections: the vestibule, the semicircular canals, and the cochlea. Within the bony labyrinth is a membranous labyrinth, which is also divided into three parts: the semicircular ducts; two saclike structures, the saccule

Vajpayee, Atal Bihari

2004-12-18T02:26:00.000-08:00

Vajpayee was first elected to Parliament in 1957 as a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), a forerunner of the BJP. In 1977 the BJS joined three other parties to form the Janata Party, which led a government that lasted until July 1979. As foreign minister

Mance, Sir Henry Christopher

2004-12-16T07:04:00.000-08:00

Mance joined the Persian Gulf Telegraph Department of the government of India in 1863 and helped lay the first submarine telegraph

Osaka

2004-12-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

Osaka lies along Osaka Bay at the eastern end of the Inland Sea, on the delta of the Yodo River. Its metropolitan

China, Resumption of fighting

2004-12-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

Each side seemed convinced that it could win by war what it could not achieve by negotiation - dominance over the other. Despite the efforts of Chinese moderates and General Marshall, fighting resumed in July in Manchuria, and in North China the Nationalists attempted massive drives in Kiangsu and Shantung to break the Communist grip on the railways. The Communists