FrequentHorn

Estate Agent London

2006-10-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

Robert Irving Burns specialise in London Commercial and Residential property services, including Estate Agent Covent Garden and Estate Agent London. Their centrally located ground floor offices, minutes from Oxford Circus offer an ideal marketing base for your property.

Sunspot

2005-04-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Vortex of gas on the surface of the Sun associated with strong local magnetic activity. Spots look dark only by contrast with the surrounding photosphere, which is several thousand degrees hotter. The dark centre of a spot is called the umbra; the outer, lighter ring, the penumbra. Spots may be several times larger than the Earth or so small that telescopic observation

Staff, Leopold

2005-04-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

Its music directors have been Fredrick Stock

Zólkowski, Alojzy Fortunat

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

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

Crusade, The Latin East after the Third Crusade

2005-04-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

Saladin died on March 3, 1193, not long after the departure of the Third Crusade. One of the greatest of the Muslim leaders and a man devoutly religious and deeply committed to jihad against the infidel, he was, yet, respected by his opponents. His death led once again to divisions in the Muslim world, and his Ayyubid successors were willing to continue a state of truce with the crusaders,

Kabbala

2005-04-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

Spain also

Feuillet, Raoul-auger

2005-03-31T13:53:00.000-08:00

French dancer, dancing master, and choreographer whose dance notation system was published in his Chorégraphie ou l'art de décrire la danse (1700; “Choreography, or the Art of Describing the Dance”). Working in Paris, he collaborated with André Lorin, conductor of the Royal Academy of Dance; he also wrote Recueil de danses (1704; “Collection of Dances”), describing dances performed

Abstraction-création

2005-03-31T11:03:00.000-08:00

The immediate predecessor of the Abstraction-Création group was the Cercle et Carré (“Circle and Square”) group, founded by Michel Seuphor and Joaquin Torres-Garcia in 1930. Artists Georges Vantongerloo, Jean Hélion, and Auguste Herbin worked together

Felling

2005-03-31T10:38:00.000-08:00

Town, Gateshead metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Tyne. The town grew rapidly at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century with the extension of coal mining and later with the expansion of riverside industries such as shipbuilding and the manufacture of glass and heavy chemicals. New

Weser River

2005-03-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

Just

Pijao

2005-03-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

Extinct Indian people of the southern highlands of Colombia. The Pijao spoke a language of the Chibchan family, related to that of the Páez, their neighbours to the south. They were agriculturists, raising corn (maize), sweet manioc (yuca), beans, potatoes, and many fruits; they also hunted and fished. They lived in settlements of several families in houses built of wood and

Ussuri River

2005-03-29T13:09:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Wu-su-li Chiang, or (Pinyin) Wusuli Jiang, northward-flowing tributary of the Amur River that for a considerable distance forms the boundary between China (Heilungkiang province) and Russia (Siberia). The Ussuri is formed by the confluence of the Ulakhe and Arsenyevka rivers, both of which rise on the southwestern slopes of the Sikhote-Alin mountains. Its length from the source of the Ulakhe is 565 miles (909 km), and

Pietro Da Cortona,

2005-03-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

Pietro studied in Rome from about 1612 under the minor Florentine painters Andrea Commodi and Baccio Ciarpi and was influenced by antique sculpture and the work of Raphael. The most important of his earliest paintings were three frescoes

Alajuela

2005-03-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

City, northwestern Costa Rica. It lies on the central plateau at an altitude of 3,141 feet (957 metres). Known in colonial days as La Lajuela and Villahermosa, the town was active in support of independence from Spain in 1821; five years later it suffered from a plot to restore Spanish control over Costa Rica. For a brief period in the 1830s Alajuela served as the nation's capital. It was the

Catalan Literature

2005-03-28T02:32:00.000-08:00

The oldest extant text in Catalan is the Homilies d'Organyà, a collection of sermons dating from the 12th or early 13th century but now appreciated more for their linguistic than for their literary value. Early kings of Aragon and counts

Carnivore, Importance to humans

2005-03-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

The raccoon is the only procyonid of major economic significance. Raccoon hunting has been a sport of substantial importance in the United States, and in some parts of the United States many people own dogs trained to hunt raccoons. The coatimundi also is hunted with dogs and its flesh is also eaten. Meat of the raccoon is in more demand as food than that of any other

Bahrain, Flag Of

2005-03-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

The southern coast of the Persian Gulf was characterized by extensive warfare and piracy for many centuries. In 1820 the British were finally successful in enforcing peace on the local Arab states. The General Treaty of Peace signed at that time provided that those territories on friendly terms with the United Kingdom should include a white border on the plain red

Chiba

2005-03-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

Ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, lying on the Pacific coast of the Kanto Plain. It consists of the Boso Peninsula, which lies east of Tokyo Bay and south of the Tone River. Surpluses of rice, vegetables, eggs, and flowers are produced for Tokyo, and offshore fisheries flourish. The Tokyo-Yokohama industrial belt (see Keihin Industrial Zone) has expanded into Chiba prefecture

Swiss Literature

2005-03-26T20:07:00.000-08:00

Properly, the writings in the only language peculiar to Switzerland, the Rhaeto-Romanic dialect known as Romansh, though broadly it includes all works written by Swiss nationals in any of the three other languages of their country: German, French, and Italian, or the Swiss dialect forms of any one of them. It also should be noted that the earliest literature produced

Denishawn School Of Dancing And Related Arts

2005-03-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

Dance school and company founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn. Considered a fountainhead of American modern dance, the Denishawn organization systematically promoted nonballetic dance movement and fostered such leading modern dancers as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Because St. Denis and Shawn believed that all dance techniques

Tael

2005-03-26T05:57:00.000-08:00

China did not have a national currency until 1933, and hence external trade was conducted in foreign currencies and internal trade in ounces, or taels, of silver. The tael was seldom minted in the form of a coin but rather served as a standard

Land Bridge

2005-03-26T02:26:00.000-08:00

Any of several isthmuses that have connected the Earth's major landmasses at various times, with the result that many species of plants and animals have extended their ranges to new areas. A land bridge that had a profound effect on the fauna of the New World extended from Siberia to Alaska during most of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods (beginning 66.4 million years

Overijssel

2005-03-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

Provincie (province), northeastern Netherlands, extending northward “beyond the IJssel,” a distributary of the Rhine, from the provinces of Gelderland to Drenthe and Friesland and lying between Germany (east) and Flevoland Province (west). Drained by the IJssel, Vecht, Zwarte Water, and Regge rivers and the Twente, Overijssel, and numerous smaller canals, it occupies an

Laine, Dame Cleo

2005-03-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

Laine was born to a Jamaican father and an English mother. She quit school at age 14 and took a variety of jobs while auditioning for singing jobs. Her first break came in 1951, when she was hired as a vocalist for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, a

Pereskia

2005-03-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

P. pititache, the native Mexican

Wideman, John Edgar

2005-03-24T05:54:00.000-08:00

Until the age of 10, Wideman lived in Homewood, a black section of Pittsburgh, Pa., which later became the setting of many of his novels. An outstanding scholar and athlete at the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1963), he became

Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry

2005-03-24T05:34:00.000-08:00

Educated at Dulwich College (1887–90), Shackleton entered the mercantile marine service in 1890 and became a sublieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1901. He joined Captain Robert Falcon Scott's British National Antarctic (Discovery) Expedition (1901–04) as third

Yellow-dog Contract

2005-03-24T00:17:00.000-08:00

Agreement between an employer and an employee in which the employee agrees, as a condition of employment, not to join a union during the course of his employment. Such contracts, used most widely in the United States in the 1920s, enabled employers to take legal action against union organizers for encouraging workers to break these contracts. A federal law prohibiting

France, History Of, Austrasian hegemony and the rise of the Pepinids

2005-03-23T23:33:00.000-08:00

The murder of Ebroïn (680 or 683) reversed the situation in favour of Austrasia and the Pepinids. Pepin II, who defeated the Neustrians at Tertry in 687, reunified northern Francia under his own control during the next decade. Austrasia and Neustria were reunited under a Merovingian figurehead, but Pepin II governed by virtue of his position as mayor of the palace. At the same time,

Kara Mustafa Pasa, Merzifonlu

2005-03-23T02:33:00.000-08:00

During the grand vizierate (1661–76) of his brother-in-law Köprülü Fazil Ahmed Pasa, Kara Mustafa Pasa served as captain of the fleet, vizier in the State Council, and deputy grand vizier. Succeeding Fazil Ahmed Pasa as grand vizier,

Kudamatsu

2005-03-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

Kudamatsu revived during World War I as an industrial city, assisted by its natural

Xerxes I

2005-03-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

The basic work is still A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (1948, reissued 1985), a complex work, but one that contains the essentials. Charles Hignett, Xerxes' Invasion of Greece (1963), deals only with the relationships between Xerxes and Greece. Peter Green, Xerxes at Salamis (1970), discusses the Greco-Persian wars.

Later Ly Dynasty

2005-03-22T03:31:00.000-08:00

Vietnamese Nha Hau Ly (1009–1225), first of the three great dynasties of Vietnam. The kingdom, known later as Dai Viet, was established by Ly Thai To in the Red River Delta area of present northern Vietnam. Its capital was Thang Long (Hanoi). (It is “later” with respect to the Earlier Ly dynasty, founded by Ly Bon and lasting from 544 to 602/603.) The Later Ly was the first stable Vietnamese dynasty and helped establish many

Asansol

2005-03-22T02:21:00.000-08:00

City, West Bengal state, northeastern India. Situated in the heart of the Raniganj coalfield, it is the centre of the Kulti-Burnpur industrial complex. Asansol is connected by the Grand Trunk Road and by rail with Calcutta, Durgapur, and Burdwan. The city is an important coal-trading and railway centre, with large railway workshops and a railway colony. Its major industries

Caldecott, Randolph

2005-03-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

While a bank clerk at Whitchurch, Shropshire, and at Manchester, Caldecott began drawing for local magazines. Through his acquaintance with George Du Maurier he began contributing to

Bridges, Robert (seymour)

2005-03-21T15:34:00.000-08:00

From 1869 until 1882 Bridges

Adam, Adolphe

2005-03-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

Adam wrote 71 operas, the best of which are generally considered to be Le Postillon de Longjumeau (1836) and Giralda (1850). In his ballets—which he composed for production in London, Berlin,

Antony, Mark

2005-03-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

Mark Antony was the son and grandson of men of the same name. His father was called Creticus because of his military operations in Crete, and his grandfather, one of the leading orators of his day, was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero's De oratore. After a somewhat dissipated youth, the future triumvir served with distinction in 57–54 as a cavalry commander under Aulus

Baetic Cordillera

2005-03-20T17:22:00.000-08:00

Spanish Sistema Penibético, mountain system comprising the Andalusian mountains of southern Spain, of which the northern range runs about 360 miles (580 km) from Cape Trafalgar to Cape Nao. The central and southern ranges, the Baetic proper, extend a shorter distance from Estepona to Cape Gata. Separating the two systems is a complex series of structures, traceable in longitudinal corridors and high

Fell, John

2005-03-20T03:05:00.000-08:00

Ordained in 1647, Fell was deprived of his fellowship at Oxford in 1648 for having fought with the Royalists against Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil Wars. Despite

Radiation Therapy

2005-03-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

Also called Radiotherapy, or Therapeutic Radiology, use of radiation sources in the treatment or relief of diseases. Radiation therapy almost always makes use of ionizing radiation, deep tissue-penetrating rays, which can physically and chemically react with diseased cells to destroy them. The other forms of radiation, infrared and ultraviolet, can be employed in heat lamps for neuritis and arthritis conditions

Argentina, The economy

2005-03-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

Labour movements are covered in Ronaldo Munck, Ricardo Falcón, and Bernardo Galitelli, Argentina: From Anarchism to Peronism: Workers, Unions, and Politics, 1855–1985 (1987); David Tamarin, The Argentine Labor Movement, 1930–45: A Study in the Origins of Peronism (1985); and Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia (1986).

Chiang K'ang-hu

2005-03-19T04:48:00.000-08:00

Born into a scholar-official family, Chiang studied at home and briefly in Japan before returning to China in 1901 to take charge of the compilation of elementary-school textbooks for the schools of five northern

Sculpture, Western, Georgia

2005-03-18T13:22:00.000-08:00

A distinct Georgian sculptural tradition did not emerge until the advent of Christianity, which stimulated a demand for a large number of carved stone reliefs. The earliest of these were based on Early Christian models. In the 8th and 9th centuries the high-relief figures of Early Christian art gave way to figures rendered in wholly linear fashion. In the 10th and 11th centuries

East Aurora

2005-03-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

Village, Erie county, western New York, U.S. It lies 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Buffalo and, oddly enough, 90 miles (145 km) west of Aurora. Settled in 1804, it was incorporated as Willink in 1849 and as East Aurora in 1874. Inspired by the English designer William Morris and his communal Kelmscott Press, the editor and publisher Elbert Hubbard established the Roycroft Press in East Aurora in 1893; he later

Stereoscopy

2005-03-18T03:55:00.000-08:00

Science and technology dealing with two-dimensional drawings or photographs that when viewed by both eyes appear to exist in three dimensions in space. A popular term for stereoscopy is 3-D. Stereoscopic pictures are produced in pairs, the members of a pair showing the same scene or object from slightly different angles that correspond to the angles of vision of

Nahua Language

2005-03-17T22:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Aztec an American Indian language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in central and western Mexico. Nahua, the most important of the Uto-Aztecan languages, was the language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations of Mexico. A large body of literature in Nahua, produced by the Aztecs, survives from the 16th century, recorded in an orthography that was introduced by Spanish priests

Ducommun, élie

2005-03-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

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

Pachuca

2005-03-17T02:54:00.000-08:00

In full Pachuca De Soto, capital city, Hidalgo estado (“state”), east-central Mexico. It was one of the first settlements in New Spain and lies in a rich mining district in the Sierra Madre Oriental, 7,959 feet (2,426 m) above sea level. Its first silver mine was discovered in 1534, though it is said that some of the mines were known to pre-Columbian Indians. The nearby Real del Monte mine, begun in 1739 and still in operation,

Affix

2005-03-17T00:42:00.000-08:00

A grammatical element that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived and inflected forms. There are three types of affixes: prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or stem (sub-mit, pre-determine, un-willing); a suffix at the end (wonder-ful, depend-ent, act-ion); and an infix occurs in the middle. English has no infixes, but they are

Plutus

2005-03-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

In Greek religion, god of abundance or wealth, a personification of ploutos (Greek: “riches”). According to Hesiod, Plutus was born in Crete, the son of the goddess of fruitfulness, Demeter, and the Cretan Iasion. In art he appears chiefly as a child with a cornucopia. He was sometimes confused with Pluto (Hades), god of the underworld.

Dubois, Pierre

2005-03-16T16:50:00.000-08:00

French lawyer and political pamphleteer during the reign of Philip IV the Fair; his most important treatise, De recuperatione Terrae Sanctae (1306, “On the Recovery of the Holy Land”), dealt with a wide range of political issues and gave a good picture of contemporary intellectual trends while ostensibly outlining the conditions

Yacht

2005-03-16T16:09:00.000-08:00

In England by 1881 most of the important yacht clubs had become members of the Yacht Racing Association (founded 1875; from 1952 called the Royal Yachting Association). The organization made rules governing regatta sailing and later took on duties as a representative body for all British yachting, including dealing with port, harbour, and other governmental authorities. In the

Arête

2005-03-16T13:55:00.000-08:00

(French: “ridge”), in geology, a sharp-crested serrate ridge separating the heads of opposing valleys (cirques) that formerly were occupied by Alpine glaciers. It has steep sides formed by the collapse of unsupported rock, undercut by continual freezing and thawing (glacial sapping; see cirque). Two opposing glaciers meeting at an arête will carve a low, smooth gap, or col

Actinolite

2005-03-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

An amphibole mineral in the tremolite-actinolite-ferrotremolite series of calcium, magnesium, and iron silicates. The minerals in this series are abundant in regionally metamorphosed rocks, such as schists. Tremolite may weather to talc, and both tremolite and actinolite may alter to chlorite or carbonates. For chemical formula and detailed physical properties,

Jouffroy D'abbans, Claude-françois-dorothée, Marquis De

2005-03-15T15:21:00.000-08:00

At the age of 20 Jouffroy d'Abbans entered the army, and a year later he became involved in a duel that resulted in his banishment to Provence. There he began to work with boats and built a 43-foot (13-metre) steamboat

Aalto, Alvar

2005-03-15T03:08:00.000-08:00

A definitive review of Aalto's work, extremely well illustrated with photographs and plans, is the two-volume work edited by Karl Fleig: Alvar Aalto (1963) and Alvar Aalto 1963–1970 (1971). A brief essay by Farederick Gutheim, Alvar Aalto (1960), contains descriptive and critical comments as well as many photographs. A similar book is George Baird, Alvar Aalto (1970). A substantial chapter on Aalto appears in Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, 5th ed. rev. (1967), and is an excellent critical treatment of Aalto's architecture. No purely biographical work exists.

Indian Paint Brush

2005-03-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

Also called Painted Cup, Painted Lady, or Paint Brush, any plant of the genus Castilleja (family Scrophulariaceae), which contains about 200 species of partially or wholly parasitic plants that derive nourishment from the roots of other plants. For this reason the plants are seldom cultivated successfully in the flower garden. The small, tubular flowers are irregular (two-lipped). They are surrounded by upper

Ryukyu Islands

2005-03-14T10:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Nansei Islands , Japanese Ryukyu-Shoto , or Nansei-Shoto , Ryukyuan Okinawa archipelago, extending almost 400 miles (650 km) southwest from Kyushu, southern Japan, to the northern tip of Taiwan bordering the Philippine Sea (east) and the East China Sea (west). Since 1972 the islands have comprised Okinawa ken (prefecture), Japan. With a total land area of 870 square miles (2,254 square km), they consist of 55 islands and islets divided into three major groups: the Amami island

Kadoma

2005-03-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

City, Osaka fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan, bordering Osaka city. The city is located on the left bank of the Yodo River and is known for its cultivation of lotus flowers. After the establishment of a railway connection to Osaka in 1909, industrialization was rapid. The Matsushita Electric Industrial Company moved to Kadoma in 1933 to establish factories producing electrical

Zoroastrianism

2005-03-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

Zoroastrianism is not the purely ethical religion it may at first seem. In practice, despite the doctrine of free choice, a Zoroastrian is so constantly involved in a meticulous struggle against the contamination of death and the thousand causes of defilement, and against the threat, even in his sleep, of ever-present demons, that he does not often believe that he is

Burette

2005-03-13T01:14:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Buret, laboratory apparatus used in quantitative chemical analysis to measure the volume of a liquid or a gas. It consists of a graduated glass tube with a stopcock (turning plug, or spigot) at one end. On a liquid burette, the stopcock is at the bottom, and the precise volume of the liquid dispensed can be determined by reading the graduations marked on the glass tube at the liquid

Giorgi, Giovanni

2005-03-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

Giorgi studied civil engineering at the Institute of Technology in Rome and from 1906 to 1923 directed the Technology Office of Rome. He taught (1913–39) at the University of Rome and also held appointments

Müntzer, Thomas

2005-03-12T20:20:00.000-08:00

Thomas Müntzer was the son of a burgher in Stolberg in the Harz Mountains. Of his childhood and youth very little is known. His name appears in the 1506 register of the University of Leipzig, and in 1512 he attended the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, later earning the academic ranks of master of arts and bachelor of theology. Müntzer became a linguistic specialist in Latin,

Sankin Kotai

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

System inaugurated in 1635 in Japan by the Tokugawa shogun (hereditary military dictator) Iemitsu by which the great feudal lords (daimyo) had to reside several months each year in the Tokugawa capital at Edo (modern Tokyo). When the lords returned to their fiefs, they were required to leave their wives and families in Edo. The system, which was imitated by the various daimyo

Tucholsky, Kurt

2005-03-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

After studying law and serving in World War I, Tucholsky left Germany in 1924 and lived first in Paris and after 1929 in Sweden. He contributed to Rote Signale (1931; “Red Signals”), a collection of

Protein, Results of X-ray diffraction studies

2005-03-12T03:08:00.000-08:00

Most knowledge concerning secondary and tertiary structure of globular proteins has been obtained by the examination of their crystals using X-ray diffraction. In this technique X rays are allowed to strike the crystal; the X rays are diffracted by the crystal and impinge on a photographic plate, forming a pattern of spots. The measured intensity of the diffraction

Computers, Whirlwind

2005-03-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

New hardware continued to be invented, though. In the United States, Jay Forrester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Jan Aleksander Rajchman of the Radio Corporation of America came up with a new kind of memory based on magnetic cores that was fast enough to enable MIT to build the first real-time computer, Whirlwind. A real-time computer is one that

Eckstine, Billy

2005-03-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Eckstine left Howard University after winning an amateur contest in 1933 and began singing in nightclubs and with xance bands. From 1939 to 1943 he sang with Earl Hines's band, and at his urging Hines hired

Talbot

2005-03-11T10:17:00.000-08:00

County, east-central Maryland, U.S. It adjoins Chesapeake Bay to the west, the Choptank River to the south and southeast, and Tuckahoe Creek to the northeast and includes Tilghman and Poplar islands. The jagged coast is carved by the Wye East, Tred Avon, and Miles rivers and by Harris and Broad creeks. Parklands include Seth Demonstration Forest and Wye Oak State Park, the

China, Plant life

2005-03-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Types of natural vegetation and their floristic composition are extremely diverse. The total number of seed plants in China is about 30,000 species, representing 2,700 genera; more than 200 of these genera are restricted to China. There are about 2,500 species of forest trees, and, among flowering plants, 95 percent of the known woody group are to be found. Many of them are trees of economic

Adams, Roger

2005-03-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

Receiving

'uthman Ibn 'affan

2005-03-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

'Uthman

Gable, Clark

2005-03-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

The only son of an itinerant oil-field worker, Gable embarked on an acting career while in his early 20s

Catalonia Museum Of Art

2005-03-10T04:35:00.000-08:00

Spanish Museo De Arte De Cataluña , Catalan Museu D'art De Catalunya museum in the Palacio Nacional in Barcelona, housing one of the most important collections of medieval paintings in the world and also a fine and complete collection of Spanish ceramics. The Romanesque Galleries comprise a series of reconstructions of church interiors with mural decorations brought from villages in the Pyrenees, transported to the museum

Limited Liability

2005-03-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

Condition under which the loss that an owner (shareholder) of a business firm may incur is limited to the amount of capital invested by him in the business and does not extend to his personal assets. Acceptance of this principle by business enterprises and governments was a vital factor in the development of large-scale industry, because it enabled business concerns

Koch, Marita

2005-03-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

An injury forced Koch to withdraw from the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where she had been a favoured competitor. She set the first of her indoor records the

Swayne, Noah H.

2005-03-09T07:53:00.000-08:00

Swayne chose the law after briefly studying medicine and was admitted to the bar in 1823. He immediately moved from Virginia to Ohio because of his antislavery views and set up a successful practice at Coshocton. He was appointed county prosecuting attorney in 1826 and was elected

Roman Republic And Empire

2005-03-09T00:41:00.000-08:00

The ancient state that centred on the city of Rome, from the time of the events leading up to the founding of the republic in 509 BC, through the establishment of the empire in 27 BC, to the final eclipse of the Empire of the West in the 5th century AD. (For later events of the Empire of the East, see Byzantine Empire.)

Azurite

2005-03-08T20:53:00.000-08:00

Also called Chessylite, basic copper carbonate [Cu3(OH)2(CO3)2]. It is ordinarily found with malachite in the oxidized zone of copper lodes. Notable deposits are Tsumeb, Namibia; Chessy, Fr.; and Bisbee, Ariz., U.S. Azurite was used as a blue pigment in ancient Eastern wall painting and, from the 15th to the middle of the 17th century, in European painting. For detailed physical properties, see carbonate

Libya, Soils

2005-03-08T16:12:00.000-08:00

The gray-brown soils of the Al-Jifarah Plain and the Nafusah Plateau are fertile, although they have become saline from overirrigation. In the east, the soils of the Barce plain—which stretches between the Akhdar Mountains and the sea—are light and fertile. Rich alluvial soils are found in the coastal deltas and valleys of large wadis. The rest of the country is covered

Uist

2005-03-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

Either of two islands of the Outer Hebrides, both lying off the northwestern coast of Scotland. See North Uist; South Uist.

Danané

2005-03-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

Town, western Côte d'Ivoire. It lies along the Boan River, a tributary of the Nuon (Nipoué, Cestos) River, and at the intersection of roads from Liberia, Guinea, and the Ivoirian town of Man. It is the chief trade centre (rice, coffee, and kola nuts) of a forested region mainly inhabited by the Dan people. Pop. (1975) town, 19,608.

Easement

2005-03-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

An easement may be created expressly by a written deed of grant conveying to another the right to use for a specific purpose a certain parcel of land. An easement may also be created when one sells his land to another but reserves for himself

Vulcanization

2005-03-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

The process was discovered in 1839 by the U.S. inventor

Ptolemy I Soter

2005-03-07T02:13:00.000-08:00

Ptolemy was the son of the nobleman Lagus, a native of the Macedonian district of Eordaea whose family was undistinguished until Ptolemy's time, and of Arsinoe, who was related to the Macedonian Argead dynasty. He was probably educated as a page at the royal court of Macedonia, where he became closely associated with Alexander. He was exiled in 337, along with other companions

Space

2005-03-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Space is treated in a number of articles. For a philosophical consideration of the subject, see metaphysics. For a discussion of the relativity of space and time, see relativity. For a description of space as the region of the universe beyond the Earth

Seleucia Pieria

2005-03-06T04:24:00.000-08:00

Greek Seleukeia, in ancient Syria, port of Antioch and frontier fortress on the Cilician border (near modern Samandag, Turkey), 4 miles (6 km) north of the mouth of the Orontes River. With Antioch, Apamea, and Laodicea it formed the Syrian tetrapolis. The town occupied the rocky slopes of Musa Dagi, and its natural fortifications and good harbour soon made it the port for the important city of Antioch.

Clarion River

2005-03-05T23:56:00.000-08:00

River formed at Johnsonburg, Elk county, northwestern Pennsylvania, U.S., by the confluence of East Branch and West Branch Clarion rivers. It flows generally southwest for about 110 miles (177 km), past the towns of Ridgway and Clarion, to join the Allegheny River. The Clarion Dam and Reservoir are on the East Branch near Glen Hazel. The river's name is attributed to surveyors who

Pohnpei

2005-03-05T23:38:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ponape, also called Ascension, high coral-capped volcanic island, eastern Caroline Islands; it and nearby atolls constitute a state in the Federated States of Micronesia, in the western Pacific. Pohnpei island is roughly square and has a land area of 129 square miles (334 square km). It is well watered, hilly (rising to Mount Totolom, 2,593 feet [790 m]), and is surrounded by a barrier reef with many small islets. Its fertile

Spruce Knob

2005-03-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Highest point in West Virginia, U.S., located in the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern part of the state, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Elkins. Spruce Knob lies at an elevation of 4,863 feet (1,482 metres) at the southern end of Spruce Mountain, a ridge extending northeast-southwest along the western edge of Pendleton county. The peak, accessible by road from nearby Judy Gap, is within

Conti, François-louis De Bourbon, Prince De

2005-03-05T13:37:00.000-08:00

Naturally possessed of great ability, he received an excellent education and was distinguished for both the independence of his mind and the popularity of his manners. On this account he was not received with favour by Louis XIV; so in 1683 he assisted the Imperialists in Hungary, and while there he wrote

Brackenridge, Hugh Henry

2005-03-05T01:48:00.000-08:00

At five Brackenridge was taken by his impoverished family from Scotland to a farm in York county in Pennsylvania. After a local minister taught him Latin and Greek,

Reserpine

2005-03-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

Drug derived from the roots of certain species of the tropical plant Rauwolfia. The powdered whole root of the Indian shrub Rauwolfia serpentina historically had been used to treat snakebites, insomnia, hypertension (high blood pressure), and insanity. Reserpine, isolated in 1952, was the first of many Rauwolfia alkaloids found in the crude drug. Because the drug produces

Steeple

2005-03-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

Tall ornamental tower, sometimes a belfry, usually attached to an ecclesiastical or public building. The steeple is usually composed of a series of diminishing stories and is topped by a spire, cupola, or pyramid (qq.v.), although in ordinary usage the term steeple denotes the entire structure.

Monarchy

2005-03-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

The undivided sovereignty or rule of a single person. The term is applied to states in which the supreme authority is vested in a single person, the monarch, who is the permanent head of the state. The word has, however, outlived this original meaning and is now used, when used at all, somewhat loosely of states ruled by hereditary sovereigns, as distinct from republics

Goniophora

2005-03-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

Extinct genus of clams found in Silurian to Devonian rocks (the Silurian Period began 438 million years ago and lasted about 30 million years; it was followed by the Devonian, which lasted some 48 million years). Goniophora is characterized by a distinctive shell that is sharply angular. A prominent ridge extends the length of the shell; from it the shell flanks taper away. Fine

Divination, Inductive divination

2005-03-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

To speculate that inductive divination from natural phenomena must be very old—i.e., that it arose from an early intimate acquaintance with nature—is tempting but inaccurate. In fact, there is little evidence that preliterate peoples viewed nature as a system, and this is particularly true in respect to astral observation. Divination from the skies is concerned

Kodama Gentaro

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

Kodama, born into the samurai class, fought in several battles before enrolling in the Osaka Heigakuryo (military training school). He was commissioned in 1881, and, as bureau chief of the General Staff, he upgraded and modernized the army military system. While serving as president

Jackson, Jesse

2005-03-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

Marshall Frady, Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson (1996); Lucius J. Barker and Ronald W. Walters (eds.), Jesse Jackson's 1984 Presidential Campaign (1989).