AcidCushion

Gadifer De La Salle

2005-04-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Gadifer won renown in the French campaigns against England during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). While on a crusade against Tunis in 1390, he met Béthencourt, who later pledged his lands to finance their expedition to the Canary Islands. In 1402 they occupied Lanzarote, the northernmost inhabited

Bolívar, Simón

2005-04-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

The territory of Gran Colombia, comprising what is now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, had now been completely recovered from Spain and its new government recognized by the United States. Only Peru remained in the hands of the Spaniards. It was the Peruvian problem that brought Bolívar and the Argentinian revolutionary José de San Martín together. San Martín had

Cytokine

2005-04-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

Any of a group of small, short-lived proteins that are released by one cell to regulate the function of another cell, thereby serving as intercellular chemical messengers. Cytokines effect changes in cellular behaviour that are important in a number of physiological processes, including reproduction, growth and development, and injury repair. However, they are

Alekseyev, Vasily Ivanovich

2005-04-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

Alekseyev was the son of a lumberjack; at age 12 he was felling trees alongside the men and at age 14 was wrestling them on even terms. He enrolled in a forestry institute in 1961 and graduated from Novocherkassk Polytechnical Institute

Facsimile

2005-04-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Most office and home fax machines conform to the Group 3 standard, which was adopted in 1980 in order to ensure the compatibility of digital machines operating through public telephone systems worldwide. As a standard letter-size sheet is fed through a machine, it is scanned repeatedly across its width by a strip of 1,728 photosensors. Each photosensor in turn generates a low

Adams, Maude

2005-03-31T04:09:00.000-08:00

Her mother, whose maiden name she adopted, was leading lady of the Salt Lake City stock company. From Adams' first triumph at the age of five as Little Schneider in Fritz at the San Francisco Theatre, she played child roles. In 1888 she joined

Arequipa

2005-03-29T23:29:00.000-08:00

Capital of Arequipa departamento and región, southern Peru, in the Chili River valley of the Andes Mountains. Arequipa lies at more than 7,550 feet (2,300 metres) above sea level, at the foot of the dormant cone of Misti Volcano, which reaches an elevation of 19,098 feet (5,821 metres). Flanking Misti are Mounts Chachani and Pichupichu. Earthquakes have damaged the city several times, notably

Mures River

2005-03-29T15:28:00.000-08:00

Hungarian Maros, river, rising in the Giurgeu Range in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, east-central Romania. It cuts a gorge between the Caliman and Gurghiu ranges, crosses the Transylvanian Basin southwestward, and then cuts across the Western Carpathians between the Poiana Ruscai and the Bihoru mountains and emerges onto the Tisa Plain to join the Tisa (Tisza) River at Szeged, Hung.,

Sanlúcar De Barrameda

2005-03-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

Port city, Cadiz provincia, in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Andalusia, southwestern Spain. It lies on the south bank of the Guadalquivir River estuary, north of Cádiz city. Built on the site of Luciferi-Fani, a Roman settlement, the town was taken from the Moors in 1256 and given to the soldier Alonso Pérez de Guzmán the Good, who was its first lord and builder

Richet, Charles

2005-03-27T02:28:00.000-08:00

In full Charles-Robert Richet French physiologist who won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of and coining of the term anaphylaxis, the life-threatening allergic reaction he observed in a sensitized animal upon second exposure to an antigen. This research provided the first evidence that an immune response could cause damage as well as

Rupa-loka

2005-03-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Also called Rupa-dhatu, in Buddhist thought, the world, or realm, of form. See arupa-loka.

Kandersteg

2005-03-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

Village, Bern canton, southwest-central Switzerland. It lies in the upper valley of the Kander River, in the Bernese Oberland, southwest of Interlaken. It is a mountaineering and winter-sports resort; the Blümlisalphorn (12,018 feet [3,663 m]), Balmhorn (12,168 feet [3,709 m]), and Doldenhorn (11,952 feet [3,643 m]) are nearby. As the highest station on the north side of the Bern-Lotschberg-Simplon railway, it has direct

Drabble, Margaret

2005-03-24T04:21:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a judge and sister of novelist A.S. Byatt, Margaret Drabble began writing after leaving Cambridge University. The central characters of her

Benckendorff, Aleksandr Khristoforovich, Count

2005-03-24T00:44:00.000-08:00

Of Baltic-German origin, Benckendorff joined the Russian army and was one of the officers who assassinated Emperor Paul I in 1801. Between 1806 and 1815 he fought in numerous military campaigns,

Peregrinus Proteus

2005-03-22T18:26:00.000-08:00

Suspected of murdering his father, Peregrinus was forced to flee to Palestine, but his influence in the Christian community there led to his arrest. On his release he left Palestine and became estranged from the Christians.

Vacuum Technology

2005-03-21T01:48:00.000-08:00

Capacities >are available from 1/2 to 1,000 cubic feet per minute, operating from atmospheric pressure down to as low as 2 ´ 10-2 torr for single-stage pumps and less than 5 ´ 10-3 torr for two-stage pumps. The pumps develop their full speed from atmosphere to about one torr, the speed then decreasing to zero at their ultimate pressures. One device of this type, useful for pumping both liquids

Telecommunications Network, Ethernet

2005-03-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

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

Lane, Harriet

2005-03-19T04:35:00.000-08:00

She died of cancer in 1903 and was buried in the Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.

Earth, The magnetopause current

2005-03-19T00:17:00.000-08:00

Farther still from the Earth, at about 10 Re along the Earth–Sun line, is yet another current system that affects the surface field and profoundly changes the nature of the Earth's field in space. This system is called the magnetopause current, or Chapman-Ferraro current system after the English physicist Sydney Chapman and his student V.C.A. Ferraro who first suggested

Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon

2005-03-18T05:12:00.000-08:00

In his doctoral thesis at the University of Leiden (1875), Lorentz refined the electromagnetic theory of James

Hawkins, Coleman

2005-03-18T03:07:00.000-08:00

At age four Hawkins began to study the piano, at seven

Celtic Literature, Prose

2005-03-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

The early Irish epic was a prose narrative that usually contained non-narrative poetic passages, often in dialogue form. The resemblance between this and the type of epic found in early Sanskrit suggests that the tradition went back to Indo-European times. The oldest sagas probably were first written down in the 7th and 8th centuries, from an oral tradition. These were

Nevi'im

2005-03-16T18:44:00.000-08:00

(Hebrew), English The Prophets the second division of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, the other two being the Torah (the Law) and the Ketuvim (the Writings, or the Hagiographa). In the Hebrew canon the Prophets are divided into (1) the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) and (2) the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, or Minor, Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,

Polab

2005-03-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

By the early 9th century the

Chagatai

2005-03-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Tsagadai, Jagatai, or Chaghatai the second son of Genghis Khan who, at his father's death, received Kashgaria (now the southern part of Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China) and most of Transoxania between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (ancient Oxus and Jaxartes rivers) as his vassal kingdom. His capital was at Almarikh near the present Kuldja (I-ning), in western Sinkiang. Chagatai appears to have

Abbey, Edwin Austin

2005-03-14T02:15:00.000-08:00

Yale University Art Gallery, Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911) (1973).

Accounting

2005-03-13T19:26:00.000-08:00

The systematic development and analysis of information about the economic affairs of an organization. This information may be used in a number of ways: by the organization's managers to help them plan and control the organization's operations; by owners and legislative or regulatory bodies to help them appraise the organization's performance and make decisions

Adams, Henry (brooks)

2005-03-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

Adams was the product of Boston's Brahmin class, a cultured elite that traced its lineage to Puritan New England. He was the great-grandson of John Adams and the grandson of John Quincy Adams, both presidents

Acrostic

2005-03-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

The word was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word.

Riboud, Antoine-amédée-paul

2005-03-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

French industrialist (b. Dec. 25, 1918, Lyon, France—d. May 5, 2002, Paris, France), joined a small family-owned glass-making business, Souchon-Neuvesel, in 1942 and through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and hostile takeovers eventually turned it into a global food empire. In 1966 Riboud engineered a merger with another glass manufacturer, Boussois, to form BSN SA. He expanded relentlessly, acquiring

Metabolism, Oxidation of the carbon skeleton

2005-03-09T08:36:00.000-08:00

As indicated in Figure 2, the carbon skeletons of amino acids (i.e., the portion of the molecule remaining after the removal of nitrogen) are fragmented to form only a few end products; all of them are intermediates of either glycolysis or the TCA cycle. The number and complexity of the catabolic steps by which each amino acid arrives at its catabolic end

Madagascar, Plant and animal life

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

Much of the island was once covered with evergreen and deciduous forest, but little now remains except on the eastern escarpment and in scattered pockets in the west. The plateau is particularly denuded and suffers seriously from erosion. The forest has been cut in order to clear rice fields, to obtain fuel and building materials, and to export valuable timber, such

Costa, Isaäc Da

2005-03-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

Although poetry written in Latin by da Costa had previously been published, it was his first Dutch-language poetry, De lof der dichtkunst (1813; “In Praise of Poetry”), that came to the attention of the influential

Trichophyton

2005-03-07T06:35:00.000-08:00

A genus of fungi (division Mycota) that infects the skin, hair, and nails of man and other animals. It is one of several causes of athlete's foot, jockstrap itch, and other ringworm (q.v.) infections in man. T. verrucosum causes ringworm in cattle. Although worldwide in distribution, some species apparently are more abundant in some areas than in others. T. schoenleini, for example,

Cairo, Climate

2005-03-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

The typical desert climate contrasts daytime dry heat with cool nights freshened by Nile breezes. Cairo has only two seasons: approximately eight months of summer and four months of winter. In the hottest of the summer months—June, July, and August—the average daily maximum temperature is 95 °F (35 °C), and the average daily minimum is 70 °F (21 °C). The summer temperature has reached as

Sha'ir

2005-03-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

(Arabic: “poet”), in Arabic literature, poet who in pre-Islamic times was a tribal dignitary whose poetic utterances were deemed supernaturally inspired by such spirits as jinn and shaitans. As such, his word was needed to insure the success of certain tribal activities, particularly war, grazing, and the invocation of the gods. In times of intertribal strife, the satire

Harvard University

2005-03-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

Harvard's history

Paradoxes Of Zeno

2005-03-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

Statements made by the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea, a 5th-century-BC disciple of Parmenides, a fellow Eleatic, designed to show that any assertion opposite to the monistic teaching of Parmenides leads to contradiction and absurdity. Parmenides had argued from reason alone that the assertion that only Being is leads to the conclusions that Being (or all that there

Anion

2005-03-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

Atom or group of atoms carrying a negative electric charge. See ion.

Grudziadz

2005-03-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

German Graudenz, city, Torun województwo (province), north-central Poland, on the lower Vistula River. Founded in the 10th century as a Polish stronghold against Prussian attack, Grudziadz in the 1230s came under the rule of the Teutonic Knights, who fortified the town and granted it municipal rights (1291). It was acquired by Poland in the mid-15th century, but after the First Partition of 1772 the town became

Amphibole

2005-03-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

Any of a group of common rock-forming silicate minerals.

Narai

2005-03-02T18:56:00.000-08:00

Narai was a son of King Prasat Thong by a queen who was a daughter of King Song Tham, and he came to the throne after violent palace upheavals had cut short the reigns of his elder brother and his uncle.

Nagual

2005-03-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

The person who is

Biblical Literature, Daniel

2005-03-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

The Book of Daniel presents a collection of popular stories about Daniel, a loyal Jew, and the record of visions granted to him, with the Babylonian Exile of the 6th century BCE as their background. The book, however, was written in a later time of national crisis—when the Jews were suffering severe persecution under Antiochus IV Epiphanes (reigned 175–164/163 BCE), the second Seleucid ruler

Syrtis Major

2005-02-27T23:16:00.000-08:00

Distinctive dark marking on the surface of the planet Mars, centred near 290° W and 10° N, which extends some 1,500 km (930 miles) north from the planet's equator and spans 1,000 km (620 miles) from west to east. It was noticed as early as 1659, for it appears in a drawing of Mars of that date by Christiaan Huygens. It is an extensive regional slope elongated north to south that drops 4 km (2.5 miles) from its western

Ushuaia

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

The site was first settled by Wasti H. Stirling, an English missionary, in 1870. In 1884 an Argentine naval base was established, and in 1893, after the archipelago was partitioned between Argentina and

Pierce, Sarah

2005-02-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

The school Pierce opened in her home in 1792 was so successful that in 1798 a group of Litchfield citizens presented her with a building to house

1850, Compromise Of

2005-02-26T08:52:00.000-08:00

Series of compromise measures passed by the U.S. Congress in an effort to settle several outstanding slavery issues and to avert the threat of dissolution of the Union. The crisis arose from the request of the territory of California (Dec. 3, 1849) to be admitted to the Union with a constitution prohibiting slavery. The problem was complicated by the unresolved question of

Coruña, La

2005-02-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

Also called Corunna , French La Corogne , formerly The Groyne city, capital of La Coruña province, in the autonomous community (region) of Galicia. It lies in extreme northwestern Spain, on Ría de la Coruña, an inlet of the Atlantic. Under the Romans, La Coruña was the port of Brigantium, but its present name is probably derived from Coronium, by which it was known in the Middle Ages. It was held by the Moors during the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries,

Chong Yak-jong

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

Born to a family noted for its scholarly background, Chong was converted to Roman Catholicism by the Chinese priest Chou Wen-mu (James

Kubu

2005-02-23T22:33:00.000-08:00

Contact of the Kubu with their neighbours had traditionally been primarily through “silent trade”; i.e., goods for barter were put where traders could look them over. They, in turn,

Computer Science

2005-02-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

The study of computers, including their design (architecture) and their uses for computations, data processing, and systems control. The field of computer science includes engineering activities such as the design of computers and of the hardware and software that make up computer systems. It also encompasses theoretical, mathematical activities, such as the

Adelaide, Saint

2005-02-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

The daughter of Rudolf II (d. 937), king of Burgundy, and Bertha of Swabia, Adelaide was married (947) to Lothair, who succeeded his father, Hugh of Arles, as king of Italy

Pauli, Wolfgang

2005-02-21T11:27:00.000-08:00

When he was 20, Pauli

Augustus Ii

2005-02-21T05:38:00.000-08:00

The second son of Elector John George III of Saxony, Augustus succeeded his elder brother John George IV as elector in 1694. After

Dacorum

2005-02-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

Borough (district), administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England. The borough, in the northwestern corner of the county, includes part of the range of chalk hills known as the Chilterns, which border the London Basin on the north. Dacorum embraces a number of the outer suburban communities of London, including the new town of Hemel Hempstead, 25 miles (40 km)

Wolfe, James

2005-02-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

The elder son of Lieutenant General Edward Wolfe, he was commissioned in the Royal Marines in 1741 but transferred almost immediately to the 12th Foot. Wolfe was on active service continuously until

Frederick V

2005-02-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

King of Denmark and Norway (1746–66) from the death of his father, Christian VI. The reign of this likable but ineffective king was marked by Danish neutrality in the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and a consequent improvement in the nation's foreign trade; by a narrow escape from war with Russia (1762); and by government-sponsored reforms in farming methods (from

Zone Melting

2005-02-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

Any of a group of techniques used to purify an element or a compound or control its composition by melting a short region (i.e., zone) and causing this liquid zone to travel slowly through a relatively long ingot, or charge, of the solid. As the zone travels, it redistributes impurities along the charge. The final distribution of the impurity depends on its distribution

Møn

2005-02-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

English Moen island, Storstrøm amtskommune (county commune), Denmark. The island has an area of 84 square miles (218 square km) and lies in the Baltic Sea. It is separated from southern Sjælland (Zealand) by the Ulv Strait and from Falster Island by the Grøn Strait. It is primarily flat except on the east coast, where white chalk cliffs covered with beech forests rise above 450 feet (137 m) in places. The

Blois

2005-02-17T02:56:00.000-08:00

Under Robert the Strong (d. 866), duke of the entire region between the Seine and Loire rivers and ancestor of the French royal house of Capet, Blois was an appointive viscounty. About

Price System

2005-02-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

A means of organizing economic activity. It does this primarily by coordinating the decisions of consumers, producers, and owners of productive resources. Millions of economic agents who have no direct communication with each other are led by the price system to supply each other's wants. In a modern economy the price system enables a consumer to buy a product he

Novello, Vincent

2005-02-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

From 1797 to 1822 Novello was organist at the Portuguese embassy chapel, where he directed the first English performances of masses by Joseph Haydn and W.A. Mozart. In 1812 he became pianist and conductor at the Italian Opera, London. From 1840 to 1843 he was organist at the Roman Catholic

Ting, Samuel C.c.

2005-02-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

The son of a Chinese college professor who was studying in the United States when Ting was born, he was raised in mainland China and Taiwan and at the age of 20 immigrated to the United States. He was educated at the University

Wage And Salary

2005-02-13T06:07:00.000-08:00

The bargaining theory of wages holds that wages, hours, and working conditions are determined by the relative bargaining strength of the parties to the agreement. Smith hinted at such a theory when he noted that employers had greater bargaining strength than employees, because it was easier for employers to combine in opposition to employees' demands and also

Zooflagellate

2005-02-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

Any flagellate protozoan that is traditionally of the protozoan class Zoomastigophorea (sometimes called Zooflagellata), although recent classifications of this group have questioned the taxonomic usefulness of the term because some zooflagellates have been found to have photosynthetic capabilities and some phytoflagellates heterotrophic

Usair Group, Inc.

2005-02-11T22:29:00.000-08:00

Beginning service in 1939 as a mail carrier over the mountainous

Palatal

2005-02-11T01:10:00.000-08:00

In phonetics, a consonant sound produced by raising the blade, or front, of the tongue toward or against the hard palate just behind the alveolar ridge (the gums). The German ch sound in ich and the French gn (pronounced ny) in agneau are palatal consonants. English has no purely palatal consonants, except for the y sound (a semivowel) in “you.” (The sh sound in “ship” and the zh sound

Plumbaginales

2005-02-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

The plumbago, or leadwort, order of dicotyledonous flowering plants comprising the family Plumbaginaceae, with 10 genera of herbs and shrubs, found throughout the world but especially in semi-arid salt steppes and seacoasts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The plants are characterized by alternating, simple leaves that often bear glands

Antigone

2005-02-10T15:57:00.000-08:00

In Greek legend, the daughter born of the unwittingly incestuous union of Oedipus (q.v.) and his mother, Jocasta. After her father blinded himself upon discovering that Jocasta was his mother and that, also unwittingly, he had slain his father, Antigone and her sister Ismene served as Oedipus' guides, following him from Thebes into exile until his death near Athens. Returning

Tobogganing

2005-02-09T01:29:00.000-08:00

The runnerless toboggan was originally an American Indian sled made of poles tied together with thongs. The modern version is usually built of thin, straight-grained

Roman Catholicism, History Of, The reign of Leo XIII (18781903)

2005-02-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

Although Leo XIII was no less conservative in his theological inclinations than his predecessor, his positive appreciation of the church's opportunities in modern society gave his pontificate a significantly different cast from that of Pius. On issues of church doctrine and discipline his administration was a strict one. It was during his reign that the Modernist

Jacksonville

2005-02-08T00:20:00.000-08:00

City, Jackson county, southwestern Oregon, U.S. It lies along Jackson Creek, just west of Medford, in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains. It began in 1851–52 as a mining camp with placer gold discoveries along the creek (named for a prospector). By the 1920s mining activities had declined together with the population, and, bypassed by the railroad, in 1927 the city lost to Medford its status

Kymi

2005-02-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

In full Kymen Lääni, Swedish Kymmene Län, lääni (province), southeastern Finland, bounded by the Gulf of Finland (south) and by Russia (east). The province has a land area of 4,145 square miles (10,736 square km) and includes the southern section of the Saimaa lake system, which is drained by the Kymijoki and Vuoksi rivers. Kymijoki valley industries include timber processing and wood products, iron and steel, textile milling,

Jib

2005-02-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

In sailing ships, triangular sail rigged to a stay extending from the foremast, or foretopmast, to the bowsprit or to a spar, the jibboom, that is an extension of the bowsprit. The jib is first known to have been used on one-masted vessels. Its use began to spread about 1600 and extended to larger war vessels about 1700. Jibs proved handy in helping to steer and were much valued—e.g., on

'akko

2005-02-05T07:59:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Acre , or 'Akka city, northwest Israel. It lies along the Mediterranean Sea, at the north end of the Bay of Haifa (formerly Bay of Acre). Its natural harbour was a frequent target for Palestine's many invaders over the centuries. The earliest mention of 'Akko is in an Egyptian text dating from the 19th century BC. The Bible (Judges 1) states that the city did not fall to the Jews under Joshua and his

Stazewski, Henryk

2005-02-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

Educated at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1913–19), Stazewski was a founding member of three Polish artist groups during the 1920s and a member of the Cercle

Trail Of Tears

2005-02-05T03:23:00.000-08:00

A forced migration undertaken by the Cherokee (q.v.) Indians of the eastern United States in 1838–39.

Yuman

2005-02-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Two major divisions of Yuman people are recognized: the river Yumans, who lived along the lower Colorado and

Afghan Hound

2005-02-03T06:45:00.000-08:00

The Afghan hound hunts by sight and, in its native Afghanistan, has been

Austin, Herbert Austin, Baron

2005-02-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Founder and first chairman of the Austin Motor Company, whose Austin Seven model greatly influenced British and European light-car design. An engineer and engineering manager in Australia (1883–90), he became manager and later director of the Wolseley Sheep-Shearing Company in England. In

Siloé, Diego De

2005-02-02T01:59:00.000-08:00

The son of the sculptor Gil

Ninhursag

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

Also spelled Ninhursaga , (Sumerian) Akkadian Belit-ili in Mesopotamian religion, city goddess of Adab and of Kish in the northern herding regions; she was the goddess of the stony, rocky ground, the hursag. In particular, she had the power in the foothills and desert to produce wildlife. Especially prominent among her offspring were the onagers (wild asses) of the western desert. As the sorrowing mother animal she appears

Blacher, Boris

2005-02-01T02:54:00.000-08:00

Of German-Baltic descent, Blacher studied music in Irkutsk (Siberia) and Harbin, China, before going to Berlin in 1922. There he studied and taught before falling out of favour with the Nazis. After World War II he became

Rupert

2005-01-31T22:42:00.000-08:00

A member of the Wittelsbach dynasty, he was chosen king by the German ecclesiastical electors on Aug. 22, 1400, to succeed Wenceslas, who had been deposed the day before by the German princes. After being crowned at Cologne on Jan.

Lenormant, François

2005-01-31T22:31:00.000-08:00

French Assyriologist and numismatist who recognized, from cuneiform inscriptions, a language now known as Akkadian that proved valuable to the understanding of Mesopotamian civilization 3,000 years before the Christian era. He published his first archaeological paper at 14 and went on to become a scholar of wide achievement. He published La Monnaie

Anastatic Printing

2005-01-30T21:46:00.000-08:00

Also called relief etching a technique of printmaking from a plate on which all but the design to be printed is etched away, leaving the design in relief. In zinc etching, the most popular anastatic process, the design is painted on a zinc plate in asphalt varnish and the uncoated portions of the plate are bitten away by a solution. The process is best known as that in which the English poet and artist

Margaret Maultasch

2005-01-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

The daughter of Henry, duke of Carinthia and count of Tirol, Margaret was married to the nine-year-old John Henry

Bull Moose Party

2005-01-28T05:47:00.000-08:00

Formally Progressive Party U.S. dissident political faction that nominated former president Theodore Roosevelt for the presidency in 1912; the formal name and general objectives of the party were revived 12 years later. Opposing the entrenched conservatism of the regular Republican Party, which was controlled by Pres. William Howard Taft, a National Republican Progressive League was organized in 1911 by Sen. Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin. The group became the Progressive Party the following year and ran Theodore Roosevelt for president; it called for revision of the political nominating machinery and an aggressive program of social legislation. The party's popular nickname of Bull Moose was derived from the characteristics of strength and vigour often used by Roosevelt to describe himself. The Bull Moose ticket polled some 25 percent of the popular vote. Thus split, the Republicans lost the election to the Democrats under Woodrow Wilson. The Bull Moose Party evaporated and the Republicans were reunited four years later.

Lippi, Fra Filippo

2005-01-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Florentine painter in the second generation of Renaissance artists. While exhibiting the strong influence of Masaccio (e.g., in “Madonna and Child,” 1437) and Fra Angelico (e.g., in “Coronation of the Virgin,” c. 1445), his work achieves a distinctive clarity of expression. Legend and tradition surround his unconventional life.

League

2005-01-26T11:50:00.000-08:00

Any of several European units of measurement ranging from 2.4 to 4.6 statute miles (3.9 to 7.4 km). In English-speaking countries the land league is generally accepted as 3 statute miles (4.83 km), although varying lengths from 7,500 feet to 15,000 feet (2.29 to 4.57 km) were sometimes employed. An ancient unit derived from the Gauls and introduced into England by the Normans, the league was estimated by the Romans

Cambrian Period

2005-01-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

Earliest time division of the Paleozoic Era, extending from about 540 to 505 million years ago. The Cambrian Period is often divided into the Early Cambrian Epoch (540 to 520 million years ago), the Middle Cambrian Epoch (520 to 512 million years ago), and the Late Cambrian Epoch (512 to 505 million years ago). Rocks formed or deposited during this time are assigned to the Cambrian System, which was named

Radical

2005-01-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

Also called Free Radical, in chemistry, molecule that contains at least one unpaired electron. Most molecules contain even numbers of electrons, and the covalent chemical bonds holding the atoms together within a molecule normally consist of pairs of electrons jointly shared by the atoms linked by the bond. Most radicals may be considered to have arisen by cleavage of normal electron-pair

Tyrwhitt, Thomas

2005-01-24T11:34:00.000-08:00

English scholar especially notable for his work on the medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. In classical and English scholarship alike, Tyrwhitt showed the same qualities of balance, wide knowledge, and critical acumen. (He was the one man able, on linguistic grounds alone, to denounce as a forgery the poems by Thomas Chatterton purporting

Mountain, Andean-type belts

2005-01-23T23:57:00.000-08:00

At some continental margins, oceanic lithosphere is subducted. At some of these sites, the landscape is dominated by volcanoes, such as along the Cascades of western North America or in Japan, but at others, such as along much of the Andes of South America, volcanoes constitute only a small or even negligible part of the relief. At Andean-type margins, the crust is typically

Palauan Language

2005-01-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

Major language of Palau, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is classified as belonging to the eastern branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family of languages. Like Chamorro, which is spoken in the Mariana Islands, it is considered to be of the Indonesian type of languages, with closest relations to the Philippine languages. Palauan, with about 14,000 speakers in the

Shensi, Southern Shensi

2005-01-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

The history of the southern part of the province has been considerably more placid than that of the north. Until the late 17th century the area was very sparsely peopled, and much of it, apart from the Han-chung basin, is still virgin forest. In the period after about 1680 the introduction of corn (maize) and sweet potatoes, followed in the 18th century by the introduction of the Irish

Floral Decoration, 17th century

2005-01-22T01:02:00.000-08:00

The arrangement of plant materials truly became an art and an important decorative device in the 17th century. During this period of worldwide exploration, colonization, and commerce, new plants were introduced into Europe, where an avid interest in horticulture developed. Still-life paintings of the late 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries reveal what a great variety of

Binnig, Gerd

2005-01-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

Binnig graduated from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and received a doctorate from the University of Frankfurt in 1978. He then

Kahn, Albert

2005-01-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Kahn's father, a rabbi, brought his family to the United States in 1881. Kahn had little schooling but was taken on