FixedPotato

Ramses Ii

2005-04-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

One measure of Egypt's prosperity is the amount of temple building the kings could afford to carry out, and on that basis the reign of Ramses II is the most notable in Egyptian history, even making allowance for its great length. It was that, combined with his prowess in war as depicted in the temples, that led the Egyptologists of the 19th century to dub him “the Great,” and that,

Dhyani-buddha

2005-04-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

Scholars in recent years have pointed out that the term Dhyani-Buddha does not appear in the original texts, but the nomenclature continues

Gagern, Maximilian (joseph Ludwig) Freiherr Von (baron Of)

2005-04-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

Gagern, like his two prominent brothers, a nationalist

Hooker, Isabella Beecher

2005-04-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

Isabella Beecher was a daughter of the Reverend Lyman Beecher and a half sister of Henry Ward Beecher, Catharine Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was educated mainly in schools founded by Catharine. In 1841 she married John Hooker,

Zuni

2005-04-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Zuñi, North American Indian pueblo in west-central New Mexico, on the Arizona border (see Pueblo Indians). The Zuni speak a language related to Penutian. Their origin and early history are unknown; their mythology pictures their ancestors as emerging from underground and wandering to their present location. When they were first encountered by whites, the Spaniards in

Beals, Jessie Tarbox

2005-04-02T05:21:00.000-08:00

Jessie Tarbox moved to Williamsburg, Massachusetts, at age 18 to make her living as a schoolteacher. After nearly 10 years of teaching, she quit and devoted herself to photography, which she had been exploring in

Plurality System

2005-04-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Advantages of the plurality system are

Paasche Index

2005-04-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

The index is a ratio that compares the total purchase cost of a specified bundle of current-period commodities (commodities valued at current

Edinburgh Review, The, Or The Critical Journal

2005-03-31T01:48:00.000-08:00

Scottish magazine that was published from 1802 to 1929, and which contributed to the development of the modern periodical and to modern standards of literary criticism. The Edinburgh Review was founded by Francis Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, and Henry Brougham as a quarterly publication, with Jeffrey as its first and longtime editor. It was intended as an outlet for liberal views

Sabha

2005-03-30T22:36:00.000-08:00

The sabha differs from the panchayat (caste or subcaste council) in that its scope is much larger; rather than

Priesthood

2005-03-29T18:25:00.000-08:00

The Vedic, Brahmanic, and Upanishadic conceptions of priesthood and the predominance of the Brahman caste in Hinduism are discussed in Arthur Berriedale Keith, The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, 2 vol. (1925, reprinted 1989); S. Radhakrishnan, The Hindu View of Life (1927, reissued 1980), and Eastern Religions and Western Thought, 2nd ed. (1940, reissued 1991); J.H. Hutton, Caste in India, 2nd ed. (1951); and R.C. Zaehner, Hinduism (1962, reissued 1977), with a full bibliography. C.J. Fuller, Servants of the Goddess: The Priests of a South Indian Temple (1984), analyzes the complex interrelationships between the priests of the Minaksi Temple in Madurai and the economic, political, and social structure of contemporary India. V. Bouillier and G. Toffin (eds.), Priesthood, Power, and Authority in the Himalayas (1989), in English and French, is a collection of ethnographic papers concerning the role of the priesthood in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and two tribal religions, the Tharu of Dang and the cult of Kham Magar. The sublimation of priesthood in Buddhism in India, China, and Japan is treated in Paul Dahlke, Buddhism and Its Place in the Mental Life of Mankind (1927); and Edward Conze, Buddhism: Its Essence and Development (1951, reissued 1975). D. Howard Smith, Chinese Religions (1968), introduces religious thought and sacerdotal practice in China. Religious Studies in Japan (1959), a collection of papers from the ninth International Congress for the History of Religions, is a very informative composite volume in English by a group of Japanese scholars. Texts concerning the Zen sect include Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Manual of Zen Buddhism, 2nd ed. (1950, reissued 1983); and Alan Watts, The Way of Zen (1957, reprinted 1989); while reference is made to it in R.C. Zaehner, Mysticism, Sacred and Profane (1957, reissued 1980). The priesthood in Shinto is discussed in D.C. Holtom, The National Faith of Japan (1938, reissued 1965).

Fuel Cell

2005-03-29T05:37:00.000-08:00

Any of a class of devices that convert the chemical energy of a fuel directly into electricity by electrochemical reactions. A fuel cell is much more efficient than most other types of energy converters.

Gonfalonier

2005-03-28T20:22:00.000-08:00

In Florence the gonfaloniers of the companies (gonfalonieri di compagnia) originated during the 1250s as commanders of the people's militia. In the 1280s a new office called the gonfalonier of justice (gonfaloniere di giustizia) was instituted to protect the interests of the people against

Biblical Literature, The Pharisees

2005-03-27T19:17:00.000-08:00

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

Ilam

2005-03-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

The surrounding region is a continuation of the valley of Mesopotamia

China, Political history

2005-03-26T04:01:00.000-08:00

Ineptitude on the throne, bureaucratic factionalism at court, rivalries among Mongol generals, and ineffective supervision and coordination of provincial and local administration had gravely weakened the Yüan government by the 1340s. And in 1351 disastrous flooding of the Huang and Huai river basins aroused hundreds of thousands of long-oppressed Chinese peasants

Cohasset

2005-03-25T16:10:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along Massachusetts Bay, about 20 miles (30 km) southeast of Boston. Captain John Smith supposedly landed there in 1614, and the site, settled about 1647, was a part of Hingham until its incorporation in 1770. The name is a contraction of the Algonquian word Quonohassit (Conohasset), probably meaning “rocky promontory” or “high

Welded Tuff

2005-03-25T03:20:00.000-08:00

Rock composed of compacted volcanic ejecta (see tuff).

Gatineau

2005-03-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

City, Outaouais region, southwestern Quebec province, Canada. It is situated on the north bank of the Ottawa River, opposite Ottawa and adjacent to Hull, near the mouth of the Gatineau River. The city derives its name from the river, which itself was named for Nicolas Gatineau, a fur trader who reportedly drowned in its waters about 1683. Gatineau was originally a part of Templeton

Cochin, Charles-nicolas, The Younger

2005-03-24T04:33:00.000-08:00

The son of Charles-Nicolas the Elder (1688–1754), from whom he learned engraving, Cochin rose to national prominence early in his career. As a member of the academy (admitted in 1751) and the keeper of the king's drawings (a post he was given in 1752), he was officially enabled to exert his influence on the artistic taste of

Offal

2005-03-24T00:20:00.000-08:00

Also called Variety Meats, any of various nonmuscular parts of the carcasses of beef and veal, mutton and lamb, and pork, which are either consumed directly as food or used in the production of other foods. Variety meats have been a part of the human diet since the invention of cooking, which rendered the otherwise indigestible animal parts edible. In nutritional terms, several variety meats

Kiev

2005-03-23T06:05:00.000-08:00

Ukrainian Kyyiv , Russian Kiyev chief city and capital of Ukraine and capital of Kiev oblast (province). A port on the Dnieper River and a large railroad junction, it is a city with an ancient and proud history. As the centre of Kievan Rus, the first eastern Slavic state, 1,000 years ago it acquired the title “Mother of Rus Cities.” It was severely damaged during World War II, but by the mid-1950s it was fully restored, and

Soga Emishi

2005-03-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

Under Emishi's father, Soga Umako, the Soga family had begun to dominate the imperial court. Umako had been content to remain unobtrusive in

Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilyevich

2005-03-22T13:19:00.000-08:00

Russian poet, scientist, and grammarian who is often considered the first great Russian linguistic reformer. He also made substantial contributions to the natural sciences, reorganized the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences, established in Moscow the university that today bears

Earth, Magnetic reconnection

2005-03-22T00:44:00.000-08:00

The observed dependence of geomagnetic activity on the orientation of the IMF is explained by most researchers as a consequence of magnetic reconnection. In reconnection, two oppositely directed magnetic fields are brought together by flowing plasmas at an x-type neutral line. Far from the neutral line the magnetic field is frozen in the plasma; however, near

Faraday's Law Of Induction

2005-03-21T04:53:00.000-08:00

The phenomenon called electromagnetic induction was first noticed and investigated by Faraday; the law of induction is its quantitative

Siliguri

2005-03-20T22:26:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Shiliguri, city, northern West Bengal state, northeastern India. It lies just west of the Mahananda River. The terminus of the roads from Kalimpang (Kalimpong) and Sikkim and of road and rail connections with Darjiling (Darjeeling) and Jalpaiguri, Siliguri is the hub for trade among Darjiling, Sikkim, and Tibet. Sawmilling and jute milling are important industries; there are also tea

Fard, Wallace D.

2005-03-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

Fard immigrated to the United States sometime before 1930. In that year, he established in Detroit the Temple of Islam as well as the University of Islam, which was the temple's school, and the Fruit of Islam, a corps of male guards. Fard preached that blacks (who were not

Nadel, S(iegfried) F(rederick)

2005-03-20T02:04:00.000-08:00

Before turning to anthropology Nadel pursued musical interests. He wrote a biography of the Italian composer Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni and a work on musical typology, and he toured with his own opera

Kyaikkami

2005-03-19T07:43:00.000-08:00

Formerly Amherst, resort town, southeastern Myanmar (Burma). It is situated on a peninsula about 30 miles (48 km) south of the town of Moulmein. Originally a settlement of the Mon peoples, modern Kyaikkami was founded by the British during the annexation of Tenasserim and Arakan states after the First Burmese War (1824–26) and was named for William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, then governor-general

India, Other important sites

2005-03-18T14:46:00.000-08:00

A growing number of other sites have been excavated, each important in its own way. On the coast near Las Bela in Baluchistan, materials suggesting a substantial shell-working industry have been found at Balakot. Not far from Mehrgarh, at the head of the Kacchi desert, the small settlement of Naushahro Firoz provides valuable evidence of the actual transformation of

Briçonnet, Guillaume

2005-03-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

Briçonnet was the son of King Charles VIII's counsellor Guillaume Briçonnet (1445–1514), who after his wife's death took holy orders and became bishop of Saint-Malo, archbishop of Reims, archbishop of Narbonne,

Nadel, S(iegfried) F(rederick)

2005-03-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

A rare and slow-moving South American rodent found only in tropical forests of the western Amazon River basin and adjacent foothills of the Andes Mountains from northwestern Venezuela and Colombia to western Bolivia. It has a chunky body and is large for a rodent, weighing up to 15 kg (33 pounds) and measuring up to 79 cm (31.1 inches) in length, not including the thick, furry tail of

Marriner, Neville

2005-03-17T04:51:00.000-08:00

Marriner graduated from the Royal College of Music in London in 1944 and went on to study for five years with René Benedetti at the Paris Conservatory. His early career was as

Areopagus

2005-03-16T20:34:00.000-08:00

The Areopagite Council probably began as the king's advisers. Early in the Archaic period it exercised a general and ill-defined authority until the publication of Draco's Code of Law (c. 621). Membership continued

Magdalena

2005-03-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

Departamento, northern Colombia, occupying the Caribbean lowlands and bounded by the Magdalena River on the west. Much of its area is swamp, floodplain, or high mountains (including the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the northeast). The major economic activity is banana cultivation, especially in the vicinity of Santa Marta (q.v.), the departmental capital, which has

Kuei River

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

Wade-Giles romanization Kuei Chiang , Pinyin Gui Jiang , conventional Kwei Kiang northern tributary of the Hsi River, southern China. The Kuei River rises in the Mao-erh Mountains to the north of Kuei-lin in the northern part of the Kwangsi Chuang Autonomous Region and flows southward to join the Hsi River at Wu-chou on the border of Kwangsi Chuang and Kwangtung province. The level of the river varies from season to season, and its course has many dangerous

Systems Engineering

2005-03-15T00:08:00.000-08:00

Systems engineering is not so much a branch of engineering as it is a technique for applying knowledge from other branches of engineering and disciplines of science in effective combination

Wage And Salary

2005-03-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

The purchasing-power theory of wages involves the relation between wages and employment and the business cycle and is not, therefore, a theory of wage determination. It stresses the importance of spending through consumption and investment as an influence upon the activity of the economy. The theory gained prominence during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when

La Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier De Varennes, Et De

2005-03-13T06:58:00.000-08:00

French-Canadian soldier, fur trader, and explorer whose exploits, little honoured during his lifetime, rank him as one of the greatest explorers of the Canadian West. Moreover, the string of trading posts he and his sons built in the course of their search for an overland route to the “western sea” broke the monopoly

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

2005-03-13T04:00:00.000-08:00

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,

Molecular Beam

2005-03-13T02:26:00.000-08:00

Any stream or ray of molecules moving in the same general direction, usually in a vacuum—i.e., inside an evacuated chamber. In this context the word molecule includes atoms as a special case. Most commonly, the molecules comprising the beam are at a low density; that is, they are far enough apart to move independently of each other. Because of the one-directional motion of

La Gruyère

2005-03-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

German Greyerz, region and southernmost district of Fribourg canton, western Switzerland. La Gruyère lies along the middle reach of La Sarine (Saane) River, on the edge of the Vaudois uplands and the Bernese Oberland (highland), south of Fribourg. The name is derived either from gruyer, a forestry officer, or from the crane (grue), the bird crest of the powerful counts of La Gruyère (923–1555). The principal

Arts, East Asian, Architecture

2005-03-12T02:10:00.000-08:00

While little remains except walls and tombs, much can be learned about Han architecture from historical writings and long descriptive poems, fu. This was an era of great palace buildings. The first Ch'in emperor undertook the building of a vast palace, the A-fang or O-pang, whose main hall was intended to accommodate 10,000 guests in its upper story. He also copied the palaces

Somalia, Somali clans and foreign traders

2005-03-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

Thus, by the latter part of the 19th century the coastal and hinterland traditions had merged, and the centre of pressure had swung from the coast to the interior. In the north the ancient ports of Berbera and Seylac, much reduced in prosperity and importance, were now controlled by Somali nomads, and the position with the old ports of Marka, Baraawe, and Mogadishu was very

Agon

2005-03-10T17:07:00.000-08:00

Debate or contest between two characters in Attic comedy, constituting one of several formal conventions in these highly structured plays. The Old Comedy of Greece, introduced into Dionysian festivals in 487 BC and surviving in the works of Aristophanes, adhered to a rigid structure within which some variation was allowed. The plays begin with a prologos, which outlines

Alonso, Dámaso

2005-03-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

Educated at the University of Madrid, Alonso taught at the Centre of Historical Studies, Madrid (1923–36), and was a professor at the University of Valencia (1933–39) and the University of Madrid (1939–68). He was also a lecturer or visiting professor at universities in

Oaxaca

2005-03-10T05:31:00.000-08:00

Estado (“state”), southern Mexico, bounded south by the Pacific Ocean, west by Guerrero, north by Puebla, northeast by Veracruz, and east by Chiapas. The state's territory, with an area of 36,275 square miles (93,952 square km), includes most of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on its Pacific side. The Sierra Madre del Sur ends at the isthmus, which is low, hot, and arid. The Atlantic lowlands near Veracruz

Abu Qir Bay

2005-03-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

Also called Abukir Bay , or Aboukir Bay semicircular inlet of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Abu Qir Point (southwest) and the mouth of the Rosetta Branch (northeast) of the Nile River delta, in Lower Egypt. The bay was the scene of the Battle of the Nile (1798), in which an English fleet under Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson defeated the Napoleonic fleet. A natural-gas field, developed offshore in the late 1970s, provides

Sestina

2005-03-08T23:32:00.000-08:00

Elaborate verse form employed by medieval Provençal and Italian, and occasional modern, poets. It consists, in its pure medieval form, of six stanzas of blank verse, each of six lines—hence the name. The final words of the first stanza appear in varied order in the other five, the order used by the Provençals being: abcdef, faebdc, cfdabe, ecbfad, deacfb, bdfeca. Following these

Saarland

2005-03-08T21:28:00.000-08:00

A well-developed educational system includes a series of technical high schools and the University of the Saarland at Saarbrücken. Cultural institutions—including the City Theatre, Radio Saarland, and the Modern Gallery of Saarbrücken—draw support from both Germany and France. There are a dozen museums and galleries and a large number of singing, musical, and

Aust-agder

2005-03-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

Fylke (county), southern Norway. With an area of 3,557 square miles (9,212 square km), it extends 120 miles (190 km) northwestward into the mountains from the coastline on the Skagerrak (strait between Norway and Denmark). The landscape is broken and uneven, with the Setes Valley in the west bounded by steep coniferous-forested mountains rising to 3,500 feet (1,070 m); branching valleys in the middle of the

La Chétardie, Jacques-joachim Trotti, Marquis De

2005-03-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

La Chétardie entered French military service at an early age and rose through the ranks, becoming lieutenant (1721), major (1730), and colonel (1734). He performed well and received assignments to Holland and Prussia and in 1739 became ambassador to Russia. In order

Kusf And College Radio

2005-03-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

College radio stations—once considered little more than laboratories for students who had chosen broadcasting as an avocation—came to play an important gatekeeping role in the development of rock music beginning in the 1970s, in the aftermath of free-form FM rock radio and on the eve of the punk revolution. With a bent toward alternative rock, college stations gave

Romilly, Sir Samuel

2005-03-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

English legal reformer whose chief efforts were devoted to lessening the severity of English criminal law. His attacks on the laws authorizing capital punishment for a host of minor felonies and misdemeanours, such as begging by soldiers and sailors without a permit, were partly successful during his lifetime and contributed to reforms

Umuahia

2005-03-06T03:09:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Abia state, southern Nigeria. It lies along the railroad from Port Harcourt to Enugu. It is an agricultural market centre and (since 1916) collecting point on the railway for the crops of the surrounding region: yams, cassava, corn (maize), taro, citrus fruits, and palm oil and kernels. The town has a palm-oil-processing plant and several breweries, and the National

Lewis, John Aaron

2005-03-05T00:17:00.000-08:00

American composer and pianist (b. May 3, 1920, La Grange, Ill.—d. March 29, 2001, New York, N.Y.), brought elegance and charm to jazz while leading the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) to musical and popular success for over four decades. He played piano in a spare, graceful style, and his compositions included sophisticated modern melodies as well as breaks, ostinatos, riffs, and other devices from the

Kusf And College Radio

2005-03-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

In aerial navigation, equipment for measuring distance by converting the time a special electronic pulse takes to travel from an aircraft to a ground station and for an answering pulse to return. The airborne equipment displays the information to the pilot. When used in connection with a radio-range bearing, which indicates direction, a DME reading shows the pilot

Musical Notation, Tablatures

2005-03-04T04:20:00.000-08:00

A tablature notates music as a series of playing positions. Hence a tablature for a plucked stringed instrument guides the player's fingers to the string he must pluck and to the fret at which the string should be stopped. Similarly, a tablature for a wind instrument guides a player's fingers to cover certain holes, and a tablature for percussion directs a player as

China, Archaeology in China

2005-03-04T01:53:00.000-08:00

The practice of archaeology in China has been rooted in modern Chinese history. The intellectual and political reformers of the 1920s challenged the historicity of the legendary inventors of Chinese culture, such as Shen Nung, the divine farmer, and Huang Ti, the Yellow Emperor. At the same time, scientific study of the prehistoric period was being sponsored by Western

Venerable

2005-03-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

Latin Venerabilis, title or respectful form of address, used from very early times in Europe, especially for certain clergy or for laymen of marked spiritual merit. St. Augustine in some epistles cited the term in reference to bishops, and Philip I of France was styled venerabilis and venerandus (“reverential”). The venerable by which Saint Bede is commonly known (“the Venerable Bede,” or “Bede

Rollinia

2005-03-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

Genus of 65 tropical American trees and shrubs belonging to the family Annonaceae (order Magnoliales). Many have edible fruits similar in flavour and appearance to those of the genus Annona. Two species (R. mucosa and R. pulchrinervis), both called biriba by some authorities, are cultivated for their fruit. Most species of Rollinia are spined or segmented, green-skinned,

Arabia, History Of, Kindah

2005-03-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

Kindah was a Bedouin tribal kingdom quite unlike the organized states of Yemen; its kings exercised an influence over a number of associated tribes more by personal prestige than by coercive settled authority. Its area of influence was south central Arabia, from the Yemeni border nearly up to Mecca. The discovery of the tomb of a king of Kindah (datable to perhaps

Biblical Literature, The chronology of Paul

2005-02-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

For the chronology of Paul's ministry, there are also some extra-biblical data: According to Josephus, Herod Agrippa I was made ruler of all Palestine by the emperor Claudius in AD 41 and reigned for three years. His death was thus in AD 44. A famine in Claudius' reign took place when Tiberius Alexander was procurator of Judaea (c. 46–48), and Egyptian papyri suggest (by reference to high wheat

Pierre Shale

2005-02-28T04:02:00.000-08:00

Division of Upper Cretaceous rocks in the United States (the Cretaceous Period lasted from 144 to 66.4 million years ago). Named for exposures studied near old Fort Pierre, S.D., the Pierre Shale occurs in South Dakota, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The Pierre consists of about 600 m (2,000 feet) of dark gray shale, some sandstone, and many layers of bentonite (altered

Tasmania, Transportation

2005-02-28T03:58:00.000-08:00

Given its island setting and dispersed development, transportation, both internal and external, is especially important to Tasmania. The settled areas have a good network of roads with the highest density of roads per square mile of any Australian state. In 1975 control of the state's railways was transferred to the federal government, and in 1978 regular passenger services

Aiken, Howard Hathaway

2005-02-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

Aiken did engineering work while he attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After completing his doctorate at Harvard University in 1939, he remained there for a short period to teach before undertaking war work for the U.S.

Jewel, John

2005-02-26T10:47:00.000-08:00

During the reign of the Protestant king Edward VI (1547–53), Jewel was influenced by the work of the Italian scholar and Reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli to become a leader of the Reformists

Bone China

2005-02-26T10:36:00.000-08:00

Hybrid hard-paste porcelain containing bone ash. The initial development of bone china is attributed to Josiah Spode the Second, who introduced it around 1800. His basic formula of six parts bone ash, four parts china stone, and three and a half parts china clay remains the standard English body. Although hard porcelain is strong, it chips fairly easily and, unless specially

Stabile

2005-02-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

The increasing monumentality of Calder's stabiles contributed significantly

Radar, Antennas

2005-02-24T13:32:00.000-08:00

A widely used form of radar antenna is the parabolic reflector, the principle of which is shown in cross section in Figure 4 (A). A horn antenna or other small antenna is placed at the focus of the parabola to illuminate the parabolic surface of the reflector. After being reflected by this surface, the electromagnetic energy is radiated as a narrow beam. A paraboloid, which

Seshego

2005-02-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

Town, Northern province, South Africa. It lies directly northwest of Pietersburg. Until 1974 Seshego was the capital of the nonindependent black state of Lebowa, which was abolished in 1994. The town's industries produce food, beverages, tobacco, textiles, wearing apparel, leather goods, wood and wood products, fabricated metal products, machinery, and equipment. Many of Seshego's

Mitchell, S. Weir

2005-02-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

After study at the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College (M.D., 1850), Mitchell spent a year in Paris specializing in neurology. As an army surgeon during the American Civil War, he became well known for his “rest cure.” His

Metatheory

2005-02-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

The most notable example of a metatheory was provided by David Hilbert, a German mathematician, who in 1905 set out to construct an elementary proof of the consistency of mathematics. For this purpose he needed a theory that studies

Asante Empire

2005-02-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

In their struggle against the suzerain state of Denkyera and lesser neighbouring

Tallapoosa River

2005-02-21T08:16:00.000-08:00

River rising in the Piedmont area of western Georgia, U.S., west of Atlanta, and flowing southwest in an irregular, steplike course for about 268 mi (431 km), joining the larger Coosa River just north of Montgomery, Ala., to form the Alabama River. Its only large tributary is the Little Tallapoosa, which joins it about midway in its course. All but the lower part of the drainage basin

Sunga Dynasty

2005-02-20T03:23:00.000-08:00

Most of the traditional accounts of Pusyamitra's

Rabéarivelo, Jean-joseph

2005-02-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

Rabéarivelo, a largely self-educated man who earned his living as a proofreader for the Imerina Printing Press, wrote seven volumes of poetry before his tragic death. Presque-Songes

Azerbaijani

2005-02-18T02:52:00.000-08:00

Any member of a Turkic people living chiefly in the Republic of Azerbaijan and in the region of Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran. At the turn of the 21st century there were some 7,500,000 Azerbaijani in the republic and neighbouring areas and more than 15,000,000 in Iran. They are mainly sedentary farmers and herders, although some of those in the republic have found employment in various

Aschaffenburg

2005-02-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

City, Bavaria Land (state), south-central Germany. It lies on the right bank of the canalized Main River near the mouth of the Aschaff River and at the foot of the forested Spessart (mountains), 20 miles (35 km) southeast of Frankfurt. Originally a Roman settlement, it came under the jurisdiction of the electors of Mainz in about 982 and was chartered in 1173. In 1292 a synod was held there, and in

Peter

2005-02-17T05:05:00.000-08:00

Chosen

Peru, Discovery and exploration by Europeans

2005-02-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

Spanish interest in the west coast of South America grew after Vasco Núñez de Balboa discovered the Pacific in 1513, but it was not until 1524 that Francisco Pizarro, aided by another soldier, Diego de Almagro, and a priest, Hernando de Luque, undertook explorations that led to the conquest of Peru. By 1527 they were convinced of the wealth of the Inca empire. Failing to win further cooperation

Joust

2005-02-16T13:12:00.000-08:00

Western European mock battle between two horsemen charging each other with levelled lances, each attempting to unhorse the other. Early medieval tournaments consisted of mêlées, mock battles between two bodies of armed horsemen; later both the mêlée and the joust took place at tournaments, and in the 15th century the joust tended to supersede the mêlée. Jousting

Military Aircraft, The first operational craft

2005-02-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

The existence of a Stealth program, designed to produce aircraft that were effectively immune to radar detection at normal combat ranges, was announced by the U.S. government in 1980. The first aircraft employing this technology, the single-seat Lockheed F-117A ground-attack fighter, became operational in 1983. The second was the Northrop B-2 strategic bomber, which first flew in

Nacka

2005-02-14T10:20:00.000-08:00

Town in the län (county) of Stockholm, southeastern Sweden, on the Södertörn peninsula of the landskap (province) of Södermanland. 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

Chicago Critics

2005-02-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

The group's members, associated from the 1940s with the University of Chicago, often were called “Aristotelian,” or, more accurately, “Neo-Aristotelian,

Hippo

2005-02-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

Hippo, later called Hippo Regius, located near the modern town of Annaba (formerly Bône) in Algeria, was probably first settled by Carthaginians in the 4th century BC. It later became the home of Numidian rulers. Under Roman control it was first made a municipium (a community that exercised partial rights of Roman citizenship)

Biblical Literature, Redaction criticism

2005-02-12T23:45:00.000-08:00

Redaction criticism concentrates on the end product, studying the way in which the final authors or editors used the traditional material that they received and the special purpose that each had in view in incorporating this material into his literary composition. It has led of late to important conclusions about the respective outlooks and aims of Matthew,

Philadelphia Zoological Gardens

2005-02-12T21:28:00.000-08:00

First zoo in the United States, opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1874 with an animal inventory of several hundred native and exotic specimens. It was begun and continues to be operated by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1859. In 1868, three years after the end of the American Civil War, a 42-acre (17-hectare) site was selected in Fairmount Park, an architect was sent

Hooker, Sir William Jackson

2005-02-12T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hooker was the son of a merchant's clerk and descendant of Richard Hooker, noted theologian of the 16th century. A fortuitous discovery in 1805 of

Aschelminth, Critical appraisal

2005-02-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

The true evolutionary relationships of the five aschelminth classes is a problem because it is difficult to reconstruct a possible common ancestor and because there are no relevant fossils. Since it is a fundamental principle of zoology that the classification of animals should be based on their evolutionary history, some zoologists treat each of the five

Acrocyanosis

2005-02-09T02:25:00.000-08:00

Uneven reddish-blue discoloration of the hands caused by spasms in arterioles (small arteries) of the skin. Less commonly the feet are affected. The fingers, or toes, are usually cold and sweat copiously. The condition may be the result of an endocrine disorder or of some anxiety state. It is most common in adolescents and those in the 20s and usually improves with age.

Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot

2005-02-08T02:49:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Cary was related to many of Boston's leading families. She received no formal schooling but acquired a somewhat haphazard education at home. In April 1850 she married the distinguished and recently

Asanga

2005-02-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

Asanga was the eldest of three brothers who were the sons of a Brahman, a court priest at Purusapura, and who all became monks in the Sarvastivada order (which held the doctrine that “all is real”). Dissatisfied with the Hinayana concepts of sunyata (“emptiness

World War I, The Eastern Front, 1916

2005-02-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

In the hope of diverting German strength from the attack at Verdun on the Western Front, the Russians gallantly but prematurely opened an offensive north and south of Lake Naroch (Narocz, east of Vilna) on March 18, 1916, and continued it until March 27, though they won very little ground at great cost and only for a short time. They then reverted to preparations for a major offensive

Cabot, John

2005-02-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

Cabot's voyages are treated specifically in James A. Williamson, The Voyages of the Cabots and the English Discovery of North America (1929, reprinted 1971), and The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery Under Henry VII (1962, reprinted 1986); while David B. Quinn, England and the Discovery of America, 1481–1620 (1973); and Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America, vol. 1 (1971, reissued 1993), place the voyages in the broader historical context.

Monocacy, Battle Of

2005-02-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

(July 9, 1864), American Civil War engagement fought on the banks of the Monocacy River near Frederick, Md., in which Confederate troops under Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early routed Union forces under Major General Lewis Wallace. Although the Union forces were defeated, the delay caused by the battle gave General Ulysses S. Grant time to send reinforcements for the defense

Kama River

2005-02-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

Russian Reka Kama, river in west-central Russia. Rising in the Upper Kama Upland of Udmurtia, it flows north, then east, south, and southwest for 1,122 miles (1,805 km) until it enters the Volga River below Kazan, in the Samara Reservoir. It drains a basin of 202,000 square miles (522,000 square km). The spring maximum flow following the snowmelt accounts for nearly 60 percent of the annual flow; freeze-up lasts from mid-November

Ryerson, (adolphus) Egerton

2005-02-04T13:11:00.000-08:00

After his own local education, Ryerson taught for a time at a nearby school. He took further studies in Hamilton and then entered the ministry as a Methodist circuit-riding preacher and, later,

Canada Balsam

2005-02-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

Canada balsam solidifies to a transparent mass and is an important cement, particularly