ReadyHook

Aesthetics, Japan

2005-04-05T04:48:00.000-07:00

The practice of literary commentary and aesthetic discussion was extensively developed in Japan and is exemplified at its most engaging in the great novel Genji monogatari (c. 1000; Tale of Genji), written by Murasaki Shikibu, lady-in-waiting to the Empress. Centuries of commentary on this novel, as well as on the court literature that it inspired, on the no and puppet plays,

Lancaster

2005-04-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

City, seat (1800) of Fairfield county, south-central Ohio, U.S., on the Hocking River, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Columbus. It was founded (1800) by Ebenezer Zane on land granted to him in payment for blazing Zane's Trace, a 266-mile (428-kilometre) wilderness road from Wheeling, W.Va. (then a part of Virginia) to Limestone (now Maysville), Ky. The first settlers came over this road in 1798; many of them were from Lancaster,

Murder, Inc.

2005-04-04T01:37:00.000-07:00

In popular usage, an arm of the American national crime syndicate, founded in the 1930s to threaten, maim, or murder designated victims for a price; the organization lacked an official name. Murder, Inc., was headed by Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and later by Albert Anastasia, and its services were available to any syndicate member anywhere in the country. Most victims of Murder,

Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron

2005-04-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

Byname Lord Byron English Romantic poet and satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. Renowned as the “gloomy egoist” of his autobiographical poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–18) in the 19th century, he is now more generally esteemed for the satiric realism of Don Juan (1819–24).

Macdonald, (james) Ramsay

2005-04-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

In 1885 he

Parachute

2005-04-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

Device that slows the vertical descent of a body falling through the atmosphere or the velocity of a body moving horizontally. The parachute increases the body's surface area, and this increased air resistance slows the body in motion. There is some mention, but no evidence, dating to the 1100s of the Chinese using parachutes for amusement. In the West, however, parachutes

Flores

2005-03-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

Capital, Petén department, northern Guatemala, built on San Andrés island in the southern part of Lake Petén Itzá, only 449 ft (137 m) above sea level. Once capital of the Itzá Indians (Mayas who successfully resisted Spanish attempts to conquer them until 1697), Flores is a major trade centre for the Petén region. Chicle, timber, rubber, sugarcane, and cacao are the principal products

Zangwill, Israel

2005-03-31T06:05:00.000-08:00

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

China

2005-03-31T01:32:00.000-08:00

Chinese culture is remarkable for its duration and diversity. Skeletal remains and stone implements date to the Paleolithic stage of cultural development, from the 29th to the 17th millennium BC. Decorated artifacts, primarily marked pottery vessels, have been found in dozens of Incipient Neolithic and Neolithic sites, dating from

Dependent States

2005-03-29T17:29:00.000-08:00

Puerto Rico's largest bank was fined $21.6 million in January 2003 by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly having allowed millions of dollars in drug money to be laundered because of a failure to report suspicious activities to the authorities. The head of the Cayman Islands' Financial Reporting Unit, Brian Gibbs, resigned

Ufj Holdings, Inc.

2005-03-29T16:33:00.000-08:00

Japanese bank holding company that became one of the world's largest banking institutions through the merger of Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank, and Toyo Trust in 2001. With headquarters in Osaka, UFJ operates banks, issues credit cards, provides venture capital funding, and offers other banking and financial management services.

Tibet, The unification of Tibet

2005-03-29T06:23:00.000-08:00

In 1642 with exemplary devotion, Güüshi enthroned the Dalai Lama as ruler of Tibet, appointing Bsod-nams chos-'phel as minister for administrative affairs and himself taking the title of king and the role of military protector. These three forceful personalities methodically and efficiently consolidated the religious and temporal authority of the Dge-lugs-pa. Lhasa,

Lever, Charles James

2005-03-28T20:59:00.000-08:00

In 1831, after study at Trinity College, Cambridge, he qualified for the practice of medicine. His gambling and extravagance, however, left him short of money despite his income and his inheritance,

Aranyakas

2005-03-27T10:53:00.000-08:00

(Sanskrit: “Books of the Forest”), a later development of the Brahmanas, or expositions of the Vedas, which were composed in India in about 700 BC. The Aranyakas are distinguished from the Brahmanas in that they may contain information on secret rites to be carried out only by certain persons, and more philosophic speculation. Thus they were intended to be studied only by the initiated,

Maré, île

2005-03-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

Formerly Nengone Island, southernmost of the Loyalty Islands, a raised coralline limestone and volcanic group in the southwestern Pacific Ocean that is part of the French overseas territory of New Caledonia. Rising to 300 ft (100 m), Maré is the highest in the group. It is 22 mi (35 km) long and 18 mi wide and has a total area of 248 sq mi (642 sq km). It was annexed by France in 1866 and was Christianized by indigenous teachers from

Aurora

2005-03-26T20:27:00.000-08:00

City, Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties, north-central Colorado, U.S. An eastern suburb of Denver, Aurora was the third most populous city in Colorado at the start of the 21st century and, occupying 280 square miles (725 square km), the state's largest city in area. Founded during the silver boom of 1891 and named Fletcher after its Canadian-born founder, Donald Fletcher, it flourished

Henry I

2005-03-25T14:20:00.000-08:00

Henry was the son of Alfonso VIII of Castile and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Henry II of England, after whom he was named. He was killed, while still a boy, by the fall of a tile from a roof. Sovereignty over Castile was then assumed by Alfonso VIII's cousin, Alfonso IX, king of Leon.

Bradley, Joseph P.

2005-03-25T13:33:00.000-08:00

Associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1870. Bradley was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Electoral Commission of 1877, and his vote elected Rutherford B. Hayes president of the United States. As a justice he emphasized the power of the federal government to regulate commerce. His decisions reflecting this view, rendered during

Faraday

2005-03-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

Unit of electricity, used in the study of electrochemical reactions and equal to the amount of electric charge that liberates one gram equivalent of any ion from an electrolytic solution. It was named in honour of the 19th-century English scientist Michael Faraday and equals 9.6485309 ´ 104 coulombs, or 6.0221367 ´ 1023 electrons (see also Avogadro's law).

Kadoma

2005-03-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

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

Pribilof Islands

2005-03-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

Also called Fur Seal Islands, islands of Alaska, U.S., including St. Paul (35 square miles [91 square km]), St. George (27 square miles), and two islets lying in the Bering Sea, about 300 miles (500 km) west of the mainland and 180 miles north of the Aleutian Islands. The islands were first visited in 1786 by Gavril Pribylov, a Russian sea captain, who discovered their fur seal rookeries. Control of the islands was transferred from Russia

Fiske, Bradley Allen

2005-03-22T08:28:00.000-08:00

Fiske graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1874. As the navigator of the gunboat Petrel, he used one of his inventions, a stadimeter range finder, to communicate the ranges of enemy ships to American gunners

Seto Great Bridge

2005-03-21T05:06:00.000-08:00

Japanese Seto Ohashi, a series of suspension bridges spanning the Inland Sea (Seto-naikai) between the islands of Honshu and Shikoku, Japan. The double-tiered rail and vehicular roadway is a network of six bridges, straddling a chain of five small islands, and extends 5.6 miles (9 km) over water to link the towns of Kojima, on Honshu, and Sakaide, on Shikoku. Its total length is 7.6 miles (12.2 km), and it consists

Yonezawa

2005-03-21T00:29:00.000-08:00

City, Yamagata Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, on the Ou Line (railway). From the Muromachi period (1338–1573) to the Meiji Restoration (1868) it was a castle town of the Uesugi daimyo family (see Uesugi family). The ruling family initiated agrarian reforms by constructing irrigation systems and allowing samurai (warriors) to cultivate the fields and manufacture silk. Industrialization

Athabaska, District Of

2005-03-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

Part of the original Northwest Territories in Canada. The district was created in 1882 and enlarged by an eastward extension in 1895. It was abolished in 1905. Its area comprised the northern parts of present Alberta and Saskatchewan and a small portion of northwestern Manitoba.

Gir Range

2005-03-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

Low mountain range in western Gujarat state, west-central India, on the southern Kathiawar Peninsula. The range is extremely rugged with a steep slope seaward to the south and a gradual slope inland to the north. From it to the north runs a low, narrow, dissected range rising to Gorakhnath (3,665 feet [1,117 m], believed to be an extinct volcano) in the broad mass of the Girnar Hills. The Gir Range

Wagner, Richard

2005-03-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

In 1859 Wagner went to Paris, where, the following year, productions of a revised version of Tannhäuser were fiascoes. But in 1861 an amnesty allowed him to return to Germany; from there he went to Vienna, where he heard Lohengrin for the first time. He remained in Vienna for about a year, then travelled widely as a conductor and awaited a projected production of Tristan. When this

Metacinnabar

2005-03-19T03:46:00.000-08:00

A mercury sulfide mineral that has the same chemical composition as cinnabar (HgS). Typical specimens have been obtained from Italy, Romania, and California. A member of the sphalerite group of sulfide minerals having isometric crystal symmetry, metacinnabar is transformed to cinnabar, a more stable form, upon heating to 400°–550° C (750°–1,020° F). For detailed physical properties, see

Holberg, Ludvig, Friherre (baron) Holberg

2005-03-18T19:05:00.000-08:00

Orphaned as a child, Holberg lived with relatives in Bergen until the city was destroyed by fire in 1702, when he was sent to the University of Copenhagen. Longing

Chandpur

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

River port, south-central Bangladesh, situated at the confluence of the Dakatia and Meghna rivers. It is a major jute-shipping centre, connected by road and rail with Comilla and Noakhali and by river steamer with Calcutta (through the Sundarbans), Goalundo Ghat, and Narayanganj. Industries served by its thermal power station include jute presses, oilseed and plywood mills,

Lipscomb, William Nunn, Jr.

2005-03-17T20:25:00.000-08:00

Lipscomb graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1941 and earned his Ph.D. in 1946 from the California Institute of Technology. He worked as a physical chemist in the Office

Raymond Terrace

2005-03-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

Town, eastern New South Wales, Australia, on the east bank of the Hunter River (near its junction with the Williams), just north of Newcastle. Founded in the 1830s, the town was named after a member of an exploring expedition in 1812 led by Gov. Lachlan Macquarie. An important wool river port in the 1840s, Raymond Terrace was proclaimed a municipality and in 1937 merged into the Shire of Port

Tibet, Resources

2005-03-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

Although Tibet is rich in mineral resources, its economy has remained underdeveloped. Surveys of the Kailas and Ma-fa-mu-ts'o districts in western Tibet conducted in the 1930s and '40s discovered extensive goldfields and large deposits of borax, as well as reserves of radium, iron, titanium, lead, and arsenic. Subsequent investigative teams dispatched in the 1950s by the Academia

New Brunswick

2005-03-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Middlesex county, eastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies on the Raritan River, at the terminus of the old Delaware and Raritan Canal, 21 miles (33 km) south-southwest of Newark. The site, first known as Prigmore's Swamp, was settled in 1681 by John Inian. Called Inian's Ferry (1713), it was renamed about 1724 for George I of England, who was also the duke of Brunswick. George II granted it a town charter

China, Agriculture

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

Neofeudal land-tenure developments of late Sung and Yüan times were arrested with the establishment of the Ming dynasty. Great landed estates were confiscated by the government, fragmented, and rented out; and private slavery was forbidden. In the 15th century, consequently, independent peasant landholders dominated Chinese agriculture. But the Ming rulers were

Raymond Terrace

2005-03-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

A chemical element in the nitrogen family (Group Va of the periodic table), existing in both gray and yellow crystalline forms. Although compounds of arsenic were known as early as the 4th century BC, the element was not identified as such until 1649.

Waterford

2005-03-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

Irish Port Láirge city, port, and county borough of County Waterford, and the major town of southeastern Ireland. It is on the south bank of the River Suir, 4 miles (6 km) above the latter's junction with the Barrow at the head of Waterford Harbour. Waterford became a cathedral city in 1096. The 2nd Earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, captured the place in 1170; and Henry II landed there in 1171. Waterford received

Aceh

2005-03-13T09:41:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Acheh, Achin, or Atjeh, daerah istimewa (special district) of Sumatra, Indonesia, forming the northern extremity of the island. The district's boundary with Sumatera Utara (North Sumatra) propinsi (province) to the east extends north-south from Salahaji on the northeastern coast just north of Aru Bay to a point on the southwestern coast about midway between Singkilbaru and Barus. Aceh, covering

Bureaucracy

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

A professional corps of officials organized in a pyramidal hierarchy and functioning under impersonal, uniform rules and procedures. In the social sciences, the term usually does not carry the pejorative associations of popular usage.

Am

2005-03-12T22:12:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation of Amplitude Modulation, variation of the amplitude of a carrier wave (commonly a radio wave) in accordance with the characteristics of a signal, such as vocal or musical sound composed of audio-frequency waves. See modulation.

Augustine Of Canterbury, Saint

2005-03-12T01:34:00.000-08:00

Probably of aristocratic birth, Augustine was prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew, Rome, when Pope St. Gregory I the Great chose him to lead an unprecedented mission

Likin

2005-03-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

The tax originated in 1853 in the central Chinese province of Kiangsu as a method of financing troops to aid in suppressing the great Taiping Rebellion (1850–64). With the great volume of trade carried on in China

Rabemananjara, Jacques

2005-03-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

Rabemananjara began writing in the early 1940s and published his first volume of verse, Sur les marches du soir (“On the Edges of Evening”), in 1942. A death sentence imposed on him for his alleged participation in the 1947 revolt in Madagascar embittered him, despite a later reprieve, and the poems of Antidote, written

Giovanni Da Pian Del Carpini

2005-03-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

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

Nardi, Jacopo

2005-03-10T05:44:00.000-08:00

Nardi was born to a family that was long hostile to the Medici. He followed a military career until the expulsion of the Medici in 1494; he then served in several posts as a magistrate and became one of the principal republican

Biblical Literature, Coptic versions

2005-03-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

The spread of Christianity among the non-Greek speaking peasant communities of Egypt necessitated the translation of the Scriptures into the native tongue (Coptic). These versions may be considered to be wholly Christian in origin and largely based on the Greek Bible. They also display certain affinities with the Old Latin. Nothing certain is known about the Coptic

Race, Scientific classifications of race

2005-03-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

In publications issued from 1735 to 1759, Linnaeus classified all of the then-known animal forms. He included humans with the primates and established the use of both genus and species terms for identification of all animals. For the human species, he introduced the still-current scientific name Homo sapiens. He listed four major subdivisions of this species, H.

Houbraken, Jacobus

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

The leading portrait engraver in 18th-century Holland. The son of the painter and art writer Arnold Houbraken, he settled in Amsterdam in 1707, and during his lifetime he engraved 400 portraits after paintings by contemporary Dutch painters.

Carleton, Mount

2005-03-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

Highest point (2,680 feet [817 m]) in the Maritime Provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) of Canada, 70 miles (110 km) east of Edmundston, N.B., near Nictau and Nepisiguit lakes. Structurally it is a monadnock, or erosional remnant, rising above the 1,000-foot (305-metre) level of the surrounding highlands, which are an extension of the Appalachian region. The mountain, focus of a

Berdychiv

2005-03-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

Russian Berdichev, or Berdicev, city, Zhytomyr oblast (province), northwestern Ukraine. Founded in 1482 as a Lithuanian fortress, Berdychiv was Polish from 1569 until 1793. The 16th-century fortress walls survive, as does the Roman Catholic church in which the French novelist Honoré de Balzac married Eveline Hanska, a wealthy Russian widow, in 1850 after an 18-year courtship. Before 1917 an important trading centre, Berdychiv

Ashmore And Cartier Islands

2005-03-07T04:49:00.000-08:00

Officially Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands external territory of Australia, in the Indian Ocean. The islands lie 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Western Australia. The Ashmore Islands, comprising Middle, East, and West islands, are coral islets within a reef. Cartier Island, also lying within a reef, is more sandy in composition. Created in 1934, the territory was administratively linked to the Northern Territory of Australia

Olaf I Tryggvason

2005-03-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

Olaf, the great-grandson of the Norwegian king Harald I Fairhair and the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, a chieftain in southeastern Norway, was born soon after his father was killed by the Norwegian ruler Harald II Graycloak. According to legend,

Great Australian Bight

2005-03-06T08:07:00.000-08:00

The head of

John George Iii

2005-03-05T21:55:00.000-08:00

He forsook the vacillating foreign policy of his father, John George II, and in June 1683 joined an alliance against France. Having raised the first standing army in the electorate, he helped to drive the Turks from Vienna in September 1680, leading his men with great gallantry; but, disgusted with the attitude

Black Hills

2005-03-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

Isolated, eroded mountain region in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, U.S., lying largely within the Black Hills National Forest. The hills lie between the Cheyenne and Belle Fourche rivers and rise about 3,000 feet (900 m) above the surrounding plains; they culminate in Harney Peak (7,242 feet [2,207 m]), the highest point in South Dakota. The Black Hills formed as a result of an upwarping

Earth Sciences, Desalinization, tidal power, and minerals from the sea

2005-03-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

For ages a source of food and common salt, the sea is increasingly becoming a source of water, chemicals, and energy. In 1967 Key West, Fla., became the first U.S. city to be supplied solely by water from the sea, drawing its supplies from a plant that produces more than 2,000,000 gallons of refined water daily. Magnesia was extracted from the Mediterranean in the late 19th century; at present

Caucasian Languages, Languages of the group

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

The Kartvelian (South Caucasian or Iberian) language family comprises Georgian, Mingrelian (Megrelian), Laz (or Chan), and Svan. The speakers of these languages constitute the Georgian nation and numbered 4.2 million in the mid-1990s.

Boisrobert, François Le Métel, Seigneur De (lord Of)

2005-03-04T01:07:00.000-08:00

A Norman Huguenot lawyer's son, he became a Catholic in the 1620s and began to take holy orders. His wit and effrontery won him the favour of Cardinal de Richelieu, and he was given a canonry at Rouen

åbenrå

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

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

Gath

2005-03-02T21:40:00.000-08:00

The records of Sargon II of Assyria show that he took it in 712 BC. Gath was evidently a place of importance,

Môle Saint-nicolas

2005-03-02T01:18:00.000-08:00

Village, just northeast of Cap Saint-Nicolas, on the northwestern coast of Haiti. Situated on an inlet of the Windward Passage (a strait between Haiti and Cuba), it was the site where Christopher Columbus first landed (Dec. 6, 1492) on the island, which he named La Isla Española (taken into English as Hispaniola). Saint-Nicolas was named for the saint on whose day it was discovered.

Christian Brother

2005-03-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

The Institute of the Brothers of Christian Schools (F.S.C.) was founded by St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle at Reims, France, in 1684 for the education of boys, especially of poor families; the congregation is now established on all continents. Besides teaching in elementary,

Shilling Shocker

2005-03-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

A novel of crime or violence especially popular in late Victorian England and originally costing one shilling. Shilling shockers were usually characterized by sensational incidents and lurid writing. Compare dime novel; penny dreadful.

Kamerny Theatre

2005-02-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

Russian Kamerny Teatr, small, intimate theatre founded in Moscow in 1914 by the Russian director Aleksandr Tairov (q.v.) to support his experimental synthetic theatre that incorporated all theatrical arts—ballet, opera, music, mime, and drama—as an alternative to the naturalistic presentations of Konstantin Stanislavsky's realism at the Moscow Art Theatre. Instead of staging plays of everyday

Prichard

2005-02-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

City, Mobile county, southwestern Alabama, U.S., a northern industrial suburb of Mobile. It was named for Cleveland Prichard, who purchased a tract of land (1879) on the east side of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad track and developed it into a vegetable-shipping point for markets in the North and East. The city's industries now include shipbuilding and the manufacture of chemicals,

T'ao-yüan

2005-02-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hsien (county), northern Taiwan, with an area of 471 sq mi (1,221 sq km). It is bordered by the hsiens of T'ai-pei (north), I-lan (east), and Hsin-chu (south) and by the Taiwan Strait (west). Ranges of the Hsüeh-shan Shan-mo (mountain range) extend over most of the southeastern part of the county and gradually merge with the fertile alluvial coastal plains to the northwest where paddy rice, sweet potatoes,

Arabia, History Of, The Mamluks

2005-02-27T08:04:00.000-08:00

During the 14th and 15th centuries the Mamluks became the dominant power, maintaining a political agent in the Hejaz and a body of cavalry in Mecca. Eventually they made or unmade the sharifian rulers, though the local Egyptian commander's policy sometimes ran counter to that of Cairo. From the mid-15th century the Mamluks took charge of the customs at Jiddah, Mecca's port, allotting

Hypocoly

2005-02-26T23:33:00.000-08:00

(Hypocolius ampelinus), Middle Eastern songbird believed by some authorities to be related to the waxwing (family Bombycillidae) but often separated as the sole member of the family Hypocoliidae (order Passeriformes). The hypocoly is a slim grayish bird, about 18 cm (7 inches) long, with a black mask and a slight crest. The wings are black, tipped with white. The beak is short,

Lea, River

2005-02-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

River rising north of Luton in the county of Bedfordshire, England. It flows for 46 miles (74 km) east and then south to enter the River Thames near Bromley-by-Bow, in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. In the 17th century an important aqueduct known as the New River was constructed in the valley of the Lea. Much of the valley has seen considerable industrial development, and many

Skaldic Poetry

2005-02-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Skalds were identified by name; their poems

Palestine, History Of, The Crusades

2005-02-26T04:41:00.000-08:00

A year after the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders, the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was established (Christmas Day, 1100). Thereafter, there was no effective check to the expansion of the crusaders' power until the capture of their stronghold at Edessa (modern Urfa, Tur.) by the atabeg of Mosul, 'Imad ad-Din Zangi ibn Aq Sonqur, in 1144. Zangi's anticrusader campaign was carried on after

Wu School

2005-02-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization Wu group of Chinese painters of the Ming dynasty active in the second half of the 15th and first half of the 16th centuries. They were scholar-artists who, in their “literati painting” (wenrenhua), perpetuated the personally expressive styles and attitudes of former artists such as the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty, in contrast to their contemporaries of the Zhe school, who

American Academy Of Arts And Sciences

2005-02-24T00:27:00.000-08:00

Honorary society incorporated on May 4, 1780, in Boston, Mass., U.S., for the purpose of cultivating “every art and science.” Its membership—some 3,300 fellows in the United States and about 550 foreign honorary fellows (all scholars and national leaders)—is divided into four classes: the physical sciences, the biological sciences, the social arts and sciences, and the humanities and fine

Pentameter

2005-02-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Geoffrey Chaucer employed iambic pentameter in The Canterbury Tales as early as the 14th century, although

Terbium

2005-02-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

(Tb), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table. One of the least abundant of the rare earths, terbium, when reduced to metallic form, is silvery white and is slowly oxidized by air at room temperatures and by cold water. The element was discovered in 1843 by Carl Gustaf Mosander in a heavy rare-earth fraction called yttria, but its existence

Mon

2005-02-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Mun , Burmese Talaing people living in the eastern delta region of Myanmar (Burma) and in west-central Thailand, numbering in the late 20th century more than 1.1 million. The Mon have lived in their present area for the last 1,200 years, and it was they who gave Myanmar its writing (Pali) and its religion (Buddhism). The Mon are believed to have spread from western China over the river lowlands from the Irrawaddy

Saint Martin

2005-02-22T01:59:00.000-08:00

The island was named by Christopher Columbus in honour of the saint on whose feast day he sighted it. Valued for its natural lakes

China, Philosophy and religion

2005-02-21T04:59:00.000-08:00

Taoism and Buddhism by Ming times had declined into ill-organized popular religions, and what organization they had was regulated by the state. State espousal of Chu Hsi thought, and state repression of noted early Ming litterateurs, such as the poet Kao Ch'i and the thinker Fang Hsiao-ju, made for widespread philosophical conformity during the 15th century. This was

La Fontaine, Jean De

2005-02-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

Biographical and critical studies include Marie-Odile Sweetser, La Fontaine (1987); Agnes Ethel Mackay, La Fontaine and His Friends: A Biography (1972); John C. Lapp, The Esthetics of Negligence: La Fontaine's Contes (1971); and Richard Danner, Patterns of Irony in the Fables of La Fontaine (1985).

Dabrowska, Maria

2005-02-20T01:34:00.000-08:00

Zbigniew Folejewski, Maria Dabrowska (1967), is a highly recommended English-language study.

Andorra La Vella

2005-02-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Andorra la Vella long remained relatively isolated from the outside world. Its modernization began in the 1930s with the construction of carriage roads, and its population

Stein, Charlotte Von

2005-02-19T04:52:00.000-08:00

German writer and an intimate friend of and important influence on Goethe; she was the inspiration for the female figures Iphigenie in Iphigenie auf Tauris and Natalie in Wilhelm Meister. She remained for Goethe an unattainable feminine ideal and should not be confused with the warm and simple Lotte, heroine

Mitchell, Wesley C.

2005-02-18T23:12:00.000-08:00

Mitchell was educated at the University of Chicago, where he came under the influence of Thorstein Veblen and John Dewey. He taught at numerous universities, including the University of Chicago (1900–02), the University of California (1902–12), Columbia University

Papain

2005-02-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

Enzyme present in the milky juice of the papaya that catalyzes the breakdown of proteins by hydrolysis (addition of a water molecule). Papain is used in biochemical research involving the analysis of proteins, in preparations of various remedies for indigestion, in tenderizing meat, and in enzyme-action cleansing agents for soft contact lenses. A related enzyme

Andorra La Vella

2005-02-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

Chemical element, one of the alkaline-earth metals of main Group IIa of the periodic table. It is the most abundant metallic element in the human body and the fifth most abundant element in the Earth's crust.

Siamang

2005-02-16T01:05:00.000-08:00

(Hylobates syndactylus) arboreal ape of the gibbon family (Hylobatidae), found in the forests of Sumatra and Malaya. The siamang resembles other gibbons but is more robust. The siamang is also distinguished by the webbing between its second and third toes and by a dilatable hairless air sac in its throat. The air sac is used in producing a resonant,

Flegel, Eduard Robert

2005-02-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

In 1879 Flegel travelled about 525 miles (845 kilometres) up the Benue River and in 1880 went by way of the Niger to Sokoto, in northwestern Nigeria, where he obtained permission from the Sultan for an expedition to the Adamawa Plateau. In

Allman Brothers Band, The

2005-02-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

American rock band whose bluesy, jam-oriented sound helped spark the Southern rock movement of the 1970s and set the stage for several generations of roots-oriented improvisational rock bands. The members were Duane Allman (in full Howard Duane Allman; b. Nov. 20, 1946, Nashville, Tenn., U.S.—d. Oct. 29, 1971, Macon, Ga.), Gregg Allman (in full Gregory Lenoir Allman; b. Dec. 8, 1947, Nashville), Berry Oakley (in full

Maha Maya

2005-02-15T03:06:00.000-08:00

According to Buddhist legend, Maha Maya dreamed that a white elephant with six tusks entered her right side, which was interpreted to mean that she had conceived a child who would become either a world ruler or a buddha. After 10 lunar months, feeling that the time of birth was near, she went to the Lumbini

Macaulay, Dame (emilie) Rose

2005-02-14T19:57:00.000-08:00

Daughter of a university instructor, she grew up in an intellectually stimulating and liberal-minded home environment. She first attracted attention as a social satirist with a series of novels, Potterism (1920), Dangerous Ages (1921), Told by

Aqa Mirak

2005-02-14T16:54:00.000-08:00

A descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and a native of Esfahan, he worked mostly in Tabriz, the capital of the Safavid empire. He knew the Persian painter Behzad, who was director of the royal library and its manager of manuscript illustration. Aqa Mirak, as one of the senior

Ob-ugric Languages

2005-02-14T05:47:00.000-08:00

Division of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, comprising the Mansi (Vogul) and Khanty (Ostyak) languages; they are most closely related to Hungarian, with which they make up the Ugric branch of Finno-Ugric. The Ob-Ugric languages are spoken in the region of the Ob and Irtysh rivers in central Russia. They had no written tradition or literary language

Tarhun

2005-02-13T15:23:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Taru, Tarhu, Tarhunt, Tarhunna, or Tarhuis, ancient Anatolian weather god. His name appears in Hittite and Assyrian records (c. 1400–612 BC) and later as an element in Hellenistic personal names, primarily from Cilicia. Tarhunt was the Luwian form and Tarhun (Tarhunna) probably the Hittite, from the common root tarh-, “to conquer.” The weather god was one of the supreme deities of the Hittite pantheon and was regarded as the embodiment

Sayf Ad-dawlah

2005-02-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

Sayf ad-Dawlah began his career as lord of the city of Wasit in Iraq and became involved in the struggles of the 'Abbasid caliph (the titular leader of the

Orange

2005-02-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

The town has grown up around the Roman monuments for which it is famous. The semicircular theatre, probably built during the reign of the first Roman emperor, Augustus (27 BC–AD 14), is the best preserved of its kind. The tiered

Bowerman, Bill

2005-02-12T03:54:00.000-08:00

American coach, inventor, and entrepreneur who while serving (1949–72) as coach of the track team at the University of Oregon led teams to four National Collegiate Athletic Association titles (1962, 1964, 1965, and 1970) and coached 24 NCAA individual champions; in his quest to give his runners an edge, Bowerman experimented with creating a lighter outsole and fashioned the modern-day “waffle” running

House

2005-02-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

In astrology, 1 of the 12 sectors, or divisions, of the celestial sphere. See horoscope.

Cambridge

2005-02-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1686) of Dorchester county, eastern Maryland, U.S., on the Choptank River's south bank near Chesapeake Bay's eastern shore. Bisected by Cambridge Creek (a natural harbour), it was founded in 1684 as a plantation port and named in 1686 for the English university town. For more than two centuries it handled small coastwise traffic, but the addition of deepwater facilities and the

Ijo

2005-02-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

West of the main Niger outlets each group occupies a cluster of villages linked by loose ties of cooperation, mainly against outsiders. Its members claim descent from a common

Shahdol

2005-02-09T16:52:00.000-08:00

The surrounding