FrequentBird

Amsterdam

2005-04-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

City, Montgomery county, eastern New York, U.S. It lies along the Mohawk River, 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Schenectady. Settled by Albert Veeder in 1783, it was known as Veedersburg until it was renamed for Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1804. Its location on the Mohawk Trail, the completion of the Erie Canal (1825; now part of the New York State Canal System), and the arrival of the railroad (1836) stimulated

Anthropometry

2005-04-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

The systematic collection and correlation of measurements of the human body. Now one of the principal techniques of physical anthropology, the discipline originated in the 19th century, when early studies of human biological and cultural evolution stimulated an interest in the systematic description of populations both living and extinct. In the latter part

East Cambridgeshire

2005-03-31T00:09:00.000-08:00

Prior to the draining of the Fens

Han-chung

2005-03-29T06:04:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Hanzhong city in southern Shensi Province (sheng), China. It is a county-level municipality (shih) and the administrative centre of Han-chung Prefecture (ti-ch'ü). Han-chung is situated in a long, narrow, and fertile basin along the Han Shui (river), between the Tsinling Shan (mountains) and Mi-ts'ang Shan. To the north one of the few routes across the Tsinling Shan joins it to Pao-chi in Shensi,

Balas Ruby

2005-03-28T06:46:00.000-08:00

Variety of the gemstone ruby spinel (q.v.).

Jackson Hole National Monument

2005-03-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

Fertile mountain valley and wildlife reserve mostly in Grand Teton National Park (q.v.), northwestern Wyoming, U.S.

Stedelijk Museum

2005-03-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

The museum maintains fine collections of drawings, prints, applied arts, photographs, and

Paulo Afonso

2005-03-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

City, northeastern Bahia estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil, on the São Francisco River, at the site of the Paulo Afonso Falls. Made the seat of a municipality in 1958, Paulo Afonso is the transportation and commercial centre for its agricultural hinterland. It is accessible by highway from Salvador, the state capital, about 310 miles (500 km) south, and from neighbouring communities

Jacquard Loom

2005-03-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

The Jacquard system was developed in 1804–05 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard (q.v.) of France, but it soon spread elsewhere.

Bothnia, Gulf Of

2005-03-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

Swedish Bottniska Viken, Finnish Pohjan Lahti, northern arm of the Baltic Sea, between Sweden (west) and Finland (east). Covering an area of about 45,200 square miles (117,000 square km), the gulf extends for 450 miles (725 km) from north to south but only 50 to 150 miles (80 to 240 km) from east to west; it is nearly closed off by the Åland (Ahvenanmaa) Islands (south). Its maximum depth is 965 feet (295 m) in the west-central portion; its average depth is only about 200 feet (60 m). Because

Distress Signal

2005-03-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

A method by which a ship at sea can summon assistance. Distress signals are fixed by custom and by internationally agreed-on rules of the road at sea. The most important are: (1) visual signals, such as a flame, a red flare, an orange smoke signal, or a square flag displayed with a ball below; (2) sound signals, such as a gun or rocket fired at regular intervals, or a continuous sounding

Aethra

2005-03-16T18:35:00.000-08:00

Later she guarded Helen after she had been stolen from Sparta by Theseus; in retribution

Port Dickson

2005-03-15T15:36:00.000-08:00

Town, south-central West Malaysia (Malaya), on the Strait of Malacca. The port, now in decline, was used extensively during the late 19th century to export the tin mined in the foothills of the state. Now chiefly a seaside resort with a fishing village, it is connected by rail with the inland entrepôt of Seremban, 17 miles (27 km) northeast. Oil refineries are concentrated along the

Habsburg, House Of

2005-03-14T17:53:00.000-08:00

There have been several good studies of economic development during the Habsburg reign. David F. Good, The Economic Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 1750–1914 (1984), is a solid survey. More advanced students may examine John Komlos, The Habsburg Monarchy as a Customs Union: Economic Development in Austria-Hungary in the Nineteenth Century (1983). Also worthy of inspection is John Komlos (ed.), Economic Development in the Habsburg Monarchy in the Nineteenth Century: Essays (1983). International relations and Habsburg foreign policy are the subjects of H.G. Koenigsberger, The Habsburgs and Europe, 1516–1660 (1971); F.R. Bridge, The Habsburg Monarchy Among the Great Powers, 1815–1918 (1990); and Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War (1991).

Gatling, Richard Jordan

2005-03-14T04:17:00.000-08:00

Gatling's career as an inventor began when he assisted his father in the construction and perfecting of machines for sowing cotton seeds and for thinning cotton plants. In 1839 he perfected a practical

Painting, Western, The 17th century

2005-03-12T16:26:00.000-08:00

English painting during the 17th century had been dominated by a series of foreign-born practitioners, mostly portraitists (e.g., Rubens and Van Dyck), even before the Civil War. Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller continued this trend after the Restoration. The vast majority of the painting executed by native artists remained thoroughly provincial. Lely began his

Veneto

2005-03-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

Also called Venezia Euganea regione, northern and northeastern Italy, comprising the provincie of Venezia, Padova, Rovigo, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, and Belluno. It is bounded by Trentino-Alto Adige (north), Emilia-Romagna (south), Lombardia (west), Austria (northeast), and Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Adriatic Sea (east). The northern limit of Veneto is marked by a mountainous area, including the Dolomites,

Levitation

2005-03-11T17:41:00.000-08:00

Rising of a human body off the ground, in apparent defiance of the law of gravity. The term designates such alleged occurrences in the lives of saints and of spiritualist mediums, generally during a séance; levitation of furniture and other objects during a séance has also been reported. Levitation of witches and other figures of folklore is called transvection

Kramer, Dame Leonie Judith

2005-03-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Kramer studied at the University of Melbourne and at the University of Oxford and thereafter taught on Australian literature at various universities, serving as professor at the University of Sydney from 1968. She wrote several authoritative works on the Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson

Dieudonné, Jean

2005-03-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

Dieudonné was educated in Paris, receiving both his bachelor's degree (1927) and his doctorate (1931) from the École Normale Supérieure. He was a founding member of the Nicolas Bourbaki (q.v.) group in the mid-1930s. After

Arnoldson, Klas Pontus

2005-03-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Arnoldson became a railway clerk and rose to stationmaster (1871–81) but then left the railway to devote himself entirely to politics. In 1881 he was elected to the Riksdag, the Swedish

Aldrovandi, Ulisse

2005-03-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

After studying mathematics, Latin, law, and philosophy, Aldrovandi went to Padua in about 1545 to continue his studies. There he began to study medicine, the field in which he eventually earned a degree in 1553. On his return

Aha Of Shabha

2005-03-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

Aha's She'eltot (“Questions,” or “Theses”), published in Venice in 1546, was an attempt to codify and explicate materials contained in the Babylonian Talmud. Written in Aramaic and unique in its organization, the text connects

Colchis

2005-03-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

Ancient region at the eastern end of the Black Sea south of the Caucasus, in the western part of modern Georgia. It consisted of the valley of the Phasis (modern Riuni) River. In Greek mythology Colchis was the home of Medea and the destination of the Argonauts, a land of fabulous wealth and the domain of sorcery. Historically, Colchis was colonized by Milesian Greeks to

Yiddish Language

2005-03-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

The earliest

Bruce (of Melbourne), Stanley Melbourne Bruce, Viscount

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

Bruce studied at the University of Cambridge and then practiced law in England. After serving in the British army during World War I, he entered the Australian Parliament in

Saldanha Bay

2005-03-02T04:05:00.000-08:00

Afrikaans Saldanhabaai, deep, essentially landlocked harbour of the Atlantic Ocean, situated on the southwest coast of South Africa. Named after the early 16th-century Portuguese navigator António de Saldanha, the bay is both larger and safer than Table Bay, which is located 65 miles (105 km) farther south-southeast. Saldanha Bay's former abundance of seals, fish, and guano deposits was long contested

Pai-ch'eng

2005-03-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

Pai-ch'eng was first established as a county seat, called Ching-an, in 1904; it remained a place of

Hysteresis

2005-02-27T20:29:00.000-08:00

Lagging of the magnetization of a ferromagnetic material, such as iron, behind variations of the magnetizing field. When ferromagnetic materials are placed within a coil of wire carrying an electric current, the magnetizing field, or magnetic field strength H, caused by the current forces some or all of the atomic magnets in the material to align with the field. The

Jharia

2005-02-27T03:55:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Jherria city and coalfield in southern Bihar state, eastern India. The coalfield lies in the Damodar Valley, covers about 110 square miles (280 square km), and produces bituminous coal suitable for coke. Most of India's coal comes from the Jharia and Raniganj fields in the valley. The coal is worked from open pits, but wages and safety conditions are poor. The miners are usually from local groups

Bottlenose Whale

2005-02-26T00:33:00.000-08:00

Any of four species of beaked whales distinguished by a bulbous forehead that drops sharply to the base of the beak. All inhabit deep offshore waters and eat squid, fish, and various bottom-dwelling animals. Bottlenose whales are capable of long, deep dives; biologists recorded the dive of one northern bottlenose (Hyperoodon ampullatus) to almost

Endoderm

2005-02-24T06:07:00.000-08:00

The innermost of the three germ layers, or masses of cells (lying within ectoderm and mesoderm), which appears early in the development of an animal embryo. The endoderm subsequently gives rise to the epithelium (tissue that covers, or lines, a structure) of the pharynx, including the eustachian tube, the tonsils, the thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, and thymus gland;

Neuserre

2005-02-23T13:29:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Nyuserre, sixth king of the 5th dynasty (c. 2465–c. 2325 BC) of Egypt; he is primarily known for his temple to the sun-god Re at Abu Jirab (Abu Gurab) in Lower Egypt. The temple plan, like that built by Userkaf (the first king of the 5th dynasty), consisted of a valley temple, causeway, gate, and temple court, which contained an obelisk (the symbol of Re) and an alabaster altar. The sun-temple reliefs revealed an exceptionally

Visigothic Art

2005-02-23T02:40:00.000-08:00

Artistic style produced in southern France and Spain under the Visigoths, who ruled the region between the 5th and the 8th century AD. The style is largely the result of local Roman traditions combined with Byzantine influences. The effect of Germanic metalworking techniques is also seen in the decorative arts, but the ornamentation of these pieces, most notably a collection

Chiang-tzu

2005-02-21T04:39:00.000-08:00

Also called Chi-yang-tse , Pinyin Jiangzu , or Jiyangze , Tibetan Gyangzê town in the southern part of the Tibetan autonomous ch'ü (region), China. It is situated on the Nien-ch'u River some 45 miles (70 km) southeast of Jih-k'a-tse and about halfway between Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and the border town of Ya-tung between the frontiers with India and the Himalayan state of Bhutan. Chiang-tzu is an important route centre for traffic from Lhasa to India, Bhutan,

Heredia, José Maria De

2005-02-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

The son of a wealthy Spanish coffee plantation owner and a French mother, Heredia was educated at Senlis, near Paris. He claimed France as “the country of my mind and heart”; and, although he went home after finishing his schooling, he quickly returned to Paris and studied at the

Esdraelon, Plain Of

2005-02-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

The plain, roughly triangular in shape, is oriented northwest-southeast with the apex at

Eridu

2005-02-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

Ancient Sumerian city south of modern Ur (Tall al-Muqayyar), Iraq. Eridu was revered as the oldest city in Sumer according to the king lists, and its patron god was Enki (Ea), “lord of the sweet waters that flow under the earth.” The site, located at a mound called Abu Shahrayn, was excavated principally between 1946 and 1949 by the Iraq Antiquities Department; it proved to be one of the most

Ijsselmeer

2005-02-17T22:06:00.000-08:00

The dam that formed the IJsselmeer lies about 25 feet (8 m) above sea level and is 19 miles (31 km) long,

Yale, Frankie

2005-02-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

Yale graduated from youth gangs to bootlegging and rum-running

Shafi'i, Abu 'abd Allah (muhammad Ibn Idris) Ash-

2005-02-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

Little is known for certain of his life. He belonged to the tribe of the Quraysh, the tribe of the

Olympic Games

2005-02-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Athletic festival that originated in ancient Greece and was revived in the late 19th century. Before the 1970s the Games were officially limited to amateurs, but since that time many events have been opened to professional athletes. The earliest Olympic Games comprised many of the sports now included in the Summer Games. In 1924 the Winter Games were sanctioned for winter

Earth Sciences, Knowledge of landforms and of landsea relations

2005-02-14T00:40:00.000-08:00

The early Chinese writers were not outdone by the Romans

Polar Motion

2005-02-12T03:24:00.000-08:00

Polar motion is primarily made up of two discrete periodic

Svay Rieng

2005-02-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

The surrounding region is important for its agriculture; rice, corn (maize), potatoes, bananas, mulberry, and cotton are grown. Pop. (1987 est.) town, 14,000.

Frescobaldi, Girolamo

2005-02-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

Italian organist and one of the first great masters of organ composition. He strongly influenced the German Baroque school through the work of his pupils, J.J. Froberger and Franz Tunder. Frescobaldi began his public career as organist at the church of Sta. Maria in Trastevere in Rome, in 1607. He travelled to the Netherlands the

Eisenstein, Ferdinand Gotthold Max

2005-02-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Eisenstein's family converted to Protestantism from Judaism just before his birth. He was the oldest of six children and the only one of them to survive childhood meningitis. Eisenstein entered the Friedrich Wilhelm University (now the Humboldt

Carnatic Wars

2005-02-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Karnatic Wars series of military contests during the 18th century between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore for control of the coastal strip of eastern India from Nellore (north of Madras) southward (the Tamil country). The name Carnatic properly refers to the region occupied by the Kannada-speaking people, which roughly corresponds to the modern Indian state of Karnataka

Rio Grande Do Norte

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

The coastal strip

Palladio, Andrea

2005-02-07T17:28:00.000-08:00

Palladio was born in the northern Italian region of the Veneto, where, as a youth, he was apprenticed to a sculptor in Padua until, at the age of 16, he moved to nearby Vicenza and enrolled in the guild of the bricklayers and stonemasons. He was employed as a mason in workshops specializing in monuments and decorative sculpture in the style of the Mannerist architect Michele

Gatton

2005-02-06T04:10:00.000-08:00

Town and shire, southern Queensland, Australia. It lies along Lockyer Creek, about 58 miles (93 km) west of Brisbane. Probably named after Gattonside near Roxburgh in the Borders region, Scotland, it was gazetted as the site for a village in 1855 and by 1858 was a place of call for travelers between Brisbane and the Darling Downs. Gatton is now the service centre for a mixed-farming district

Robert I

2005-02-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Also called Robert the Frisian , French Robert le Frison , Dutch Robrecht de Fries count of Flanders (1071–93), second son of Count Baldwin V. In 1063 he married Gertrude and became guardian of her son, who had inherited Frisia east of the Scheldt River. Upon this marriage, Robert's father also invested him with Imperial Flanders, including the islands of Frisia west of the Scheldt. He thus in his own right and that of his stepson became ruler

Rack And Pinion

2005-02-04T05:40:00.000-08:00

If the pinion rotates about a fixed axis, the rack will translate; i.e.,

Mays, Willie

2005-02-02T01:26:00.000-08:00

Both Mays's

Caucasian Languages, The Lezgian languages

2005-02-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

This language group includes Lezgi (with 240,000 speakers in Dagestan and about 170,000 in Azerbaijan); Tabasaran (about 90,000); Agul (about 12,000); Rutul (about 15,000); Tsakhur (about 11,000); Archi (fewer than 1,000); Kryz (about 6,000); Budukh (about 2,000); Khinalug (about 1,500); and Udi (about 3,700). The majority of Lezgi languages are spoken in southern Dagestan, but some of them (Kryz, Budukh, Khinalug, Udi) are spoken chiefly in Azerbaijan; and one village

Tarbert

2005-01-31T14:32:00.000-08:00

Village at the head of East Loch Tarbert, an inlet on the west side of of Loch Fyne, Argyll and Bute council area, historic county of Argyllshire, Scotland. Its name means isthmus, and it occupies a narrow neck of land joining the Peninsula of Kintyre to the rest of Argyll. The herring fishery, which was its mainstay, has declined, but Tarbert has developed modestly as a resort

Ram, Jagjivan

2005-01-30T16:12:00.000-08:00

Ram was born into an untouchable family and was among the first of his caste to receive a higher education. He attended Benares Hindu University and Calcutta University (B.Sc., 1931), becoming a member of Mohandas K. Gandhi's Congress Party in 1931. He played

Levanter

2005-01-30T04:25:00.000-08:00

Also spelled levante strong wind of the western Mediterranean Sea and the southern coasts of France and Spain. It is mild, damp, and rainy and is most common in spring and fall. Its name is derived from Levant, the land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and refers to the wind's eastward direction. The levanter reaches its maximum intensities in the Strait of Gibraltar, where it sometimes

Aldington, Richard

2005-01-29T05:08:00.000-08:00

Educated at Dover College and London University, Aldington early attracted attention through his volumes of Imagist verse (see Imagists). In 1913 he married Hilda

Hydrogenation

2005-01-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

Chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen and an element or compound, ordinarily in the presence of a catalyst. The reaction may be one in which hydrogen simply adds to a double or triple bond connecting two atoms in the structure of the molecule or one in which the addition of hydrogen results in dissociation (breaking up) of the molecule (called hydrogenolysis,

Gogunda, Battle Of

2005-01-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

Also called Battle Of Haldighat, battle fought in Rajasthan, northwestern India, between Pratap Singh of Mewar, the senior Rajput chief, and a Mughal army led by Raja Man Singh of Jaipur. It represented an attempt by the Mughal emperor Akbar to subdue the last of the independent chiefs of Rajasthan. Pratap Singh made a stand at the pass of Haldighat, about 12 miles (19 km) from the fortress of Gogunda, and northwest of

Hardee, William J(oseph)

2005-01-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

When Georgia seceded from the Union in

Biblical Literature, The final period of the kingdom of Judah

2005-01-25T05:32:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, the southern kingdom of Judah was to have another century and a half of existence before a similar and even grimmer fate befell it. Hezekiah (reigned c. 715–c. 686), who instituted a religious reform to return worship to a pure Yahwist form, also displayed political independence, joining a coalition of Palestinian states against Assyria. But the coalition was soon

Game Theory

2005-01-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

Branch of applied mathematics fashioned to analyze certain situations in which there is an interplay between parties that may have similar, opposed, or mixed interests. In a typical game, decision-making “players,” who each have their own goals, try to outsmart one another by anticipating each other's decisions; the game is finally resolved as a consequence of the players'

Wagon

2005-01-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

Four-wheeled vehicle designed to be drawn by draft animals and known to have been used as early as the 1st century BC, incorporating such earlier innovations as the spoked wheel and metal wheel rim. Early examples also had such features as pivoted front axles and linchpins to secure the wheels. In its essential form, therefore, the wagon has been in common use for about

Ogden, Peter Skene

2005-01-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

Ogden's parents were American loyalists who had fled to Canada (via England) during the American

Szombathely

2005-01-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

German Steinamanger, town and seat of Vas megye (county), northwestern Hungary. Szombathely is situated on the Gyöngyös River, near the frontier with Austria, south-southeast of Vienna and west of Budapest. The town is the successor to the Roman settlement of Savaria (Sabaria), the capital of Pannonia, founded in AD 43 by Claudius I at the intersection of two Roman roads still extant. There is in the

East Anglia

2005-01-20T21:48:00.000-08:00

The area is low and undulating and almost entirely covered

Amstelveen

2005-01-19T04:40:00.000-08:00

Gemeente (commune), Noordholland provincie, western Netherlands, near the Amstel River. Amstelveen (meaning “peat bog on the Amstel”) was formerly a village in the municipality of Nieuwer-Amstel. A residential suburb of Amsterdam, it is a water-sports centre with some agriculture and light industry. Schiphol international airport is nearby to the west. Pop. (1999 est.) 77,737.

Rachmaninoff, Sergey

2005-01-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

At the time of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Rachmaninoff was a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre. Although more of an observer than a person politically involved in the revolution, he went with his family, in November 1906, to live in Dresden. There he wrote three of his major scores: the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor (1907), the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (1909), and the Piano Concerto No. 3 in D

Amiens, Treaty Of

2005-01-16T03:25:00.000-08:00

(March 27, 1802), an agreement signed at Amiens, Fr., by Britain, France, Spain, and the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands), achieving a peace in Europe for 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars. It ignored some questions that divided Britain and France, such as the fate of the Belgian provinces, Savoy, and Switzerland and the trade relations between Britain and the French-controlled

Rosidae, The order Celastrales

2005-01-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

The Celastrales consists of up to 12 families and a little more than 2,000 species, of which Celastraceae, Hippocrateaceae, Aquifoliaceae, and Icacinaceae comprise the bulk of the order. The members are generally woody plants with simple leaves and regular flowers with fused petals. There is usually a single set of stamens that normally alternate with the petals. The order

Nephron

2005-01-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Functional unit of the kidney, the structure that actually produces urine in the process of removing waste and excess substances from the blood. There are about 1,000,000 nephrons in each human kidney. The most primitive nephrons are found in the kidneys (pronephros; q.v.) of primitive fish, amphibian larvae, and embryos of more advanced vertebrates.

Arctic, Land transport

2005-01-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

Land transport is less well developed. The expense of building a road or railbed is generally prohibitive in an area with such low population and such great distances between centres. In the American north there is only one railway, the Alaska Railroad, which runs from the port of Seward on the south coast to Fairbanks in the interior. There are more roads, chief among

Top Shell

2005-01-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

Any marine snail of the family Trochidae (subclass Prosobranchia, class Gastropoda), characterized by a spiral, conical shell. Although top shells are found from the intertidal zone to the deep open seas, they occur with greatest diversity in the shallow waters along rocky shores from the equator to the high latitudes. Species of the genera Gibbula, Monodonta, and

Writ

2005-01-09T02:21:00.000-08:00

In common law, order issued by a court in the name of a sovereign authority requiring the performance of a specific act. The most common modern writs are those, such as the summons, used to initiate an action. Other writs may be used to enforce the judgment of a court (attachment, delivery) or to require a lower court to furnish certain records (error) or perform a certain act

Saba

2005-01-08T03:50:00.000-08:00

Island of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It lies 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Sint Eustatius, with which it forms the northwestern termination of the inner volcanic arc of the Lesser Antilles. Saba has an area of 5 square miles (13 square km) and is actually the peak of an extinct volcano, Mount Scenery (2,910 feet [887 m]), surrounded by sea cliffs. It is windward with respect to

Yun Shouping

2005-01-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

Yun had an adventure-filled early life. Following the collapse

Hillegom

2005-01-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

Gemeente (commune), Zuid-Holland provincie, western Netherlands, on the Ringvaart, a canal around the Haarlemmermeer polder. With Lisse it is one of the two great commercial centres of Holland's bulb-growing district and is the site of the Treslong Demonstration Garden (1949) and bulb exchange. The annual Bulb Parade held on a Saturday in late April passes through Hillegom.

Literature, Hebrew.

2005-01-06T03:41:00.000-08:00

The quantitative prosperity of Hebrew fiction in 2001 produced mixed results. The few impressive achievements included Gabriela Avigur-Rotem's Hamsin vetziporim meshuga'ot (“Heatwave and Crazy Birds”), Yoel Hoffmann's The Shunra and the Schmetterling (“The Cat and the Butterfly”), Daniella Carmi's Lesha'hrer pil (“To Free an Elephant”), and Reuven Miran's Shalosh sigariot

Metaphysical Poet

2005-01-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

Their work is a blend of emotion and intellectual ingenuity,

Cairo, Development of the city

2005-01-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

Modern urban growth began in the 1830s, but only during Isma'il's reign (1863–79) was the city fundamentally transformed. Influenced by Baron Haussmann's renovation of Paris, Isma'il ordered the construction of a European-style city to the west of the medieval core. French city-planning methods dominated the design of the districts of Al-Azbakiyah (with its large park), 'Abdin, and Isma'iliyah

Pacific Ocean

2005-01-02T15:05:00.000-08:00

The wind and pressure systems of the Pacific conform closely with the so-called planetary system—i.e., the patterns of air pressure and the consequent wind patterns that develop in the atmosphere of the Earth as a result of its rotation (Coriolis force) and the inclination of its axis (ecliptic) toward the Sun. They are, in essence, a three-celled latitudinal arrangement

Ventnor

2005-01-02T00:33:00.000-08:00

Town (“parish”), Isle of Wight, historic county of Hampshire, England. The town lies along the southeastern coast of the Isle of Wight. From a small fishing hamlet it grew in the 19th century into a fashionable resort, noted for its mild climate and long hours of sunshine. The novelist Charles Dickens lived for a time nearby, and the poet Algernon Swinburne is buried in

Adams, Charles Follen

2004-12-31T15:12:00.000-08:00

During the American Civil War he was wounded and taken prisoner. In 1872 he began writing humorous verses for periodicals and newspapers in a Pennsylvania German dialect. Collections of his verse are Leedle Yawcob Strauss, and Other Poems (1877) and

Kireyevsky, Ivan Vasilyevich

2004-12-30T02:15:00.000-08:00

Born into an aristocratic family, Kireyevsky studied metaphysics in Germany in 1830. Upon his return to Russia he founded in 1832 a literary journal called Yevropeyets (“European”), which was banned

Alaska, Flag Of

2004-12-29T11:17:00.000-08:00

The creator

Qatar

2004-12-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

Comparative coverage with the other Persian Gulf states is provided by Helen Chapin Metz (ed.), Persian Gulf States: Country Studies, 3rd ed. (1994); F. Gregory Gause, III, Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States (1994); Rosemarie Said Zahlan, The Making of the Modern Gulf States, rev. and updated ed. (1998); Khaldoun Hasan al-Naqeeb, Society and State in the Gulf and Arab Peninsula: A Different Perspective, trans. from Arabic (1990); and Michael Herb, All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies (1999). Historical overviews are found in Frederick F. Anscombe, The Ottoman Gulf: The Creation of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar (1997); and Rosemarie Said Zahlan, The Creation of Qatar (1979). Sources on social conditions include Klaus Ferdinand, Bedouins of Qatar, trans. from Danish (1993); and Abeer Abu Saud, Qatari Women: Past and Present (1984). Ragaei El Mallakh, Qatar: Energy and Development (1985); and Zuhair Ahmed Nafi, Economic and Social Development in Qatar (1983), examine economic issues. Nathan J. Brown, The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Gulf (1997), is a study of the judicial system. An analysis of historical and contemporary politics is provided by Jill Crystal, Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar, updated ed. (1995).

Ejmiadzin

2004-12-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

Originating in the 7th century BC as the town of Vardkesavan, it was renamed Vagarshapat about AD 140, when the Parthian king Vologases III made it his capital. Upon the conversion of Armenia to Christianity

Bonaparte, (napoléon-eugène-)louis

2004-12-25T06:03:00.000-08:00

He was a delicate boy, but when the Franco-German War of 1870 broke out his mother sent him to the army. After the first defeats he had to flee from France with the Empress and settled in England at Chislehurst, completing his military education at Woolwich. On his

Armenian

2004-12-24T11:01:00.000-08:00

Armenian Hay, plural Hayq or Hayk member of a people with an ancient culture who originally lived in the region known as Armenia, which comprised what is now northeastern Turkey and the Republic of Armenia. Although some remain in Turkey, more than three million Armenians live in the republic; large numbers also live in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and other areas of the Caucasus and the Middle East. Many other

Human Evolution, Ngaloba man

2004-12-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

In 1976 a skull was found in the Ngaloba beds at the Laetoli site in Tanzania. These beds consist of deposits of sandstone and clay stone that are preserved in patches; these patches are made up of redeposited detritus that has been eroded from the underlying Ndolanya and Laetoli beds. In the upper Ngaloba beds, stone tools have been recovered that have been attributed

Alliluyeva, Svetlana

2004-12-21T16:23:00.000-08:00

Alliluyeva was Stalin's only daughter and a product of his second marriage with Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who committed suicide in 1932. Alliluyeva graduated from Moscow University (1949), where she taught Soviet literature and

Agrippa Von Nettesheim, Heinrich Cornelius

2004-12-20T21:06:00.000-08:00

Court secretary to Charles V, physician to Louise of Savoy, exasperating theologian within the Catholic Church, military entrepreneur in Spain and Italy, acknowledged expert on occultism, and philosopher. His tempestuous career also included teaching at Dôle and Pavia universities, appointment as orator and public advocate at Metz

Beja

2004-12-20T00:59:00.000-08:00

Arabic Bujah, nomadic people grouped into tribes and occupying mountain country between the Red Sea and the Nile and 'Atbarah rivers from the latitude of Aswan southeastward to the Eritrean Plateau—that is, from southeastern Egypt through The Sudan and into Eritrea. Numbering about 1,900,000 in the late 20th century, the Beja are descended from peoples who have lived in the area since 4000 BC or

Yamashita Tomoyuki

2004-12-18T21:44:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the Army Academy (1905) and the Army War College (1916), Yamashita was an officer for the Army General Staff Office. He rose rapidly through the ranks of the Imperial Army, eventually becoming the highest-ranking general of its air

Gagliano, Marco Da

2004-12-18T04:18:00.000-08:00

Gagliano worked in Florence (c. 1608–25) as organist to Cosimo II de' Medici. He staged his first opera, Dafne, at Mantua in 1608. Il Medoro, composed with Jacopo Peri (1619), is lost; La Flora was produced in 1628. Gagliano followed the monodic recitative (melodic, half-spoken, half-sung) style of the Florentine

Slaughter, Enos Bradsher

2004-12-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

American baseball player (b. April 27, 1916, Roxboro, N.C.—d. Aug. 12, 2002, Durham, N.C.), had a lifetime .300 batting average and was a hero of the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he played 13 of his 19 major league seasons. He was a hard-hitting outfielder who led the National League in hits in 1942 and in runs batted in 1946; played in 10 All-Star games, and was elected in 1985 to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was most renowned for his

Dachau

2004-12-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

Dachau is situated on a hill, on the summit of which are the castle of the Wittelsbachs and a parish church (1625). The city's picturesque natural setting has long attracted landscape painters.

Gance, Abel

2004-12-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

Working in the cinema from 1909, Gance first gained recognition with his films Mater dolorosa (1917; “Sorrowful Mother,” remade in 1932) and La Dixième Symphonie (1918; “Tenth Symphony”). Influenced by the epic style of the pioneer American