SmoothStation

organic bed linen

2006-10-29T13:15:00.000-08:00

Livs range of soft luxurious bed linenis sourced ethically from India and using a fair trade policy. Liv also provide duvet cover set and bath towel set.

Apprenticeship Novel

2005-04-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Biographical novel that concentrates on an individual's youth and his social and moral initiation into adulthood. The class derives from Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–96; Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship). It became a traditional novel form in German literature, where it is called Bildungsroman (“novel of educational formation”). An English example is Dickens'

Peter Iii

2005-04-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

Son of Anna, one of Peter I the Great's daughters, and Charles Frederick, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, the young duke was brought to Russia by his aunt Elizabeth shortly after she became empress of Russia (Dec. 5–6, 1741). Renamed Peter (Pyotr Fyodorovich), he was

Dorsey, Thomas Andrew

2005-04-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

U.S. songwriter, singer, and pianist (b. July 1, 1899, Villa Rica, Ga.--d. Jan. 23, 1993, Chicago, Ill.), as the "father of gospel music," blended elements of soulful blues with the traditional sacred music of his religious upbringing to create a new genre called gospel, which infused an uplifting, foot-stomping sound into black congregations, primarily of Baptist and Holiness churches. Dorsey, the

Frederick Augustus I

2005-04-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

Succeeding his father in 1763 as the elector Frederick Augustus III, he brought order and efficiency to his country's finances and administration. In foreign policy, he was neutralist but

Xerox Corporation

2005-04-01T07:33:00.000-08:00

The company was founded in 1906 as Haloid Company, changed its name to Haloid Xerox Company in 1958, and to Xerox Corporation in 1961. In 1960 Xerox first marketed the 914 xerographic copier; the process, which made photographic copies onto plain, uncoated paper, had been known

Ascot

2005-04-01T02:25:00.000-08:00

Locality, Windsor and Maidenhead unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Berkshire, England, known for its racecourse on Ascot Heath. The Royal Ascot meeting (initiated in 1711 by Queen Anne) lasts four days each June and is traditionally attended by the British sovereign. A major social and fashion event, it has lent its name to the ascot, a type of broad neck

Durán, Roberto

2005-03-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

Durán began his professional career on March 8, 1967, and won the first 32 matches of his career, 26 by knockout, before losing for the first time in a 10-round nontitle decision to Esteban De Jesús on November 17, 1972. Earlier that year, on June 26,

Iron Processing

2005-03-31T02:49:00.000-08:00

Iron (Fe) is a relatively dense metal with a silvery white appearance and distinctive magnetic properties. It constitutes 5 percent by weight of the Earth's crust, and it is the

Yacht

2005-03-29T19:53:00.000-08:00

Early sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The design of large yachts was first greatly affected by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate headed by John C. Stevens and was the boat for which the America's Cup (q.v.) was named

Bregenzerwald

2005-03-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

English Bregenz Forest forested mountain range in Bundesland (federal province) Vorarlberg, western Austria. The range, part of the Allgäuer Alps, is drained by the Bregenzer Ache (stream) and has been partly deforested. Its hilly Vorderwald (foothill area toward Bregenz) supports pasture and dairy farming, while winter-sports centres and climatic health resorts in its Hinterwald (mountainous

Epistle

2005-03-28T06:56:00.000-08:00

In literature there are two basic traditions of verse epistles, one derived from Horace's Epistles and the other from Ovid's Epistulae heroidum (better known as Heroides). The tradition based on Horace addresses moral and philosophical themes and has been the most popular

Pius I, Saint

2005-03-27T03:58:00.000-08:00

Pius was a slave, according to his supposed brother, the apostolic father Hermas. As pope, Pius combatted Gnosticism—a religious movement teaching that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through spiritual truth attained only by revelatory esoteric knowledge—and the Marcionites, followers of a heretical

Olympus, Mount

2005-03-26T22:51:00.000-08:00

Mount Olympus is snowcapped and often has cloud

To-lun

2005-03-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

Historically important as the site of Shang-tu (the Xanadu of Samuel Coleridge's poem “Kubla Khan”), it was founded by Kublai Khan in 1256 and became the summer capital of the Mongol emperors of China, known as the “city of 108 temples.” Excavations have revealed that the site

Ascii

2005-03-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation of American Standard Code For Information Interchange, a standard data-transmission code that is used by smaller and less-powerful computers to represent both textual data (letters, numbers, and punctuation marks) and noninput-device commands (control characters). Like other coding systems, it converts information into standardized digital formats that allow computers to communicate with each other and to efficiently

Space Charge

2005-03-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

Electrical charge distributed through a three-dimensional region. In an electron tube, for example, a negative charge results because electrons that are emitted from the cathode do not travel instantaneously to the plate (anode) but require a finite time for the trip. These electrons form a cloud around the cathode, the cloud being continually depleted by electrons

Lipsius, Justus

2005-03-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

Appointed to the chair of history and philosophy at Jena in 1572, Lipsius later accepted the chair of history and law at the new University of Leiden (1578) and that of history and Latin at Louvain (1592). His first scholarly publication, the Variae lectiones of

Ankhesenamen

2005-03-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

The third daughter of Akhenaton and Nefertiti, the rulers of the Amarna revolution, Ankhesenamen probably was married to her father about the 16th year of his reign. Although the marriage was primarily political, to secure Akhenaton's throne, a daughter was

Gadwall

2005-03-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

(Anas strepera), small, drably coloured duck of the family Anatidae, a popular game bird. Almost circumpolar in distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, the gadwall breeds above latitude 40° and winters between 20–40°. In North America the densest breeding populations occur in the Dakotas and the prairie provinces of Canada; the coast of Louisiana is a primary wintering area.

Water Flea

2005-03-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

Any member of the crustacean order Anomopoda (class Branchiopoda), a large group containing about 450 species distributed worldwide. Most forms are found in freshwater habitats, but a few occur in marine environments. The best known genus is Daphnia, ubiquitous in ponds and streams in Europe and North America. The water flea is microscopic in size, typically

Palencia

2005-03-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

Inland provincia, in the Castile-León comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”), northern Spain. It is bounded by the autonomous community (and province) of Cantabria (north) and by the provinces of Burgos (east), Valladolid (south), and Valladolid and León (west). It was formed in 1833. The north is traversed by the Cantabrian Mountains, rising to 8,268 feet (2,520 m) at Curavacas peak. The remainder

Yüeh-fu

2005-03-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

Pinyin yuefu form of Chinese poetry derived from the folk-ballad tradition. The yüeh-fu takes its name from the Yüeh Fu (“Music Bureau”), created in 120 BC by Emperor Wu-ti for the purpose of collecting songs and their musical scores for ceremonial occasions at court. The music for these songs was later lost, but the words remained, forming a collection of Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) folk poetry that served

Eagle Owl

2005-03-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

(Bubo bubo), bird of the family Strigidae (order Strigiformes), characterized by its large size (often 70 centimetres [about 2.3 feet] long), two tufts of feathers on the head (ear tufts), and large orange eyes. The overall coloration is tawny, mottled with brown, lighter below. The eagle owl roosts and breeds within rocky niches and hollow trees. At twilight it perches on a branch while

Fisherman's Ring

2005-03-19T17:33:00.000-08:00

The pope's signet ring; it shows St. Peter as a fisherman and has the reigning pope's name inscribed around the border. Used since the 13th century as a seal for private letters and since the 15th century for papal briefs, it is one of two papal seals, the other being the leaden bull (bulla). The ring, which each newly elected pope receives, is publicly broken after his death.

Leonowens, Anna Harriette

2005-03-18T22:33:00.000-08:00

At age 15 Anna went to Asia, where she married Maj. Thomas Lewis Leonowens of the Indian Army. After the major died in 1858, she lived in Singapore

Space Exploration

2005-03-18T04:25:00.000-08:00

Germany's ROSAT, carrying an X-ray telescope,

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint

2005-03-17T03:21:00.000-08:00

The biography of Thomas Aquinas is one of extreme simplicity; it chronicles little but some modest travel during a career devoted entirely to university life: at Paris, the Roman Curia, Paris again, and Naples. It would be a mistake, however, to judge that his life was merely the quiet life of a professional teacher untouched by the social and political affairs of his

Peru, Flag Of

2005-03-17T02:57:00.000-08:00

The first national flag of Peru was created in 1820, when José de San Martín arrived with his Army of the Andes from Argentina and Chile. The Peruvian flag he designed combined the colours red and white, said to have been chosen because San Martín saw a flock of flamingos take wing at his arrival. The form of the flag was unusual—a diagonal division forming two white and two

Argus Panoptes

2005-03-17T00:26:00.000-08:00

(Greek: “All Seeing”), figure in Greek legend described variously as the son of Inachus, Agenor, or Arestor or as an aboriginal hero (autochthon). His surname derives from the hundred eyes in his head or all over his body. Argus was appointed by the goddess Hera to watch the cow into which Io (Hera's priestess) had been transformed, but he was slain by Hermes. His eyes were transferred

Arosa

2005-03-16T05:05:00.000-08:00

Alpine village, health resort, and winter sports centre, Graubünden canton, eastern Switzerland, on the Plessur River. The village, at an elevation of 5,689 feet (1,734 m), stretches along a wooded valley holding two small lakes, the Untersee and the Obersee, that are used for fishing, swimming, and boating in the summer. Arosa is noted as a fashionable winter-sports centre, particularly

Aspergillus

2005-03-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

Genus of the Fungi Imperfecti (form-class Deuteromycetes). Those species for which the sexual phase is known are placed in the order Eurotiales. A. niger causes black mold of foodstuffs; A. flavus, A. niger, and A. fumigatus cause aspergillosis in humans. A. oryzae is used to ferment sake, and A. wentii to process soybeans. Three genera of the class Ascomycetes have

Astronomical Map

2005-03-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Any cartographic representation of the stars, galaxies, or surfaces of the planets and the Moon. Modern maps of this kind are based on a coordinate system analagous to geographic latitude and longitude. In most cases, modern maps are compiled from photographic observations made either with Earth-based equipment or with instruments carried aboard

Callahan, Harry Morey

2005-03-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

American photographer (b. Oct. 22, 1912, Detroit, Mich.—d. March 15, 1999, Atlanta, Ga.), experimented with the use of light, line, and space to produce images that portray ordinary scenes and objects in innovative, abstract ways. He felt that photographs had to have more significance than was apparent at first look; he focused on such favourite themes as his wife and daughter, landscapes, and

Atlantic Ocean, The South Atlantic

2005-03-14T03:23:00.000-08:00

The currents of the South Atlantic correspond in many respects to those of the North Atlantic. The southeast trade winds maintain the South Equatorial Current, which flows toward the west where it divides into two branches: one that continues to the Northern Hemisphere and enters the Caribbean—together with a small amount of water from the North Equatorial

Istiwa'iyah, Al-

2005-03-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

Al-Istiwa'iyah is geographically isolated from the rest of The Sudan by the vast swamps of As-Sudd to the north and by intermontane rainforests that cover the southernmost part of the country.

Arabian Desert, Geology

2005-03-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

The Arabian Desert consists of two major regions. The first, the ancient Arabian platform (a segment of the African Shield) is in the west; composed mainly of Precambrian gneiss dated to between 2.6 billion and roughly 543 million years ago, it was assembled roughly 900 to 543 million years ago. The second region, in the east, comprises sedimentary rock layers deposited over the past

Pittacus Of Mytilene

2005-03-12T17:28:00.000-08:00

Statesman and sage who is known as one of the Seven Wise Men of ancient Greece. He collaborated with the brothers of the poet Alcaeus in the overthrow of the tyrant Melanchrus (612/611?) and distinguished himself as a commander in the war against Athens for Sigium, killing the Athenian commander, Phrynon, single-handedly. He was elected aisymnetes (dictator appointed during

Obolus

2005-03-11T18:13:00.000-08:00

Genus of extinct brachiopod, or lamp shell, of the Cambrian Period (from 540 to 505 million years ago). Obolus was a small animal with a spherical shape; one valve, or shell, was larger than the other. Unlike the shells of its relatives, the lingulids, the obolus shells were composed of calcium carbonate. Obolus inhabited shallow marine waters.

Nova, João Da

2005-03-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

Commanding a fleet of four ships, Nova left Portugal on a voyage to India in 1501. His crews included Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America was later named. En route he discovered Ascension Island.

Columbus

2005-03-10T22:33:00.000-08:00

City, Bartholomew county, south-central Indiana, U.S., on the East Fork of White River, 45 miles (72 km) south of Indianapolis. Founded in 1821 as the county seat, it was named Tiptonia for General John Tipton, who had donated land, but a month later it was renamed Columbus. A diversified industrial community surrounded by productive prairie land, it is known for its modern architecture,

Xochimilco

2005-03-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

Yoshiyuki, Junnosuke

2005-03-09T22:41:00.000-08:00

Japanese novelist and short-story writer (b. April 1, 1923, Okayama, Japan--d. July 26, 1994, Tokyo, Japan), explored human sexuality and prostitution as a means of understanding human relationships. His prize-winning works include the short story "Shuu" (1954; "Sudden Shower," 1972), and the novels Anshitsu (1969: The Dark Room, 1975) and Yugure made (1978: "Until Evening"), the latter of which won the Noma Literary Prize. Yoshiyuki,

Cartwright, Alexander Joy

2005-03-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

A surveyor by profession, Cartwright was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, an organization of amateur players in New York City. He was chairman of a club committee that prepared a set of baseball rules, which were adopted in September

Bench

2005-03-09T03:55:00.000-08:00

Long seat that may be freestanding, fixed to the wall, or placed against the wall. Paneled benches were used by the Romans, and they were the most common form of seating in medieval halls at a time when a chair was a rare luxury. Benches were not only used as seats but were normally wide enough to be used for sleeping on or eating from; as the Frankish ecclesiastic and historian

Epistemology, Necessary versus contingent propositions

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

A proposition is said to be necessary if it holds (is true) under all possible circumstances or conditions. “All husbands are married” is such a proposition. There are no possible or conceivable conditions under which this statement would not be true (on the assumption, of course, that the words “husband” and “married” are taken to mean what they ordinarily mean). In contrast,

Switzerland, Science

2005-03-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

Swiss scientists have included Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), who in the 16th century brought chemistry into the field of medicine; the Bernoulli family of Basel, who made significant contributions to mathematics over three generations; the innovative mathematician Leonhard Euler; the naturalist and pioneer Alpine scholar Horace Bénédict

Pacific Ocean, Biological resources

2005-03-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

The Pacific has the most varied complement of plants (i.e., algae) and animals of the world's oceans. The circumglobal mixing of water in the southern and, to a much more limited extent, northern polar reaches of the Pacific permit the intermingling of flora and fauna from other oceanic regions, while temperate and tropical surface waters of the Pacific are more likely

Barangay

2005-03-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

Barangay villages sometimes grew to include 30 to

Black River

2005-03-06T08:27:00.000-08:00

Vietnamese Song Da, Chinese Li-hsien Chiang, one of the chief tributaries of the Red River (Song Hong) in southeastern Asia. Nearly 500 miles (800 km) long, the river rises in central Yunnan province in southwestern China and flows southeastward into northwestern Vietnam on a course parallel to the Red River. Near the city of Hoa Binh, 37 miles (60 km) southwest of Hanoi, the Black River is dammed to form a reservoir that is the largest

Astilbe

2005-03-05T04:47:00.000-08:00

A. chinensis, up to 60 cm (2 feet) in height, has produced several

Japanese Red Army

2005-03-05T03:19:00.000-08:00

In full United Red Army Japanese Rengo Sekigun militant Japanese organization that was formed in 1969 in the merger of two far-left factions. Beginning in 1970, the Red Army undertook several major terrorist operations, including the hijacking of several Japan Air Lines airplanes, a massacre at Tel Aviv's Lod Airport (1972), and the seizure and occupation of embassies in various countries. In 1971–72 the organization underwent severe

Liquid Crystal

2005-03-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Substance that blends the structures and properties of the normally disparate liquid and crystalline solid states. Liquids can flow, for example, while solids cannot, and crystalline solids possess special symmetry properties that liquids lack. Ordinary solids melt into ordinary liquids as the temperature increases—e.g., ice melts into liquid water. Some solids

Itata And Baltimore Incidents

2005-03-04T06:13:00.000-08:00

The civil war was precipitated by a conflict between the Chilean Congress and President José Manuel Balmaceda, in which the navy supported the insurgent Congress and the army backed the president. The U.S. government

Sienkiewicz, Henryk

2005-03-03T21:06:00.000-08:00

Sienkiewicz's family owned a small estate but lost everything and moved to Warsaw, where Sienkiewicz studied literature, history, and philology at Warsaw University. He left the university in 1871 without taking a degree. He had begun to publish critical

Artificial Organ

2005-03-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Any machine, device, or other material that is used to replace the functions of a faulty or missing organ or other part of the human body. Artificial organs include the artificial heart and pacemaker (qq.v.), the use of dialysis (q.v.) to perform kidney functions, and the use of artificial substitutes for missing limbs (see prosthesis).

Steeple

2005-03-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

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

Smith, Adam

2005-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

After two centuries, Adam Smith remains a towering figure in the history of economic thought. Known primarily for a single work, An Inquiry into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), the first comprehensive system of political economy, Smith is more properly

Sundman, Per Olof

2005-03-01T02:25:00.000-08:00

Per Olof Sundman spent much of his life in the northern province of Jämtland and used that isolated area as a locale for his first book, Jägarna (1957; “The Hunters”), a collection of short stories. It is not incidents or human relationships

Gabinius, Aulus

2005-02-27T03:54:00.000-08:00

As tribune in 67 BC Gabinius proposed a law that gave Pompey command of the Mediterranean and all the land within 50 miles (81 km) of its coast as a means of controlling the depredations of pirates. Another Gabinian measure checked the lending of money to foreign ambassadors at Rome. Its

Lewis Glyn Cothi

2005-02-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

Reputedly a native of Carmarthenshire, Lewis was, during the Wars of the Roses, a zealous Lancastrian and partisan of Jasper Tudor, the uncle of Henry VII of England. His awdl (ode) satirizing the men of Chester, his bitterest enemies, is a vigorous composition. (According to tradition

Buddhism, All Souls festival

2005-02-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

The importance of the virtues of filial piety and the reverence of ancestors in China and Japan have established Ullambana, or All Souls Day, as one of the major Buddhist festivals in those countries. In China, worshipers in Buddhist temples make “boats of the law” ( fa-ch'uan) out of paper, some very large, which are then burned in the evening. The purpose of the celebration

Novello, Antonia

2005-02-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Antonia Coello suffered from a painful colon condition from birth until she underwent corrective surgery at age 18. This experience influenced her to train as a physician in order to help minimize suffering in others. After

Paulownia Sun, Order Of The

2005-02-24T14:17:00.000-08:00

The badge, suspended from a green

Teda

2005-02-24T04:21:00.000-08:00

Also called Toda, Todaga, Todga, Tuda , or Tudaga people of the eastern and central Sahara (Chad, Niger, and Libya). Their language, also called Teda (or Tedaga), is closely related to the Kanuri and Zaghawa languages, and it belongs to the Saharan group of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Teda has northern and southern groups, and the term Teda is sometimes used for the northern grouping only, with Daza (Dasa) used especially

Kaffraria

2005-02-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

(from Arabic kafir, “infidel”), the territories along the southeast coast of Africa that were colonized by the Portuguese and British. The term referred more specifically in the 19th century to those lands inhabited by the Xhosa-speaking peoples of the Transkei and Ciskei. Now considered pejorative, the term Kaffir was used in the 19th century as a synonym for Xhosa. In 1847, during

Atum

2005-02-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

Atum's myth merged with that of the great sun god Re, giving rise to the deity Re-Atum. When distinguished from Re, Atum was the creator's original form, living inside the Nun, the primordial waters of chaos. At creation he emerged to engender

Acre

2005-02-21T10:18:00.000-08:00

Unit of land measurement in the British Imperial and United States Customary systems, equal to 43,560 square feet, or 160 square rods. One acre is equivalent to 0.4047 hectares (4,047 square metres). Derived from Middle English aker (from Old English aecer) and akin to Latin ager (“field”), the acre had one origin in the typical area that could be plowed in one day with a yoke of oxen pulling a wooden

German Literature, Aestheticism

2005-02-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

In the final decades of the 19th century the literary scene was divided between naturalism and its opposites, variously collected under terms such as Neoromanticism, Impressionism, Jugendstil, and Decadence. Aestheticism—the belief that the work of art need have no moral or political use beyond its existence as a beautiful object—may prove to be the most appropriate

Kuei-yang

2005-02-21T00:14:00.000-08:00

Originally

Soka

2005-02-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

City, Saitama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Ayase River, north of Tokyo. During the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) Soka was a post station, noted for its leather and dyes. The Tobu Line (railway) arrived in 1899. Because of its proximity to Tokyo and available water and land, the city developed as an extension of the Keihin Industrial Zone after World War II. Major products are pulp, leather,

Earth, Radar altimetry of the ocean surface

2005-02-18T00:52:00.000-08:00

As noted above, the geoid over the oceans coincides with mean sea level provided that the dynamic effects of winds, tides, and currents are removed. The surface of the sea acts as a reflector for radar waves, and a satellite equipped with a radar altimeter can be used to sound from the satellite's instantaneous position to the sea. The accuracy with which the sea surface

Monarch

2005-02-17T00:22:00.000-08:00

In all monarchines

Azaïs, Pierre-hyacinthe

2005-02-16T15:21:00.000-08:00

Philosopher whose optimism was rooted in the idea that human experience is imbued with a natural and harmonious balance between joy and sadness and that it is in this balance that meaning can be discovered. He advocated the idea in the work that first brought him fame, Des compensations dans les destinées humaines, 3 vol. (1809). In a following work,

Powers, Delegation Of

2005-02-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

In law, the transfer of authority by one person or group to another person or group. For example, the U.S. Congress may create government agencies to which it delegates authority to promulgate and enforce regulations pursuant to law. More specifically, in U.S. constitutional law, delegation of powers refers to the different powers granted respectively to each of three

Jacksonville

2005-02-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

City, Morgan county, west-central Illinois, U.S. Laid out in 1825 as the county seat and named in honour of Andrew Jackson, it soon acquired a distinctive educational, institutional, and religious character, which it largely retains. Illinois College (founded there in 1829 and affiliated with the United Church of Christ) was the first in the state to graduate a college class. Other

Zaporizhzhya

2005-02-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

Russian Zaporozhye, also spelled Zaporozhe, or Zaporozje, oblast (province), southeastern Ukraine. It encompasses the northwestern shore of the Sea of Azov and stretches inland across the coastal plain, the Azov Upland, and the Dnieper Plain to the Dnieper River to include a very small part of that river's right-bank area. The entire oblast lies within the steppe zone, although much of the natural grass cover has been plowed

Cellini's Halo

2005-02-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

This phenomenon is generally attributed to reflection of incident sunlight

Adapa

2005-02-13T23:33:00.000-08:00

In Mesopotamian mythology, legendary sage and citizen of the Sumerian city of Eridu, the ruins of which are in southern Iraq. Endowed with vast intelligence by Ea (Sumerian: Enki), the god of wisdom, Adapa became the hero of the Sumerian version of the myth of the fall of man. The myth relates that Adapa, in spite of his possession of all wisdom, was not given immortality. One

Juvarra, Filippo

2005-02-13T04:19:00.000-08:00

Juvarra studied in Rome (1703–14) under the architect Carlo Fontana and was commissioned to design scenes for Cardinal Ottoboni's theatre in the Cancelleria Palace. He was also asked to do stage designs for the queen of Poland, Maria

Sarian, Martiros (sergeevich)

2005-02-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

Sarian received training in painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1897–1904), where among his teachers were the noted realist artists Konstantin Korovin and Valentin Serov. Soon Sarian was exhibiting his

Ashcroft, Dame Peggy

2005-02-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

After graduation from London's Central School of Dramatic Art, Ashcroft made her debut as Margaret in the Birmingham Repertory's production of Dear Brutus (1926). She made her initial London appearance in 1927, but her first important notices were for the role of Naomi in

Hades

2005-02-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

Greek Aïdes (“the Unseen”), also called Pluto, or Pluton (“the Rich”), in Greek religion, son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and brother of the deities Zeus and Poseidon. After Cronus was killed, the kingdom of the underworld fell by lot to Hades. There he ruled with his queen, Persephone, over the infernal powers and over the dead, in what was often called “the House of Hades,” or simply Hades. Though he supervised the trial and punishment

Grand Guignol

2005-02-09T00:17:00.000-08:00

Short plays popular in Parisian cabarets in the 19th century, especially at the Théâtre du Grand Guignol. The plays emphasized violence, horror, and sadism. Although Grand Guignol was introduced into England about 1908, it remained essentially a Parisian theatrical form.

Gregory, Cynthia

2005-02-08T05:52:00.000-08:00

Gregory began taking ballet lessons at the age of five. She later studied with Michel Panaieff, Robert Rossellat, and Carmelita Maracci, and while still a child she appeared in productions of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and the Santa Monica Civic Ballet. In 1961 she joined

East Indiaman

2005-02-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

Large sailing vessel of the type built from the 16th to the 19th century for the trade between Europe and southern Asia. The first were Portuguese and Dutch; English Indiamen appeared late in the 16th century and eventually came to dominate the trade. The ships varied in size from about 400 to 1,500 tons and more; often they were larger than contemporary men-of-war. They were three-masted

R.e.m.

2005-02-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

Regina

2005-02-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

Capital and largest city of Saskatchewan, Canada, on Wascana Creek, in the south-central part of the province. It originated as a hunters' camp and was known as Pile O'Bones for the heaps of bones left there after skinning and cutting buffalo. Captain John Palliser, the explorer, visited the site in 1857 and called it Wascana (derived from its Cree Indian name, Oskana); with the

Malay Language

2005-02-05T07:48:00.000-08:00

Member of the Western, or Indonesian, branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family, spoken as a native language by more than 33,000,000 persons distributed over the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and the numerous smaller islands of the area, and widely used in Malaysia and Indonesia as a second language. Malay shows the closest relationship to most of the

Chancery, Court Of

2005-02-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

In England, the court of equity under the lord high chancellor that began to develop in the 15th century to provide remedies not obtainable in the courts of common law. Today, the court comprises the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice. Courts of chancery or equity are still maintained as separate jurisdictions in certain areas of the commonwealth and in

Asia, Rivers

2005-02-04T00:16:00.000-08:00

Asia is a land of great rivers. The Ob, Irtysh, Yenisey with the Angara, Lena (with the waters of the Aldan and the Vilyuy), Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma rivers all flow into the Arctic Ocean. Among rivers draining into the Pacific Ocean are the Anadyr, Amur (combined with the Sungari and the Ussuri), Huang He, Yangtze (Chang), Xi, Red, Mekong, and Chao Phraya. The Salween, Irrawaddy, Brahmaputra

Sophist

2005-02-03T22:53:00.000-08:00

In addition to their teaching, the Sophists wrote many books, the titles of which are preserved by writers such as Diogenes Laërtius, who probably derived them from library catalogues. It has usually been supposed that the writings themselves hardly survived beyond the period of Plato and Aristotle, but this view requires modification in the light of papyrus finds,

Wu Li

2005-02-03T18:42:00.000-08:00

Wu became a convert to Catholicism and in 1681 went to Macao Island (on the southeast coast of China), where, without family obligations after the deaths of his mother and wife and the marriage of his two daughters, he entered the

Jazirah, Al-

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

Al-Jazirah is the site

Hoysala Dynasty

2005-02-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

Family that ruled from about 1006 to about 1346 in the southern Deccan and for a time in the Cauvery Valley. The first kings came from the hills northwest of Dorasamudra (modern Halebid), which became their capital about 1060. With their hardy, hill-dwelling, Kanarese-speaking followers, they gradually absorbed Gangavadi (Mysore state) and the rich lands beyond the Tungabhadra toward

Suleja

2005-01-31T08:22:00.000-08:00

The emirate's wooded savanna area of about 1,150 square miles (2,980 square km) originally included four small Koro chiefdoms that paid tribute to the Hausa kingdom of Zazzau.

Brummell, Beau

2005-01-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

Brummell's grandfather was a shopkeeper in the parish of St. James, London, who let lodgings to the aristocracy; his father was private secretary to Lord North

Kamerny Theatre

2005-01-30T14:25:00.000-08:00

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

Scandinavian Literature, Swedish literature

2005-01-29T13:08:00.000-08:00

Swedish literature proper began in the late Middle Ages when, after a long period of linguistic change, Old Swedish emerged as a separate language. The foundations of a native literature were established in the 13th century. The oldest extant manuscript in Old Swedish was the Västgötalagan (“Law of West Gotland”), part of a legal code compiled in the 1220s. These legal documents

Mahi River

2005-01-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

Stream in western India, rising in the western Vindhya Range, just south of Sardarpur, and flowing northward through Madhya Pradesh state. Turning northwest, it enters Rajasthan state and then turns southwest to flow through Gujarat state and enter the sea by a wide estuary past Cambay after about a 360-mile (580-kilometre) course. The silt brought down by the Mahi has contributed