PresentStem

Bridgwater

2005-11-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

Bristol Channel seaport, Sedgemoor district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England. The town, which is located in Sedgemoor district, lies to the east of the Quantock Hills, mainly on the right bank of the River Parrett. The first of several charters dates from 1200, and wine and wool fairs were economically important in medieval times. The Church of St.

Bar Form

2005-10-16T03:40:00.000-07:00

In music, the structural pattern aab as used by the medieval German minnesingers and meistersingers, who were poet-composers of secular monophonic songs (i.e., those having a single line of melody). The modern term Bar form derives from a medieval verse form, the Bar, consisting of three stanzas, each having the form aab. The musical term thus refers to the melody of a single

Catastrophism

2005-07-29T01:05:00.000-07:00

Doctrine that explains the differences in fossil forms encountered in successive stratigraphic levels as being the product of repeated cataclysmic occurrences and repeated new creations. This doctrine generally is associated with the great French naturalist Baron Georges Cuvier (1769–1832). One 20th-century expansion on Cuvier's views, in effect, a neocatastrophic school,

Pacific Railway Acts

2005-07-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

The first Pacific Railway Act (July 1, 1862) authorized the building of the railroad and granted rights of way to the Union Pacific to build westward from Omaha, Neb., and to the Central Pacific to build eastward from Sacramento, Calif.

Sørlandet

2005-07-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

Geographical region, southern Norway. Occupying some 6,368 square miles (16,493 square km), it embraces the fylker (counties) of Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. Its base runs along the southern coast of Norway, and it extends inland to the Bykle Hills. Like most of Norway, Sørlandet has a strip of lowland along its coast that quickly rises into interior mountains and plateaus. These highlands

Arnold, Benedict

2005-07-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

Upon the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington, Massachusetts (April 1775), Arnold volunteered for service and participated with

Caucasian Languages

2005-07-06T02:35:00.000-07:00

The North Caucasian languages are divided into two groups: Abkhazo-Adyghian, or the Northwest Caucasian, languages, and Nakho-Dagestanian, or the Northeast Caucasian, languages.

Haemophilus

2005-06-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Hemophilus, genus of very small rod-shaped bacteria of uncertain affiliation. All species of Haemophilus are strict parasites occurring in the respiratory tracts of warm-blooded animals, including humans, and in certain cold-blooded animals. All Haemophilus are gram-negative, aerobic or facultative anaerobic and nonmotile and require a growth factor that is found in blood.

Sara

2005-06-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Cluster of peoples living on the fringe of the southern Sudan, especially in the northwestern regions of the Central African Republic and the south-central area surrounding Sarh, south of Lake Chad in Chad. They include the Gula, Kara, Kreish, Nduka, Ngama, and Sara proper. The Sara peoples all speak Central Sudanic languages of the Nilo-Saharan language family, and their

Smith, Joseph, Iii

2005-06-03T04:55:00.000-07:00

Smith was a boy of 11 when his father was murdered by a mob, and he did not go to Utah with Brigham Young's group but remained in Nauvoo, Ill., with his mother and a group of followers

Kenya, Drainage

2005-05-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

The major features of the drainage pattern of Kenya were created by the ancient crustal deformation of a great oval dome that arose in the west-central part of the country and created the Central Rift. This dome produced a primeval watershed from which rivers once drained eastward to the Indian Ocean and westward to the Congo system and the Atlantic Ocean. Still

Qatif, Al-

2005-05-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Katif, town and oasis, northeastern Saudi Arabia. It lies along the Persian Gulf, over Al-Qatif petroleum field. Since the development of the oil fields in the late 1940s, Al-Qatif has lost its status as an important port to Ad-Dammam. In addition to several oil wells, Al-Qatif has oil-gas separator plants, pipelines, and large residential quarters for workers. A major irrigation project (completed

Floral Decoration

2005-05-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Since the earliest days of civilization, humans have used floral decorations, composed of living or dried cut-plant materials or artificial facsimiles, to embellish their environment and persons. Flowers have played

Muktafi, Al-

2005-05-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

The son of al-Mu'tadid, al-Muktafi ascended to the throne in 902 with somewhat more popular support than his predecessors, thanks to his liberal rule and abolition of dungeons in Baghdad. He immediately faced battle with the Qarmatians, a schismatic

Economic Affairs, International.

2005-03-15T00:17:00.000-08:00

In late 1997 banks and other financial institutions in Southeast and East Asia fell like dominoes--one after another--as currencies and share prices collapsed in many of the much-admired "tiger" economies across the region. Beginning in July with the crash of Thailand's baht, the crisis spread to the Indonesian rupiah, Malaysian ringgit, and Philippine peso, all of which

Chandler, William Eaton

2005-03-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1854, Chandler began a dual career in law and journalism. In 1863 he was elected to the New Hampshire legislature. He entered national politics when President

Moscow Canal

2005-03-11T03:14:00.000-08:00

Russian �Kanal Moskva,� ship waterway linking Moscow to the Volga River at Ivankovo, north of Moscow. Built between 1932 and 1937, the canal replaced the canalized Moskva River, which can take only small craft, as the main water access to Moscow. The water journey to the important industrial centre of Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky) was shortened by 75 miles (120 km). Along the Moscow Canal's length of 80 miles (128 km)

Toba, Lake

2005-03-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

Indonesian �Danau Toba� lake in the Barisan Mountains, north-central Sumatra, Indonesia. It covers an area of about 440 square miles (1,140 square km), excluding Samosir Island, which occupies a large part of the lake's centre and which is about 30 miles (50 km) long and 10 miles (15 km) wide. The lake drains east through the Asahan River into the Strait of Malacca; along the Asahan River several major hydroelectric projects

Aurochs

2005-03-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Auroch � (species Bos primigenius), extinct wild ox of Europe, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), from which cattle are probably descended. The aurochs survived in central Poland until 1627. The aurochs was black, stood 1.8 m (6 feet) high at the shoulder, and had spreading, forward-curving horns. Some German breeders claim that since 1945 they have re-created this race by crossing Spanish fighting

Nova Friburgo

2005-03-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

Nova Friburgo has textile mills but is best known as a summer mountain resort built in Swiss Alpine style. It can be reached by railroad and highway from Niter�i, southwest, and from Rio de Janeiro, the state capital. Pop. (1991 prelim.) mun., 166,941.

Bread

2005-03-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

Baked food product made of flour or meal that is moistened, kneaded, and sometimes fermented. A major food since prehistoric times, it has been made in various forms using a variety of ingredients and methods throughout the world. The first bread was made in Neolithic times, nearly 12,000 years ago, probably of coarsely crushed grain mixed with water, with the resulting dough

Egypt, Hydroelectric and other power resources

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

The Nile constitutes an incomparable source of energy; further sources are represented by coal, oil, and gas deposits. Almost half of Egypt's electrical energy comes from thermal stations; hydroelectric plants, including those at the Aswan High Dam, supply the remainder.

Azhari, Isma'il Al-

2005-03-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

Educated at Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum and at the American University of Beirut, al-Azhari became president of the Graduates' General Congress in 1940. At first concerned primarily with educational and social reforms, the

Aerial Photography

2005-03-01T05:32:00.000-08:00

For the mapping of terrestrial features, aerial photographs usually are taken in overlapping series from an aircraft following a systematic flight pattern at a fixed altitude.

Bahram

2005-02-28T02:43:00.000-08:00

Foaled by Friar's Daughter and sired by Blandford, Bahram was owned by the Aga Khan and bred at his stud in Curragh, Ireland. Trained by Frank Butters at Newmarket, Bahram always came in first, from his first race in 1934, which he won by a neck. In 1935, ridden by his usual

Castile-la Mancha

2005-02-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

The autonomous community, established in 1982, is bounded by the provinces of C�ceres and Badajoz to the west, C�rdoba, Ja�n, and Murcia to the south, Alicante, Valencia, and Teruel to the east, and Zaragoza,

China, The Tien Shan

2005-02-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

The Chinese part of the Tien Shan consists of a complex system of ranges and depressions in which two major groups of ranges - the northern and southern - may be distinguished. They are separated by a strip of intermontane depressions that is broken up by the interior ranges. Ancient metamorphic rock (formed under heat and pressure) constitutes the larger portion of

Damascus, The Muslim city

2005-02-25T03:34:00.000-08:00

Damascus was the first great city of the ancient world that the Muslim Arab forces encountered. In 661, Mu'awiyah, the first Umayyad caliph, moved out of Arabia and established his court in the Syrian capital. The city was renowned for almost a century thereafter as the capital of a luxurious and extensive empire - the most far-reaching of any achieved by Islam. The principal

Philaret

2005-02-24T15:58:00.000-08:00

During the reign (1584 - 98) of his cousin, Tsar Fyodor I, Philaret served in the military campaign against the Swedes in 1590 and later (1593 - 94) conducted diplomatic negotiations with them. After Fyodor's death, Philaret was banished to a monastery by Boris Godunov (reigned 1598 - 1605). On Godunov's

San Antonio De Los Ba�

2005-02-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

City, west central La Habana province, west central Cuba. Lying on the R�o San Antonio de los Ba�os, the settlement prospered and became a health resort because of its thermal springs. It is also a commercial and manufacturing centre for the surrounding agricultural lands, which produce tobacco, sugarcane, and pineapples. Cigars, clothes, and yeast are manufactured,

Hula

2005-02-22T23:10:00.000-08:00

Sensuous, mimetic Hawaiian dance, performed sitting or standing, with undulating gestures to instruments and chant. Originally the hula was a religious dance performed by trained dancers before king or people to promote fecundity, to honour the gods, or to praise the chiefs. Wristlets and anklets of whale teeth or bone and necklaces and fillets of leis (interwoven

Def Leppard

2005-02-21T01:48:00.000-08:00

British rock band that was one of the prime movers of the new wave of British heavy metal. The original members were Pete Willis (b. Feb. 16, 1960, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Eng.), Rick Savage (b. Dec. 2, 1960, Sheffield), Joe Elliott (b. Aug. 1, 1959, Sheffield), and Tony Kenning. Later members included Steve Clark (b. April 23, 1960, Sheffield - d. Jan. 8, 1991, London, Eng.), Phil Collen (b. Dec. 8, 1957, London), Rick Allen (b. Nov. 1, 1963, Dronfield, Derbyshire,

National Capital Parks

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

Today there are more than 300 park units with a combined area of 10 square miles (26 square km). The overwhelming majority of units are located in Washington, D.C.;

Caracalla

2005-02-19T01:50:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Caracallus, �byname of �Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus, �original name (until AD 196) �Septimius Bassianus, �also called (AD 196 - 198) �Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar � Roman emperor, ruling jointly with his father, Septimius Severus, from 198 to 211 and then alone from 211 until his assassination in 217. His principal achievements were his colossal baths in Rome and his edict of 212, giving Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla, whose reign contributed to the decay

Alcal� De Henares

2005-02-18T23:06:00.000-08:00

City, Madrid provincia and comunidad aut�noma (�autonomous community�), central Spain. Known under the Romans as Complutum, the city was destroyed in 1000 and rebuilt in 1038 by the Moors, who called it Al-Qal'ah al-Nahr. It was reconquered in 1088 by Alfonso VI and granted with the surrounding lands to the archbishop of Toledo. The city contains the unique Gothic church of San Justo (built

Coru�a, La

2005-02-17T10:30:00.000-08:00

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

Blackwell, Elizabeth

2005-02-16T02:24:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Blackwell was of a large, prosperous, and cultured family and was well educated by private tutors. Financial reverses and the family's liberal social and religious views prompted

Natural History Museum

2005-02-15T05:39:00.000-08:00

The museum was formerly an integral part of the British

Natural History Museum

2005-02-14T03:43:00.000-08:00

African organization established by the Treaty of Lagos in May 1975 to promote economic trade, cooperation, and self-reliance. The organization seeks to harmonize agricultural policies and to facilitate the free movement of peoples, services, and capital between members. The original 15 members were Benin, C�te d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali,

Lupine

2005-02-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

The

Douglas, Aaron

2005-02-12T14:52:00.000-08:00

After receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska in 1922, Douglas returned briefly to his native Kansas to teach art. By 1925 he had moved to New York City, where he joined a burgeoning arts scene in Harlem. He studied

Morant, Sir Robert Laurie

2005-02-11T23:41:00.000-08:00

Morant was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and went in November 1886 to Siam (now Thailand) as tutor to the royal family and prepared for King Chulalongkorn an educational plan for the whole country. He returned

Ansonia

2005-02-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

City, coextensive with the town (township) of Ansonia, New Haven county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S., on the Naugatuck River. The area was a part of the township of Derby until it was incorporated as a separate township in 1889. Ansonia's separate identity had been established in 1843, when Anson Greene Phelps of New York City refused to pay an exorbitant price for land in the village

Great Basin Indian

2005-02-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

The Great Basin Indians occupied a 398,000-square-mile (1,031,000-square-km) area of interior western North America. Population density was sparse, ranging from 0.8 to 11.7 persons per 100 square miles. The area includes the physiographic Great Basin - the interior mountain

Conservative Party Of Canada

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

French �Parti Conservateur du Canada� conservative Canadian political party. The party was formed in 2003 by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party. The idea for a merger of Canada's main conservative parties arose in the 1990s when national support for the Progressive Conservatives dwindled and the Reform Party (later the Canadian Alliance) was unable to expand its national

Pacific Islands

2005-02-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

By the mid-20th century, overpopulation in a region of fragmented land areas, widely scattered communities, poor communications, inadequate resources, and rising costs of living posed a fundamental dilemma. Political responsibility for the situation rested largely with the five metropolitan nations (Australia, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United

Ash'ari, Abu Al-hasan Al-

2005-02-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

Muslim Arab theologian noted for having integrated the rationalist methodology of the speculative theologians into the framework of orthodox Islam. In his Maqalat al-Islamiyin (�Theological Opinions of the Muslims�), compiled during his early period, al-Ash'ari brought together the varied opinions of scholars on Muslim theological questions. From

Alien And Sedition Acts

2005-02-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

(1798), four internal security laws passed by the U.S. Congress, restricting aliens and curtailing the excesses of an unrestrained press, in anticipation of an expected war with France. After the XYZ Affair (1797), war appeared inevitable. Federalists, aware that French military successes in Europe had been greatly facilitated by political dissidents in invaded countries, sought

Cambridge Platform

2005-02-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

Basic document of New England Congregationalism, prepared in Cambridge, Mass. (U.S.), in 1648. It provided for all the details of church government, including the principle that was basic to Congregationalism, the autonomy of the local congregation. In doctrinal matters, the Cambridge Platform incorporated the Westminster Confession, the creedal statement of Presbyterianism

Hirst, Ivan

2005-02-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

British army officer (b. March 1, 1916, Saddleworth, Yorkshire, Eng. - d. March 10, 2000, Marsden, West Yorkshire, Eng.), was credited with resurrecting post-World War II German heavy industry when he retooled Volkswagen's bombed-out factory in Wolfsburg, Ger., convinced the British military to order 20,000 vehicles for local use, and began producing the homely, noisy, little �people's car� that came to

Bruce (of Melbourne), Stanley Melbourne Bruce, Viscount

2005-02-02T23:38:00.000-08:00

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

Daniel, The Book Of

2005-02-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

Also called �The Prophecy Of Daniel,� a book of the Old Testament found in the Ketuvim (Writings), the third section of the Jewish canon, but placed among the Prophets in the Christian canon. The first half of the book (chapters 1 - 6) contains stories in the third person about the experiences of Daniel and his friends under Kings Nebuchadrezzar II, Belshazzar, Darius I, and Cyrus II; the second half, written mostly

Painting, Western, Germany

2005-01-31T04:43:00.000-08:00

In Germany also there was a reaction against classicism and the academies, and, as elsewhere, it involved all aspects of the arts. Again, as elsewhere, theory preceded practice: Herzensergiessungen eines kunstliebenden Klosterbruders (�Effusions of an Art-Loving Monk�), by Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, had an immediate and widespread influence upon its publication

Shuang-ya-shan

2005-01-30T22:52:00.000-08:00

Pinyin �Shuangyashan, � city, Heilungkiang sheng (province), China. Shuang-ya-shan, also known as Chien-shan, is a new city that has grown up since 1949; its importance is based entirely on coal production. The Shuang-ya-shan coalfield, on the northern slopes of the Wan-ta Mountains, covers an area of 115 square miles (300 square km) and has estimated reserves of 160,000,000 tons of high-quality coal. Almost the entire population

Argentina, The economy

2005-01-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

Labour movements are covered in Ronaldo Munck, Ricardo Falc�n, and Bernardo Galitelli, Argentina: From Anarchism to Peronism: Workers, Unions, and Politics, 1855 - 1985 (1987); David Tamarin, The Argentine Labor Movement, 1930 - 45: A Study in the Origins of Peronism (1985); and Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia (1986).

Kammerer, Paul

2005-01-28T01:59:00.000-08:00

The results of Kammerer's experiments with salamanders and other amphibians were widely published in technical papers and books, the first of these appearing in 1904 and the last published posthumously

Peter Iii

2005-01-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

Florence

2005-01-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

Lynches River State Park is located in the county, as is the Florence National Cemetery, which contains the graves of Union soldiers and a small group

Mountain

2005-01-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

Mountain belts differ from one another in various respects, but they also have a number of similarities that enable Earth scientists to group them into certain distinct categories. Each of these categories is characterized by the principal process that created a representative belt. Moreover, within individual belts different tectonic processes can prevail

Avoidance, Zone Of

2005-01-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

The zone of avoidance can be penetrated only by observations made in the far infrared end of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is entirely a local Milky Way

Feminine Ending

2005-01-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

In prosody, a line of verse having an unstressed and usually extrametrical syllable at its end. In the opening lines from Robert Frost's poem �Directive,� the fourth line has a feminine ending while the rest are masculine: Back out of all this now too much for us,Back in a time made simple by the lossOf detail, burned, dissolved, and broken off Like graveyard marble sculpture

Floodgate

2005-01-22T19:36:00.000-08:00

Gate for shutting out or releasing the flow of water over spillways, in connection with the operation of a dam. Vertical lift, or radial, gates rise to permit flow under the gate but over the spillway crest. Drum gates rotate backward, lowering their tops and permitting a measured flow over the top of the gate. Drum gates present the fewest problems in the passage of ice

Nahyan, Shaykh Shakhbut Ibn Sultan An-

2005-01-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

As ruler of the largest emirate within the British-controlled Trucial Coast, Shakhbut maintained friendly relations with the United Kingdom and successfully resisted territorial incursions in a prolonged border dispute with Saudi Arabia. He was

Pendleton Civil Service Act

2005-01-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

Widespread public demand for civil service reform was stirred after the Civil War by mounting incompetence, graft, corruption, and theft in federal departments and agencies. After

Mongolia

2005-01-19T15:59:00.000-08:00

Contemporary cultural life in Mongolia is a unique amalgam of traditional elements - the heritage of centuries - and a growing modern element.

Ribe

2005-01-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Ribe amtskommune (county commune), southwestern Jutland, Denmark, on the Ribe River, 4 miles (6 km) from the North Sea. One of Denmark's oldest towns, it was first mentioned in 862 and became a bishopric in 948. In the Middle Ages it was a thriving port and favourite royal resort, centred on Riberhus (a castle founded in the early 12th century and destroyed by the Swedes in 1658). The

Arundinaria

2005-01-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

Arundinaria gigantea - which is known as giant cane, southern cane, or canebrake bamboo - was once widely utilized as a forage plant in the southeastern

Valachi, Joseph

2005-01-15T02:00:00.000-08:00

Valachi held a rank in the Mafia equivalent to that of a sergeant, with interests chiefly in the numbers rackets and other gambling from the 1930s to the '50s. In 1959 he was convicted of narcotics violations and sentenced to 15 to

Breeze

2005-01-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Air current designation on the Beaufort scale; it is weaker than a wind, which in turn is weaker than a gale. Breeze also denotes various local winds (e.g., sea breeze, land breeze, valley breeze, mountain breeze) generated by unequal diurnal heating and cooling of adjacent areas of the Earth's surface. These breezes are strongest in warm, clear, dry weather, when daytime insolation,

Qantas Airways Limited

2005-01-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

Australian airline, the oldest in the English-speaking world, founded in 1920 as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd. (from which the name Qantas was derived). Its first operations were taxi services and joy flights. By the late 20th century, however, its scheduled air routes extended throughout Australasia and farther termini of San Francisco and Vancouver;

Pramana

2005-01-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

The three principal means of knowledge are (1) perception, (2) inference,

Lamar, Lucius Q.c.

2005-01-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

Lamar was admitted to the bar in Georgia in 1847 and was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives (1853). He moved to Mississippi in 1855 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

Adab

2005-01-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

The original sense of the word was simply �norm of conduct,� or �custom,� derived in ancient Arabia from ancestors revered as models. As such practice

Vischer, Friedrich Theodor Von

2005-01-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

Vischer's theories of aesthetics, based on ideas of G.W.F. Hegel, began to develop while he was teaching at the University of T�bingen, where he had studied. He became a professor at T�bingen in

'amir, 'abd Al-hakim

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

'Amir attended War College, where he met Gamal Abdel Nasser. The two men served during the first Arab-Israeli

Lophophyllum

2005-01-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

Extinct genus of solitary marine corals found as fossils especially characteristic of the Late Carboniferous epoch (between 320 million and 286 million years ago) in North America. Lophophyllum, included in the horn corals (so named because of the hornlike form of the individual), probably preferred warm, clear, shallow marine waters.

W�thrich, Kurt

2005-01-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

After receiving a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Basel in 1964, W�thrich took his postdoctoral training in Switzerland and the United

Hughes, William Morris

2005-01-05T04:32:00.000-08:00

Hughes emigrated to Queensland in 1884. After working for the unionization of maritime workers in Sydney, he was elected to the New South Wales legislature in 1894 as a Labor Party member. He entered the first federal Parliament in 1901 and served as attorney

Infection, Common worm infections

2005-01-04T23:30:00.000-08:00

The worm Ascaris lumbricoides causes one of the most prevalent infections in the world. It lives in the soil and its eggs are ingested with contaminated food. The eggs hatch in the human intestine and the worms then travel through the bloodstream to the liver, heart, and lungs. They can cause pneumonia, perforations of the intestine, or blockage of the bile ducts, but

Sarajevo

2005-01-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

Capital and cultural centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies in the narrow valley of the Miljacka River at the foot of Mount Trebevic. The city retains a strong Muslim character, having many mosques, wooden houses with ornate interiors, and the ancient Turkish marketplace (the Ba

Ciliate

2005-01-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

The cilia are usually arranged in rows, known as

Scharnhorst

2005-01-01T17:50:00.000-08:00

German battle cruiser completed in 1939. It did great damage to Allied shipping in northern waters during World War II before it was sunk by the British battleship �Duke of York� on Dec. 26, 1943. The �Scharnhorst� was a heavily armed ship of 26,000 tons standard displacement, carrying a 1,400 man crew and four aircraft and armed with nine 11-inch, twelve 5.9-inch, and fourteen 4.1-inch guns and sixteen 37-millimetre

Panchen Lama

2004-12-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

The title Panchen (a short form of the Sanskrit-Tibetan Pandita Chen-po, or �Great Scholar�) was that traditionally

World War I, Serbia and the Salonika expedition, 1915 - 17

2004-12-30T20:15:00.000-08:00

Austria's three attempted invasions of Serbia in 1914 had been brusquely repulsed by Serbian counterattacks. By the summer of 1915 the Central Powers were doubly concerned to close the account with Serbia, both for reasons of prestige and for the sake of establishing secure rail communications with Turkey across the Balkans. In August, Germany sent reinforcements to Austria's

France, History Of, Mitterrand's first term

2004-12-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

Mitterrand moved at once to carry out what appeared to be the voters' mandate. He named as prime minister a longtime Socialist militant, Pierre Mauroy, whose Cabinet was almost solidly Socialist except for four Communists. Major reforms followed quickly. A broad sector of the economy was nationalized (including 11 large industrial conglomerates and most private

Chaffee, Adna R(omanza)

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

After long service against the Indians in the West, Chaffee was promoted to the rank of brigadier general (1898) at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, during which he gained distinction at the Battle of El Caney in the Santiago

Arts, Islamic, Architecture

2004-12-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

The Mamluks created a monumental setting for Syria and Egypt that lasted until the 20th century. It was at its most remarkable in architecture, and nearly 3,000 major monuments have been preserved or are known from texts in cities from the Euphrates to Cairo. No new architectural types came into being, although many more urban commercial buildings and private houses have

Spring

2004-12-26T04:09:00.000-08:00

In hydrology, opening at or near the surface of the Earth for the discharge of water from underground sources. A spring is a natural discharge point of subterranean water at the surface of the ground or directly into the bed of a stream, lake, or sea. Water that emerges at the surface without a perceptible current is called a seep. Wells are holes excavated to bring water

Fletcher, Alice Cunningham

2004-12-25T18:18:00.000-08:00

Fletcher taught school for a number of years, lectured occasionally on various topics,

Akimov, Nikolay Pavlovich

2004-12-24T03:13:00.000-08:00

Scenic designer and producer, known for the diversity of his bold experiments in stage design and dramatic interpretation - most especially for his cynical reinterpretation of Hamlet (1932), in which the king's ghost was represented as a fiction cunningly devised by Hamlet,

Ligand Field Theory

2004-12-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, one of several theories that describe the electronic structure of coordination or complex compounds, notably transition metal complexes, which consist of a central metal atom surrounded by a group of electron-rich atoms or molecules called ligands. The ligand field theory deals with the origins and consequences of metal - ligand interactions as

Biblical Literature, Pseudepigrapha connected with the Dead Sea Scrolls

2004-12-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

There are three Pseudepigrapha that are closely connected with the writings of the Dead Sea sect: the Book of Jubilees, the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is not accidental that fragments of the two first books and of two sources of the third were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Earth, Outer magnetic field

2004-12-21T15:54:00.000-08:00

The actual configuration of the Earth's outer magnetic field as recently determined by spacecraft is summarized in Figure 7. The diagram shows projections of magnetic field lines into the noon - midnight meridian at a time near an equinox. At this time the Earth's rotation axis is perpendicular to the Earth - Sun line. The dipole axis will be tilted another plus or minus

Rushworth, John

2004-12-20T03:06:00.000-08:00

Rushworth studied law, perhaps at the University of Oxford (from which he received an M.A. in 1649), and in 1638 was made

Antarctica, The land

2004-12-19T00:15:00.000-08:00

French Literature, Prose literature

2004-12-18T05:36:00.000-08:00

Prose flourished as a literary medium from about 1200. A few years earlier Robert de Borron had used verse for his Joseph d'Arimathie (recounting the Holy Grail's sacred origins) and his Merlin; but both were soon turned into prose. Other Arthurian romances adopted it, notably the great Vulgate cycle with its five branches by various hands. These included the immensely popular

Dumesnil, Mademoiselle

2004-12-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

She made her Paris debut in 1737 at the Com�die-Fran�aise as Clytemnestre in Racine's Iphig�nie en Aulide. A fiery actress who scorned tradition, she played Cl�op�tre in Corneille's Rodogune and played Racine's Ph�dre, Athalie,

Hunter, David

2004-12-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

Hunter graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1822 and served in the Mexican War (1846 - 48). In 1862, while in command of Federal troops along the South Atlantic coast, he proclaimed the

Death Rite, Rites and customs among secular materialists

2004-12-15T02:48:00.000-08:00

It is significant, however, that, even where secularist principles are consciously professed, the dead are rarely disposed of without some semblance of ceremony. A deeply rooted feeling prompts most people to treat a dead human body with a respect that is not felt for a dead animal. It is significant that Communists make pilgrimages to the graves of Lenin and Marx;

Ribble Valley

2004-12-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

Borough (district), administrative county of Lancashire, northwestern England, along the county's eastern border, extending into the western Pennine uplands. The southern part of the borough, including the lower Ribble valley and the two largest towns, Clitheroe and Longridge, lies in the historic county of Lancashire. The remainder of the mostly rural borough, including