NaturalPot

Arrastra

2005-11-19T03:10:00.000-08:00

Crude drag-stone mill for pulverizing ores such as those containing silver or gold or their compounds. See patio process.

Olson, Elder (james)

2005-07-28T02:35:00.000-07:00

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1938, Olson taught for several years at the Armour Institute of Technology

Mitra, Ramon

2005-07-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

Philippine politician (b. 1928, Palawan, Phil.—d. March 20, 2000, Manila, Phil.), was a prominent politician, a pro-democracy activist, and an outspoken critic of the 1966–86 regime of Philippine Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. After working as a journalist and diplomat, Mitra served in the House of Representatives in the 1960s and was elected to the Senate in 1971. After Marcos imposed martial law in the Philippines

Paulinus Of Nola, Saint

2005-07-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

Paulinus became successively a Roman senator, consul, and governor of Campania, a region of southern Italy. Returning to Aquitaine he married and in 389 retired with his wife to Spain. The death of their only child, in 392, influenced

Pyrazine

2005-07-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

Any of a class of organic compounds of the heterocyclic series characterized by a ring structure containing four atoms of carbon and two of nitrogen. The pyrazine ring is part of many polycyclic compounds of biological or industrial significance. The simplest member of the pyrazine family is pyrazine itself, a colourless, water-soluble solid with molecular formula

Gravel

2005-07-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

Fragments in gravel range in size from pebbles

Gabinius, Aulus

2005-06-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

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

New Granada, Viceroyalty Of

2005-06-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

The separation of these territories from the viceroyalty of Peru, one of the principal colonial administrative changes effected by the

Brunei

2005-06-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Officially State of Brunei, Abode of Peace, Malay Negara Brunei Darussalam, independent Islamic sultanate on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. It has an area of 2,226 square miles (5,765 square kilometres) and is bounded to the north by the South China Sea and on all other sides by the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, which also divides the state into two enclaves of unequal size. The western enclave is the larger of the two and contains the capital

Alfonso V

2005-06-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

Byname Alfonso the Magnanimous , Spanish Alfonso el Magnánimo king of Aragon (1416–58) and king of Naples (as Alfonso I, 1442–58), whose military campaigns in Italy and elsewhere in the central Mediterranean made him one of the most famous men of his day. After conquering Naples, he transferred his court there.

Novgorod, Treaty Of

2005-06-01T20:25:00.000-07:00

(June 3, 1326), the peace treaty ending decades of Russo-Norwegian hostilities in the extreme northern area of present-day Norway and Russia's Kola Peninsula—then generally known as Finnmark (including the present Norwegian province of Finnmark). The treaty, rather than delimiting a clear frontier between Norway and the principality of Novgorod, created a buffer zone, the

Saturnian Verse

2005-05-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Also called Saturnian metre the ancient Latin verse used mainly by Livius Andronicus and Gnaeus Naevius before the adoption of Greek verse forms by later Latin writers. Little is known about its origins or whether its rhythm was accentual or quantitative.

Rabemananjara, Jacques

2005-05-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

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

Good Shepherd Sister

2005-05-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Member of The Religious of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd (R.G.S.) , also called Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd a Roman Catholic order of religious devoted particularly to the care, rehabilitation, and education of girls and young women who have demonstrated delinquent behaviour. The congregation traces its history to an order founded by St. John Eudes in 1641 at Caen, Fr. This order, known as the Religious of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, was virtually destroyed during the French

Nagaland, The people

2005-03-15T18:11:00.000-08:00

The Nagas, classified among the Indo-Asiatic peoples, form more than 20 tribes, as well as numerous subtribes, each having a specific geographic distribution. Though sharing many cultural traits, these tribes have maintained a high degree of isolation and lack cohesion as a single people. The Konyaks are the largest tribe, followed by the Aos, Tangkhuls, Semas, and Angamis.

Steamer Duck

2005-03-14T09:46:00.000-08:00

(genus Tachyeres), any of four species of heavily built, big-billed sea ducks of southernmost South America and the Falkland Islands. The bird is named for its habit of running across the water with wings thrashing like a paddle-wheel steamboat. Of the four species, T. pteneres, T. brachypterus, and T. leucocephalus are flightless and a bit larger than the mallard-size flying

P�rez De Ayala, Ram�

2005-03-11T22:06:00.003-08:00

P�rez de Ayala studied law at Oviedo University and philosophy and literature at the University of Madrid. During World War I he covered France, Italy, England, South America, and the United States as a correspondent for the Buenos Aires periodical

P�rez De Ayala, Ram�

2005-03-11T22:06:00.002-08:00

P�rez De Ayala, Ram�

2005-03-11T22:06:00.001-08:00

P�rez De Ayala, Ram�

2005-03-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Botanical Garden

2005-03-05T14:39:00.000-08:00

German �Botanischer Garten, � botanical garden founded in 1914 by the German botanist Karl von Goebel in Munich. The garden's vast array of greenhouses, completed in 1958, includes 17 for display and 8 for service functions. The palm house is particularly notable. Other significant greenhouse collections are composed of alpine plants, insectivorous plants, cacti, African succulents, Crassula, and Mesembryanthemeae.

New Glasgow

2005-03-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

Town, Pictou county, northern Nova Scotia, Canada. It lies along the East River, 104 miles (167 km) northeast of Halifax. Founded in 1809, following the discovery of local coal deposits in 1798, it was named by William Fraser, a Scot, who surveyed the site and envisaged another Glasgow on the Clyde (the East River). It developed as a shipbuilding port and as a service centre for a farming and coal-mining

Eisenstein, Sergey Mikhaylovich

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

Eisenstein, who was

Mela, Pomponius

2005-03-02T07:51:00.000-08:00

Author of the only ancient treatise on geography in classical Latin, De situ orbis (�A Description of the World�), also known as De chorographia (�Concerning Chorography�). Written about AD 43 or 44, it remained influential until the beginning of the age of exploration, 13 centuries later. Though probably intended for the general reader, Mela's geography was cited by Pliny the Elder

Canaletto

2005-03-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

Canaletto was born into a noble family whose coat of arms he occasionally used as a signature. How he came to

Condor

2005-02-28T00:39:00.000-08:00

The Andean condor has slightly longer wings, reaching 3 m (10 feet)

Wolf, Christa

2005-02-27T00:55:00.000-08:00

Wolf was reared in a middle-class, pro-Nazi family. With the defeat of Germany in 1945, she moved with her family to East Germany. She studied at the Universities of Jena and Leipzig (1949 - 53), thereafter working as editor of the

Breadalbane And Holland, John Campbell, 1st Earl Of

2005-02-26T15:58:00.000-08:00

The son of Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy, 4th Baronet (d. 1686), he took part in the Royalist uprising under the Earl of Glencairn in 1654 and later encouraged the restoration of Charles II in 1660. Charles created him earl of Caithness and viscount of Breadalbane in 1677; but, when this

Theobald I

2005-02-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

He was the son of Theobald III of Champagne,

Ashford

2005-02-24T01:41:00.000-08:00

Town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Kent, England. It was established in 1974 from the former urban district of Ashford, rural districts of East and West Ashford, and the metropolitan borough and rural district of Tenterden. The old town of Ashford was granted a market in the 13th century that later became a stock market for the pastoral farms

Trade, Terms Of

2005-02-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

Relationship between the prices at which a country sells its exports and the prices paid for its imports. If the prices of a country's exports rise relative to the prices of its imports, one says that its terms of trade have moved in a favourable direction, because, in effect, it now receives more imports for each unit of goods exported. The terms of trade, which depend on

National Art Gallery

2005-02-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

In Wellington, N.Z., national collection of paintings by New Zealand and European artists and portraits of prominent New Zealand figures. The gallery grew out of the city's first public art gallery, opened in 1907 by the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. The basis for the original collection was a group of paintings purchased in England in 1906 - 07 and another group purchased at the

Shafi'iyah

2005-02-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

Also called �Madhhab Shafi'i�, English �Shafiites� in Islam, one of the four Sunni schools of religious law, derived from the teachings of Abu 'Abd Allah ash-Shafi'i (767 - 820). This legal school (madhhab) stabilized the bases of Islamic legal theory, admitting the validity of both divine will and human speculation. Rejecting provincial dependence on the living sunnah (traditional community practice) as the source of precedent, the Shafiites

Argentaffin Cell

2005-02-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

One of the round or partly flattened cells occurring in the lining tissue of the digestive tract and containing granules thought to be of secretory function. These epithelial cells, though common throughout the digestive tract, are most concentrated in the small intestine and appendix. The cells locate randomly within the mucous membrane lining of the intestine

Gneist, Rudolf Von

2005-02-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

The son of a supreme court judge, he studied at Berlin University

Guanacaste

2005-02-18T11:22:00.000-08:00

Province, northwestern Costa Rica, bounded on the north by Nicaragua, on the east by Alajuela province, and on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Occupying one-fifth of the national territory, Guanacaste's 4,000 sq mi (10,400 sq km) were formerly open deciduous forest, which have been turned into savanna grasslands, with dry forests in the north. It rises into the Guanacaste Cordillera

Raff, Joachim

2005-02-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

Raff became a schoolteacher in 1840 and taught himself the piano, violin, and composition. After early compositional efforts influenced by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, he joined ranks with the

International Law, Antarctica

2005-02-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

The Antarctic Treaty (1959) prevents militarization of the Antarctic continent and suspends territorial claims by states for the life of the treaty. Because it provides no mechanism for its termination, however, a continuing and open-ended regime has been created. There also are various agreements that protect Antarctica's environment.

M�ser, Justus

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

Trained in jurisprudence at the universities of Jena and G�ttingen, M�ser was named state's attorney at Osnabr�ck (1747), a prince-bishopric, and from 1764 he was very influential

Robert Iii

2005-02-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

The eldest son of Robert the Steward (the future Robert II) and Elizabeth Mure, he was legitimated by their marriage several years after

Ejido

2005-02-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

In Mexico, village lands communally held in the traditional Indian system of land tenure that combines communal ownership with individual use. The ejido consists of cultivated land, pastureland, other uncultivated lands, and the fundo legal (townsite). In most cases the cultivated land is divided into separate family holdings, which cannot be sold although they

Wicklow

2005-02-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

Irish �Cill Mhant�in� seaport and county seat, County Wicklow, Ireland, south-southeast of Dublin. St. Mantan built a church there in the 5th century; and the town later became a settlement of the Vikings, who renamed it Wykingalo (Vikings' Lough). After the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 12th century, it was granted to Maurice Fitzgerald, who built Black Castle. From then until the 17th century the town

Music

2005-02-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

Both the simple folk song and the complex electronic composition belong to the same activity, music. Both are humanly engineered; both are conceptual and auditory, and

La Flesche, Francis

2005-02-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

U.S. ethnologist and champion of the rights of American Indians who wrote a book of general literary interest about his experiences as a student in a mission school in the 1860s. This memoir, The Middle Five (1900, new edition 1963), is rare in providing an account from an American Indian's viewpoint of his education by members of the

Indiana

2005-02-09T14:04:00.000-08:00

Borough (town), seat of Indiana county, west-central Pennsylvania, U.S., in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, 46 miles (74 km) northeast of Pittsburgh. Settled about 1764, it was laid out in 1805 on land donated for a county seat by George Clymer of Philadelphia, a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It was incorporated in 1816. Prior to the American Civil War, Indiana was a station

Cone

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

In mathematics, the surface traced by a moving straight line (the generatrix) that always passes through a fixed point (the vertex). The path, to be definite, is directed by some closed plane curve (the directrix), along which the line always glides. In a right circular cone, the directrix is a circle, and the cone is a surface of revolution. The axis of this cone is a line through

Malayan Lar

2005-02-07T21:16:00.000-08:00

Species of gibbon (q.v.).

Wright, Benjamin

2005-02-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

He was trained as a surveyor in his youth, and, after his family moved to the vicinity of Rome, N.Y., in 1789, Wright surveyed about 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares) for farmers

Aesthetics

2005-02-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

Many attempts have been made to develop a specifically Marxist aesthetics, one that would incorporate the Marxian theory of history and class consciousness and the critique of bourgeois ideology, so as to generate principles of analysis and evaluation and show the place of art in the theory and practice of revolution. William Morris in En-gland and Georgy V. Plekhanov

Steel

2005-02-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

Alloy of iron and carbon in which the carbon content ranges up to 2 percent (with a higher carbon content, the material is defined as cast iron). By far the most widely used material for building the world's infrastructure and industries, it is used to fabricate everything from sewing needles to oil tankers. In addition, the tools required to build and manufacture such

France, History Of, German reparations

2005-02-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

The general elections of November 1919 resulted in a massive majority for the right-wing coalition called the Bloc

Astor (of Hever Castle), Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount, Baron Astor Of Hever Castle

2005-02-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

He was the elder son of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, and a great-great-grandson

Alexander

2005-02-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

The second son of King Constantine (ruled 1913 - 17 and 1920 - 22) and Queen Sophia, Alexander became king (June 12, 1917) when his father was forced by the Allies of World War I to abdicate and thereby allow his country to join them in the war. Shortly after Alexander's accession to the throne, Eleuth�rios Veniz�los became premier of

Vail, Alfred Lewis

2005-01-31T22:09:00.000-08:00

Shortly after Vail graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1836, he met Morse and became interested in Morse's telegraph experiments. In return for a share in the

Biblical Literature, Papyri

2005-01-30T23:10:00.000-08:00

The earliest New Testament manuscript witnesses (2nd - 8th centuries) are papyri mainly found preserved in fragments in the dry sands of Egypt. Only in the latter decades of the 20th century have the relatively recently discovered New Testament papyri been published. Of those cataloged to date, there are about 76 New Testament manuscripts with fragments of various parts

Mosconi, Willie

2005-01-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

The son of a billiards parlour owner, Mosconi showed a precocious talent for the game. When his father forbade him to play, hoping that

Biblical Literature, The Nevi'im

2005-01-28T15:26:00.000-08:00

The model of the Pentateuch probably encouraged the assemblage and ordering of the literature of the prophets. The Exile of the Jews to Bablylonia in 587/586 and the restoration half a century later enhanced the prestige of the prophets as national figures and aroused interest in the written records of their teachings. The canonization of the Nevi'im could not have taken

Rio Claro

2005-01-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

City, in the highlands of east-central S�o Paulo estado (�state�), Brazil. It is situated at 2,050 feet (625 m) above sea level along the Corumbata� River. Formerly called S�o Jo�o Batista da Beira do Ribeir�o Claro and S�o Jo�o Batista do Morro Azul, it was given town status in 1845. Rio Claro is now the trade and processing centre for an agricultural region producing coffee, cotton, rice, sugarcane,

Earth Sciences, Geologic time and the age of the Earth

2005-01-26T21:57:00.000-08:00

By mid-century the fossiliferous strata of Europe had been grouped into systems arrayed in chronological order. The stratigraphic column, a composite of these systems, was pieced together from exposures in different regions by application of the principles of superposition and faunal sequence. Time elapsed during the formation of a system became known as a

Wellingborough

2005-01-25T22:30:00.000-08:00

Town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, England, situated east of Northampton along the River Nene. Wellingborough grew as a market town in the Middle Ages. After a fire in 1738, it was rebuilt on its present hill site. Wellingborough School, founded in 1595, was endowed with revenues from a suppressed medieval guild. Wellingborough's

Pahlavi Language

2005-01-24T21:40:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Pehlevi� major form of the Middle Persian language (see Persian language), which existed from the 3rd to the 10th century and was the official language of the Sasanian empire (AD 226 - 652). It is attested by Zoroastrian books, coins, and inscriptions. Pahlavi books were written in a confusing writing system of Aramaic origin called the Pahlavi alphabet. The major part of Pahlavi literature is

Biblical Literature, The Alexandrian canon

2005-01-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

The Old Testament as it has come down in Greek translation from the Jews of Alexandria via the Christian Church differs in many respects from the Hebrew Scriptures. The books of the second and third divisions have been redistributed and arranged according to categories of literature - history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy. Esther and Daniel contain supplementary

Brugmann, Karl

2005-01-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

As a young man Brugmann sided with the emerging Junggrammatiker, or Neogrammarians, who rejected

Topological Space

2005-01-20T04:04:00.000-08:00

In mathematics, generalization of Euclidean spaces in which the idea of closeness, or limits, is described in terms of relationships between sets rather than in terms of distance. Every topological space consists of: (1) a set of points; (2) a class of subsets defined axiomatically as open sets; and (3) the set operations of union and intersection. In addition, the class of open

Essy, Amara

2005-01-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

On July 9, 2002, Amara Essy of C�te d' Ivoire became secretary-general of the newly established 53-country African Union (AU), which replaced the 39-year-old Organization of African Unity (OAU). Essy, a career diplomat, was charged with leading the new body, a difficult task given the continent's ethnic, religious, economic, and political differences and the fact that the AU was granted

Welsh Corgi

2005-01-18T10:58:00.000-08:00

The Cardigan Welsh corgi (see photograph), named after Cardiganshire, can be traced back to dogs brought to Wales by the Celts about 1200 BC. The original type was known as the Bronant and

Salamanca

2005-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Provincia, in the comunidad aut�noma (�autonomous community�) of Castile-Le�n, western Spain. Salamanca is bounded by Portugal (west) and the provinces of Zamora and Valladolid (north), �vila (east), and C�ceres (south); its northwestern boundary with Portugal is marked by the Duero (Portuguese: Douro) River. More than half the province is situated in the Meseta Central, the central

Blaby

2005-01-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

District, county of Leicestershire, south-central England. It covers the southern and western suburbs of the city of Leicester, in an arc around the city boundary from southeast to northwest, and extends southwest across a mostly rural area almost to the county boundary with Warwickshire on the southwest. Blaby district is administered from Narborough. Other important

Swag

2005-01-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

The swag, or festoon, usually carved from

Bricriu's Feast

2005-01-14T02:01:00.000-08:00

Middle Irish �Fled Bricrenn� in early Irish literature, a comic, rowdy account of rivalry between Ulster warriors. One of the longest hero tales of the Ulster cycle, it dates from the 8th century and is preserved in The Book of the Dun Cow (c. 1100). Bricriu, the trickster, promises the hero's portion of his feast to three different champions, L�egaire Buadach, Conall Cernach, and C� Chulainn. A violent dispute

Cronin, A.j.

2005-01-13T16:48:00.000-08:00

Cronin was educated at the University of Glasgow and served as a surgeon in the Royal Navy during World War I. He practiced in South Wales (1921 - 24) and then, as medical inspector of mines, investigated

Switzerland, Science

2005-01-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

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 B�n�dict

Calais And Zetes

2005-01-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, the winged twin sons of Boreas and Oreithyia. On their arrival with the Argonauts at Salmydessus in Thrace, they liberated their sister Cleopatra, who had been thrown into prison by her husband, Phineus, the king of the country. According to another story, they delivered Phineus from the Harpies. They were slain by Heracles near the island of Tenos,

Self

2005-01-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

According to Carl Jung the

Aufbau Principle

2005-01-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

(from German Aufbauprinzip, �building-up principle�), rationalization of the distribution of electrons among energy levels in the ground (most stable) states of atoms. The principle, formulated by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr about 1920, is an application of the laws of quantum mechanics to the properties of electrons subject to the electric field created by the positive

Araliaceae

2005-01-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

The ginseng family of flowering plants, in the order Apiales, comprising approximately 700 species centred in Southeast Asia and tropical America. Most members are shrubs or trees, though there are a number of climbers and a few herbs. The family has large, usually alternate, compound leaves, five-parted flowers arranged in compound umbels (flat-topped clusters), and a

Arabia, History Of, Kindah

2005-01-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

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

O'brien, Flann

2005-01-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

O'Brien was educated in Dublin and later became a civil servant while also pursuing his writing career. He is most celebrated for his unusual novel At Swim-Two-Birds, which, though it was first published in 1939, achieved fame

Western Literature

2005-01-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

Diverse as they are, European literatures, like European languages, are parts of a common heritage. Greek, Latin, Germanic, Baltic and Slavic, Celtic, and Romance languages

France, History Of, The grandsons of Clovis

2005-01-02T13:41:00.000-08:00

At the death of Chlotar I (561) the Frankish kingdom, which had become the most powerful state in the west, was once again divided, this time between his four sons. The partition agreement, based on that of 511, dealt with more extensive territories. Guntram received the eastern part of the former kingdom of Orl�ans, enlarged by the addition of Burgundy. Charibert I's share was fashioned

Rhynchotreta

2005-01-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Extinct genus of brachiopods (lamp shells) commonly found as fossils in Silurian marine rocks (between 438 and 408 million years old). Its small, roughly triangular shell is prominently ornamented by distinct ridges that run lengthwise to the shell margin. Because of its limited time range, Rhynchotreta is a good guide, or index, fossil for Silurian rocks and time.

Eight, The

2004-12-31T16:05:00.000-08:00

Group of American painters who exhibited together only once, in New York City in 1908, but who established one of the main currents in 20th-century American painting. The original Eight included Robert Henri, leader of the group, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks, and William J. Glackens. George Bellows later joined them.

Plume Grass

2004-12-30T01:24:00.000-08:00

Any of about 20 species of grasses constituting the genus Erianthus (family Poaceae), native to warm regions of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Plume grasses are tall, reedlike perennials with dense, cylindrical, plumelike panicles. Most species are 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 feet) tall, but Ravenna grass (E. ravennae), native to southern Europe, grows to 4 m (13 feet). It is cultivated as an ornamental

Zaharias, Babe Didrikson

2004-12-29T19:36:00.000-08:00

William Oscar Johnson and Nancy P. Williamson, "Whatta-Gal": The Babe Didrikson Story (1977); and Susan E. Cayleff, Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1995), examine her life and career.

Selaginella

2004-12-28T01:58:00.000-08:00

Genus of plants that are commonly known as spike moss (q.v.).

Dachlan, Kijai Hadji Ahmad

2004-12-27T16:27:00.000-08:00

Dachlan was a wealthy merchant who made the pilgrimage to Mecca shortly after 1900. On his return, he became active in religious reform activities, first in formalistic issues of ritual and subsequently

Cherry, Donald Eugene

2004-12-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

U.S. jazz trumpeter (b. Nov. 18, 1936, Oklahoma City, Okla.--d. Oct. 19, 1995, M�laga, Spain), was a pioneer of free jazz as a member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet and later joined jazz with elements of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and European music, thereby becoming a pioneer of world music as well. Cherry, who grew up in Los Angeles, hailed from a musical family. He had already achieved some local

Earth Satellite

2004-12-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

The idea of an artificial satellite in orbital flight was first suggested by Sir Isaac Newton in his book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). He pointed out that a cannonball shot at

Binary Star

2004-12-24T02:25:00.000-08:00

If the images of the two components of a binary star system can be separated by telescope, it is called

La Libertad

2004-12-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

City, southwestern El Salvador. Its open roadstead port as well as its location south of San Salvador encouraged La Libertad's development in the 19th century as a shipping outlet for balsam produced in Peru - a variety of balsam yielded from El Salvador's coastal forests. During the early 20th century La Libertad was one of the nation's largest ports, but in 1976 it was closed

Wimbledon

2004-12-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

The

Switzerland, Skies and temperatures

2004-12-21T21:39:00.000-08:00

The stable high-pressure weather conditions prevailing over central Europe and the Alps during the autumn and winter create cold air masses that result in lowland fog, a climatic phenomenon with widely varying consequences. The mouths of the northern Alpine valleys, the basins of the Jura Mountains, and the villages and cities of the low areas of the Mittelland

Shelepin, Aleksandr Nikolayevich

2004-12-20T01:50:00.000-08:00

Shelepin joined the Communist Party in 1940 and rose rapidly in both the party and the Soviet government.

Breitenfeld, Battle Of

2004-12-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

(Sept. 17, 1631), the first major Protestant victory of the Thirty Years' War, in which the army of the Roman Catholic Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II and the Catholic League, under Johan Isaclaes, Graf von Tilly, was destroyed by the Swedish-Saxon army under King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden. The battle marked the emergence of Sweden as a great power and the triumph of the new Swedish

E-commerce

2004-12-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

Although in the vernacular e-commerce usually refers only to the trading of goods and services over the Internet, broader economic activity is included. E-commerce consists of business-to-consumer and business-to-business

Canadian Literature

2004-12-17T19:36:00.000-08:00

The body of written works produced by Canadians. Reflecting the country's dual origin and linguistic distribution, the literature of Canada falls into two divisions: English and French. This article provides a brief historical account of each of these literatures.

Basketball, International competition

2004-12-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

The success of international basketball was greatly advanced by Forrest C. (�Phog�) Allen, a Naismith disciple and a former coach at the University of Kansas, who led the movement for inclusion of basketball in the Olympic Games in 1936 and thereafter. Basketball has also been played in the Pan-American Games since their inauguration in 1951. The international game is governed

Jannings, Emil

2004-12-15T01:37:00.000-08:00

Jannings was reared in G�rlitz, Austria, where he began his stage career. He joined a traveling stock company and in 1906 began acting for Max Reinhardt, the leading German theatrical director, in Berlin. He made his film

Earth, Geologic History Of

2004-12-14T22:48:00.000-08:00

Evolution of the continents, oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere. The layers of rock at the Earth's surface contain evidence of the evolutionary processes undergone by these components of the terrestrial environment during the times at which each layer was formed. By studying this rock record from the very beginning, it is thus possible to trace their development

Ussuri River

2004-12-13T03:53:00.000-08:00

Chinese �(Wade-Giles) Wu-su-li Chiang, �or (Pinyin)� Wusuli Jiang,� northward-flowing tributary of the Amur River that for a considerable distance forms the boundary between China (Heilungkiang province) and Russia (Siberia). The Ussuri is formed by the confluence of the Ulakhe and Arsenyevka rivers, both of which rise on the southwestern slopes of the Sikhote-Alin mountains. Its length from the source of the Ulakhe is 565 miles (909 km), and