StrangeBeach

Allen, Fred

2005-04-05T23:38:00.000-07:00

While working as a stack boy in the Boston Public Library, the young Sullivan came across a book on juggling from which he picked up that craft. He began juggling on amateur entertainment circuits and

Fama

2005-04-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

Greek Pheme, in Greco-Roman mythology, the personification of popular rumour. Pheme was more a poetic personification than a deified abstraction, although there was an altar in her honour at Athens. The Greek poet Hesiod portrayed her as an evildoer, easily stirred up but impossible to quell. The Athenian orator Aeschines distinguished Popular Rumour (Pheme) from Slander (Sykophantia)

Chatham

2005-04-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

Town, Northumberland county, eastern New Brunswick, Canada. It lies near the mouth of the Miramichi River opposite Newcastle, 84 miles (135 km) north-northwest of Moncton. Founded about 1800 by Francis Peabody, it was probably named in honour of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. It has pulp and paper mills, foundries, and shipyards and is a lumber-shipping and salmon-fishing port. In the

Amazonas

2005-04-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

Estado (“state”), southern Venezuela. It is bounded on the north by the state of Bolívar, on the east and south by Brazil, and on the west by Colombia. The large but sparsely populated state lies within the drainage basins of the Orinoco River, which rises near the Brazilian border, and the Negro River, which is a northern tributary of the Amazon. Near the centre of the territory

Západoceský

2005-04-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

Also called Západní Cechy , English Western Bohemia kraj (region), western Czech Republic. It is bordered by Germany on the north and west and by Severoceský, Stredoceský, and Jihoceský kraje on the east. It is surrounded by mountains on its external boundaries and contains a series of hilly ranges running southwest to northeast. The region's only lowland areas are the valleys of the Berounka River and its several tributaries

Papal States

2005-04-02T05:41:00.000-08:00

As early as the 4th century, the popes had acquired considerable property around Rome (called

Sundance Kid

2005-03-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

Harry Longabaugh left home when he was 15 and took his nickname from the town of Sundance, where

Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan

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

Born into an aristocratic family, Ghalib passed his youth in luxury. Subsequently, he was granted a small pension by the British government but had to struggle against penury and hardships. Recognition finally came in 1850, when

Bonaparte Family

2005-03-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

Italian Buonaparte, a family made famous by Napoleon I (q.v.), emperor of the French (1804–1814/15). The French form Bonaparte was not commonly used, even by Napoleon, until after the spring of 1796. The original name was Buonaparte, which was borne in the early Middle Ages by several distinct families in Italy. One of these, which settled at Florence before the year 1100, was divided in the 13th century into the two branches

Cultural Anthropology

2005-03-30T08:06:00.000-08:00

A major division of anthropology that deals with the study of culture in all of its aspects and that uses the methods, concepts, and data of archaeology, ethnography and ethnology, folklore, and linguistics in its descriptions and analyses of the diverse peoples of the world.

France, History Of, The cultural scene

2005-03-29T01:51:00.000-08:00

Paris after World War II quickly regained its stature as one of the world's great centres of intellectual creativity. A cluster of brilliant thinkers and writers competed for influence, attracting acolytes both in France and abroad. The first postwar wave was led by Jean-Paul Sartre, whose influence made existentialism the leading ideology of the time. Sartre saw

Academic Freedom

2005-03-28T00:36:00.000-08:00

The freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure. Its basic elements include the freedom of teachers to inquire into any subject that evokes their intellectual concern; to present their findings to their students,

Ibycus

2005-03-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

Ibycus left Sicily for the Aegean island of Samos, where the tyrant Polycrates became his patron. Ancient authorities found it hard to distinguish his early work from that of Stesichorus, but even in the few surviving

Czetwertynski Family

2005-03-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

Also called Swietopelk-Czetwertynski Polish princely family descended from the Kievan grand prince Svyatopolk II Izyaslavich (d. 1113) of the house of Rurik. Among its prominent members was Antoni Czetwertynski (1748–94), the castellan of Przemysl and last leader of the pro-Russian Confederation of Targowica that opposed the Polish constitution of 1791; he was finally hanged as a traitor to Poland during Tadeusz Kosciuszko's

Fence

2005-03-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

Barrier erected to confine or exclude people or animals, to define boundaries, or to decorate. Timber, earth, stone, and metal are widely used for fencing. Fences of living plants have been made in many places, such as the hedges of Great Britain and continental Europe and the cactus fences of Latin America. In well-timbered country, such as colonial and 19th-century North

Asbestosis

2005-03-23T06:53:00.000-08:00

Lung disease that is caused by the prolonged inhalation of asbestos fibres. A type of pneumoconiosis, it is found primarily among workers whose occupations involved asbestos, principally mining, construction, and the manufacture of insulation, fireproofing, cement products, and automobile brakes. The disease is not limited solely to asbestos workers but is also

Avoidance Relationship

2005-03-21T10:38:00.000-08:00

In human societies, the institutionalized, formal avoidance of one individual by another, usually involving persons of opposite sexes standing in definite kinship relationship to one another. A classic example—and one found in numerous and diverse societies—is the culturally prescribed avoidance of a mother-in-law by her son-in-law. Similar patterns of avoidance

Ombudsman

2005-03-21T01:06:00.000-08:00

The legislature appoints the ombudsman, but it may

Wad

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

Also called Bog Manganese, black and earthy substance that consists mainly of hydrated manganese oxides; it is an important ore of manganese. It varies considerably in chemical composition and contains different impurities, often in large amounts. Wad is very soft, readily soils the fingers, and may be considered to be a mixture chiefly of pyrolusite and psilomelane. It results from the decomposition

Ai Qing

2005-03-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

The son of a well-to-do landowner, Ai Qing was encouraged to learn Western languages. He studied painting in Paris

Pugachov, Yemelyan Ivanovich

2005-03-19T07:24:00.000-08:00

An illiterate Don Cossack, Pugachov fought in the Russian Army in the final battles of the Seven Years' War (1756–63), in Russia's campaign in Poland (1764), and in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74. Following the siege and conquest of Bendery (1769–70), however, he returned

Gruiform

2005-03-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

(order Gruiformes), any member of a rather loose assemblage of 12 families of birds that are generally agreed to be related but that differ widely in many aspects. They are an ancient group with a rich fossil history, but many are now restricted in range and few in number. Members of the order occur on every continent, but the only family with worldwide distribution is the

Naresuan

2005-03-17T02:09:00.000-08:00

In 1569 the Myanmar king Bayinnaung (reigned 1551–81) conquered Siam and placed Naresuan's father, Maha Thammaracha, on the throne as his vassal. The capital, Ayutthaya, was pillaged, thousands of Siamese

Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji

2005-03-15T09:58:00.000-08:00

Dudley was of Parsi, Sicilian, and Spanish descent and spent most of his life in England. As a young man he became interested in his father's Parsi

Anatexis

2005-03-15T09:52:00.000-08:00

In geology, the differential, or partial, melting of rocks. Each mineral in a rock has its own melting temperature, which is decreased to varying degrees by its close association with other minerals. In addition to the melting temperature of each individual mineral, pressure, temperature, and the presence of volatiles all influence the melting temperature of a mineral

July Revolution

2005-03-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

French Révolution De Juillet, also called July Days (1830), insurrection that brought Louis-Philippe to the throne of France. The revolution was precipitated by Charles X's publication (July 26) of restrictive ordinances contrary to the spirit of the Charter of 1814. Protests and demonstrations were followed by three days of fighting (July 27–29), the abdication of Charles X (August 2), and the proclamation of Louis-Philippe as “king of the

Corvidae

2005-03-14T21:47:00.000-08:00

Songbird family, of the order Passeriformes, that includes crows, jays, and magpies. The 100 species occur throughout the world; most are nonmigratory. Corvids are strongly built, stout-billed birds 23–71 cm (9–28 inches) long, some being the largest passerines. They have plain, often glossy plumage that may be monochromatic or contrastingly patterned. The sexes

Grindelwald

2005-03-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

Alpine village and valley, Bern canton, south central Switzerland. The village is scattered on the slopes of the Lütschine Valley (Lütschental), part of the Grindelwald Valley in the Bernese Oberland (highland), southeast of Interlaken. The Grindelwald Valley is shut in on the south by the Wetterhorn, Mettenberg, and Eiger (peaks rising above 10,000 ft [3,050 m]), between which are two

Arrhenius Equation

2005-03-13T07:23:00.000-08:00

Mathematical expression that describes the effect of temperature on the velocity of a chemical reaction, the basis of all predictive expressions used for calculating reaction-rate constants. In the Arrhenius equation, k is the reaction-rate constant, A and E are numerical constants characteristic of the reacting substances, R is the thermodynamic gas constant, and

Grindelwald

2005-03-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

For a discussion of the properties and applications of mercury, see Chemical Elements: Zinc group elements. For treatment of the mining, recovery, and refining of mercury, see Industries,

Beam

2005-03-11T01:52:00.000-08:00

In engineering, originally a solid piece of timber, as a beam of a house, a plow, a loom, or a balance. In building construction, a beam is a horizontal member spanning an opening and carrying a load that may be a brick or stone wall above the opening, in which case the beam is often called a lintel (see post-and-lintel system). The load may be a floor or roof in a building, in which case

Latin Literature, Comedy

2005-03-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

Roman comedy was based on the New Comedy fashionable in Greece, whose classic representative was Menander. But whereas this was imitation of life to the Greeks, to the Romans it was escape to fantasy and literary convention. Livius' successor, Naevius, who developed this “drama in Greek cloak” (fabula palliata), may have been the first to introduce recitative and song,

Piglia, Ricardo

2005-03-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

After attending the National University of La Plata in 1961–62, Piglia began to write fiction; his first collection of short stories, La invasión (1967), established his reputation as a writer. Another collection, Nombre falso (1975; Assumed Name), includes

Gobi

2005-03-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

Information on the Gobi is available in surveys of explorations in the area: Jack Autrey Dabbs, History of the Discovery and Exploration of Chinese Turkestan (1963), a comprehensive introduction with a bibliography; and Sven Hedin, Central Asia and Tibet, trans. from Swedish, 2 vol. (1903, reissued 1969), and Across the Goby Desert (1931, reprinted 1968; originally published in Swedish, 1928). Other records of archaeological and geographic explorations in the area include Aurel Stein, Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China, 2 vol. (1912, reprinted 1987), and On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks: Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia and North-Western China (1933, reissued 1971); Owen Lattimore, Inner Asian Frontiers of China (1940, reprinted 1988); Paul Pelliot, Les Grottes de Touen-Houang: peintures and sculptures bouddhiques des époques des Wei, des T'ang, et des Song, 6 vol. in 4 (1914–24); Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia (1980); and Basil Davidson, Turkestan Alive: New Travels in Chinese Central Asia (1957). Specific treatments of the Gobi are Mildred Cable, The Gobi Desert (1942, reprinted 1987); and Alonzo W. Pond, Climate and Weather in the Central Gobi of Mongolia (1954). An overview of the contemporary economic and social situation is presented in Terry Cannon and Alan Jenkins (ed.), The Geography of Contemporary China: The Impact of Deng Xiaoping's Decade (1990).

East Ayrshire

2005-03-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

Council area, southwestern Scotland. It covers an undulating lowland in the north and west that rises to forested and moor-covered uplands in the east and south, where Blackcraig Hill reaches an elevation of 2,298 feet (700 metres). East Ayrshire forms part of the historic county of Ayrshire. Dairy farming is important in the lowlands, while cattle and sheep raising predominate

Artis Zoological Garden

2005-03-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

Byname of Foundation Of The Royal Zoological Society Natura Artis Magistra, Dutch Artis Diergaarde, or Stichting Koninklijk Zoologisch Genootschap Natura Artis Magistra, zoological garden founded in 1838 by the Royal Zoological Society of Holland. It occupies a 10-hectare (25-acre) site in Amsterdam and houses nearly 5,600 specimens of some 1,350 species. Heavily oriented toward scientific research, the zoo has an animal behaviour laboratory and an aquarium and is closely affiliated with a library and a zoological museum.

Euclidean Geometry, Axioms of congruence

2005-03-07T04:37:00.000-08:00

Five axioms (see Box

Paleo-siberian Languages

2005-03-06T14:15:00.000-08:00

Paleo-Siberian also spelled Paleosiberian , also called Paleo-Asiatic languages or Hyperborean languages languages spoken in Asian Russia (Siberia) that belong to four genetically unrelated groups—Yeniseian, Luorawetlan, Yukaghir, and Nivkh.

Barb

2005-03-06T09:13:00.000-08:00

Also called Barbel (genus Barbus), any of numerous freshwater fishes belonging to a genus in the carp family, Cyprinidae. The barbs are native to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The members of this genus typically have one or more pairs of barbels (slender, fleshy protuberances) near the mouth and often have large, shining scales. The species vary widely in size; certain barbs are only about 2.5–5 cm (1–2 inches)

Man-chou-li

2005-03-05T02:36:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Manzhouli, formerly (1910–49) Lupin, city in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, China. It is situated on the border opposite the Russian town of Zabaykalsk and lies 100 miles (160 km) west of Hailar and 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Lake Hu-lun. Man-chou-li was long a small Mongolian settlement in the Hu-lun-pei-erh League. It developed after 1900 when it became the western terminus of the Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway

Alban, Saint

2005-03-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

According to the historian Bede, he served in the Roman army and was converted to Christianity by a fugitive priest whom he sheltered and with whom he exchanged clothes, so that he was martyred in the priest's place (c. 304; other dates suggested by scholars are c. 254 or c. 209). His feast day is commemorated

Hu-lun Lake

2005-03-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

Hu-lun Lake has varied considerably in area according to variations in the climate. At one time it was part of a large lake that included Pei-erh Lake, a somewhat

Kershaw

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

Málaga

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

Port city and capital of Málaga provincia, in the comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) of Andalusia, southern Spain. It lies along a wide bay of the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the Guadalmedina River in the centre of the Costa del Sol. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the 12th century BC, conquered successively by the Romans and the Visigoths, and taken by the

Mcpherson, James B.

2005-03-01T04:27:00.000-08:00

After graduation from West Point at the head of the class of 1849, McPherson was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers and held minor army assignments

Endosperm

2005-02-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

Tissue that surrounds and nourishes the embryo in the angiosperm seed. The initiation of endosperm is a definitive characteristic of angiosperms and requires the fusion of at least one nucleus in the embryo sac with a sperm nucleus from the pollen grain. (In gymnosperms the nutritive material of the seed is present before fertilization.) In some seeds the endosperm

Gruyère

2005-02-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

Gruyère is formed in large wheels of 70 to 80 pounds (32 to 36 kg) with a brownish, wrinkled natural rind. The interior is pale gold with pea-sized, or slightly larger, holes and a rich, nutty flavour; it is similar to Emmentaler (q.v.) and other

Arnulf

2005-02-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

Arnulf was the illegitimate son of Charles the Fat's eldest brother, Carloman, who was king of Bavaria. Arnulf inherited the march of Carinthia from his father but was excluded from the succession to the kingdom

Dahomey

2005-02-27T06:20:00.000-08:00

Kingdom in western Africa that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries in the region that is now southern Benin. According to tradition, at the beginning of the 17th century three brothers vied for the kingdom of Allada, which, like neighbouring Whydah (now Ouidah), had grown rich on the slave trade. When one of the brothers won control of Allada, the other two fled. One went southeast

Visconti, Louis-tullius-joachim

2005-02-25T22:01:00.000-08:00

Visconti's father, a celebrated Italian archaeologist, fled Rome with the boy in 1798. Visconti studied architecture with Charles Percier at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was awarded a second grand prix d'architecture and the prix départemental by the Academy and in 1825 was appointed architect

Nguyen Tri Phuong

2005-02-25T11:07:00.000-08:00

The son of a provincial administrator, Nguyen Tri Phuong entered the military service and distinguished himself by repelling the Siamese invasion

Interior Design, Egypt

2005-02-24T21:51:00.000-08:00

In contrast with the monumental tombs and temples of stone, many of which remained intact to the 20th century, Egyptian houses were built of perishable materials, and, therefore, few remains have survived. Sun-dried or kiln-burnt mud bricks were used for the walls; floors consisted of beaten earth, and a thin coat of smooth mud plaster was often used as an internal wall

Andaman And Nicobar Islands, The people

2005-02-24T06:33:00.000-08:00

The Nicobarese probably descend from both Malay and Myanmar (Mon or Talaing) peoples. Their dialects belong to the Mon-Khmer language group; English, Burmese, and Hindustani also are spoken. Most of the population is Hindu, although Christianity has been widely adopted and there is also a significant Muslim minority. The coconut and betel nut are major crops, and yams

Topelius, Zacharias

2005-02-23T00:21:00.000-08:00

Topelius joined the faculty of the University of Helsinki as professor of Finnish history in 1864; he served as university president, 1875–78. Though he published five collections of lyrics, he is best known for F

Mineral, Halides

2005-02-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

Members of this class are distinguished by the large-sized anions of the halogens chlorine, bromine, iodine, and fluorine. The ions carry a charge of negative one and easily become distorted in the presence of strongly charged bodies. When associated with rather large, weakly polarizing cations of low charge, such as those of the alkali metals, both anions and cations

Tsvet, Mikhail Semyonovich

2005-02-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

Tsvet studied in Geneva, Switz., receiving his doctorate in 1896, and in 1901 he received a degree from the

Florence

2005-02-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

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

Lustenau

2005-02-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

Town, Vorarlberg Bundesland (federal state), western Austria, on the Rhine River, just west of Dornbirn. First mentioned in 887, it later became an imperial free city (until 1803) and passed to Austria in 1814. A customs station on the Swiss border, Lustenau has a well-known embroidery industry and manufactures textiles and metal products. Pop. (1991) 18,579.

Loreto

2005-02-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

Loreto lies almost entirely in the Amazonian rain forest at an average elevation of about 500 ft (152 m). The climate is hot and humid, with heavy rainfall. The Ucayali River

Furniture, Spain: 17th century

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

The Golden Age of Spain during the 17th century also left its mark on the chair. Paintings show a type of chair with a relatively crude wooden frame; a back and seat, nailed on, consisting of two layers of leather, with horsehair stuffing in between, stitched to produce a pattern of small pads. The front board and a corresponding board at the back could be folded after loosening

Alicante

2005-02-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

The provincia's principal

Wesleyan Church

2005-02-18T04:10:00.000-08:00

U.S. Protestant church, organized in 1968 by the merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church. The Wesleyan Methodist Church originated in 1843 after members of the Methodist Episcopal Church withdrew from that church to organize a nonepiscopal, antislavery church. The Pilgrim Holiness Church originated in 1897 by uniting several Holiness

Factor, Max, Jr.

2005-02-17T02:12:00.000-08:00

(FRANCIS FACTOR), U.S. cosmetician who, with his father, developed Pan-Cake makeup so actors would not appear green in colour motion pictures and, when it began to be worn offscreen as well, mass-produced it and built their company into an international cosmetics empire (b. Aug. 18, 1904--d. June 7, 1996).

Malay

2005-02-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

The Malay were once probably a people of coastal

Baïf, Jean-antoine De

2005-02-15T21:47:00.000-08:00

Baïf received a classical education and in 1547 went with Pierre de Ronsard to study under Jean Dorat at the Collège de Coqueret, Paris, where they planned, with Joachim du Bellay, to transform French poetry by imitating the ancients and the Italians.

Shiba Kokan

2005-02-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

Kokan studied painting first with a teacher of the Kano school, in which Chinese themes and techniques were stressed, and then took

Libya, Settlement patterns

2005-02-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

Libya is divided into three regions—the western region (formerly Tripolitania province), the eastern region (formerly Cyrenaica province), and the southern region (formerly Fezzan province). Two-thirds of the population lives in the western region, the majority in Tripoli and other cities along the coast and on the Nafusah Plateau. About 20 percent of the people live in

Staffordshire Moorlands

2005-02-13T00:13:00.000-08:00

District, administrative and historic county of Staffordshire, central England, directly east of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Staffordshire Moorlands includes part of the Peak District National Park in the northeast, where it is characterized by many bleak gritstone and limestone moorlands. Within the southern extremity of the Pennines, the moorlands extend

Cohort Analysis

2005-02-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

Method used in studies to describe an aggregate of individuals having in common a significant event in their life histories, such as year of birth (birth cohort) or year of marriage (marriage cohort). The concept of cohort is useful because occurrence rates of various forms of behaviour are often influenced by the length of time elapsed since the event defining the

Man Orchid

2005-02-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

The flower spike, about 10 to 45 cm (4 to 18 inches) tall, may bear up to 90 greenish or yellowish flowers, which have an unpleasant odour.

Kuei-yang

2005-02-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Originally

Cartwright, Sir Richard John

2005-02-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Already a successful businessman, Cartwright was elected to the Parliament of the united province of Canada as an independent Conservative

Harald I

2005-02-09T04:40:00.000-08:00

He was the son of Gorm the Old, the first significant figure in a new royal line centred at Jelling (North Jutland). Harald completed the country's unification begun by his father, converted the Danes to Christianity, and conquered Norway. After Harald's Baptism (c. 960) his father's pagan

Novalis

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

Novalis was born into a family of Protestant Lower Saxon nobility and took his pseudonym from “de Novali,” a name his family had formerly used. Young Novalis studied law at the University of Jena

Eliot, T.s.

2005-02-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

In full Thomas Stearns Eliot American-English poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor, a leader of the modernist movement in poetry in such works as The Waste Land (1922) and The Four Quartets (1943). Eliot exercised a strong influence on Anglo-American culture from the 1920s until late in the century. His experiments in diction, style, and versification revitalized English

Refugees: Asylum In The U.s.

2005-02-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

In January the U.S. Coast Guard formed a flotilla around Haiti to stop refugees from fleeing to the United States. In the same month, Zoë Baird's nomination as attorney general was scrapped because she had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny. In June a federal judge ruled that some 270 HIV-positive Haitians already granted political asylum had to be released from an

Kabila, Joseph

2005-02-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

On Jan. 26, 2001, Joseph Kabila was inaugurated as the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He was the eldest son of the former president, Laurent Kabila, who had been shot by a bodyguard and apparently killed on January 16, although the death was not announced until two days later. (See Obituaries.) The son—named interim president on January 17 and subsequently chosen

Andisol

2005-02-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

One of the 12 soil orders in the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. Andisols are defined by the single property of having volcanic-ash parent material. Although these soils exist in all climatic regions, they account for less than 0.75 percent of all the nonpolar continental land area on Earth. Approximately reproducing the geographic distribution of volcanoes, they are found along the

Rhythm And Blues

2005-02-06T04:16:00.000-08:00

Also called rhythm & blues or R&B term used for several types of postwar African-American popular music, as well as for some white rock music derived from it. The term was coined by Jerry Wexler in 1947, when he was editing the charts at the trade journal Billboard and found that the record companies issuing black popular music considered the chart names then in use (Harlem Hit Parade, Sepia, Race) to be demeaning.

Eliot, T.s.

2005-02-05T06:17:00.000-08:00

Eliot was descended from a distinguished New England family that had relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. His family allowed him the widest education available in his time, with no influence from his father to be “practical” and to go into business. From Smith Academy in St. Louis he went to Milton, in Massachusetts; from Milton he entered Harvard in 1906; he received a B.A. in 1909, after

Abel, Rudolf (ivanovich)

2005-02-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

Genrich Fischer (or Fisher), Abel's father and a friend of

Heng-yang

2005-02-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

Heng-yang has been a communication centre since early times, being on the ancient post road from Ch'ang-sha into Kwangtung province

Cambodia

2005-02-03T05:22:00.000-08:00

Khmer Kampuchea, French Cambodge, formerly (to 1970) Kingdom of Cambodia, (1970–76) Khmer Republic, (1976–79) Democratic Kampuchea, or (1979–89) People's Republic of Kampuchea, country lying in the southwestern Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia. Covering a land area of 70,238 square miles (181,916 square kilometres), it is bordered on the west and northwest by Thailand, on the northeast by Laos, on the east and southeast by Vietnam, and on the southwest by the Gulf of Thailand. The capital is Phnom Penh.

Cancer

2005-02-02T21:30:00.000-08:00

In astrology, Cancer is the

Medicine, Drug research

2005-02-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

The administration of any medicament, especially a new drug, to a patient is fundamentally an experiment: so is a surgical operation, particularly if it involves a modification to an established technique or a completely new procedure. Concern for the patient, careful observation, accurate recording, and a detached mind are the keys to this kind of investigation,

Mccardle, Ex Parte

2005-02-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

William H. McCardle was a Mississippi editor who was arrested and jailed for sedition after criticizing both the local Union military commander and Congress. He was denied the benefit

Nicholas V

2005-01-31T03:40:00.000-08:00

Original name Tommaso Parentucelli influential Renaissance pope (reigned 1447–55) and founder of the Vatican Library. Soon after his election, he brought to an end the schism caused by rivalries between popes and councils. By 1455 he had restored peace to the Papal States and to Italy. He began a program for the rebuilding of many of Rome's architectural wonders, including St. Peter's

European Plain

2005-01-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest uninterrupted expanses of plain on the Earth's surface. It sweeps from the Pyrenees Mountains on the French-Spanish border across northern Europe to the Ural Mountains in Russia. In western Europe the plain is comparatively narrow, rarely exceeding 200 miles (320 kilometres) in width, but as it stretches eastward it broadens steadily until it reaches

Tie Rubbing

2005-01-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization t'ieh imprint taken from calligraphy engraved on stone or wood. The practice emerged in the Tang dynasty (618–907) as a method of studying the style of earlier calligraphers and developed into an important related art form in itself. The rubbings served as models for copying and training. Calligraphers during the Song dynasty (960–1279) became especially interested in the aesthetic principles

Wells, Charles Jeremiah

2005-01-29T02:25:00.000-08:00

As a young man, Wells was a member of the poet John

Frey, Adolf

2005-01-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

As a biographer Frey showed a predilection for rich character studies in the manner of the 19th-century realists. Because he knew many writers and painters when he was a professor

Género Chico

2005-01-27T18:01:00.000-08:00

(Spanish: “little genre”), Spanish literary genre of light dramatic or operatic one-act playlets, as contrasted with the género grande of serious drama or opera. Developed primarily in the theatres of Madrid during the later 19th century, género chico works usually dealt with Madrid's lower classes, whose way of life was regarded with mingled sentimentality and satiric

Yambol

2005-01-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Jambol town, east-central Bulgaria, on the Tundzha (Tundja) River. North of the present town are the ruins of Kabyle (or Cabyle), which originated as a Bronze Age settlement in the 2nd millennium BC and was conquered by the Macedonians under Philip II in 342–341 BC. Taken by Rome in 72 BC, Kabyle became a city in the Roman province of Thrace, governing the middle reaches of the Tundzha (ancient Tonsus)

Arginine

2005-01-25T13:55:00.000-08:00

An amino acid obtainable by hydrolysis of many common proteins but particularly abundant in protamines and histones, proteins associated with nucleic acids. First isolated from animal horn (1895), arginine plays an important role in mammals in the synthesis of urea, the principal form in which these species excrete nitrogen. Arginine is one of several nonessential

Köchel, Ludwig (alois Ferdinand), Ritter Von

2005-01-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

The son of a treasury official, Köchel took a doctorate

Storstrøm

2005-01-25T01:37:00.000-08:00

Amtskommune (county), Denmark, created in 1970 from the former counties of Maribo and Præstø. It has an area of 1,311 square miles (3,396 square km). The southernmost part of Denmark, the county embraces southeastern Zealand (Sjælland); Lolland, Falster, and Møn islands; and several islets. Impressive limestone cliffs occur at Stevns Klint and Møns Klint on Zealand. Fertile clay loams support

Shah Shoja'

2005-01-24T06:29:00.000-08:00

Shoja' ascended the throne in 1803 after a long fratricidal war. In 1809 he concluded an alliance with the British against an expected Franco-Russian invasion of India but, the following year, was overthrown by his

Crichton, Charles Ainslie

2005-01-23T17:36:00.000-08:00

British film director who achieved near-legendary status with a series of classic comedies he made for Ealing Studios in the 1940s and '50s, notably Hue and Cry (1947), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953); by the 1960s he had retreated to directing for television, but he made a triumphant big-screen comeback—and garnered an Academy Award nomination—for A Fish Called

Arzamas

2005-01-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

City, Nizhegorod oblast (province), southwestern Russia, on the Tesha River, a tributary of the Oka River. First mentioned in a manuscript in 1366 and again in 1552, Arzamas was chartered in 1578. Agricultural equipment and food processing are the main economic activities, and there are two technical colleges devoted to agricultural studies. Between 1802 and 1862 the first Russian provincial

Juan Carlos

2005-01-22T01:54:00.000-08:00

Juan Carlos was the grandson of the last king, Alfonso XIII, who left Spain in 1931 and died in exile 10 years later, after renouncing his rights in favour of his third son, Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, conde de