OppositeChain

Hagia Sophia

2005-03-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

Also called Church Of The Holy Wisdom, Turkish Ayasofya, cathedral built at Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. It is a unique building and one of the world's great monuments, despite time's ravages. The structure, a domed basilica, was built in the amazingly short time of about six years, being completed in AD 537. The architects were Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus.

Mahavihara

2005-03-30T00:57:00.000-08:00

Buddhist monastery founded in the late 3rd century BCE in Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka). The monastery was built by the Sinhalese king Devanampiya Tissa not long after his conversion to Buddhism by the Indian monk Mahendra. Until about the 10th century, it was a great cultural and religious centre and the chief stronghold of Theravada

Sigebert Of Gembloux

2005-03-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

After receiving

Hyderabad

2005-03-28T04:26:00.000-08:00

The city, administrative headquarters of the district, lies on the most northerly hill of the Ganjo Takkar ridge, just east of the Indus River. The third largest city in Pakistan, it is a communications centre, connected by rail with Peshawar and Karachi and with Indian railways via the border towns of Khokhropar and

Babel, Tower Of

2005-03-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

In biblical literature, structure built in the land of Shinar (Babylonia) some time after the Deluge. The story of its construction, given in Genesis 11:1–9, appears to be an attempt to explain the existence of diverse human languages. According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and a tower “with its top in the heavens.” God

Silla

2005-03-26T01:14:00.000-08:00

One of the three kingdoms of ancient Korea and the one that in 668 unified Korea under the Unified Silla dynasty (q.v.; 668–935). Silla is traditionally believed to have been founded by Hyokkose in 57 BC. By the 2nd century AD, a distinct confederation of local tribes was definitely in existence in the southeastern portion of the Korean peninsula. With the establishment of the hereditary monarchy

Udi-nsukka Plateau

2005-03-25T21:03:00.000-08:00

Pair of plateaus in south-central Nigeria that form a nearly continuous elevated area. The Nsukka Plateau, which forms the main eastward-facing escarpment, extends about 80 miles (130 km) from Nsukka in the north to Enugu in the south. The Udi Plateau continues southward for about 100 miles (160 km) to a point near Okigwi. The average elevation is slightly more than 1,000 feet (300 m), and the highest

Ogbomosho

2005-03-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

Town, Oyo state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies on the Plateau of Yorubaland (elevation 1,200 feet [366 m]) in an area of savanna and farmland and at the intersection of roads from Oyo, Ilorin, Oshogbo, and Ikoyi. Founded in the mid-17th century, it remained a minor outpost of the Yoruba Oyo empire until the beginning of the Muslim Fulani conquests of Oyo in the early 19th century. By surviving

Byrnes, James F.

2005-03-24T22:55:00.000-08:00

A self-taught lawyer, Byrnes entered public life in

Gray, Elisha

2005-03-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

Gray invented a number of telegraphic devices and in 1869 was one of two partners who founded what became Western Electric Company. On Feb. 14, 1876, the day that Bell filed an application for a patent for a telephone, Gray

Line Islands

2005-03-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

The Line Islands extend 1,600 miles (2,600 km) northwestward from French Polynesia. They have a land area of 193 square miles (500 square km) and are divided into Northern, Central, and Southern groups.

Lancaster

2005-03-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

Lancaster grew on the site of a Roman station, and traces of the Roman fortification walls remain. In the 11th century a feudal landowner, Roger of Poitou, founded or enlarged a castle on an eminence there and also

Alabama

2005-03-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

Constituent state of the United States of America. Admitted as the 22nd state in 1819, Alabama comprises 51,705 square miles (133,915 square kilometres) forming a roughly rectangular shape, elongated in a north–south direction. Tennessee is the bordering state to the north, Georgia to the east, and Mississippi to the west. The Florida panhandle blocks Alabama's access to the Gulf of Mexico

Alabama, The antebellum period

2005-03-21T06:58:00.000-08:00

Alabama was established as a separate territory in 1817 and became a state in 1819. By 1820 Alabama's population was more than 125,000, including about 500 free blacks. By 1830 there were 300,000 residents, 38 percent of them slaves, and cotton was the principal money crop. Until the Civil War, domestic politics centred on the removal of the Indians, land policy, the banking system, and the question of slavery. The

Calculus Of Variations

2005-03-20T09:43:00.000-08:00

The isoperimetric problem—that of finding,

Ghanzi

2005-03-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

The surrounding area comprises state-owned

Textile, Basic weaves

2005-03-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

The basic weaves include plain (or tabby), twills, and satins (see Figure 7).

Outer Banks

2005-03-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

Also called the Banks chain of barrier islands extending southward more than 175 miles (280 km) along the coast of North Carolina, U.S., from Back Bay, Virginia, to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. From north to south they comprise Currituck Banks; Bodie, Hatteras, Ocracoke, and Portsmouth islands; and North Core, South Core, and Shackleford banks. The Outer Banks form a bowlike arc that curves southeastward

Arrau

2005-03-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

This species, known in Brazil as tartaruga da Amazonia, can attain a shell

Epicharmus

2005-03-18T15:22:00.000-08:00

Many of

Arnhem

2005-03-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

German Arnheim, gemeente (municipality) and capital (1794), Gelderland provincie (province), eastern Netherlands, on the north bank of the Lower Rhine (Neder Rijn) River. Possibly the site of the Roman settlement of Arenacum, it was first mentioned in 893. Chartered and fortified in 1233 by Otto II, count of Geldern, it joined the Hanseatic League in 1443. As the residence of the dukes of Geldern, it was often

Computers, Commodore and Tandy enter the field

2005-03-17T06:08:00.000-08:00

The next year, another established company entered the

Sufetula

2005-03-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

At Sufetula, as elsewhere in the interior of Tunisia, Roman skill in the conservation

Theism

2005-03-15T05:41:00.000-08:00

Theism's view of God can be clarified by contrasting it with that of deism, of pantheism, and of mysticism. Deism closely resembles theism; but for the deist, God is not involved in the world in the same personal way. He has made

Conductus

2005-03-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

In the 13th century the conductus was one of three genres that dominated French polyphonic music. Unlike the organum and the motet, however, which were based on preexisting chants,

Scalare

2005-03-14T22:07:00.000-08:00

Any of several popular aquarium fishes of the angelfish (q.v.) group.

Selkirk, Alexander

2005-03-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

The son of a shoemaker, Selkirk ran away to sea in 1695; he joined a band of buccaneers in the Pacific and by 1703 was sailing master of a galley on a privateering expedition. In September 1704, after a quarrel with his captain, he was put ashore at his own request

Haley, Bill

2005-03-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

If not the father of rock and roll, Haley is certainly one of its fathers. He cut his first record in 1948 and the next year settled into a job as a disc jockey in Chester, Pennsylvania. At the time his groups

Mauermayer, Gisela

2005-03-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

Mauermayer began participating in track-and-field competitions at the age of 13. By 1930 she was competing internationally, and in 1934 she won the first women's pentathlon, at the Women's

Jouvet, Louis

2005-03-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

Beginning as a pharmacist at his parents' wishes, he soon turned to his real interest, the theatre, and, after being refused admission several times to the Conservatoire in Paris because of his stuttering, made his Paris debut in

Race, The influence of Franz Boas

2005-03-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

Typological thinking about race, however, was soon contradicted by the works of some early 20th-century anthropologists. Franz Boas, for example, published studies that showed that morphological characteristics varied from generation to generation in the same population, that skeletal material such as the cranium was malleable and subject to external influences,

Ale

2005-03-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

Fermented malt beverage, full-bodied and somewhat bitter, with strong flavour of hops. Popular in England, where the term is now synonymous with beer, ale was until the late 17th century an unhopped brew of yeast, water, and malt, beer being the same brew with hops added. Modern ale, usually brewed with water rich in calcium sulfate, is made with top-fermenting yeast and processed

Xerxes I

2005-03-10T20:02:00.000-08:00

The basic work is still A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (1948, reissued 1985), a complex work, but one that contains the essentials. Charles Hignett, Xerxes' Invasion of Greece (1963), deals only with the relationships between Xerxes and Greece. Peter Green, Xerxes at Salamis (1970), discusses the Greco-Persian wars.

Vacuum Technology

2005-03-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

Capacities are available from 100 to 70,000 cu ft per minute, operating usually in the pressure range of 10 to 10-3 torr. The peak speed of the pump is developed in the pressure range of 1 to 10-2 torr, the speed at the lower end of the pressure range depending on the type of forepump used. A typical mechanical booster utilizes two figure-eight-shaped impellers, synchronized by external gears,

Orange

2005-03-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

The town has grown up around the Roman monuments for which it is famous. The semicircular theatre, probably built during the reign of the first Roman emperor, Augustus (27 BC–AD 14), is the best preserved of its kind. The tiered

Gadsden

2005-03-10T05:03:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1866) of Etowah county, northeastern Alabama, U.S. It is situated on the Coosa River in the Appalachian foothills, 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Birmingham. The original farming settlement was known as Double Springs, and the town was founded there in 1846 as a steamboat station. It was renamed for James Gadsden, who later negotiated the Gadsden Purchase (1853) of territory from Mexico.

Adelaer

2005-03-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

He entered the Dutch navy in 1639 as an adelborst (“cadet”) and served under Martin van Tromp but in 1642 moved into Venetian service, where he was known as Curzio Suffrido Adelborst. He soon distinguished himself and in 1650 was sent to patrol the Dardanelles.

Audiovisual Education

2005-03-08T11:42:00.000-08:00

Audiovisual education has developed rapidly since the 1920s by drawing on new technologies of communication, most recently the computer. History has shown that pictures, specimens, demonstrations,

China, The Chinese Communist Party

2005-03-08T03:16:00.000-08:00

The CCP grew directly from the May Fourth Movement. Its leaders and early members were professors and students who came to believe that China needed a social revolution and who began to see Soviet Russia as a model. Chinese students in Japan and France had earlier studied socialist doctrines and the ideas of Karl Marx, but the Russian Revolution of 1917 stimulated a fresh

Adamawa

2005-03-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

Traditional emirate centred in what is now Adamawa state, eastern Nigeria. The emirate was founded by Modibbo Adama, who was one of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio's commanders and who began a Fulani jihad (holy war) in 1809 against the non-Muslim peoples of the region. Adama moved the capital of his kingdom, which was then known as Fumbina, several times before settling it finally in

Biblical Literature, Nahum

2005-03-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

He begins with the

Yukata

2005-03-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

It has become accepted practice to wear a yukata on the street on warm summer evenings. Japanese inns and many hotels supply their guests with yukatas for

Eadric Streona

2005-03-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Eadric's origins. His appointment to the office of ealdorman was probably an attempt by Ethelred to unite south-central England under one command. He is generally considered

Arnulf

2005-03-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

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

Consistory

2005-03-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

(from Latin consistorium, “assembly place”), a gathering of ecclesiastical persons for the purpose of administering justice or transacting business, particularly meetings of the Sacred College of Cardinals with the pope as president. From the 11th century, when the institution of the cardinalate became more important, the Sacred College of Cardinals, assembled in

Aretaeus Of Cappadocia

2005-03-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Greek physician from Cappadocia who practiced in Rome and Alexandria, led a revival of Hippocrates' teachings, and is thought to have ranked second only to the father of medicine himself in the application of keen observation and ethics to the art. In principle he adhered to the pneumatic school of medicine, which believed that health was maintained by

Aram, Eugene

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

In 1745, when Aram was schoolmaster at Knaresborough, a man named Daniel Clark, his intimate friend, after obtaining a considerable quantity of goods from tradesmen, disappeared.

Zanardelli, Giuseppe

2005-03-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

A combatant in the volunteer corps during the war of 1848, he returned to Brescia

Spice Trade

2005-03-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, and turmeric were known to Eastern peoples thousands of years ago, and they became important items of commerce early in the evolution of trade. Cinnamon and cassia found their way to the Middle East at least 2,000 years

C.m.g.

2005-03-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

Companion of St. Michael and St. George, member of a British order of knighthood, though this class of the order does not confer knighthood. See Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Distinguished Order of.

Arinos River

2005-03-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

Portuguese Rio Arinos, river, west-central Brazil. It rises in the Araporé Mountains northeast of Diamantino and flows west for a short distance and then north-northwest across the Mato Grosso Plateau to its junction with the Juruena River, which is a major headstream of the Tapajós River.

Annaberg-buchholz

2005-03-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

Town, east-central Germany, high in the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge), near the Czech border. It was formed in 1945 by the union of Annaberg (chartered 1497) and Buchholz (chartered 1501), both of which were founded as silver-mining settlements. With the decline of mining and smelting in the 16th century, the pillow-lace industry was introduced in 1561 and became, with related manufactures, the principal

Pembroke Table

2005-02-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

Light, drop-leaf table designed for occasional use, probably deriving its name from Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke (1693–1751), a noted connoisseur and amateur architect. The table has two drawers and flaps on either side that can be raised by brackets on hinges (known as “elbows”) to increase its size. Usually provided with casters (it was often used for bedside meals), the legs of

Pacific Islands, The island ecosystem

2005-02-27T08:51:00.000-08:00

To know what it is like to live on a Pacific island, the intermixture of physical and biological characteristics of the particular island must be considered. Each of the myriad ecological systems in the Pacific is a unique complex of living organisms and their nonliving environment. Each is a functional system of interacting components that tends toward an equilibrium

Eam-elas

2005-02-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation of Greek Ethnikón Apeleftherotikón Métopon-ethnikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Strátos , English National Liberation Front-National Popular Liberation Army communist-sponsored resistance organization (formed September 1941) and its military wing (formed December 1942), which operated in occupied Greece during World War II. Fighting against the Germans and the Italians as well as against other guerrilla bands, particularly EDES (q.v.), EAM-ELAS became the most powerful guerrilla band in the country. It also established an effective

Quince

2005-02-27T03:18:00.000-08:00

Fruit tree of the genus Cydonia, of the rose family (Rosaceae). The much-branched shrubs or small trees have entire leaves with small stipules and bear large, solitary, white or pink flowers like those of the pear or apple but with leafy calyx lobes and a many-celled ovary, in each cell of which are numerous horizontal ovules. The fruits may be round and flattened or somewhat

Turkestan

2005-02-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

Kazakh Türkistan city, southern Kazakhstan, in the Syr Darya plain. An ancient centre of the caravan trade, it was known as Shavgar and later as Yasi. It became a religious centre known as Khazret (Hazrat) because of the 12th-century Sufi (Muslim mystic) Ahmed Yesevi, whose 14th-century mausoleum is the city's chief monument; a notable example of Timurid architecture, the structure was made a World

Deville, édouard Gaston (daniel)

2005-02-26T13:51:00.000-08:00

Deville served in the French navy, conducting hydrographic surveys in the South Sea islands, Peru, and elsewhere until 1874. He then went to Canada, where he

Einsteinium

2005-02-26T03:12:00.000-08:00

(Es), synthetic chemical element of the actinide series in Group IIIb of the periodic table, atomic number 99. Not occurring in nature, einsteinium (as the isotope einsteinium-253), produced by intense neutron irradiation of uranium-238, was identified in December 1952 by Albert Ghiorso and co-workers at Berkeley, Calif., in debris taken from the first thermonuclear or hydrogen-bomb

Uijongbu

2005-02-24T01:57:00.000-08:00

City, Kyonggi do (province), north western South Korea. Uijongbu lies 12 miles (20 km) north of Seoul. Its name, meaning “the Cabinet” in old Korean, derives from its being the temporary site of the Cabinet office during the Choson (Yi) dynasty (1392–1910). The city was formerly the market centre for agricultural products grown in the surrounding area. It developed rapidly after the Korean War (1950–53) as

Anastasius Sinaita, Saint

2005-02-24T00:50:00.000-08:00

Theologian and abbot of the Monastery of St. Catherine, on Mt. Sinai, whose writings, public disputes with various heretical movements in Egypt and Syria, and polemics against the Jews made him in his day a foremost advocate of orthodox Christian doctrine, specifically on the person and work of Christ, and provided key documents for the history

Pereskia

2005-02-23T17:20:00.000-08:00

P. pititache, the native Mexican

Caldecott Medal

2005-02-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

Annual prize awarded “to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.” It was established in 1938 by Frederic G. Melcher, chairman of the board of the R.R. Bowker Publishing Company, and named for the 19th-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is presented at the annual conference of the American Library Association along with the

Res Judicata

2005-02-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

It has long been held that one judicial contest is enough for the litigants on

Amirante Isles

2005-02-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

Group of coral islands in the western Indian Ocean, lying about 200 miles (320 km) southwest of the Seychelles group and forming, with the Seychelles and other islands, the Republic of Seychelles. The Amirante Isles were known to Persian Gulf traders centuries ago and were sighted by the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama on his second voyage to India, in 1502, but they are still

Ahmed Ii

2005-02-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

Soon after his accession to the throne, Ahmed's forces were defeated by the Austrians at Slankamen, Hung. The able grand vizier (chief minister) Köprülü Fazil Mustafa Pasa died in the battle, and the Ottomans suffered substantial territorial

Ramathibodi I

2005-02-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Ramathibodi's early career, but he is thought to have been related to the ruling family of the principality of Lop Buri and to have married the daughter of the ruler of U Thong (now Suphan Buri) in central Siam. He succeeded to the throne of U Thong in about 1347 and moved

K.c.m.g.

2005-02-20T03:55:00.000-08:00

Knight commander of St. Michael and St. George, member of the second highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Distinguished Order of.

Gabon, History Of

2005-02-20T02:30:00.000-08:00

Little is known about the history of the Gabon region prior to the arrival of the first Portuguese navigators in the Gabon Estuary in 1472, for the Bantu-speaking peoples inhabiting the region lacked writing. At that time portions of southern Gabon were loosely linked to the state of Loango, which in turn formed a province of the vast Kongo kingdom. From the offshore islands

Triggerfish

2005-02-19T16:09:00.000-08:00

Any of about 30 species of shallow-water marine fishes of the family Balistidae, found worldwide in tropical seas. Triggerfishes are rather deep-bodied, usually colourful fishes with large scales, small mouths, and high-set eyes. Their common name refers to the triggering mechanism in the first two of their three dorsal fin spines. The first spine can

Paul Of Samosata

2005-02-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

Paul

Culteranismo

2005-02-18T17:04:00.000-08:00

To some extent an elaboration of the poetic practice of Louis de Góngora, the theory of culteranismo was elaborated by Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor in Libro de la erudición poé

Thompson

2005-02-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

City, north-central Manitoba, Canada. It lies along the Burntwood River, in the Mystery-Moak lakes area, 130 miles (210 km) north of Lake Winnipeg. Planned in 1956 by the International Nickel Company of Canada and named for John F. Thompson, the company chairman, the community was completed in 1961. Its integrated nickel mining-smelting-refining plant was the first in the Western Hemisphere.

Staircase

2005-02-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

The origin of the staircase is uncertain. On the road up Tai Shan (mountain) in China there are many great flights of ancient granite steps; the earliest staircases seem to have been built with walls on both

Vakataka Dynasty

2005-02-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

Indian ruling house originating in the central Deccan in the mid-3rd century AD, the empire of which is believed to have extended from Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra in the south and from the Arabian Sea in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east. The Vakatakas, like many of the contemporary dynasties of the Deccan, claimed Brahmanical origin. Little is known,

Polarography

2005-02-15T03:44:00.000-08:00

In general, polarography is a technique in which the electric potential (or voltage) is varied in a regular manner between two sets of electrodes (indicator and reference) while the current is monitored.

Arts, Native American, Gourd rattles

2005-02-14T17:16:00.000-08:00

Agriculture introduced the gourd rattle, which is always shaken by the dancer or singer, never worn. Its shapes and sizes are as varied as those of the squash and gourd, and it is ornamented with ingenuity. The Arizona Papago shaman, sometimes the Iroquois and Cherokee, leaves the stem on as a handle. Usually a wooden handle is inserted, perhaps decorated with beads or

Khanty And Mansi

2005-02-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

Their present-day territory

Algebraic Geometry, Definition of a field

2005-02-14T00:49:00.000-08:00

A set of elements (e.g., a, b, and c) with two laws of composition, addition and multiplication, that obey the rules A, B, and C is called a field. Other examples of fields are the rational numbers (integers as well as all numbers obtainable as ratios of integers that are not zero, together with field properties, constituting the field Q), and the integers modulo a prime number p (the integers

Thun Und Hohenstein, Leo, Count (graf) Von

2005-02-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

Pro-Czech Austrian statesman and administrator who improved the educational establishments of the Austrian Empire, sought to resolve the antagonisms between Czechs and Germans in Bohemia, and favoured the conversion of the Habsburg monarchy into a federal

Allston, Robert (francis Withers)

2005-02-11T03:08:00.000-08:00

Rice planter and governor of South Carolina whose papers, South Carolina Rice Plantation, provide important agricultural, political, and social information about the pre-Civil War South. By scientifically draining and reclaiming swamps in his state, he developed one of the last great rice plantations in the Atlantic

Earth Sciences

2005-02-11T01:57:00.000-08:00

The origins of the Earth sciences lie in the myths and legends of the distant past. The creation story, which can be traced to a Babylonian epic of the 22nd century BC and which is told in the first chapter of Genesis, has proved most influential. The story is cast in the form of Earth history and thus was readily accepted as an embodiment of scientific as well as of theological

Nepal

2005-02-10T05:40:00.000-08:00

Officially Kingdom of Nepal , Nepali Nepal Adhirajya country of Asia, lying along the southern slopes of the Himalayan mountain ranges. It is a landlocked country located between India to the east, south, and west and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north. Its territory, which has an area of 56,827 square miles (147,181 square kilometres), extends roughly 500 miles (800 kilometres) from east to west and 90 to 150 miles from north to south. The

Switzerland, Leisure

2005-02-10T01:21:00.000-08:00

Living in close proximity to the mountains, which are well linked by road and rail to the urban areas, the Swiss have become extremely sport-conscious and have encouraged the growth of skiing and mountaineering as tourist attractions. Other sports include Swiss-style wrestling, gymnastics, regular Sunday-morning shooting, Hornussen (a kind of Alpine baseball), tennis,

Stedelijk Museum

2005-02-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

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

Gymkhana

2005-02-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Originally in 19th-century India and England, a display of athletics and equestrian events; in the 20th century, also a form of automobile sport in which a series of events is planned to test driving skill and demonstrate accurate car handling. Auto gymkhanas usually are held on parking lots on which a series of short but intricate courses are laid out. A typical event is

Avery, Tex

2005-02-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

Avery's only formal art training consisted of a three-month course at the Art Institute of Chicago during the late 1920s. He began his animation career in 1929 for cartoon producer Walter Lantz at Universal

Carter, Maybelle

2005-02-06T03:47:00.000-08:00

By the time she was 12, Maybelle Addington was well versed in the traditional hill-country songs of the region and had become a skilled and original guitarist and autoharpist. When she was 17 she

Hungarian Language

2005-02-05T03:25:00.000-08:00

The language has been written in a modified

Race, Enlightenment philosophers and taxonomists

2005-02-05T00:12:00.000-08:00

The development of the idea and ideology of race coincided with the rise of science in American and European cultures. Much of the inspiration for the growth of science has been credited to the period known as the Enlightenment that spanned most of the 18th century. Many early Enlightenment writers believed in the power of education and fostered very liberal ideals

Mahakavya

2005-02-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

In its classical form, a mahakavya consists of a variable number of comparatively short cantos, each composed in a metre appropriate to its particular subject matter. The subject matter of the mahakavya is

Lorengau

2005-02-04T01:57:00.000-08:00

Town, northeastern Manus Island, in the Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea. It lies on Seeadler Harbour. Captured by the Japanese in 1942, the settlement was retaken by Allied forces in 1944 and eventually became part of a large U.S. naval and air base. As a port, the town handles the local copra production. Pop. (1990 prelim.) 4,547.

Slobozia

2005-02-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Ialomita judet (county), southeastern Romania. It lies along the Ialomita River in the middle of the Baragan Plain. The town was built on what remained of the Roman settlement of Netindava. It is a collecting and marketing centre for a rich agricultural region in which cereals and cattle predominate. Amara is a bathing and health resort lying just to the north.

Mahayana

2005-02-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

(Sanskrit: Greater Vehicle), one of the two major Buddhist traditions and the form most widely adhered to in China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet. Mahayana Buddhism emerged in about the 1st century AD from the ancient Buddhist schools as a more liberal and innovative interpretation of the Buddha's teachings. Mahayanists distinguished themselves from the more orthodox conservative

Rin-chen-bzang-po

2005-02-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Richen Zampo Tibetan Buddhist monk, called the “Great Translator,” known primarily for his extensive translations of Indian Buddhist texts into Tibetan, thus furthering the subsequent development of Buddhism in Tibet. First sent to India in the late 10th century under Tibetan royal patronage, Rin-chen-bzang-po eventually succeeded in bringing back to Tibet a number of Indian

China, The Hsi (Western) Chin (AD 265316/317)

2005-02-01T00:46:00.000-08:00

This was a period of relative order and prosperity, a short interlude between the turbulent age of the San-kuo and the devastating barbarian invasions. The empire had been nominally reunited (AD 280), and for a short time the central government attempted important fiscal and political reforms, mainly intended to curb the great families, which threatened the ruler's authority.

Vafiades, Markos

2005-01-31T21:57:00.000-08:00

Vafiades worked as a labourer in Istanbul and fled to Greece as a refugee in 1923. He became a communist in his teens and fought with the partisans against the Germans

Suffren De Saint-tropez, Pierre André De

2005-01-31T16:48:00.000-08:00

A Knight of Malta, Suffren de Saint-Tropez served under Admiral C.H. d'Estaing in America and was sent to assist French military operations in India in 1781. In a remarkable series of engagements with British Admiral

Gwandu

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

Originally settled by the Kebbawa, a subgroup of the Hausa people, the town was named for the surrounding gandu (“royal farmlands”) that formerly belonged to Muhammadu Kanta, who founded the Kebbi kingdom in the 16th century. Although Fulani

Bonaparte, Jérôme

2005-01-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

A member of the consular guard