ResponsibleCloud

Xerxes I

2005-04-05T03:57:00.000-07:00

Old Persian Khshayarsha , byname Xerxes The Great Persian king (486–465 BC), the son and successor of Darius I. He is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont (480 BC), a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. His ultimate defeat spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenid Empire.

Norway, Political and social change

2005-03-31T10:09:00.000-08:00

After the liberation in 1945 a coalition government was formed under the leadership of Einar Gerhardsen. The general election in the autumn of 1945 gave the DNA a decisive majority, and a purely Labour government was formed with Gerhardsen as prime minister. The DNA governed almost continuously from 1945 to 1965. Haakon VII died in 1957 and was succeeded by his son, Olaf V. The Labour governments

Degrelle, Léon

2005-03-29T05:28:00.000-08:00

After failing three times to pass his final law exams at the University of Louvain, Degrelle, who was a dynamic orator, entered politics. Using banking scandals and the corruption of national parties as issues, he organized

Copeland, Charles Townsend

2005-03-27T17:05:00.000-08:00

Copeland was educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1882), and, after a year as a teacher at a boys' school in New Jersey and another at Harvard Law School, he was a drama critic and book reviewer for the Boston Advertiser and the Boston

Arnold, Henry Harley

2005-03-25T18:56:00.000-08:00

Arnold graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., (1907), and in 1911 received flying instruction from Orville Wright. He rose in the ranks of the Air Corps;

Hui-kuan

2005-03-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

The hui-kuan were originated at Peking by the provincial guild of the southern Chinese province of Kwangtung.

Biogeochemical Cycle

2005-03-22T09:46:00.000-08:00

Any of the natural circulation pathways of the essential elements of living matter. These elements in various forms flow from the nonliving (abiotic) to the living (biotic) components of the biosphere and back to the nonliving again. In order for the living components of a major ecosystem (e.g., a lake or forest) to survive, all the chemical elements that make up living cells

Porson, Richard

2005-03-20T03:11:00.000-08:00

British master of classical scholarship during the 18th century, the most brilliant of the English school that devoted itself to the task of freeing Greek texts from corruption introduced through the centuries. His special critical talent lay in his insight into Greek metre and his unusual appreciation of the fine points

Arabia, History Of, Struggle for leadership

2005-03-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

In Arabia offices were generally hereditary and elective; but on Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr, the first caliph, aided by his own eventual successor, 'Umar, gained the leadership that Quraysh might have lost to others. They were not of the house of Hashim, which, from the outset, felt cheated of its rights. 'Ali, Muhammad's stepbrother and son-in-law, became the focus of legitimist

Ben-zvi, Itzhak

2005-03-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

A Zionist from his youth, Ben-Zvi in 1905 helped form the Russian Poale Zion, a socialistically oriented Zionist group that set an important

Yi Sang-cha

2005-03-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yi was originally a slave in a scholar's household, but his great artistic talents soon came to the attention of the king, and he was admitted to the Korean Royal Academy and made a member of the middle class. He is known for his landscapes as well as for his portraits of the royal

Aeolic Dialect

2005-03-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

Any of several dialects of Ancient Greek that were spoken in Thessaly, Boeotia, and, after approximately 1000 Bc in Asiatic Aeolis, including the island of Lesbos, where Aeolian colonists from the mainland founded their cities. West Thessalian and especially Boeotian varieties of Aeolic were influenced by the neighbouring West Greek (Doric) dialects, whereas Asiatic Aeolic was influenced by Ionic. The Lesbian poets Alcaeus (c. 620–c. 580 BC) and Sappho (fl. c. 610–c. 580 BC) used their vernacular Asiatic

Mitchell, Margaret

2005-03-15T20:33:00.000-08:00

Mitchell attended Washington Seminary in her native Atlanta, Georgia, before enrolling at Smith College in 1918. When her mother died the next year, she returned home. Between 1922 and 1926 she was a writer and reporter for the Atlanta Journal. After an ankle injury in

Liger

2005-03-13T21:32:00.000-08:00

Offspring of a lion and a tigress. The liger is a zoo-bred hybrid, as is the tigon, the result of mating a tiger with a lioness. It is probable that neither the liger nor the tigon occurs in the wild, as differences in the behaviour and habitat of the lion and tiger make interbreeding unlikely. The liger and the tigon possess features of both parents, in variable proportions,

Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold

2005-03-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

Lenz studied theology at Königsberg University but gave up his studies in 1771 to travel to Strasbourg as a tutor and companion

Term

2005-03-10T20:54:00.000-08:00

In logic, the subject or predicate of a categorical proposition (q.v.), or statement. Aristotle so used the Greek word horos (“limit”), apparently by an analogy between the terms of a proportion and those of a syllogism. Terminus is the Latin translation of this word, used, for example, by the 5th-century Roman philosopher Boethius. Hence in medieval logic the word came to be used

Yamasaki, Minoru

2005-03-10T06:58:00.000-08:00

Following his graduation from the University of Washington, Seattle, Yamasaki went in 1934 to New York City, where he held a number of design positions

Floral Decoration

2005-03-08T23:40:00.000-08:00

Many different kinds of plant materials are used in floral decorations, among them flowers, foliage, grasses, grains, branches, berries, seeds, nuts, cones, fruits, and vegetables. The materials may be living, dried, or artificial. Initially, man was restricted to using native wildings, or uncultivated plants, but as civilization developed over a period of thousands of

Vulvitis

2005-03-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

Inflammation and infection of the vulva—the external genitalia of the female. The external organs of the vulva include the labia majora and minora (folds of skin), the clitoris, and the vestibular glands. The basic symptoms of vulvitis are superficial red, swollen, and moisture-laden lesions on the skin of the vulva. Itching sensations are a particularly prominent

Macdonald, Jacques, Duc De Tarente

2005-03-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

The son of a Scottish adherent of the exiled British Stuart dynasty, who had served in a Scots regiment in France, he joined the French army and was a colonel when the wars of the French Revolution broke out. He was promoted to general in 1793 and to general of division

Kirkwood, James

2005-03-05T22:28:00.000-08:00

As the son of silent film stars Lila Lee

Priesthood, Nonliterate cultures

2005-03-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

The office of priesthood in nonliterate society ranges from the medicine man, who magically manipulates the sacred power as a quasi-impersonal force, to the shaman, who, as an agent of divine or spiritual beings, may be at once a medicine man, a visionary, an occult diviner, and a genuine sacerdotal cult leader. Not infrequently, chiefs or headmen of a clan or village may

Hyannis

2005-03-02T01:40:00.000-08:00

Unincorporated village in Barnstable city, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the southern coast of Cape Cod. Its name is that of a local 17th-century Algonquian Indian chief. A popular summer beach and yachting resort with ferryboat services to Nantucket Island and Martha's Vineyard, it is one of the cape's main business centres and a shipping point for fish and cranberries.

Nadiad

2005-03-02T00:25:00.000-08:00

City, east-central Gujarat state, west-central India. It is situated in the lowlands between the Vindhya Range and the Gulf of Cambay (an extension of the Arabian Sea). Nadiad is a major industrial and commercial centre and a road and rail junction. Pop. (1991) 167,051.

Ma'at

2005-03-01T17:33:00.000-08:00

The ceremony of judgment of the dead (called the “Judgment of Osiris,” named for Osiris, the god of the dead) was believed to focus upon the weighing of the heart of the deceased in a scale balanced by Ma'at (or her

Karakol

2005-02-27T13:25:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1889–1921, 1939–91) Przhevalsk, city, eastern Ysyk-köl oblast (province), Kyrgyzstan, at the northern foot of the Terskey-Alatau Mountains at an elevation of 5,807 feet (1,770 m) on the Karakol River. The city was founded in 1869 as a Russian military and administrative outpost; it was renamed for the Russian explorer Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky, who died there in 1888. It has many food and other light industries, a teacher-training

Macdonald-wright, Stanton

2005-02-26T16:04:00.000-08:00

Painter and teacher who, with Morgan Russell, founded the movement known as Synchromism about 1912. Synchromism proclaimed colour to be the basis of expression in painting, and, although the movement was short-lived, it proved to be the first abstract art movement developed by American

Intendente

2005-02-25T23:42:00.000-08:00

Royal official appointed by the 18th-century kings of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. Modeled after the French intendants, the intendentes were to serve as instruments of royal centralization and administrative reform but were frequently resisted as conflicting with local privileges. In the Spanish colonies the system was imposed in Cuba (1765) after the brief British

Plumbing

2005-02-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

One of the problems of every civilization in which the population has been centralized in cities and towns has been

Butuan

2005-02-23T18:39:00.000-08:00

Chartered city, northern Mindanao, Philippines, on the Agusan River near its mouth at Butuan Bay. A major settlement in early Spanish times, Butuan was visited by ships from Borneo and Luzon, reportedly trading for gold, cinnamon, and slaves. A Jesuit mission station was established there in the late 16th century. It has become the main commercial centre for the Agusan

Vance, Cyrus

2005-02-23T00:17:00.000-08:00

Vance received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1939. Following graduation from the Yale law school in 1942, he enlisted in the navy and served until 1946, after which he joined a Wall

Caribbean Sea

2005-02-22T04:51:00.000-08:00

Suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between 9° to 22° N and 89° to 60° W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,754,000 square kilometres) in extent. To the south it is bounded by the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama; to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico; to the north by the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola,

Interior Design, Lighting

2005-02-20T13:39:00.000-08:00

Light is one of the key elements of interior design. Most interior spaces constructed in the 20th century are used as much with artificial light as with daylight; because of this lighting has become a very significant tool for the interior designer. There are three major aspects to lighting: function, aesthetics, and health. The latter factor is often ignored, but insufficient

Craiova

2005-02-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Dolj judet (county), southwestern Romania. It is situated near the Jiu River, 115 miles (185 km) west of Bucharest. Settlement there is of long standing. Close to the city archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Roman fortress built under Trajan. From the late 15th to the 18th century Craiova was the residence of the military governors of the region. The city prospered

Xenophon

2005-02-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

As a writer of prose, Xenophon ranked with his fellow historians Herodotus and Thucydides in the opinion of literary critics of antiquity and had a stronger influence on Latin literature than either. His works were translated into many European languages in the 16th century, and, until comparatively recently, his reputation stood high. He was the first journalist

Pig

2005-02-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

Wild or domestic swine, a mammal of the Suidae family. In Britain, the term pig refers to all domestic swine; in the United States, to younger swine not yet ready for market and weighing usually less than 82 kg (180 pounds), others being called hogs. Pigs are stout-bodied, short-legged, omnivorous mammals, with thick skins usually sparsely coated with short bristles. Their hooves

Muñoz, Juan

2005-02-17T02:10:00.000-08:00

Spanish sculptor (b. June 17, 1953, Madrid, Spain—d. Aug. 28, 2001, Ibiza, Spain), created moody and challenging installation artworks, most of which featured monochromatic human figures placed amid unnerving architectural spaces and often incorporating animatronics and sound. In 2000 Muñoz received Spain's highest cultural award, the Premio Nacional de Belles Artes. His last completed

Uto-aztecan Languages

2005-02-16T08:15:00.000-08:00

The languages

Dzhezkazgan

2005-02-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

Kazak Zhezqazghan , also spelled Dzezkazgan city, central Kazakstan, on a reservoir of the Kara-Kengir River. The city was created in 1938 in connection with the exploitation of the rich local copper deposits. In 1973 a large mining and metallurgical complex was constructed to the southeast to smelt the copper that until then had been sent elsewhere for processing. The city has a rail link with Qaraghandy. Its urban area

Interior Design, Renaissance to the end of the 18th century

2005-02-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

The Renaissance was a revival of the old classical styles, and it is not surprising that it first showed itself to a marked degree in Italy. The Gothic style had made comparatively little headway in Italy, where it was regarded as barbarous except in some of the more northerly towns, such as Milan and Venice. The style had more or less coincided with a period of primitive

Adam, Robert

2005-02-12T11:58:00.000-08:00

Scottish architect and designer who, with his brother James (1730–94), transformed Palladian Neoclassicism in England into the airy, light, elegant style that bears their name. His major architectural works include public buildings (especially in London), and his designs were used for the interiors of such country mansions as Syon

Zand Dynasty

2005-02-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

Following the death of the Afsharid ruler Nader Shah (1747), Karim Khan Zand became one of the major contenders for power. By 1750 he had sufficiently consolidated his power to proclaim himself as vakil (regent) for the Safavid Esma'il III. Karim Khan never claimed the title of shahanshah (“king of kings”); instead he maintained Esma'il as a figurehead. Karim

Bloodhound

2005-02-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

Breed of dog unsurpassed by any other in scenting ability and from which most of the scent-hunting hounds have been derived. It was known, although not in its present form, in the Mediterranean area in pre-Christian times. Typically calm and affectionate, it has been used in tracking animals and in trailing persons. A large, strong dog, it stands 23 to 27 inches (58 to 69 centimetres)

West Bank

2005-02-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

The approximately 2,270-square-mile (5,900-square-kilometre) area is the centre of contending

Rodeo

2005-02-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

The five standard rodeo events are calf roping, bull riding, steer wrestling (bulldogging), saddle bronc-riding, and bareback bronc-riding. (A bronc [bronco,

Ord River

2005-02-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

River in the Kimberley plateau region, northeastern Western Australia. It rises in the Albert Edward Range and follows an easterly and northerly course for 300 mi (500 km) to Cambridge Gulf. Chief tributaries are the Denham, Stirling, Panton, Wilson, Bow, Nicholson, and Elvire. Its upper reaches cut through deep gorges, which give way to grasslands and forests along its middle

Alegría, Ciro

2005-02-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

Educated at the National College of San Juan, Alegría acquired a firsthand knowledge of Indian life in his native province of Huamachuco; this first appeared in his novel La serpiente de oro (1935; The Golden Serpent), which portrays the diverse human life to be found along

Local Group

2005-02-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

In astronomy, the group of more than 20 galaxies to which the Milky Way Galaxy belongs. About half are elliptical galaxies, with the remainder being of the spiral or irregular type. As in other clusters of galaxies, members are probably kept from separating by their mutual gravitational attraction. The Milky Way system is near one end of the volume of space occupied by

Maurienne

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

High Alpine valley, about 80 miles (130 km) long, in southeastern France. Drained by the Arc River, a tributary of the Isère, it consists of a succession of large basins and narrow, wild gorges that are cut through outcrops of heavily folded and overthrust rocks. Twenty-four hydroelectric stations in the valley generate power for electrochemical plants, aluminum refining,

Dyott, Thomas W.

2005-02-01T15:44:00.000-08:00

A druggist's apprentice in London, Dyott arrived in Philadelphia in the 1790s almost penniless and rented a basement room where by day he polished shoes and by night manufactured shoeblack. In 1807 he opened

Macchiaioli

2005-01-31T00:06:00.000-08:00

Group of 19th-century Florentine and Neopolitan painters who reacted against the rule-bound Italian academies of art and looked to nature for instruction. The Macchiaioli felt that patches (Italian: macchia) of colour were the most significant aspect of painting. They believed that the effect of a painting on the spectator should derive from the painted

Rameau, Jean-philippe

2005-01-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

Rameau's father, Jean, played the organ for 42 years in various churches in Dijon and hoped one day to see his son on a lawyer's, rather than an organist's, bench. These hopes

Trichomycetes

2005-01-29T01:40:00.000-08:00

Class of fungi (division Mycota) with a vegetative body (thallus) consisting of single or branched filaments (hyphae). The class was earlier subsumed under the group Phycomycetes (q.v.). Trichomycetes occur in the gut or on the cuticle (outer covering) of crabs, beach fleas, boring gribble, and other arthropods. Asexual reproduction occurs by the formation of saclike fruiting

Tibet

2005-01-27T14:16:00.000-08:00

Tibetan Bod, in full Tibet Autonomous Region, Chinese (Wade-Giles) Hsi-tsang Tzu-chih-ch'ü, (Pinyin) Xizang Zizhiqu historic region and autonomous region of China that is often called “the roof of the world.” It occupies about 471,700 square miles (1,221,600 square kilometres) of the plateaus and mountains of Central Asia, including Mount Everest (Chu-mu-lang-ma Feng). It is bordered by the Chinese provinces of Tsinghai to the northeast, Szechwan to the east, and Yunnan to the southeast; Myanmar (Burma), India,

Paul, Acts Of

2005-01-26T04:10:00.000-08:00

One of the earliest of a series of pseudepigraphal (noncanonical) New Testament writings known collectively as the Apocryphal Acts. Probably written about AD 160–180, the Acts of Paul is an account of the Apostle Paul's travels and teachings. It includes, among others, an episode reminiscent of the Greek fable of Androcles and the lion, in which Paul escapes from the wild beasts

Shields, Carol

2005-01-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

Shields grew up in the United States and in 1957 graduated from Hanover College in Indiana. That same year she married and moved to Canada. After taking a course in creative

Dacier, André

2005-01-25T04:56:00.000-08:00

Dacier studied at Saumur with the Humanist Tanneguy Lefèbvre, whose daughter Anne he married in 1683. He was made keeper of the library of the Louvre and, elected to the French Academy in 1695, became

Allegheny

2005-01-24T01:51:00.000-08:00

County, southwestern Pennsylvania, U.S., consisting of a hilly region on the Allegheny Plateau bounded to the southeast by the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers and to the northeast by the Allegheny River. The Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela rivers converge in the centre of the county to form an area known as the Golden Triangle; this was a strategic point of contention

Caucasian Languages, Svan

2005-01-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

The Svan language (self-designation: lušnu nin), also unwritten, is located south of Mount Elbrus, in the high valleys of the upper Tskhenis-Tskali and its tributary Kheledula and in the valleys of the upper Inguri River. There are four fairly distinct dialects: Upper and Lower Bal in the Inguri region, and Lashkh and Lentekh in the Tskhenis-Tskali region. Georgian and Russian

Sankt Pölten

2005-01-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

City, Niederösterreich Bundesland (federal state), northeastern Austria. It lies along the Traisen River between the foothills of the Alps and the Danube River, west of Vienna. Once the site of the Roman settlement of Aelium Cetium, the town developed in the 8th century around an abbey dedicated to St. Hippolytus, whose name in Germanicized form became Sankt Pölten. The

Levine, Jack

2005-01-21T02:17:00.000-08:00

Trained first at the Jewish Welfare Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and later at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Levine also studied at Harvard University from 1929 to 1931. From 1935 to 1940 he was intermittently part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Dennett, Mary Coffin Ware

2005-01-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

Mary Ware graduated from Miss Capen's School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts, and entered the school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. From 1894 to 1897 she taught design and decoration at the

Belarusian Ridge

2005-01-19T05:17:00.000-08:00

Belarusian also spelled Belorussian, or Byelorussian, Russian Belorusskaya Gryada, or Belorusskaja Gr'ada, upland region in Belarus. From northeastern Poland the ridge runs southeast into western Belarus and then swings northeast. Its total length is 320 miles (520 km). The ridge, covered by marine sands and clays, is in reality a series of separate uplands, of which the highest point is Dzerzhinskaya Mountain, at 1,132 feet (345 m), in the Minsk Upland. To the south of the ridge lie the extensive

Biblical Literature, Exodus and conquest

2005-01-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

According to biblical tradition, the clan migrated to Egypt because of a famine in the land of Canaan, were later enslaved and oppressed, and finally escaped from Egypt to the desert east of the Isthmus of Suez under a remarkable leader, Moses. The account—a proclamation, celebration, and commemoration of the event—is replete with legendary elements, but present-day

Nordraak, Rikard

2005-01-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

Nordraak began composing music as a child. He was sent at age 15 to Copenhagen, Den., for training in business, but he also studied music while there. In 1859 he gave up the study

Lusitani

2005-01-16T02:59:00.000-08:00

War broke

Anatolian Languages

2005-01-14T01:50:00.000-08:00

Extinct Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages spoken in Anatolia from sometime in the 3rd millenium BC until the early centuries of the present era, when they were gradually supplanted by Greek. The Anatolian languages are known only from texts of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC; the earliest evidence is that of the so-called Cappadocian tablets (19th–18th centuries BC). The

Yeshiva University

2005-01-13T22:48:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in New York, New York, U.S. It is a comprehensive research university comprising six undergraduate schools and seven graduate or professional schools at the Main Campus in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, the Midtown Center in Manhattan's Murray Hill area, the Brookdale Center on Fifth Avenue in

Fable, Parable, And Allegory

2005-01-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

Any form of imaginative literature or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the fiction. A story is told or perhaps enacted whose details—when interpreted—are found to correspond to the details of some other system of relations (its hidden, allegorical sense).

Empiricism, Degrees of Empiricism

2005-01-11T02:26:00.000-08:00

Absolute Empiricists hold that there are no a priori concepts, either formal or categorial, and no a priori propositions. Absolute Empiricism about knowledge is less common than

Ecoterrorism

2005-01-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

Ecoterrorism

Haeckel, Ernst

2005-01-10T01:22:00.000-08:00

In full Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel German zoologist and evolutionist who was a strong proponent of Darwinism and who proposed new notions of the evolutionary descent of man.

Martin

2005-01-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Martin's life was marked chiefly by the continued Aragonese intervention in Sicily. When Frederick III of Sicily died in 1377, leaving a daughter, Mary, as his heiress, there ensued a long period of disorder. Peter IV of Aragon, on the grounds

Rocky Mountains, Water resources

2005-01-08T04:45:00.000-08:00

The Rocky Mountains in Canada and the United States are a region of water surplus, where precipitation exceeds losses from evaporation, runoff, and transpiration. The lands on either side of the mountain front, however, experience a water deficit. The people living in these areas have looked to water-storage projects in the Rockies for irrigation, domestic and industrial

Leonard, Sugar Ray

2005-01-07T01:39:00.000-08:00

By his mid-teens Leonard proved adept at boxing, and, as an amateur, he won 145 of 150 bouts and garnered two National Golden Glove

Ireland

2005-01-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

Even before September the slowdown in the U.S. had begun to have an impact on Ireland. As

Earth, Formation of igneous rocks

2005-01-04T02:48:00.000-08:00

Igneous

Baalat

2005-01-04T00:51:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ba'alat or Ba'alath (from West Semitic ba'alat, “lady”), often used as a synonym for the special goddess of a region; also, the chief deity of Byblos. Very little is known of Baalat, “the Lady [of Byblos],” but, because of the close ties between Byblos and Egypt, she was often represented with a typically Egyptian hairstyle, headdress, and costume, and by the 12th dynasty (1991–1786 BC) she was equated with the Egyptian

Binomial Theorem

2005-01-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

In which n! (called n factorial) is the product of the first n natural numbers 1, 2, 3, . . . n (and where 0! is defined

Optics, The pinhole camera

2005-01-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

An excellent example of the working of the wavelet theory is found in the well-known pinhole camera. If the pinhole is large, the diverging geometrical pencil of rays leads to a blurred image, because each point in the object will be projected as a finite circular patch of light on the film. The spreading of the light at the boundary of a large pinhole by diffraction is

Sinkiang, Uygur Autonomous Region Of, Settlement patterns

2004-12-31T22:28:00.000-08:00

There are five major cities in the province. Wu-lu-mu-ch'i,

Central African Republic, The struggle for leadership

2004-12-31T20:31:00.000-08:00

Boganda was a Roman Catholic priest, but he left the priesthood and formed the Social Evolution Movement of Black Africa (Mouvement pour l'Evolution Sociale de l'Afrique Noire; MESAN). In 1957 MESAN gained control of the Territorial Assembly, and Boganda became president of the Grand Council of French Equatorial Africa. Boganda hoped that the former French territories

Khoei, Abolqasem Al-

2004-12-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

Khoei studied Persian poetry and religion as a child. At age 13 he was sent to study Islamic law (Shari'ah) at Al-Najaf, where he remained and became one of the most important Shi'ite clerics of his day,

Rocky Mountain National Park

2004-12-29T02:25:00.000-08:00

National park, in north central Colorado, U.S., established in 1915. Enclosing part of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, it is 262,191 ac (106,109 ha) in area. The park contains numerous high peaks exceeding 10,000 ft (3,000 m), including Longs Peak (14,256 ft), as well as broad valleys, gorges, alpine lakes, and plunging streams. Ice Age glacial deposition is evidenced by meadows and rolling moraines. A great variety

Ancient Rome, Second Punic War (218201 BC)

2004-12-28T15:16:00.000-08:00

It seemed that the superiority of the Romans at sea ought to have enabled them to choose the field of battle. They decided to send one army to Spain and another to Sicily and Africa. But before their preparations were complete, Hannibal began the series of operations that dictated the course of the war for the greater part of its duration. He realized that as long as the

D.s.o.

2004-12-25T15:57:00.000-08:00

Recipient of the Distinguished Service Order, a British military decoration. See Distinguished Service Order.

Christensen, Benjamin

2004-12-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

Christensen began his career as an opera singer in 1902 but later became an actor and then a director. By 1913 he was known as the writer, star, and director of a film exploring the unknown, Det Hemmeligheds fulde X (The Mysterious X), his first investigation of the horror of

Metastable State

2004-12-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

In physics and chemistry, particular excited state of an atom, nucleus, or other system that has a longer lifetime than the ordinary excited states and that generally has a shorter lifetime than the lowest, often stable, energy state, called the ground state. A metastable state may thus be considered a kind of temporary energy trap or a somewhat stable intermediate

Nashville Convention

2004-12-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

(1850), two-session meeting of proslavery Southerners in the United States. John C. Calhoun initiated the drive for a meeting when he urged Mississippi to call for a convention. The resulting Mississippi Convention on Oct. 1, 1849, issued a call to all slave-holding states to send delegates to Nashville, Tenn., in order to form a united front against what was viewed as Northern

Chong Yak-jong

2004-12-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

Born to a family noted for its scholarly background, Chong was converted to Roman Catholicism by the Chinese priest Chou Wen-mu (James

Duchenne, Guillaume-benjamin-amand

2004-12-21T02:24:00.000-08:00

During his lifelong private practice in Boulogne (1831–42) and Paris (1842–75), he explored the effects of electrical stimulation on diseased nerves and muscles. He rendered

Yessentuki

2004-12-19T14:20:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Jessentuki , or Essentuki city, Stavropol kray (region), southwestern Russia, in the valley of the Podkumok River. It was founded in 1798, developed as a fortress in the 1830s, and became a city in 1917. It is located at mineral springs at the base of the Caucasus Mountains. The city is composed of an old Cossack village in the southern sector and a newer city in the north. It is a major health resort, with sanatoriums

Induration

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

Hardening of rocks by heat or baking; also the hardening of sediments through cementation or compaction, or both, without the introduction of heat. The classic example is the rock called hornfels, which is formed at contacts with igneous intrusions and in which heat and fluids from the intruding magma reconstitute the original wall rock into a hardened, flinty rock

Naas

2004-12-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

Irish An Nás market and garrison town (urban district) and county seat of County Kildare, Ireland. Naas was one of the royal seats of the ancient province of Leinster, and St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is said to have visited it. After the Anglo-Norman invasion (12th century and following), a castle (the north moat of which survives) was built there. Naas was an important town in the

Latent Heat

2004-12-17T04:32:00.000-08:00

For

Rowland, Henry Augustus

2004-12-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

In 1872 Rowland became an instructor of physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,

O'faolain, Sean

2004-12-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

Disturbed

Pole Vault

2004-12-13T05:54:00.000-08:00

Sport in track-and-field athletics in which an athlete jumps over an obstacle with the aid of a pole. Originally a practical means of clearing objects, such as ditches, brooks, and fences, pole-vaulting for height became a competitive sport in the mid-19th century. An Olympic event for men since the first modern Games in 1896, a pole-vault event for women was added for the 2000 Olympics

Ghanzi

2004-12-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

The surrounding area comprises state-owned

Murrelet

2004-12-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

Breeding in Alaska are the