SamePluto

Estate Agent London

2006-10-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Robert Irving Burns specialise in London Commercial and Residential property services, including Estate Agent Covent Garden and Estate Agent London. Their centrally located ground floor offices, minutes from Oxford Circus offer an ideal marketing base for your property.

Alba Longa

2005-04-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

Ancient city of Latium, Italy, in the Alban Hills about 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Rome, near present Castel Gandolfo. Tradition attributes its founding (c. 1152 BC) to Ascanius, the son of the legendary Aeneas, thus making it, according to legend at least, the oldest Latin city, which in turn founded others, including Rome. Excavations have revealed cemeteries that date to the 10th century

Rhythm

2005-04-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Attempts to define rhythm in music have produced much disagreement,

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Typology and typological symbolism

2005-04-02T18:19:00.000-08:00

Erich Auerbach, “Figura,” in Scenes from the Drama of European Literature: Six Essays (1959); A.C. Charity, Events and Their Afterlife: The Dialectics of Christian Typology in the Bible and Dante (1966); Jean Danielou, Sacramentum futuri: études sur les origines de la typologie biblique (1950; Eng. trans., From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers, 1960); Austin Farrer, A Rebirth of Images: The Making of St. John's Apocalypse (1949); R.P.C. Hanson, Allegory and Event (1959); W.G. Madsen, From Shadowy Types to Truth: Studies in Milton's Symbolism (1968).

Pyridine

2005-04-02T03:16:00.000-08:00

Pyridine is used as a solvent and is added to ethyl alcohol to make it unfit for drinking. It

Port Angeles

2005-03-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1890) of Clallam county, northwestern Washington, U.S., on Juan de Fuca Strait, linked by ferry to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 18 miles (29 km) north across the strait. Located at the base of Ediz Hook (a 3.5-mile- [5.6-km-] long, curving sand bar), the site was visited in 1791 by the Spanish explorer Francisco Eliza, who named the harbour Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles. Permanently

Matruh

2005-03-30T04:13:00.000-08:00

Desert muhafazah (governorate) of Egypt that includes all of Egypt west of al-Jizah governorate and north of latitude 26°20¢ N. Only one percent of its area is inhabited. It is mostly a plateau area of sedimentary rock such as limestone, averaging 700–800 feet (215–245 m) in elevation and nowhere surpassing 1,500 feet (460 m). Surface dissection results from wind erosion on the stone-covered wastes and sandy

Pijao

2005-03-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

Extinct Indian people of the southern highlands of Colombia. The Pijao spoke a language of the Chibchan family, related to that of the Páez, their neighbours to the south. They were agriculturists, raising corn (maize), sweet manioc (yuca), beans, potatoes, and many fruits; they also hunted and fished. They lived in settlements of several families in houses built of wood and

Ussuri River

2005-03-29T13:09:00.000-08:00

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

Caucasian Languages

2005-03-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Also called Paleo-Caucasian, or Ibero-Caucasian, group of languages indigenous to Transcaucasia and adjacent areas of the Caucasus region, between the Black and Caspian seas. As used in this article, the term excludes the Indo-European (Armenian, Ossetic, Talysh, Kurdish, Tat) and Turkic languages (Azerbaijani, Kumyk, Noghay, Karachay, Balkar) and some other languages of the area, all of which were introduced to the Caucasus

Catalan Literature

2005-03-28T02:32:00.000-08:00

The oldest extant text in Catalan is the Homilies d'Organyà, a collection of sermons dating from the 12th or early 13th century but now appreciated more for their linguistic than for their literary value. Early kings of Aragon and counts

Radical

2005-03-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

In politics, one who desires extreme change of part or all of the social order. The word was first used in a political sense in England, and its introduction is generally ascribed to Charles James Fox, who in 1797 declared for a “radical reform” consisting of a drastic expansion of the franchise to the point of universal manhood suffrage. The term radical thereafter began

Bahrain, Flag Of

2005-03-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

The southern coast of the Persian Gulf was characterized by extensive warfare and piracy for many centuries. In 1820 the British were finally successful in enforcing peace on the local Arab states. The General Treaty of Peace signed at that time provided that those territories on friendly terms with the United Kingdom should include a white border on the plain red

Chiba

2005-03-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

Ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, lying on the Pacific coast of the Kanto Plain. It consists of the Boso Peninsula, which lies east of Tokyo Bay and south of the Tone River. Surpluses of rice, vegetables, eggs, and flowers are produced for Tokyo, and offshore fisheries flourish. The Tokyo-Yokohama industrial belt (see Keihin Industrial Zone) has expanded into Chiba prefecture

Denishawn School Of Dancing And Related Arts

2005-03-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

Dance school and company founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn. Considered a fountainhead of American modern dance, the Denishawn organization systematically promoted nonballetic dance movement and fostered such leading modern dancers as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Because St. Denis and Shawn believed that all dance techniques

Land Bridge

2005-03-26T02:26:00.000-08:00

Any of several isthmuses that have connected the Earth's major landmasses at various times, with the result that many species of plants and animals have extended their ranges to new areas. A land bridge that had a profound effect on the fauna of the New World extended from Siberia to Alaska during most of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods (beginning 66.4 million years

Gnadenhütten Massacre

2005-03-26T01:46:00.000-08:00

(March 8, 1782), murder of 96 Ohio Indians, mostly Delawares, by an American Revolutionary War officer, Captain David Williamson, and his militia at Gnadenhütten Village south of what is now New Philadelphia, Ohio. The Indians, who had been converted by Moravian Brethren and were peaceful Christians, were under suspicion because of their neutrality in the war. Williamson and

Monboddo, James Burnett, Lord

2005-03-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

Monboddo's main work, Of the Origin and Progress of Language (6 vol., 1773–92), contains a vast body of curious lore on the manners and customs of primitive peoples, relates

Laine, Dame Cleo

2005-03-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

Laine was born to a Jamaican father and an English mother. She quit school at age 14 and took a variety of jobs while auditioning for singing jobs. Her first break came in 1951, when she was hired as a vocalist for the Johnny Dankworth Seven, a

Pereskia

2005-03-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

P. pititache, the native Mexican

Alain De Lille

2005-03-24T03:18:00.000-08:00

Alain studied and taught at Paris, lived for some time at Montpellier, and later joined the Cistercians in Cîteaux. As a theologian, he shared in the mystic reaction of the second half of the 12th century against Scholastic

Yellow-dog Contract

2005-03-24T00:17:00.000-08:00

Agreement between an employer and an employee in which the employee agrees, as a condition of employment, not to join a union during the course of his employment. Such contracts, used most widely in the United States in the 1920s, enabled employers to take legal action against union organizers for encouraging workers to break these contracts. A federal law prohibiting

France, History Of, Austrasian hegemony and the rise of the Pepinids

2005-03-23T23:33:00.000-08:00

The murder of Ebroïn (680 or 683) reversed the situation in favour of Austrasia and the Pepinids. Pepin II, who defeated the Neustrians at Tertry in 687, reunified northern Francia under his own control during the next decade. Austrasia and Neustria were reunited under a Merovingian figurehead, but Pepin II governed by virtue of his position as mayor of the palace. At the same time,

Alchevsk

2005-03-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

Formerly (1931–61) Voroshilovsk , or (1961–92) Kommunarsk city, Luhansk oblast (province), eastern Ukraine. It lies along the railway from Luhansk to Debaltsevo. Alchevsk was founded in 1895 with the establishment of the Donetsko-Yuryevsky ironworks. The plant has developed into a large, integrated ironworks and steelworks, which was expanded greatly in the 1950s and '60s. The city is a major bituminous-coal mining centre, and there are

Jovian

2005-03-22T21:29:00.000-08:00

Jovian took part in the expedition of the emperor Julian against Sasanian Persia and was proclaimed emperor by his troops after Julian was killed on June 26, 363. To extricate his army from Persia, the new ruler immediately concluded a peace, ceding to the Persians all Roman territory east of the Tigris

Xerxes I

2005-03-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

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.

Asansol

2005-03-22T02:21:00.000-08:00

City, West Bengal state, northeastern India. Situated in the heart of the Raniganj coalfield, it is the centre of the Kulti-Burnpur industrial complex. Asansol is connected by the Grand Trunk Road and by rail with Calcutta, Durgapur, and Burdwan. The city is an important coal-trading and railway centre, with large railway workshops and a railway colony. Its major industries

Caldecott, Randolph

2005-03-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

While a bank clerk at Whitchurch, Shropshire, and at Manchester, Caldecott began drawing for local magazines. Through his acquaintance with George Du Maurier he began contributing to

India, Drainage into the Arabian Sea

2005-03-20T22:26:00.000-08:00

A substantial part of northwestern India is included in the Indus drainage basin, which India shares with China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The Indus and its longest tributary, the Sutlej, both rise in the trans-Himalayan region of Tibet. The Indus initially flows to the northwest between towering mountain ranges into Jammu and Kashmir. It then travels generally

Antony, Mark

2005-03-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

Mark Antony was the son and grandson of men of the same name. His father was called Creticus because of his military operations in Crete, and his grandfather, one of the leading orators of his day, was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero's De oratore. After a somewhat dissipated youth, the future triumvir served with distinction in 57–54 as a cavalry commander under Aulus

Baetic Cordillera

2005-03-20T17:22:00.000-08:00

Spanish Sistema Penibético, mountain system comprising the Andalusian mountains of southern Spain, of which the northern range runs about 360 miles (580 km) from Cape Trafalgar to Cape Nao. The central and southern ranges, the Baetic proper, extend a shorter distance from Estepona to Cape Gata. Separating the two systems is a complex series of structures, traceable in longitudinal corridors and high

Rowland, Henry Augustus

2005-03-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

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

Ligand Field Theory

2005-03-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

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

X Ray

2005-03-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

According to classical electromagnetic theory, the deceleration of electrons will produce electromagnetic radiation, in the same way that accelerated electrons in a radio antenna produce radio waves. The failure of magnetic fields to deflect an X-ray beam seems to confirm this classical idea of the origin of X rays. Crucial evidence for the existence of waves

Ibrahim Müteferrika

2005-03-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

A Hungarian by origin, Ibrahim converted to Islam and entered the Ottoman diplomatic service. He took

Argentina, The economy

2005-03-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

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

Sculpture, Western, Georgia

2005-03-18T13:22:00.000-08:00

A distinct Georgian sculptural tradition did not emerge until the advent of Christianity, which stimulated a demand for a large number of carved stone reliefs. The earliest of these were based on Early Christian models. In the 8th and 9th centuries the high-relief figures of Early Christian art gave way to figures rendered in wholly linear fashion. In the 10th and 11th centuries

Nahua Language

2005-03-17T22:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Aztec an American Indian language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in central and western Mexico. Nahua, the most important of the Uto-Aztecan languages, was the language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations of Mexico. A large body of literature in Nahua, produced by the Aztecs, survives from the 16th century, recorded in an orthography that was introduced by Spanish priests

Aksum

2005-03-17T03:55:00.000-08:00

Once the seat of the kingdom of Aksum, it is now a tourist town and religious centre best known for its antiquities. Tall granite obelisks, 126 in all, stand (or lie broken) in the central square. One measuring 110 feet (34 m), now fallen, is said to be the tallest obelisk ever erected. The obelisks

Affix

2005-03-17T00:42:00.000-08:00

A grammatical element that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived and inflected forms. There are three types of affixes: prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or stem (sub-mit, pre-determine, un-willing); a suffix at the end (wonder-ful, depend-ent, act-ion); and an infix occurs in the middle. English has no infixes, but they are

Plutus

2005-03-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

In Greek religion, god of abundance or wealth, a personification of ploutos (Greek: “riches”). According to Hesiod, Plutus was born in Crete, the son of the goddess of fruitfulness, Demeter, and the Cretan Iasion. In art he appears chiefly as a child with a cornucopia. He was sometimes confused with Pluto (Hades), god of the underworld.

Darling, Grace

2005-03-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

The daughter of a lighthouse keeper, Darling grew up on Longstone in the Farne Islands. Intensely shy and private, she become the focus of national attention after the steamship Forfarshire sank during a severe storm in September

Yacht

2005-03-16T16:09:00.000-08:00

In England by 1881 most of the important yacht clubs had become members of the Yacht Racing Association (founded 1875; from 1952 called the Royal Yachting Association). The organization made rules governing regatta sailing and later took on duties as a representative body for all British yachting, including dealing with port, harbour, and other governmental authorities. In the

Alaska

2005-03-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

Clarence C. Hulley, Alaska: Past and Present, 3rd ed. (1970, reprinted 1981), provides a general history from the Russian days to the 1960s. William R. Hunt, Alaska: A Bicentennial History (1976), is another overview. Claus-M. Naske and Herman E. Slotnick, Alaska: A History of the 49th State, 2nd ed. (1987), includes chapters on native land claims, conservation, and the oil boom. Current research is reported in Alaska History (semiannual).

Canada Company

2005-03-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

Organization instrumental in colonizing much of the western part of Upper Canada (now Ontario). Many residents of Upper Canada had incurred losses during the War of 1812 and subsequently claimed an indemnity from the British government. The latter agreed to pay a portion of the claims if the government of Upper Canada provided the remainder. At the suggestion of John

Jouffroy D'abbans, Claude-françois-dorothée, Marquis De

2005-03-15T15:21:00.000-08:00

At the age of 20 Jouffroy d'Abbans entered the army, and a year later he became involved in a duel that resulted in his banishment to Provence. There he began to work with boats and built a 43-foot (13-metre) steamboat

Blake, Sir Peter James

2005-03-14T16:03:00.000-08:00

New Zealand yachtsman and explorer (b. Oct. 1, 1948, Auckland, N.Z.—d. Dec. 6, 2001, off Macapá, Braz.), was the winner of the two most important yachting competitions—the Whitbread Round the World Race (1989–90) and the America's Cup (1995 and 2000)—and in 1994 in the ENZA New Zealand won the Jules Verne Trophy when he set a nonstop circumnavigation world record of 74 days 22 hours 17 minutes 22 seconds, which went unbroken for three

Geosyncline

2005-03-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Linear trough of subsidence of the Earth's crust within which vast amounts of sediment accumulate. The filling of a geosyncline with thousands or tens of thousands of feet of sediment is accompanied in the late stages of deposition by folding, crumpling, and faulting of the deposits. Intrusion of crystalline igneous rock and regional uplift along the axis of the

Ryukyu Islands

2005-03-14T10:47:00.000-08:00

Also called Nansei Islands , Japanese Ryukyu-Shoto , or Nansei-Shoto , Ryukyuan Okinawa archipelago, extending almost 400 miles (650 km) southwest from Kyushu, southern Japan, to the northern tip of Taiwan bordering the Philippine Sea (east) and the East China Sea (west). Since 1972 the islands have comprised Okinawa ken (prefecture), Japan. With a total land area of 870 square miles (2,254 square km), they consist of 55 islands and islets divided into three major groups: the Amami island

Zoroastrianism

2005-03-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

Zoroastrianism is not the purely ethical religion it may at first seem. In practice, despite the doctrine of free choice, a Zoroastrian is so constantly involved in a meticulous struggle against the contamination of death and the thousand causes of defilement, and against the threat, even in his sleep, of ever-present demons, that he does not often believe that he is

Burette

2005-03-13T01:14:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Buret, laboratory apparatus used in quantitative chemical analysis to measure the volume of a liquid or a gas. It consists of a graduated glass tube with a stopcock (turning plug, or spigot) at one end. On a liquid burette, the stopcock is at the bottom, and the precise volume of the liquid dispensed can be determined by reading the graduations marked on the glass tube at the liquid

Ibn Ezra, Abraham Ben Meir

2005-03-13T00:50:00.000-08:00

As a young man, he lived in Muslim Spain. Not much is known about his early life. He was on friendly terms with the eminent poet and philosopher Judah

Enugu

2005-03-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

State, south-central Nigeria. It was created in 1991 from the eastern two-thirds of Anambra state. Enugu is bounded by the states of Kogi and Benue to the north, Cross River to the east, Abia to the south, and Anambra to the west. It includes most of the Udi-Nsukka Plateau, which rises to more than 1,000 feet (300 m). Enugu state is covered by open grassland, with occasional woodlands and clusters

Tucholsky, Kurt

2005-03-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

After studying law and serving in World War I, Tucholsky left Germany in 1924 and lived first in Paris and after 1929 in Sweden. He contributed to Rote Signale (1931; “Red Signals”), a collection of

Mabinogion

2005-03-12T00:37:00.000-08:00

The finest of the tales are the four related

Talbot

2005-03-11T10:17:00.000-08:00

County, east-central Maryland, U.S. It adjoins Chesapeake Bay to the west, the Choptank River to the south and southeast, and Tuckahoe Creek to the northeast and includes Tilghman and Poplar islands. The jagged coast is carved by the Wye East, Tred Avon, and Miles rivers and by Harris and Broad creeks. Parklands include Seth Demonstration Forest and Wye Oak State Park, the

Adams, Roger

2005-03-11T06:55:00.000-08:00

Receiving

Tyrtaeus

2005-03-11T00:49:00.000-08:00

Greek tradition after Tyrtaeus' time claimed that he was an Athenian or Milesian schoolmaster, sent to Sparta in reluctant compliance with an oracle, to strengthen Spartan morale. It is probable, however, that stories of his non-Laconian

Azov

2005-03-10T21:59:00.000-08:00

Formerly Azak, or Tana, town, Rostov oblast (province), southwestern Russia. It lies on the left bank of the Don River, 4 miles (7 km) east of the Sea of Azov. The Greek colony of Tanais, the first known major city in the region, was founded there in the 6th century BC. It changed hands and was renamed several times over the ensuing centuries. It became the Genoese colony of Tana (established 1316–22), which in 1471 was captured

'uthman Ibn 'affan

2005-03-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

'Uthman

Catalonia Museum Of Art

2005-03-10T04:35:00.000-08:00

Spanish Museo De Arte De Cataluña , Catalan Museu D'art De Catalunya museum in the Palacio Nacional in Barcelona, housing one of the most important collections of medieval paintings in the world and also a fine and complete collection of Spanish ceramics. The Romanesque Galleries comprise a series of reconstructions of church interiors with mural decorations brought from villages in the Pyrenees, transported to the museum

Roman Republic And Empire

2005-03-09T00:41:00.000-08:00

The ancient state that centred on the city of Rome, from the time of the events leading up to the founding of the republic in 509 BC, through the establishment of the empire in 27 BC, to the final eclipse of the Empire of the West in the 5th century AD. (For later events of the Empire of the East, see Byzantine Empire.)

Azurite

2005-03-08T20:53:00.000-08:00

Also called Chessylite, basic copper carbonate [Cu3(OH)2(CO3)2]. It is ordinarily found with malachite in the oxidized zone of copper lodes. Notable deposits are Tsumeb, Namibia; Chessy, Fr.; and Bisbee, Ariz., U.S. Azurite was used as a blue pigment in ancient Eastern wall painting and, from the 15th to the middle of the 17th century, in European painting. For detailed physical properties, see carbonate

Straits Question

2005-03-08T19:36:00.000-08:00

The straits were in Turkish territory, but when Russia gained control of the north shore of the

Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl Of, Baron Of Raby

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

Leading adviser of England's King Charles I. His attempt to consolidate the sovereign power of the king led to his impeachment and execution by Parliament.

Uist

2005-03-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

Either of two islands of the Outer Hebrides, both lying off the northwestern coast of Scotland. See North Uist; South Uist.

Arartree

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

A pyramidal tree 12 to 15 metres (about 40 to 50 feet) tall, the arartree has fragrant, brown or reddish-brown wood that has long been popular for furniture and cabinetmaking. The tree also yields large quantities

Danané

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

Town, western Côte d'Ivoire. It lies along the Boan River, a tributary of the Nuon (Nipoué, Cestos) River, and at the intersection of roads from Liberia, Guinea, and the Ivoirian town of Man. It is the chief trade centre (rice, coffee, and kola nuts) of a forested region mainly inhabited by the Dan people. Pop. (1975) town, 19,608.

Space

2005-03-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Space is treated in a number of articles. For a philosophical consideration of the subject, see metaphysics. For a discussion of the relativity of space and time, see relativity. For a description of space as the region of the universe beyond the Earth

Strabo

2005-03-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

Greek geographer and historian whose Geography is the only extant work covering the whole range of peoples and countries known to both Greeks and Romans during the reign of Augustus (27 BC–AD 14). Its numerous quotations from technical literature, moreover, provide a remarkable account of the state of Greek geographical science, as well as of the history of

Bruchsal

2005-03-06T05:47:00.000-08:00

City, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies along the Saalbach (Saal Stream), just northeast of Karlsruhe. First mentioned in 796 as the site of a Frankish royal villa, it was given to the prince-bishops of Speyer in 1056 and became their residence in 1720. Chartered in 1248, it passed to Baden in 1803. The city's magnificent Rococo castle (1722–32), one of the most distinguished in Germany,

Ray, John

2005-03-06T04:01:00.000-08:00

Ray also spelled (until 1670) Wray leading 17th-century English naturalist and botanist who contributed significantly to progress in taxonomy. His enduring legacy to botany was the establishment of species as the ultimate unit of taxonomy.

Clarion River

2005-03-05T23:56:00.000-08:00

River formed at Johnsonburg, Elk county, northwestern Pennsylvania, U.S., by the confluence of East Branch and West Branch Clarion rivers. It flows generally southwest for about 110 miles (177 km), past the towns of Ridgway and Clarion, to join the Allegheny River. The Clarion Dam and Reservoir are on the East Branch near Glen Hazel. The river's name is attributed to surveyors who

Alloway

2005-03-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

Southern suburb of the town of Ayr, South Ayrshire council area, historic county of Ayrshire, Scotland, famous as the birthplace of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. There is a museum alongside the thatched cottage where he was born in 1759 and a memorial built in 1820 in the form of a Grecian temple. The Brig o' Doon, immortalized in Burns's poem “Tam o' Shanter,” is nearby.

Spruce Knob

2005-03-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Highest point in West Virginia, U.S., located in the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern part of the state, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Elkins. Spruce Knob lies at an elevation of 4,863 feet (1,482 metres) at the southern end of Spruce Mountain, a ridge extending northeast-southwest along the western edge of Pendleton county. The peak, accessible by road from nearby Judy Gap, is within

Wolf, Hugo

2005-03-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Wolf studied at the Vienna Conservatory (1875–77) but had a moody and irascible temperament and was expelled from the conservatory following his outspoken criticism of his masters. In 1875 he met the composer Richard

Steeple

2005-03-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

Tall ornamental tower, sometimes a belfry, usually attached to an ecclesiastical or public building. The steeple is usually composed of a series of diminishing stories and is topped by a spire, cupola, or pyramid (qq.v.), although in ordinary usage the term steeple denotes the entire structure.

Discovery Bay

2005-03-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

Wide curved bay indenting the south coast of Australia. An inlet of the Indian Ocean, it is 50 miles (80 km) across and is bounded on the east by Cape Bridgewater (Victoria) and on the west by Cape Northumberland (South Australia). Visited in 1800 by James Augustus Grant of the Royal Navy, it was named in 1836 by Thomas Livingstone Mitchell as he descended the Glenelg River (which enters the

Monarchy

2005-03-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

The undivided sovereignty or rule of a single person. The term is applied to states in which the supreme authority is vested in a single person, the monarch, who is the permanent head of the state. The word has, however, outlived this original meaning and is now used, when used at all, somewhat loosely of states ruled by hereditary sovereigns, as distinct from republics

Divination, Inductive divination

2005-03-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

To speculate that inductive divination from natural phenomena must be very old—i.e., that it arose from an early intimate acquaintance with nature—is tempting but inaccurate. In fact, there is little evidence that preliterate peoples viewed nature as a system, and this is particularly true in respect to astral observation. Divination from the skies is concerned

Land Mine

2005-03-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

Stationary explosive charge used against military troops or vehicles. See mine.

Atisa

2005-03-02T03:25:00.000-08:00

Traveling to Tibet in 1038 or 1042 from Nalanda, a centre of Buddhist studies in India, Atisa established monasteries there and wrote treatises emphasizing the three schools of Buddhism:

Yi Dynasty

2005-03-02T02:23:00.000-08:00

General Yi established

Vacuum Technology

2005-03-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

This pump is mainly used on equipment for the study of clean surfaces and in radio-frequency sputtering. Capacities are available up to 190,000 cu ft per minute with an operating pressure range of 10-2 to less than 10-9 torr when water-cooled baffles are used and less than 10-11 torr when refrigerated baffles are employed. The pumping speed for a vapour pump remains constant from about

Celtic Literature, The 18th century: the first revival

2005-03-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

The mid-18th century was, after the 14th, the most fruitful period of Welsh literature. Goronwy Owen, inspired by English Augustanism, reintroduced and improved the strict metres of the cywydd and awdl (by this time a long poem written in a number of the classical cynghanedd metres). He also introduced a wide range of subject content, and thus founded a new classical school

Mimir

2005-03-01T04:05:00.000-08:00

Old Norse Mímir in Norse mythology, the wisest of the gods of the tribe Aesir; he was also believed to be a water spirit. Mimir was sent by the Aesir as a hostage to the rival gods (the Vanir), but he was decapitated and his head was returned to the Aesir. The god Odin preserved the head in herbs and gained knowledge from it. According to another story, Mimir resided by a well that stood beneath

Displacement Law

2005-03-01T01:57:00.000-08:00

In physics, any of the statements (originally formulated in 1913) that radioactive decay produces daughter atoms whose position in the periodic table of the chemical elements is shifted from that of their parents: two lower for alpha decay and one higher for negative beta decay. See radioactive series.

Qalyubiyah, Al-

2005-02-28T16:08:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Kalyubia, small muhafazah (governorate), just north of Cairo at the apex of the Nile River delta, Lower Egypt. It is bounded on the northeast by Ash-Sharqiyah muhafazah and on the northwest by the Damietta Branch of the Nile. With a total area of 387 square miles (1,001 square km), it is densely populated. About three-fifths of its population relies on agriculture. The alluvial farmland is irrigated

Saanen

2005-02-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

Popular breed of dairy goat originating in the Saanen Valley of Switzerland. The coat of the Saanen is fine and light-coloured, with white being generally preferred. In build it is similar to the Toggenburg, with smallish frame, straight or dished face, and erect ears. As is that of other goats, milk of the Saanen is whiter and more easily digestible than cow's milk. The breed

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Derivation of the terms

2005-02-27T06:32:00.000-08:00

The original meanings of these critical terms themselves suggest the direction of their development. Fable (from the Latin fabula, “a telling”) puts the emphasis on narrative (and in the medieval and Renaissance periods was often used when speaking of “the plot” of a narrative). Parable (from Greek parabole, a “setting beside”) suggests a juxtaposition that compares and contrasts

Romance Languages, Franco-Provençal

2005-02-27T04:11:00.000-08:00

Northeast of the Occitan region, along the French, Swiss, and Italian frontiers, is located a group of dialects that historically have shared most vowel developments with languages to the south and many consonant changes with those to the north. Since 1878, with the work of G.I. Ascoli, claims have been made for the linguistic autonomy of these dialects, usually called

Epistemology, Cause and effect

2005-02-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

Although people gain much information from their impressions, most matters of fact depend upon reasoning about causes and effects, even though people do not directly experience causal relations. What, then, are causal relations? According to Hume they have three components: contiguity of time and place, temporal priority of the cause, and constant conjunction.

Macdonald, George

2005-02-26T05:38:00.000-08:00

Novelist of Scottish life, poet, and writer of Christian allegories of man's pilgrimage back to God, who is remembered chiefly, however, for his allegorical fairy stories, which have continued to delight children and their elders. He became a Congregational minister, then a free-lance preacher and lecturer. In 1855 he published

Selihoth

2005-02-26T04:05:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Selihot, or Selichot, Hebrew Selihot (“pardons”), in Jewish liturgy, penitential prayers originally composed for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and for fast days but subsequently incorporated into other services. Selihoth have become an indispensable part of the Jewish liturgical services that precede Rosh Hashana (New Year), continue through the Ten Days of Penitence ('aseret yeme teshuva), and terminate

Augustus, Caesar

2005-02-26T00:46:00.000-08:00

Augustus was one of the great administrative geniuses of history. The gigantic work of reorganization that he carried out in every field of Roman life and throughout the entire empire not only transformed the decaying republic into a new, monarchic regime with many centuries of life ahead of it but also created a durable Roman peace, based on easy communications

Biblical Literature, Second introductory discourse

2005-02-25T21:57:00.000-08:00

The second discourse, also ascribed to Moses, again refers to the Covenant at Horeb and sets forth the Ten Commandments, which the people are admonished to obey rigorously, emphasizing the mediating function of Moses at Horeb between the awesome divine presence and the awestruck people. Israel is further admonished to obey the law through wholehearted love of

Computers And Information Systems

2005-02-25T16:48:00.000-08:00

The saga of Microsoft Corp.'s legal troubles dominated technology news in 2000, as did the decline of the high-flying stock market that had powered the rise of dot-com companies that for the most part did not earn any money. A much different legal case pitted the music industry against a World Wide Web site called Napster, which allowed the distribution of music for free over

Tammany Hall

2005-02-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

Also called Tammany, the executive committee of the Democratic Party in New York City historically exercising political control through the typical boss-ist blend of charity and patronage. The name was derived from a pre-Revolutionary association named after Tammanend, a wise and benevolent Delaware Indian chief. When Tammany was organized in New York in 1789, it represented middle-class

Light, Francis

2005-02-25T03:17:00.000-08:00

Light served in the Royal Navy from 1759 until 1763. In command of a merchant ship, he went in 1771 to the northern Malay state of Kedah, where he won the confidence of the sultan, Mohammed. About that time England,

Swaziland

2005-02-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

The name Swazi is the Anglicized name of an early king and nation builder, Mswati II, who ruled from 1840 to 1868. The administrative