PresentComb

Karting UK

2006-07-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

Formula Nuts is a grass roots Karting Competition which will provide enthusiasts with an opportunity to be a Motor Racing driver at Silverstone. The winner will race with team nuts at the BTCC. Team Nuts and Virgin have a team for the last 5 races of the BTCCwith Dave Pinkney. KartingQualifying heats will be in the following areas: Karting Edinburgh, Karting Newcastle, Karting Manchester, Karting Liverpool, Karting Birmingham, Karting Bristol, Karting Cardiff and Karting London.

UK Karting Championship

2006-07-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

Formula Nuts brought to you by Drive Sport will be putting together a UK Karting event where the winner will get to race at Silverstone. Karting time trials will be held at the following locations; Karting London, Karting Manchester, Karting Liverpool, Karting Birmingham, Karting Nottingham, Karting Leeds, Karting Newcastle, Karting Sunderland, Karting Bristol, Karting Cardiff, Karting Devon, Karting Midlands, Karting Edinburgh,Karting Glasgowand Karting in Wales

Rwanda Language

2006-01-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

Rwanda also spelled Ruanda , also called Kinyarwanda a Bantu language spoken by some eight million people primarily in Rwanda and to a lesser extent in Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa), Uganda, and Tanzania. The Bantu languages form a subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Rwanda is closely related to the Rundi language of Burundi.

Doyle, Richard

2005-11-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

A student of his father, Doyle regularly contributed (from 1843) decorations, theatre sketches, and political caricatures to Punch. The cover

Gurung

2005-10-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

People of Nepal living mainly on the southern flank of the Annapurna mountain massif. Their numbers are estimated at about 200,000. The Gurung speak a language of the Tibeto-Burman family. Many are Lamaist Buddhists in religion, while others have adopted Hinduism. They make their living in agriculture and livestock raising. Along with the Magar, Rai, and other Nepalese ethnic

Andocides

2005-07-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

Born into one of the most prominent Athenian families, Andocides was imprisoned on suspicion of having taken part in the mutilation of the sacred busts called herms shortly before the departure of Athens' military expedition to Sicily in 415. These mutilations caused a general panic, and Andocides was induced to turn informer

Cloete, Stuart

2005-07-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Cloete farmed in South Africa for several years (1926–35) before turning to writing. His first novel, Turning Wheels (1937), expressed a negative view of Boer life and dealt with interracial love affairs. It stimulated

Vrjji

2005-07-24T02:35:00.000-07:00

Pali Vajji confederacy of the Licchavis and neighbouring peoples in Bihar, India, that existed from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. Its capital was at Vaisali (in modern Besarh). It was governed as an aristocratic republic. Gautama Buddha is said to have modeled the organizational structure of the Buddhist monastic order, sangha, on the government of the Vrjji. In the 4th century BC the

Tepee

2005-07-07T04:05:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Tipi, tall tent dwelling of the Indians of the American Great Plains. Although it is often thought to be the dwelling used by all North American Indians, only the Plains tribes, representing about one-fifth of them, ever used the tepee, and they only for the last two or three hundred years. The introduction of horses, guns, and metal knives by the Spanish in the early 18th century

Caribou

2005-07-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

City, Aroostook county, northeastern Maine, U.S. It lies along the Aroostook River, near the New Brunswick border, 13 miles (21 km) north of Presque Isle. Settled in 1824, it developed as a lumbering centre and was incorporated in 1859 as Lyndon. It was renamed Caribou in 1877 for the woodland caribou once plentiful in the region. The city is the shipping point for a large potato-growing region.

Lode

2005-06-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

In mining, ore body disseminated within definite boundaries in unwanted rock. See vein.

Qasrayn, Al-

2005-06-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

Also spelled Kasserine, town, west-central Tunisia. The town is an important market, road, and rail junction and is the centre of an irrigated agricultural area. Its economic activities include the cultivation of olives and esparto grass and the manufacture of paper pulp. Kasserine Pass to the northwest was the scene of a decisive battle of the Tunisian campaign in World War II, which contributed

Trinidad And Tobago, Plant and animal life

2005-06-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

Vegetation zones are well defined on both islands. In general, the highest areas coincide with the most luxuriant tropical rain forest vegetation. Cultivated estates or small settlements are established in clearings on the hills. In the dry season the hills are dotted with the orange flowers of the mountain immortelle, a large flowering tree that grows to a height

Computers, Analog calculators: From Napier's logarithms to the slide rule

2005-06-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

Calculating devices took a different turn when John Napier, a Scottish mathematician, published his discovery of logarithms in 1614. As any person can attest, adding two 10-digit numbers is much simpler than multiplying them together, and the transformation of a multiplication problem into an addition problem is exactly what logarithms enable. This simplification

Jackstraws

2005-05-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

To begin the game, the jackstraws (20 to 50) are bunched in one hand and set vertically on a table or other smooth, flat surface, then released suddenly so that the straws fall in a jumble. Each player

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

2005-05-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

In full Dwight David Eisenhower 34th president of the United States (1953–61), who had been supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during World War II. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America. See also Cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.)

North Germanic Languages, Reformation and Renaissance

2005-05-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

The many local dialects that exist today developed in the late Middle Ages, when the bulk of the population was rural and tied to its local village or parish, with few opportunities to travel. The people of the cities developed new forms of urban speech, coloured by surrounding rural dialects, by foreign contacts, and by the written languages. The chanceries in which

Augury

2005-03-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

Prophetic divining of the future by observation of natural phenomena - particularly the behaviour of birds and animals and the examination of their entrails and other parts, but also by scrutiny of man-made objects and situations. The term derives from the official Roman augurs, whose constitutional function was not to foretell the future but to discover whether

Cosmos

2005-03-14T03:21:00.000-08:00

Any of a series of unmanned Soviet satellites launched from the early 1960s. Cosmos satellites were used for a wide variety of purposes, including scientific research, navigation, and military reconnaissance. Cosmos 26 and 49 (both launched in 1964), for example, were equipped to measure the Earth's magnetic field. Others were employed to study certain technical aspects of spaceflight

Lenin Peak

2005-03-11T22:12:00.000-08:00

Formerly �Mount Kaufman, � highest summit (23,406 feet [7,134 m]) of the Trans-Alay Range on the frontier of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Once thought to be the highest mountain in what was then the Soviet Union, Lenin Peak was relegated to third place by the discovery in 1932 - 33 that Stalin Peak (called Communism Peak after 1962) was higher and by the finding in 1943 that Victory Peak was also higher. The peak is named after the Soviet

Znojmo

2005-03-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

German �Znaim, � city, Jihomoravsk� kraj (region), Czech Republic, on the Dyje River, southwest of Brno, near the Austrian border. It originated in the 11th century as a fortified residence and was the stronghold of the Premyslid princes until the mid-13th century. Many medieval buildings, as well as houses of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, are preserved in the old town, which is designated

Maundy Thursday

2005-03-05T06:24:00.000-08:00

Also called �Holy Thursday� the Thursday before Easter, observed in commemoration of Jesus Christ's institution of the Eucharist. The name is taken from an anthem sung in Roman Catholic churches on that day: �Mandatum novum do vobis� (�a new commandment I give to you�; John 13:34). In the early Christian church the day was celebrated with a general communion of clergy and people. At a special mass the bishop

Luthuli, Albert John

2005-03-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

Albert John Mvumbi (Zulu: �Continuous Rain�) Luthuli was born in Rhodesia, where his father, John Bunyan

Delhi Zoological Park

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

The collection includes good breeding groups of white tigers and brow-antlered deer. Many of the animals are displayed in barless, moated enclosures, while a colony

Gipp, George

2005-03-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

Gipp entered Notre Dame on a baseball scholarship, but he was recruited for football by the coach Knute Rockne, who saw Gipp drop-kicking and passing a football on a field adjacent to the practice field. Gipp played

Wyeth, Andrew

2005-03-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

Wyeth's father, N.C. Wyeth, was a well-known illustrator who had studied under Howard Pyle and who, starting in 1932, served as his son's only teacher. Andrew Wyeth's first exhibition was

Fujitsu Limited

2005-02-28T04:32:00.000-08:00

Fujitsu was established in 1935 when it broke away from Fuji Electric Company, a joint venture started in 1923 by the Furukawa Mining Company and Germany's Siemens to develop electrical equipment. Fujitsu

Ear, Human, Audiometry

2005-02-27T00:54:00.000-08:00

The audiometer consists of an oscillator or signal

Abbas, Mahmoud

2005-02-26T11:57:00.000-08:00

After months of intense international pressure, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was installed as Palestinian prime minister on April 30, 2003. As a condition for pursuing their road map to peace, the quartet (U.S., European Union, Russia, and UN) had insisted on the appointment of a prime minister with wide powers in a move to circumvent Palestinian Pres. Yasir Arafat, who

Hadramawt

2005-02-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Hadhramaut� ancient South Arabian kingdom that occupied what are now southern and southeastern Yemen and the present-day Sultanate of Oman (Muscat and Oman). Hadramawt maintained its political independence until late in the 3rd century AD, when it was conquered by the kingdom of Saba'.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus

2005-02-24T17:53:00.000-08:00

Ausonius taught in the famous schools of Burdigala (now Bordeaux, Fr.), first as a grammarian and then as a rhetorician, so successfully that Valentinian I called him to Trier to tutor Gratian, who, on his

Spacecraft

2005-02-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

Although early conceptions of spaceflight usually depicted streamlined spacecraft, streamlining has no particular advantage in the vacuum of space. Actual vehicles are designed with a variety of shapes depending on the mission. The first spacecraft,

Tallemant Des R�aux, G�d�on

2005-02-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

The son of a Huguenot banker, Tallemant took degrees in civil and canonical law at Paris, but he abandoned his position as conseiller au parlement and began to frequent literary circles. In 1646 he married his cousin �lisabeth de Rambouillet, thus gaining

Roberti, Ercole (grandi D'antonio) De'

2005-02-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

Roberti is believed to have studied with Cosm� Tura, a court painter to the Este family of Ferrara, and he is known to have studied with Tura's student Francesco del Cossa. Although his early paintings are influenced

Gnateater

2005-02-20T17:43:00.000-08:00

Any of certain bird species (genus Conopophaga) usually classified with the antbirds. See antbird; antpipit.

Bioceramics

2005-02-19T05:34:00.000-08:00

Ceramic products or components employed in medical and dental applications, mainly as implants and replacements. This article briefly describes the principal ceramic materials and surveys the uses to which they are put in medical and dental applications. For an explanation of important issues in biomedical uses of all materials (including ceramics), see the

North American Review

2005-02-18T01:11:00.000-08:00

American magazine (1815 - 1940), one of the country's leading literary journals of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was founded in Boston, Mass., under the auspices of the Monthly Anthology (1803 - 11) and began publication as a regional magazine, reflecting the intellectual ideas and tastes of Boston and New England. The poet William Cullen Bryant's first contribution to the review, �Thanatopsis

East Haven

2005-02-17T02:27:00.000-08:00

Urban town (township), New Haven county, southern Connecticut, U.S., on Long Island Sound just east of New Haven and separated from Branford (east) by Lake Saltonstall (about 3 miles [5 km] long). Originally a part of New Haven called Iron Works Village (because of the furnace established there in 1655 to process bog iron ore), it was renamed East Haven in 1707 and was incorporated as a separate

Cuza, Alexandru Ion

2005-02-16T01:48:00.000-08:00

The scion of an old boyar family, Cuza studied in Paris, Pavia, and Bologna, participated in revolutionary agitation against Russo-Turkish rule in his native Moldavia (1848), obtained the rank of colonel, and subsequently achieved prominence

Anna Comnena

2005-02-15T21:40:00.000-08:00

Anna received a good education, studying, among other subjects, literature, philosophy, history, and geography. She married the

Varthema, Lodovico De

2005-02-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

De Varthema also spelled �Di Barthema, �Latin �Vartomanus, or Vertomannus, � intrepid Italian traveler and adventurer whose account of his Middle Eastern and Asiatic wanderings was widely circulated throughout Europe and earned him high fame in his own lifetime. He made significant discoveries (especially in Arabia) and made many valuable observations of the peoples he visited; his ready wit enabled

Varthema, Lodovico De

2005-02-13T08:31:00.000-08:00

Anomalures have lightly built skeletons and slender bodies with long limbs and strong, curved

Cradle

2005-02-12T04:25:00.000-08:00

In agriculture, rakelike harvesting implement of wood, devised in ancient times for gathering the stalks of wheat, oats, barley, and other grains (first cut with the sickle) and laying them in rows for binding. The later cradle scythe invented in Europe consisted of a framework of long, fingerlike prongs attached to the cutting edge of a long-handled scythe. The device

Scythian

2005-02-11T22:59:00.000-08:00

Much of what is known of the history of the Scythians comes from the account of them by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who visited their territory. In modern times this

Raaff, Anton

2005-02-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

Raaff received some vocal experience while being trained for the priesthood as a young man, then in 1736 he began studying with Giovanni Battista Ferrandini in Munich and later with Antonio Bernacchi of Bologna. His career over the next several years took him to Florence, Venice, Bonn,

T'ien Ming

2005-02-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

The continuation of the mandate was believed to be conditioned by the personal behaviour of the ruler, who was expected to possess i (�righteousness�) and jen (�benevolence

China, Phase one

2005-02-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

As never before in modern times, the Chinese united themselves against a foreign enemy. China's standing armies in 1937 numbered some 1,700,000 men, with 500,000 in reserve. Japan's naval and air superiority were unquestioned. But Japan could not commit its full strength to campaigns in China; the main concern of the Japanese Army was the Soviet Union, while for the Japanese Navy it was the

Haberler, Gottfried Von

2005-02-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Haberler studied economics at the University of Vienna under Friedrich von Wieser and Ludwig von Mises, receiving his doctorate in 1925. After further study in England and the United

Breath Analyzer

2005-02-06T04:55:00.000-08:00

Also called �Breathalyzer, � device used by police to determine the amount of alcohol in the system of persons suspected of being intoxicated. In the analyzer, a precise amount of the suspect's exhaled breath is passed through a solution of potassium dichromate and sulfuric acid; the change in the colour of the solution is proportional to the amount of alcohol in the air sample, which, in turn, is

Endotoxin

2005-02-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

Toxic substance bound to the bacterial cell wall and released when the bacterium ruptures or disintegrates. Endotoxins consist of lipopolysaccharide and lipoprotein complexes. The protein component determines its foreign (antigenic) nature; the polysaccharide component determines the antibody type that can react with the endotoxin molecule to produce

Maxwell, William

2005-02-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

Educated at the University of Illinois (B.A., 1930) and Harvard University (M.A., 1931), Maxwell taught English at the University of Illinois before joining the staff of The New Yorker magazine, where he worked

Minhah

2005-02-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

Minhah consists

Antelami, Benedetto

2005-02-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

Little is known of his life. It is believed that he served his apprenticeship in sculpture at Saint-Troph�me in Arles, Fr., and that this service may have influenced his sensitivity to French (particularly Proven�al) stylistic developments. It is

France, History Of, The July monarchy

2005-02-01T01:43:00.000-08:00

The renovated regime (often called the July monarchy or the bourgeois monarchy) rested on an altered political theory and a broadened social base. Divine right gave way to popular sovereignty; the social centre of gravity shifted from the landowning aristocracy to the wealthy bourgeoisie. The Charter of 1814 was retained but no longer as a royal gift to the nation; it

Russell, Lillian

2005-01-31T11:49:00.000-08:00

Helen Leonard attended convent and private schools in Chicago. About 1877 or 1878 she was taken by her mother to New York City, where her early training in voice

Dzerzhinsk

2005-01-30T05:48:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �Dzerzinsk, �formerly �(until 1929) Rastyapino � city, Nizhegorod oblast (province), western Russia. Dzerzhinsk lies along the Oka River upstream from its confluence with the Volga River at Nizhny Novgorod. Part of the Nizhny Novgorod metropolitan area, Dzerzhinsk and its satellite towns stretch for 15 miles (24 km) along the Oka. The city is 32 miles (51 km) west of Nizhny Novgorod and 240 miles (390 km) east of Moscow. It was renamed in 1929 in

Kuwait

2005-01-29T16:12:00.000-08:00

Prior to the terrorist attacks in New York City and near Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001, strength in oil prices had led economic analysts to predict another year of prosperity for Kuwait. The strong oil market had boosted gross domestic product growth in the country for a second year in a row. Following September 11, however, slumping demand in Kuwait's principal markets, Asia

Sannyasi

2005-01-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

Also spelled �sannyasin�, Sanskrit �Sannyasin (�abandoning,� or �throwing down�)� in Hinduism, a religious ascetic, one who has renounced the world, having achieved the fourth ashrama, or stage, of life. The name sannyasi also specifically designates an ascetic who pays particular allegiance to the god Siva, who is sometimes known as �the great ascetic.� The Saiva ascetics were organized in the 8th century AD by the renowned Hindu teacher Sankara into 10 orders,

Zangwill, Israel

2005-01-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

The son of eastern European immigrants, Zangwill grew up in London's East End and was educated at the Jews' Free School and at the University of London. His early writings were on popular subjects of his day, but with Children

Ma-an-shan

2005-01-26T04:02:00.000-08:00

The region along the southern bank of the Yangtze between Ma-an-shan and T'ung-ling (about

Cyrenaic

2005-01-25T10:52:00.000-08:00

The school was called Cyrenaic because Cyrene in North Africa was the

Procopius

2005-01-24T01:41:00.000-08:00

From 527 to 531 he was adviser (consilarius) to the military commander Belisarius on his first Persian campaign. In 533 and 534 he took part in an expedition against the Vandals and was in Africa until 536, when

Gamaliel Iii

2005-01-22T16:32:00.000-08:00

A direct descendant of the sage Hillel, Gamaliel became patriarch of the Jewish community in Palestine in approximately AD 220 and, consequently, head of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish legislative body of that time. Beyond the fact that Gamaliel helped complete

Kusf And College Radio

2005-01-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

College radio stations - once considered little more than laboratories for students who had chosen broadcasting as an avocation - came to play an important gatekeeping role in the development of rock music beginning in the 1970s, in the aftermath of free-form FM rock radio and on the eve of the punk revolution. With a bent toward alternative rock, college stations gave

Chemical Compound, Monoterpenes

2005-01-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

The monoterpenes are isolated from their natural sources by distillation of the plant matter with steam. They are volatile oils, less dense than water, and have normal boiling points in the range 150� - 185� C (300� - 365� F). Purification is usually achieved by fractional distillation at reduced pressures or by regeneration from a crystalline derivative. Acyclic monoterpene hydrocarbons

Domestic System

2005-01-19T03:10:00.000-08:00

Also called �Putting-out System� production system widespread in 17th-century western Europe in which merchant-employers �put out� materials to rural producers who usually worked in their homes but sometimes laboured in workshops or in turn put out work to others. Finished products were returned to the employers for payment on a piecework or wage basis. The domestic system differed from the handicraft

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint

2005-01-18T05:11:00.000-08:00

Escape from the feudal world, rapid commitment

Anderson, Mary

2005-01-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Anderson early decided upon a career on the stage, and at age 16 she made her debut as Juliet in Louisville, Kentucky. She subsequently toured cities of the South and West and was a popular success,

'abdor Rahman Khan

2005-01-16T02:12:00.000-08:00

'Abdor Rahman was the son of Afzal Khan, whose father, Dost Mohammad Khan, had established the Barakzai dynasty in Afghanistan. Shir 'Ali's victory in 1869 drove 'Abdor Rahman into

Aerospace Industry, Growth of the aircraft industry

2005-01-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

American aircraft manufacturers dominated the early post-World War II years. In 1951, 80 percent of the world's piston-engine commercial aircraft were made in the United States, and 56 percent of that American production was from Douglas. The United States, however, lagged behind Great Britain in understanding the potential of the jet airliner. In 1943 Britain had established

Admiral

2005-01-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

Any of several butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae (order Lepidoptera). They are fast-flying butterflies that are much prized by collectors for their coloration, which consists of black wings with white bands and reddish brown markings. The migratory red admiral (Vanessa atalanta), widespread in Europe, Scandinavia, North America,

Houston, Charles Hamilton

2005-01-13T02:54:00.000-08:00

Houston graduated as one of six valedictorians from Amherst College (B.A., 1915). After teaching for two years at Howard University in Washington, D.C., he enlisted

Water Lily

2005-01-11T00:28:00.000-08:00

Any of the freshwater plants of the family Nymphaeaceae, comprising eight genera native to the temperate and tropical parts of the world. All members of the family are perennial except for the genus Euryale, an annual or short-lived perennial found only in Asia. Most species of water lilies have rounded, floating, waxy-coated leaves on long stalks that contain

Galaxy, Clusters of galaxies as radio and X-ray sources

2005-01-10T06:04:00.000-08:00

Some clusters of galaxies contain a widespread intergalactic cloud of hot gas that can be detected as a diffuse radio source or as a large-scale source of X rays. The gaseous cloud has a low density but a very high temperature, having been heated by the passage of the galaxies of a cluster through it and by the emission of high-energy particles from active galaxies within

Rack And Pinion

2005-01-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

If the pinion rotates about a fixed axis, the rack will translate; i.e.,

Yang, Chen Ning

2005-01-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

Byname �Frank Yang � Chinese-born American theoretical physicist whose research with Tsung-Dao Lee showed that parity - the symmetry between physical phenomena occurring in right-handed and left-handed coordinate systems - is violated when certain elementary particles decay. Until this discovery it had been assumed by physicists that parity symmetry is

Shafi'i, Abu 'abd Allah (muhammad Ibn Idris) Ash-

2005-01-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

Little is known for certain of his life. He belonged to the tribe of the Quraysh, the tribe of the

Trailok

2005-01-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Trailok's father, King Borommaracha II (1424 - 48), named him heir apparent in 1438, and even as a small boy he was named the king's deputy in the important northern

Switzerland, Trade and finance

2005-01-04T01:27:00.000-08:00

Switzerland must export finished products in order to pay for the imports of raw materials, oil, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods. The Swiss have traditionally been among the forerunners in liberalizing and facilitating international trade. The geographic distribution of the country's trade shows dependence on western Europe and especially on the EC countries.

Great Attractor

2005-01-03T01:33:00.000-08:00

Proposed concentration of mass that influences the movement of many galaxies, including the Milky Way. In 1986 a group of astronomers observing the motions of the Milky Way and neighbouring galaxies noted that the galaxies were moving toward the Hydra-Centaurus superclusters in the southern sky with velocities significantly different from those predicted by

Allegany

2005-01-02T00:56:00.000-08:00

County, southwestern New York state, U.S., bordered to the south by Pennsylvania and comprising a region of moderate relief. The principal waterways are the Genesee River and Rushford and Cuba lakes. Public lands include the Oil Spring Indian Reservation and state wildlife management areas at Hanging Bog, Rattlesnake Hill, and Keaney Swamp. The main forest types are

Chiang-men

2005-01-01T22:21:00.000-08:00

Pinyin �Jiangmen, �also called �Kongmoon, � city in central Kwangtung sheng (province), China. The city is situated on the west bank of the main channel of the Hsi River, at the southwest corner of the Canton Delta, some 45 miles (70 km) from Canton. It has excellent waterway communications and is the chief collecting centre and agricultural market for the coastal region west of Canton. Chiang-men was opened as a treaty

Wright, Patience

2004-12-31T05:55:00.000-08:00

Patience Lovell was born into a prosperous Quaker farm family. In 1748 she married Joseph Wright. Little is known of her life from then until 1769, when she was left a widow with five children. About this time she began modeling in wax. Her recorded

Locofoco Party

2004-12-30T04:38:00.000-08:00

In U.S. history, radical wing of the Democratic Party, organized in New York City in 1835. Made up primarily of workingmen and reformers, the Locofocos were opposed to state banks, monopolies, paper money, tariffs, and generally any financial policies that seemed to them antidemocratic and conducive to special privilege. The Locofocos received their name (which was later

Vlach

2004-12-29T23:27:00.000-08:00

The

Dahlia

2004-12-28T18:27:00.000-08:00

About six of the species in the Dahlia genus have been bred for cultivation as ornamental flowers. Wild species of dahlias

Anthony Of Egypt, Saint

2004-12-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

Athanasius, The Life of Antony and the Letter to Marcellinus (1980), was written by a contemporary; this translation includes useful prefatory material.

Neoglaziovia

2004-12-26T22:38:00.000-08:00

The leaves of N. variegata, a reedlike plant, are up to 1.2 m (4 feet) long. They contain a fibre known as caroa, which is used to make rope, fabric, netting, and packing material.

Dagupan

2004-12-25T05:03:00.000-08:00

City and port, western Luzon Island, Philippines. It lies on the southern shore of Lingayen Gulf near the mouth of the Dagupan River. It was founded in 1590 by Augustinian missionaries. Dagupan is the port for a region that produces fish, solar-evaporated salt, rice, and fruit and is served by the Manila-North Railroad and a road network. The city has a university, a modern cathedral,

Chisholm, Shirley

2004-12-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

Shirley St. Hill was the daughter of immigrants; her father was from British Guiana (now Guyana) and her mother from Barbados. She grew up in Barbados and in her native Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Brooklyn College

Ogoja

2004-12-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

Town, Cross River state, southeastern Nigeria, on the road from Abakaliki. A major trade centre (yams, cassava, corn [maize], rice, palm oil and kernels, kola nuts), it is mainly inhabited by the Ekoi peoples. Ogoja is the headquarters of a local government council and the site of a teacher-training college, a secondary school, and several hospitals and clinics. Pop. (1982 est.) 22,020.

Puerto Vallarta

2004-12-22T05:20:00.000-08:00

Formerly �Las Pe�as, � city, western Jalisco estado (�state�), west-central Mexico. It lies on Banderas Bay, on the Pacific coastal lowland, 6 miles (10 km) south of the mouth of the Ameca River. It is the major port of Jalisco state and exports bananas, coconut oil, hides, and fine woods. Beans and bananas are grown in the hinterland, which is also used for raising pigs, horses, and bees. Puerto Vallarta's population

Ashe, Arthur (robert)

2004-12-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

Ashe began to play tennis at the age of seven in a neighbourhood park. He was coached by Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Va., who had coached tennis champion Althea Gibson. Ashe moved to St. Louis, Mo., where he was coached by Richard Hudlin, before he entered

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

2004-12-20T01:02:00.000-08:00

In spite of his success as a pianist and composer, Mozart had serious financial worries, and they worsened as the famously fickle Viennese found other idols. One may calculate his likely income during his last five years, 1786 - 91, as being far larger than that of most musicians though much below that of the section of society with which he wanted to be associated; Leopold's early

Fence

2004-12-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

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

Leaf-cutter Bee

2004-12-18T10:01:00.000-08:00

Also called �Leaf-cutting Bee, � any of the insects in the family Megachilidae (order Hymenoptera), particularly certain species in the genus Megachile. Leaf-cutter bees differ from related species in that they collect pollen on their abdomens rather than on their hind legs. The solitary female, having mated with the male, makes a nest in soil, a hollow plant stalk, or a cavity in wood, lining

Cone, Fairfax M.

2004-12-17T14:40:00.000-08:00

Cone's father was a prospector and mining engineer, and his mother was a schoolteacher. He studied English at the University of California, working as a summertime copy boy on the San Francisco

Alkalai, Judah Ben Solomon Hai

2004-12-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

Alkalai was taken to Jerusalem at an early age, and there he was reared and educated for the rabbinate. At 25 he went to Semlin, in Croatia, as a rabbi and found himself teaching Hebrew to the young men of his congregation,

Cynic

2004-12-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

Any member of a Greek �philosophical sect that flourished from the 4th century Bc� to well into Christian times and was distinguished more for its unconventional way of life than for any system of thought. Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, is considered to be the founder of the movement, but Diogenes (q.v.) of Sinope was its paradigm. He strove to destroy social conventions (including family life) as a way of returning to a �natural� life. Toward this end

Taliesin And Taliesin West

2004-12-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

The two homes, as well as architectural schools, of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Originally built in 1911, Taliesin, located near Spring Green, Wisconsin, U.S., was rebuilt after fires in 1914 and 1925. Taliesin West, near Scottsdale, Arizona, was begun in 1937 as a winter home for Wright and his students. Wright was of Welsh descent and named his homes after the Welsh bard Taliesin.