FreeHead

James Hull cosmetic dentistry

2006-10-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

I can highly reccomend James Hull for Teeth Whitening and cosmetic dentistry. Their experienced dentists were amazing and their treatments were cost effective. Tooth Whitening at James Hull cosmetic dentistry is affordable and leaves you feeling like a million dollors.

Cinématographe

2005-04-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

First motion-picture apparatus, used as both camera and projector. The invention of Louis and Auguste Lumière, manufacturers of photographic materials of Lyon, Fr., it was based in part on the Kinetoscope of Thomas A. Edison in the United States and in part on the Théâtre Optique of Émile Reynaud in Paris. From Edison's invention the Lumières took the idea of a sprocket-wound

Devil

2005-04-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

In the monotheistic Western religions, the devil is viewed as a fallen angel who in pride has tried to usurp the position of

Kyaukpyu

2005-03-31T00:44:00.000-08:00

Town, western Myanmar (Burma). It lies at the northern end of the offshore island of Ramree in Combermere Bay, an inlet of the Bay of Bengal, about 250 miles (400 km) northwest of Yangôn (Rangoon). Kyaukpyu's excellent natural harbour is formed by deep, narrow saltwater inlets separating the smaller offshore islands, and it is a regular port of call for steamers in the rice trade between

Aliger, Margarita Iosifovna

2005-03-27T09:42:00.000-08:00

Born into a poor family, Aliger was a committed communist from an early age. She studied writing in Moscow from 1934 to 1937 at what later became the Gorky Literary Institute. In the late 1930s she wrote prose sketches and verse diaries of her

Pendred's Syndrome

2005-03-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

Hereditary metabolic condition that is characterized by deafness and defective incorporation of iodine into thyroid hormone, resulting in goitre or enlargement of the thyroid gland. Pendred's syndrome is a major cause of congenital deafness. It does not produce symptoms of hypothyroidism (deficiency of thyroid activity) in most patients, nor does the condition

Aristides The Just

2005-03-24T06:49:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Aristides' early life. He appears to have been prominent within the party that favoured resistance to Persia, but in 482 he was ostracized, probably because he opposed Themistocles' plan to use the silver from a new vein of the mines at

Toledo, Alejandro

2005-03-22T04:51:00.000-08:00

On July 28, 2001, nearly five centuries after Europeans conquered the Incas—and after two years of campaigning—Alejandro Toledo was sworn in as Peru's first democratically elected president of Quechua ethnicity. Although easily half of Peruvians were Amerindians, the white and mestizo minorities had held the key to economic, scholastic, and political power since colonial

Eckhel, Joseph Hilarius

2005-03-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

Eckhel was educated at the Jesuit gymnasium in Vienna, where he had entered the Jesuit order at age 14. He taught grammar at various collegiate schools, but because of poor health he gave up teaching to

Perspective Scenery

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

In theatre, scenery and the scene design technique that represents three-dimensional space on a flat surface, creating an illusion of reality and an impression of distance. Developed during the Italian Renaissance, perspective scenery applied the newly mastered science of linear perspective and brought the craft of illusion to the Italian stage. An initial

Maurice, Saint

2005-03-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

Their story was recorded in the Passio martyrum Acaunensium (“The Passion of the Martyrs of Agaunum”), by the 5th-century French bishop St. Eucherius, who believed

Ikhwan As-safa'

2005-03-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Neither the identity nor the period of the Ikhwan as-Safa' has been definitively established, but the

Kafue

2005-03-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

Town, south-central Zambia, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Lusaka, the national capital. The town is located on the northern bank of the Kafue River, whose water is diverted northward by channel to Chilanga and Lusaka. The town's industrial area, which gets its power supply from the Kafue hydroelectric scheme, houses an ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant, a textile mill, an iron

Bracteate

2005-03-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

These circular bracteates were derived from late Roman and Byzantine coins. Goldsmiths later abandoned the Roman

Canada Goose

2005-03-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

(species Branta canadensis), a brown-backed, light-breasted goose with black head and neck and white cheeks that flash when the bird shakes its head before taking wing. It belongs to the family Anatidae (order Anseriformes). The subspecies vary greatly in size, from 1.3 kg (3 pounds) in the cackling goose (B. canadensis minima), to about 8 kg (20 pounds)

America's Cup

2005-03-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

One of the oldest and best-known trophies in international sailing yacht competition. It was first offered as the Hundred Guinea Cup in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron of Great Britain for a race around the Isle of Wight. The cup was won by the America, a 100-foot (30-metre) schooner from New York City, and subsequently became known as the America's Cup. The American winners

Heisman, John

2005-03-09T07:26:00.000-08:00

In full John William Heisman U.S. collegiate gridiron football coach for 36 years and one of the greatest innovators of the game. He was responsible for legalizing the forward pass in 1906, and he originated the centre snap and the “hike,” or “hep,” count signals shouted by the quarterback in starting play. He was also the first coach to use the hidden ball play

Podium

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

Plural podiums , or podia in architecture, any of various elements that form the “foot,” or base, of a structure, such as a raised pedestal or base, a low wall supporting columns, or the structurally or decoratively emphasized lowest portion of a wall. Sometimes the basement story of a building may be treated as a podium. The podium is usually designed with a modeled base and plinth at the bottom; a

Kusf And College Radio

2005-03-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

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

Argentina, Flag Of

2005-03-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

The blue cockades worn by patriots in May 1810, when the Spanish viceroy in Buenos Aires yielded authority to the local government, and the uniforms worn by Argentines in 1806, when the British attacked Buenos Aires, may have been the origin of the celeste-white-celeste horizontally striped flag first hoisted on February 12, 1812, by General Manuel Belgrano. On July 9, 1816, Argentina, then

Manasseh Ben Israel

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

Manasseh was born into a family of Marranos (Jews of Spain and Portugal who publicly accepted Christianity but privately practiced Judaism). After his father appeared as a penitent in an auto da fé, the family escaped

Cylinder

2005-03-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

In geometry, surface of revolution that is traced by a straight line (the generatrix) that always moves parallel to itself or some fixed line or direction (the axis). The path, to be definite, is directed along a curve (the directrix), along which the line always glides. In a right circular cylinder, the directrix is a circle. The axis of this cylinder is a line through the centre

Ancud

2005-03-03T19:51:00.000-08:00

Town and commune in Los Lagos región, Chiloé provincia, southern Chile. It lies on the northern coast of Chiloé Island, across the Straits of Chacao from the mainland. Founded in 1769 as San Carlos de Ancud, it was one of the last strongholds of royalist forces during Chile's struggle for independence from Spain in the first quarter of the 19th century. It was the provincial capital

Egypt, Dynastic strife and decline (14530 BC)

2005-03-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

Physcon was able to rule in Egypt until 116 BC with his sister Cleopatra II (except for a period in 131–130 BC when she was in revolt) and her daughter Cleopatra III. His reign was marked by generous benefactions to the Egyptian temples, but he was detested as a tyrant by the Greeks, and the historical accounts of the reign emphasize his stormy relations with the Alexandrian

Platform Tennis

2005-03-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Platform Paddle Tennis, or Paddle Tennis, sport that is a combination of tennis and squash, devised in 1928 by American sports enthusiasts Fessenden Blanchard and James Cogswell at Scarsdale, N.Y. It is played on specially constructed platforms, 60 by 30 feet (18 by 9 m), surrounded by back and side walls of tightly strung wire netting 12 feet (3.7 m) high. The actual court measures 44 by 20 feet (13.4 by 6 m), and the net is 2 feet 10 inches (86 cm) high at its centre.

Tunisia, Transportation

2005-02-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

The network of roads and railways is sufficiently dense so that all cities of any importance are linked with the interior. Tunisia is connected by both road and rail to Algeria and Morocco but only by road to Libya (Tripoli), and to Egypt (Cairo), since the railway ends at Qabis. Work is underway to modernize and extend the railway network. The principal port is Tunis-Halq

Czartoryski, Adam Jerzy, Prince (ksiaze)

2005-02-27T09:36:00.000-08:00

Czartoryski was the most renowned member of a princely family, descended from the Lithuanian royal house, which wielded great power in Poland in the 18th

Abu Ruwaysh

2005-02-25T20:59:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Abu Roash,

Bridgewater Canal

2005-02-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

The duke wanted a canal to facilitate transporting coal from his mines at Worsley to Manchester, a distance of 10 miles (16 km),

Rivoli

2005-02-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

Town, Torino provincia, Piemonte (Piedmont) regione, northwestern Italy, just west of Turin (Torino). Once the favourite resort of the counts of Savoy, the town is dominated by a castle begun by Victor Amadeus II, king of Sicily and Sardinia, in 1712 on the site of an older structure. The house of the Green Count (Amadeus VI), dating from the 14th–15th century, is typical of the elegant patrician

Constance, Council Of

2005-02-24T05:45:00.000-08:00

(1414–18), 16th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. Following the election of two rival popes (Gregory XII in Rome and Benedict XIII in Avignon) in 1378 and the attempt at the Council of Pisa in 1409 to resolve the Western Schism by the election of a new pope, the church found itself with three popes instead of one. Under pressure from the Holy Roman emperor Sigismund, John

Andesite

2005-02-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

Any member of a large family of rocks that occur in most of the world's volcanic areas. Andesites occur mainly as surface deposits and, to a lesser extent, as dikes and small plugs. Many of the deposits are not normal lava flows but rather flow breccias, mudflows, tuffs, and other fragmental rocks; the peperino near Rome and the trass of the Eifel district in Germany are examples.

Syria, From the 9th to the 12th century

2005-02-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

As the 'Abbasid caliphate disintegrated in its turn, Syria drifted out of the sphere of influence of Baghdad. In 877 it was annexed by the Tulunid dynasty of Egypt, and this began a political connection that was to last with intervals for more than six centuries. In northern Syria the Tulunids were succeeded by a local Arab dynasty, the Hamdanids of Aleppo, founded by Sayf ad-Dawlah

Dynamics

2005-02-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

Dynamics can be subdivided into kinematics, which describes motion, without regard to its causes, in terms of position, velocity, and acceleration; and kinetics, which is concerned

Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal

2005-02-19T01:03:00.000-08:00

The son of a butcher of Ipswich, Wolsey was educated at the University of Oxford. In 1498 he was ordained

Marquess

2005-02-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

In western Europe the Carolingian marchiones or margraves had been royal officials whose

Foy, Maximilien(-sébastien)

2005-02-17T00:26:00.000-08:00

Foy served in the artillery and the infantry, attaining the rank of major in 1796, staff colonel in 1799, and brigadier

Roberts, Kenneth (lewis)

2005-02-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

Roberts worked as a journalist until 1917, when he began service as a captain in the Intelligence Section of the U.S. Army's Siberian Expeditionary Force. He was staff correspondent of the Saturday Evening Post from 1919 until

Fyodor Iii

2005-02-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

The eldest son of Alexis (reigned 1645–76), Fyodor not only was educated in the traditional subjects of Russian and Church

Dunqulah

2005-02-13T18:06:00.000-08:00

The historic town of Old Dunqulah (Dunqulah al-'Ajuz) was situated on the

Hines, Gregory

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

By the age of four, Hines and his older brother Maurice were taking tap lessons with renowned dancer and choreographer Henry Le Tang. The brothers soon formed the Hines Kids, a song-and-dance

R.j. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings

2005-02-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

American manufacturer of tobacco products. The origins of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company date to the post-Civil War era, when Richard Joshua Reynolds (1850–1918) began trading in tobacco, first in his native Virginia and then in Winston, North Carolina, where in 1875 he established his first plug factory. In 1899 the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was incorporated, with Reynolds as president.

Tasmania, Government and politics

2005-02-11T23:15:00.000-08:00

The state parliament comprises a House of Assembly and a Legislative Council, the latter by tradition a largely nonparty house. The system of elections for the House of Assembly is proportional representation by the single transferable vote; the system for the Legislative Council is the preferential system, with an obligation to record preferences, used for

Atherton, Gertrude

2005-02-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

Gertrude Horn grew up in a prosperous neighbourhood of her native San Francisco until her parents' divorce and thereafter mainly on the San Jose ranch of her maternal grandfather, under whose stern discipline she was introduced to serious literature.

Alkalai, Judah Ben Solomon Hai

2005-02-10T02:29:00.000-08:00

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,

Moses, Sir Charles (joseph Alfred)

2005-02-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

Moses graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, Eng. (1918), and was stationed with the British army in Ireland before immigrating

Bel Fruit

2005-02-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

Bel also spelled Bael, also called Bengal Quince (species Aegle marmelos), fruit of the bel tree of the family Rutaceae, found wild or cultivated throughout India. The trees bear strong spines; alternate, compound leaves, each with three leaflets; and panicles of sweet-scented white flowers. The tree is valued for its fruit, which is oblong to pyriform in shape and 50–250 mm (2–10 inches) in diameter. The fruit has a gray or yellow rind

Dietrich, Marlene

2005-02-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

Marie Magdalene was the daughter of Ludwig Dietrich, a Royal Prussian police officer. Her father died when she was very young, and her mother remarried a cavalry officer, Edouard von Losch.

Korosten

2005-02-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Korosten ', city, Zhitomir oblast (province), north-central Ukraine. It lies along the west bank of the Uzh River about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Kiev. The city, which was incorporated in 1926, is a small industrial centre, a railway junction, and an engineering centre. In addition, it manufactures equipment for the chemical industry and has woodworking, porcelain, food-processing, and clothing

Kusti

2005-02-03T05:44:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Kosti, town, central Sudan. It lies on the western bank of the White Nile, about 65 miles (104 km) south of Ad-Duwaym. Its basic agricultural economy is augmented by light manufacturing. The Kosti bridge, 4 miles (6 km) upstream from Kusti, provides a railway connection with Al-Ubayyid and accommodates motor-vehicular traffic. A domestic airport is located at Kusti. Pop. (1973) 65,257.

Daily Mirror

2005-02-01T16:07:00.000-08:00

The Daily Mirror was founded by Alfred Harmsworth, later Viscount Northcliffe, in 1903 as a picture tabloid. It has consistently stressed the sensational, the human-interest, and the personal types of stories. Its independent stance

Mcmanus, Rachel Louise

2005-02-01T05:17:00.000-08:00

McManus graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, before earning a nursing degree from the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing. Her long association with Columbia

Yoro

2005-01-31T22:55:00.000-08:00

City, northwestern Honduras. Situated in the highlands at an elevation of 1,837 feet (559 m), it is located near the headwaters of the Aguán River. Although its founding date is uncertain, it was first mentioned in 1684. It is now a commercial and manufacturing centre in a fertile agricultural area. Coffee, tobacco, livestock, and timber are the principal products of the region. In the

Leng-hu

2005-01-31T06:01:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Lenghu, town, northwestern Tsinghai sheng (province), western China. Leng-hu is situated in the northwestern part of the Tsaidam Basin, to the southwest of Tang-chin Pass, which leads from the Tsaidam into western Kansu province and to the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang. Leng-hu is one of the major centres of the oil fields developed in the Tsaidam Basin during the 1960s and

Bridie, James

2005-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

Trained at the University of Glasgow's medical school, Bridie maintained a successful general practice (until 1938) and served as a physician in World War I and World War II. His first play, The Sunlight Sonata (1928), written under the pseudonym

Rowboat

2005-01-28T05:55:00.000-08:00

A true rowboat or sculling boat has an easy motion through the water and, most important, glides between strokes. Thus the boat's forward motion never ceases; each stroke of the oar keeps the boat underway, and a steady tempo

Triangle

2005-01-27T00:42:00.000-08:00

Percussion instrument consisting of a steel rod bent into a triangle with one corner left open. It is suspended by a gut or nylon loop and struck with a steel rod. It is theoretically an instrument of indefinite pitch, for its fundamental pitch is obscured by its inharmonic partials (component

Wessex

2005-01-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

One of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, whose ruling dynasty eventually became kings of the whole country. In its permanent nucleus, its land approximated that of the modern counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Somerset. At times its land extended north of the River Thames, and it eventually expanded westward to cover Devon and Cornwall. The name Wessex

Saarland

2005-01-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

The coal seams stretch for a distance of about

Swartkrans

2005-01-24T05:21:00.000-08:00

One of three neighbouring South African sites where important fossil hominid remains have been found. See Sterkfontein.

Earth, Variation with internal density distribution

2005-01-23T13:18:00.000-08:00

If the Earth were horizontally stratified so that density varied only with depth, the Bouguer anomaly would be everywhere close to zero. In fact, because the Earth is heterogeneous, the gravitational anomaly field displays “roughness” over a very wide range of length scales and amplitudes. When the distribution of excess or deficiency in density is known, the effect

Chaffee, Adna R(omanza)

2005-01-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

After long service against the Indians in the West, Chaffee was promoted to the rank of brigadier general (1898) at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, during which he gained distinction at the Battle of El Caney in the Santiago

Macbeth

2005-01-20T00:12:00.000-08:00

Tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, performed at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1605–06 and published in the First Folio of 1623, from a promptbook of a version prepared for court performance. Some portions of the original text are corrupted or missing from the published edition. The play is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, without diversions or subplots. It chronicles

Shansi, Transportation

2005-01-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Shansi relies heavily on rail lines, both for intraprovince transport and for shipping raw materials, industrial commodities, and foodstuffs outside the province. The longest of these, the T'ung-p'u trunk line, runs from Ta-t'ung to Feng-ling-tu, in the southwest corner of the province. Additional branch lines connect the main line with newly opened industrial and mining

Ma'adi, Al-

2005-01-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

Predynastic Egyptian site located just south of modern Cairo in Al-Qahirah muhafazah (governorate) in Lower Egypt. The settlement at Al-Ma'adi was approximately contemporary with the widespread Gerzean culture (c. 3400–c. 3100 BC) of Upper Egypt. Al-Ma'adi was apparently a peasant village with a separate cemetery; the settlement was characterized by rectangular huts, splay-footed vases,

Xu Wei

2005-01-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

As a young man, Xu repeatedly failed to pass civil service examinations. During the 1550s and '60s he did succeed in gaining a reputation as a poet and painter, but as his reputation as an artist

Yablonitsky Pass

2005-01-13T18:04:00.000-08:00

Russian Pereval Yablonitsky, also spelled Pereval Jablonickij, pass in the outer eastern Carpathians of western Ukraine, an important route connecting the rest of the republic with the isolated Zakarpatskaya oblast (administrative region) and with northeastern Romania. The southern portion of the pass is formed by the valley of the Tisa River, and the northern section contains the headwaters of the Prut. The head of the pass

Aalto, Alvar

2005-01-11T21:31:00.000-08:00

Turun Sanomat Building, Turku, Fin. (1930); Municipal Library at Viipuri, now Vyborg, Russia (1930–35); Sulfate Paper Mill at Toppila, Fin. (1931); Sanatorium at Paimio, Fin. (1933); cellulose factory at Sunila, Kotka, Fin. (1936–39; extended 1951–54); Villa Mairea (Gullichsen House) near Noormarkku, Fin. (1938–39); sawmill at Varkaus, Fin. (1945); Baker House (student dormitory), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., U.S. (1947–48); town hall group, Säynätsalo, Fin. (1950–52); House of Culture, Helsinki, Fin. (1955–58); house for Louis Carré, Bazoches, France (1956–58); church at Vuoksenniska, Imatra, Fin. (1956–58); Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Ålborg, Den. (1958–72); post and telegraph office, Baghdad, Iraq (1958); Community Centre, Wolfsburg, Ger. (1959–62); Community Centre, Seinäjoki, Fin. (1962; theatre added, 1967); Edgar J. Kaufmann Conference Rooms, Institute of International Education, New York City (1964–65); Mount Angel Abbey Library, near Salem, Ore., U.S. (1967–70); Finlandia Hall, Helsinki (1971, enlarged 1974); Taidemuseo, Jyväskylä, Fin. (1973, later called the Alvar Aalto Museum).

Syros

2005-01-09T06:36:00.000-08:00

Modern Greek Síros, island near the centre of the Cyclades group, in the Aegean Sea, Greece. Its chief town and port, Hermoúpolis, on a bay of the east coast, is the capital of the nomós (department) of Cyclades. The island, with an area of 32 square miles (84 square km), is hilly, denuded, and irregular in shape, and it reaches an elevation of 1,450 feet (442 m). The old quarter, Áno Síros, of Hermoúpolis was founded in the

Dominican Republic

2005-01-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

Spanish República Dominicana country of the West Indies that occupies the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, the second largest island of the Greater Antilles chain in the Caribbean Sea. Haiti, also an independent republic, occupies the western third of the island. The Dominican Republic's shores are washed by the Caribbean to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. Between the eastern tip

Hywel Ab Owain Gwynedd

2005-01-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

Welsh warrior-prince and lyric poet whose eight extant compositions include the only love poems found in the works of the early Welsh court poets. Also included among the eight are poems expressing love of country, perhaps the first such works in Welsh literature. The son of Owain Gwynedd, Hywel played a major part in the occupation of Ceredigion (Cardiganshire) by

Alaska, Agriculture

2005-01-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

Only a small sector of Alaska's economy is agricultural, but a viable in-state market is still under development. More than 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of tillable land are available for farming, but much clearing has yet to be done. Most acreage is near Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula, though there is some near Fairbanks, and stock ranching is practiced on Kodiak

Biblical Literature, Apocalypses

2005-01-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

In addition, it should be noted that there were

Ahmose I

2004-12-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

Resuming the war of liberation against the Hyksos early in his reign, Ahmose crushed the foreigners' allies in Middle Egypt and, advancing down the Nile River, captured Memphis, the

Steinhart Aquarium

2004-12-27T04:36:00.000-08:00

Public aquarium in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, noted for its innovative displays. The facility was opened in 1923 and is administered by the California Academy of Sciences. Besides having about 5,000 specimens of some 350 species of fish, the aquarium maintains a collection of more than 200 kinds of reptiles and amphibians, along with 3 species of marine mammals and 60 species of

Tarantula

2004-12-26T04:43:00.000-08:00

The bite of L. tarentula was once thought to cause a disease known as tarantism, in which the victim wept and skipped about before going into a wild

Computers, COBOL

2004-12-23T03:13:00.000-08:00

Agni

2004-12-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

(Sanskrit: “Fire”), fire-god of the Hindus, second only to Indra in the Vedic mythology of ancient India. He is equally the fire of the sun, of lightning, and of the hearth that men light for purposes of worship. As the divine personification of the fire of sacrifice, he is the mouth of the gods, the carrier of the oblation, and the messenger between the human and the divine orders.

Round

2004-12-15T00:25:00.000-08:00

In music, a polyphonic vocal composition in which three or four voices follow each other around in a canon at the unison or octave. See canon; catch.

Sashimi

2004-12-14T20:44:00.000-08:00

Specialty of Japanese cuisine, fresh fish served raw. The fish, which must be utterly fresh, is sliced paper thin or alternately one-quarter to one-half inch (0.75–1.5 centimetres) thick, cubed, or cut in strips, according to the nature of the fish. The sashimi is accompanied by wasabi (green horseradish paste) and soy sauce. Sashimi is always part of a formal Japanese meal, served early

Ear, Human, Vestibule

2004-12-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

The two membranous sacs of the vestibule, the utricle and the saccule, are known as the otolith organs (Figure 4). Because they respond to gravitational forces, they are also called gravity receptors. Each sac has on its inner surface a single patch of sensory cells called a macula, which is about 2 millimetres (0.08 inch) in diameter and which monitors the position of the head

Italy, The Ostrogothic kingdom

2004-12-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

Odoacer was conquered and killed by Theoderic, king of the Ostrogoths (489–526). The decades of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy (489–552) can be seen as the first true period of Germanic rule in the peninsula, for an entire tribe of 100,000 to 200,000 people came with Theoderic. Still, the Ostrogothic kingdom continued to operate inside a largely Roman political system. Like Odoacer, Theoderic courted

Japanese Orthodox Church

2004-12-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning

Mitchell, S. Weir

2004-12-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

After study at the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College (M.D., 1850), Mitchell spent a year in Paris specializing in neurology. As an army surgeon during the American Civil War, he became well known for his “rest cure.” His

Dimbleby, Richard

2004-12-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

Dimbleby was the son

Girard, Stephen

2004-12-02T02:13:00.000-08:00

Girard shipped out to sea at the age of 14 and by 1774 was captain of a ship involved in U.S. coastal trade with the West Indies. Stymied by British blockades

Xhosa Language

2004-11-30T05:36:00.000-08:00

Xhosa also spelled Xosa a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Xhosa is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Zulu, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda, and Ndebele. Although Xhosa and Zulu are similar enough

Death Valley

2004-11-27T21:05:00.000-08:00

For several decades after its christening in 1849 by a hapless party of emigrants who endured intense suffering while crossing it, Death Valley was little known except to the Indians of the area and to prospectors searching the surrounding mountains. The first scientific notice of the valley seems to have been a brief note published in 1868 by a California state geologist.

Mauchline

2004-11-25T15:46:00.000-08:00

Village, situated near the River Ayr in East Ayrshire council area, historic county of Ayrshire, Scotland, and closely associated with the Scottish national poet, Robert Burns. It is the site of the Burns National Memorial. Mauchline has many links with the poet, who lived with his brother Gilbert at nearby Mossgiel from 1784 to 1788. In Castle Street stands a house, now a museum,

Dowie, John Alexander

2004-11-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

Dowie moved with his family to Australia as a boy but returned to Edinburgh to study theology. He entered the Congregational ministry in 1870 as a pastor in Alma, Australia, and spent the next several years campaigning against the use of

Generalization

2004-11-22T00:35:00.000-08:00

In psychology, the tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli. For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a tone of a particular pitch and loudness will also salivate with considerable regularity in response to tones of higher and lower pitch. The generalized response is predictable and orderly: it will measure less than that elicited

Wolof Empire

2004-11-19T03:24:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ouolof (fl. 14th–16th century), state that dominated what is now inland Senegal during the early period of European contact with West Africa. Founded soon after 1200, the Wolof state was ruled by a king, or burba, whose duties were both political and religious. During the 14th century, it began to develop satellite states, of which the most important was Cayor. During the 15th century Wolof was

Plücker, Julius

2004-11-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

Plücker attended the universities in Heidelberg, Bonn, Berlin, and Paris. In 1829, after four years as an unsalaried lecturer, he became a professor at the University of Bonn, where

Oglethorpe University

2004-11-15T01:21:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. The university comprises nine divisions offering undergraduate study in the humanities, business, sciences, and education. It also offers master's degree programs in education and business administration. The campus is distinguished by its English Gothic architecture. Total enrollment

Kodiak Bear

2004-11-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

(Ursus arctos middendorffi), variety of grizzly bear found on Kodiak Island, off the coast of Alaska. It is the largest of living land carnivores. See grizzly bear.

Spotlight: The Spat Over The Spratlys

2004-11-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

Scattered over 388,000 sq km (150,000 sq mi) of the South China Sea midway between Vietnam and the Philippines, the 500-600 largely uninhabited islets, reefs, and shoals of the Spratly Islands (see Map) seem a curious prize in Southeast Asia's most contentious territorial dispute. China, Vietnam, and Taiwan lay claim to the entire archipelago, and Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines to islands

France, History Of, The Age of Louis XIV

2004-11-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

Albert N. Hamscher, The Parlement of Paris After the Fronde, 1653–1673 (1976), and The Conseil Privé and the Parlements in the Age of Louis XIV: A Study in French Absolutism (1987), provide good introductions to the period. Roger Mettam, Power and Faction in Louis XIV's France (1988); and Roger Mettam (ed.), Government and Society in Louis XIV's France (1977), analyze the political structure. Eugene L. Asher, The Resistance to the Maritime Classes: The Survival of Feudalism in the France of Colbert (1960, reprinted 1980); Charles Woosley Cole, Colbert and a Century of French Mercantilism, 2 vol. (1939, reissued 1964); Thomas J. Schaeper, The French Council of Commerce, 1700–1715: A Study of Mercantilism After Colbert (1983); and Herbert Lüthy, La Banque protestante en France: de la révocation de l'Edit de Nantes à la Révolution, 2 vol. (1959–61, reprinted 1970), discuss the developing economic system. See also Warren C. Scoville, The Persecution of Huguenots and French Economic Development, 1680–1720 (1960), important in assessing the effects of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre Goubert, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen (1970, originally published in French, 1966), provides a synthesis of Louis's reign; it is supplemented in such special accounts as Lionel Rothkrug, Opposition to Louis XIV: The Political and Social Origins of the French Enlightenment (1965); John C. Rule (ed.), Louis XIV and the Craft of Kingship (1969); Louis André, Louis XIV et l'Europe (1950), on foreign policy; and John B. Wolf, Louis XIV (1968).

Aesthetics

2004-11-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

Also spelled esthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. To define its subject matter more precisely is, however, immensely difficult. Indeed, it could be said that self-definition has been the major task of modern aesthetics. We are acquainted with an interesting and puzzling realm of experience: the realm of the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime, and the elegant; of taste, criticism,

China, Livestock and fishing

2004-11-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

China has a long tradition of ocean and freshwater fishing and of aquaculture.

Rabassa, Gregory

2004-10-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

Rabassa graduated from Columbia University (Ph.D., 1954) and taught