Monday, January 31, 2005

Smith, Dame Maggie

Smith studied acting at the Oxford Playhouse School and began appearing in revues in Oxford in 1952 and London in 1955. She first achieved recognition in the Broadway revue New Faces of 1956 and held the lead comedienne role in the London revue Share My Lettuce (1957–58). She then

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Biblical Literature, The Alexandrian canon

The Old Testament as it has come down in Greek translation from the Jews of Alexandria via the Christian Church differs in many respects from the Hebrew Scriptures. The books of the second and third divisions have been redistributed and arranged according to categories of literature—history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy. Esther and Daniel contain supplementary

Biblical Literature, Letters

Among the apocryphal letters are: a 2nd-century Epistula Apostolorum (“Epistle of the Apostles”; actually apocalyptic and antiheretical), the Letter of Barnabas, a lost Letter of Paul to the Alexandrians (said to have been forged by followers of Marcion), the late-2nd-century letter called “III Corinthians” (part of the Acts of Paul and composed largely out of the genuine letters

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Rabbinical Assembly, The

Organization of Conservative rabbis in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Israel. It was founded in 1900 as the Alumni Association of the Jewish Theological Seminary and was reorganized in 1940 as the Rabbinical Assembly of America; in 1962 it acquired its present name and international scope. The Rabbinical Assembly recommends rabbis for appointment to Conservative

Ducas Family

Ducas also spelled  Dukas  or  Doukas   Byzantine family that supplied several rulers to the empire. First prominent in the 10th century, the family suffered a setback when Constantine Ducas, son of General Andronicus Ducas, lost his life attempting to become emperor in 913. Another Ducas family, perhaps connected with the earlier one through the female line, appeared toward the end of the 10th century. A member

Friday, January 28, 2005

West Covina

City, Los Angeles county, California, U.S. It lies at the eastern end of the San Gabriel Valley and is about 20 miles (32 km) east of the city centre of Los Angeles. Settled in 1905, it began as an agricultural community surrounded by citrus and walnut groves. After World War II it experienced rapid growth with the urbanization of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. West Covina consists

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Sabellianism

Christian heresy that was a more developed and less naive form of Modalistic Monarchianism (see Monarchianism); it was propounded by Sabellius (fl. c. 217–c. 220), who was possibly a presbyter in Rome. Little is actually known of his life because the most detailed information about him was contained in the prejudiced reports of his contemporary, Hippolytus, an anti-Monarchian

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Agricultural Technology

Application of techniques to control the growth and harvesting of animal and vegetable products.

Buckinghamshire Lace

Lace made in Buckinghamshire, Eng., from c. 1665 or earlier until the first quarter of the 20th century. This bobbin-lace industry, which was centred in Olney and Newport Pagnell, is thought to have originated from the successive influx of refugee laceworkers to the east Midlands counties. These refugees were reportedly Flemish, especially from Mechlin (1563–68), and French, especially

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Rabelais, François

Pseudonym  Alcofribas Nasier  French writer and priest who for his contemporaries was an eminent physician and humanist and for posterity is the author of the comic masterpiece Gargantua and Pantagruel. The four novels composing this work are outstanding for their rich use of Renaissance French and for their comedy, which ranges from gross burlesque

Monday, January 24, 2005

Ringgold, Faith

Ringgold grew up in New York City's Harlem, and while still in high school she decided to be an artist. She attended City College of New York, where she received B.S. (1955) and M.A. (1959) degrees. In the mid-1950s she began teaching art in New York

Adrar

Traditional region of central Mauritania in western Africa. It consists of a low central massif with noticeable cliffs that rise to about 800 feet (240 m). The terrain is arid and almost totally unsuitable for cropping. There is, however, sufficient water at the base of the uplands to support date-palm groves, and during the wetter part of the year there is cultivation of millet,

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Ascites

Accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity, between the membrane lining the abdominal wall and the membrane covering the abdominal organs. The most common causes of ascites are cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure, tumours of the peritoneal membranes, and escape of chyle (lymph laden with emulsified fats) into the peritoneal cavity. In patients having liver

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Ascites

Also called  Gabon viper  extremely venomous but usually docile, ground-dwelling snake found in tropical forests of central Africa. It is the heaviest venomous snake in Africa, weighing 8 kg (18 pounds), and it grows to a length of 2 metres (about 7 feet). The Gaboon viper also possesses the longest fangs of any snake, measuring up to 4 cm (1.6 inches) long. The stout body is boldly patterned with

Canals And Inland Waterways

Despite modern technological advances in air and ground transportation, inland waterways continue to fill a vital role and, in many areas, to grow substantially. This article traces the history of canal building from the earliest times to the present day and describes

Friday, January 21, 2005

Halebid

Historic site and modern village, south-central Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southwestern India. It is situated north-northwest of the town of Hassan. It grew up beside a large artificial lake, known as Dorasamudra (Dvarasamudra), which was probably built by the Rastrakutas in the 9th century. In the early 12th century the Hoysalas made it their capital, and for about two centuries

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Nephelinesyenite

Medium- to coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock, a member of the alkali-syenite group (see syenite) that consists largely of feldspar and nepheline. It is always considerably poorer in silica and richer in alkalies than granite. The extraordinarily varied mineralogy of the nephelinesyenites and their remarkable variation in habit, fabric, appearance, and composition

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Thomas The Rhymer

Also called  Thomas Learmont , or  Thomas Of Erceldoune  Scottish poet and prophet who was likely the author of the metrical romance Sir Tristrem, a version of the widely diffused Tristan legend. The romance was first printed in 1804 by Sir Walter Scott from a manuscript of about 1300. Thomas is now probably best known through the ballad “Thomas the Rhymer,” included by Scott in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802). In popular lore

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Permafrost, Air temperature and ground temperature

In areas where the mean annual air temperature becomes colder than 0° C, some of the ground frozen in the winter will not be completely thawed in the summer; therefore, a layer of permafrost will form and continue to grow downward gradually each year from the seasonally frozen ground. The permafrost layer will become thicker each winter, its thickness controlled by

Monday, January 17, 2005

Cummingtonite

An amphibole mineral, an iron and magnesium silicate that occurs in metamorphic rocks. For chemical formula and detailed physical properties, see amphibole (table).

United States, The coming of the war

Faced with a fait accompli, Lincoln when inaugurated was prepared to conciliate the South in every way but one: he would not recognize that the Union could be divided. The test of his determination came early in his administration, when he learned that the Federal troops under Major Robert Anderson in Fort Sumter, South Carolina—then one of the few military installations in the South still in Federal hands—had to be promptly supplied or withdrawn. After agonized consultation with his cabinet, Lincoln determined that supplies must be sent even if doing so provoked the Confederates into firing the first shot. On April 12, 1861, just before Federal supply ships could reach the beleaguered Anderson, Confederate guns in Charleston opened fire upon Fort Sumter, and the war began.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Becket, Saint Thomas

Thomas was born to Norman parents of the merchant class. He was educated first at Merton priory, then in a City of London school, and finally at Paris. Deeply influenced in childhood by a devout mother who died when he was 21, Thomas entered adult life as a city clerk and accountant in the service of the sheriffs. After three years he was introduced by his father to Archbishop

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Perec, Georges

Perec was orphaned at an early age: his father was killed in action in World War II, and his mother died in a concentration camp. He was reared by an aunt and uncle and eventually attended the Sorbonne for several years. His best-selling first novel, Les Choses: une

Catalog Verse

Verse that presents a list of people, objects, or abstract qualities. Such verse exists in almost all literatures and is of ancient origin. The genealogical lists in the Bible and the lists of heroes in epics such as Homer's Iliad are types of catalog verse, as are more modern poems such as Gerard Manley Hopkins's “Pied Beauty,” which begins: Glory be to God for dappled

Friday, January 14, 2005

M.b.e.

Member of the British Empire, member of a British order of knighthood, though this rank does not confer knighthood. See British Empire, The Most Excellent Order of the.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Ubico (castañeda), Jorge

Ubico received a commission in the Guatemalan army in 1897, distinguished himself in several campaigns, and rose to the rank of colonel. In 1907 he was appointed governor of Alta Verapaz and in 1911 governor of Retalhuleu, where he served with efficiency and honesty. In the following

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Shamanism, Gods, spirits, and souls

All three worlds are inhabited by spirits. Among the Mongolian and Turkish peoples, Ülgen, a benevolent deity and the god of the Upper World, has seven sons and nine daughters. Among the Buryat of southern Siberia, Tengri (often identified with Ülgen) also has children, the Khat's—the western ones being good and the eastern ones wicked. The gods of the Buryats number 99 and

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Calderdale

Westernmost metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough is part of the historic county of Yorkshire, except for a small area west of Todmorden that belongs to the historic county of Lancashire. The bleak gritstone Pennine moorlands, with scattered sheep farms and reservoirs, rise to an elevation of 1,500 feet (457 metres)

Augustine, Saint, Controversial writings

Of his works against the Manichaeans, the Confessions probably remains the most attractive and interesting; the sect itself is too little known today for detailed

Monday, January 10, 2005

Sevareid, Eric

After graduating from the University of Minnesota (1935), Sevareid worked as a reporter for the Minneapolis Journal (1936–37), which had

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Farc

Abbreviation of Spanish  Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (“Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia”)  Marxist guerilla organization in Colombia. Formed in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, the FARC is the largest of Colombia's rebel groups, estimated to possess some 10,000 to 15,000 armed soldiers and thousands of supporters, largely drawn from Colombia's rural areas. One of the organization's founders, Manuel Marulanda Vélez (originally Pedro Antonio

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Russell, Morgan

After studying under Robert Henri in New York City, Russell moved to Paris in 1906 and lived there for 40 years. In 1913–14 he and Stanton Macdonald-Wright established Synchromism (q.v.) as an avant-garde movement, issuing manifestos and exhibiting together in Munich, Paris, and New York

Canadian High

Also called  Alaskan high  large atmospheric high-pressure centre produced by the extremely low winter temperatures over northwestern Canada. Its cold, dense air does not extend above 3 km (2 miles). The high's location east of the Canadian Rockies shelters it from the relatively warm Pacific Ocean and helps it maintain its identity. Its average January sea level pressure is 1,020 millibars (30.12 inches

Friday, January 07, 2005

Judaism, Creativity

As has been noted, this “creed,” or “confession of faith,” underscores in the first benediction the relation of God to the world as that of Creator to creation. “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who forms light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates all things.” It adds the assertion that his activity is not in the past but is ongoing and continuous,

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Subatomic Particle, The weak nuclear force

Since the 1930s physicists have been aware of a force within the atomic nucleus that is responsible for certain types of radioactivity that are classed together as beta decay. A typical example of beta decay occurs when a neutron transmutes into a proton. The force that underlies this process is known as the weak nuclear force to distinguish it from the strong nuclear

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Corbeil-essonnes

Town, Essonne département, Paris region, north central France, at the confluence of the Seine and Essonnes rivers, just southeast of Paris. Corbeil and Essonnes, formerly separate towns, were united in 1951. Corbeil (ancient Corbilium) has a 14th-century gate and the medieval church of Saint-Spire (originally an abbey). An independent county in the Carolingian period, it was annexed

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Asian Games

The first games were held in 1951 at New Delhi; from 1954 they were held every four years. Athletes from 11 nations participated in the inaugural

Kernite

Also called  Rasorite,   borate mineral, hydrated sodium borate (Na2B4O7×4H2O), that was formerly the chief source of borax (q.v.). It forms very large crystals, often 60 to 90 centimetres (2 to 3 feet) thick; the largest observed measured 240 by 90 cm. The crystals are colourless and transparent but are usually covered by a surface film of opaque white tincalconite. Kernite is associated with other borate minerals as

Monday, January 03, 2005

Sinuiju

City, northwestern North Korea. It was developed during the Japanese occupation (1910–45) at the Korean terminus of a railway bridge across the Yalu (Amnok) River, 7 miles (11 km) west of the old city of Uiju (Sinuiju meaning “New Uiju”). An open port, 25 miles (40 km) from the mouth of the Yalu River, it grew commercially with the lumber industry, which uses the river to transport the logs from inland forests.

Sunday, January 02, 2005

Jewel Orchid

Downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens), native to eastern North America, has dark green leaves with silver and white veins. Its small white flowers are borne on a spike, as are those

Arts, Central Asian, Mongolian Huns

In the 4th century BC the Huns started to migrate westward from the Ordos region. By the 3rd century BC they had reached the Transbaikalia and had begun to enter Mongolia, which soon became the centre of their empire. Many mounds mark their progress. Those in the Zidzha Valley lie at the same latitude as the Pazyryk mounds and were subjected to similar conditions of freezing,

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Cone, Claribel; And Cone, Etta

The Cone sisters, daughters of German immigrant parents, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. Claribel