FixedBell

organic bed linen

2006-10-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

Livs range of soft luxurious bed linenis sourced ethically from India and using a fair trade policy. Liv also provide duvet cover set and bath towel set.

Excretion, Amphibians

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

Direct evidence for the occurrence of filtration at the glomerulus was first provided by experiments on the amphibian kidney. Although amphibians are formally given the status of terrestrial animals, they are poorly adapted to life on land. They excrete nitrogen in the form of urea and cannot produce urine more concentrated than the blood. Their skins are permeable

Fuse

2005-04-04T01:07:00.000-07:00

The blasting safety fuse, employed to fire an explosive from a distance or after a delay, is a hollow cord filled with a mixture resembling black powder and designed to propagate burning at a slow and steady rate. The far end of the fuse is usually

Chicago Literary Renaissance

2005-04-02T06:45:00.000-08:00

The flourishing of literary activity in Chicago during the period from approximately 1912 to 1925. The leading writers of this renaissance—Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Edgar Lee Masters, and Carl Sandburg—realistically depicted the contemporary urban environment, decrying the loss of traditional rural values in the increasingly industrialized and materialistic

Analytic Geometry, General classes of curves

2005-04-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

Caustic is an envelope of rays; more specifically, when the light rays emanating from a source are reflected by a given curve, the envelope of the reflected rays is the caustic by reflection, or catacaustic, of the given curve with respect to the source in question. When the rays from a source are refracted by a given curve, the envelope of refracted rays is called the caustic

Ikare

2005-03-30T23:15:00.000-08:00

Town, Ondo state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies in the Yoruba Hills, at the intersection of roads from Owo, Okene, Kabba, and Ado-Ekiti. An agricultural trade centre (yams, cassava, corn [maize], okra, pumpkins, rice) for the local Yoruba people, it is also a collecting point for cocoa, palm produce, tobacco, and cotton (which is sent to the textile mill at Ado-Ekiti, 37 miles [60 km] west). The

Finno-ugric Languages

2005-03-29T15:33:00.000-08:00

Group of languages constituting much the larger of the two branches of a more comprehensive grouping, the Uralic languages (q.v.). The Finno-Ugric languages are spoken by several million people distributed discontinuously over an area extending from Norway in the west to the Ob River region in Siberia and south to the lower Danube River in Europe. In this vast territory,

Mauriac, Claude

2005-03-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

A son of the novelist François Mauriac, he was able to make the acquaintance of many notable French writers at his father's house and later during his career as a journalist.

Ashurnasirpal I

2005-03-27T00:32:00.000-08:00

King of Assyria 1050–32 BC, when it was at a low ebb in power and prosperity caused by widespread famine and the pressure of western desert nomads, against whom Ashurnasirpal warred constantly. His father, Shamshi-Adad IV, a son of Tiglath-pileser I, was placed on the throne of Assyria by the Babylonian king Adad-apal-iddina. The few inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal I that

Aehrenthal, Aloys, Count Lexa Von

2005-03-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

Entering the imperial foreign service as attaché in Paris (1877), Aehrenthal subsequently worked at

Mauchline

2005-03-24T07:31:00.000-08:00

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,

Ashbee, Charles Robert

2005-03-23T00:39:00.000-08:00

After education at Wellington College and King's College, Cambridge, and while actively involved in the social work of Toynbee Hall, Ashbee was articled to the architect

Uzbekistan

2005-03-22T02:32:00.000-08:00

Officially Republic of Uzbekistan , Uzbek Uzbekiston , or Uzbekistan Respublikasi country in Central Asia. It lies mainly between two major rivers, the Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes River) on the northeast and the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River) on the southwest, though they only partly form its boundaries. Uzbekistan is bordered by Kazakstan on the northwest and north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on the east and southeast, Afghanistan on the south, and

Dingelstedt, Franz Ferdinand, Freiherr Von (count Of)

2005-03-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

A member of the liberal Young Germany movement, Dingelstedt wrote political satires against the German princes, notably Die Neuen Argonauten (1839; “The New Argonauts”) and a collection of satirical poems, Lieder eines Kosmopolitischen

Riboud, Antoine-amédée-paul

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

French industrialist (b. Dec. 25, 1918, Lyon, France—d. May 5, 2002, Paris, France), joined a small family-owned glass-making business, Souchon-Neuvesel, in 1942 and through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and hostile takeovers eventually turned it into a global food empire. In 1966 Riboud engineered a merger with another glass manufacturer, Boussois, to form BSN SA. He expanded relentlessly, acquiring

Andreas-salomé, Lou

2005-03-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

Salomé was the daughter of a Russian army officer of French Huguenot descent. She studied theology at the University of Zürich. In 1882 the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche fell in love with her, but she rejected his proposal of marriage.

Kafr Ash-shaykh

2005-03-19T05:45:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Kafr El-sheikh muhafazah (governorate) in the central Nile Delta, Lower Egypt, with the Rosetta Branch of the river to the west and ad-Daqahliyah governorate to the east. It was created in 1949 out of al-Gharbiyah muhafazah, just south, and named Fu'adiyah muduiyah (province) after Fu'ad I, sultan (1917–22) and king (1922–36) of Egypt. After the Egyptian monarchy was overthrown in 1952, the area was renamed in 1955. Buhayrat al-Burullus, which

Hole

2005-03-18T17:45:00.000-08:00

According to the band

Affective Disorder

2005-03-17T21:22:00.000-08:00

Mental disorder characterized by dramatic changes or extremes of mood. Affective disorders may include manic (elevated, expansive, or irritable mood with hyperactivity, pressured speech, and inflated self-esteem) or depressive (dejected mood with disinterest in life, sleep disturbance, agitation, and feelings of worthlessness or guilt) episodes, and often combinations

Corbière, Tristan

2005-03-17T00:06:00.000-08:00

Educated at Morlaix and the lycées of Saint-Brieuc and Nantes,

Biblical Literature, Greek additions to Esther

2005-03-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

The Hebrew Book of Esther had a religious and social value to the Jews during the time of Greek and Roman anti-Semitism, though the Hebrew short story did not directly mention God's intervention in history—and even God himself is not named. To bring the canonical book up-to-date in connection with contemporary anti-Semitism and to stress the religious meaning of the

Yuki

2005-03-15T10:56:00.000-08:00

Four groups of North American Indians who lived in the Coast Ranges and along the coast of northwestern California, U.S. They spoke distinctive languages unaffiliated with any other known language. The four Yuki groups were the Yuki proper, who lived along the upper reaches of the Eel River and its tributaries; the Huchnom, who dwelt in the Redwood Valley to the west;

Earth, Energy sources for convection

2005-03-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

Measurements of temperature in deep mines and oil wells indicate that there is a substantial temperature increase with depth. In part, this is due to the weight of overlying rocks. Such temperature increases are not accompanied by a change in heat content and are referred to as adiabatic temperature increases. Convection within the Earth occurs only if the temperature

Buldana

2005-03-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Buldhana, city, northern Maharashtra state, western India, on the Penganga River. Buldana is situated in the Buldana-Yeotmal plateau of the Deccan, at an elevation of 2,119 feet (646 m). Its climate is considerably cooler than that of most of the other communities of the Berar region. Primarily a regional administrative centre with little industry, it has several colleges affiliated with the

Iridosmine

2005-03-13T06:42:00.000-08:00

Also called Osmiridium, mineral consisting of an alloy of iridium and a smaller proportion of osmium. It occurs in gold-bearing conglomerates, as at the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and in gold sands, as in California and Oregon, U.S. Because of their hardness and resistance to corrosion, both natural and synthetic iridosmine are used for tips of pen nibs, surgical needles, and sparking points

Aspasia

2005-03-13T00:19:00.000-08:00

Mistress of the Athenian statesman Pericles and a vivid figure in Athenian society. Although Aspasia came from the Greek Anatolian city of Miletus and was not a citizen of Athens, she lived with Pericles from about 445 until his death in 429. Because a law sponsored by Pericles in 451 required that for a person to be a citizen both parents must be citizens, their son,

Interest Group

2005-03-11T00:32:00.000-08:00

Also called special-interest group, any aggregate of individuals that, on the basis of one or more shared concerns, makes claims upon groups or society in general in order to promote its objectives.

National Zoological Gardens Of South Africa

2005-03-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

Also called Pretoria Zoo, zoo near Pretoria, S.Af., that is noted for its wildlife conservation programs. It was opened in 1899 by the State Museum of the South African Republic on a small stretch of land along the Apies River, which flows through Pretoria. In 1913 the zoo became the Transvaal Zoological Gardens, independent of the state museum; in 1916 it adopted its present name, and in 1933 the state took over management

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, The allegorical mode

2005-03-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

The range of allegorical literature is so wide that to consider allegory as a fixed literary genre is less useful than to regard it as a dimension, or mode, of controlled indirectness and double meaning (which, in fact, all literature possesses to some degree). Critics usually reserve the term allegory itself for works of considerable length, complexity, or unique shape.

Goalundo Ghat

2005-03-09T23:42:00.000-08:00

Also called Goalundo, town, central Bangladesh. It is situated near the confluence of the Padma and Jamuna rivers. Goalundo Ghat is linked by road with Faridpur and Kushtia and is an important river-steamer and rail-spur terminus. Its principal transshipment commodities are rice, jute, oilseeds, sugarcane, and fish. Industries include rice milling and ice and candle manufacturing. Pop. (1981) 38,645.

Sweatshop

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

Workplace in which workers are employed for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy or oppressive conditions. In England, the word “sweater” was used as early as 1850 to describe an employer or middleman who exacted monotonous work at very low wages. Sweating first became widespread in the United States during the 1880s, when immigrants from eastern and southern Europe

Constance, Lake

2005-03-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

Also called Lake of Constance , Constance also spelled Konstanz , German Bodensee , Latin Lacus Brigantinus lake bordering Switzerland, Germany, and Austria and occupying an old glacier basin at an elevation of 1,299 feet (396 m). It has an area of 209 square miles (541 square km) and is about 40 miles (65 km) long and up to 8 miles (13 km) wide, with an average depth of 295 feet (90 m) and a maximum depth of 827 feet (252 m). It has about 125 miles (200 km) of shoreline. In the west, near Konstanz (Constance), it is divided by the Bodan mountain ridge

Maskelyne, John Nevil

2005-03-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

Trained as a watchmaker, Maskelyne became famous in 1865 when he, aided by George A. Cooke, exposed the Davenport Brothers as fraudulent spiritualists.

Tlaloc

2005-03-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

During Aztec times (14th to 16th century), Tlaloc's

Addison, Joseph

2005-03-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

English essayist, poet, and dramatist, who, with Richard Steele, was a leading contributor to and guiding spirit of the periodicals The Tatler and The Spectator. His writing skill led to his holding important posts in government while the Whigs were in power.

Schaeffer, Pierre

2005-03-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

French composer, acoustician, and electronics engineer who in 1948, with his staff at Radio-diffusion et Télévision Française, introduced musique concrète (q.v.), in which sounds of natural origin, animate and inanimate, are recorded and manipulated so that the original sounds are distorted and combined in a musical fashion. The means

George Ii

2005-03-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

George Augustus was the only son of the German prince George Louis, elector of Hanover (King

Wang Pi

2005-03-04T00:13:00.000-08:00

By the time of his death at the age of 23, Wang was already the author of outstanding commentaries on the Taoist classic, the Tao-te Ching, or Lao-tzu, and the Confucian mystical classic, the I Ching (“Classic of Changes”). Through these commentaries he helped introduce metaphysics into Chinese

Paraguay, Climate

2005-03-03T05:19:00.000-08:00

The climate is subtropical in most of eastern Paraguay, which mainly lies south of the Tropic of Capricorn, and tropical in most of the Chaco Boreal extending to its north. Masses of humid air blanket the country in the summers, and the winters are subject to cold southern winds. Summer temperatures between October and March generally range from 77° F to 104° F (25° C to 40° C). Winter temperatures

'aqabah, Al-

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

Originally called Ayla by the Arabs, the present name is an abbreviation

Amazon

2005-03-02T19:09:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, member of a race of women warriors. The story of the Amazons probably originated as a variant of a tale recurrent in many cultures, that of a distant land organized oppositely from one's own. The ascribed habitat of the Amazons necessarily became more remote as Greek geographic knowledge developed. When the Black Sea was colonized by Greeks, it

Jacob Ben Asher

2005-03-02T06:45:00.000-08:00

Little of certainty is known about Jacob's life. In 1303 he immigrated to Spain with his brothers and father, the great codifier Asher ben Jehiel, who became chief rabbi of Toledo.

Gandhi, Indira

2005-03-01T16:50:00.000-08:00

She was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. She attended Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal, and the University of Oxford, and in 1942 she married Feroze

The Environment

2005-03-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

To the surprise of professional horticulturists, computers had a large impact on the field in 1997. Academics led the way, and numerous universities in industrialized countries converted their reference resources to on-line, searchable form, making them freely available via the World Wide Web. The types of information that were obtained from these sites included

Arabesque

2005-02-28T03:11:00.000-08:00

Style of decoration characterized by intertwining plants and abstract curvilinear motifs. Derived from the work of Hellenistic craftsmen working in Asia Minor, the arabesque originally included birds in a highly naturalistic setting. As adapted by Muslim artisans about AD 1000, it became highly formalized; for religious reasons, no birds, beasts, or human

X-ray Diffraction

2005-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

A phenomenon in which the atoms of a crystal, by virtue of their uniform spacing, cause an interference pattern of the waves present in an incident beam of X rays. The atomic planes of the crystal act on the X rays in exactly the same manner as does a uniformly ruled grating on a beam of light. See also Bragg law; Laue diffraction pattern.

Ta-pieh Mountains

2005-02-27T16:40:00.000-08:00

Wade–Giles romanization Ta-pieh Shan, Pinyin Dabie Shan, mountain range in central China. It has a roughly northwest-to-southeast axis, which forms the watershed between the upper Huai River and the Yangtze River and also marks the boundary between Hupeh province and its eastern and northern neighbours, the provinces of Honan and Anhwei. The name Ta-pieh Mountains properly belongs to the southeastern, higher section

Aquifoliaceae

2005-02-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

The Aquifoliaceae differ from other

Ascension

2005-02-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

British island in the South Atlantic Ocean, with an area of 34 square miles (88 square km). It is a dependency of the colony of St. Helena, 700 miles (1,100 km) to the southeast. Except on the heights of Green Mountain (2,817 feet [859 m]), where fruit, vegetables, and livestock are raised, the island is mostly a desert of extinct volcanic craters and extensive lava flows. There are no surface streams. Nineteenth-century

Ekelöf, Gunnar

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

Ekelöf exerted great influence on his contemporaries. His radically modern style was influenced by such poets as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot. In such poetry from the 1930s as Sent på jorden (1932; “Late on Earth”), Ekelöf was drawn to the Surrealist technique of automatism

öræfajökull

2005-02-24T21:47:00.000-08:00

Ice-covered volcanic massif, southeastern Iceland. It lies at the southern end of the giant ice field of Vatnajökull (q.v.). Its highest peak, Mount Hvannadals, reaches an elevation of 6,952 feet (2,119 m) above sea level and is also the highest peak in Iceland.

Anderson, Helen Eugenie Moore

2005-02-24T20:39:00.000-08:00

Eugenie Moore attended Stephens College (Columbia, Missouri) in 1926–27, Simpson College (Indianola, Iowa) in 1927–28, and Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota) in 1929–30; she took no degree. In 1930 she married John P. Anderson. During two years in New York City she studied piano at the Juilliard

Niccolite

2005-02-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

An ore mineral of nickel, nickel arsenide (NiAs). It is commonly found associated with other nickel arsenides and sulfides, as in the Natsume nickel deposits, Japan; Andreas-Berg, Ger.; Sudbury, Ont.; and Silver Cliff, Colo. Niccolite is classified in a group of sulfide minerals that exhibit a characteristic hexagonal structure. The name, a derivative of the German word Kupfernickel,

Terbrugghen, Hendrik

2005-02-24T06:27:00.000-08:00

In the early 1590s Terbrugghen's family moved to Utrecht, a strong Roman Catholic centre, where he studied with Abraham Bloemaert. Terbrugghen reportedly spent 10 years in Italy, having arrived in Rome about 1604, and thus could have had direct contact

öræfajökull

2005-02-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

Variation of the amplitude of a carrier wave (commonly a radio wave) in accordance with the characteristics of a signal, such as a vocal or musical sound composed of audio-frequency waves. See modulation.

Tsuyama

2005-02-22T21:31:00.000-08:00

City, Okayama ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the upper Yoshii River, in the centre of the Tsuyama basin. A castle was built there in 1442. An important post town during the Tokugawa period (1603–1867), Tsuyama is still a centre of traditional home industries, producing tabi (socks), sickles, and silk gauze textiles. The remains of the castle and old buildings around it attract

Webb, Sidney And Beatrice

2005-02-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

In full respectively Sidney James Webb, Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner , and Martha Beatrice Webb, née Potter English Socialist economists (husband and wife), early members of the Fabian Society, and co-founders of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Sidney Webb also helped reorganize the University of London into a federation of teaching institutions and served in

Gobi, Plant life

2005-02-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

Vegetation, as mentioned above, is sparse and rare. On the plateau and on the plains beneath the mountains, small bushlike vegetation occurs: echinochloa (a type of succulent grass found in warm regions), yellowwood bean caper, winter fat (a shrub covered with densely matted hairs), Dzungarian reaumur, nitre bush, and bushlike halophytic vegetation. In the salt marshes,

Arts, East Asian, Architecture

2005-02-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

While little remains except walls and tombs, much can be learned about Han architecture from historical writings and long descriptive poems, fu. This was an era of great palace buildings. The first Ch'in emperor undertook the building of a vast palace, the A-fang or O-pang, whose main hall was intended to accommodate 10,000 guests in its upper story. He also copied the palaces

Insurance, Reinsurance

2005-02-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

Two main types of treaties exist—pro rata and excess-of-loss

Nilo-saharan Languages

2005-02-20T18:20:00.000-08:00

The original expansion of the Nilo-Saharan family may have been associated with the Aquatic industry. This industry, which dates to the 8th millennium BC, is a conglomeration of cultures that exploited the food resources of lakes, rivers, and surrounding areas from Lake Rudolf in East Africa to the bend of the Niger River in West Africa during a long era of wetter climate

Extradition

2005-02-19T18:42:00.000-08:00

According

Ilerda, Campaign Of

2005-02-19T18:31:00.000-08:00

(49 BC), the campaign leading to the victory of Julius Caesar over Pompey's forces in Spain. In the spring of 49 BC, Caesar sent six legions from Gaul into Spain under Gaius Fabius and joined them at Ilerda (Lérida) on the Sicoris (Segre) River. Five Pompeian legions, together with many Spanish auxiliaries, commanded by Lucius Afranius and Marcus Petreius, were concentrated against

Ito

2005-02-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

City, Shizuoka Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, on the east coast of the Izu-hanto (Izu Peninsula). Although its hot springs were discovered in the late 16th century, the city did not develop as a resort until the arrival of a railway line from Atami in 1938. Ito is now the second largest spa on the peninsula (after Atami), with almost 400 hot springs. It is also an important fishing port and market

Mu'tamid, Al-

2005-02-19T01:09:00.000-08:00

At age 13 al-Mu'tamid commanded a military expedition that had been sent against the city of Silves. The venture was successful, and he was appointed governor

Protist, Section X. Rhizopod sarcodines

2005-02-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

Many possess nonaxopod pseudopodia in at least some stage of the life cycle, or a shuttle-type flow of cytoplasm is exhibited; tubular mitochondrial cristae; biflagellate stage is common in many species; pseudopodia are often employed in locomotion and holozoic feeding; some 44,000 described species, of which 85 percent are foraminiferans, with about 75 percent of the total

Brea

2005-02-17T14:27:00.000-08:00

City, Orange county, southwestern California, U.S., at the foot of the Puente Hills. Early settlers dug the oil-soaked earth in the “Brea” canyon for fuel, and commercial production began in the 1890s after successful strikes in the Brea and Olinda fields. The influx of people inspired the Ontario Investment Company to file a subdivision map in 1908 for a town to be called Randolph;

Ibn Tibbon, Moses Ben Samuel

2005-02-16T14:52:00.000-08:00

Jewish physician like his father, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon, and his paternal grandfather, Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon, and an important translator of Arabic-language works into Hebrew. His translations served to disseminate Greek and Arab culture throughout Europe. Besides original works, which included commentaries with an allegorical bias on

Cordia

2005-02-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

The leaves of the tropical American geiger tree, aloewood, or sebesten plum (C.

Auden, W(ystan) H(ugh)

2005-02-15T08:05:00.000-08:00

English-born poet and man of letters who achieved early fame in the 1930s as a hero of the left during the Great Depression. Most of his verse dramas of this period were written in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood. In 1939 Auden settled in the United States, becoming a U.S. citizen.

Cytoplasmic Streaming

2005-02-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

Also called protoplasmic streaming the movement of the living substance (cytoplasm) within a plant or animal cell. The motion transports nutrients, enzymes, and, in plants, large virus particles within cells. In unicellular organisms such as amoeba, it provides the mechanism for cell locomotion. First discovered in the 1830s, the presence of cytoplasmic streaming helped convince biologists that cells

Grafton

2005-02-14T17:08:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1878) of Taylor county, northern West Virginia, U.S., on the Tygart Valley River, north of Tygart Lake. Settled in 1852 by construction crews of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, it is thought to be named for the “graftin' on” (junction) point for branch rail lines. It was chartered in 1856. During the American Civil War it was a key rail centre and was occupied by both Confederate and

Indus River

2005-02-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

Great trans-Himalayan river of South Asia and one of the longest rivers in the world, having a length of 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometres). It has a total drainage area of about 450,000 square miles (1,165,500 square kilometres), of which 175,000 square miles lie in the Himalayan mountains and foothills and the rest in the semiarid plains of Pakistan. The river's annual flow is about 272 billion cubic yards (207 billion

Babol

2005-02-13T20:20:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Babul, formerly Barfurush, city, northern Iran, on the Babol River, about 15 miles (24 km) south of the Caspian Sea. Babol gained importance during the reign (1797–1834) of Fath 'Ali Shah, though 'Abbas I (died 1629) had laid out a pleasure garden and summer palace there. The city has paved streets, large and crowded bazaars, well-built houses, and small, handsome mosques and funeral towers. There are some manufacturing activities, but

Philemon, The Letter Of Paul To

2005-02-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

Also called The Epistle Of Saint Paul The Apostle To Philemon, brief New Testament letter written by Paul the Apostle to a wealthy Christian of Colossae, Asia Minor, on behalf of Onesimus, Philemon's former slave. Paul, writing from prison, expresses affection for the newly converted Onesimus and asks that he be received in the same spirit that would mark Paul's own arrival, even though Onesimus may be guilty of previous failings.

Mahdi

2005-02-13T10:44:00.000-08:00

(Arabic: “divinely guided one”), in Islamic eschatology, a messianic deliverer who will fill the Earth with justice and equity, restore true religion, and usher in a short golden age lasting seven, eight, or nine years before the end of the world. The Qur'an (Islamic sacred scriptures) does not mention him, and almost no reliable hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) concerning

Vreeland, Diana Dalziel

2005-02-12T16:11:00.000-08:00

Diana Dalziel was the daughter of a Scottish father and an American mother in whose home the leading artists of the day were frequent guests. In 1914 the

Price Discrimination

2005-02-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

Practice of selling a commodity at different prices to different buyers, even though sales costs are the same in all of the transactions. Discrimination among buyers may be based on personal characteristics such as income, race, or age or on geographic location. For price discrimination to succeed, other entrepreneurs must be unable to purchase goods at the lower

Garrett, Pat

2005-02-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Born in Alabama and reared in Louisiana, Garrett left home at about the age of 17 and headed for Texas and the life of a cowboy and buffalo hunter. In 1879 he married and settled in Lincoln County, N.M., where he became first deputy sheriff and then sheriff. In July 1881 he tracked

Vajiravudh

2005-02-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Vajiravudh was educated at Oxford University, where he read history and law; he also received military training at Sandhurst and served briefly with the British Army. Having been named heir apparent in 1895, he returned to Siam in 1903 and succeeded

Andalusia

2005-02-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

Spanish Andalucía comunidad autónoma (“autonomous community”) and historical region of Spain, encompassing the provincias of Huelva, Cádiz, Seville, Málaga, Córdoba, Jaén, Granada, and Almería. The comunidad autónoma was established by the statute of autonomy of 1981. The southernmost region of Spain, Andalusia is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the southeast, the Atlantic Ocean on the

Maharashtra, Health

2005-02-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

There are several medical colleges, the most notable being in Bombay, Nagpur, and Pune. There are dental colleges in Bombay and Nagpur. Traditional medicine is taught at Ayurvedic colleges in Bombay and Nagpur. Most district hospitals maintain nursing schools. Regional blood banks exist in Bombay, Pune, Aurangabad, and Nagpur, and emergency centres are found in all districts.

La Farge, John

2005-02-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

After graduating from St. Mary's College in Maryland, La Farge studied law, but in 1856 he went to Europe to study art. He worked independently, studying briefly in Paris with Thomas Couture and coming under the influence of the work of the Pre-Raphaelites in

Korea, History Of

2005-02-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

History of the peninsula from prehistoric times to the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War. For later developments, see Korea, North, history of; and Korea, South, history of.

Fu

2005-02-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

Chinese literary form combining elements of poetry and prose. The form developed during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) from its origins in the long poem Li sao (“On Encountering Sorrow”) by Qu Yuan (Ch'ü Yüan; c. 343–c. 289 BC). It was particularly suitable for description and exposition, in contrast to the more subjective, lyrical sao. Its prosody was freer than that of the sao, the rhyme pattern being

Murat, Joachim

2005-02-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

The son of an innkeeper, he studied briefly for a career in the church but enlisted in a cavalry regiment in 1787 and, when war broke out in 1792, won rapid promotion. In October 1795 he was

Lugones, Leopoldo

2005-02-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

Argentine poet, literary and social critic, and cultural ambassador, considered by many the outstanding figure of his age in the cultural life of Argentina. He was a strong influence on the younger generation of writers that included the prominent short-story writer and novelist Jorge Luis Borges. His influence

Heirloom

2005-02-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

An item of personal property that by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. The owner of such an heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from the estate. If he dies intestate (without a will), the object goes to his heir at law; otherwise it goes to whoever takes the estate under his will. Such

Hojo Yasutoki

2005-02-06T01:38:00.000-08:00

The office of shogun originated with Minamoto Yoritomo in 1185, but after his death in 1199 Yasutoki's grandfather,

Kiangsi, Climate

2005-02-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

Situated in the subtropical belt, Kiangsi has a hot and humid summer lasting more than four months, except in spots of high elevation, such as Lu-shan. High temperatures in Nan-ch'ang in July and August average 95° F (35° C). In winter temperature variations between north and south are greater. January temperatures in the north at times fall to 25° F (-4° C), while those in the south average

Honduras, Gulf Of

2005-02-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

Also called Bay Of Honduras, wide inlet of the Caribbean Sea, indenting the coasts of Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. It extends from Dangriga (formerly Stann Creek), Belize, southeastward to La Ceiba, Honduras, a straight-line distance between the two localities of about 115 miles (185 km). The gulf receives many rivers, including the Ulúa and the Motagua, and it contains the reefs known as the Pelican Cays

Jastrzebie-zdrój

2005-02-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

City, Katowice województwo (province), south-central Poland. With the cities of Racibórz, Rybnik, and Katowice, Jastrzebie-Zdrój constitutes a secondary industrial zone within Poland's Upper Silesian agglomeration bordering on the Czech industrial region of Ostrava. Jastrzebie-Zdrój became popular in the 1860s as a thermal spa whose iodobromide waters were used to treat

Paddy

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

Also called Rice Paddy, small, level, flooded field used to cultivate rice in southern and eastern Asia. Wet-rice cultivation is the most prevalent method of farming in the Far East, where it utilizes a small fraction of the total land yet feeds the majority of the rural population. Rice was domesticated as early as 3500 BC, and by about 2,000 years ago it was grown in almost all of the present-day cultivation

Gonyaulax

2005-02-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Genus of dinoflagellates (single-celled aquatic organisms) that inhabit fresh, salt, or brackish water. Members are covered by closely fitting cellulose plates and have two flagella: one extends downward from a longitudinal groove in the armour, and the other, in an encircling groove, appears to keep the animal afloat. There is no eyespot (stigma), and the pigment-containing

France, History Of, Campaigns and conquests: 17971807

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

Napoleon's sway over France depended from the start on his success in war. After his conquest of northern Italy in 1797 and the dissolution of the first coalition, General Bonaparte intended to invade Britain, France's century-long rival and the last remaining belligerent. Concluding that French naval power could not sustain a seaborne invasion, however, he launched

Dispersion

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

In wave motion, any phenomenon associated with the propagation of individual waves at speeds that depend on their wavelengths. Ocean waves, for example, move at speeds proportional to the square root of their wavelengths; these speeds vary from a few feet per second for ripples to hundreds of miles per hour for tsunamis. A wave of light has a speed in a transparent medium

Switzerland, General works

2005-02-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

Other broad treatments of note include René Lebeau, La Suisse (1975), a historical and geographic analysis; J. Murray Luck (ed.), Modern Switzerland (1978); Swiss Office for the Development of Trade, Focus on Switzerland, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged, 4 vol. (1982), a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated work that examines the country's landscape, history, institutions, cultural life, and economy; Oskar Bär, Geographie der Schweiz, new ed. (1979), a well-illustrated text; and François Jeanneret and Franz auf der Maur, Der grosse schweizer Atlas (1981), a large-format atlas, with detailed text and colour photographs and maps, that analyzes Switzerland from prehistoric times to the present.

Metallic Bond

2005-02-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

Force that holds atoms together in a metallic substance. Such a solid consists of closely packed atoms. In most cases, the outermost electron shell of each of the metal atoms overlaps with a large number of neighbouring atoms. As a consequence, the valence electrons continually move from one atom to another and are not associated with any specific pair of atoms. In

Crabeater Seal

2005-01-31T18:49:00.000-08:00

(species Lobodon carcinophagus), southern seal of the family Phocidae found among drifting ice packs around the Antarctic continent. A slender animal measuring about 2–2.5 m (6.6–8.2 feet) long and up to about 225 kg (500 pounds) in weight, the crabeater seal feeds on krill (planktonic crustaceans and larvae), rather than on crabs as its name implies. Its teeth are elaborately

Lophophyllum

2005-01-31T07:54:00.000-08:00

Extinct genus of solitary marine corals found as fossils especially characteristic of the Late Carboniferous epoch (between 320 million and 286 million years ago) in North America. Lophophyllum, included in the horn corals (so named because of the hornlike form of the individual), probably preferred warm, clear, shallow marine waters.