ElectricNose

serviced offices

2006-11-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

Office planet have a huge database of serviced offices throughout the UK. serviced offices provide an affordable and hassle free office solution

Saldanha Bay

2005-04-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

Afrikaans Saldanhabaai, deep, essentially landlocked harbour of the Atlantic Ocean, situated on the southwest coast of South Africa. Named after the early 16th-century Portuguese navigator António de Saldanha, the bay is both larger and safer than Table Bay, which is located 65 miles (105 km) farther south-southeast. Saldanha Bay's former abundance of seals, fish, and guano deposits was long contested

Andreis, Felix De

2005-04-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ordained at Piacenza (Italy) in 1802, Andreis was transferred (1806) to Rome, where he served as preacher, professor of theology, and apostle to the poor. While on a visit to Rome in 1815, William Du Bourg, the bishop of Louisiana, arranged for Andreis to serve his

Saale Glacial Stage

2005-04-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

Division of Pleistocene deposits and time in northern Europe (the Pleistocene Epoch began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). The Saale Glacial Stage followed the Holstein Interglacial Stage and preceded the Eemian Interglacial Stage, both relatively mild climatic periods. The extensive and complex Saale deposits are correlated with the Gipping Glacial

Lower Egypt

2005-04-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

Arabic Misr Bahri, geographic and cultural division of Egypt consisting primarily of the triangular Nile River delta region and bounded generally by the 30th parallel north in the south and by the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Characterized by broad expanses of fertile soil, Lower Egypt contrasts sharply with Upper Egypt, where the centres of habitation along the Nile valley are

Philikí Etaireía

2005-04-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

(Greek: Friendly Brotherhood), Greek revolutionary secret society founded by merchants in Odessa in 1814 to overthrow Ottoman rule in southeastern Europe and to establish an independent Greek state. The society's claim of Russian support and the romance of its commitment (each member swore “irreconcilable hatred against the tyrants of my country”) brought thousands

Lophophorate

2005-04-01T02:56:00.000-08:00

Any of several invertebrate animals that possess a lophophore, a fan of ciliated tentacles around the mouth. Currents of water carrying food particles toward the mouth are drawn by movements of the cilia. The lophophorates include the moss animals (phylum Bryozoa), lamp shells (Brachiopoda), and phoronid worms (Phoronida).

O'malley, Walter

2005-03-31T22:34:00.000-08:00

O'Malley received his law degree from Fordham University in New York City in 1930 and became a director of the Dodgers in 1932 and legal adviser in 1943. He became an owner with two other

Alzon, Emmanuel D'

2005-03-31T01:35:00.000-08:00

D'Alzon studied in Paris, in Montpellier, and in Rome, where he was ordained (1834). He was named canon and vicar-general of Nîmes and retained this position until his death. In 1843 he acquired Assumption College in Nîmes, where he founded (1845) the congregation

Madison, Dolley

2005-03-30T17:49:00.000-08:00

When Dolley Madison died in 1849 she was one of the most popular figures in Washington and the nation's favourite first lady. At her funeral President Zachary Taylor, his cabinet, the diplomatic corps, and members of Congress lined up to pay their respects. She was buried beside James Madison at a family plot near Montpelier.

Alder

2005-03-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

An alder may be distinguished from a birch by its usually stalked winter buds and by cones that remain on the branches

Ovum

2005-03-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

The outer surface of each ovary is covered by a layer of cells (germinal epithelium); these surround the immature egg cells, which are present in the ovaries from the time of

Ushak Carpet

2005-03-28T04:16:00.000-08:00

Floor covering handwoven in the city of Usak (Ushak), Tur. By the 16th century the principal manufacture in Ottoman Turkey of large commercial carpets had been established at Usak, which produced for palace and mosque use and for export. By the 18th and early 19th centuries, this manufacture had come increasingly under European control. The carpets became coarser and rougher,

Igneous Rock, Classification of volcanic and hypabyssal rocks

2005-03-27T01:35:00.000-08:00

Owing to the aphanitic texture of volcanic and hypabyssal rocks, their modes cannot be readily determined; consequently, a chemical classification is widely accepted and employed by most petrologists. One popular scheme is based on the use of both chemical components and normative mineralogy. Because most lay people have little access to analytic facilities

Gaffney

2005-03-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Cherokee county, northern South Carolina, U.S., near the Broad River. Named for Michael Gaffney, an Irish settler who arrived in 1803, it early developed as a resort where plantation owners sought therapeutic treatment at local limestone springs. Its growth as a market centre for cotton (now peaches) and farm produce was sustained by the coming of the Southern

Welti, (friedrich) Emil

2005-03-25T06:10:00.000-08:00

Political leader and Landammann (chief executive) of his native canton of Aargau in 1858, 1862, and 1866, Welti entered the federal Ständerat (council of cantons) in 1857 and subsequently served as assembly president (1860, 1866). Elected to the federal executive (Bundesrat)

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand

2005-03-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

Gandhi was the youngest child of his father's fourth wife. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, who was the dewan (chief

Faridabad

2005-03-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

Town, southeastern Haryana state, northwestern India, connected by road with Delhi (north) and Mathura (southeast). It is a local market for wheat, sugarcane, and cotton. Founded in 1607 by Shaikh Farid, Emperor Jahangir's treasurer, to protect the Delhi–Agra high road, it was constituted a municipality in 1867. A project for Pakistani refugee resettlement and light industrial development

Melbourne, University Of

2005-03-22T17:04:00.000-08:00

Coeducational institution of higher learning in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, financed mainly by the national government. One of the oldest universities in Australia, it was founded by the Victoria legislature in 1853 and at first offered a liberal arts course. A law school was added in 1857, engineering instruction in 1860, and a medical school in 1862; a music conservatory, now the

Lenin, Vladimir Ilich

2005-03-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

Original name Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov founder of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), inspirer and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and the architect, builder, and first head (1917–24) of the Soviet state. He was the founder of the organization known as Comintern (Communist International) and the posthumous source of “Leninism,

Petare

2005-03-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

City, northwestern Miranda estado (“state”), in the central highlands of northern Venezuela. Formerly a commercial centre in a fertile agricultural area producing coffee, cacao, and sugarcane, the city has become a residential suburb of the national capital and a part of the Caracas metropolitan area. Cardboard is manufactured in the city. Expressways lead from Petare

Palade, George E.

2005-03-19T16:46:00.000-08:00

Palade received a degree

Arab-israeli Wars

2005-03-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

The first war immediately followed the proclamation of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948. Arab forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon occupied the areas in southern and eastern Palestine not apportioned to the Jews, then captured the small Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem

Dwarka

2005-03-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

Town, southwestern Gujarat state, west-central India. It lies on the western shore of the Okhamandal Peninsula, a small western extension of the Kathiawar Peninsula. Dwarka, or the “City of Many Gates” (Sanskrit: Dvaraka, or Dvaravati), is also known as Jagat, or Jigat. Dwarka was the legendary capital of the god Krishna, who founded it after his flight from Mathura. Its consequent sanctity

Kunlun Mountains

2005-03-17T03:44:00.000-08:00

Despite the extreme climatic and topographic conditions, the Kunluns and adjacent areas support permanent and migratory populations. On the northern slopes are found Uighur, up from the oases, and occasional Mongols; and, south to the northern areas of Tibet, Tibetan pastoral nomads have commandeered large expanses of formerly abandoned steppe grazing lands.

Puerto Aisén

2005-03-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Puerto Aysén capital of Aisén province and commune in Aisén region, southern Chile, located on the Aisén River at the head of a deep fjord facing the Chonos Archipelago. Colonization of the surrounding area of rugged topography and rigorous climate began only in the 19th century. Puerto Aisén is a port and commercial centre for the developing agricultural, mining, and lumbering

Babits, Mihály

2005-03-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

Babits studied Hungarian and classical literature at the University of Budapest and was a teacher in provincial secondary schools until forced

Interest Group

2005-03-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

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.

Camargo Society

2005-03-13T14:39:00.000-08:00

Group credited with keeping ballet alive in England during the early 1930s. Named after Marie Camargo, the noted 18th-century ballerina, the society was formed in 1930 by Philip J.S. Richardson, the editor of Dancing Times, the critic Arnold Haskell, and other patrons to stimulate interest in creating a national ballet. For the next three years the group annually commissioned

Sestina

2005-03-13T02:45:00.000-08:00

Elaborate verse form employed by medieval Provençal and Italian, and occasional modern, poets. It consists, in its pure medieval form, of six stanzas of blank verse, each of six lines—hence the name. The final words of the first stanza appear in varied order in the other five, the order used by the Provençals being: abcdef, faebdc, cfdabe, ecbfad, deacfb, bdfeca. Following these

Multinational And Regional Organizations

2005-03-12T01:22:00.000-08:00

On May 31, 1997, the foreign ministers of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and announced that they would embrace Myanmar (Burma), Laos, and Cambodia as full members at the group's 30th anniversary meeting in July. The announcement was controversial because, in the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu

Biblical Literature

2005-03-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

History is a central element of the Old Testament. It is the subject of narration in the specifically historical books and of celebration, commemoration, and remonstration in all of the books. History in the Old Testament is not history in the modern sense; it is the story of events seen as revealing the divine presence and power. Nevertheless, it is the account of an

Eyelid

2005-03-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Movable shield of skin and tissue that protects the eyeball from mechanical injury and helps to provide the moist chamber essential for the normal functioning of the conjunctiva and cornea. The conjunctiva is the mucous membrane that lines the eyelid and covers all the visible portion of the eyeball except the cornea, the transparent part of the eyeball that

Animal

2005-03-10T00:47:00.000-08:00

(kingdom Animalia), any of a group of multicellular eukaryotic organisms (i.e., as distinct from bacteria, their deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is contained in a membrane-bound nucleus). They are thought to have evolved independently from the unicellular eukaryotes. Animals differ from members of the two other kingdoms of multicellular eukaryotes, the plants (Plantae)

Bondfield, Margaret (grace)

2005-03-09T08:52:00.000-08:00

Bondfield had little schooling. Starting as a draper's assistant at 14, she found conditions miserable and joined the National Union of Shop Assistants at its formation. In 1899 she was the only woman delegate to the Trades Union Congress, and

Sinai, Mount

2005-03-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

Also called Mountain Of Moses, or Mount Hareh, Hebrew Har Sinai, Arabic Jabal Musa, granitic peak of the south-central Sinai Peninsula, Janub Sina' (South Sinai) muhafazah (governorate), Egypt. Mount Sinai is renowned as the principal site of divine revelation in Jewish history, where God is purported to have appeared to Moses and given him the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5). According to Jewish tradition, not only the decalogue but also the entire corpus

Biblical Literature, Early stages

2005-03-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

The beginnings of biblical exegesis are found in the Old Testament itself, where earlier documents are interpreted in later documents, as in the recasting of earlier laws in later codes, or the Chronicler's reworking of material in Samuel and Kings. In addition, even before the Babylonian Exile (586 BC) there is evidence of the kind of midrashic exposition (nonliteral interpretations)

Philipp, Isidor

2005-03-07T21:36:00.000-08:00

Philipp was brought to Paris as an infant. As a piano student of Georges Mathias at the Conservatoire, he won the first prize in 1883. After study with Saint-Saëns and Stephen Heller, he began a brief solo concert career, making his London debut in 1890. From 1903 to 1934 he was professor

Faber, Peter

2005-03-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

French Pierre Lefevre, or Pierre Favre, Latin Petrus Faber French Jesuit theologian and a cofounder of the Society of Jesus, who was tutor and friend of Ignatius Loyola at Paris. He was appointed professor of theology at Rome by Pope Paul III (1537), founded Jesuit colleges at Cologne and in Spain, and was a delegate to the Council of Trent.

Union Pacific Railroad Company

2005-03-06T00:58:00.000-08:00

The Union Pacific was largely financed

Tariff

2005-03-05T04:15:00.000-08:00

Tariffs may be levied either to raise revenue or to protect domestic industries, but a tariff designed primarily to raise revenue may exercise a strong protective influence and a tariff

Shadbolt, Maurice

2005-03-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

As a young man, Shadbolt worked as a documentary-film scriptwriter and a director and then turned to journalism. He became a full-time freelance journalist and writer in 1957. His

Automotive Industry, International operations

2005-03-04T07:29:00.000-08:00

Although the automotive industry has long been multinational in its organization and operation, beginning in the 1980s and accelerating in the late 1990s, it has established a trend toward international consolidation. Larger, more financially secure firms buy controlling interest in financially troubled ones, usually because the weaker firm manufactures a highly

Hexameter

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

A line of verse containing six feet, usually dactyls (¢ {breve} {breve}). Dactylic hexameter is the oldest known form of Greek poetry and is the preeminent metre of narrative and didactic poetry in Greek and Latin, in which its position is comparable to that of iambic pentameter in English versification. The epics of Homer and of Virgil are composed in dactylic hexameter.

Saxe, (hermann-) Maurice, Comte De

2005-03-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

The illegitimate son of the elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (later also King Augustus II of Poland), young Maurice was sent by his father to serve under Prince Eugene of Savoy against the French in Flanders

Diffraction

2005-03-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

The spreading of waves around obstacles. Diffraction takes place with sound; with electromagnetic radiation, such as light, X-rays, and gamma rays; and with very small moving particles such as atoms, neutrons, and electrons, which show wavelike properties. One consequence of diffraction is that sharp shadows are not produced. The phenomenon is the result of interference

Dagestanian Languages

2005-03-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

Also called East Caucasian Languages, group of languages spoken in the northeastern part of the Caucasus and including the Avar-Andi-Dido, the Lak-Dargin (Lak-Dargwa), and the Lezgian groups. One of the distinctive characteristics of a majority of these languages is the contrast of strong and weak voiceless consonants. The Dagestanian languages are often classified together with the Nakh

Steam Engine

2005-03-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

In a steam engine, hot steam, usually supplied by a boiler (q.v.), expands under pressure, and part of the heat energy is converted into work. The remainder of the heat may be allowed to escape, or, for maximum engine efficiency, the steam may be condensed in a separate apparatus, a condenser, at comparatively

Middletown

2005-02-28T01:54:00.000-08:00

City, coextensive with the town (township) of Middletown, Middlesex county, central Connecticut, U.S., on the Connecticut River. Settled by Puritans in 1650 and incorporated as a town in 1651, it occupies the site of the Indian village of Mattabesec (Mattabesett). It was named in 1653 for its position between the upstream towns and the river mouth. The city, chartered in 1784, consolidated with

Cumberland

2005-02-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

Cumberland lies along the northwest coast of England, facing the Solway

Nan-ga

2005-02-27T08:38:00.000-08:00

Also called Bunjin-ga (“Literati Painting”), style of painting practiced by numerous Japanese painters of the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of the most original and creative painters of the middle and late Edo period belonged to the Nan-ga school. The style is based on developments of 17th- and 18th-century individualism in the Ch'ing-dynasty painting of China. Nan-ga artists transformed as they borrowed,

Basil, Colonel W. De

2005-02-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

Original name Vasily Grigorievich Voskresensky Russian impresario who in 1932 became codirector with René Blum of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. He lost the celebrated premier danseur Léonide Massine and several other dancers to Blum, who, with a U.S. sponsoring agency (World Art), reorganized the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo with Massine as director. De Basil then formed a

Botswana, Transport

2005-02-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

The 400-mile railway along the eastern side of the country was completed in 1897, linking South Africa and Zimbabwe, but had limited impact on the Botswana economy until the 1970s, when the first branch lines were opened to serve mining areas. At independence in 1966, there were only a few miles of paved roads—all inside town boundaries. Since then the major towns have been linked by paved

Sangamon River

2005-02-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

River formed by headstreams in northwestern Champaign County, Illinois, U.S. It flows southwesterly, bending around Decatur, where a dam impounds Lake Decatur, and turns west past Springfield, the state capital, and then north and west to join the Illinois River just north of Beardstown, after a course of 250 mi (400 km). The first Illinois home (1830) of Abraham Lincoln was on a bluff

Vadianus, Joachim

2005-02-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

Crowned poet laureate by the Habsburg emperor Maximilian (1514), Vadianus served as rector at the University of Vienna (1516–17) and supervised the publication of the works of various ancient writers, notably Ovid and Pliny the

Aquaviva, Claudio

2005-02-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

He was elected general in 1581, and his major political achievement

Lancaster

2005-02-22T02:42:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Lancaster county, southeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., and the centre of a metropolitan area comprising a number of small towns and boroughs, 71 miles (114 km) west of Philadelphia. The original site on Conestoga Creek, known as Gibson's Pasture, or Hickory Town, was made the county seat in 1729, the year after Lancaster county (named for the English city and shire) was created.

Arabia, Yemen

2005-02-21T18:05:00.000-08:00

Arabia's highest mountains occur in Yemen: An-Nabi Shu'ayb, northwest of San'a', reaches 12,008 feet. The Tihamah in Yemen, broader and more habitable than the Tihamah farther north in Saudi Arabia, supports some towns. Monsoon rains make the mountains and high plateaus of Yemen the most fruitful region in Arabia. The easy slope from the highlands to the southwestern corner of the

Wilde, Oscar (fingal O'flahertie Wills)

2005-02-21T10:42:00.000-08:00

Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's sake; and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending

Macdonald, (james) Ramsay

2005-02-21T01:31:00.000-08:00

In 1885 he

Aramaean

2005-02-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

In the Old Testament the Aramaeans are represented as being closely akin to the Hebrews and living in northern Syria around Harran from

Argentina, Perón's second presidency

2005-02-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

Perón was elected president with his third wife, María Estela Martínez de Perón (Isabel Perón), as vice president. Taking office in October 1973, he continued the campaign against the left, and in May 1974 the victims of the purge acknowledged the break with their former leader and passed into (still legal) opposition. Montonero activity increased, and the Triple A, suspected by

Academy

2005-02-17T20:11:00.000-08:00

At the close of the Middle Ages, academies

China, Sui and T'ang periods

2005-02-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

The best general account of Chinese relations with its northern neighbours in the steppes is Rene Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes (1970; originally published in French, 1939; 4th French ed., 1960). On Chinese overseas trade and relations with Southeast Asia, see Gungwu Wang, The Nanhai Trade: A Study of the Early History of Chinese Trade in the South China Sea (1958).

Leo Africanus

2005-02-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

Educated at Fès, in Morocco, Leo Africanus travelled widely as a young man on commercial and diplomatic missions through North Africa and may also have visited the city of Timbuktu, now in Mali, as well as the valley of the

Biblical Literature, Early versions

2005-02-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

Even with all these witnesses, there remain problems in the Greek text. These include variants about which there is no settled opinion and some few words for which no accurate meaning can be found because they occur only once in the New Testament and not in prior Greek works. Very early translations of the New Testament made as it spread into the non-Greek-speaking

Malay Language

2005-02-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

Member of the Western, or Indonesian, branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family, spoken as a native language by more than 33,000,000 persons distributed over the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, and the numerous smaller islands of the area, and widely used in Malaysia and Indonesia as a second language. Malay shows the closest relationship to most of the

Media Voices Of The Muslim World

2005-02-14T05:17:00.000-08:00

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the military actions against Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the operation, and the Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan who had harboured him, brought increased visibility and international attention to the news media in the Middle East and Central Asia. This was especially true of the satellite television network Al-Jazeera,

Lågen

2005-02-13T19:27:00.000-08:00

Also called Numedalslågen river, southeastern Norway. Rising in the Hardanger Plateau, the Lågen flows generally east and north, then southeast through Numedalen, a valley in Buskerud fylke (county), past Rødberg and Kongsberg, through Vestfold fylke and into the Skagerrak (an arm of the North Sea) at Larvik. With a total length of 209 miles (337 km), it is the third longest river in the country. Near Kongsberg,

Hope

2005-02-13T00:23:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1939) of Hempstead county, southwestern Arkansas, U.S., about 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Texarkana. It was founded in 1852 as a station on the Cairo and Fulton (now Union Pacific) Railroad and was named for the daughter of James Loughborough, a railroad land commissioner who laid out the town site. It developed as a shipping centre for timber and agricultural products, notably

Coal Mining, Mining methods

2005-02-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

Surface techniques can be broadly classified into (1) contour strip mining, (2) area strip mining, (3) open-pit mining, and (4) auger mining.

Webster, Daniel

2005-02-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

During the postwar sectional crisis Webster nevertheless spoke out, March 7, 1850, in favour of Clay's compromise proposals, one of which would organize territories in the Mexican cession with no prohibition of slavery. His argument that such a prohibition was unnecessary because the West was geographically unsuitable for the plantation system pleased businessmen

Brackman, Barbara

2005-02-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

Brackman moved to Leawood, Kansas, as a teenager; she graduated with a bachelor's degree in art education in 1967 and a master's degree in special education in 1974 from the University of Kansas. She taught special education for nearly two decades at the Universities

Masjed Soleyman

2005-02-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Masjid-i Sulaiman, town, southwestern Iran. Oil was discovered at Masjed Soleyman in 1908, and the town early became one of Iran's leading oil centres. Pipelines, built in 1909–10, link the town with Abadan, 125 miles (200 km) southwest. Pop. (1986) 104,787.

Hine, Lewis Wickes

2005-02-09T15:43:00.000-08:00

Trained as a sociologist, Hine began to portray the immigrants who crowded onto New York's Ellis Island in 1905. He also photographed the tenements and sweatshops where the immigrants were forced to live and work. These pictures were published

Women's Equality Day

2005-02-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

Annual event in the United States, observed on August 26 since its inception in 1971, marking women's advancements toward equality with men. August 26, 1970, marked the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted American women full suffrage. On that anniversary the National Organization for Women (NOW) called upon women nationwide to “strike for

Brederode, Hendrik Van

2005-02-07T05:43:00.000-08:00

The scion of an ancient Dutch family, which from 1418 had held the lordship of Vianen south of Utrecht, Brederode became known as a spirited soldier and succeeded

Ghazipur

2005-02-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

Town, administrative headquarters of Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, northeast of Varanasi (Benares), on the Ganges River. Its ancient name of Gadhipur was changed to Ghazipur in about 1330, reputedly in honour of Ghazi Malik, a Muslim ruler. The town was a strategically important river port under the British, whose former cantonment now contains a college, a

La Oroya

2005-02-06T03:17:00.000-08:00

Also called Oroya, city, Junín departamento, central Peru, at the junction of the Mantaro and Yauli rivers on a central plateau of the Andes, at an elevation of 12,195 feet (3,717 m). The city, located in a rich mining region based on the Cerro de Pasco, Morococha, and Casapalca mines, is a smelting and refining centre for copper, zinc, silver, and lead ores; it is also the site of a hydroelectric station fed by

Padilla, Heberto

2005-02-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

After elementary and secondary education in his native province of Pinar del Río, Padilla studied law at the University of Havana but did not finish a degree. From 1949 to 1952 and 1956 to 1959, he lived in the United

Saudi Arabia, Transportation

2005-02-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

About one-third of the country's roads are paved. The first coast-to-coast road connection, from Ad-Dammam on the gulf to Jiddah on the Red Sea, by way of Riyadh, was opened in 1967; it includes a spectacular descent of the western escarpment from At-Ta'if to Mecca. Other important connections are from Riyadh northwestward through Najd to Ha'il, from Riyadh southwestward to the

Laghouat

2005-02-05T07:45:00.000-08:00

Town and oasis north-central Algeria, at the southern edge of the Saharan Atlas, on the route linking Algiers with central Africa. The oasis (625 acres [253 hectares]) was probably settled in the 11th century after the Banu Hilal invaders, supported by the Fatimids of Egypt, crossed the area. Laghouat subsequently passed through Moroccan and Turkish hands and was divided by two warring

Himyar

2005-02-03T22:48:00.000-08:00

The Himyarites were concentrated in the area known as Dhu Raydan on the coast of present-day Yemen (San'a'); they were probably aided in the overthrow of their Sabaean kinsmen by the discovery of a sea route from Egypt

Yamazaki Ansai

2005-02-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

A Buddhist monk early in life, Ansai began to study Confucianism and gradually turned against

Cabot, John

2005-02-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

Cabot's voyages are treated specifically in James A. Williamson, The Voyages of the Cabots and the English Discovery of North America (1929, reprinted 1971), and The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery Under Henry VII (1962, reprinted 1986); while David B. Quinn, England and the Discovery of America, 1481–1620 (1973); and Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America, vol. 1 (1971, reissued 1993), place the voyages in the broader historical context.

Fusion Reactor

2005-02-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

A fusion reaction occurs when two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form the nucleus of a heavier element. When the two nuclei fuse, a small amount of mass is converted into a large amount of energy. For a fusion reaction to occur, the two nuclei must be moving at high speed in

Blondel De Nesle

2005-02-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

Nothing is known about Blondel outside of his poetry. He was probably from Nesle, in Picardy; but the name Blondel may be a nickname, and it is uncertain how many of the 25 songs attributed to him are actually his. His poetry is conventional in its complaints to an unknown lady but contains no references

Ryle, Sir Martin

2005-01-31T04:29:00.000-08:00

British radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location of weak radio sources. With improved equipment, he observed the most distant known galaxies of the universe. Ryle and Antony Hewish shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, the first Nobel prize

Manama

2005-01-30T23:27:00.000-08:00

Arabic Al-manamah, capital and largest city of the state and emirate of Bahrain. It lies at the northeast tip of Bahrain island, in the Persian Gulf. About one-third of the emirate's population lives in the city. First mentioned in Islamic chronicles about AD 1345, it was taken by the Portuguese (1521) and by the Persians (1602). It has been held, with brief interruptions, by the ruling Al Khalifah dynasty since 1783. Because

Biblical Literature, The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians

2005-01-30T01:31:00.000-08:00

This letter, as is I Corinthians, is composed of a collection of fragments of Paul's correspondence with the Corinthians about a year later (i.e., c. 55) from Macedonia. The diversity of I Corinthians was caused by the variety of problems discussed, but the diversity of II Corinthians was the result of a reflection of the underlying, rather turbulent history of Paul and his

Football, Canadian, The early years

2005-01-29T21:45:00.000-08:00

Football in the form of rugby was taken to Canada by British immigrants not long after 1823—the year in which legend has it that William Webb Ellis ran with a soccer ball on the playing fields of Rugby School, thereby inventing rugby. The first account of rugby football in Canada dates to 1862, when British regiments in Montreal were playing the game on an informal basis, and the

Biblical Literature, Form criticism

2005-01-27T19:19:00.000-08:00

In the Pauline writings, as noted above, gospel, kerygma, and creed come close together from oral to written formulas that were transmitted about the Christ event: Jesus' death and Resurrection. In the apostolic Fathers (early 2nd century), the transition was made from oral to written tradition; the translation of the presumed Aramaic traditions had taken place before

North Germanic Languages, Reformation and Renaissance

2005-01-27T11:23:00.000-08:00

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

Anthropoidea

2005-01-27T01:25:00.000-08:00

Suborder of primates including the families Callitrichidae (marmoset, q.v.), Cebidae (New World monkeys), Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys), Hylobatidae (gibbon and siamang, qq.v.), Pongidae (gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan, qq.v.), Hominidae (humans and fossil relatives), and the fossil group Parapithecidae.

Wahat Al-kharijah, Al-

2005-01-26T18:51:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Kharga, or El-kharga, oasis in the Libyan (Western) Desert, part of Al-Wadi al-Jadid (“New Valley”) muhafazah (governorate), in south-central Egypt. It is situated about 110 miles (180 km) west-southwest of Naj' Hammadi, to which it is linked by railroad. The name Wahat al-Kharijah means “outer oasis.” The oasis consists of two fertile zones, extending about 100 miles (160 km) north-south and from 12 to 50 miles (19 to 80 km) east-west, with an area of more

Athol

2005-01-26T14:46:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Worcester county, north-central Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on the Millers River, north of Quabbin Reservoir. Settled in 1735, it was known by the Algonquian name of Pequoiag until it was incorporated in 1762 and renamed for Blair Atholl, the Scottish home of the dukes of Atholl. An early industrial centre, it had lumber, textile, and tanning mills. Its modern economy

Tien Shan

2005-01-25T05:12:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) T'ien Shan, or (Pinyin) Tian Shan, Russian Tyan Shan, great mountain system of Central Asia. Its name is Chinese for “Celestial Mountains.” Stretching about 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometres) from west-southwest to east-northeast, it mainly straddles the border between China and Kyrgyzstan and bisects the ancient territory of Turkistan. It is about 300 miles wide in places at its eastern and western extremities but narrows to about 220 miles

Biblical Literature, Eastern Orthodoxy

2005-01-24T14:50:00.000-08:00

The first Christians were Jews, and they worshipped along with other Jews in the synagogue. The earliest Gentile converts also attended the synagogue. When Christians met outside the synagogue, they still used its liturgy, read its Bible, and preserved the main characteristics of synagogue worship. Every historic liturgy is divided into (1) a Christian revision of

Abbreviation

2005-01-22T05:36:00.000-08:00

In communications (especially written), the process or result of representing a word or group of words by a shorter form of the word or phrase. Abbreviations take many forms and can be found in ancient Greek inscriptions, in medieval manuscripts (e.g., “DN” for “Dominus Noster”), and in the Qur'an. Cicero's secretary, Marcus Tullius Tiro, devised many abbreviations that have survived

Eugenius Iii, Blessed

2005-01-22T05:07:00.000-08:00

Possibly a member of the family Paganelli di Montemagno, he was a disciple of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and a Cistercian abbot of the monastery of SS. Vincent and Anastasius when he was elected on February 15. Eugenius, like others of western Europe, was shocked by the fall of Edessa, the capital of the first