SweetCarriage

Sorel, Georges (-eugène)

2005-04-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

Sorel was born of a middle-class family and trained as a civil engineer. Not until he reached age 40 did he become interested in social and economic

Saudi Arabia, The armed forces

2005-04-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

Military service is voluntary. The army accounts for about three-fifths of the total military force. It experienced rapid modernization especially after the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. Army officers are trained at King 'Abd al-'Aziz Military Academy just north of Riyadh. The air force was equipped largely by the British until the 1970s, when the kingdom began to buy aircraft from

Wyandotte Constitution

2005-03-31T15:52:00.000-08:00

In the period immediately preceding the American Civil War, document under which Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state (Jan. 29, 1861), concluding the struggle known as Bleeding Kansas. Drawn up at Wyandotte (now part of Kansas City) in July 1859, it rejected slavery and suffrage for women and blacks but affirmed property rights for women. The document was approved in a referendum

Arts, Central Asian, Afghanistan and the sedentary population of Turkistan

2005-03-30T04:13:00.000-08:00

This region of Central Asia includes Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and the oases of eastern (Chinese) Turkistan. The region lies within the Persian cultural area, and in the arts and in language the Persian imprint has endured over many centuries. In music the links with Persia appear most clearly in terminology and instruments. Islam, another Middle Eastern

Adams, Samuel

2005-03-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

Politician of the American Revolution, leader of the Massachusetts “radicals,” who was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–81) and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was later lieutenant governor (1789–93) and governor (1794–97) of Massachusetts.

Theatre, Western, Native traditions

2005-03-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

In spite of the lack of originality shown by dramatists, there were in Italy a number of native comic traditions that helped to shape the style of Roman comedy. The Fescennine verses (fescennia locatio) were bawdy, improvised exchanges sung by clowns at local harvest festivals and marriage ceremonies. These are thought to have combined with a tradition of performances

Endotoxin

2005-03-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

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

Valéry, Paul

2005-03-20T17:37:00.000-08:00

In full Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry French poet, essayist, and critic. His greatest poem is considered La Jeune Parque (1917; “The Young Fate”), which was followed by Album de vers anciens 1890–1900 (1920) and Charmes ou poèmes (1922), containing “Le Cimetière marin” (“The Graveyard by the Sea”). He later wrote a large number of essays and occasional papers on literary topics and took a great interest in scientific discoveries

Radha

2005-03-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

The allegorical

Permafrost, Pingos

2005-03-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

The most spectacular landforms associated with permafrost are pingos, small ice-cored circular or elliptical hills of frozen sediments or even bedrock, 3 to more than 60 metres high and 15 to 450 metres in diameter. Pingos are widespread in the continuous permafrost zone and are quite conspicuous because they rise above the tundra. They are much less conspicuous in the forested

Computers, The graphical user interface

2005-03-17T02:33:00.000-08:00

In 1982 Apple introduced its Lisa computer, a much more powerful computer with many innovations. The Lisa used a more advanced microprocessor, the Motorola 68000. It also had a different way of interacting with the user, called a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI replaced the typed command lines common on previous computers with graphical icons on the screen that invoked

Field Museum Of Natural History

2005-03-16T08:02:00.000-08:00

Museum in Chicago, Ill., established in 1893 as the Columbian Museum with a gift from Marshall Field (from whom it derived its present name in 1905). On his death in 1906, Field bequeathed generous sustaining funds and a sum to erect a new museum building (completed in 1921) to house exhibits, research collections, and a library primarily devoted to anthropology, botany, geology, and

Oberlin

2005-03-14T03:38:00.000-08:00

City, Lorain county, northern Ohio, U.S., 35 mi (56 km) west-southwest of Cleveland. In 1833 the Rev. John L. Shipherd, a Presbyterian minister, and Philo P. Steward, a former missionary to the Choctaw Indians, founded the community and established the Oberlin Collegiate Institute (1833; designated a college after 1850) to train ministers and teachers for the West. The name was chosen to honour Johann

Calendar Of 1995

2005-03-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

With near unanimous consent (292-15), members of Ukraine's Supreme Council (parliament) voted to oust the Cabinet of Pres. Leonid Kuchma. The vote of no confidence cast by numerous former communist legislators was generally interpreted as an expression of dissatisfaction with Kuchma's reforms. Some analysts, however, suggested that the president

Abandonment

2005-03-13T01:29:00.000-08:00

In Anglo-American property law, the relinquishment of possession of property with an intent to terminate all ownership interests in that property. Abandonment may occur by throwing away the property, by losing it and making no attempt to retrieve it, by vacating the property with no intention of returning to it, or by any other act manifesting a complete disclaimer

Brown, Trisha

2005-03-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

Brown studied modern dance at Mills College in Oakland, California (B.A., 1958). Her style began developing after she met choreographer Yvonne

Romano, Luis

2005-03-10T18:40:00.000-08:00

Romano's writings

Clarence Series

2005-03-10T03:02:00.000-08:00

Major division of Cretaceous rocks and time in New Zealand (the Cretaceous Period lasted from 144 to 66.4 million years ago). Rocks of the Clarence Series overlie those of the Taitai Series and underlie rocks of the Raukumara Series. Clarence rocks (sandstones, conglomerates, graywackes, mudstones, and basaltic lava flows) have been divided into four stages representing

Gong Xian

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

Short, broad vertical strokes characterize Gong's paintings, which, like those of Ni Zan in the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), typically contain no human figures; yet in contrast

Uaxactún

2005-03-07T23:58:00.000-08:00

Ruined ancient Mayan city of the southern lowlands, located in what is now north-central Guatemala, about 12 miles (20 km) north of the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. Uaxactún was a ceremonial centre of only modest size, compared with Tikal, but it has been important in Mayan archaeology because intensive excavations made there by archaeologists of the Carnegie Institution

Kin

2005-03-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

Also called Kinsfolk, persons deemed related through blood or marriage or both. See kinship.

Sinkiang, Uygur Autonomous Region Of, Education

2005-03-05T21:46:00.000-08:00

Before World War II the educational system was minimal. Since 1949, educational facilities have been broadened and the literacy rate is better than the national average. Institutions of higher learning, concentrated in Wu-lu-mu-ch'i, include the Sinkiang University; the Sinkiang “August First” Institute of Agriculture, which offers a course on water conservation; the

Berat

2005-03-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

Located strategically between the ancient regions of Illyria and Epirus, Berat was the

Bridge

2005-03-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

In electrical measurement, instrument for measuring electrical quantities. The first such instrument, invented by British mathematician Samuel Christie and popularized in 1843 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, measures resistance by comparing the current flowing through one part of the bridge with a known current flowing through another part. The Wheatstone

Nilo-saharan Languages, Word order

2005-02-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

As observed by Greenberg in his language typology work, the position of the verb relative to the subject or object is known to correspond, in statistically significant ways, with other syntactic properties. Languages placing the verb before the subject and the object, for example, tend to have prepositions and auxiliaries preceding the main verb, whereas languages

Chub

2005-02-25T17:39:00.000-08:00

The European chub (Leuciscus cephalus) is a popular, though not especially palatable, game fish found in Europe and Great Britain, primarily in rivers. A large-mouthed fish with

Abel Tasman National Park

2005-02-25T00:37:00.000-08:00

Wildlife preserve in northwestern South Island, New Zealand. Established in 1942, it was named for Abel Tasman, the Dutch navigator. With an area of 55,699 acres (22,541 hectares), it extends inland for about 6 miles (10 km) from the beaches of Tasman Bay on its western shores between Separation Point and Marahau Inlet, about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Nelson. The park includes the Tata Islands in Golden

Havana, The city layout

2005-02-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

Several broad

Arts, Islamic, Architectural decoration

2005-02-23T17:12:00.000-08:00

Early Islamic architecture is most original in its decoration. Mosaics and wall paintings followed the practices of antiquity and were primarily employed in Syria, Palestine, and Spain. Stone sculpture existed, but stucco sculpture, first limited to Iran, spread rapidly throughout the early Islamic world. Not only were stone or brick walls covered with large panels

Valdosta

2005-02-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1860) of Lowndes county, southern Georgia, U.S., about 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Tallahassee, Florida. Troupville, the original town and county seat (1828, as Franklinville), was moved 4 miles (6 km) east in 1859 to the present site to be on the right-of-way of the area's first railroad. The new town was named for Georgia Governor George M. Troup's plantation, Val d'Osta (for the Italian region Valle

Theobald

2005-02-21T14:15:00.000-08:00

Theobald entered the abbey of Bec in Normandy, became prior (c. 1127), was elected abbot in 1136, and was chosen archbishop of Canterbury in 1138. From 1139 to 1143 he was overshadowed by Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, who had secured the office of papal legate

Platt, Orville Hitchcock

2005-02-19T23:45:00.000-08:00

Platt began the practice of law in Meriden, Conn., in 1850 and was active in Connecticut politics, serving as secretary of state (1857), state senator (1861–62), and member of the

Le Maistre De Sacy, Isaac-louis

2005-02-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

Important figure in the Jansenist religious movement in France, a member of the Arnauld family (q.v.).

Atharvaveda

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

Collection of hymns and incantations that forms part of the ancient sacred literature of India known as the Vedas. See Veda.

Yurt

2005-02-17T03:09:00.000-08:00

Also spelled yurta , Mongol ger tentlike Central Asian nomad's dwelling, erected on wooden poles and covered with skin, felt, or handwoven textiles in bright colours. The interior is simply furnished with brightly coloured rugs (red often predominating) decorated with geometric or stylized animal patterns. The knotted pile rug, first known from a nomad burial at the foot of the Altai Mountains

Torchon Lace

2005-02-15T00:50:00.000-08:00

Coarse bobbin-made lace (see bobbin lace) made by peasants in most European countries in which simple geometric patterns are carried out. With other simple kinds of lace it was the mainstay of the lace makers of the Austrian Tirol. It is the type of lace on which apprentices generally begin learning the craft.

Wurtzite

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

A zinc sulfide mineral that occurs typically in Potosí, Bolivia; Butte, Mont.; and Goldfield, Nev. It is a rare and unstable (at temperatures below 1,020° C, [1,870° F]) hexagonally symmetrical modification of sphalerite, to which it inverts crystallographically; it may be made artificially from sphalerite by rapid cooling from 1,020° C. For detailed physical properties, see sulfide

Slobozia

2005-02-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Ialomita judet (county), southeastern Romania. It lies along the Ialomita River in the middle of the Baragan Plain. The town was built on what remained of the Roman settlement of Netindava. It is a collecting and marketing centre for a rich agricultural region in which cereals and cattle predominate. Amara is a bathing and health resort lying just to the north.

'isa Ibn Musa

2005-02-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

The caliph as-Saffah nominated his brother al-Mansur and, after him, 'Isa, as heirs. On the accession of al-Mansur, 'Isa was governor of Kufah. The new caliph sent him to lead an army against an 'Alid revolt in Medina, apparently with the hope that he might be killed. In a series of battles,

Alexander Island

2005-02-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

Also called Alexander Land, large island in the Bellingshausen Sea, separated from the Antarctica mainland by the George VI Sound. An extremely rugged region with peaks up to 9,800 feet (2,987 m) above sea level, it is 270 miles (435 km) long and up to 125 miles (200 km) wide and has an area of about 16,700 square miles (43,250 square km). The Russian explorers Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered the land in 1821 and named it after the Russian tsar.

Argentine

2005-02-10T04:32:00.000-08:00

The true smelts

Cahaba

2005-02-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

Historic village, Dallas county, southwest-central Alabama, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Cahaba and Alabama rivers, 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Selma. Founded in 1819 as the first capital of Alabama, Cahaba thrived until floods forced the state government to move to Tuscaloosa in 1826. The site of a Confederate prison camp during the American Civil War, Cahaba remained the seat

Earth, Absolute measurements

2005-02-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

The most fundamental and straightforward method of measuring g is to measure directly the acceleration of a body falling in a vacuum toward Earth, but until the mid-1900s timing systems of sufficient accuracy were simply not available. All older absolute measurements were based on measuring the period of swing of some form of physical pendulum. The period of a simple

Mitchell, W.o.

2005-02-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

Mitchell received favourable notice for his first novel, Who Has Seen the Wind? (1947), a sensitive picture of a grim prairie town seen from the point of view of a small boy. Mitchell's Jake and the Kid (1961) was later developed

Argolis, Gulf Of

2005-02-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

Modern Greek Argolikós Kólpos, deep inlet of the Mirtóön Sea, a western arm of the Aegean, eastern Peloponnese, Greece; it is separated from the Gulf of Saronikós by the Argolís peninsula. Some 30 miles (50 km) long and 20 miles (30 km) wide, it includes some small islands off the eastern shore, notably Psilí and Platiá. At the head of the gulf are its principal port, Nauplia, and the mouth of the Ínakhos River. Just north

Cheltenham

2005-02-05T01:46:00.000-08:00

A church is known to have existed at Cheltenham as early as 803. The town is first mentioned in documents in 1223, when the benefit of markets, fairs, and the hundred (feudal

China, Seizure of power

2005-02-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

The period from mid-1966 to early 1969 constituted the Red Guard phase of the Cultural Revolution, and these years in turn included several important turning points. The latter half of 1966 witnessed not only the Red Guard mobilization (including Red Guard reviews of more than 1,000,000 youths at a time by Mao Zedong and Lin Biao in Peking) but also the removal from power of key Political Bureau

Sexual-predator Law

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

Statute that mandates lengthy periods of preventive detention for habitual sexual offenders and sexual psychopaths beyond their criminal sentences. Sexual-predator laws became popular in the United States in the 1990s, and their passage raised constitutional questions about double jeopardy and the balancing of the rights of offenders against those of the wider

Gong

2005-02-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

A circular metal plate-like percussion instrument having a turned-down rim. It is struck in the centre with a felt- or leather-covered beater, producing a sound of either definite or indefinite pitch. Its vibrations issue from the centre, in contrast to bells, which vibrate principally at the rim.

Van Peebles, Melvin

2005-02-01T01:53:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A., 1953), Van Peebles traveled extensively

Wagon

2005-01-31T14:15:00.000-08:00

Four-wheeled vehicle designed to be drawn by draft animals and known to have been used as early as the 1st century BC, incorporating such earlier innovations as the spoked wheel and metal wheel rim. Early examples also had such features as pivoted front axles and linchpins to secure the wheels. In its essential form, therefore, the wagon has been in common use for about

Calendar Of 2000

2005-01-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

TV Breizh, the first television channel to

Shilluk

2005-01-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

The Shilluk are sedentary agriculturists with strong pastoral interests (cattle, sheep, and goats). Men hunt, herd, and milk the livestock; both sexes do agricultural work. The community

Minas

2005-01-27T02:45:00.000-08:00

Capital, Lavalleja department, southeastern Uruguay. Founded in 1783, the city was named for the surrounding mines. In the second half of the 20th century Minas has become increasingly attractive to tourists, since it is only 75 mi (120 km) northeast of Montevideo and offers hills and forests, both unusual in Uruguay. Its bottled mineral waters long have been distributed throughout

Syv Systre

2005-01-24T18:09:00.000-08:00

Also called Knivsflåfoss, waterfalls in the fylke (county) of Møre og Romsdal, west-central Norway. The falls have their sources in Geit Mountain. The water flows over a high perpendicular cliff and plunges several hundred feet into Geiranger Fjord below. The name, which in English means “seven sisters,” is derived from the seven separate streams that join at the top of the falls. East of the falls,

Heron

2005-01-24T02:34:00.000-08:00

Any of about 60 species of long-legged wading birds of the subfamily Ardeinae of the family Ardeidae (order Ciconiiformes) and generally including several species usually called egrets (see egret). The Ardeidae also include the bitterns (subfamily Botaurinae). Herons are widely distributed over the world but are most common in the tropics. They usually feed while wading

Ramenskoye

2005-01-23T21:52:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ramenskoje , or Ramenskoe city and centre of a rayon (sector), Moscow oblast (province), western Russia. It lies southeast of the city of Moscow. In the 1820s Ramenskoye became the site of one of Russia's first cotton factories and soon developed as an industrial village. Incorporated in 1926, the city is now a textile and engineering centre as well as a residential suburb of Moscow. It has a medical school and

Yard-of-ale Glass

2005-01-22T00:51:00.000-08:00

Tall, extremely narrow drinking glass that was known in England from the 17th century. It is approximately 1 yard (90 cm) long and holds about 1 pint (0.5 litre). The glass has a trumpet-shaped opening at one end and either a foot at the other or a trick bulb, which makes drinking more difficult, for when air gets into it the ale is forced out in a rush. Impractical for ordinary use, it appears

Henderson, Rickey

2005-01-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Henderson was an All-American running back in football as a high school athlete in Oakland, California. He chose to play baseball over football, however, and competed in the minor leagues

Hooks, Bell

2005-01-20T20:15:00.000-08:00

Watkins grew up in a segregated community of the American South. At age 19 she began writing what would become her first full-length book, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which was

More, Henry

2005-01-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

Though reared a Calvinist, More became an Anglican as a youth. At Christ's College, Cambridge, he encountered such Platonists as Edward Fowler and John Worthington. In 1639 he was

Abbey, Edwin Austin

2005-01-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

Yale University Art Gallery, Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911) (1973).

Monongahela River

2005-01-17T02:58:00.000-08:00

River formed by the confluence of the Tygart and West Fork rivers in Marion county, W.Va., U.S. It flows 128 miles (206 km) in a northerly direction past Morgantown into Pennsylvania, past Brownsville and Charleroi, joining the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh to become a major headwater of the Ohio River. In its upper reaches the river has a swift current and furnishes hydroelectric

Alkaline-earth Metal

2005-01-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

Prior to the 19th century, substances that were nonmetallic, insoluble in water, and unchanged by fire were known as earths. Those earths, like lime, that resembled the alkalies (soda ash and

Social War

2005-01-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

The allies in central and southern Italy had fought side by side with Rome in several wars and had grown restive under Roman autocratic rule, wanting instead Roman citizenship and the privileges it conferred. In 91 BC the Roman tribune Marcus Livius

Zhou Yang

2005-01-14T03:03:00.000-08:00

Zhou joined the Chinese Communist Party soon after the failure of the revolution in 1927. A graduate of Ta-hsia University in Shanghai in 1928, he went to Japan for advanced study in 1929. Upon returning to China in 1931 he became one of the leaders

Wright, James

2005-01-12T00:47:00.000-08:00

After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, Wright studied under John Crowe Ransom at Kenyon College in

Aristide, Jean-bertrand

2005-01-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

Aristide attended a school in Port-au-Prince run by the Roman Catholic Salesian order, and in 1966 he moved to the Salesian seminary at Cap-Haitien and began to prepare for the priesthood.

Augusta

2005-01-11T06:09:00.000-08:00

City, river port, and seat (1777) of Richmond county, eastern Georgia, U.S. It lies on the Savannah River (there bridged to North Augusta, South Carolina), on the fall line where the Piedmont Plateau meets the Coastal Plain. The area was explored in 1540 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto, but not until 1735 was a fortified fur-trading post established on the site (now marked by a Celtic

Lima, Pre-Columbian and colonial periods

2005-01-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

The area around Lima has been inhabited for thousands of years. Urban communities of significant size date from the pre-Inca Early Intermediate Period (c. 200 BC–AD 600), the most important being Pachacamac, which was an important religious site in both pre-Inca and Inca times. Much of the ransom demanded by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro for the Inca chief Atahuallpa (Atahualpa)

Avijja

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

(Pali), in the Buddhist chain of dependent origination, the ignorance that fetters man to transmigration. See pratitya-samutpada.

Lend-lease

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

System by which the United States aided its World War II allies with war materials, such as ammunition, tanks, airplanes, and trucks, and with food and other raw materials. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had committed the United States in June 1940 to materially aiding the opponents of fascism, but, under existing U.S. law, Great Britain had to pay for its growing arms purchases

Amelung Glass

2005-01-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

American glass produced from 1784 to about 1795 by John Frederick Amelung, a native of Bremen in Germany. Financed by German and American promoters, Amelung founded the New Bremen Glassmanufactory near Frederick, Md., U.S., and attempted to establish a self-sufficient community, importing glassworkers and other craftsmen from Germany. The enterprise was encouraged by such

Sabaean

2005-01-05T05:20:00.000-08:00

Member of a people of South Arabia in pre-Islamic times, founders of the kingdom of Saba' (q.v.), the biblical Sheba.

Mocha

2005-01-04T01:24:00.000-08:00

Arabic Al-mukha, also spelled Mokha, or Mukha, town, southwestern Yemen, on the Red Sea and the Tihamah (coastal plain). Yemen's most renowned historic port, it lies at the head of a shallow bay between two headlands, with an unprotected anchorage 1.5 miles (2.5 km) offshore. It was long famous as Arabia's chief coffee-exporting centre; the term mocha and variations of the word have entered European languages as a synonym for the

Li Keran

2005-01-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Li showed a gift for painting, calligraphy, and music as a child. When he was 13, he began to study landscape

'abbas Mirza

2005-01-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Although he was not the eldest son of Fath 'Ali Shah (1797–1834), 'Abbas Mirza was named crown prince and appointed governor of the province of Azerbaijan in 1798 or 1799. When war broke out between Russia and Iran in 1804, he was made commander of the Iranian expeditionary

Xochicalco

2005-01-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

Xochicalco was built primarily during the 8th and 9th centuries AD and soon became an important trading centre. Although it also served for many years as a prominent religious centre, it was apparently turned

Iran, The Qajar dynasty (17961925)

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

Between 1779 and 1789 the Zands fought among themselves over their legacy. In the end it fell to the gallant Lotf 'Ali, the Zands' last hope. Agha Muhammad Khan relentlessly hunted him down until he overcame and killed him at the southeastern city of Kerman in 1794. In 1796 Agha Muhammad Khan assumed the imperial diadem, and later in the same year he took Mashhad. Shah Rokh died of the tortures inflicted

Adwa, Battle Of

2004-12-30T21:33:00.000-08:00

The death (in 1889) of the Ethiopian emperor Yohannes IV was followed by great disorder, during which the Italians helped Menilek of Shewa (Shoa) win the throne. Furthermore,

Augustine, Saint, Texts and translations

2004-12-30T16:30:00.000-08:00

Augustine's two most important works, Confessions and City of God, are available in numerous editions. Both James J. O'Donnell, Confessions, 3 vol. (1992), and Jacques Fontaine (ed.), Confessioni, 5 vol. (1992–97), presume knowledge of Latin and contain substantial commentaries. The best English versions are The Confessions of St. Augustine, trans. by John K. Ryan (1960); Confessions, trans. by Henry Chadwick (1991); and The Confessions, trans. by Maria Boulding (1997). Although no comprehensive commentary on City of God exists, two versions are The City of God Against the Pagans, 7 vol., ed. and trans. by George E. McCracken et al. (1957–72), in The Loeb Classical Library series; and the best translation, Concerning the City of God Against the Pagans, trans. by Henry Bettenson (1972, reissued 1984).

Wynyard

2004-12-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

Town, northern Tasmania, Australia, at the mouth of the River Inglis on Bass Strait. Founded in 1841, it was made a municipality in 1856 and named Table Cape for a high promontory (380 feet [116 m]) to the south. It was gazetted a town in 1861, when its name was changed to honour Major General Edward Wynyard, commander in chief in 1850 of British forces in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). Located on a rail line

Bahrain

2004-12-27T23:45:00.000-08:00

Bahrain has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and several thousand burial mounds in the northern part of the main island probably date from the Sumerian period of the 3rd millennium BC. It was the seat of ancient

Kuwait

2004-12-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

The dismissal of the Kuwaiti National Assembly in May 1999 by Emir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir as-Sabah was a milestone event. Unlike two prior dismissals, this one was carried out constitutionally. Elections were held in early July, and a new legislature was installed later that month. Nearly two-thirds of the elected legislators ran on antigovernment platforms that

Mona Monkey

2004-12-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

(Cercopithecus mona), common West African guenon that is found in tropical rainforests. The mona monkey is a speckled reddish brown in colour, with white underparts and an oval patch of white on each side of the tail. Its face is marked by a white band across the forehead and a thin, black stripe between eye and ear. The mona monkey is lively and is one of the most widely exhibited

Utrecht, State University Of

2004-12-25T01:59:00.000-08:00

The largest Netherlands state university, Utrecht has faculties of theology, law, medicine, science,

Arête

2004-12-23T06:08:00.000-08:00

(French: “ridge”), in geology, a sharp-crested serrate ridge separating the heads of opposing valleys (cirques) that formerly were occupied by Alpine glaciers. It has steep sides formed by the collapse of unsupported rock, undercut by continual freezing and thawing (glacial sapping; see cirque). Two opposing glaciers meeting at an arête will carve a low, smooth gap, or col

Roman-dutch Law

2004-12-23T03:01:00.000-08:00

The system of law produced by the fusion of early modern Dutch law, chiefly of Germanic origin, and Roman, or civil, law. It existed in the Netherlands province of Holland from the 15th to the early 19th century and was carried by Dutch colonists to the Cape of Good Hope, where it became the foundation of modern South African law. It also influenced the legal systems of other

Staël, Germaine De

2004-12-22T13:02:00.000-08:00

In full Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baronne (baroness) de Staël-Holstein , byname Madame de Staël French-Swiss woman of letters, political propagandist, and conversationalist, who epitomized the European culture of her time, bridging the history of ideas from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. She also gained fame by maintaining a salon for leading intellectuals. Her writings include novels, plays, moral and political essays, literary

Dynamical Time

2004-12-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

The time scale of dynamical astronomy (celestial mechanics). The orbital motions of celestial bodies subject only to Newton's laws of motion and law of gravitation, as modified by relativity, proceed as a function of dynamical time. In 1952 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined a dynamical time scale named Ephemeris Time (ET), which is based on the Earth's orbital

Art

2004-12-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

The various visual arts exist within a continuum that ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one end to purely utilitarian

Agrigento

2004-12-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1927) Girgenti, Greek Acragas, Latin Agrigentum, capital of Agrigento provincia, near the southern coast of Sicily, Italy. It lies on a plateau encircled by low cliffs overlooking the junction of the Drago (ancient Hypsas) and San Biagio (Acragas) rivers and is dominated from the north by a ridge with twin peaks. Agrigento was a wealthy ancient city founded about 581 BC by Greek colonists from Gela. It was ruled 570–554 BC by the notorious

Monash, Sir John

2004-12-17T03:28:00.000-08:00

Monash attended Scotch College and Melbourne University obtaining degrees in the arts, in civil engineering, and law. Responsible for the design of a number of bridges in Melbourne and Tasmania, Monash pioneered

Danao

2004-12-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

City, eastern Cebu Island, Philippines, about 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Cebu City. It was founded in 1844 and is a port on the Camotes Sea for nearby coalfields. It is also a service centre for the coastal agricultural area that produces rice and corn (maize). Its name is derived from danawan, a local word meaning “shallow lagoon”; there are beaches for swimming nearby. Inc. city, 1961. Pop. (1980) 56,967.

Thomas, George H(enry)

2004-12-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1840, Thomas served in the Mexican War (1846–48) and as an instructor at West Point. Despite his Southern birth

Nicaragua

2004-12-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

Officially Republic of Nicaragua, Spanish República de Nicaragua country of Central America, bounded by Honduras on the north, the Caribbean Sea on the east, Costa Rica on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It is the largest of the Central American republics, with an area of 50,464 square miles (130,700 square kilometres). Its population, mostly mestizo, is an ethnic mixture that reflects the country's history. The capital is Managua, the nation's

Ijolite

2004-12-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

Intrusive igneous rock that is composed essentially of nepheline and an alkali pyroxene, usually aegirinaugite. It is the plutonic equivalent of the volcanic nephelinites and nepheline dolerites. Typically, the pyroxene is well-crystallized and is surrounded by the nepheline. Accessory minerals include black garnet, titanite, perovskite, apatite, cancrinite,

Azulejo

2004-12-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

(from Arabic az-zulayj, “little stone”), Spanish and later principally Portuguese tiles produced from the 14th century onward. At first the term was used to denote only North African mosaics, but it became the accepted word for an entirely decorated tile about 5 to 6 inches (13 to 15 centimetres) square. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal imported azulejo tiles from Spain, and their

Sicyon

2004-12-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Secyon, Modern Greek Sikión, ancient Greek city in the northern Peloponnese about 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Corinth. Inhabited in Mycenaean times and later invaded by Dorians, Sicyon was subject to Argos for several centuries. In the 7th century BC, Sicyonian independence was established by non-Dorian tyrants, the Orthagorids. Under the Orthagorid ruler Cleisthenes (grandfather of the Athenian

Pitcairn Island

2004-12-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

Isolated, volcanic formation in the south-central Pacific Ocean, 1,350 miles (2,170 km) southeast of Tahiti. It is the only inhabited island of the British colony of Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno Islands, which is commonly referred to as the Pitcairn Islands, or Pitcairn. The main island, with an area of about 2 square miles (5 square km), is a rugged half crater rising to 1,100 feet (about