Sunday, February 29, 2004

Robert

Robert's early years were clouded by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282 - 88), in which his father, Charles II of Anjou, was taken prisoner by the Aragonese. By the terms of the treaty Charles was freed, and Robert took his place as hostage at the Aragonese court. Taking the title of duke of Calabria

Saturday, February 28, 2004

Florence, University Of

Italian �Universit� Degli Studi Di Firenze, � university that originated in Florence in 1321 and became later in the century, through the activities of the writer Giovanni Boccaccio, an early centre of Renaissance Humanism. Boccaccio secured a post there for Leonzio Pilato, whose rough Latin translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey introduced Homer to Italian scholars. In 1396 the first university chair in Greek

Friday, February 27, 2004

Musical Notation

Two developments in musical style in the 20th century have placed great strain upon staff notation: integral serialism - in which the music is controlled by a mathematical system - and indeterminacy, or chance music. In the former, every note in a texture may have its individual dynamic marking and type of attack (for example, in Olivier Messiaen's Mode de valeurs et

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Dunqulah

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

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Biblical Literature, The role of the judges

Under these conditions, the successors to Joshua - the judges - arose. The Hebrew term shofet, which is translated into English as �judge,� is closer in meaning to �ruler,� a kind of military leader or deliverer from potential or actual defeat. In a passage from the so-called Ras Shamra tablets (discovered in 1929), the concept of the judge as a ruler is well illustrated:Our king is Triumphant

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Alaska

Constituent state of the United States of America. It lies at the extreme northwest of the North American continent and is the largest peninsula in the Western Hemisphere. Its 591,004 square miles (1,530,700 square km) include some 15,000 square miles (38,800 square km) of fjords and inlets, and its three faces to the sea have about 34,000 miles (54,400 km) of indented tidal coastline and 6,600 total miles (10,600 km) of coast fronting

Monday, February 23, 2004

Estaing, Charles-hector, Comte (count) D'

D'Estaing served in India during the Seven Years' War and was governor of the Antilles (1763 - 66). He was appointed vice admiral in 1767 and in 1778 attempted to surprise the English squadrons in North America and enable the colonists

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Elimination Reaction

Any of a class of organic chemical reactions in which a pair of atoms or groups of atoms are removed from a molecule, usually through the action of acids, bases, or metals and, in some cases, by heating to a high temperature. It is the principal process by which organic compounds containing only single carbon-carbon bonds (saturated compounds) are transformed to compounds

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Montserrat

The original Native American inhabitants of Montserrat began to arrive in the Lesser Antilles about 3000 BC. Carib Indians, who arrived later, are said to have named the island Alliouagana (�Land of the Prickly Bush�). However, Montserrat was uninhabited by the time Christopher Columbus sighted it in November 1493, during his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus named the island

Friday, February 20, 2004

Bureau

In the United States, a chest of drawers; in Europe a writing desk, usually with a hinged writing flap that rests at a sloping angle when closed and, when opened, reveals a tier of pigeonholes, small drawers, and sometimes a small cupboard. The bureau (French: �office�) first appeared in France at the beginning of the 17th century as just a flat table with drawers below the top, the

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Minch, The

Also called �North Minch, � Atlantic sea channel between the Outer Hebrides island group on the west and the mainland of Scotland on the east. The channel varies in width between 25 and 45 miles (40 and 70 km) and has both great depth and a rapid current. The Little Minch, its southerly extension, lies between the island groups of the Outer and Inner Hebrides, separating the islands of Harris and North Uist

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Plumbaginales

The plumbago, or leadwort, order of dicotyledonous flowering plants comprising the family Plumbaginaceae, with 10 genera of herbs and shrubs, found throughout the world but especially in semi-arid salt steppes and seacoasts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The plants are characterized by alternating, simple leaves that often bear glands

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

'abd Al-rahman Iii

Byname �Al-Nasir li-Din Allah (Arabic: �Victor for the Religion of Allah�)�, in full �'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hakam al-Rabdi ibn Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil� first caliph and greatest ruler of the Umayyad Arab Muslim dynasty of Spain. He reigned as hereditary emir (�prince�) of C�rdoba from October 912 and took the title of caliph in 929.

Monday, February 16, 2004

Moscow

City, seat (1888) of Latah county, northwestern Idaho, U.S. The city is situated on Paradise Creek, in the Palouse country just north of Lewiston, near the Washington border. The area was settled in 1871 and developed as a stagecoach station. Local farmers called the area Hog Heaven. The origins of the name Moscow are disputed; some hold that the town was named by Jonathan Neff, a homesteader

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Mascarene Islands

French ��les Mascareignes, � collectively, the islands of R�union, Mauritius, and Rodrigues, which are situated in a line along a submarine ridge, the Seychelles - Mauritius Plateau, 400 to 500 miles (640 to 800 km) northeast from southern Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean. All are volcanic in origin. The name Mascarene is taken from the 16th-century Portuguese explorer Pedro de Mascarenhas. The islands now form

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Calendar Of 2003

Friday, February 13, 2004

Biblical Literature, The Letter of Paul to the Colossians

Colossians presents the problem of having, on the one hand, numerous (though superficial) affinities with the circumstances of the Letter of Paul to Philemon while, on the other hand, being addressed mainly to a different situation. In this new situation he uses ideas and expressions that seem to be rather a development of Pauline ideas about the cosmic realm than

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Resin

Any natural or synthetic organic compound consisting of a noncrystalline or viscous liquid substance. Natural resins are typically fusible and flammable organic substances that are transparent or translucent and are yellowish to brown in colour. They are formed in plant secretions and are soluble in various organic liquids but not in water. Synthetic

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Dagobert Ii

The son of Sigebert III, Dagobert was packed off to an Irish monastery following the death of his father in 656, and the Austrasian throne was taken by Childebert the Adopted, son of Grimoald, the Austrasian mayor of the palace. After the downfall of Grimoald and Childebert,

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Kert�sz, Andr�

While working as a clerk on the Budapest Stock Exchange from 1912 to 1914, Kert�sz began to experiment with photography. During World War I he served in the Hungarian

Monday, February 09, 2004

Dysplasia

Chondroectodermal dysplasia (Ellis-van Creveld syndrome) is a very rare, congenital disorder. It is heritable (autosomal recessive). Affected individuals exhibit heart

Sunday, February 08, 2004

Earth, Formation of joints

Because joints are areas of weakness in sedimentary rocks, erosion may occur more readily along regions in which joints are closely spaced. Consequently, streams in some areas of jointed rocks tend to parallel one or more joint sets.

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Wiesbaden

City, capital (1946) of Hessen Land (state), southern Germany. It is situated on the right (east) bank of the Rhine River at the southern foot of the Taunus Mountains, west of Frankfurt am Main and north of Mainz. The settlement was known as a spa (Aquae Mattiacae) in Roman times. Its earthen fortifications (12 BC) were replaced by stone in AD 83, and a Roman wall (of which traces remain) was built about

Friday, February 06, 2004

Breadalbane And Holland, John Campbell, 1st Earl Of

The son of Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy, 4th Baronet (d. 1686), he took part in the Royalist uprising under the Earl of Glencairn in 1654 and later encouraged the restoration of Charles II in 1660. Charles created him earl of Caithness and viscount of Breadalbane in 1677; but, when this

Thursday, February 05, 2004

France, History Of, Kingship

Kingship was the basic institution in the Merovingian kingdom. Since Clovis' reign, the power of the king had extended not only over a tribe or tribes but also over a territory inhabited by Germans of divergent backgrounds and by Gallo-Romans as well. The king exercised power with legal limitations, which, when violated, led to efforts to reestablish political equilibrium

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Lebed, Aleksandr Ivanovich

On June, 18, 1996, after Aleksandr Lebed had run a strong third in the first round of the Russian presidential elections, Pres. Boris Yeltsin appointed him to be secretary of the Security Council and national security adviser. Lebed appeared to strengthen his position in the government when he later negotiated a cease-fire in Chechnya. By year's end the ambitious retired general,

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Sucksdorff, Arne

Swedish motion-picture director important in the post-World War II revival of the Swedish cinema because of his internationally acclaimed sensitivity in photographing nature. His patiently photographed flowers, insects, birds, and animals are composed into films in which the rhythm of nature is dominant and man is only

Monday, February 02, 2004

Syringomyelia

Chronic, progressive disease characterized principally by the development of a cyst, called a syrinx, near the spinal cord or brain stem. Symptoms include gradual dissociated sensory loss, muscle wasting, and spasticity. The cause of the disease is unknown but is thought to be a developmental defect. Symptoms ordinarily appear between 10 and 30 years of age; males are

Sunday, February 01, 2004

Allan, Maud

The daughter of two physicians, Allan grew up in San Francisco, studied music in Berlin, and taught herself to dance. Her career began in 1903 in Vienna, where she choreographed and performed dances to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz