BrownHammer

Cetacean, Feeding adaptations

2005-04-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

Before cetaceans evolved aquatic adaptations, they had a fully differentiated set of teeth (heterodont dentition), including incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. As the animals became more adapted to aquatic locomotion and lost the ability to manipulate food with their forelimbs, they started grabbing their food and swallowing it whole. In toothed

Auger

2005-04-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

Tool (or bit) used with a carpenter's brace for drilling holes in wood. It looks like a corkscrew and has six parts: screw, spurs, cutting edges, twist, shank, and tang. The screw looks like a tapered wood screw and is short and small in diameter; it centres the bit and draws it into the work. At the working end of the twist there are two sharp points called spurs, which score a circle

Ayrshire

2005-04-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

Breed of hardy dairy cattle originating in the county of Ayr, Scotland, in the latter part of the 18th century and considered to be the only special dairy breed to have originated in the British Isles. The body colour varies from almost pure white to nearly all cherry red or brown with any combination of these colours; black or brindle are considered undesirable. The beef

Kieslowski, Krzysztof

2005-04-03T03:52:00.000-07:00

Kieslowski graduated from the State Theatrical and Film College in Lódz, Poland, in 1968 and began his film career making documentaries, including one he had made for Polish television

Bruegel, Pieter, Ii, The Younger

2005-04-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

The eldest son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the young Pieter studied first under his grandmother, the miniaturist Maria Verhulst, and then in Antwerp. He painted largely in the manner of his father and even copied many of his works; some of his copies cannot

Justus, Saint

2005-04-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

In 601 he was sent by Pope St. Gregory I the Great to assist Archbishop St. Augustine of Canterbury in the conversion of England to Christianity. He was consecrated by

Tasmania, Industries

2005-03-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

Mineral production fluctuates with market conditions. Iron ore from opencut mines at Savage River is converted to slurry, piped to Port Latta near Stanley, pelletized, and shipped to the mainland and Japan. The tin mine at Renison Bell is not only the largest in Australia but also the largest underground hard-rock tin mine in the world. Copper production at Queenstown

Clare, John

2005-03-31T04:39:00.000-08:00

Clare grew up in extreme poverty and began work as a herder at the age of seven. Though he had little access to books, he had a prodigious memory, and his poetic gift, which revealed itself early, was nourished by his parents' store of

Balochi

2005-03-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

The original

Skeltonics

2005-03-30T07:53:00.000-08:00

Short verses of an irregular metre much used by the Tudor poet John Skelton. The verses have two or three stresses arranged sometimes in falling and sometimes in rising rhythm. They rely on such devices as alliteration, parallelism, and multiple rhymes and are related to doggerel. Skelton wrote his verses as works of satire and protest, and thus the form was considered

Aleatory Music

2005-03-29T05:18:00.000-08:00

The indeterminate portion of aleatory

Minaret

2005-03-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

(Arabic: “beacon”), in Islamic religious architecture, the tower from which the faithful are called to prayer five times each day by a muezzin, or crier. Such a tower is always connected with a mosque and has one or more balconies or open galleries. At the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the call to prayer was made from the highest roof in the vicinity of the mosque. The earliest minarets

Fiedler, Arthur

2005-03-27T13:50:00.000-08:00

Maestro of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 50 seasons and the best-selling classical conductor of all time; his recordings with the Pops sold some 50,000,000 discs. (The Pops Orchestra is the Boston Symphony minus its principal players.) Fiedler, whose principal aim was “to give audiences a good time,” led the Pops in performances of popular tunes, show

Gondophernes

2005-03-27T05:08:00.000-08:00

Gondophernes was first known from the apocryphal

Nördlingen, Battle Of

2005-03-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

Led

Ayler, Albert

2005-03-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

As a boy, Ayler studied saxophone with his father, with whom he played duets in church. In his mid-teens he played in rhythm-and-blues bands, and as a young alto saxophonist in Cleveland, he mastered the bop style

Uraninite

2005-03-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

The element uranium was discovered by

Carracci, Lodovico

2005-03-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

The son of a butcher, Lodovico was the older cousin of the painters Annibale and Agostino Carracci. After working under the painter Prospero

Children's Game

2005-03-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

Some children's games have been played for centuries. Swings existed on the island of Crete in

Fair

2005-03-23T06:59:00.000-08:00

Temporary market where buyers and sellers gather to transact business. A fair is held at regular intervals, generally at the same location and time of year, and it usually lasts for several days or even weeks. Its primary function is the promotion of trade. Historically, fairs displayed many different kinds of products in specific commodity or industrial groupings.

Albanian Literature

2005-03-22T00:59:00.000-08:00

The development of Albanian literature was seriously hindered by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Albania from the 15th to the late 19th century and prohibited publications in the Albanian language for most of that time. The oldest fragment of writing in Albanian

Tu Fu

2005-03-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

Born into a scholarly family, Tu Fu received a traditional Confucian education but failed in the imperial examinations of 736. As a result, he spent much of his youth traveling, during which he won renown as a poet and met the other poets of the period,

Biblical Literature, The Nevi'im

2005-03-21T15:53:00.000-08:00

The model of the Pentateuch probably encouraged the assemblage and ordering of the literature of the prophets. The Exile of the Jews to Bablylonia in 587/586 and the restoration half a century later enhanced the prestige of the prophets as national figures and aroused interest in the written records of their teachings. The canonization of the Nevi'im could not have taken

Gneist, Rudolf Von

2005-03-21T06:50:00.000-08:00

The son of a supreme court judge, he studied at Berlin University

Elgar, Sir Edward

2005-03-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

The son of an organist and music dealer, Elgar left school at age 15 and worked briefly in

Vacuum Technology

2005-03-19T22:47:00.000-08:00

Capacities are available up to 14,000 cu ft per minute, with an operating pressure range of 10-2 torr to below 10-11 torr. The full speed of the pump is developed in the pressure range from about 10-6 to 10-8 torr, although the characteristic at the lower pressure is dependent on pump design. This pump makes use of the sputtering principle, in which a cathode material such as titanium is

Indonesia, Flag Of

2005-03-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

The flag, a simple design of red and white stripes, has a long history. It was first associated with the Majapahit empire, which flourished from the 13th to the 16th century

Quinton, Amelia Stone

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

Amelia Stone grew up in a deeply religious Baptist household. As a young woman, she worked as a teacher and did charitable work at almshouses and prisons. She joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874 and worked as its New York organizer until 1877, when she

Interactive Multimedia

2005-03-18T16:47:00.000-08:00

Any computer-delivered electronic system that allows the user to control, combine, and manipulate different types of media, such as text, sound, video, computer graphics, and animation. Interactive multimedia integrate computer, memory storage, digital (binary) data, telephone, television, and other information technologies. Their most common applications include

Deneb

2005-03-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

Also called Alpha Cygni, one of the brightest stars, with an apparent magnitude of 1.26. This star is, at about 1,400 light-years' distance, one of the most remote (thus one of the brightest intrinsically) of the 20 apparently brightest stars. It lies in the northern constellation Cygnus.

Mckenna, Siobhan

2005-03-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

A member of an amateur Gaelic theatre group, McKenna made her

Uzbekistan, Flag Of

2005-03-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

Uzbekistan legalized the design of its new national flag on November 18, 1991. More than 200 proposals had been submitted in a flag design contest; the winning pattern had five unequal horizontal stripes, as in the flag adopted in 1952 when the country was known as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. The former flag's horizontal stripes of red-blue-red with white fimbriations symbolized

Xiaozhuan

2005-03-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization hsiao-chuan in Chinese calligraphy, a standardized and simplified form of the earlier dazhuan script, in which all lines are of even thickness and curves and circles are relatively predominant. Its development during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) is traditionally attributed to Li Si, a minister of that dynasty. The Qin dynasty created the first Chinese empire, under which customs, laws, and

Frame, Janet

2005-03-16T07:07:00.000-08:00

Frame's early years were traumatic. Her childhood was marked by poverty and the drowning deaths of two sisters, and in 1945, while studying to be a teacher, she suffered a breakdown. Misdiagnosed

Computers, Application software

2005-03-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

The availability of BASIC and CP/M enabled more widespread software development. By 1977, a two-person firm called Structured Systems Group started developing a General Ledger program, perhaps the first serious business software, which sold for $995. The company shipped its software in zip-lock bags with a manual, a practice that became common in the industry. General Ledger

Olympic Games, Flag Of The

2005-03-15T05:14:00.000-08:00

In 1914, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held its 20th anniversary meeting in Paris, the Olympic flag was displayed for the first time. The design had been conceived by the French educator Pierre, baron de Coubertin, who developed the modern Olympic movement. It has been claimed that Coubertin found the design of five interlocked rings on an ancient altar in

Celestite

2005-03-14T23:29:00.000-08:00

Mineral that is a naturally occurring form of strontium sulfate (SrSO4). It resembles barite, barium sulfate, but is much less common. Barium is interchangeable with strontium in the crystal structure; there is a gradation between celestite and barite. Celestite occurs in sedimentary rocks, particularly dolomites and dolomitic limestones, throughout the world

Spallation

2005-03-14T19:15:00.000-08:00

High-energy nuclear reaction in which a target nucleus struck by an incident (bombarding) particle of energy greater than about 50 million electron volts (MeV) ejects numerous lighter particles and becomes a product nucleus correspondingly lighter than the original nucleus. The light ejected particles may be neutrons, protons, or various composite particles equivalent

Scandinavian Literature, Icelandic letters

2005-03-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

In Iceland the foremost poet of the 17th century was Hallgrímur Pétursson, a Lutheran pastor who struggled against poverty and ill health. His Passíusálmar (1666; “Hymns on the Passion”) is among the most popular books in Iceland. Another interesting poet was Stefán Ólafsson, remembered for both religious and secular works, the latter notable for exuberantly humorous portrayals

Great Barrier Island

2005-03-13T04:15:00.000-08:00

Known to the Maoris as Aotea, the island was

Epidendrum

2005-03-12T18:08:00.000-08:00

Genus of tropical orchids, family Orchidaceae, with about 1,000 species that are distributed from southeastern North America to central South America. Epidendrum species are primarily epiphytic (supported by other plants and having aerial roots exposed to the humid atmosphere), but some grow on rocks or in soil. Flowers are usually borne on a terminal

Nahuel Huapí National Park

2005-03-12T17:49:00.000-08:00

Spanish Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapí, national park in Río Negro and Neuquén provinces, southwestern Argentina; it encompasses Lake Nahuel Huapí in the Andes adjacent to the Chilean border. It originated as a reserve in 1903 with a private donation of 18,500 acres (7,500 hectares). It became Argentina's first national park in 1934 and has an area of 2,927 square miles (7,581 square km). The park and adjacent nature reserve include a region

Masham, Abigail, Baroness Masham Of Otes

2005-03-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

She was the daughter of Francis Hill, a Levant merchant, who was ruined by speculation;

Laibach, Congress Of

2005-03-11T04:33:00.000-08:00

(Jan. 26–May 12, 1821), meeting of the Holy Alliance powers (all European rulers except those of Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and the papacy) at Laibach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia) that set the conditions for Austrian intervention in and occupation of the Two Sicilies in action against the Neapolitan revolution (July 1820). As such, it was a triumph for antiliberal Austrian policy, and also,

Wild Pig

2005-03-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

Also called Wild Boar, any of the wild members of the pig species Sus scrofa (family Suidae, order Artiodactyla), the ancestors of domestic pigs. See boar.

Ando Shoeki

2005-03-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

Ando was a native of Akita. He practiced medicine at Hachinohe, in the present Aomori prefecture, but became prominent as a social thinker in the 1750s. Ando was critical of the feudal society

Aargau

2005-03-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

French Argovie, canton, northern Switzerland. It borders Germany to the north and is bounded by the demicanton of Basel-Laandschaft and by the cantons of Solothurn and Bern to the west, Luzern to the south, and Zug and Zürich to the east. It forms the northeastern section of the great Swiss Plateau between the Alps and the Jura Mountains, taking in the lower course of the Aare River, whence

Leadville

2005-03-09T01:15:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1878) of Lake county, central Colorado, U.S., located 103 miles (166 km) west of Denver and 38 miles (61 km) south of Vail. It is situated in the upper Arkansas River valley in an area of national forests, at an elevation of some 10,200 feet (3,105 metres). It is the centre of one of the nation's most celebrated mining districts, which has yielded gold, silver, lead, zinc, manganese, and molybdenum. Gold was

China, The transition to socialism, 195357

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

The period 1953–57, corresponding to the First Five-Year Plan, began China's rapid industrialization. This period is still regarded as having been enormously successful. A strong central governmental apparatus proved able to channel scarce resources into the rapid development of heavy industry. Despite some serious policy issues and problems, the Communist leadership

Sketch

2005-03-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

In a traditional sketch, the emphasis usually is laid on the general design and composition of the work and

Ear Disease, Osteoma of the bony ear canal

2005-03-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

Osteoma of the bony ear canal is a bony knob that grows close to the tympanic membrane, especially in those who swim a great deal in cold water. It is not dangerous and does not need to be removed unless the bony overgrowth becomes large enough to block the ear canal.

Amiens, Treaty Of

2005-03-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

(March 27, 1802), an agreement signed at Amiens, Fr., by Britain, France, Spain, and the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands), achieving a peace in Europe for 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars. It ignored some questions that divided Britain and France, such as the fate of the Belgian provinces, Savoy, and Switzerland and the trade relations between Britain and the French-controlled

Shillong Plateau

2005-03-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

Plateau in eastern Meghalaya state, northeastern India. It is a rolling tableland and the highest portion of the hill mass that comprises most of Meghalaya. The plateau's western, northern, and southern escarpments are called the Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia hills, respectively. The Shillong Plateau is an outlier of the plateau of peninsular India and is composed primarily

Mole

2005-03-06T00:02:00.000-08:00

The mole designates an extremely large number of units, 6.0221367 ´ 1023, which is the number of atoms determined experimentally to be found in 12 grams of carbon-12. Carbon-12 was chosen arbitrarily to serve as the reference standard of the

Hooper, Franklin Henry

2005-03-05T01:08:00.000-08:00

In 1899 Hooper joined the staff of the Britannica, in which his brother Horace, James Clarke, and others had acquired an interest. Franklin Hooper was connected with five editions of the Britannica in the ensuing

Seth, Vikram

2005-03-05T00:03:00.000-08:00

The son of a judge and a businessman, Seth was raised in London and India. He attended exclusive Indian schools and then graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford (B.A., 1975). He received a master's degree in economics from Stanford University

Lutetium

2005-03-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

(Lu), chemical element, rare-earth metal of transition Group IIIb of the periodic table; the hardest and densest rare-earth element, last member of the lanthanide series. Lutetium was discovered (1907–08) by Carl Auer von Welsbach and Georges Urbain, working independently. Urbain derived the name for the element from Lutetia, which was the ancient Roman name for Paris. The name

Burg, Yosef

2005-03-03T05:35:00.000-08:00

Burg studied at the University of Berlin and in 1933 earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Leipzig. Ordained

Jacksonville

2005-03-03T02:40:00.000-08:00

City, Morgan county, west-central Illinois, U.S. Laid out in 1825 as the county seat and named in honour of Andrew Jackson, it soon acquired a distinctive educational, institutional, and religious character, which it largely retains. Illinois College (founded there in 1829 and affiliated with the United Church of Christ) was the first in the state to graduate a college class. Other

Augrabies Falls

2005-03-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Aughrabies Falls, series of separately channeled cataracts and rapids on the Orange River in arid Northern Cape province, South Africa. The falls, which form the central feature of Augrabies Falls National Park (established in 1966), occur where the Orange River leaves a plateau formation of resistant granite. The main fall of water is 305 feet (93 m); and the total drop is about 625 feet (191 m). At the bottom

Newington

2005-03-01T13:40:00.000-08:00

Area in the borough of Southwark, London. It lies southeast of Waterloo Station and west of Bermondsey. In the 19th century the area was developed as a residential suburb, and several roads and railways were built, converting Newington into a transportation hub for London south of the River Thames. Central to the area is the Elephant and Castle, a large traffic roundabout

Argentina, Political developments

2005-02-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

Works on Juan Perón and Peronism include Frederick C. Turner and José Enrique Miguens (eds.), Juan Perón and the Reshaping of Argentina (1983); Joseph A. Page, Perón: A Biography (1983); Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Eva Perón (1980, reissued as Evita, 1996); Jeane Kirkpatrick, Leader and Vanguard in Mass Society: A Study of Peronist Argentina (1971); and Guido Di Tella, Argentina Under Perón, 1973–76: The Nation's Experience with a Labour-Based Government (1983).

Afghan War

2005-02-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

The roots of the war lay in the overthrow of the centrist government of President

Shensi, Agriculture

2005-02-28T02:58:00.000-08:00

The southern part of the province forms a portion of the southwestern highland and basin area, which is characterized by double-cropping, wet-field agriculture, and forestry production. Most of the cultivated land is below 3,000 feet. The Han-chung Basin grows rice intensively, followed by winter wheat, but in the mountain zones of the T'ai-pai and Tsinling ranges the main

Lagoon Nebula

2005-02-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

(catalog numbers NGC 6523 and M8), ionized-hydrogen region located in the constellation Sagittarius at 1,200 parsecs (3,900 light-years) from the solar system. The nebula is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust approximately 10 parsecs (33 light-years) in diameter. A group of young, hot stars in the cloud ionize the nearby gas. As the atoms in the gas recombine, they produce the light emitted by

Lodi

2005-02-25T20:17:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Lodi provincia, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy. It lies on the right bank of the Adda River, southeast of Milan. The original settlement (5th century BC) on the site of the present suburb of Lodi Vecchio obtained Roman citizenship in 89 BC as Laus Pompeia. Destroyed in the communal struggles of 1111 and by the Milanese in 1158, it was refounded on the present site

Jeffreys (of Wem), George Jeffreys, 1st Baron

2005-02-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

Born into the Welsh gentry, Jeffreys was admitted to the bar in 1668, and in

Yunnan

2005-02-24T03:58:00.000-08:00

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Yün-nan, (Pinyin) Yunnan, sheng (province) of China. The fourth largest province of China, it is a mountain and plateau region on the country's southwestern frontier. It is bounded by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the northwest, Szechwan on the north, and the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi and Kweichow Province on the east. To the south and southeast it adjoins Laos and Vietnam, and to the

Miner, Myrtilla

2005-02-24T02:08:00.000-08:00

Miner was educated at the Clover Street Seminary in Rochester, New York (1840-44), and taught at various schools, including the Newton Female Institute (1846-47) in Whitesville,

Aalen

2005-02-22T22:48:00.000-08:00

City, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southern Germany, on the Kocher River, at the northern foot of the Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Alps), 30 miles (48 km) north of Ulm. It originated around a large Roman fort, much of which remains; nearby are the remains of the Roman limes (frontier wall). It became a free imperial city in 1360 and was severely damaged by fire in 1634. It passed to Württemberg in

Ogpu

2005-02-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

Early security and political police of the Soviet Union and a forerunner of the KGB (q.v.).

Ezra And Nehemiah, Books Of

2005-02-20T23:49:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Esdras and Nehemias, two Old Testament books that together with the books of Chronicles formed a single history of Israel from the time of Adam. Ezra and Nehemiah are a single book in the Jewish canon. Roman Catholics long associated the two, calling the second “Esdras alias Nehemias” in the Douay-Confraternity. Later works, e.g., the Jerusalem Bible, maintain separate identities but associate

Muhammad Ibn Tughluq

2005-02-19T04:41:00.000-08:00

Second sultan of the Tughluq dynasty (reigned 1325–51), who briefly extended the rule of the Delhi sultanate of northern India over most of the subcontinent. As a result of misguided administrative actions and unexampled severity toward his opponents, he eventually lost his authority in the south; at the end of his reign, the sultanate had begun to

São Leopoldo

2005-02-19T02:38:00.000-08:00

São Leopoldo serves an agricultural region producing

Rescue Mission

2005-02-17T16:37:00.000-08:00

Also called Inner Mission, Christian religious organization established to provide spiritual, physical, and social assistance to the poor and needy. It originated in the city mission movement among evangelical laymen and ministers early in the 19th century. The work of rescue missions resembles that of settlement houses, institutional churches, and charitable societies, but rescue missions

Ekistics

2005-02-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

Science of human settlements. Ekistics involves the descriptive study of all kinds of human settlements and the formulation of general conclusions aimed at achieving harmony between the inhabitants of a settlement and their physical and sociocultural environments. Descriptive study involves the examination of the content, such as man alone or in societies,

Modernism

2005-02-17T00:36:00.000-08:00

In Roman Catholic church history, a movement in the last decade of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th that sought to reinterpret traditional Catholic teaching in the light of 19th-century philosophical, historical, and psychological theories and called for freedom of conscience. Influenced by non-Catholic biblical scholars, Modernists contended that the

Kilby, Jack

2005-02-16T05:28:00.000-08:00

In full Jack St. Clair Kilby American engineer and one of the inventors of the integrated circuit, a system of interconnected transistors on a single microchip. In 2000 Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Aqtöbe

2005-02-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

Formerly Aktyubinsk, city, northwestern Kazakstan, on the Ilek River. It was founded in 1869 as Aktyube (“White Hill”), a small Russian fort; the first Russian peasant settlers arrived in 1878. In 1891 it became the capital of an uyezd (canton) and in 1932 of an oblast (province). During World War II a ferroalloys plant was built to smelt the nickel and chromium ores of the Mughalzhar (Mugodzhar) Hills. Now an important

Novomoskovsk

2005-02-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1934) Bobriki , or (1934–61) Stalinogorsk city, Tula oblast (province), western Russia, situated on the upper Don River. Founded in 1930 as Bobriki, the town developed as a major chemical centre, making fertilizers and plastics and mining lignite (brown coal). Pop. (1993 est.) 145,000.

Tea

2005-02-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

Beverage produced by steeping in freshly boiled water the young leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. Two principal varieties are used, the small-leaved China plant (C. sinensis sinensis) and the large-leaved Assam plant (C. sinensis assamica). Hybrids of these two varieties are also grown. The leaves may be fermented or left unfermented.

Keen, William Williams

2005-02-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

After graduating (M.D., 1862) from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Keen was a surgeon for the U.S. Army in 1862–64 during the American Civil War. The next two years he did postgraduate work in Paris and Berlin. On his return to the United States, he became a lecturer in surgical pathology

Bradley, Edward R.

2005-02-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

As a student at Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania), Bradley worked his way into broadcasting by volunteering at Philadelphia radio station WDAS-FM. After graduating with a degree in education (B.S., 1964), Bradley became an elementary schoolteacher but continued to work

Waterford Glass

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

Heavy cut glassware produced in Waterford, Ire., from 1729. Waterford glass, particularly the early variety, is characterized by thick walls, deeply incised geometric cutting, and brilliant polish. The smoky, bluish gray colour of early Waterford glass was considered a drawback, and a clear crystal was produced after 1830. It is the darkened glass, however, that is most prized

Plummer, Christopher

2005-02-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

Plummer made his first professional appearance in 1950 in Ottawa and spent several years performing with Canadian repertory theatre groups. In 1954 he made his New York City debut and soon attracted wide critical praise.

Medicine, Britain

2005-02-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

Before 1948, general practitioners in Britain settled where they could make a living. Patients fell into two main groups: weekly wage earners, who were compulsorily insured, were on a doctor's “panel” and were given free medical attention (for which the doctor was paid quarterly by the government); most of the remainder paid the doctor a fee for service at the time of the illness.

Elizabeth City

2005-02-10T22:02:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1799) of Pasquotank county, northeastern North Carolina, U.S. It lies on the Pasquotank River (an embayment of Albemarle Sound) at the southern end of Dismal Swamp Canal on the Intracoastal Waterway. Settlers had established a presence on the river in the 1660s, and the area was the scene of Culpeper's Rebellion (1677–79). It was founded and incorporated as Redding in 1793 but was renamed

Zaharoff, Sir Basil

2005-02-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

He was the son of poor Greek parents who had Russified the family name during years spent in exile in Russia. As a young man he worked for his uncle in the cloth trade in Istanbul. In

Kilkeel

2005-02-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

Irish Cill Chaoil fishing port and seaside resort, at the mouth of the River Kilkeel, Newry and Mourne district (established 1973), formerly in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, and the quarrying and dressing of Mourne granite is a local industry. A good harbour serves a large fishing fleet. The River Kilkeel rises to the north in the Silent Valley, where

Stephen Ii (or Iii)

2005-02-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

He was a deacon when chosen on March 26, 752, as the second successor to Pope St. Zacharias (the first successor, Stephen II, had died on the previous day without being consecrated). The central act of his pontificate was to free the papacy from Byzantium and to ally it with the Franks

Yaka

2005-02-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Rural Yaka are subsistence farmers of cassava and corn

Television And Radio

2005-02-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

The new rules contained many

Sidqi, Isma'il

2005-02-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

Sidqi earned his diploma at the Collège des Frères and won honours at the Khedivial Law school. He joined the public prosecutor's office but in 1899 became administrative secretary of the Alexandria municipal commission. In 1914 he was appointed minister of agriculture and then

Literature, Latin America.

2005-02-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

In 2001 many works explored Latin America's past and present social and political realities as well as offering variations on the theme of love. From Mexico, writer Carlos Fuentes returned to fantastic literature and to the theme of love's difficulties in Instinto de Inez. In La piel del cielo, Elena Poniatowska,

Bond, William Cranch

2005-02-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

Largely self-educated, Bond was a watchmaker

Hooper, Horace Everett

2005-02-03T22:34:00.000-08:00

Hooper left school at the age of 16, clerked in bookstores for a time, and then went to Denver, Colo., where he organized the Western Book and Stationery Company to sell books in the western states. In 1893 he moved to Chicago,

Lugones, Leopoldo

2005-02-03T04:48:00.000-08:00

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

Sun Ra

2005-02-02T01:47:00.000-08:00

Sun Ra, who claimed to have been born on the planet Saturn, grew up in Birmingham, studied piano under noted teacher Fess Wheatley, and attended Alabama Agricultural

Sa'adia Ben Joseph

2005-02-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

Sa'adia's opus magnum was on exegesis. He prepared

Proper Motion

2005-02-01T16:33:00.000-08:00

In astronomy, the apparent motion of a star across the celestial sphere at right angles to the observer's line of sight; any radial motion (toward or away from the Sun) is not included. Proper motion is generally measured in seconds of arc per year; the largest known is that of Barnard's star in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 10² yearly. The English astronomer Edmond