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Robert Irving Burns Property Consultants

2006-11-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

Robert Irving Burns has been established for over 40 years and is an independent partnership, who specialise in a full range of property services. These include commercial property
and commercial offices as well as property to let london. Whilst my business partner and I were looking for Offices, we found Rib’s expertise invaluable.

Bottom Water

2005-04-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Dense, lowermost layer of ocean water that can be distinguished clearly from overlying waters by its characteristic temperature, salinity, and oxygen content. Most bottom waters of the South Pacific, southern Indian Ocean, South Atlantic, and portions of the North Atlantic are formed near Antarctica during the southern winter. The partial freezing of seawater

Ashur-uballit I

2005-04-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

(reigned c. 1365–30 BC), king of Assyria during Mesopotamia's feudal age, who created the first Assyrian empire and initiated the Middle Assyrian period (14th to 12th century BC). With the help of the Hittites he destroyed the dominion of the Aryan Mitanni (a non-Semitic people from upper Iran and Syria who had subjugated Assyria), ravaged Nineveh (near present Mosul, Iraq), and sent off the image

Sinn Féin

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

Political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Sinn Féin, organized in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, is a Nationalist party in Northern Ireland, representing Roman Catholics who want to achieve a united Ireland through whatever means are necessary, including violence. The party was led by Gerry Adams from 1983.

Smith, Robert

2005-03-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

Smith, brother of Samuel Smith, the military hero, grew up in Baltimore. He graduated in 1781 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), studied law, and became a prominent and prosperous Baltimore attorney. From 1793 to 1801 Smith was active in Maryland politics,

Bahonar, Mohammad Javad

2005-03-30T04:35:00.000-08:00

Bahonar studied in the Shi'ite holy city of Qom, where he was a student of noted cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and later taught religion at the University of Tehran. Bahonar was a vocal critic

Aridisol

2005-03-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

One of the 12 soil orders in the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. Aridisols are dry, desertlike soils that have low organic content and are sparsely vegetated by drought- or salt-tolerant plants. (Not included in this order are soils located in polar regions or high-elevation settings.) Dry climate and low humus content limit their arability without irrigation. Covering only about half

Moline

2005-03-28T10:29:00.000-08:00

City, Rock Island county, northwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies just above the upper rapids of the Mississippi River (there crossed by the Twin Bridges to Iowa). With East Moline, Rock Island, and Davenport (qq.v.), Iowa, it forms the Quad Cities. The site was laid out in 1843 by a milling firm. Its name is apparently from the French moulin (“mill”). John Deere, inventor of an improved steel plow,

Appalachian Orogenic Belt

2005-03-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

An old mountain range that extends for more than 3,000 km (1,860 miles) along the eastern margin of North America from Alabama in the southern United States to Newfoundland, Canada, in the north. The geosynclinal theory of mountain building was first worked out in the Appalachians by James Dana and James Hall in the late 19th century; today a plate tectonic theory is invoked. The earliest

Binary Form

2005-03-26T00:08:00.000-08:00

In music, the structural pattern of many songs and instrumental pieces, primarily from the 17th to the 19th century, characterized by two complementary, related sections of more or less equal duration that may be represented schematically as ab. In 18th-century compositions, including dance-inspired movements by J.S. Bach and keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, the

Ammannati, Bartolommeo

2005-03-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

Ammannati began his career as a sculptor, carving statues in various Italian cities in the 1530s and '40s. He trained first under Baccio Bandinelli and then under Jacopo Sansovino

Akimov, Nikolay Pavlovich

2005-03-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

Scenic designer and producer, known for the diversity of his bold experiments in stage design and dramatic interpretation—most especially for his cynical reinterpretation of Hamlet (1932), in which the king's ghost was represented as a fiction cunningly devised by Hamlet,

Melitopol

2005-03-22T23:34:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Melitopol ', city, Zaporozhye oblast (province), Ukraine, on the Molochnaya River. The settlement of Novo-Aleksandrovka grew up in the late 18th century, and in 1841 it became the city of Melitopol. The centre of a fruit-growing area, modern Melitopol has engineering plants and light industries. Pop. (1993 est.) 178,000.

Usulután

2005-03-22T07:04:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern El Salvador. It lies on the Pacific coastal plain at the southern foot of Usulután Volcano. The city's name, which is Indian, means “city of the ocelots.” Usulután is a commercial centre dealing in the grain, coffee, sugarcane, fruit, and hardwood lumber produced in the adjacent hinterland. The city has only small industrial developments. Pop. (1985 est.) 32,172.

David Ap Llywelyn

2005-03-20T14:52:00.000-08:00

His father, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, had made Gwynedd the centre of Welsh power, and his mother, Joan, was the illegitimate daughter of King John of England (ruled 1199–1216). Although Llywelyn designated David as his successor, his half brother Gruffudd opposed him. While the aged Llywelyn

Domino, Fats

2005-03-20T10:28:00.000-08:00

From a musical family, Domino received early training

Sarcoma

2005-03-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

Tumour of connective tissue (also called mesodermal, or mesenchymal, cells). This form of cancer is relatively rare in adults but is one of the more common malignancies among children; it often spreads to other tissues in the body. Sarcomas are generally divided into bone and soft-tissue tumours, the latter being much less common. Because mesenchymal cells form a variety

Wessel, Johan Herman

2005-03-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

From 1761 when he entered the University of Copenhagen until his death at 43, Wessel lived the bohemian life of a debt-ridden, perpetual student. He was one of the founders (1772) and the outstanding talent of the

Bredero, Gerbrand Adriaenszoon

2005-03-18T05:17:00.000-08:00

The conflict between Bredero's experiences of the medieval, full-blooded life of the backstreets of Amsterdam and the sophistication of the Renaissance intelligentsia was most evident in his earliest poetry, which is collected

Biblical Literature, Origen's Hexapla

2005-03-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

The multiplication of versions doubtless proved to be a source of increasing confusion in the 3rd century. This situation the Alexandrian theologian Origen, working at Caesarea between 230 and 240 CE, sought to remedy. In his Hexapla (“six-fold”) he presented, in parallel vertical columns, the Hebrew text, the same in Greek letters, and the versions of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint,

Coruña, La

2005-03-17T09:13:00.000-08:00

Province, in the autonomous community (region) of Galicia, northwestern Spain. It was formed in 1833 from part of the captaincy general and former kingdom of Galicia. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (west) and the Cantabrian Sea (north), it has the highest rainfall of any Spanish province. Its interior is crossed by the Galician mountains; the coastline, rocky and with deep indentations,

Edenderry

2005-03-16T00:36:00.000-08:00

Irish Éadan Doire market town, County Offaly, Ire., on the northern edge of the Bog of Allen. The town, including the Court House, was largely built by the marquesses of Downshire in the 18th and early 19th centuries. South of the town are the ruins of Peter Blundell's castle. There are many castles in the area, for Edenderry was located on the edge of the Pale, the medieval English enclave centred

Computers, ALGOL

2005-03-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

During the late 1950s a multitude of programming languages appeared. This proliferation

Reforming

2005-03-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, processing technique by which the molecular structure of a hydrocarbon is rearranged to alter its properties. The process is frequently applied to low-quality gasoline stocks to improve their combustion characteristics. Thermal reforming alters the properties of low-grade naphthas by converting the molecules into those of higher octane number

Tagaytay

2005-03-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

City, southwestern Luzon, Philippines. It is located on Tagaytay Ridge at about 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level, on the northern flank of Mount Taal. The city is a weekend retreat, popular for its cool climate and outstanding view to the south of Taal Lake, with an active volcano on an island. Market gardening for the Manila area to the north is a local activity. Inc. city, 1938. Pop. (1990 prelim.)

Weems, Mason Locke

2005-03-13T23:52:00.000-08:00

Weems was ordained in the Anglican church in 1784 and served as a pastor in Maryland

Wright, James C(laude), Jr.

2005-03-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

Wright was educated at Weatherford College and the University of Texas before serving in the Army Air Force during World War II. After the war he entered politics as a Democrat

Essex, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl Of, Viscount Hereford, Lord Ferrers, Lord Bourchier

2005-03-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Devereux and the grandson of Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, to whose

Literature, Yiddish

2005-03-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

Baym rand fun kholem (“At the Edge of a Dream”), by master of the short novella Tsvi Ayznman, was a family chronicle of tales and sketches that traced a life journey from Poland to the Soviet Union, with sojourns in the Czech lands, Italy, and Cyprus. After finally settling in Israel,

Carinus

2005-03-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

With the title of Caesar, he was sent by his father, the emperor Carus, to the army of the Rhine in 282. On his father's death in the summer of 283, Carinus became emperor in the West, his brother Numerian becoming emperor in the East. After a campaign on the Rhine, Carinus returned to Rome where,

Berber

2005-03-09T01:35:00.000-08:00

Any of the descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa. The Berbers are scattered in tribes across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt and tend to be concentrated in the mountain and desert regions of those countries. Smaller numbers of Berbers live in the northern portions of Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. They speak various languages belonging to

Cambridge

2005-03-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

City, regional municipality of Waterloo, southeastern Ontario, Can. It lies 55 miles (90 km) west-southwest of Toronto. Cambridge was created in 1973 from the consolidation of the city of Galt, the towns of Hespeler and Preston, and parts of the townships of Waterloo and North Dumfries. Galt was founded about 1817 and, along with Dumfries Township, became the home of large numbers of Scottish

Zárate

2005-03-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

City, northeastern Buenos Aires province, Argentina, on the Río Paraná de las Palmas, a channel of the lower Paraná delta emptying into the Río de la Plata northwest of Buenos Aires. Founded in 1825 as Rincón de Zárate, the settlement was given city status in 1909. From 1932 to 1946 it was known as General Uriburu. Although wheat, alfalfa, flax, and potatoes are cultivated and livestock are

Scandinavian Literature, Emergence of Realism and Poetic Realism

2005-03-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

Realism made only slow headway in spite of the example of the Finno-Swedish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (see below). Literature of the 1840s and 1850s was mainly an aftermath of Romanticism. A movement known as Scandinavism produced a good deal of verse: Carl Vilhelm August Strandberg (pseudonym “Talis Qualis”), fieriest poet of this type, later made excellent translations from

Kuba Carpet

2005-03-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Any of several types of antique floor coverings of the Caucasus, many of which are of considerable length, but narrow. Rather than the town of Kuba (now Quba, Azerbaijan), which was founded about 1750 in Dagestan, the original source was probably the districts of Karabakh and Shirvan in Southern Caucasia, where rug workshops were operated under the sponsorship of the Iranian

Delibes, (clément-philibert-)léo

2005-03-05T04:35:00.000-08:00

French opera and ballet composer who was the first to write music of high quality for the ballet. His pioneering symphonic work for the ballet opened up a field for serious composers, and his influence can be traced in the work of Tchaikovsky and others who wrote for the dance. His own music—light, graceful, elegant, with a tendency

Schechter, Solomon

2005-03-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

Schechter studied the Talmud, the authoritative rabbinical compendium of Jewish law, lore, and commentary, in Vienna, Berlin, and London. In 1890 he became lecturer in Talmudic

Metabolic Disease, Tissue lipid disorders

2005-03-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

Complex molecules composed of long-chain fatty acids linked with various sugars, phosphate, and sulfate groups form essential components of cell membranes and are vital to the normal functioning of the nervous system. These molecules are degraded and resynthesized in the normal course of tissue turnover. Defects in the enzymes that regulate this process cause

Switzerland, Dry areas

2005-03-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

In the mountains of the interior, distinct dry pockets occur, the best-known being the Rhône valley in the Valais, closely encircled by the highest (13,000 feet) mountain groups. Though precipitation is slight on the slopes near the cantonal capital of Sion (at 1,581 feet), extensive irrigation is possible since the valley is surrounded by large snowfields and by glaciers that extend

Sensory Reception, Human, Approaches to the study of sensing

2005-03-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

The science of the human senses is truly interdisciplinary. Philosophers, physicians, anatomists, physical scientists, physiologists, psychologists, and others have all joined in studying sensory activities. Some of their earliest work was anatomical, an approach that continues to be fruitful. Physical scientists, particularly physicists and chemists, made

Medicine, China

2005-03-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

Health services in China since the Cultural Revolution have been characterized by decentralization and dependence on personnel chosen locally and trained for short periods. Emphasis is given to selfless motivation, self-reliance, and to the involvement of everyone in the community. Campaigns stressing the importance of preventive measures and their implementation

Apple Computer, Inc.

2005-02-28T19:10:00.000-08:00

American manufacturer of personal computers, computer peripherals, and computer software. It was the first successful personal computer company and the popularizer of the graphical user interface. Headquarters are located in Cupertino, California.

Arecibo

2005-02-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

Town, northern Puerto Rico. It lies on a small inlet near the mouth of the Arecibo River. One of the oldest municipalities in the commonwealth, it was authorized in 1537 by the Spanish crown and settled in 1556. In 1616 it was chartered as a town and in 1778 received the royal title villa. An official U.S. port of entry, the town has Puerto Rico's largest rum distilleries and produces agricultural

Averroës

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

Medieval Latin Averrhoës , also called Ibn Rushd , Arabic in full Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd influential Islamic religious philosopher who integrated Islamic traditions with ancient Greek thought. At the request of the Almohad caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, he produced a series of summaries and commentaries on most of Aristotle's works (1169–95) and on Plato's Republic, which exerted considerable influence in

Okawa, Isao

2005-02-25T23:32:00.000-08:00

Japanese businessman (b. 1926, Osaka, Japan—d. March 16, 2001, Tokyo, Japan), was chairman of the Sega Corp. from 1984 until his death. Okawa was involved with a number of Japanese technology companies. He founded CSK Corp., a computer services company that was Sega's largest shareholder, and served on the boards of several other companies, including the ASCII Corp. and Bellsystem 24, Inc. As chairman

Kahn, Herman

2005-02-25T04:52:00.000-08:00

Kahn graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1945. Over the next three years he worked for several aircraft-manufacturing companies and completed his master's degree at the California Institute of Technology.

Nicephorus Ii Phocas

2005-02-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

Byzantine emperor (963–969), whose military achievements against the Muslim Arabs contributed to the resurgence of Byzantine power in the 10th century.

Mecca, Public utilities

2005-02-23T05:16:00.000-08:00

Mecca depends upon the surrounding wadis for drinking water. The waters of 'Ayn Zubaydah (Zubaydah Spring), built in the 8th century, flow through tunnels from Wadi Nu'man, about 20 miles to the southwest. 'Ayn al-'Aziziyah sends its waters through pipelines from Wadi ash-Shamiyah, about 60 miles to the northeast. Water and electricity have reached almost all houses. Electricity is generated

Cheese

2005-02-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

Nutritious food consisting primarily of the curd, the semisolid substance formed when milk curdles, or coagulates. Curdling occurs naturally if milk is not used promptly: it sours, forming an acid curd, which releases whey, a watery fluid containing the soluble constituents; and it leaves semisolid curd, or fresh cheese. In some areas, cheese is still made simply by

Welded Tuff

2005-02-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

Rock composed of compacted volcanic ejecta (see tuff).

France, History Of, Philip Augustus

2005-02-20T17:42:00.000-08:00

Philip's outstanding achievement was to wrest control from the Plantagenets of most of the domains they held in France. Intervening in struggles between Henry II of England and his sons, Philip won preliminary concessions in 1187 and 1189. He acquired strategic lands on the Norman borders following wars with Henry's sons, King Richard and King John (1196 and 1200). And when, in 1202, John failed

Furniture, Early Middle Ages

2005-02-20T16:58:00.000-08:00

With the collapse of the Roman Empire during the 4th–5th centuries, Europe sank into a period in which little furniture, except the most basic, was used: chairs, stools, benches, and primitive chests were the most common items. Several centuries were to pass before the invading Teutonic peoples evolved forms of furniture that approached the Roman standard of domestic

Syriac Language

2005-02-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

Semitic language belonging to the Northern Central, or Northwestern, group; it was an important Christian literary and liturgical language from the 3rd through the 7th century AD. Syriac was based on the East Aramaic dialect of Edessa, Osroëne (present-day Sanliurfa, in southeastern Turkey), which became one of the chief centres of Christianity in the Middle East at the end

Heterotrich

2005-02-18T01:44:00.000-08:00

Any member of the ciliated protozoan order Heterotrichida. Complete ciliation is typical, although there is a tendency toward loss of the cilia, which are minute, hairlike processes, in several families (Peritromidae, Licnophoridae). Heterotrichs are considered the most primitive of the subclass Spirotrichia because of their uniform ciliation.

Cheliff, Ech-

2005-02-17T04:13:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1981) El-Asnam, or (until 1964) Orléansville, town, northern Algeria. It lies along the Chelif River, south of the Mediterranean port of Ténès. It was founded by the French in 1843 on the site of the ancient Roman settlement of Castellum Tingitanum and is now an important rail junction midway between Algiers and Oran, as well as an agricultural trade centre. In the surrounding region wheat and barley are the main crops,

Oman

2005-02-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Officially Sultanate of Oman, Arabic Saltanat 'Uman country occupying the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bounded to the southwest by Yemen, to the south and east by the Arabian Sea, to the north by the Gulf of Oman, to the northwest by the United Arab Emirates, and to the west by Saudi Arabia. A small enclave, the Ru'us Al-Jibal (“the Mountaintops”), occupies the northern tip of the Musandam Peninsula at the Strait

Syrian Chant

2005-02-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

Generic term for the vocal music of the various Syrian Christian churches, including Eastern Orthodox churches such as the Jacobites and Nestorians, and the Eastern churches in union with Rome—e.g., the Maronites (mostly in Lebanon) and the Chaldeans, who are dissidents from the Nestorians. To these should be added some branches of nearly all of these groupings in the

Levitation

2005-02-15T19:12:00.000-08:00

Rising of a human body off the ground, in apparent defiance of the law of gravity. The term designates such alleged occurrences in the lives of saints and of spiritualist mediums, generally during a séance; levitation of furniture and other objects during a séance has also been reported. Levitation of witches and other figures of folklore is called transvection

Van Buren, Hannah

2005-02-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

Little is known about Hannah, who died of tuberculosis about a month before her 36th birthday. She did not leave writing of her own, and Martin, who never remarried, did not mention even her name in the autobiography he wrote late in life. Their sons were all bachelors when Martin became president in 1837. The following year Abraham married Angelica Singleton, who served as White House hostess until Martin's term ended in 1841.

Anckarsvärd, Carl Henrik, Greve(count)

2005-02-15T04:00:00.000-08:00

Unlike many other “men of 1809,” Anckarsvärd did not retreat from his liberal principles when a democratization of society became a practical possibility.

Earthenware

2005-02-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

Pottery that has not been fired to the point of vitrification and is thus slightly porous and coarser than stoneware and porcelain. The body can be covered completely or decorated with slip (a liquid clay mixture applied before firing) or it can be glazed. For both practical and decorative reasons, earthenware is usually glazed. To overcome its porosity

Pole Vault

2005-02-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Sport in track-and-field athletics in which an athlete jumps over an obstacle with the aid of a pole. Originally a practical means of clearing objects, such as ditches, brooks, and fences, pole-vaulting for height became a competitive sport in the mid-19th century. An Olympic event for men since the first modern Games in 1896, a pole-vault event for women was added for the 2000 Olympics

ávila Camacho, Manuel

2005-02-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

Ávila Camacho joined the army of Venustiano Carranza in 1914 and rose rapidly through the ranks. A skilled organizer and administrator,

Wyspianski, Stanislaw

2005-02-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

Wyspianski's early education included classical literature and fine arts. In 1890 he received a grant enabling him

Frederick

2005-02-10T11:42:00.000-08:00

County, northern Maryland, U.S., bounded by Pennsylvania to the north, the Monocacy River to the northeast, Virginia to the southwest (the Potomac River constituting the border), and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west. It consists of a piedmont region bisected north-south by the valley of the Monocacy. Parklands include Cunningham Falls State Park and Catoctin Mountain

Sashimi

2005-02-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

Specialty of Japanese cuisine, fresh fish served raw. The fish, which must be utterly fresh, is sliced paper thin or alternately one-quarter to one-half inch (0.75–1.5 centimetres) thick, cubed, or cut in strips, according to the nature of the fish. The sashimi is accompanied by wasabi (green horseradish paste) and soy sauce. Sashimi is always part of a formal Japanese meal, served early

Wu Hou

2005-02-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Wu Hou entered the palace of the T'ang emperor T'ai Tsung as a junior concubine, at the age of 13, in 638. By that time, the T'ang dynasty had recently reunited China, largely through the efforts of the

Middle Passage

2005-02-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

In the days of the African slave trade to the New World, the middle part of the slave's journey—i.e., the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. From about 1518 to the mid-19th century, millions of African men, women, and children made the 21-to-90-day voyage aboard grossly overcrowded sailing ships manned by crews mostly from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and France. Slaver captains

Arabian Desert

2005-02-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

Descriptive surveys of the Arabian Desert include Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands (1959, reprinted 1991), a modern classic; Colbert C. Held, Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and Politics, 2nd ed. (1994), with a general geography of Southwest Asia; and accounts of important travels in the region, such as Charles M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, new and definitive ed., 2 vol. in 1 (1936, reprinted in 2 vol. 1979); T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1935, reissued 1991); and H.St.J.B. Philby, The Empty Quarter: Being a Description of the Great South Desert of Arabia Known as Rub' al Khali (1933, reprinted 1986), and Arabian Highlands (1952, reprinted 1976). Two valuable works on the flora and fauna are Betty A. Lipscombe Vincett, Wild Flowers of Central Saudi Arabia (1977); and Abdul Mon'im S. Talhouk et al., The Wildlife of Arabia (1981). A.R. Al-Ansary, Qaryat al-Fau: A Portrait of Pre-Islamic Civilisation in Saudi Arabia (1982), discusses early patterns of settlement in the desert. Norman Anderson et al., The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 9th ed. (1993), contains a number of useful studies. H.R.P. Dickson, The Arab of the Desert, 3rd ed., rev. and abridged, ed. by Robert Wilson and Zahra Freeth (1983), discusses Bedouin culture and custom prior to 1940. The impact of modernization on the peoples of the desert areas is addressed by Donald Powell Cole, Nomads of the Nomads: The Al Murrah Bedouin of the Empty Quarter (1975); Motoko Katakura, Bedouin Village: A Study of a Saudi Arabian People in Transition (1977); and Soraya Altorki and Donald P. Cole, Arabian Oasis City: The Transformation of 'Unayzah (1989). Useful sources on the geological evolution of Arabia include Ian Davison et al., “Geological Evolution of the Southeastern Red Sea Rift Margin, Republic of Yemen,” Geological Society of America Bulletin, 106:1474–1493 (November 1994); and Martin J. Whitehouse et al., “Crustal Evolution and Terrane Correlation in the Eastern Arabian Shield, Yemen: Geochronological Constraints,” Journal of the Geological Society, London, 155:281–295, (1998).

Malang

2005-02-07T05:56:00.000-08:00

Kotamadya (municipality) and kabupaten (regency), Jawa Timur provinsi (“province”), Indonesia. Malang regency has an area of 3,391 square miles (8,782 square km). It is principally agricultural and known for its production of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Malang is located on a plateau between Mount Kawi (8,697 feet [2,651 m]) and the Tengger Mountains, and the city enjoys a comfortable climate. The

France, History Of, The people

2005-02-07T00:02:00.000-08:00

Gaul was predominantly a Celtic land (see below), but it also contained pre-Celtic Ligurians and Iberians in the south and southwest and more recent Germanic immigrants in the northeast. Neighbouring Celtic communities on the Danube and in northern Italy, however, were not included. The south, in addition, had been heavily influenced by the Greek colony of Massilia

Cambrai

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

Town, Nord département, Nord-Pas-de-Calais région, northern France. It lies along the Escaut River, south of Roubaix. The town was called Camaracum under the Romans, and its bishops were made counts by the German king Henry I in the 10th century. Cambrai was long a bone of contention among its neighbours—the counties of Flanders and Hainaut, the kingdom of France, and the Holy

Ammonoid

2005-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

Any of a group of extinct cephalopods (of the phylum Mollusca), forms related to the modern pearly nautilus, that are frequently found as fossils in marine rocks of the Devonian to the Cretaceous periods (408 to 66.4 million years ago). The ammonoids were shelled forms, many predacious in habit. Ammonoid shells, which are either straight or coiled, served as protective and supportive

Italy, The age of the Hohenstaufen

2005-02-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

The 12th century witnessed the creation of a new political order in Italy. It was not a tidy process, however. In the south, the foundations laid by the Normans of Capua and by the Hautevilles gained strength with the conquest of Sicily from the Muslims in the late 11th century. Following the death of Robert Guiscard, his brother, Roger I, count of Sicily, went to the mainland

Mystery Story

2005-02-04T03:21:00.000-08:00

Ages-old popular genre of tales dealing with the unknown; it may be a narrative of horror and terror, a pseudoscientific fantasy, a crime-solving story, an account of diplomatic intrigue, an affair of codes and ciphers and secret societies, or any situation involving an enigma. By and large, mystery stories may be divided into two sorts: tales of the supernatural and riddle

Sunflower

2005-02-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

Plant of the genus Helianthus of the family Asteraceae, native primarily to North and South America. The common sunflower is an annual herb with a rough hairy stem 1–4.5 m (3–15 feet) high, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves 7.5–30 cm (3–12 inches) long, and heads of flowers 7.5–15 cm wide in wild specimens and often 0.3 m or more in cultivated types. The disk flowers are brown, yellow,

Philopoemen

2005-02-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

He was trained to a career of arms by the Academic philosophers Ecdelus and Demophanes. After spending some 10 years as a mercenary leader in Crete, he returned to Achaea and was elected federal cavalry commander for 210/209, when his reorganized

Union Pacific Railroad Company

2005-02-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

The Union Pacific was largely financed

Denham, Sir James Steuart, 4th Baronet

2005-02-01T20:28:00.000-08:00

Denham was educated at the University of Edinburgh (1724–25). In the course of continental travels following his qualification as a lawyer (1735), he became embroiled in the Jacobite cause. His involvement in the 1745 rebellion of the Stuart pretender to the throne

Smith College

2005-02-01T04:11:00.000-08:00

Liberal arts college for women in Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S. One of the Seven Sisters schools, it is among the largest privately endowed colleges for women in the United States. Bachelor's degrees are granted in 29 departmental and 8 interdepartmental programs, and undergraduates are urged to study in seven fields of knowledge: literature, historical studies,

'aziz, Al-

2005-01-31T19:26:00.000-08:00

The first of the Fatimids to begin his reign in Egypt, where the caliphate was later centred, al-'Aziz succeeded his father, al-Mu'izz, in 975. He was ambitious to expand his domains at the expense of the Byzantine Empire and of the rival 'Abbasid caliphate, and for most of his reign he was involved

Amyl Nitrite

2005-01-30T15:57:00.000-08:00

Drug once commonly used in the treatment of angina pectoris, a condition characterized by chest pain precipitated by oxygen deficiency in the heart muscle. Amyl nitrite is one of the oldest vasodilators (i.e., agents that expand blood vessels). The drug is useful in treating cyanide poisoning. Amyl nitrite, a clear, pale yellow liquid with a penetrating odour, is administered

Jackson

2005-01-30T08:06:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1821) of Madison county, western Tennessee, U.S. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Memphis. The area was settled about 1819 as a port on the Forked Deer River and developed as a cotton depot and railroad junction. First called Alexandria, the community was renamed in 1822 to honour General (later President) Andrew Jackson. It was used as a supply point by both Confederate and

Submissive Behaviour

2005-01-29T22:13:00.000-08:00

Form of animal behaviour in which one individual attempts through appeasement displays to avoid injury by a dominant member of its own species. Appeasement displays are commonly found in species that are well armed (e.g., carnivores) and social. The displays, even when performed by adult males, commonly incorporate elements of infantile behaviour (e.g., in wolves, rolling

Utilitarianism

2005-01-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

In normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness—not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it. Such a theory

Augustus, Caesar

2005-01-27T21:38:00.000-08:00

Remembering, however, that Caesar had been assassinated because of his resort to naked power, Octavian realized that the governing class would welcome him as the terminator of civil war only if he concealed his autocracy beneath provisions avowedly harking back to republican traditions. From 31 until 23 BC the constitutional basis of his power remained a continuous

Sibasa

2005-01-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

Village, Northern province, South Africa. It was once the capital of the nonindependent black state of Venda. A station was established there in 1872 by Carl Beuster of the Berlin Mission. The village is an industrial growth centre just northeast of Thohoyandou and about 4 miles (7 km) north of the Luvuvhu River. Located at an elevation of 2,428 feet (740 m) and named after a Venda chief, Tshivhase,

Dependent States

2005-01-26T17:38:00.000-08:00

French Polynesia Pres. Gaston Flosse continued to pursue constitutional changes that would increase French Polynesia's autonomy while retaining its connection to France. In October agreement was reached on France's financial assistance to the territory, with the provision of €150 million (about $155.6 million) for 2003. The new Economic Restructuring Fund replaced grants

Icaza, Jorge

2005-01-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

Icaza started writing for the theatre, but when he was censured for a 1933 dramatic script, El dictador, he turned his attention, and his indignation,

Giovanni Da Pian Del Carpini

2005-01-25T02:38:00.000-08:00

Giovanni was a contemporary and disciple of St. Francis of Assisi. By 1220 he

Human Embryology, Amnion

2005-01-23T11:18:00.000-08:00

A cleft separates the outermost cells of the inner cell mass of the blastocyst from the remainder, which then becomes the embryonic disk (Figure 1G). The split-off, thin upper layer is the amnion, which remains attached to the periphery of the embryonic disk. As the disk folds into a cylindrical embryo, the amniotic margin follows the underfolding,

Stadholder

2005-01-23T03:30:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Stadtholder, Dutch Stadhouder, provincial executive officer in the Low Countries, or Netherlands, from the 15th through the 18th century. The office acquired extensive powers in the United Provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch Republic). Introduced by the ruling Burgundian dukes in the 15th century and continued unchanged by the succeeding Habsburg rulers, the stadholderates were at first occupied

Ukraine

2005-01-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

Ukrainian Ukrayina country located in eastern Europe, after Russia the second largest on the continent. It is bordered by Belarus on the north, Russia on the east, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea on the south, Moldova and Romania on the southwest, and Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland on the west; in the far southeast, Ukraine is separated from Russia by the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of

Japanese Red Army

2005-01-21T02:44:00.000-08:00

In full United Red Army Japanese Rengo Sekigun militant Japanese organization that was formed in 1969 in the merger of two far-left factions. Beginning in 1970, the Red Army undertook several major terrorist operations, including the hijacking of several Japan Air Lines airplanes, a massacre at Tel Aviv's Lod Airport (1972), and the seizure and occupation of embassies in various countries. In 1971–72 the organization underwent severe

Caruaru

2005-01-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

City, eastern Pernambuco estado (“state”), northeastern Brazil, on the Ipojuca River at 1,804 feet (550 m) above sea level. Caruaru originated as a weekly market centre; it was elevated to city status in 1857. Agriculture, livestock, and food processing are the principal sources of income, and there is some light manufacturing. The city has many fairs and religious festivals. It is accessible

Dewberry

2005-01-20T09:11:00.000-08:00

Any blackberry of the genus Rubus (family Rosaceae) so lacking woody fibre in the stems that it trails along the ground. In the eastern and southern United States, several trailing native species of Rubus, especially R. flagellaris, R. baileyanus, R. hispidus, R. enslenii, and R. trivialis, produce excellent fruits. Some varieties, especially Lucretia, are cultivated. See

Mughal Carpet

2005-01-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Mogul, any of the handwoven floor coverings made in India in the 16th and 17th centuries for the Mughal emperors and their courts. Aside from patterns in the Persian manner, a series of distinctively Indian designs were developed, including scenic and landscape carpets; animal carpets with spirited chases backward and forward across the field; elaborate architectural latticeworks

Teach, Edward

2005-01-18T04:19:00.000-08:00

Thought to have been active as a privateer for the British during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–13), Teach was first heard of as a pirate late in 1716. The following year he converted a

Rawalpindi

2005-01-17T15:23:00.000-08:00

Rawalpindi (“Village of Rawals”) occupies the site of an old village inhabited by the Rawals, a group of yogis (ascetics). Certain ruins on the site are identified with the ancient city Gajipur, or Gajnipur,

East Falkland

2005-01-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

One of the two major islands of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is 90 miles (140 km) long and 55 miles (88 km) wide and rises to Mount Usborne (2,312 feet [705 m]). The total area is 2,550 square miles (6,605 square km), excluding adjacent small islands. The town of Stanley is on the northeast shore. Pop. (1986) 1,620.