Thursday, September 30, 2004

Biblical Literature, The Armenian version

The Armenian version is an expression of a nationalist movement that brought about a separation from the rest of the Church (mid-5th century), the discontinuance of Syriac in Greek worship, and the invention of a national alphabet by St. Mesrob, also called Mashtots (c. 361 - 439/440). According to tradition, St. Mesrob first translated Proverbs from the Syriac. Existing manuscripts

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

F-16

Also called �Fighting Falcon, � single-seat, single-engine jet fighter built by the General Dynamics Corporation (now part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation) for the United States and more than a dozen other countries. The F-16 originated in an order placed in 1972 for a lightweight, cost-effective air-to-air fighter; current models are also all-weather capable, and it is effective for ground attack as well.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Arochukwu

Also spelled �Arochuku, � town, Abia state, southern Nigeria. It lies along the road from Calabar to Umuahia. Arochukwu was the headquarters of the Aro, an Igbo (Ibo) subgroup that dominated southeastern Nigeria in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was the seat of the sacred Chuku shrine, the source of a much-feared oracle (called Long Juju by the Europeans) that acted as a judge for the Igbo supreme deity

Monday, September 27, 2004

Hawkins, Sir Richard

The only son of the famed seaman Sir John Hawkins by his first marriage, Richard Hawkins in 1582 sailed with his uncle William to the West Indies; in 1585 he commanded a ship on Sir

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Adamawa-ubangi Languages

Formerly �Adamawa-Eastern languages� branch of the Niger-Congo language family consisting of 120 languages spoken by approximately 12 million people in an area that stretches from northeastern Nigeria across northern Cameroon, southern Chad, the Central African Republic, and northern Congo (Kinshasa) into southwestern Sudan. Recent lexicostatistical studies have shown that Adamawa-Ubangi languages

Saturday, September 25, 2004

Interlingua

Also called �Latino Sine Flexione, � simplified form of Latin intended for use as an international second language. Interlingua was originally developed in 1903 by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano, but lack of clarity as to what parts of Latin were to be retained and what were to be discarded led to numerous �dialects� of Interlingua, confusion, and its dying out among enthusiasts. In the late 1940s and

Friday, September 24, 2004

Mosaic

In botany, plant disease caused by various strains of several hundred viruses. Symptoms are variable but commonly include irregular leaf mottling (light and dark green or yellow patches or streaks). Leaves are commonly stunted, curled, or puckered; veins may be lighter than normal or banded with dark green or yellow. Plants are often dwarfed, with fruit and flowers

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Idealism, Basic arguments

Idealists delight in arguments. They agree with Socrates and Plato in thinking that every philosopher should follow the argument wherever it leads, and, like them, they believe that it will eventually lead to some type of Idealism. Four basic arguments found in the literature of Idealism may be briefly summarized.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Wolin

Island off the northwestern coast of Poland, in Szczecin wojew�dztwo (province). It is surrounded by the Baltic Sea on the north, the Dziwna River on the east, the Szczecinski Lagoon on the south, and the Swina River on the west. Its area is 95 square miles (245 square km). The main towns are Wolin in the south and Miedzyzdroje in the north. The central area contains the Wolin National

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Dinosaur, The asteroid theory

The discovery of an abnormally high concentration of the rare metal iridium at, or very close to, the K - T boundary provides what has been recognized as one of those rare instantaneous geologic time markers that seem to be worldwide. This iridium anomaly, or spike, was first found by Walter Alvarez in the Cretaceous - Tertiary stratigraphic sequence at Gubbio, Italy,

Monday, September 20, 2004

Andersen Nex�, Martin

Nex� came from an extremely poor family in the slums of Copenhagen but spent most of his childhood on the island of Bornholm, where he worked as a shepherd

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Hirah, Al-

(from Syriac hirta, �camp�), English Hira, ancient city located south of al-Kufah in south-central Iraq; it was prominent in pre-Islamic Arab history. The town was originally a military encampment, but in the 5th and 6th centuries AD it was the capital of the Lakhmids, who were Arab vassals of Sasanian Persia (Iran). As such it was a centre of diplomatic, political, and military activities

Saturday, September 18, 2004

La Oroya

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

Friday, September 17, 2004

Rushcliffe

Borough (district), administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, central England, immediately southeast of the city of Nottingham. Rushcliffe is a rural agricultural area of open, rolling uplands (wolds) and flat plains. The wolds in the south rise to 200 - 300 feet (60 - 90 metres) in elevation and are an extension of higher areas in the adjacent county of Leicestershire.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Kagamigahara

City, Gifu ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, east of Gifu city. Upon the Meiji Restoration in 1868, an army base was established in the city. It was taken over by the U.S. Army after World War II and is now used by the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force. The city contains aircraft and transport equipment factories and textile mills. It is included in the Chukyo Industrial Region. Pop. (1989 est.)

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Berber

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

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Smith, George

English Assyriologist who advanced knowledge of the earliest (Sumerian) period of Mesopotamian civilization with his discovery of one of the most important literary works in Akkadian, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Moreover, its description of a flood, strikingly similar to the account in Genesis, had a stunning effect on Smith's

Monday, September 13, 2004

Great Barrington

Town (township), Berkshire county, southwestern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Housatonic River, in the Berkshire Hills, 19 miles (31 km) south of Pittsfield, and includes the communities of Great Barrington and Housatonic. Settled in 1726, the site was set off from Sheffield and incorporated in 1761. It was probably named for the 2nd Viscount Barrington, a nephew of the Massachusetts

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Silicosis

A chronic disease of the lungs that is caused by the inhalation of silica dust over long periods of time. (Silica is the chief mineral constituent of sand and of many kinds of rock.) Silicosis is a form of pneumoconiosis. The disease occurs most commonly in miners, quarry workers, stonecutters, tunnelers, and workers whose jobs involve grinding, sandblasting, polishing,

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Dew

Deposit of waterdrops formed at night by the condensation of water vapour from the air onto the surfaces of objects freely exposed to the sky (see video). It forms on clear nights when the air is calm or, preferably, when the wind is light. If the temperature of the surface is below the freezing point of water, the deposit takes the shape of hoarfrost (see frost). Dew forms on

Friday, September 10, 2004

China, Waterways

The high cost of construction prevents railways from being built extensively, and rail transport conditions are often congested. Freight volume carried by highways is limited, and highways are not suitable for moving bulky goods. China's water transport potential is great, but it is still far from being fully developed. Nonetheless, there are more than 68,000 miles of

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Gastronomy, Japanese

Traditionally the Japanese bride received as many as 50 different kinds of dishes as wedding gifts, and she might use a dozen at one meal. She would

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Yersin, Alexandre

Yersin studied medicine at the universities of Marburg and Paris and bacteriology with �mile Roux in Paris and Robert Koch in Berlin. In 1888 he and

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Pole Vault

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

Monday, September 06, 2004

Indiana

Indiana

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Abakaliki

Town, Enugu state, southeastern Nigeria. It lies at the intersection of roads from Enugu, Afikpo, and Ogoja. An agricultural trade centre (yams, cassava, rice, and palm oil and kernels) for the Igbo (Ibo) people, the town is located in an area known for its lead, zinc, and limestone deposits. Lead has been mined since precolonial times, and limestone is quarried for a cement plant

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Oder River

Polish and Czech �Odra, � river of east-central Europe. It is one of the most significant rivers in the catchment basin of the Baltic Sea, second only to the Vistula in discharge and length. For the first 70 miles (112 kilometres) from its source, it passes through the Czech Republic. For a distance of 116 miles in its middle reach, it constitutes the boundary between Poland and Germany before reaching the

Friday, September 03, 2004

Arts, Central Asian

This immense

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Ilbert Bill

In the history of India, a controversial measure proposed in 1883 that sought to allow senior Indian magistrates to preside over cases involving British subjects in India. The bill, severely weakened by compromise, was enacted by the Indian Legislative Council on Jan. 25, 1884. The bitter controversy surrounding the measure deepened antagonism between British and Indians