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Fucus

2005-11-17T15:10:00.000-08:00

Also called Rockweed, genus of brown algae, common on rocky seacoasts and in salt marshes of northern temperate regions. Adaptations to its environment include bladderlike floats (pneumatocysts), disk-shaped holdfasts for clinging to rocks, and mucilage-covered blades for resisting desiccation and temperature changes. The plant is between 25 and 30 centimetres (9.8 to 11.8 inches)

Quantum Number

2005-10-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

The principal quantum number for electrons confined

Mauldin, Bill

2005-07-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

After studying cartooning at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts,

Lustred Glass

2005-07-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Art glass in the Art Nouveau style. It is a delicately iridescent glass with rich colours. Lustred glass was first produced in the United States by Louis Comfort Tiffany during the late 1800s for use as windowpanes. The intention of the inventor of Tiffany lustred glass, Arthur J. Nash, was to recreate artificially the natural iridescent sheen produced by the corrosion

Feldkirch

2005-07-24T03:20:00.000-07:00

Town, Bundesland (federal province) Vorarlberg, western Austria. It lies along the Ill River, near the Liechtenstein border, about 48 miles (77 km) east-southeast of Zürich, Switzerland. First mentioned as Veldkirichae (Veldkirichum) in 830, the settlement belonged to the counts of Montfort from 1190 until it was sold to Austria in 1375. It was chartered in 1218. Schattenburg castle, the Montforts'

Argentina, Mesopotamia

2005-07-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

East of the Gran Chaco, in a narrow depression 60 to 180 miles (100 to 300 km) wide, lies Mesopotamia, which is bordered to the north by the highlands of southern Brazil. The narrow lowland stretches for 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southward, finally merging with the Pampas south of the Río de la Plata. Its designation as Mesopotamia (Greek: “Between the Rivers”) reflects the fact that its western and eastern

Biblical Literature, Textual ambiguities

2005-07-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

The writing called the Letter to the Hebrews, which was known and accepted in the Eastern church by the 2nd century, was included also by the Western church as the 14th Pauline epistle when the canon of East and West was assimilated and fixed in 367. Hebrews has no salutation giving the name of either the writer or the addressees, although it does have a doxology and greeting

Anthony Melissa

2005-06-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Anthony, whose surname is derived from the title of his chief work, Melissa (Greek: “The Bee”), compiled an anthology based largely on two leading

Rand, Ayn

2005-06-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

Rand graduated from the University of Petrograd in 1924 and two years later immigrated to the United States. She initially worked as a screenwriter

Aerospace Industry, Spacecraft

2005-06-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

Unmanned spacecraft are called satellites when they operate in Earth orbit and space probes when launched on a trajectory away from the Earth toward other bodies or into deep space. Whereas probes are designed for scientific missions, satellites have a wide variety of civil and military applications such as weather observation, remote sensing, surveillance,

Aldrich, Robert

2005-06-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

Aldrich entered the motion-picture industry as a production clerk at RKO in 1941 and was made assistant director and production manager at Enterprise Studios in the late 1940s. After working with such directors as Jean

Cambrian Period, Boundaries and subdivisions

2005-05-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

The lower boundary of the Cambrian System is defined at a formal global stratotype section and point (GSSP), which was ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in 1992. The stratotype section is located at Fortune Head on the Burin Peninsula of southeastern Newfoundland in Canada. It contains a thick and continuous marine succession of mostly

Augrabies Falls

2005-05-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

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

Amir Khosrow

2005-05-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

Amir Khosrow was the son of a Turkish officer in the service of Iltutmish, sultan of Delhi, and for his entire life he enjoyed the patronage of the Muslim rulers of Delhi, especially Sultan Ghiyas-ud-Din Balban and his son Muhammad Khan of Multan. During his youth

Fribourg

2005-03-15T00:11:00.000-08:00

German �Freiburg, � canton, western Switzerland, bounded by Lake Neuch�tel and the cantons of Vaud on the west and south and Bern on the east, with enclaves within Vaud. Occupying an area of 644 sq mi (1,669 sq km), it lies in an elevated plain (Swiss Plateau) and rises from flat land in the west through a hilly region up to the PreAlps in the south and east. The highest summits are to the south in La Gruy�re

Conductus

2005-03-14T18:29:00.000-08:00

In the 13th century the conductus was one of three genres that dominated French polyphonic music. Unlike the organum and the motet, however, which were based on preexisting chants,

Pet Shop Boys, The

2005-03-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

Formed in London in 1981 by vocalist Tennant (then a writer for the music magazine Smash Hits) and keyboardist Lowe, the Pet Shop

Light Bulb

2005-03-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

Electric incandescent lamp based on a glowing metallic filament enclosed within a glass shell filled with an inert gas such as nitrogen. See incandescent lamp; lamp.

Saccopastore Skulls

2005-03-06T00:29:00.000-08:00

The strong development of the brow ridges (responsible for the so-called beetle-browed look) and the low, flat crown, large jaw, and

Cond�, Henri I De Bourbon, 2e Prince De (2nd Prince Of)

2005-03-05T20:31:00.000-08:00

His father's death left him and his cousin Henry of Navarre (the future Henry IV) as titular leaders of the Huguenots. After the Peace of Saint-Germain (1570) Cond� retired to B�arn and married

Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston

2005-03-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

Breckinridge graduated from Wellesley College in 1888. After a time as a schoolteacher in Washington, D.C., she studied law in her father's office and in 1895 became the first woman to be admitted to the Kentucky bar. Uninterested in legal practice, she

Singhasari

2005-03-03T03:45:00.000-08:00

Kingdom based in eastern Java that emerged in the first half of the 13th century after the decline of the kingdom of Kadiri. Singhasari's first king, Ken Angrok (or Ken Arok), defeated the king of Kadiri, Kertajaya, in 1222. The last king of Singhasari, Kertanagara (q.v.; 1268 - 92), was able to unite eastern Java temporarily. Toward the end of Kertanagara's reign, Kublai Khan, the great khan of the Mongols

Tarantella

2005-03-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

Couple folk dance of Italy characterized by light, quick steps and teasing, flirtatious behaviour between partners; women dancers frequently carry tambourines. The music is in lively 6/8 time. Tarantellas for two couples are also danced. The tarantella's origin is connected with tarantism, a disease or form of hysteria that appeared in Italy in the 15th to the 17th

Judaism, Sa'adia ben Joseph

2005-03-01T04:31:00.000-08:00

This belief in reason, as well as some of the tenets of Mu'tazilite theology, were taken over by Sa'adia ben Joseph, who was also influenced, either directly or through the intermediary of an Arabic philosopher, by the arguments of a Christian 6th-century philosopher, John Philoponus, against certain Aristotelian and Neoplatonic positions. Sa'adia's main theological

Subarkose

2005-02-28T07:09:00.000-08:00

Variety of sandstone in which 5 - 25 percent of the sand grains are composed of feldspar. See arkose.