Friday, December 31, 2004

Lop Buri

Also spelled �Lopburi, � town, south-central Thailand, north of Bangkok. Lop Buri is a rice-collecting centre situated on the Lop Buri River and on the country's main north-south highway and railway. Founded as Lavo in the 5th - 7th century, it was incorporated into the Khmer empire of Angkor in the 10th or 11th century and became an important provincial capital. It later became an active centre within

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Offa's Dyke

Great English earthwork extending linearly, with some gaps, from the River Severn near Chepstow to the seaward end of the Dee estuary, passing for 169 miles (270 kilometres) through the counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, Shropshire, Denbighshire, and Flintshire. It was built at the orders of Offa, the great Mercian king of the second

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Juan De Austria

Removed from his mother, a burgher's daughter, at an early age, he was

Monday, December 27, 2004

Qayen

The modern town is surrounded by

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Goodall, Jane

Goodall, who was interested in animal behaviour from an early age, left school at age 18. She worked as a secretary and as a film production assistant until she gained passage to Africa. Once there, Goodall

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Gioia Del Colle

Medieval monuments include a 12th-century castle and a fortified hunting lodge built for the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II. The town has an archaeological museum, and nearby is the site of a large city that flourished between the 6th and 4th

Friday, December 24, 2004

Jackson

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

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Lodi

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

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Jackson, Mahalia

Jackson was brought up in a strict religious atmosphere. Her father's family included several entertainers, but she was forced to confine her own musical activities to singing in the church choir and listening - surreptitiously - to recordings

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Insurance

International insurance is surveyed in Paul P. Rogers, Bruno Sch�nfelder, and Ehrenfried Sch�tte, Insurance in Socialist East Europe (1988); Bernard Wasow and Raymond D. Hill (eds.), The Insurance Industry in Economic Development (1986); Robert M. Crowe (ed.), Insurance in the World's Economies (1982); Michael E. Hogue and Douglas G. Olson (eds.), World Insurance Outlook (1982); Wenlee Ting, Multinational Risk Assessment and Management: Strategies for Investment and Marketing Decisions (1988); Werner Pfenningstorf and Donald G. Gifford, A Comparative Study of Liability Law and Compensation Schemes in Ten Countries and the United States (1991); and Norman A. Baglini, Global Risk Management: How U.S. International Corporations Manage Foreign Risks (1983).

Monday, December 20, 2004

Andean Geosyncline

A linear trough in the Earth's crust in which rocks of the Mesozoic Era (245 to 66.4 million years ago) and Cenozoic Era (66.4 years ago to the present) were deposited in South America. An intense orogenic (mountain-building) event affected the older sediments in the geosyncline in the Late Cretaceous Epoch (97.5 to 66.4 million years ago) and, combined with later deformational episodes, produced

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Cleveland

City, seat (1836) of Bradley county, southeastern Tennessee, U.S., about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Chattanooga. Established in 1836 following the agreement for the evacuation of the area by the Cherokee, the community was named for Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, a hero of the American Revolution. During the American Civil War, Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Mu'izz, Al-

He was about 22 years of age when he succeeded his father, al-Mansur, in 953 with the title of al-Mu'izz. His authority was acknowledged over the greater part of the region now comprising Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and he soon took the island

Friday, December 17, 2004

Janin

The original ancient settlement is mentioned in the Amarna Letters, a series of 14th-century-BC diplomatic documents

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Accentor

Accentors breed chiefly in mountains but winter at lower elevations. A widespread lowland species is

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Osborne, Thomas Mott

Osborne served two terms on the Auburn Board of Education and in 1903 was elected mayor of Auburn, serving one term. In 1913 he became chairman of the New York State Commission

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Carnivore

For general information on the biology of the carnivores, see E.P. Walker et al., Mammals of the World, 3 vol. (1964), in which each genus is described and illustrated, along with a brief summation of its biology. The taxonomy of carnivores is discussed in G.G. Simpson, �Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals,� Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 85 (1945), a classic work on classification, followed by most recent mammalogists; and H.J. Stains, �Carnivores and Pinnipeds,� in S. Anderson and J.K. Jones, Jr. (eds.), Recent Mammals of the World: A Synopsis of Families (1967). F.E. Beddard, Mammalia (1902, reprinted 1958), is a definitive early work on mammalian anatomy. The paleontology of the Carnivora is summarized in two works by A.S. Romer: Vertebrate Paleontology, 3rd ed. (1966), fundamental to an understanding of fossil forms, and Notes and Comments on Vertebrate Paleontology (1968), containing additional information not found in the general text. Books devoted to particular subgroups of the carnivores include A. Denis, Cats of the World (1964), an excellent summary of the status of all members of the Felidae; C.J. Harris, Otters (1968), a fine summary of the status of the otters around the world; H.E. Hinton and A.M.S. Dunn, Mongooses: Their Natural History and Behaviour (1967), which contains much interesting information that is difficult to find elsewhere, except in scattered literature; R.J. Harrison et al. (eds.), The Behavior and Physiology of Pinnipeds (1968), an excellent summation of knowledge on these aquatic carnivores; and V.B. Scheffer, Seals, Sea Lions, and Walruses: A Review of the Pinnipedia (1958), a major work on the taxonomy of the Pinnipedia.

Monday, December 13, 2004

Jackson, Jesse

Jesse adopted the name of his stepfather, Charles Jackson,

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Factory Ship

The present-day factory ship is an automated, greatly enlarged version of the

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Plisetskaya, Maya (mikhaylovna)

A niece of the dancers Asaf and Sulamith Messerer, Plisetskaya studied with Paul Gerdt's daughter Yelizaveta and with Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova and graduated from the Bolshoi

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Wildfowl Trust, The

Centre of the world's largest collection of waterfowl. It was established in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott on 418 acres (169 hectares) along the River Severn near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, Eng. Nearly a quarter of the land is fenced off for captive birds and breeding stock; the rest of the refuge is traditional wintering ground for many species of ducks and geese. In addition to accommodating

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Great Neck

Village, in the town (township) of North Hempstead, Nassau county, New York, U.S. It lies along the Great Neck cape and the north shore of Long Island in an area of summer estates. Settled about 1644, it is known as the �Old Village� and was incorporated in 1922. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once lived in Great Neck and used it and neighbouring towns as the setting for his novel The Great

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Animal Development, The epidermis and its outgrowths

The major part of the ectodermal epithelium covering the body gives rise to the epidermis of the skin. In fishes and aquatic larvae of amphibians, the many-layered epidermis is provided with unicellular mucous glands. In terrestrial vertebrates, however, the epidermis becomes keratinized; i.e., the outer layers of cells produce keratin, a protein that is hardened

Monday, December 06, 2004

Karachay-cherkessia

Also called �Karachayevo-cherkessiya, � republic, Stavropol kray (region), southwestern Russia. It extends south from the foreland plains across the northern ranges and deep intervening valleys and gorges of the Greater Caucasus range as far as the crestline, which reaches 13,274 feet (4,046 m) in Mount Dombay-Ulgen. Cherkessk is the administrative centre. The republic's scenery is spectacular, with densely forested

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Arts, Central Asian, Turkish literature

Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta, vol. 2 (1965), a collection of monographs on literatures of Turkish-speaking peoples - see Alessio Bombaci, �The Turkic Literatures: Notes on the History and Style�; also his Letteratura turca (1969), an important survey with several chapters on Central Asian Turkish literature; Janos Eckmann, Chagatay Manual (1966), mainly a grammar containing selections of Central Asian literary texts and a vocabulary; Talat Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (1968), an excellent introduction to the language and literature of the Central Asian Turks before Islam; Sir Gerard Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-13th Century Turkish (1972), and Turkish and Monogolian Studies (1962); and the Handbuch der Orientalistik, vol. 5, pt. 1 (1963), three important studies of the arts of the Central Asian peoples; E. Denison Ross, �The Tonyukuk Inscription,� Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies (London University), vol. 6 (1930), English translation of one of the oldest Turkish inscriptions. (Tibetan literature): J. Bacot, F.W. Thomas, and G.C. Toussaint, Documents de Touen-houang relatifs � l'histoire du Tibet, (1940); J. Bacot, Trois myst�res tib�tains (1921); W.Y. Evans Wentz (ed.), Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines (1935), The Tibetan Book of the Dead, 3rd ed. (1957), The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (1954), Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa, 2nd ed. (1951); H.V. Guenther, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation by sGam-po-pa (1959), and The Life and Teaching of Naropa (1963). E. Obermiller, History of Buddhism by Bu-ston (1931); G.N. Roerich, The Blue Annals of gZhon-nu-dpal (1949, 1953); D.S. Ruegg, The Life of Bu-ston Rin-po-che (1966); R.A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization (1972); G.C. Toussaint, Le Dict de Padma (1933); T.V. Wylie, The Geography of Tibet According to the 'Dzam-ling rgyas-bshad (1963). (Mongolian literature): Richard P. Lister, The Secret History of Genghis Khan (1969), a retelling of the ancient chronicle of Genghis' life and successors; Charles R. Bawden, The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobci (1955), a translation with notes of a major native historical work incorporating folk elements; The Mongolia Society, Mongolian Folktales, Stories, and Proverbs in English Translation (1967), a small collection of typical old tales; Ts. Zhamtsarano, The Mongol Chronicles of the Seventeenth Century, trans. by Rudolf Loewenthal (1955), a description of five major historical chronicles; Walther Heissig, �Mongolische Literature,� in Altaistik, vol. 5 of the Handbuch der Orientalistik, pt. 2, pp. 227 - 274 (1964), the best overall general sketch; Ludmilla K. Gerasimovich, History of Modern Mongolian Literature, 1921 - 1964 (1970; originally published in Russian), a careful survey of the modern decades and writers.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Coleridge, (david) Hartley

The eldest son of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he spent his childhood alarming and delighting his family and the Southeys and Wordsworths by his mental agility and the �exquisite wildness� that caused

Friday, December 03, 2004

Antarctica, Glaciation

Antarctica provides the best available picture of the probable appearance 20,000 years ago of northern North America under the great Laurentide Ice Sheet. Mountain glaciers, which formed on such highlands as the Sentinel Range perhaps as early as 50 million years ago, advanced down valleys to calve into the sea. Fringing ice shelves were built and later became grounded

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Naser Od-din Shah

Although a younger son of Mohammad Shah, Naser od-Din was named heir apparent through the influence of his mother. Serious

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Rysbrack, John Michael

Rysbrack worked in a classical, sometimes eclectic