LateVenus

Celestius

2005-03-18T00:19:00.000-08:00

When the Goths menaced Rome about 409, the

Nakhon Phanom

2005-03-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

Town, northeastern Thailand. Nakhon Phanom is a commercial centre lying along the Mekong River opposite Thakhek, Laos; it is linked by road to Udon Thani (west), Ubon Ratchathani (south), and Laos and has an airport with scheduled domestic flights. An infertile sandy loam that retains little moisture makes agriculture difficult in much of the surrounding area. There

Water Purification

2005-03-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

The first treatment plant was built in 1829 to purify Thames River water by filtration. After the London cholera epidemic of 1854 was traced to a public well,

Nadi, Nedo; And Nadi, Aldo

2005-03-11T21:53:00.000-08:00

Italian brothers who were among the greatest and most versatile fencers in the history of the sport. At the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, the Nadi brothers led Italy to a sweep of the gold medals in the three team events. Nedo also captured the gold medal in the individual foil and

Arnold, Matthew

2005-03-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

Lastly Arnold turned to religion, the constant preoccupation and true centre of his whole life, and wrote St. Paul and Protestantism (1870), Literature and Dogma (1873), God and the Bible (1875), and Last Essays on Church and Religion (1877). In these books, Arnold really founded Anglican “modernism.” Like all religious liberals, he came under fire from two sides: from the orthodox, who accused him

Moser-pröll, Annemarie

2005-03-06T01:41:00.000-08:00

Pröll skied from the age of four. She tried out for the Austrian national ski team at the age of 15. Her Olympic Winter Games success came late. She won silver medals for the downhill and the giant slalom at the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan,

Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr

2005-03-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

Outstanding Welsh poet of the 12th century, court bard to Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys (d. 1160), and then to Madog's enemy Owain Gwynedd, prince of Gwynedd (d. 1170). The extant poems ascribed to him (about 50), composed in the Welsh bardic tradition of deliberate archaism, include a small amount of religious verse and a large number of eulogies to the chief princes throughout Wales. Cynddelw

Performing Arts, Iberia.

2005-02-28T04:39:00.000-08:00

Spain's major international success was Pedro Almodóvar's Hable con ella (Talk to Her), an idiosyncratic reflection on solitude and communication. Spanish directors showed a new concern for social subjects, exemplified in Chus Gutiérrez's Poniente, about the exploitation of immigrant agricultural workers, and Fernando León de Aranoa's Los lunes al sol (Mondays

Silver

2005-02-27T02:05:00.000-08:00

In the majority of silver compounds the element has a valence of one. These compounds include such familiar substances as silver chloride (AgCl), silver bromide (AgBr), and silver iodide (AgI). Each of these salts is used extensively in photography. Silver chloride serves as the light-sensitive material in photographic printing papers and, together with silver bromide,

Mu'tasim, Al-

2005-02-24T03:11:00.000-08:00

Succeeding his brother al-Ma'mun in 833, al-Mu'tasim was the first caliph to employ the Turkish mercenaries who later came to dominate the 'Abbasid dynasty. In 837 he crushed a revolt of Persian schismatics led by the rebel Babak, who was cooperating with the Greeks. After the Byzantine emperor Theophilus had laid waste the Muslim

Selkirk

2005-02-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Royal burgh (town), Scottish Borders council area, historic county of Selkirkshire, Scotland, lying on a hillside overlooking the river known as Ettrick Water. A Benedictine abbey founded in the early 12th century was later removed to Kelso. Selkirk's 12th-century castle was captured by the English under Edward I (reigned 1272–1307). It was retaken by the Scottish national leader William

Japanese Philosophy

2005-02-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

The conceptual expression of Japanese culture since the turn of the 6th century Ad . The term philosophy has been considered somewhat misleading in reference to Japanese thought, since Japanese premodern thinking tended to be directed more toward the realm of existence than toward that of essence. Japanese philosophy is not generally indigenous; Japanese thinkers have always freely appropriated foreign philosophical systems and insights

Mercenary

2005-02-18T17:11:00.000-08:00

Employment of mercenaries could be politically dangerous

Biblical Literature, Apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings

2005-02-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

The importance of the discovery is very great; the scrolls of books of the Old Testament caused a new evaluation of the history of the text of the Hebrew Bible; fragments of the Apocrypha (Sirach and Tobit) and of already known and unknown Pseudepigrapha enlarge knowledge about Jewish literature of the intertestamental period, and the properly sectarian scrolls

Ear Disease

2005-02-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

Ear diseases and hearing disorders are discussed in Michael E. Glasscock III, George E. Shambaugh, Jr., and Glenn D. Johnson (eds.), Surgery of the Ear, 4th ed. (1990), a well-illustrated text on diseases of the ear and their surgical correction; James Jerger (ed.), Hearing Disorders in Adults (1984); John Ballantyne, M.C. Martin, and Antony Martin (eds.), Deafness, 5th ed. (1993); Robert Thayer Sataloff and Joseph Sataloff, Hearing Loss, 3rd ed., rev. and expanded (1993); and David M. Vernick et al., The Hearing Loss Handbook (1993). George E. Shambaugh, “A Restudy of the Minute Anatomy of Structures in the Cochlea with Conclusions Bearing on the Solution of the Problem of Tone Perception,” The American Journal of Anatomy, 7(2):245–257 (Aug. 1, 1907), was the first detailed description of the hearing-nerve end organ in the cochlea, where sound waves are converted into nerve impulses depending upon the pitch of the tone. George E. Shambaugh, Jr., and Alexandre Petrovic, “Effects of Sodium Fluoride on Bone: Application to Otosclerosis and Other Decalcifying Bone Diseases,” JAMA, 204(11):969–973 (June 10, 1968), summarizes research on the arrest, by means of sodium fluoride, of progressive deafness caused by otosclerosis. Philip H. Beales, Noise, Hearing, and Deafness (1965), is a useful review in lay language of the problem of deafness and the adverse influence on hearing of excess noise exposure; a more recent text is Karl D. Kryter, The Handbook of Hearing and the Effects of Noise: Physiology, Psychology, and Public Health (1994). Brief reports by panels of experts assembled by the National Institutes of Health are issued as NIH Consensus Statements; several statements are of clinical concern in the field of hearing and deafness: “Noise and Hearing Loss,” 8(1):1–24 (Jan. 22–24, 1990), also available with the same title in JAMA, 263(23):3185–3190 (June 20, 1990), “Early Identification of Hearing Impairment in Infants and Young Children,” 11(1):1–24 (Mar. 1–3, 1993), and “Cochlear Implants in Adults and Children,” 13(2):1–30 (May 15–17, 1995), also available with the same title in JAMA, 274(24):1955–1961 (Dec. 27, 1995). More information on the success of cochlear implants is available in Jeffrey P. Harris, John P. Anderson, and Robert Novak, “An Outcomes Study of Cochlear Implants in Deaf Patients,” Archives of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, 121(4):398–404 (April 1995).

Valachi, Joseph

2005-02-12T02:06:00.000-08:00

Valachi held a rank in the Mafia equivalent to that of a sergeant, with interests chiefly in the numbers rackets and other gambling from the 1930s to the '50s. In 1959 he was convicted of narcotics violations and sentenced to 15 to

Pyrargyrite

2005-02-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

A sulfosalt mineral, a silver antimony sulfide (Ag3SbS3), that is an important source of silver, sometimes called ruby silver because of its deep red colour (see also proustite). The best crystallized specimens, of hexagonal symmetry, are from St. Andreasberg in the Harz Mountains and from Freiberg, both in Germany; and Colquechaca, Bol. It is mined at Guanajuato, Mex., and near

Aeacus

2005-02-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, son of Zeus and Aegina, the daughter of the river god Asopus. His mother was carried off by Zeus to the island of Oenone, afterward called by her name. Aeacus was celebrated for justice and in Attic tradition became a judge of the dead, together with Minos and Rhadamanthus. His successful prayer to Zeus for rain during a drought was commemorated by a

Aleutian Range

2005-02-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

Segment of the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending southwestward for about 600 miles (970 km) from the west end of the Alaska Range to the head of Cook Inlet of the Gulf of Alaska, U.S. The Aleutian Islands represent a southwest extension of the mountain peaks, which stretch the length of the Alaska Peninsula and include many volcanoes, notably Katmai (6,716 feet

Papaya

2005-02-05T17:39:00.000-08:00

Also called papaw , or pawpaw succulent fruit of a large plant (Carica papaya) of the family Caricaceae that is considered a tree, though its palmlike trunk, up to 8 m (26 feet) tall, is not as woody as the designation generally implies. The plant is crowned by deeply lobed leaves, sometimes 60 cm (2 feet) across, borne on hollow petioles 60 cm long. Normally, the species is dioecious, male and female flowers

Armenia, Flag Of

2005-02-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

Long without an independent state of their own, 19th-century Armenians also lacked a national flag around which they could rally to support their language and culture. Armenians in exile in France looked to a scholar at the Armenian Institute in Venice, Ghevont Alshin, for a flag in 1885. He recommended the “rainbow flag given to the Armenians when Noah's Ark came to rest on

Yermolova, Maria Nikolayevna

2005-02-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

Yermolova was trained at the Moscow Theatre School and made her debut at age 17 in the title role of Gotthold Lessing's Emilia Galotti at the Maly Theatre (1870). Her interpretation of Emilia as

Koga

2005-01-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

City, Ibaraki ken (prefecture), eastern Honshu, Japan. It lies at the confluence of the Omoi and Watarase rivers. An important river port, Koga was a castle town and post town on the Nikko-kaido (Nikko Highway) in the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). It became a major trade centre for the surrounding agricultural region after the Tohoku Main Line railway opened in 1891. Silk manufacture, introduced

Fisher, Herbert Albert Laurens

2005-01-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

Fisher became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1888 and tutor and lecturer in modern history in 1891. While at New College he wrote his two-volume Medieval Empire (1898), a study of the Holy Roman Empire influenced

Ahura Mazda

2005-01-26T03:49:00.000-08:00

According to Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda created the universe and the cosmic order that he maintains.