Auray

Breton �Alre� town, Morbihan d�partement, Bretagne r�gion, northwestern France, on the Auray Estuary. It is situated 7.5 miles (12 km) from the Atlantic, southwest of Rennes. Its ch�teau (demolished 1558) was a residence of the dukes of Brittany. Outside its walls in 1364 the War of the Breton Succession was ended by the victory of Jean de Montfort and his English allies over Montfort's cousin, Charles

Korea, History Of, Division of Korea

The Cairo Declaration, issued on Dec. 1, 1943, by the United States, Great Britain, and China, pledged independence for Korea �in due course.� This vague phrase aroused the leaders of the Korean provisional government in Chungking to request interpretation from the United States. Their request, however, received no answer. At the Yalta Conference held in February 1945, U.S. President

Bead Lightning

Also called �chain lightning � form of lightning of longer duration than more typical lightning that appears as a string of luminous segments instead of a continuous channel. It occurs infrequently but has been observed many times. Its causes are unknown, but among the theories proposed are the following: portions of the lightning channel are slanted toward or away from the observer and thus

Roberts (of Kandahar, Pretoria, And Waterford), Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl, Viscount St. Pierre

Roberts first distinguished himself during the suppression

Weld, Sir Frederick Aloysius

Born into a landed Roman Catholic family and educated at Stonyhurst and the University

Parabolic Equation

Any of a class of partial-differential equations arising in the mathematical analysis of diffusion phenomena, as in the heating of a slab. The simplest such equation in one dimension, uxx = ut, governs the temperature distribution at the various points along a thin rod from moment to moment. The solutions to even this simple problem are complicated, but they are constructed

Carloforte

Only town on the small Isola di San Pietro (area 20 sq mi [52 sq km]), just off the southwest coast of Sardinia, Italy. The island is administratively part of Cagliari province. The town was named after Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, who resettled the island in 1738, after centuries of desertion, with Genoese fugitives from the North African island of Tabarka. It has an observatory, set

Sea Lily

Sea lilies occur chiefly in deep waters, where they feed

Quaker Foods And Beverages

The Quaker Oats trademark was registered in 1877 by Henry Parsons Crowell (1855 - 1944), an Ohio milling company owner who in 1891 joined with two other millers, Robert Stuart and

Brill, Paul

Also called �Paulus Bril� Flemish artist who was perhaps the most popular painter of landscapes in Rome in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His early forest landscapes derive in style partly from Mannerism, but after 1600 he disciplined and simplified his compositions under the influence of the German painter Adam Elsheimer. His latest work was classical in character.

Chang Ch'ien

Pinyin �Zhang Qian � Chinese explorer, the first man to bring back a reliable account of the lands of central Asia to the court of China. He was dispatched by the Han dynasty emperor Wu Ti in 138 BC to establish relations with the Y�eh-chih people, a central Asian tribal group that spoke an Indo-European language. Captured by the Hsiung-nu, nomadic enemies of China, he was detained for 10 years. Nevertheless,

Dzerzhinsky, Feliks Edmundovich

Son of a Polish nobleman, Dzerzhinsky joined the Kaunas (Kovno) organization of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party in 1895. He became a party organizer, and, although he was arrested by

Vacancy

In crystallography, absence of an atom or molecule from a point that it would normally occupy in a crystal. Such an imperfection (crystal defect) in the regular spacing of atoms changes the electrical and optical properties of the crystal. The theory of colour centres holds that vacancies give colour to many solids. Vacancies can be created by mechanical deformation

Xerophyte

Any plant adapted to life in a dry or physiologically dry habitat (salt marsh, saline soil, or acid bog) by means of mechanisms to prevent water loss or to store available water. Succulents (plants that store water) such as cacti and agaves have thick, fleshy stems or leaves. Other xerophytic adaptations include waxy leaf coatings, the ability to

Xerophyte

American cable television network and multimedia group providing news, entertainment, and other programming developed primarily for African American viewers. BET also operates a jazz network, BET Jazz, features contemporary music through BET Gospel and BET Hip-Hop, produces documentaries and movies for distribution on the BET channel, and sponsors the BET

Kidepo Valley National Park

National park, northeastern Uganda, East Africa. It occupies an area of 540 square miles (1,399 square km) in wooded grasslands and mountainous scenery in the northeastern corner of the country. It straddles the Kidepo and Larus rivers, which are seasonally dry except for some permanent pools on the Larus. Mount Morungole on the east and the Lotuku Ridge rising in The Sudan to

Switzerland, Trade and finance

Switzerland must export finished products in order to pay for the imports of raw materials, oil, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods. The Swiss have traditionally been among the forerunners in liberalizing and facilitating international trade. The geographic distribution of the country's trade shows dependence on western Europe and especially on the EC countries.

Biblical Literature, Old Testament literature

For various modern critical methods of studying the formation of the Old Testament, see the �Old Testament Series� of Guides to Biblical Scholarship: Norman C. Habel, Literary Criticism of the Old Testament, Gene M. Tucker, Form Criticism of the Old Testament, and Walter E. Rast, Tradition History and the Old Testament (1971 - 72). Among general introductions, the most exhaustive is Otto Eissfeldt (op. cit.), based mainly on literary criticism. The other methods are reflected to a somewhat greater extent in Aage Bentzen, Introduction to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (1957); and in the briefer, less original but very readable work of Artur Weiser, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 4th ed. (1957; Eng. trans., The Old Testament: Its Formation and Development, 1961). For pioneering research in tradition analysis of the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets, see Martin Noth, �berlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch, 3rd ed. (1966; Eng. trans., A History of Pentateuchal Traditions, 1972), and �berlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien (1957); the latter deals with what its author calls �The Deuteronomic History,� an envisioned work containing the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The contribution of form criticism to the understanding of the history of the Book of Psalms may best be approached through Hermann Gunkel, The Psalms: A Form-Critical Introduction (1967), a translation of his article in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (2nd ed.) summarizing his seminal work in Die Psalmen (1926) and Einleitung in die Psalmen (1928). Elmer A. Leslie, The Psalms, Translated and Interpreted in the Light of Hebrew Life and Worship (1949), is heavily dependent on Gunkel and illustrates his use of form criticism. The celebrated work of Sigmund Mowinckel on the Psalter, culminating in his masterful Offersang ob Sangoffer (1951; Eng. trans., The Psalms in Israel's Worship, 2 vol., 1962), combines the methods of Gunkel with those of the comparative historian of religion and locates the setting for the production of most of the psalms in the cult of the Solomonic temple. The application of the newer methods to the study of the Latter Prophets is evident in the essays in Harold H. Rowley (ed.), Studies in Old Testament Prophecy (1950). The new approaches were deeply under the impact of Henrik S. Nyberg, Studien zum Hoseabuche (1935). Other books that amplify the implications of his assumptions include: Johannes Lindblom, Prophecy in Ancient Israel (1962); Curt Kuhl, Israels Propheten (1956; Eng. trans., The Prophets of Israel, 1960); and Sigmund Mowinckel, Prophecy and Tradition: The Prophetic Books in the Light of the Study of the Growth and History of the Tradition (1946). Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets (1962), though of independent origin, nevertheless belongs with those new interpretations of the prophetic materials. An old classic in a new edition, Oliver S. Rankin, Israel's Wisdom Literature: Its Bearing on Theology and the History of Religion (1936, reprinted 1969), presents Israel's wisdom literature in relation both to its extra-Israelite cultural connections and to the rest of Israel's heritage in the Old Testament. Two new approaches to the legacy of wisdom literature, one through literary form and the other through theology, are presented, respectively, in R.B.Y. Scott, The Way of Wisdom in the Old Testament (1971); and Gerhard von Rad, Weisheit in Israel (1970). See also Northrop Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature (1982), and Elsa Tamez, Bible of the Oppressed (1982), an interpretation from a Latin, female theologian's perspective.

Alexander Ii

Alexander came to the throne on the death of his father, William I (the Lion; reigned 1165 - 1214). When the English barons rebelled against King John (reigned 1199 - 1216) in 1215, Alexander sided

Yamana Mochitoyo

Yamana's attempts to increase his family's rank and influence brought him into conflict with a rival clan in eastern Japan and resulted in the Onin War (1467 - 77), which was followed by a century of internecine strife. As a Buddhist monk, he took the name Sozen, and, because of his quick temper

Tide

At the surface of the Earth the gravitational force of the Moon is about 2.2 times greater than that of the Sun.

Ismailia

The city was founded in 1863 by the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, as a base camp. It was

Toothwort

Any of about 10 species of perennial herbs belonging to the genus Dentaria, of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to northern temperate areas. The name toothwort refers to the plant's toothed, or scaly, rootstock. The four-petaled flowers, borne in a terminal cluster, are white, pink, or pale purple. Toothwort, pepperwort, or crinklewort (D.

Gabrieli, Andrea

Madrigals for three to six voices in various collections; masses in six parts, Primus liber missarum (1572); Magnificat for three choirs; motets; various ricercari and canzoni.

Svadilfari

In Norse mythology, an unusually swift and intelligent horse belonging to a giant who offered to build a great wall around Asgard (the kingdom of the gods) to keep invaders away. The gods stipulated that, if the builder completed the wall in one winter's time, his reward would be the goddess Freyja and possession of the sun and the moon. Svadilfari gave his owner such assistance

Amur

Russian �Amurskaya� oblast (province), far eastern Russia. It occupies the basins of the middle Amur River and its tributary the Zeya and extends up to the crest of the Stanovoy Range. In 1689 Russia yielded the Amur region to China by the Treaty of Nerchinsk, but Russian Cossacks reincorporated it in the latter part of the 19th century. Amur oblast was formed in 1932 from Khabarovsk kray (region), and its

Ba

In ancient Egyptian religion, with ka and akh, a principal aspect of the soul; the ba appears in bird form, thus expressing the mobility of the soul after death. Originally written with the sign of the jabiru bird, and thought to be an attribute of only the god-king, the ba was later represented by a man-headed hawk, often depicted hovering over the mummies of king and populace

Malabarese Catholic Church

A Chaldean rite church of southern India (Kerala) that united with Rome after the Portuguese colonization of Goa at the end of the 15th century. The Portuguese viewed these Christians of St. Thomas, as they called themselves, as Nestorian heretics, despite their traditional alignment with Rome since about the 6th century. Although the Malabarese formally acknowledged

Ucicky, Gustav

Ucicky began his career as a cameraman with director Michael Curtiz. He moved to Germany in 1928 and became involved in the state-subsidized studio UFA. His early movies, such as Hocuspocus (1929) and Der unsterbliche

Cretaceous Period, Correlation

Correlation of Cretaceous rocks is usually accomplished using fossils. Ammonites are the most widely employed fossils in terms of both frequency of use and geographic extent, but no single fossil group is capable of worldwide correlation of all sedimentary rocks. Most ammonites, for example, did not occur in all latitudes because some preferred the warmer waters