Elgin Marbles

Collection of ancient Greek sculptures and architectural details in the British Museum, London. The objects were removed from the Parthenon at Athens and from other ancient buildings and shipped to England by arrangement of Thomas Bruce, 7th Lord Elgin, who was British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1799 - 1803). The removal created a storm of controversy in England that

Amphibian, Neoteny

Neoteny entails the maturation of a larva's reproductive capabilities without the concomitant development of its external morphological features; this phenomenon occurs in some aquatic salamanders and is due to delayed somatic development. Different patterns of partial metamorphosis, ranging from a lack of development in jaw and cranial elements to a retention

Frederick Ix

The eldest son

Kamaishi

City, Iwate Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, facing Kamaishi Bay on the Pacific Ocean. Kamaishi was a small fishing village until magnetite was discovered in the area in 1727, and Japan's first European-style blast furnace was constructed in the city in 1857. In 1885 a government-controlled iron foundry was built using coal from Hokkaido and later using ore from China after the Sino-Japanese

Nicholas Of Damascus

Nicholas instructed Herod the Great in rhetoric and philosophy, and attracted the notice of Augustus when he accompanied his patron on a visit to Rome. Later, when Herod's conduct aroused the suspicions of Augustus, Nicholas was

'adud Ad-dawlah

Becoming ruler of Fars province in southern Iran in 944, 'Adud ad-Dawlah did not actually reign on his own until almost a decade later. But by 979 his authority extended, through inheritance and conquest, over all southern Iran and most of what is now Iraq. He became famous for his public works, which included a dam still standing near

Petare

City, northwestern Miranda estado (�state�), in the central highlands of northern Venezuela. Formerly a commercial centre in a fertile agricultural area producing coffee, cacao, and sugarcane, the city has become a residential suburb of the national capital and a part of the Caracas metropolitan area. Cardboard is manufactured in the city. Expressways lead from Petare

Agoracritus

Greek sculptor said to have been the favourite pupil of Phidias. His most renowned work is the statue of Nemesis at Rhamnous, Greece, part of the head of which is in the British Museum, while fragments of the pedestal reliefs are in Athens.

Dies Irae

The hymn ascribed to Thomas of Celano contains 18 rhymed stanzas (17 tercets, 1 quatrain), to which a later, anonymous writer added an unrhymed couplet, ending in �Amen.� The impressive plainsong melody to which the

Education, History Of, Stages of education

There were three stages of education. The basic skills of reading and writing were taught by the elementary-school master, or grammatistes, whose pupils generally ranged from six or seven to 10 years of age. The secondary-school master, or grammatikos, supervised the study and appreciation of classical literature and of literary Greek, from which the spoken Greek of

Hennepin, Louis

Hennepin joined the R�collet Order of Friars Minor, B�thune, France, and in 1675 went to Canada with La Salle, whose chaplain he became in

Welensky, Sir Roy

Welensky, of East European Jewish stock on his father's side and South African Dutch on his mother's, first gained prominence

Byzantine Chant

Monophonic, or unison, liturgical chant of the Greek Orthodox church during the Byzantine Empire (330 - 1453) and down to the 16th century; in modern Greece the term refers to ecclesiastical music of any period. Although Byzantine music is linked with the spread of Christianity in Greek-speaking areas of the Eastern Roman Empire, it probably derives mostly from Hebrew and early

Indeterminate Sentence

In law, term of imprisonment with no definite duration within a prescribed maximum. Eligibility for parole is determined by the parole authority. In this respect, an indeterminate sentence differs from a definite one in that statutes prescribing the latter usually provide for parole eligibility after a specified fraction of the full term - in most countries, from

Carter, Rosalynn

Jimmy Carter sometimes pointed out that his wife's first name was Eleanor and that she had been as valuable a working partner to him as had Eleanor Roosevelt to her husband. Most Americans would agree, and Rosalynn's popularity was consistently high compared with that of other first ladies.

Music, Western, Ancient Greece

Of the eastern Mediterranean cultures, it was undoubtedly that of the Greeks that furnished the most direct link with musical development in western Europe, by way of the Romans, who defeated them but adopted much of Greek culture intact. Entering historical times relatively late, c. 1000 BC, the Greeks soon dominated their neighbours and absorbed many elements of earlier

Bush, George W.

In full �George Walker Bush� 43rd president of the United States (2001 - ). Narrowly winning the electoral college vote over Vice President Al Gore in one of the closest and most controversial elections in American history, George W. Bush became the first person since Benjamin Harrison in 1888 to become president despite having lost the nationwide popular vote. He was narrowly reelected in 2004, defeating Democratic challenger John Kerry. Before assuming the presidency of the United States, Bush was a businessman and served as governor of Texas (1995 - 2000). (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America.)

Beit Bridge

Also spelled �Beitbridge� town, southern Zimbabwe. It lies near the bridge named for Alfred Beit, British South African financier, across the Limpopo River. The bridge is situated on the border with Northern province, South Africa, opposite Messina and is a port of entry and a customs and immigration post. The town, founded in 1929, was for many years the terminus of the railway from Pretoria, until a

Table Tennis

Table tennis equipment is relatively simple and inexpensive. The table is rectangular, 9 feet by 5 feet (2.7 m by 1.5 m), its upper surface a level plane 30 inches (76 cm) above the floor. The net is 6 feet (1.8 m) long, and its upper edge along the whole length is 6 inches (15 cm) above the playing surface. The ball, which is spherical, hollow, and made of white celluloid or, since 1969, a similar plastic, weighs about

Procter

The company was formed in 1837 when William Procter, a British candlemaker, and James Gamble, an Irish soapmaker, merged their businesses in Cincinnati. The chief ingredient for both products was animal fat, which was readily available in the hog-butchering

Anubis

His particular concern was with the funerary cult and the care of the dead: hence he was reputed to be the

Abdullah, Sheikh Muhammad

Abdullah was educated at the Prince of Wales College (Jammu) and the Islamia College (Lahore) and received an M.S. degree in physics from Aligarh

Burgenland

Bundesland (federal state), eastern Austria, bordering Hungary on the east, and Bundesl�nder Nieder�sterreich (�Lower Austria�) on the northwest and Steiermark (Styria) on the southwest. It has an area of 1,531 square miles (3,965 square km). Derived from parts of the four former west Hungarian comitats (counties) of Pressburg (Bratislava), Wieselburg (Moson), �denburg (Sopron), and Eisenburg

Argentina, Agribusiness

Beef initiated industrialization in Argentina. The success of beef came as refrigeration techniques were perfected to allow, after 1876, for the storage and shipment of fresh meat. By the late 1920s frigor�ficos (meat-packing plants) were located in various parts of the country, several of them in the Buenos Aires area. Later shipments proceeded from La Plata, Rosario, and

Kidney Failure

Acute kidney failure results in reduced output of urine, abnormally high levels of nitrogenous substances, potassium, sulfates, and phosphates in the blood, and abnormally low blood levels of sodium, calcium, and carbon dioxide (see uremia). Ordinarily

Thompson, Sir J(ohn) Eric S(idney)

Leading English ethnographer of the Mayan people. Thompson devoted his life to the study of Mayan culture and was able to extensively decipher early Mayan glyphs, determining that, contrary to prevailing belief, they contained historical as well as ritualistic and religious records. He also discovered that present-day

Shield Fern

Also called �wood fern� any member of the fern genus Dryopteris, in the family Aspleniaceae. The genus has about 150 species with worldwide distribution, and it is placed in the family Aspidiaceae in some classification systems. Shield ferns are medium-sized woodland plants with bright-green, leathery leaves that are several times divided. They have numerous round spore clusters (sori) attached

Cimabue

Original name �Bencivieni Di Pepo, modern �Italian �Benvenuto Di Giuseppe� painter and mosaicist, the last great Italian artist in the Byzantine style, which had dominated early medieval painting in Italy. Among his surviving works are the frescoes of New Testament scenes in the upper church of S. Francesco, Assisi; the �Sta. Trinita Madonna� (c. 1290; Uffizi, Florence); and the �Madonna Enthroned with St. Francis� (c. 1290 - 95; lower church

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint, Biblical commentaries

Expositio in Evangelium S. Matthaei (1269 - 72); Expositio in Job ad litteram (1261 - 64); Expositio in Evangelium Joannis (1269 - 72); Exposition in S. Pauli Apostoli epistolas (undated; incomplete); In psalmos Davidis expositio (1272 - 73).

Gadfly Petrel

Any of several species of petrels distinguished from others by their fluttering type of flight. See petrel.