Wednesday, March 30, 2005

New Iberia

City, seat (1868) of Iberia parish, southern Louisiana, U.S., on Bayou Teche (connected via canal with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway), 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Lafayette. Founded in the late 18th century by French, Spanish, and Acadian settlers, it was laid out in 1835. It was first called Iberia, the ancient name for Spain, but the name was changed when the parish was created. The city was occupied

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Deformation And Flow

Everyday substances are ordinarily classed as either solids, liquids, or gases, and, under normal circumstances, gases and liquids flow relatively freely and solids deform when they are subjected

Eisenstein, Sergey Mikhaylovich

Eisenstein, who was

Badminton

Many badminton experts were surprised when 20-year-old Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark finished 1997 on top of the men's singles world rankings. At the Japan Open in January 1998, however, Gade Christensen easily defeated Luo Yigang of China to win the sport's first major event of the year and proved his number-one status was no accident. Gong Zhichao of China rose to the top of

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Irish Yew

Ornamental evergreen of the yew family. See English yew.

Tirpitz, Alfred Von

Original name  Alfred Tirpitz   German admiral, the chief builder of the German Navy in the 17 years preceding World War I and a dominant personality of the emperor William II's reign. He was ennobled in 1900 and attained the rank of admiral in 1903 and that of grand admiral in 1911; he retired in 1916.

Loran

Abbreviation of  long-range navigation  system of navigation developed for marine and air navigation. Lines of position are determined by noting differences in time of reception of synchronized pulses from widely spaced transmitting stations, master and slave. A master station broadcasts an uninterrupted series of pulses of fixed duration and at a fixed rate (e.g., of 50 microseconds' duration at a rate

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Tooke, Thomas

Tooke was in business throughout most of his adult life, beginning in St. Petersburg at the age of 15 and finally retiring as governor of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation in 1852. He often gave evidence before Parliament on economic matters. In 1821 he

Mulaydah, Battle Of Al-

The Wahhabi prince 'Abd Allah lost many of the territories that his father, Faysal (reigned 1834–65), had acquired by conquest

Alabama, Climate

The Alabama climate is temperate, with an average annual temperature of about 64° F (18° C), mellowed by altitude to some 60° F (16° C) in the northern counties and reaching 67° F (19° C) in the southern counties, although summer heat is often alleviated somewhat by the winds blowing in from the Gulf. Occasionally the temperature may rise to 100° F (38° C) in the summer, whereas snow may occasionally fall in

Monday, March 21, 2005

Claudius, Matthias

After studying at Jena, Claudius held a series of editorial and minor official positions until in 1788 he acquired a sinecure in the Schleswig-Holstein bank. He edited the Wandsbecker Bote (1771–75), popular not only

Indian Law

The legal practices and institutions of India. The general history of law in India is a well-documented case of reception as well as of grafting. Foreign laws have been “received” into the Indian subcontinent—for example, in the demand by the Hindus of Goa for Portuguese civil law; and the enactment by independent India of statutes such as the Estate Duty Act (1953), the Copyright

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Elizabeth City

City, seat (1799) of Pasquotank county, northeastern North Carolina, U.S. It lies on the Pasquotank River (an embayment of Albemarle Sound) at the southern end of Dismal Swamp Canal on the Intracoastal Waterway. Settlers had established a presence on the river in the 1660s, and the area was the scene of Culpeper's Rebellion (1677–79). It was founded and incorporated as Redding in 1793 but was renamed

Inner Ear

Also called  labyrinth of the ear,   part of the ear that contains organs of the senses of hearing and equilibrium. The bony labyrinth, a cavity in the temporal bone, is divided into three sections: the vestibule, the semicircular canals, and the cochlea. Within the bony labyrinth is a membranous labyrinth, which is also divided into three parts: the semicircular ducts; two saclike structures, the saccule

Ethiopic Languages

The Semitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, including Ge'ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox church; Amharic, one of the principal languages of modern Ethiopia; Tigre; Tigrinya, or Tigrai; Argobba; Hareri; and Gurage. Although some scholars formerly considered Ethiopic to be a separate branch of Semitic, these languages are now generally grouped

Ogden, C.k.

In 1912 Ogden founded an intellectual weekly, The Cambridge Magazine, to which Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, and other noted literary

Friday, March 18, 2005

East Hartford

Urban town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S., across the Connecticut River from Hartford. The area, called Podunk by the Indians, was first settled in 1639 by John Crow. Organized as a parish in 1746 and originally part of Hartford, it was incorporated as a separate town in 1783 and experienced early industrial development (papermaking and the manufacture of gunpowder,

Regent Diamond

Also called  Pitt diamond  a brilliant-cut stone with a slight blue tinge that once was the outstanding gem of the French crown jewels; it was discovered in India in 1701 and weighed 410 carats in rough form. It was purchased by Sir Thomas Pitt, British governor in Madras, who published a letter in the London Daily Post to counter rumours that he had stolen the gem. The stone was cut to a 141-carat cushion brilliant