Pordenone

Pordenone was a pupil of Pellegrino da S. Daniele and other Friulian masters, but his early style is founded on Venetian models and in particular on Andrea Mantegna. Later he was influenced by Titian, Correggio, and also

Ulrich

A grandson of Ulrich V, count of W�rttemberg, he succeeded his kinsman Eberhard II as duke of W�rttemberg in 1498, being declared of age in 1503. He obtained territories from the Palatinate through alliance with the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian

Canada

Second largest country in the world in area (after Russia) but one of the most sparsely populated. Canada occupies roughly two-fifths of the North American continent. Its total area, including the Canadian share of the Great Lakes, is 3,849,674 square miles (9,970,610 square km), of which 291,576 square miles (755,180 square km) are inland water; also included are its adjacent islands, except Greenland, a self-governing

San Antonio Zoological Gardens And Aquarium

One of the largest animal collections in the southwestern United States, located in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1914, the zoo and accompanying aquarium are operated by the San Antonio Zoological Society and occupy a 35-acre (14-hectare) site with natural springs and rock cliffs. More than 3,500 specimens of approximately 750 terrestrial and aquatic species are bred and exhibited.

Jastrzebie-zdr�

City, Katowice wojew�dztwo (province), south-central Poland. With the cities of Racib�rz, Rybnik, and Katowice, Jastrzebie-Zdr�j constitutes a secondary industrial zone within Poland's Upper Silesian agglomeration bordering on the Czech industrial region of Ostrava. Jastrzebie-Zdr�j became popular in the 1860s as a thermal spa whose iodobromide waters were used to treat

Subarnarekha River

River in northeastern India, rising in southern Bihar state. The Subarnarekha (meaning �streak of gold�) flows east through a copper-mining region and leaves the Chota Nagpur plateau by the Hundrugbagh waterfall. Continuing eastward, it flows across West Bengal state to enter the Bay of Bengal after a 290-mile (470-kilometre) course. The Kanchi and Karkari rivers are its chief

Gaugamela, Battle Of

Also called �Battle of Arbela� (Oct. 1, 331 BC) clash between the forces of Alexander the Great of Macedonia and Darius III of Persia that decided the fate of the Persian empire. Attempting to stop Alexander's incursion into the Persian empire, Darius prepared a battleground on the Plain of Gaugamela, near Arbela (present-day Irbil in northern Iraq), and posted his troops to await Alexander's advance. Darius had

Bailey, Ann

Ann Hennis moved to America, probably as an indentured servant, in 1761. Her first husband, Richard Trotter, a Shenandoah Valley settler and survivor of General Edward Braddock's disastrous expedition of 1755, was killed

Koraput

Most of the people of the surrounding area live in tribal communities and are engaged in agriculture, with rice, sugarcane, and oilseeds the biggest crops. The region also has rich mineral deposits, including

Hadar

The Hadar remains include partial skeletons of Australopithecus afarensis, a key species in human evolution. Major archaeological work began at Hadar in the early

Ob River

River of central Russia. One of the greatest rivers of Asia, the Ob flows north and west across western Siberia in a twisting diagonal from its sources in the Altai Mountains to its outlet through the Gulf of Ob into the Kara Sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is a major transportation artery, crossing territory at the heart of Russia that is extraordinarily varied in its physical

John George Iv

At the beginning of his reign his chief adviser was Hans Adam von Sch�ning (1641 - 96), who counselled a union between Saxony and Brandenburg and a more independent attitude toward the emperor Leopold I. In accordance with this advice certain proposals were put before Leopold to which he refused to agree; consequently the

Chemical Association

The aggregation of atoms or molecules into larger units held together by forces weaker than chemical bonds that bind atoms in molecules. The term is usually restricted to the formation of aggregates of like molecules or atoms. Polymerization also denotes the formation of larger units by the union of like small units but usually with chemical bonds between the

Alcal� De Guadaira

Town, Sevilla provincia, in the Andalusia comunidad aut�noma (�autonomous community�), southwestern Spain. It is just southeast of Sevilla city, on the Guadaira River. The town is popularly known as Alcal� de los Panaderos (Alcal� of the Bakers) because of its large number of bakeries and flour mills, which supply Sevilla with most of its flour. Olives are also exported,

Peru, Pre-Hispanic groups

Throughout the pre-Hispanic period, the peoples of Peru were largely isolated from one another by the rugged topography of the country. At least three times, however, a unifying culture spread across the Andes. Beginning c. 1000 BC, the Chav�n culture permeated the region, emanating possibly from the northern ceremonial site of Chav�n de Hu�ntar. After AD 600, the Huari civilization,

Eichler, August Wilhelm

Eichler studied mathematics and natural science at the University of Marburg (Ph.D., 1861). He then went to Munich, where he became a private assistant to the naturalist Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, with whom he edited Flora

Palau

Since the end of World War II, the major employer in Palau has been government - first the U.S. Navy, then the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and finally the government of Palau. Nevertheless, in the rural areas outside Koror the subsistence economy is active. Women typically gather and cultivate wet taro, sweet potato, and cassava, and men fish and tend pigs, which

Earth, Magnetic storms - growth of the ring current

The ring current is produced by the drift around the Earth of charged particles of the outer Van Allen radiation belt. During quiet conditions the effect of this current at the Earth's surface is negligible ([sim]20 nanoteslas). Once or twice a month there occurs a phenomenon known as a magnetic storm, during which the intensity of the ring current increases and produces

Agrigento

Formerly �(until 1927) Girgenti, �Greek �Acragas, �Latin �Agrigentum, � capital of Agrigento provincia, near the southern coast of Sicily, Italy. It lies on a plateau encircled by low cliffs overlooking the junction of the Drago (ancient Hypsas) and San Biagio (Acragas) rivers and is dominated from the north by a ridge with twin peaks. Agrigento was a wealthy ancient city founded about 581 BC by Greek colonists from Gela. It was ruled 570 - 554 BC by the notorious

Anthony Lagoon

Settlement, east-central Northern Territory, Australia, on the Barkly Tableland. Named for a permanent water hole in the course of Creswell Creek, sighted in 1878 by Ernest Favenc, it became an important watering point on a cattle route from Western Australia to Queensland. Anthony Lagoon has an airfield and is an important station on the �beef road,� which carries linked

Sibasa

Village, Northern province, South Africa. It was once the capital of the nonindependent black state of Venda. A station was established there in 1872 by Carl Beuster of the Berlin Mission. The village is an industrial growth centre just northeast of Thohoyandou and about 4 miles (7 km) north of the Luvuvhu River. Located at an elevation of 2,428 feet (740 m) and named after a Venda chief, Tshivhase,

Yuzu Nembutsu

Japanese Buddhist sect that stresses the permeating effect (yuzu) of nembutsu, the invocation of the name of the Buddha Amida (Amitabha). Thus, the belief was that not only the person who chants the name but all humanity benefits from the practice of nembutsu. The sect was founded in the early 12th century by an evangelistic Tendai monk, Ryonin, and was a forerunner of the devotional

Social War

The allies in central and southern Italy had fought side by side with Rome in several wars and had grown restive under Roman autocratic rule, wanting instead Roman citizenship and the privileges it conferred. In 91 BC the Roman tribune Marcus Livius

Znaniecki, Florian (witold)

Znaniecki's earliest work was as a poet. After being expelled from

Epirrhema

In ancient Greek Old Comedy, an address usually about public affairs. It was spoken by the leader of one-half of the chorus after that half of the chorus had sung an ode. It was part of the parabasis, or performance by the chorus, during an interlude in the action of the play.

Mckellen, Sir Ian (murray)

McKellen attended St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, where as a student actor he was often directed by John Barton, later of the Royal Shakespeare Company. After receiving a bachelor's degree in 1961, McKellen made his professional

Rheinberger, Joseph (gabriel)

Rheinberger studied organ at Vaduz and became organist at the parish church when he was only seven years old. He later studied at Feldkirch and Munich and in 1867 became professor of organ and composition at the Munich

Qiu Ying

Wade-Giles romanization �Ch'iu Ying � Chinese painter noted for his gongbi brush technique, used to produce highly detailed figure and architectural paintings and flower studies. Qiu did not pursue the other characteristic arts and activities of the man of letters that Chinese critics believed were marks of a great painter,

Marda�te

Arabic �Jurjumani, �plural �Jarajima, � member of a Christian people of northern Syria, employed as soldiers by Byzantine emperors. The Marda�tes inhabited the Amanus (Gavur) Mountains, in the modern Turkish province of Hatay, the 7th-century borderland between Byzantine and Muslim territory. In the period 660 - 680, allied with the Byzantine emperor Constantine IV, the Marda�tes pushed southward into Arab-occupied

French Literature, Religious authors

A new intellectual climate can be recognized from 1680 onward. An increased spiritual awareness resulting from Jansenist teaching, the preaching of Jacques-B�nigne Bossuet and others, and the influence of Mme de Maintenon at court, marked French cultural life with a new moral earnestness and devotion. The position of Bossuet is an ambivalent one. In spite of his outspoken

Aerospace Industry, Inspection technologies

The most critical portion of maintenance work is inspection to detect cracks, flaws, debonds, delamination, corrosion, and other detrimental changes before they threaten the aircraft. Inspectors do much of their work visually, often using nothing more sophisticated than a flashlight and a mirror. For most of the remainder, they use ultrasound, X-rays, eddy currents,