United Arab Emirates
The union's economy is dominated by the petroleum produced in the Abu Dhabi and Dubayy emirates; it is estimated that reserves in Abu Dhabi will last until about the end of the 21st century, while those in Dubayy probably will run out sooner. The richest of the emirates, Abu Dhabi, contains nearly one-tenth of the world's oil reserves and contributes more than half of the
Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan
Born into an aristocratic family, Ghalib passed his youth in luxury. Subsequently, he was granted a small pension by the British government but had to struggle against penury and hardships. Recognition finally came in 1850, when
Rebec
Bowed, stringed musical instrument of European medieval and early Renaissance music. It was originally called a rubebe, developed about the 11th century from the similar Arab rabab, and was carried to Spain with Muslim culture. Like the rabab, the rebec had a shallow, pear-shaped body, but on the rebec the rabab's skin belly was replaced by wood and a fingerboard was added. The
Macaulay (of Rothley), Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
English Whig politician, essayist, poet, and historian best known for his History of England, 5 vol. (1849 - 61); this work, which covers the period 1688 - 1702, secured his place as one of the founders of what has been called the Whig interpretation of history. He was raised to the peerage in 1857.
Xenarthran
Alfred L. Gardner, �Order Xenarthra,� in Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn M. Reeder (eds.), Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (1993), pp. 63 - 68, provides lists of the families, genera, and species of the Xenarthra; the author is a wildlife biologist and curator of mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Gerald G. Montgomery (ed.), The Evolution and Ecology of Armadillos, Sloths, and Vermilinguas (1985), compiles 43 well-illustrated scholarly reports on all aspects of xenarthran biology, including pathology and parasitology.
Ucayali
Departamento of eastern Peru (until 1980 part of Loreto department) spanning the upper and middle sections of the meandering Ucayali River, a principal tributary of the Amazon. Formerly a very isolated area of Peru, Ucayali department experienced rapid population growth (particularly at Pucallpa [q.v.], the departmental capital) after 1945 with the completion of a road system
Asbury Park
City, Monmouth county, eastern New Jersey, U.S. The city lies along the Atlantic Ocean coast in the midst of a string of seaside communities. It was founded in 1871 by James A. Bradley, a New York manufacturer, who named it for the Reverend Francis Asbury, founder of Methodism in the United States. A spectacular ship disaster (September 1934) killed 122 persons when the Morro Castle caught
Microscope, The compound microscope
The compound microscope, using an objective and an eyepiece, was first described in the 16th century, but all drawings of the period indicate very impractical arrangements of lenses. The first useful compound microscope was constructed in the Netherlands sometime between 1590 and 1608. Three spectacle makers - Hans Jansen, his son Zacharias, and Hans Lippershey - have each received
Vladimir
Oblast (province), western Russia. It is centred on Vladimir city and lies east of Moscow in the basin of the Oka River. The greater part is a low plain, with extensive swamps in the south. The oblast has spruce, pine, and oak, but much of the forest has been cleared. Industries produce textiles, engineering goods, timber goods, and glassware. Agriculture is concentrated chiefly
China, Political developments
The socialist transformation of agriculture, industry, and commerce thus went relatively smoothly. Nevertheless, changes of this sort could not take place without considerable tensions. Many peasants streamed into the cities in 1956 - 57 to escape the new cooperatives and to seek employment in the rapidly expanding state-run factories, where government policy kept
Tritone
In musical notation the tritone is written either as an augmented
Daudet, Alphonse
French short-story writer and novelist, now remembered chiefly as the author of sentimental tales of provincial life in the south of France.
Biblical Literature, III Maccabees
The Greek book called The Third Book of Maccabees itself has nothing to do with the Maccabean period. Its content is a legend, a miraculous story of deliverance, which is also independently told - in another historical context - by Josephus (Against Apion II, 5). In III Maccabees the story takes place during the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator (reigned 221 - 203 BCE). The central episode
Don Quixote
Spanish �in full El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote De La Mancha, � novel published in two parts (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615) by Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most widely read classics of Western literature. Originally conceived as a comic satire against the chivalric romances then in literary vogue, it describes realistically what befalls an elderly knight who, his head bemused by reading romances, sets out on his old horse Rosinante, with his
Eclipse
The occultation of the Crab Nebula by the solar corona, the extensive outer atmosphere of the Sun, takes place each year in June. The Crab Nebula is a radio source (Taurus A), and, when the occultation occurs, its pattern of radio emission is observed to broaden significantly. The broadening is attributed to scattering of radio-frequency radiation by the density irregularities
Arts, Southeast Asian, Sculpture
The Thai kings made repeated attempts to �purify� their conservative Theravada strain of Buddhism, importing patterns of art along with texts and learned monks from Ceylon and trying to wean their people from worship of the spirits. To retain the greatest spiritual potency, Buddha icons in Thai temples had to be as close in type as possible to a great original prototype
Topeka Constitution
The Kansas - Nebraska Act of 1854 had opened the two territories to settlement under the �popular sovereignty� doctrine - that is, the settlers themselves were supposed to decide the slavery question within their borders
Levi-montalcini, Rita
Levi-Montalcini studied medicine at the University of Turin and did research there on the
Top Moss
Common species of urn moss (q.v.).
Top Moss
Common species of urn moss (q.v.).
Amorg�s Island
Modern Greek �N�sos Amorg�s, � island trending northeast-southwest in the Cyclades (Kikl�dhes) group of the Greek Aegean Islands. For the most part mountainous and narrow, it has an area of about 47 square miles (121 square km). Prosperous in the early Bronze Age, in classical times it had three cities, Arcesine, Minoa, and Aegiale. The island produced amorgina, fine transparent fabrics made from locally grown
Gyrfalcon
(Falco rusticolus), Arctic bird of prey of the family Falconidae, the world's largest falcon (q.v.). The gyrfalcon may reach 60 cm (2 feet) in length. Confined as a breeder to the circumpolar region except for isolated populations in Central Asian highlands, it is sometimes seen at lower latitudes in winters when food is scarce. The gyrfalcon varies from pure white with black speckling
Utrecht School
Principally a group of three Dutch painters - Dirck van Baburen (c. 1590 - 1624), Gerrit van Honthorst (1590 - 1656; see photograph), and Hendrik Terbrugghen (1588 - 1629) - who went to Rome and fell fully under the pervasive influence of Caravaggio's art before returning to Utrecht. Although none of them ever actually met Caravaggio (d. 1610), each had access to his paintings, knew his former patrons, and was influenced
Mole Valley
District, administrative and historic county of Surrey, England. The River Mole, from which the district takes its name, flows northward across it to join the Thames at Hampton Court, west of London; the river cuts through a line of chalk hills (the North Downs) in a steep-sided valley that is followed by road and rail routes. South of the Downs is a narrow lowland and then
Printmaking, France
Most 18th-century French etchings were drawings transferred to copper, in which the effects of pencil, pen, or chalk were imitated. Although some distinguished painters, such as Antoine Watteau, made etchings, no prints of importance were produced. Jean-Honor� Fragonard made a few lovely etchings reminiscent of Tiepolo. They have a luminous, transparent quality and
Carte Du Ciel
(French: �Map of the Heavens�), projected photographic mapping of some 10 million stars in all parts of the sky that was planned to include all stars of the 14th magnitude or brighter and to list in an associated catalog all of the 12th magnitude or brighter. The plan, devised about 1887 by Am�d�e Mouchez, director of the Paris Observatory, involved the cooperation of 18 observatories
Caribou
In North America, a native species of reindeer (q.v.).
Cos
A ragged limestone ridge runs along the southern coast. The highest point of the island, Mount Dh�kaios (2,776 feet [846 m]), divides the island near its centre. A fertile lowland stretches along the north coast that is irrigated by the deep springs of the Pri�n Ridge, which also provides
Ijsselmeer
The dam that formed the IJsselmeer lies about 25 feet (8 m) above sea level and is 19 miles (31 km) long,
Ijsselmeer
The dam that formed the IJsselmeer lies about 25 feet (8 m) above sea level and is 19 miles (31 km) long,
Art And Architecture, Egyptian, Relief sculpture and painting
The beginnings of the dynastic tradition can be found in tombs of the 3rd
