Gaucho Literature

Spanish American poetic genre that imitates the payadas (�ballads�) traditionally sung to guitar accompaniment by the wandering gaucho minstrels of Argentina and Uruguay. By extension, the term includes the body of South American literature that treats the way of life and philosophy of the itinerant gauchos. Long a part of South American folk literature, gaucho

Aleixandre, Vicente

Aleixandre was the son of a railway engineer. He studied law and business management and from 1920 to 1922 taught commercial law. He became seriously ill in 1925 and during

Trans-kalahari Highway

In March 1998 the residents of Botswana and Namibia met at Buitepos on the border between the two countries to inaugurate formally the Trans-Kalahari Highway. The new road formed part of the strategic coast-to-coast route that linked Maputo, Mozambique, on the Indian Ocean to Walvis Bay on the Atlantic coastline of Namibia. It was designed to serve as the backbone of an

Saxon Duchies

The house of Wettin had accumulated possessions in Thuringia from the middle decades of the 13th century onward.

Arts, East Asian, Painting

Painting of the Kamakura period, both religious and secular, was marked by a sense of immediacy and vitality. The Amidist sects spawned cults that emphasized devotion to particular intercessory figures who had initially been considered ancillary in the overall Pure Land Buddhist pantheon. For example, the Jizo Bosatsu, the bodhisattva depicted in the guise of

Foreclosure

Legal proceeding by which a mortgagor's rights to a mortgaged property may be extinguished if the mortgagor (borrower) fails to live up to the obligations agreed to in the mortgage. The mortgagee (the lender) may then declare the entire debt due and owing and may seek to satisfy the debt by foreclosing on the property. Most foreclosures are brought in equity proceedings.

Kite

Regardless of the design, a kite must conform to the laws of aerodynamics and embody three fundamental characteristics: an aerodynamic structure to gain lift from the wind, a tether to keep it from blowing away, and a bridle to direct the kite face at the proper angle to the wind. A bridle consists of two or more lines attached directly to the kite face. The bridle lines

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

Germany

On a visit to Bonn in early January, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appealed for Germany to find a way around its constitutional restrictions and play a full part in international security missions. German medical troops were already involved in a UN humanitarian mission in Cambodia, and the German air force was taking part in mercy flights to Sarajevo,

Baptist

Member of a group of Protestant Christians who share the basic beliefs of most Protestants but who insist that only believers should be baptized and that it should be done by immersion rather than by the sprinkling or pouring of water. (This view, however, is shared by others who are not Baptists.) Although Baptists do not constitute a single church or denominational

Modernism

In Roman Catholic church history, a movement in the last decade of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th that sought to reinterpret traditional Catholic teaching in the light of 19th-century philosophical, historical, and psychological theories and called for freedom of conscience. Influenced by non-Catholic biblical scholars, Modernists contended that the

Rayon

Any man-made textile fibre produced from the plant substance cellulose. Developed in an attempt to produce silk chemically, the fibre was originally known by such terms as artificial silk and wood silk, but in 1924 it was given the coined name rayon. An anitrocellulose type of rayon, first produced commercially in France in 1891 in the form of a nitrocellulose fibre, was later

Irigoyen, Hip�lito

Irigoyen became a lawyer, teacher, rancher, and politician and in 1896 took control of the Radical Party. His relentless effort to obtain free elections succeeded

Yacht

A sail- or power-driven vessel, usually light and comparatively small, used for racing or for recreation. In recreation the term applies to very large craft, originally powered by sail and later by steam or internal-combustion engines. It is in this sense that the generality of nonyachting (nonsailing) people usually think of the term. Technically, the word yacht excludes

Kafr Ash-shaykh

Also spelled �Kafr El-sheikh� muhafazah (governorate) in the central Nile Delta, Lower Egypt, with the Rosetta Branch of the river to the west and ad-Daqahliyah governorate to the east. It was created in 1949 out of al-Gharbiyah muhafazah, just south, and named Fu'adiyah muduiyah (province) after Fu'ad I, sultan (1917 - 22) and king (1922 - 36) of Egypt. After the Egyptian monarchy was overthrown in 1952, the area was renamed in 1955. Buhayrat al-Burullus, which

Zach, Franz Xaver, Freiherr Von

Zach built an observatory on the Seeberg near Gotha and directed the observatory - one of the most important of the time - from 1791, when it was completed, until 1806. During this period Zach enlisted 24 astronomers throughout Europe in making a systematic

Coase, Ronald

Coase attended the London School of Economics, where he received a bachelor of commerce degree in 1932 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1951. He was employed at various universities, including the London School of Economics (1935 - 51), the University of Buffalo, New York

Wolf Spider

Also called �Ground Spider, or Hunting Spider, � any member of the spider family Lycosidae (order Araneida), a large and widespread group. They are named for the wolflike habit of chasing and pouncing upon prey. About 125 species occur in North America, about 50 in Europe. Numerous species occur north of the Arctic Circle. Most are small to medium-sized. The largest has a body about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long and legs about the same

Skara

Town, V�stra G�taland l�n (county), south-central Sweden, southeast of Lake V�nern. One of Sweden's oldest towns, it was a religious centre both before and after the arrival of Christianity. In 1015 it became the seat of Sweden's first bishop. The cathedral was built in the 12th century and has been restored several times. One of Sweden's earliest secondary schools was established

Abd�lhak H�mid

Born into a family of famous scholars, H�mid was educated in Istanbul and in Paris. Later in Tehran, he studied Arabic and Persian poetry.

Mental Disorder, Minor affective disorders

Dysthmic disorder, or depressive

Dozy, Reinhart Pieter (anne)

Dutch Arabist, best remembered for his monumental Histoire des musulmans d'Espagne, jusqu'� la conqu�te de l'Andalousie par les Almoravides, 711 - 1110 (1861; Spanish Islam, 1913). Dozy, of French Huguenot ancestry, spent 33 years (from 1850) as professor of history at the University of Leiden. His history, a graphically written account of Moorish dominion in Spain that

Kodiak Island

Island, southern Alaska, U.S. It lies in the Gulf of Alaska and is separated from the Alaska Peninsula by Shelikof Strait. Kodiak Island is 100 miles (160 km) long and 10 - 60 miles (16 - 96 km) wide. It has an area of 3,588 square miles (9,293 square km). Heavily forested in the higher eastern regions and covered with grasses in lower areas, it is primarily hilly (exceeding 5,000 feet [1,500 metres] near the eastern coast). The

Itasca, Lake

The fur trader William Morrison was reputedly

Itasca, Lake

The fur trader William Morrison was reputedly

Space Charge

Electrical charge distributed through a three-dimensional region. In an electron tube, for example, a negative charge results because electrons that are emitted from the cathode do not travel instantaneously to the plate (anode) but require a finite time for the trip. These electrons form a cloud around the cathode, the cloud being continually depleted by electrons

Allison, William B.

Allison practiced law in his hometown of Ashland, Ohio, and (from 1857) in Dubuque, Iowa. In the House of Representatives he was a partisan of railroad interests,

Andisol

One of the 12 soil orders in the U.S. Soil Taxonomy. Andisols are defined by the single property of having volcanic-ash parent material. Although these soils exist in all climatic regions, they account for less than 0.75 percent of all the nonpolar continental land area on Earth. Approximately reproducing the geographic distribution of volcanoes, they are found along the

Bela�nde Terry, Fernando

Bela�nde, a member of a distinguished aristocratic Peruvian family, studied architecture in the United States and France in 1924 - 35 and practiced briefly in Mexico before returning in 1936 to Peru, where he became a noted architect