Dong Nai River

Also called �Donnai River�, Vietnamese �Song Dong Nai� river rising in the central highlands (Annamese Cordillera) of southern Vietnam, northwest of Da Lat. Near its source the river has rapids and is known as the Da Dung River. It flows west and southwest for about 300 miles (480 km), joining the Saigon River southwest of Bien Hoa. At the rapids of Tri An, west of Dinh Quan, it is joined by the Be River. The Nhim, an important upper tributary,

Nacaome

City, southern Honduras, on the seasonally dry Nacaome River. It was founded in 1535 and given city status in 1845. Its colonial church, rebuilt in 1867, still stands. Nacaome is a manufacturing and commercial centre. Cement products are made in the city, which also contains tanneries. The surrounding agricultural lands yield principally sesame and cotton. Gold and silver are mined

Osage

North American Indian tribe of the Dhegiha branch of the Siouan linguistic stock. They are now concentrated on a reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. Like other members of this subgroup (the Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, and Quapaw), the Osage migrated westward from the Atlantic coast, settling first in the Piedmont Plateau between the James and Savannah rivers in Virginia

Ma Yuan

It was in landscape painting that Ma's genius lay. He executed a number of large landscape screens, all of which are now lost. He also painted tall, hanging scrolls in which, according to an early Chinese writer, �there are steep mountains rising imposingly, with streams winding around them and waterfalls partly hidden among the trees.� The author also wrote that Ma made

Murakami Haruki

As a boy, Murakami rebelled against the study of Japanese literature, instead reading American paperbacks. This early and sustained interest is evident in the structure and nontraditional style of his own novels. His first internationally

Waitaki River

River in central South Island, New Zealand. Streams issuing from Lakes Ohau, Pukaki, and Tekapo in the Southern Alps form the Waitaki (Maori: �Weeping Waters�), which, draining a 4,565-square-mile (11,823-square-kilometre) basin, flows southeast for 130 miles (209 km) to enter the Pacific at Glenavy, about 70 miles (113 km) north of Dunedin. The Waitaki River Power Development, which includes several large

Appleton, Sir Edward Victor

Educated

John

Byname �John Lackland, �French �Jean Sans Terre� king of England from 1199 to 1216. In a war with the French king Philip II, he lost Normandy and almost all his other possessions in France. In England, after a revolt of the barons, he was forced to seal the Magna Carta (1215).

Reston

Urban community, in Fairfax county, northeastern Virginia, U.S. It lies adjacent to Herndon, 22 miles (35 km) west-northwest of Washington, D.C. The community was developed after 1962 by Robert E. Simon, whose initials form the first syllable of its name; it opened in 1965. Reston, an original concept in urban planning, consists of a number of villages (separated by woodland tracts), each with

Visitador

The institution of the

Genetic Disease, Human, Ethical issues

Because many couples choose to terminate a pregnancy when the fetus is found to be carrying a severe genetic disorder, prenatal diagnosis has become entangled in the ethical debate that surrounds elective abortion. It is regrettable that to many people intrauterine diagnosis is synonymous with abortion, which it is not. The vast majority of women who have genetic

Mabini, Apolinario

Born into a peasant family, Mabini studied at San Juan de Letran College in Manila and won a law degree from the University of Santo Tom�s in 1894. In an insurrection organized in August 1896 by nationalists, he joined the

Abbot, Charles Greeley

An informal autobiography is provided by Charles Greeley Abbot, Adventures in the World of Science (1958). David H. DeVorkin, �Charles Greeley Abbot,� in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 73, pp. 3 - 23 (1998), is a short biography; and David H. DeVorkin, �Defending a Dream: Charles Greeley Abbot's Years at the Smithsonian,� Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. 21, part 1, no. 63, pp. 121 - 136 (February 1990), discusses Abbot's influence on the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Cuckoopint

The cuckoopint grows from a whitish rootstock, which

Yermolova, Maria Nikolayevna

Yermolova was trained at the Moscow Theatre School and made her debut at age 17 in the title role of Gotthold Lessing's Emilia Galotti at the Maly Theatre (1870). Her interpretation of Emilia as

Kirkwood Gaps

Interruptions that appear in the distribution of asteroids where the orbital period of any small body present would be a simple fraction of that of Jupiter. Several zones of low density in the minor-planet population were noticed about 1860 by Daniel Kirkwood, an American mathematician and astronomer, who explained the gaps as resulting from perturbations by Jupiter.

Yukon Territory, Flag Of

The flag was adopted by the Territorial Council in 1967. Its unequal vertical stripes are referred to as a �Canadian pale� because they correspond to those in the Canadian national flag. (In heraldry, a pale is a central vertical stripe on a shield, normally covering one-third or less of the area.) The green stripe in the Yukon flag is for the territory's forests, while the blue

Balas Ruby

Variety of the gemstone ruby spinel (q.v.).

Abd�lmecid I

Well educated, liberal minded, and the first sultan

Quine, Willard Van Orman

After studying mathematics and logic at Oberlin College (1926 - 30), Quine won a scholarship to Harvard University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1932. On a traveling fellowship to Europe

Military Affairs

The security situation in the Serbian province of Kosovo deteriorated in January when Yugoslav army and special police troops escalated their offensive against the Kosovar Albanians. Under pressure from the six-nation Contact Group, the two sides met at Rambouillet, near Paris, France, in February and March to seek a peace agreement. The Kosovar Albanian delegation

Mason, Bobbie Ann

Mason was reared on a dairy farm and first experienced life outside rural Kentucky when she traveled throughout the Midwest as the teenage president of the fan club for a pop quartet, the Hilltoppers. She graduated from the University of Kentucky, Lexington

Medicine, Teaching

Physicians in developed countries frequently prefer posts in hospitals with medical schools. Newly qualified physicians want to work there because doing so will aid their future careers, though the actual experience may be wider and better in a hospital without a medical school. Senior physicians seek careers in hospitals with medical schools because consultant,

Coral Sea

Sea of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, extending east of Australia and New Guinea, west of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, and south of the Solomon Islands. It is about 1,400 miles (2,250 km) north-south and 1,500 miles east-west and covers an area of 1,849,800 square miles (4,791,000 square km). To the south it merges with the Tasman Sea, to the north with the Solomon Sea, and to the east with the Pacific; it is connected

Viscometer

Instrument for measuring the viscosity (resistance to internal flow) of a fluid. In one version, the time taken for a given volume of fluid to flow through an opening is recorded. In the capillary tube viscometer, the pressure needed to force the fluid to flow at a specified rate through a narrow tube is measured. Other types depend on measurements of the time taken for

Caucasian Languages, The Lak-Dargin languages

Lak (also spelled Lakk, with some 100,000 speakers) and Dargin (or Dargwa, with 350,000) are spoken in the central part of Dagestan. Both are written languages. The Lak language is quite homogeneous with regard to its dialects; Dargin, however, possesses several diversified dialects - sometimes considered as separate languages (e.g., Kubachi). Some view Lak and Dargin as independent language

Techno

Influenced by Kraftwerk's Teutonic electro-pop and Alvin

Qatar, Health and welfare

Health care and medical services are provided free to all residents through government programs. The government also funds recreational and cultural clubs and facilities for young people as part of its extensive �youth welfare� campaign.

Kabba

Town, Kogi state, south-central Nigeria, in the Yoruba Hills (elevation 1,300 feet [400 m]). It lies near the Osse River, at the intersection of roads from Lokoja, Okene, Ikare, Ado-Ekiti, and Egbe. Kabba is a trade centre for the yams, cassava, corn (maize), sorghum, shea nuts, peanuts (groundnuts), beans, cotton, and woven cloth produced by the Yoruba, Igbira, and Bunu (Kabba) peoples of the surrounding