SuddenFace

Monday, February 28, 2005

Baramula

Town in the northwestern part of the Indian-held sector of Jammu and Kashmir state, in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. It is situated on the Jhelum River about 7 miles (11 km) beyond the river's emergence from Wular Lake. Located some 28 miles (45 km) west and slightly north of Srinagar, the capital of the Indian-held sector of Jammu and Kashmir, Baramula is surrounded by

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Cosin, John

Cosin was named a chaplain of Durham Cathedral (1619) and subsequently wrote the famed Collection of Private

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Johannesen, Knut

In addition to numerous Olympic medals and world records, Johannesen won acclaim for regaining Norway's dominance in speed skating and for being the first skater ever to complete 10,000 metres in less than 16 minutes. He accomplished the latter feat

Friday, February 25, 2005

Fustel De Coulanges, Numa Denis

After studying at the �cole Normale Sup�rieure, he was sent to the French school at Athens in 1853 and directed some excavations at Chios. From 1860 to 1870 he was professor of history at the faculty of letters at the University of Strasbourg, where he had a

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Pauli Exclusion Principle

Subatomic

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Swabian Alp

German �Sw�bische Alb, � continuation of the Jura Mountains in Baden-W�rttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. The upland plateau extends approximately 100 miles (160 km) from the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) to the W�rnitz River at an average elevation of about 2,300 feet (700 m). The plateau rises in a steep northwestern scarp some 1,300 feet (400 m) above the valleys of the Neckar, Rems, and Fils rivers to its highest

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

'alawite

The roots of 'Alawism lie in the teachings of Muhammad ibn Nusayr an-Namiri (fl. 850), a Basran contemporary of the 10th Shi'ite imam, and the sect was chiefly established by Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi (d. 957 or 968) during the period of the Hamdanid dynasty (905 - 1004), at which time the 'Alawites had great influence in Aleppo. With the fall of

Monday, February 21, 2005

Columbus, Christopher, Early career and preparation for the first voyage

Little is known of Columbus's early life. The vast majority of scholars, citing Columbus's testament of 1498 and archival documents from Genoa and Savona, believe that he was born in Genoa to a Christian household; however, it has been claimed that he was a converted Jew or that he was born in Spain, Portugal, or elsewhere. Columbus was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, a Genoese

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Biblical Literature, The Nevi'im

The model of the Pentateuch probably encouraged the assemblage and ordering of the literature of the prophets. The Exile of the Jews to Bablylonia in 587/586 and the restoration half a century later enhanced the prestige of the prophets as national figures and aroused interest in the written records of their teachings. The canonization of the Nevi'im could not have taken

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Matthau, Walter

Born into a family of Jewish-Russian immigrants, he was compelled to work at a very early age. By the time he was 11, he was employed at the concession stand in a Lower East Side Yiddish theatre. To pick up extra money, he began playing bit

Friday, February 18, 2005

Ghent-bruges School

Group of manuscript illuminators and scribes active during the last quarter of the 15th and first part of the 16th centuries, principally in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Bruges. Credit for founding the tradition that included such masters as Nicolas Spierinc, Li�vin van Lathem, Alexander and Simon Bening, and Gerard Horenbout was formerly given to the Master of Mary

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Kabul

Persian �Kabol � capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It lies along the Kabul River at an elevation of about 5,900 feet (1,800 metres) in the east-central part of the country. The nation's cultural and economic centre, the city lies in a triangular valley between the two steep Asmai and Sherdawaza mountain ranges. Roads connect it with most other areas of Afghanistan, with Uzbekistan to the north,

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Zulu Language

A Bantu language spoken by more than nine million people mainly in South Africa, especially in the Zululand area of KwaZulu/Natal province. The Zulu language is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Other Southeastern Bantu languages are Xhosa, Swati (Swazi), Sotho, Tswana, Venda,

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Ovule

Plant structure that develops into a seed when fertilized. In gymnosperms (conifers and allies) the ovules lie uncovered on the scales of the cone. In angiosperms (flowering plants), one or more ovules are enclosed by the ovary (portion of the carpel, or female reproductive organ). Each ovule is attached by its base to the stalk (funiculus) that bears it. A mature angiosperm

Monday, February 14, 2005

Salatiga

Kotamadya (municipality), Jawa Tengah provinsi (�province�), Java, Indonesia. The city lies 35 miles (56 km) north-northeast of Yogyakarta, at the foot of Mount Merbabu. At an elevation of 1,916 feet (584 m), it is a well laid out city that stands in the midst of fruit- and vegetable-growing highlands. The nearby hills are covered with plantations of rubber and coffee, and rice fields stretch before

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Moss Animal

The Bryozoa have a long history. From the Lower Ordovician (500,000,000 to 430,000,000 years ago) onward, most limestone formations, especially those with shale alternations, are rich in bryozoan fossils. The skeletons of calcified bryozoans are easily preserved. Stenolaemates are abundant fossils; after their appearance in the Upper Jurassic (140,000,000 years ago), cheilostome fossils also are abundant.

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Charter Oath

Also called �Imperial Oath Of Five Articles, �Japanese �Gokajo No Goseimon, � in Japanese history, statement of principle promulgated on April 6, 1868, by the emperor Meiji after the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and the restoration of direct participation in government by the imperial family. The Charter Oath opened the way for the modernization of the country and the introduction of a Western parliamentary constitution. The five articles

Friday, February 11, 2005

Kaziranga National Park

National park in Sibsagar district, Assam state, northeastern India, situated on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra River, 60 mi (97 km) west of Jorhat on the main road to Gauhati. Established in 1908 as a game reserve, it became a national park in 1974. It has an area of 165 sq mi (430 sq km) and lies between the Brahmaputra River and the Mikir Hills. Much of the park is marshland interspersed with large

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Athanasius The Athonite, Saint

Originally named Abraham, he took the monastic name of Athanasius when he retired to Mt. Athos after forsaking the sophisticated, urban monastic life in Constantinople;

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm

Hengstenberg studied at Bonn and at Berlin, where he was professor of theology most of his life. In 1827 he founded the Evangelische Kirchen-Zeitung (�Protestant

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Spahn, Warren

In full� Warren Edward Spahn � American professional baseball player whose total of 363 major-league victories established a record for left-handed pitchers. His feat of winning 20 or more games in each of 13 seasons also was a record for left-handers. He set still another mark by striking out at least 100 batters each year for 17 consecutive seasons

Monday, February 07, 2005

Antarctica

The 40 Antarctic Treaty nations met in Italy in November

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Faesi, Robert

Faesi combined his literary activity with a professorship of German literature at the University of Z�rich from 1922 to 1953. His poems in the collections Aus der Brandung (1917; �From

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Seljuq

During the 10th-century migrations of the Turkish peoples from Central Asia and southeast Russia,

Friday, February 04, 2005

Kodaira

City, Tokyo Metropolis (to), Honshu, Japan, in the Musashino Plateau, on the Shinjuku Line (railway). The surrounding area was developed as an agricultural region after the construction of a water supply system in the mid-1600s. The long, rectangular fields were planted with mulberry trees (for silk production) in the early 20th century, and Kodaira grew as a residential suburb

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Pueblo Indians

The historic descendants of the prehistoric Anasazi peoples (see Anasazi culture) who live in several locations in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico in compact, permanent settlements known as pueblos (Spanish pueblo, �village� or �town�). Just as there was considerable regional diversity among the prehistoric Anasazi, there is similar diversity,

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Voting Rights Act

U.S. legislation (August 6, 1965) that aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

China, The Dzungarian Basin

North of the Tarim Basin is another large depression, the Dzungarian. It is enclosed by the Tien Shan on the south, while to the northeast it is cut off from the Mongolian People's Republic by the Altai Mountains. The surface of the basin is flat, with a gentle slope to the southwest. The larger portion of the land lies at elevations between 1,000 and 1,500 feet, and in the lowest part