Astrakhan

Formerly �Khadzhi-tarkhan, � city and administrative centre of Astrakhan oblast (province), southwestern Russia. Astrakhan city is situated in the delta of the Volga River, 60 miles (100 km) from the Caspian Sea. It lies on several islands on the left bank of the main, westernmost channel of the Volga. Astrakhan was formerly the capital of a Tatar khanate, a remnant of the Golden Horde, located on the higher

Astrakhan

The C

Art For Art's Sake

A slogan translated from the French l'art pour l'art, which was coined in the early 19th century by the French philosopher Victor Cousin. The phrase expresses the belief held by many writers and artists, especially those associated with Aestheticism, that art needs no justification, that it need serve no political, didactic, or other end.

Tall Za'tar

Also called �Za�tar, � former Palestinian refugee camp, Jabal Lubnan muhafazah (governorate), central Lebanon, north of Beirut, near Nabay. The camp was the last large Muslim outpost in the midst of the predominantly Christian inhabited area of north Lebanon and had a population estimated at 15,000 in the mid-1970s. During the Lebanese civil war (that began in the spring of 1975) between Muslims and Christians,

Rouault, Georges

Rouault was born in a cellar in Paris during a bombardment of the city by the forces opposed to the Commune. His father was a cabinetmaker. A grandfather

Colbert, Claudette

Colbert moved with her family to New York City about 1910. While studying fashion design, she landed a small role in the Broadway play The Wild Westcotts (1923) after

Ijssel River

River of The Netherlands, an important distributary of the Rhine River. It leaves the Lower Rhine (Neder Rijn) just southeast of Arnhem and flows northeastward for 70 miles (113 km) to enter the IJsselmeer (a lake formed from the old Zuiderzee) between the Northeast (Noordoost) and East Flevoland polders. The river is navigable and slow-moving and deposits much silt. Zutphen,

Segovia Aqueduct

Byname �El Puente (Spanish: �The Bridge�),� water-conveyance structure built under the Roman emperor Trajan (reigned AD 98 - 117) and still in use; it carries water 10 miles (16 km) from the Fr�o River to the city of Segovia, Spain. One of the best-preserved Roman engineering works, it was built of some 24,000 dark-coloured Guadarrama granite blocks without the use of mortar. The aboveground portion is 2,388 feet (728 metres) long and consists of some

Abel, Niels Henrik

Abel's father was a poor Lutheran minister who moved his family to the parish of Gjerstad, near the town of Ris�r in southeast Norway, soon after Niels Henrik was born. In 1815 Niels entered the cathedral school

Femur

Also called �thighbone� upper bone of the leg or hindleg. The head forms a ball-and-socket joint with the hip (at the acetabulum), being held in place by a ligament (ligamentum teres femoris) within the socket and by strong surrounding ligaments. In humans the neck of the femur connects the shaft and head at a 125� angle, which is efficient for walking. A prominence

Osasco

City, southeastern S�o Paulo estado (�state�), Brazil. Located at 2,360 feet (720 m) above sea level, Osasco lies along the Tiet� River. It is 12 miles (20 km) northwest of S�o Paulo city, the state capital, and is part of its metropolitan area. Osasco has experienced extremely rapid growth owing to the increasing concentration of heavy industry in the suburban regions of S�o Paulo, bringing

Middleton, Arthur

After completing his education in England, Middleton returned to South Carolina in 1763 and was elected to the colonial legislature. In 1775 - 76 he was a member of the Council

Kadare, Ismail

Albanian poet and novelist Ismail Kadare, a resident of Paris since 1990, was hard at work in 1997 revising his collected works, which were being published--some for the first time--in both French and Albanian. His 1978 historical novel Ura me tri harqe was translated into English as The Three-Arched Bridge (1991) and received critical acclaim. Kadare's self-imposed exile brought him a freedom

Argentina, The Videla regime and the Dirty War

Five days after the coup a three-man military junta filled the presidency with Lieutenant General Jorge Rafa�l Videla. The junta closed Congress, imposed censorship, banned trade unions, and brought state and municipal government under military control. Meanwhile Videla initiated the infamous Process of National Reorganization, known subsequently as the

Argentina, The Videla regime and the Dirty War

Five days after the coup a three-man military junta filled the presidency with Lieutenant General Jorge Rafa�l Videla. The junta closed Congress, imposed censorship, banned trade unions, and brought state and municipal government under military control. Meanwhile Videla initiated the infamous Process of National Reorganization, known subsequently as the

'abbadid Dynasty

In 1023 the qadi (religious judge) Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn 'Abbad declared Sevilla independent of C�rdoba. His son Abu 'Amr 'Abbad, known as al-Mu'tadid (1042 - 69), greatly enlarged his territory by forcibly

Lancaster

Lancaster grew on the site of a Roman station, and traces of the Roman fortification walls remain. In the 11th century a feudal landowner, Roger of Poitou, founded or enlarged a castle on an eminence there and also

Distortion

In acoustics and electronics, any change in a signal that alters the basic waveform or the relationship between various frequency components; it is usually a degradation of the signal. Straight amplification or attenuation without alteration of the waveform is not usually considered to be distortion. Amplitude distortion refers to unequal amplification

Boii

A Celtic tribe, one section of which settled in Cisalpine Gaul around Bononia (Bologna, Italy) and another in what was later Bohemia, to which it gave its name. The Cisalpine group, after struggling against the Romans throughout the 3rd century BC, was subdued and made a Latin colony in 191 BC. The second group, which joined with another Celtic tribe, the Helvetii, to invade Gaul, was

Lupine

The

Madagascar, Plant and animal life

Much of the island was once covered with evergreen and deciduous forest, but little now remains except on the eastern escarpment and in scattered pockets in the west. The plateau is particularly denuded and suffers seriously from erosion. The forest has been cut in order to clear rice fields, to obtain fuel and building materials, and to export valuable timber, such

Magnoliales

Magnolia order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Magnoliidae. The order, which is generally regarded as including the most primitive angiosperms, contains 10 families, 181 genera, and about 3,050 species. All are woody shrubs, climbers, or trees. The families are Winteraceae, Degeneriaceae, Himantandraceae, Eupomatiaceae, Austrobaileyaceae, Magnoliaceae,

Guchkov, Aleksandr Ivanovich

The son of a wealthy Moscow merchant, Guchkov studied at the universities of Moscow and Berlin, traveled widely, fought against the British in the South African (Boer) War (1899 - 1902), and headed the Russian Red Cross during the Russo-Japanese

Saxony

German �Sachsen, � Land (state), eastern Germany. Saxony Land was re-created in the process of the reunification of East with West Germany in 1990 from the former East German Bezirke (districts) of Dresden, Chemnitz (formerly Karl-Marx-Stadt), and most of Leipzig, along with a small part of Cottbus Bezirk. The East German Bezirke had themselves been created in 1952 from historic Saxony. The current territory

Salem

Town, north-central Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. It is on the Tirumanimuttar River near Attur Gap between the Kalrayan and Pachamalai hills. Situated at the junction of the Bangalore, Tiruchchirappalli, and Cuddalore roads, 200 miles (332 km) southwest of Madras, the town's name derives from sela nad (a corruption of cera nad), a term denoting the visit of an early Cera king. Well-known

Znojmo

German �Znaim, � city, Jihomoravsk� kraj (region), Czech Republic, on the Dyje River, southwest of Brno, near the Austrian border. It originated in the 11th century as a fortified residence and was the stronghold of the Premyslid princes until the mid-13th century. Many medieval buildings, as well as houses of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, are preserved in the old town, which is designated

Binchois, Gilles

Binchois was in Paris in 1424 serving William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, and returned with him to Hainaut in 1425. In 1430 Binchois joined the chapel of Philip III

Tasmania, Soils

Most Tasmanian soils are leached, acidic, poorly drained, high in humus, and low in fertility. Least fertile and most extensive are the soils, especially the moor peats, of the west and northeast. Fertile areas occur extensively in the northwest and locally elsewhere, notably in the northeast. Brown earths occupy the drier areas east of the Central Plateau; black earths,