Europe, History Of, Aestheticism

To those who dedicated their lives to Symbolist literature and criticism the name of aesthetes is often given, for it was at this time, from 1870 to the end of the century, that questions of aesthetics became the intense concern of artists, critics, and a portion of the public. The phrase �art for art's sake,� which the Romanticists had toyed with, was revived and made the hallmark

Graves' Disease

Also called �toxic diffuse goitre�, or �exophthalmic goitre� endocrine disorder that is the most common type of hyperthyroidism, or thyrotoxicosis (oversecretion of thyroid hormone). In Graves' disease the excessive secretion of thyroid hormone is usually accompanied by diffuse primary overgrowth of the thyroid gland (which results in goitre) and by exophthalmos (protrusion of the eyeballs), with eyelid retraction and

Telephone And Telephone System

Facsimile, or fax, refers to the transmission of text or fixed images and drawings by wire or radio channels. Fax permits the transmission of a mix of documents - including handwriting, graphs, pictures, and maps - that often cannot be transmitted at all over other communications media. Although the concepts of fax were developed in the 19th century using contemporary

Abbe, Cleveland

Trained as an astronomer, he was appointed director of the Cincinnati (Ohio) Observatory in 1868. His interest gradually turned to meteorology, however, and he inaugurated a public weather service that served

Dunqulah

The historic town of Old Dunqulah (Dunqulah al-'Ajuz) was situated on the

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

Ushak Carpet

Floor covering handwoven in the city of Usak (Ushak), Tur. By the 16th century the principal manufacture in Ottoman Turkey of large commercial carpets had been established at Usak, which produced for palace and mosque use and for export. By the 18th and early 19th centuries, this manufacture had come increasingly under European control. The carpets became coarser and rougher,

Trichomycetes

Class of fungi (division Mycota) with a vegetative body (thallus) consisting of single or branched filaments (hyphae). The class was earlier subsumed under the group Phycomycetes (q.v.). Trichomycetes occur in the gut or on the cuticle (outer covering) of crabs, beach fleas, boring gribble, and other arthropods. Asexual reproduction occurs by the formation of saclike fruiting

Literature

Three novels were particularly eye-catching to the Chinese literati in 2001. The first was You Fengwei's Zhongguo 1957 (�China 1957�). Written in the first person, the novel told a series of tragic stories about the victims - mostly university students and teachers - of the antirightist campaign of 1957 in which more than 550,000 Chinese were

Sosigenes Of Alexandria

At the conclusion of the Roman civil war (49 - 45 BC), Caesar set out to replace the multitude of inaccurate and diverse

Beyer, Absalon Pederss�

Born on a farm, Beyer was adopted by a bishop after the death of his parents and educated at the universities of Copenhagen and Wittenberg, where he studied under the famous Protestant Reformation scholar Philipp Melanchthon. Beyer was a lecturer at the Bergen Cathedral

Aerospace Industry, Airships

All airships have four principal elements in common: a cigar-shaped bag, or balloon, filled with a lighter-than-air gas (usually hydrogen or helium); a passenger car, or gondola, attached beneath the bag; engines and propellers; and rudders to steer the craft. Three basic types of airships have been built. The nonrigid airship, or blimp, is basically a balloon from which the

Dench, Dame Judi

Dench studied at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art in London. In 1957 she gave her first important critically acclaimed performance, as Ophelia in the Old Vic production of Hamlet

Arts, Central Asian, Ghaznavids and Ghurids

Alp Tigin, a slave of Turkic origin at the Samanid court, escaped in AD 962 to Kabul, where he rapidly gained control of the town. He transferred his headquarters to Ghazna in central Afghanistan and established his dynasty there. Few Ghaznavid works of art have survived, but the admirably proportioned and decorated mortuary towers at Ghazna are architectural achievements

China

Despite China's size, the wealth of its resources, and the fact that more than 20 percent of the world's population lives within its borders, its role in the world economy traditionally has been relatively small. Since the late 1970s, however, when China decided to increase its interaction with the international economy, its role in world trade has steadily grown and its importance

Fusarium Wilt

Also called �Yellows, � widespread plant disease caused by many forms of the soil-inhabiting fungus Fusarium oxysporum. Several hundred plant species are susceptible at soil temperatures above 75� F (24� C). Infected plants are usually stunted; their leaves turn pale green to golden yellow and later wilt, wither, die, and drop off progressively upward from the stem base. Dark streaks occur in vascular

Hui-neng

As a young and illiterate peddler of firewood, Hui-neng heard the Chin-kang ching (�Diamond Sutra�) and traveled 500 miles (800 km) to the area in North China where the fifth Ch'an patriarch,

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway

An improved navigable waterway along the Gulf Coast of the United States, extending from Apalachee Bay, Florida, westward to the Mexican border at Brownsville, Texas, a distance of more than 1,100 miles (1,770 km). In part artificial, the waterway consists of a channel paralleling the coast behind barrier beaches, the channel being linked by a series of canals. The Gulf Intracoastal

Mulaydah, Battle Of Al-

The Wahhabi prince 'Abd Allah lost many of the territories that his father, Faysal (reigned 1834 - 65), had acquired by conquest

O'carolan, Turlough

The son of an iron founder, O'Carolan became blind from smallpox at the age of 18. He was befriended by Mrs. MacDermott Roe, the wife of his father's employer, who apprenticed

La Follette, Robert M

As a boy growing up in moderately prosperous rural areas, as a student at the University of Wisconsin (1875 - 79), as a county district attorney (1880 - 84) and congressman from southwestern Wisconsin, La Follette developed the personality and style that made him a popular leader. He combined an unusually outgoing personality, which made it natural for him to absorb the ideas and prejudices

Cystinosis

Inborn error of metabolism resulting in the deposition of crystals of the amino acid cystine in various body tissues. Tissues that are particularly affected include the bone marrow, liver, cornea (where the crystals can be seen), and kidney. When they are about six to nine months old, infants with cystinosis refuse to eat, grow poorly, and urinate excessively; these symptoms

Koussevitzky, Serge

Koussevitzky studied the double bass in Moscow, becoming a virtuoso, and in Russia, Germany, and England gave recitals at which he played his own compositions;

Astor, Mary

Astor's early career was

Indonesian Languages

Broadly, the Austronesian languages of island Southeast Asia as a whole, including the languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan, and the outlying areas of Madagascar and of Palau and the Mariana Islands of western Micronesia. A more restricted core area includes only the languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The term has been used

Ahmet Pasa Bursali

Born into a prominent family, Ahmet Pasa received a classical Islamic education and was appointed as a teacher in the madrasah (religious college) in the city of Bursa. In 1451 he became judge of the city of Edirne. With the accession of Sultan Mehmet II (1451 - 81), he became qadi 'asker (�military

Bales, Peter

A highly skilled copyist, Bales gained fame for his microscopic writing, producing a Bible about the size of a walnut. He inscribed a number of texts within a circumference about that of a penny, mounted this example of dexterous penmanship

Art And Architecture, Oceanic, The north

From the rain-forest country of northeastern Queensland comes an unusual type of shield, a large flat oval with somewhat asymmetrically curved sides. Most have a raised central boss. Designs above and below the boss radiate away from it and are outlined in black and infilled with red, white, and yellow. As usual, they refer to mythological beings and episodes. Paddles