Friday, December 31, 2004

Hillegom

Gemeente (commune), Zuid-Holland provincie, western Netherlands, on the Ringvaart, a canal around the Haarlemmermeer polder. With Lisse it is one of the two great commercial centres of Holland's bulb-growing district and is the site of the Treslong Demonstration Garden (1949) and bulb exchange. The annual Bulb Parade held on a Saturday in late April passes through Hillegom.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

'ud

Also spelled  Oud,   stringed musical instrument prominent in medieval and modern Islamic music. It was the parent of the European lute. The 'ud has a deep, pear-shaped body; a fretless fingerboard; and a relatively shorter neck and somewhat less acutely bent-back pegbox than the European lute. The tuning pegs are set in the sides of the pegbox. The gut strings, plucked with a plectrum, are fastened

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Turin Papyrus

Also called  Turin Papyrus Of Kings, or Turin Canon,   hieratic manuscript of the 19th dynasty of Egypt, listing the kings of Egypt from earliest times to the reign of Ramses II (1279–13 BC), under whom it was written. Although the papyrus, now in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, is in very fragmentary condition, it is still considered the most detailed and reliable of the existing Egyptian king lists. It lists not only names but also

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Locust

Species of short-horned grasshopper (orthopteran family Acrididae) that often increases greatly in number and migrates long distances in destructive swarms. In Europe the word locust connotes large size; smaller acridids are called grasshoppers. In North America the names locust and grasshopper are used for any acridid. A cicada (order Homoptera) also may be called

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Anziku, Kingdom Of

Also called  Kingdom of Teke,  or  Kingdom of Tyo,  historic African state on and north of the Congo River in the vicinity of Malebo Pool. The Teke people lived on the plateaus of the region from early times. It is not known when they organized as a kingdom, but by 1600 their state was a rival of the Kongo kingdom south of the river. Controlling the lower Congo River and extending northwest to the upper Kouilou-Niari basin, Anziku

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Ikeya-seki, Comet

One of a group of Sun-grazing comets having similar orbits and including the great comet known as 1882 II. Discovered Sept. 18, 1965, by two Japanese amateur astronomers, Ikeya Kaoru and Seki Tsutomu, Ikeya-Seki made its closest approach to the Sun (470,000 kilometres, or about 290,000 miles; less than the Sun's radius) on Oct. 21, 1965. The comet was then bright enough to be seen with the naked eye in daylight. Like

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Libya, Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Agriculture is limited by the environment and by shortages of labour. Only about 1 percent of the total land area is cultivated, mostly on the Al-Jifarah and Barce plains, and about one-tenth of that is irrigated. An additional 8 percent of the land is in pasture. Agricultural development by land reclamation and irrigation is a government priority. The largest projects

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Computers, Herman Hollerith's census tabulator

The U.S. Constitution mandates that a census of the population be performed every 10 years. The first attempt at any mechanization of the census was in 1870, when statistical data were transcribed onto a rolling paper tape displayed through a small slotted window. As the size of America's population exploded in the 19th century, and the number of census questions expanded, the

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Lockout

In the United States, lockouts became a common

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Uzbekistan

Officially  Republic of Uzbekistan , Uzbek  Uzbekiston , or  Uzbekistan Respublikasi  country in Central Asia. It lies mainly between two major rivers, the Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes River) on the northeast and the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River) on the southwest, though they only partly form its boundaries. Uzbekistan is bordered by Kazakstan on the northwest and north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on the east and southeast, Afghanistan on the south, and

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Sufetula

At Sufetula, as elsewhere in the interior of Tunisia, Roman skill in the conservation

Monday, December 06, 2004

Potassium-argon Dating

Method of determining the time of origin of rocks by measuring the ratio of radioactive argon to radioactive potassium in the rock. This dating method is based upon the decay of radioactive potassium-40 to radioactive argon-40 in minerals and rocks; potassium-40 also decays to calcium-40. Thus, the ratio of argon-40 and potassium-40 and radiogenic calcium-40 to potassium-40 in a mineral

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Cromwell, Richard

He served in the Parliamentary army and, during his father's protectorate, was a member of the Parliaments of 1654 and 1656. In 1655 he was

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Epistemology, Pre-Socratics

The central focus of ancient Greek philosophy was its attempt to solve the problem of motion. Many pre-Socratic philosophers thought that no logically coherent account of motion and change could be given. This problem was a concern of metaphysics, not epistemology, however, and in the present context it suffices merely to allude to the arguments of Parmenides and

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Abengourou

Town, eastern Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), on the road from Abidjan (the national capital) to Ghana. The major trading centre for a productive forest region, it is also the residence of the Anyi (Agni) paramount chief, who is the present king of Indénié (an Anyi kingdom founded in the mid-18th century). The king's official residence (built 1882) is decorated with Indénié relics and tapestries.