Ciskei

Also called �Xhosa-ciskei, or Xosa-ciskei, � former republic (though never internationally recognized as such) that was inhabited principally by Xhosa-speaking people in southern Africa. It bordered the Indian Ocean on the southeast and was bounded by the Republic of South Africa on the southwest, northwest, and northeast. A fingerlike extension of South African territory on the northeast separated Ciskei

Arts, Central Asian, Nomadic cultures

During the 1st millennium BC and the 1st centuries of the Christian era, certain nomadic tribes affected the course of Central Asia's artistic history. Cyrus II the Great, the ancient Persian king who founded the Achaemenian Empire, was killed by the nomadic Massagetai when campaigning in eastern Iran in 530 BC. At the time, the Saka tribe was pasturing its herds in the Pamirs, central

Levitsky, Ivan

Pseudonym of �Ivan Nechuy-levitsky, �also spelled �Nech�i-lev�tsky, or Necuj-levyc'kyj� Ukrainian Realist novelist of the postserfdom reform period. He drew upon his background as a seminary student and, later, a provincial teacher, to depict the educated and lower classes in some of the earliest social novels in Ukrainian literature. His works include Prichepa (1869; �The

Disasters

March 20, Dhaka, Bangladesh. A gas cylinder belonging to a balloon

Amursk

City, Khabarovsk kray (region), far eastern Russia. It lies on the left bank of the Amur River, 25 miles (40 km) south of Komsomolsk-na-Amure. Founded in 1958, Amursk became one of the fastest growing towns in the far eastern Soviet Union. Its wood-processing complex, opened in 1967, is one of the largest in Russia and produces wood pulp, container board, and fibreboard. The industry is expected

Altruism

In ethics, a theory of conduct that regards the good of others as the end of moral action. The term (French altruisme, derived from Latin alter, �other�) was coined in the 19th century by Auguste Comte, the founder of Positivism, and adopted generally as a convenient antithesis to egoism. As a theory of conduct, its adequacy depends on an interpretation of �the good.� If the term

Muhammadiyah

Socioreligious organization in Indonesia, established in 1912 at Jogjakarta, aimed at adapting Islam to modern Indonesian life. The organization was chiefly inspired by an Egyptian reform movement, led by Muhammad 'Abduh, that had tried to bring the Muslim faith into harmony with modern rational thought. The Muhammadiyah advocated the abolition of all superstitious

Skaz

The word is of Russian origin and literally means �tale�; it is derived from skazat,

United States, Domestic affairs

The cost of living continued to rise, until by June 1970 it was 30 percent above the 1960 level; industrial production declined, as did the stock market. By mid-1971 unemployment reached a 10-year peak of 6 percent, and inflation continued. Wage and price controls were instituted, the dollar was devalued, and the limitation on the national debt was raised three times in 1972 alone. The U.S. trade deficit improved, but inflation remained unchecked.

Kern, Johann Conrad

A lawyer and doctor of jurisprudence, Kern was, after 1837, the guiding spirit of Thurgau's cantonal government, especially in the administration of justice. As deputy to the national Diet, he was almost alone in opposing (1838) the extradition

Henry I

Byname �Henry The Fat, �Spanish �Enrique El Gordo, �French �Henri Le Gros� king of Navarre (1270 - 74) and count (as Henry III) of Champagne. Henry was the youngest son of Theobald I of Navarre by Margaret of Foix. He succeeded his eldest brother, Theobald II (Thibaut V), in both kingdom and countship in December 1270. By his marriage (1269) to Blanche, daughter of Robert I of Artois and niece of Louis IX of France, he had one daughter, Joan, whom, by the

Economic Affairs

For the American

Dog, Skeletal structure

The skeletal frame of the dog consists of 319 bones. If a dog's tail is docked or absent at birth, there obviously are fewer bones in the skeleton. The muscles and tendons of a dog are similar to those of a human; however, a dog's upper body muscles bear half the weight of the entire body and are better developed than a human's. The weight distribution between the front and the rear

Karab�

Town, northwestern Turkey, on the Yenice River. Once a small hamlet, it has grown rapidly since the establishment of Turkey's first major iron and steel complex there in 1940. The works were expanded greatly in the 1950s and '60s. Facilities include a coking plant, blast furnaces, a foundry, and tube works; chemical plants produce sulfuric acid and phosphates. The mills receive coal

Rammed Earth

Building material made by compacting certain soils, used by many civilizations. The most durable of the earth-building forms, rammed earth may be used for making building blocks or for constructing whole walls in place, layer by layer. In making building blocks, the soil is rammed into a box-shaped mold. In building up whole walls, two wooden planks separated by a spacer

Suid

Any member of the family Suidae, hoofed mammals, order Artiodactyla, including the wild and domestic pigs. Suids are stout animals with small eyes and coarse, sometimes sparse, hair. All have muzzles ending in a rounded cartilage disk used to dig for food. Some species have tusks. Suids are omnivorous and usually gregarious. Females bear

Ear, Human, Transduction of mechanical vibrations

The hair cells located in the organ of Corti transduce mechanical sound vibrations into nerve impulses. They are stimulated when the basilar membrane, on which the organ of Corti rests, vibrates. The hair cells are held in place by the reticular lamina, a rigid structure supported by the pillar cells, or rods of Corti, which are attached to the basilar fibres. At the base

Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett

Refused admission to medical schools, Anderson began in 1860 to study privately with accredited physicians and in London hospitals and was licensed to practice in 1865 by the Society of Apothecaries. She was appointed (1866) general

Luther V. Borden

In the spring of 1842, Rhode Island had two governors and two legislatures. One government was committed to retaining the old colonial charter, which severely limited voting rights, as the state's constitution. The other government, led by Thomas W. Dorr and providing for white

Astor Family

John Jacob Astor (1763 - 1848), the founder of the family fortune, is covered in a separate article: see Astor, John Jacob. His son, William Backhouse Astor (1792 - 1875), who inherited the major portion of the estate, continued his father's program of investing in Manhattan

East Flanders

Flemish �Oost-Vlaanderen�, French �Flandre Orientale� province, northwestern Belgium, extending southward from the Netherlands border. Drained by the Leie, Schelde (Escaut or Scheldt), and Dender (Dendre) rivers, it is divided into six administrative arrondissements (Aalst, Dendermonde, Eeklo, Ghent, Oudenaarde, and Sint-Niklaas). It was formerly part of the old principality of Flanders, other parts of which are contained

Polish Literature, Literature after 1945

The impact of World War II, the experience of occupation, and the establishment of the People's Republic in 1945 decisively affected the character of literature in Poland and also produced a number of �migr� writers who had become famous between World Wars I and II. Among the latter were lyrical poets of the Skamander group, former associates of the Awangarda movement,

Orl�ans, Louis-philippe-robert, Duc D' (duke Of)

The eldest son of Louis-Philippe-Albert, comte de Paris, and great-grandson of King Louis-Philippe, Orl�ans was banished from France in 1886 as a threat to the republican regime. Returning in 1890, he was arrested and given a prison sentence but was released after a few months

Earwig

Any insect of the order Dermaptera (about 1,100 species), characterized by large membranous hindwings that lie hidden under short, leathery forewings. The earwig varies from 5 to 50 millimetres (0.2 to 2 inches) in length and is flat, slender, and dark coloured. It has a shiny outer covering and simple biting mouthparts, and it undergoes incomplete metamorphosis (i.e., egg, nymph, and adult

Dome Of The Rock

Arabic �Qubbat as-Sakhrah � shrine in Jerusalem that is the oldest extant Islamic monument. The rock over which the shrine was built is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, is traditionally believed to have ascended into heaven from the site. In Jewish tradition, it is here that Abraham, the progenitor and first patriarch of the Hebrew people, is said to have prepared

Furniture, Transitional modern

Conservative in style (but not imitative), well-constructed, and carefully finished, the best modern furniture earned its reputation of being in good, correct taste. Often relying on handcraft details and on wood, most factories used speeded-up variations of earlier cabinetmaking operations. This, along with the United States' emphasis on artificially stimulated

Alexander Balas

The pretended son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, he won the Seleucid throne with the help of mercenaries, challenging and slaying Demetrius I Soter, the direct Seleucid heir. With the support of the Roman Senate and the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, he ruled the remains of the Seleucid

Quantum Mechanics, Electron spin and antiparticles

In 1928 the English physicist Paul A.M. Dirac produced a wave equation for the electron that combined relativity with quantum mechanics. Schr�dinger's wave equation does not satisfy the requirements of the special theory of relativity because it is based on a nonrelativistic expression for the kinetic energy (p2/2me). Dirac showed that an electron has an additional quantum

Insurance, Major types of fidelity bonds

Fidelity bonds differ according to whether specific persons are named as principals or whether all employees or persons are covered as a group. The latter are most frequently used by employers with a large number of employees, because they offer automatic coverage on given classes of workers, including new employees, and greater ease of administration, including

Typhoon

Local name in the western North Pacific area for any large, traveling tropical cyclone (q.v.).

Pesne, Antoine

His father, the painter Thomas Pesne, and his maternal great-uncle, Charles de La Fosse, were probably his first teachers. While studying in Paris, he was influenced by the leading French