Pisces

(Latin: Fishes), in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying between Aries and Aquarius, at about 1 hour right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the Earth) and 15� north declination (angular distance north of the celestial equator). The vernal equinox, the point where the Sun's annual apparent path takes it north of the celestial

Regla

City, northern Ciudad de la Habana provincia, west-central Cuba. Situated on the southeastern shore of La Habana Bay, Regla was a centre for smuggling activities in the 19th century. It is now an industrial suburb of Havana, with which it is linked by ferry as well as by land. Its foundries, petroleum refineries, shipyards, docks, and warehouses suggest its importance as both

Saarinen, Eero

General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Mich. (1948 - 56); Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis, Mo. (1948 - 64); Milwaukee County War Memorial, Milwaukee (1953 - 57); Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Ind. (1953 - 58); Kresge Auditorium and chapel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. (1955); U.S. Embassy, Oslo (1955 - 59); U.S. Embassy, London (1955 - 60); Law School, University of Chicago (1956 - 60); Trans World Airlines terminal, John F. Kennedy Airport, New York City (1956 - 62); Thomas J. Watson Research Centre, IBM, Yorktown, N.Y. (1957 - 61); Deere

Hyalosiderite

Silicate mineral, a member of the forsterite - fayalite series (q.v.) of olivines.

Abu Nidal

Abu Nidal and his family fled Palestine after the 1948 war following the creation of the state

Devonian Period

Interval of the Paleozoic Era that follows the Silurian and precedes the Carboniferous. It is thought to have covered the span of time between about 408 and 360 million years ago (see Table). The Devonian is often divided into the Early Devonian Epoch (408 to 387 million years ago), Middle Devonian Epoch (387 to 374 million years ago), and Late Devonian Epoch (374 to 360 million years ago). The rocks that

Tannenberg, Battle Of

Polish and Lithuanian forces proceeding toward

China, Prosperity and progress

Hs�an-tsung's reign (712 - 756) was the high point of the T'ang dynasty. It was an era of wealth and prosperity that saw institutional progress along with a flowering of the arts. Political life was at first dominated by the bureaucrats recruited through the examination system who had staffed the central government under Wu-hou. But a gradual revival of the power of the great aristocratic

Social Protection, The 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For the first time, Amnesty International designated

Middle America

The isthmian tract between the southern Rocky Mountains and the northern tip of the Andes (or, generally, from the southern border of the United States to the northern border of Colombia), marking the territorial transition from North America to South America. The difference between this designation and �Central America� is that Middle America includes Mexico; sometimes

Ossetic Language

Eastern Iranian language spoken in the northern Caucasus by the Ossetes. There are two major dialects: (1) eastern, called Iron, and (2) western, called Digor. The majority of the Ossetes speak Iron, which is the basis of the literary language now written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Ossetic is the modern descendant of the language of the ancient Alani, a Sarmatian people, and the

Argentina, The radical regime, 1916 - 30

The Radical front was a coalition of heterogeneous social groups, whose competing interests slowed the passage of reforms, despite urgent calls for economic and social change. Not surprisingly, Irigoyen preferred to concentrate on the political ills he had inherited from the conservative regime. The most urgent measure involved political patronage, which

Armstrong

County, west-central Pennsylvania, U.S., bounded to the north by the Allegheny River and Redbank Creek and to the south by the Kiskiminetas River. It consists of a hilly region on the Allegheny Plateau, through which the Allegheny River has cut a deep valley roughly north-south in the western part of the county. Other waterways include Mahoning, Buffalo, and Crooked creeks,

La Junta

City, seat (1889) of Otero county, southeastern Colorado, U.S. It lies along the Arkansas River at the northern edge of the Comanche National Grassland, at an elevation of 4,052 feet (1,235 metres). Founded in 1875, it was first called Otero, after a Spanish settler; its present name is Spanish for �the junction,� referring to its location at the convergence of the old Santa Fe and Navajo trails. La Junta

Eagles, The

American band that cultivated country rock as the reigning style and sensibility of white youth in the United States during the 1970s. The original members were Don Henley (b. July 22, 1947, Gilmer, Texas, U.S.), Glenn Frey (b. November 6, 1948, Detroit, Michigan), Bernie Leadon (b. July 19, 1947, Minneapolis, Minnesota), and Randy Meisner (b. March 8, 1946, Scottsbluff, Nebraska). Later members included Don Felder (b. September

South America, Linguistic patterns

The linguistic diversity and multiplicity of South America probably is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Thousands of languages and dialects have been cataloged, including all those existing since the European conquest. Classification systems vary a great deal - from more than 100 �linguistic families� and many unrelated languages at one extreme to extremely

Gong

A circular metal plate-like percussion instrument having a turned-down rim. It is struck in the centre with a felt- or leather-covered beater, producing a sound of either definite or indefinite pitch. Its vibrations issue from the centre, in contrast to bells, which vibrate principally at the rim.

Judaism, The Lurianic Kabbala

After the establishment of the Zoharic corpus, no major changes took place in Jewish esoterism until the middle of the 16th century, when in Safed (in Upper Galilee, Palestine; present-day Zefat, Israel) a religious centre of extreme importance for Judaism was established, which was mainly inspired by teachers coming from families expelled from Spain. Until the expulsion

P-38

Also called �Lightning� fighter-interceptor aircraft used by the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. The P-38 was produced by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, on a design specification of 1937 calling for a heavily armed fighter that could quickly climb to bomber altitudes of 20,000 feet (6,000 m). Designers Hall Hibbard and �Kelly� Johnson adopted an unconventional �twin-tailboom� configuration, in which the

Chafer

Any of several beetles of the insect subfamily Melolonthinae (family Scarabaeidae, order Coleoptera). The leaf chafers (Macrodactylus) eat foliage; the grub feeds underground on plant roots. The adult female deposits her eggs in the soil, and the larvae live underground for several years. They pupate in the fall, but the adults remain underground until the following

Schuyler, James

Schuyler was educated at Bethany (West Virginia)

Madi

Primarily hoe cultivators with millet as their staple crop, the Madi also fish, hunt, and keep cattle; smithing is an important

Irene Ducas

When Alexius became emperor in April 1081 he reportedly planned to repudiate Irene and wed Mary, who had been married to the former emperors Michael VII

Waterford

Irish �Port L�irge� county in the province of Munster, Ireland. With an area of 710 square miles (1,838 square km), it is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the south and from west to east by Counties Cork, Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Wexford. The county's northern boundary follows the River Suir through the city of Waterford. Included within the county are the lower reaches of the Rivers Blackwater and Bride.

Paleo-siberian Languages, Phonological features

Typical phonological features of the Paleo-Siberian languages are postvelar consonants (i.e., sounds that are formed farther back in the mouth than /k/ and usually represented as q), vowel harmony of various kinds (e.g., the alternation of e and i in the form for �my' in Nivkh �e-rla �my harpoon' and �i-rly �my sky'), consonant alternations (e.g., the alternation between b, v, and f in Nivkh bal

Spalding, Albert

The son of a partner in the sporting-goods firm of A.G. Spalding and Brothers, he began to study the violin at the age of seven, making his debut in Paris in 1905 and in New York City in 1908. He served with the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War I. Spalding toured the

Mosaic Evolution

The occurrence, within a given population of organisms, of different rates of evolutionary change in various body structures and functions. An example can be seen in the patterns of development of the different elephant species. The Indian elephant underwent rapid early molar modification with little foreshortening of the forehead. The African elephant underwent

Hyder Ali

After studying the military tactics of the Frenchman Joseph-Fran�ois Dupleix, Hyder induced his older brother, a brigade commander in the Mysore army, to obtain military equipment from the Bombay government

Elgin, Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th Earl Of

He was the son of the 8th earl and was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford. In politics a Liberal of right-wing tendencies, Elgin was first commissioner of works under William Gladstone in 1886. Emulating his father, whom he succeeded in 1863, he became viceroy of India in 1894. His viceroyalty

Madagascar

In spite of Madagascar's proximity to the