Asheboro

City, seat (1796) of Randolph county, central North Carolina, U.S. It lies in the forested Uwharrie Mountains about 25 miles (40 km) south of Greensboro. Asheboro (originally Asheborough) was founded in 1796 on land that was once the home of Keyauwee Indians; a prehistoric Native American burial ground nearby was excavated in 1936. The name honours North Carolina Governor Samuel Ashe (1725 - 1813). The community

Ancient Italic People, The populations of the Picenum

In historic times, expansion of the eastern Italic peoples placed them firmly along the Adriatic coastal tract corresponding to what is now the Marches region. Epigraphic and archaeological data give evidence also of the presence in the Picenum (an ancient region between the Apennines and the Adriatic) of the trans-Adriatic Liburni and the pre-Indo-European Asili.

Mies Van Der Rohe, Ludwig

Original name �Maria Ludwig Michael Mies � German-born American architect whose rectilinear forms, crafted in elegant simplicity, epitomized the International Style (q.v.) of architecture.

Pacific Islands

Geographic region of the Pacific Ocean. The term is commonly accepted as including all of those islands in the Pacific that are collectively referred to as Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, also sometimes known as Oceania. This usage rules out the Australian island continent, the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine, and Japanese archipelagoes, and the Ryukyu,

Bruckner, Anton

In full� Josef Anton Bruckner � Austrian composer of a number of highly original and monumental symphonies. He was also an organist and teacher who composed much sacred and secular choral music.

Cabal

A private organization or party engaged in secret intrigues; also, the intrigues themselves. In England the word was used during the 17th century to describe the mystical interpretation of the Hebrew scripture (the Cabala, or Kabbala), as well as to describe any secret or extralegal council of the king, especially the foreign committee of the Privy Council. The term took

Celosia

Genus of about 60 species of herbaceous plants, of the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae), native to tropical America and Africa and characterized by alternate leaves and showy flowers in spikes, which in cultivated forms are often fasciated and form compact or feathery clusters. Some species are called woolflower for their dense chaffy flower spikes

Zamoyski, Jan

Educated in France and Italy, he returned to Poland in 1565 and was appointed secretary to King Sigismund II. After Sigismund's death (1572), he became one of the best-liked

Earth Sciences, Hydrologic and atmospheric sciences

The only substance known to the ancient philosophers in its solid, liquid, and gaseous states, water is prominently featured in early theories about the origin and operations of the Earth. Thales of Miletus (c. 624 - c. 545 BC) is credited with a belief that water is the essential substance of the Earth, and Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 - 545 BC) held that water was probably the source of life. In

Janssen, Johannes

Reared in a staunchly Catholic home, he attended local schools and then studied at M�nster, the University of Louvain (1850 - 51), and the University of Bonn (1851 - 53). After

Biblical Literature, The Holiness Code

Next (chapters 17 - 26) comes what has been designated the �Holiness Code,� or �Law of Holiness,� which scholars regard as a separate, distinctive unit within the P material (designated H). It calls upon the people to be holy as God is holy by carrying out his laws, both ritual and moral, and by avoiding the polluting practices of neighbouring peoples; and it proceeds to lay down laws,

Vieux Fort

Town and former capital of St. Lucia island in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It lies 19 miles (30 km) south of the harbour of Castries and is situated near the island's extreme southeastern tip on fertile, flat ground overlooking Vieux Fort Bay. Named after a 17th-century fort (Old Fort), it was the site of St. Lucia's first sugar works (1765) and is still the centre of a sugar- and coconut-growing

Bench

Long seat that may be freestanding, fixed to the wall, or placed against the wall. Paneled benches were used by the Romans, and they were the most common form of seating in medieval halls at a time when a chair was a rare luxury. Benches were not only used as seats but were normally wide enough to be used for sleeping on or eating from; as the Frankish ecclesiastic and historian

Maher, Bill

The title of Politically Incorrect, the often controversial television talk show that nightly featured four outspoken guests from the world of entertainment, arts and letters, and politics, was never more appropriate than when its host, comedian Bill Maher, implied that the terrorists who had attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, were braver than U.S. forces fighting

Biblical Literature, Slavic versions

The earliest Old Church Slavonic translations are connected with the arrival of the brothers Cyril and Methodius in Moravia in 863, and resulted from the desire to provide vernacular renderings of those parts of the Bible used liturgically. The oldest manuscripts derive from the 11th and 12th centuries. The earliest complete Bible manuscript, dated 1499, was used for the first

Dahomey

Kingdom in western Africa that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries in the region that is now southern Benin. According to tradition, at the beginning of the 17th century three brothers vied for the kingdom of Allada, which, like neighbouring Whydah (now Ouidah), had grown rich on the slave trade. When one of the brothers won control of Allada, the other two fled. One went southeast

Ibrahim Lodi

The son of Sikandar, Ibrahim succeeded to the throne on his father's death (Nov. 21, 1517) and was quickly faced with continuing disputes between the royal family and Afghani nobles. One noble, Dawlat Khan Lodi, governor of the Punjab, fearing

Chub

The European chub (Leuciscus cephalus) is a popular, though not especially palatable, game fish found in Europe and Great Britain, primarily in rivers. A large-mouthed fish with

Adams, William

At the age of 12 Adams was apprenticed in the merchant marine, afterward sailing in the British navy and later serving a company of Barbary merchants. In 1598 he shipped as pilot major with five Dutch ships bound from Europe for the East Indies via the Straits of Magellan.

Earth Sciences, Experimental study of rocks

Experimental petrology began with the work of Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff, one of the founders of physical chemistry. Between 1896 and 1908 he elucidated the complex sequence of chemical reactions attending the precipitation of salts (evaporites) from the evaporation of seawater. Van't Hoff's aim was to explain the succession of mineral salts present in Permian rocks of

Caucasian Languages, The Avar-Andi-Dido languages

Of these tongues,

Biblical Literature, The Letter of Jude

The Letter of Jude, after a salutation that attributes it to Jude, the brother of James, and addresses itself to the church as a whole, develops the theme of the short letter - a polemic against heretics who have abandoned the transmitted traditional faith and who will thus be judged by the Lord. They deny Christ, and punishment similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah in the

Wallas, Graham

Wallas studied at Oxford (1877 - 81) and was a teacher (1881 - 90). He joined the Fabian Society in 1886 and was a contributor to Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889). Growing dissatisfied with the anti-liberal

Leadwork

Sculpture, ornamental objects, and architectural coverings and fittings made of lead. Although the ease with which lead is smelted from lead ores ensured its early discovery, the softness of the metal restricted its use until Roman times. The earliest known use of lead dates from about 3000 BC in Egypt and Asia Minor, when it was used in making small statuettes and votive

Ucayali River

Spanish �R�o Ucayali, � headwater of the Amazon, formed by the junction of the Apur�mac and Urubamba rivers in east-central Peru. The Ucayali meanders northward from this junction for about 910 miles (1,465 km) through a densely forested floodplain east of the Andes to its junction with the Mara��n River, 55 miles (90 km) south-southwest of Iquitos. This confluence is considered to mark the head of the Amazon.

Aesop

The supposed author of a collection of Greek fables, almost certainly a legendary figure. Various attempts were made in ancient times to establish him as an actual personage. Herodotus in the 5th century BC said that he had lived in the 6th century and that he was a slave, and Plutarch in the 1st century AD made him adviser to Croesus, the 6th-century-BC king of Lydia. One tradition

Actaeon

In Greek mythology, son of the god Aristaeus and Autono� (daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes in Boeotia); he was a Boeotian hero and hunter. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Actaeon accidentally saw Artemis (goddess of wild animals, vegetation, and childbirth) while she was bathing on Mount Cithaeron; for this reason he was changed by her into a stag and was pursued

Aerospace Industry, Building of subassemblies

Assembly of aerospace vehicles at the prime contractor or systems integrator begins with the accumulation of subassemblies. An example of a typical subassembly for a transport aircraft is the rear fuselage section, which is itself composed of several segments. (These segments are often built by subcontractors, who in turn deal with their own suppliers of the

Trujillo

The second oldest Spanish city in Peru, Trujillo was founded in 1534 by Diego Almagro; the following year it was elevated to city status by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it after his birthplace in Spain. It sustained heavy damage from