Portuguese Literature, The Italianate school of poetry and drama

The return in 1526 of the poet Francisco de S� de Miranda after a six years' stay in Italy initiated a literary reform of far-reaching effect. Like his contemporary Garcilaso de la Vega in Spain, he introduced the new poetic forms of sonnet, canzone, ode, and epistle, and he gave fresh vigour to the national verse forms, mainly through his Satires. His chief disciple, Ant�nio

Aurillac

Capital of Cantal d�partement, Auvergne r�gion, south-central France. It lies along the Jourdanne River at an elevation of 2,040 feet (622 m) above sea level, southwest of Clermont-Ferrand. Gerbert, the first French pope (known as Sylvester II), was born in the town and was educated at the nearby Saint-G�raud abbey (founded 894). In the Religious Wars of the 16th century, a general massacre

Sgi

Silicon Graphics, Inc., was founded in 1982 by James Clark, an electrical-engineering professor at Stanford University who had identified a need for desktop computers to be able to display graphic images quickly and in three-dimensional detail - something previously possible only on multimillion-dollar supercomputers. The primary users of these computers were expected

Colbert, Jean-baptiste, Marquis De Seignelay

As the eldest son of the famous secretary of state of that name, Colbert was given the best possible tutors, who found him bright but lazy. In 1683 Colbert became head of the navy and performed brilliantly at the post. He showed an excellent knowledge of naval affairs and personally supervised innovations

Epistemology, Cause and effect

Although people gain much information from their impressions, most matters of fact depend upon reasoning about causes and effects, even though people do not directly experience causal relations. What, then, are causal relations? According to Hume they have three components: contiguity of time and place, temporal priority of the cause, and constant conjunction.

Charles

The son of Duke Philip III the Good of Burgundy, Charles was brought up in the French manner as a friend of the French dauphin, afterward Louis XI of France, who spent five years in Burgundy before his accession. Although he had shown no hostility toward France before taking over the government of Burgundy during his father's last illness, he thereupon gave rein to an

Cp Violation

In particle physics, violation of the combined conservation laws associated with charge conjugation (C) and parity (P) by the weak nuclear force, which is responsible for reactions such as the decay of atomic nuclei. Charge conjugation is a mathematical operation that transforms a particle into an antiparticle, for example, changing the sign of the charge. Charge

Brecon Beacons National Park

Welsh �Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog� national park in southern Wales, occupying 519 square miles (1,344 square km) of mountains, moors, forests, pastureland, lakes, and the broad Usk valley. The easternmost highlands in the park are the Black Mountains (old red sandstone) of Powys county, lying east of the River Usk between Abergavenny and Hay-on-Wye, with their highest point at Waun Fach, elevation 2,660 feet (811 metres). Centrally

Pacific Islands, Agriculture and natural resources

Coconut products, including copra, from which oil is extracted, form the principal export from most islands. Agricultural production depends as much on native family enterprise as it does on plantation systems, which predominate in the larger islands. Perishable fruits, such as pineapples, bananas, and citrus fruits, require markets close at hand unless they are

Pacific Islands, Agriculture and natural resources

Coconut products, including copra, from which oil is extracted, form the principal export from most islands. Agricultural production depends as much on native family enterprise as it does on plantation systems, which predominate in the larger islands. Perishable fruits, such as pineapples, bananas, and citrus fruits, require markets close at hand unless they are

Rehan, Ada

Ada Crehan grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where her family settled shortly after the Civil War. She followed her older sisters onto the stage, making her debut at

Stabiae

The town was originally settled by Oscan-speaking people, the native inhabitants of Campania. It entered the Social War (the �war of the allies� against Rome) in 90 BC and was destroyed

Neuserre

Also spelled �Nyuserre, � sixth king of the 5th dynasty (c. 2465 - c. 2325 BC) of Egypt; he is primarily known for his temple to the sun-god Re at Abu Jirab (Abu Gurab) in Lower Egypt. The temple plan, like that built by Userkaf (the first king of the 5th dynasty), consisted of a valley temple, causeway, gate, and temple court, which contained an obelisk (the symbol of Re) and an alabaster altar. The sun-temple reliefs revealed an exceptionally

Harsch, Joseph Close

American newspaper and broadcast journalist who, during his 60-year career with The Christian Science Monitor, was noted for his presence at many of the period's most historic events and for his vivid reporting of those events; Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth II made him an honorary C.B.E. in 1965 (b. May 25, 1905, Toledo, Ohio--d. June 3, 1998, Jamestown, R.I.).

Aaron

Aaron is described in the Old Testament book of Exodus as a son of Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi, three years older than his brother Moses. He acted together with his brother in the desperate situation of the Israelites in Egypt and took an active part in the Exodus. Although Moses was the actual leader, Aaron acted as his �mouth.� The two brothers went to the pharaoh

Ecuador, Recreation

The Ecuadoran calendar is replete with religious and secular holidays. Some of the more important ones are not national but, rather, associated with local urban or regional traditions, such as the holidays of Quito (December 1 - 6), Guayaquil (October 9), and Cuenca (November 3) and the Yamor festival in Otavalo in early September. Many shops and businesses also close on Saturday

Sesostris Iii

During the reigns of his predecessors, the provincial nobles of Middle Egypt had enhanced their power through royal favours and intermarriage with the families of neighbouring potentates. Around the

Sesostris Iii

During the reigns of his predecessors, the provincial nobles of Middle Egypt had enhanced their power through royal favours and intermarriage with the families of neighbouring potentates. Around the

Rupee

In the late 16th century the Mughal rulers of central and northern India established the silver rupee, which was divided

Kuang-hs�

When the previous emperor died, his mother, the empress dowager Tz'u-hsi, chose her four-year-old nephew

Murat River

Also spelled �Murad River, �Turkish �Murat Nehri, � river, the major headstream of the Euphrates. In antiquity it was called Arsanias. The river rises north of Lake Van near Mount Ararat, in eastern Turkey, and flows westward for 449 miles (722 km) through a mountainous region to unite with the Karasu �ayi and form the Upper Euphrates near Malatya. Turkey's largest dam, the Keban, west of El�zig, completed in 1974, is designed to provide electric

Ryan, Thomas Fortune

Born in poverty and orphaned at the age of 14, Ryan came to New York at 21, joining

Argentina, Plant and animal life

Argentina's fauna and flora vary widely from the country's mountainous zones to its dry and humid plains and its subpolar regions. In heavily settled regions the makeup of animal and plant life has been profoundly modified.

Finland, Settlement patterns

Increased industrialization in Finland has steadily raised the proportion of the population living in urban areas; by the late 20th century about three-fifths of the total population lived in cities and towns. Farms are most commonly located in the meadowland regions of the southwest, where the fertile land is suitable for mixed farming. In the north farmers usually

Constructivism

Russian �Konstruktivizm� Russian artistic and architectural movement that was first influenced by Cubism and Futurism and is generally considered to have been initiated in 1913 with the �painting reliefs� - abstract geometric constructions - of Vladimir Tatlin. The expatriate Russian sculptors Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo joined Tatlin and his followers in Moscow, and upon publication

Dziady

In Slavic religion, all the dead ancestors of a family, the rites that are performed in their memory, and the day on which those rites are performed. Dziady take place three or four times a year; though the dates vary in different localities, dziady are generally celebrated in the winter before the beginning of Advent and in the spring on the Sunday of Doubting Thomas.

Pre-columbian Civilizations, The earliest Maya civilization of the lowlands

By the Late Formative, the lowland Maya had begun to shape a civilization that was to become the greatest in the New World. The Pet�n-Yucat�n Peninsula lacks many raw materials and has a relatively low agricultural potential. But what it does have in limitless quantities is readily quarried limestone for building purposes and flint for stonework. Cement and plaster

Alaska, The economy

The Alaskan economy is conditioned strongly by the state's frontier stage of development, but its formerly inadequate tax base for state and municipal growth ended with the development of the North Slope oil fields. High costs of labour and transportation and complicated environmental and land-use constraints still tend to discourage outside investment. Nonetheless,

Alexander I

Byname �Alexander Philhellene, or Alexander The Wealthy � 10th king of ancient Macedonia, who succeeded his father, Amyntas I, about 500 BC. More than a decade earlier, Macedonia had become a vassal state of Persia; and in 480 Alexander was obliged to accompany Xerxes I in a campaign through Greece, though he secretly aided the Greek allies. With Xerxes' apparent acquiescence, Alexander seized the Greek colony of Pydna and advanced his

Adams, John

By then Adams's legal career was on the rise, and he had become a visible member of the resistance movement that questioned Parliament's right to tax the American colonies. In 1765 Adams published d, which justified opposition to the recently enacted Stamp Act - an effort to raise revenue by requiring all publications and legal documents to bear a stamp - by arguing that Parliament's intrusions into colonial affairs exposed the inherently coercive and corrupt character of English politics. Intensely combative, full of private doubts about his own capacities but never about his cause, Adams became a leading figure in the opposition to the Townshend Acts (1767), which imposed duties on imported commodities (i.e., glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea). Despite his hostility toward the British government, in 1770 Adams agreed to defend the British soldiers who had fired on a Boston crowd in what became known as the Boston Massacre. His insistence on upholding the legal rights of the soldiers, who in fact had been provoked, made him temporarily unpopular but also marked him as one of the most principled radicals in the burgeoning movement for American independence. He had a penchant for doing the right thing, most especially when it made him unpopular.