Fa Ngum

Fa Ngum was the grandson of Souvanna Khamphong, the last in a long line of local rulers of the principality of Muang Swa, later called Luang Prabang, on the upper Mekong River. According to local legend, Souvanna Khamphong banished Fa Ngum's father for having seduced

Béla Iii

Béla was educated at the Byzantine court and placed on the throne by force of arms by the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus in 1173. He made the Hungarian monarchy hereditary by naming his infant son, Imre, his successor. He also made his court among the most brilliant in Europe. Béla adopted

Scandinavian Literature, Sources of modern Swedish literature

Four influences combined to free Swedish literature from petrifying conventions: the English writings of Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and John Stuart Mill; the French Naturalism of Émile Zola; the drama of the Norwegians Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson; and the criticism of the Dane Georg Brandes. The modern literature growing out of this was first

Literature, Latin America.

The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes was the most prominent novelist of Latin America to publish a book in 1994. It was a year of particular significance for Latin-American writers of Fuentes' generation as well as for earlier writers. Fuentes published the novel Diana, o la cazadora solitaria, part of his lifelong project "The Era of Time." The novel, set in the world of Mexican

Gambetta, Léon

French republican statesman who helped direct the defense of France during the Franco-German War of 1870–71. In helping to found the Third Republic, he made three essential contributions: first, by his speeches and articles, he converted many Frenchmen to the ideals of moderate democratic republicanism. Second, by his political

Dressing Table

Also called  Toilet Table,   a table used for the toilet. The term originally was applied in the 17th century to small tables with two or three drawers. It soon became common practice to conceal the fittings of the dressing table when they were not in use, and great ingenuity was exercised by 18th-century cabinetmakers to combine the most convenient fittings with a handsome piece of furniture. In the

Alabama, Agriculture

The Alabamian rural economy challenges the traditional view of a dependency on cotton. Although cotton still remains of local importance, it suffered a heavy blow with the onset of the boll weevil blight in 1915, and acreage continued to decline. Mechanization and consolidation increased the average farm size after the 1930s. The diversification of agricultural production

Quine, Willard Van Orman

After studying mathematics and logic at Oberlin College (1926–30), Quine won a scholarship to Harvard University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1932. On a traveling fellowship to Europe

Computers, Analog calculators: From Napier's logarithms to the slide rule

Calculating devices took a different turn when John Napier, a Scottish mathematician, published his discovery of logarithms in 1614. As any person can attest, adding two 10-digit numbers is much simpler than multiplying them together, and the transformation of a multiplication problem into an addition problem is exactly what logarithms enable. This simplification

Hindu Kush, Animal life

Well-adapted species of wildlife are found throughout the mountains. The Siberian ibex and the markhor (both wild goats) negotiate the high crags, while Marco Polo sheep and urial (another wild sheep) occasionally are found in the high pamir. Black and brown bears still exist in isolated valleys, and the Chitral valley wildlife preserve is a domain of the rare snow leopard.

Effen, Justus Van

Dutch essayist and journalist whose straightforward didactic pieces, modelled on foreign examples, had a wholesome influence on the contemporary Dutch fashion of rococo writing. His other occupations included private tutor, secretary at the Netherlands embassy in London (1715 and 1727), and clerk in the Dutch government's warehouses

Sculpture

A form of aesthetic expression in which hard or plastic materials are worked (as by carving, molding, or welding) into three-dimensional art objects. The designs may be embodied in freestanding objects, in reliefs on surfaces, or in environments ranging from tableaux to contexts that envelop the spectator. An enormous variety of media may be used, including clay, wax,

Christianity, The cosmological argument

St. Thomas Aquinas gave the first-cause argument and the argument from contingency—both forms of cosmological reasoning—a central place for many centuries in the Christian enterprise of natural theology. (Similar arguments were also used in parallel strands of Islamic philosophy.) Thomas' formulations (Summa theologiae, I, Q. 2, art. 3) have been refined in modern neo-Thomist

Neurosecretory Cell

A type of neuron, or nerve cell, whose function is to translate neural signals into chemical stimuli. Such cells produce secretions called neurohormones that travel along the neuron axon and are typically released into the bloodstream at neurohemal organs, regions in which the axon endings are in close contact with blood capillaries. Neurosecretory cells are