Botswana, Transport

The 400-mile railway along the eastern side of the country was completed in 1897, linking South Africa and Zimbabwe, but had limited impact on the Botswana economy until the 1970s, when the first branch lines were opened to serve mining areas. At independence in 1966, there were only a few miles of paved roads - all inside town boundaries. Since then the major towns have been linked by paved

Halide Mineral

Compositionally and structurally, three broad categories of halide minerals are recognized; these categories, which are

Cilli, Ulrich Ii Von

Made a prince of the empire in 1436, Cilli nevertheless feuded with the Austrian Habsburgs until forced to recognize their suzerainty in 1443. The Habsburg German king Albert II installed him as Bohemian

Elizabeth Islands

Chain of small islands in southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. They extend southwestward for 16 miles (26 km) from the southwestern tip of Cape Cod, between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. Administratively a part of Dukes county, the islands constitute Gosnold town (a township area settled in 1641 and incorporated in 1864). The larger islands are Nonamesset, Naushon, Pasque, Nashawena,

Selborne, William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl Of, Viscount Wolmer Of Blackmoor, Baron Selborne Of Selborne

A son of the lawyer and statesman Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl

Hale, Louise Closser

Louise Closser studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and at Emerson College of Oratory in Boston. She made her theatrical debut in 1894 in a Detroit, Michigan, production of In Old Kentucky. For several years she appeared

Angus, Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl Of, Earl Of Morton

During the regency of his uncle, the Earl of Morton, he rose rapidly to power. He became privy councillor

Turks And Caicos Islands, Cultural life

Water sports - sailing, big game fishing, and, especially, scuba diving among the coral reefs - are popular and attract tourists to the islands. Radio and satellite-cable television are available. Publications include the Turks and Caicos News (weekly) and Conch News (weekly).

Ulanova, Galina Sergeyevna

Russian ballet dancer (b. Jan. 8, 1910, St. Petersburg, Russia--d. March 21, 1998, Moscow, Russia), was considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. She possessed an excellent technique, a lyrical grace, and the ability to submerge herself in the characters she portrayed and communicate their humanity to audiences. Ulanova, the daughter of dancers, was taught first by her mother

Cardiovascular Disease, Cardiac pacemakers

The normal rhythm of the heart is generated by spontaneous electrical activity in cells in an area of the heart called the sinoatrial node. The electrical activity is usually at a rate of about 70 beats per minute at rest and is transmitted to the pumping chambers of the heart, the atria, and the ventricles through a specialized conducting system. The electrical activity

Kazinczy, Ferenc

Born of a well-to-do family of the nobility, Kazinczy learned German and French as a child and entered a famous Protestant college at S�rospatak in 1769. While there, he published his first book, a small geography

Wagon

The strings of the wagon are not tuned in ascending order but form a pentatonic scale in the following manner (from the bottom string): e�, g�, b�, d�, a�, d�. This unusual tuning relates to the instrument's primary performance practice, which

Cat

The history of the cat family can be traced through the fossil record to the Late Eocene Epoch (43.6 to 36.6 million

Visser 't Hooft, Willem Adolph

Visser 't Hooft was educated at the Haarlem Gymnasium and prepared for the ministry of the Netherlands Reformed Church at the University of Leiden. His long career as a leader of Christian organizations began with the post of

Trademark

Any visible sign or device used by a business enterprise to identify its goods and distinguish them from those made or carried by others. Trademarks may be words or groups of words, letters, numerals, devices, names, the shape or other presentation of products or their packages, colour combinations with signs, combinations of colours, and combinations of any of the

Fusulinid

Any of a large group of extinct foraminiferans (single-celled organisms related to the modern amoebas but having complex shells that are easily preserved as fossils). The fusulinids first appeared late in the Early Carboniferous Epoch, which ended 320 million years ago, and persisted until the end of the Permian Period, 245 million years ago. Where they occur, the fusulinids

Ireland, Theatre

Dublin is the centre of Ireland's

Epidote

Any of a group of colorless to green or yellow-green silicate minerals with the general chemical formula A2B3(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH), in which A is usually calcium (Ca), though manganese (Mn) or cerium (Ce) is sometimes substituted; and B is generally aluminum (Al), with the main substitution being ferric iron (Fe 3). Structurally the epidote group consists of chains of AlO6 and Al4(OH)2 octahedra

Dadu

Town, Sindh province, southern Pakistan. The town lies just west of the Indus River, about 100 miles (160 km) north-northwest of Hyderabad. A distribution centre, it is connected by road and rail with Hyderabad, Karachi, and Quetta. Dadu has men's and women's government colleges that are affiliated with the University of Sindh. The area in which Dadu is situated is a fertile alluvial

Schrieck, Sister Louise Van Der

Van der Schrieck was educated at the school of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Belgium. In 1837 she became a novice of the order, and in 1839 she became Sister

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, The Greeks

Hellenic tradition after Homer stands in sharp contrast to this concentration on the fulfilling of a divine plan. The analytic, essentially scientific histories of Herodotus and Thucydides precluded much confident belief in visionary providence. The Greeks rather believed history to be structured in cycles, as distinct from the more purposive linearity

Maccaig, Norman

After graduation from the University of Edinburgh, MacCaig held various teaching positions, mostly in Edinburgh. His early published works, which he later disavowed, were Far Cry (1943) and The Inward Eye (1946). In Riding Lights (1955), his characteristic poetic voice - recalling the polished

Astronaut

Person trained to pilot a spacecraft, operate any of its various systems, or conduct scientific experiments aboard such a craft during spaceflights. The term is commonly applied to those participating in U.S. space missions, as opposed to the designation cosmonaut used to refer to Soviet space travelers. The U.S. Department of Defense awards the rating of astronaut

Kartvelian Languages

Of the Kartvelian language family, only Georgian, the official language of Georgia, has an ancient literary tradition. Georgian dates to the 5th century AD. The Georgian written form is also used by speakers of the other languages, which are nonliterate.

Resistivity

Resistivity, commonly symbolized by the Greek letter rho, r, is quantitatively

Blood Vessel

A vessel in the human or animal body in which blood circulates. The vessels that carry blood away from the heart are called arteries, and their very small branches are arterioles. Very small branches that collect the blood from the various organs and parts are called venules, and they unite to form veins, which return the blood to the heart. Capillaries are minute, thin-walled

Arabian Religion

A short survey of the history of ancient Arabia is given by A.K. Irvine, �The Arabs and Ethiopians,� in D.J. Wiseman (ed.), Peoples of Old Testament Times (1973), pp. 287 - 311. South Arabia is covered by Walter W. M�ller, �Outline of the History of Ancient Southern Arabia,� in Werner Daum (ed.), Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix (1987), pp. 49 - 54. J. Wellhausen (comp.), Reste altarabischen Heidentums, 2nd ed. (1897), contains most of the Muslim data on the pagan folklore and religion. The epigraphic material is extensively used in the following studies, which are still valuable: G. Ryckmans, �Les Religions arabes pr�islamiques,� in Histoire g�n�rale des religions, vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 201 - 228 (1960); and Maria H�fner, �Die vorislamischen Religionen Arabiens,� in Hartmut Gese, Maria H�fner, and Kurt Rudolph, Die Religionen Altsyriens, Altarabiens und der Mand�er, pp. 233 - 402 (1970). A short but excellent survey of the ancient Arabian religion is given by A. Caquot, �Les Religions des S�mites occidentaux,� in Henri-Charles Puech (ed.), Histoire des Religions, vol. 1 (1970), pp. 307 - 358, with North and South Arabia especially the focus of pp. 340 - 355. Several important works are by J. Starcky: �P�tra et la Nabat�ne,� in Louis Pirot et al., Dictionnaire de la Bible, Suppl�ment, vol. 7 (1966), cols. 886 - 1017, with cols. 985 - 1017 focusing especially on religion, and a very short but more recent contribution, �La religion des Nabat�ens,� in Inoubliable Petra: Le Royaume nabat�en aux confins du d�sert (1980), pp. 66 - 70, an exhibition catalog. Two concise but up-to-date studies on ancient South Arabian religions may be found in Joseph Chelhod et al., L'Arabie du Sud: Histoire et civilisation, vol. 1, Le peuple y�m�nite et ses racines (1984), both by A.F.L. Beeston: �The Religions of Pre-Islamic Yemen,� pp. 259 - 269, and �Judaism and Christianity in Pre-Islamic Yemen,� pp. 271 - 278. Another such study is J. Ryckmans, �The Old South Arabian Religion,� in the work on Yemen ed. by Daum cited above, pp. 107 - 110.

Rome, March On

Widespread social discontent, aggravated by middle-class fear of a socialist revolution and by disappointment over Italy's meagre gains from the

Papillomavirus

Also spelled �papilloma virus� any of a group of viruses belonging to the family Papillomaviridae that infect birds and mammals, causing warts (papillomas) and other benign tumours in humans. They are small polygonal viruses containing circular double-stranded DNA, and more than 55 distinct types of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are now known on the basis of analysis of their DNA. Skin warts are of