Peregrine Falcon

Bluish gray above with underparts white to yellowish with black barring, peregrines range from about 33 to 48 centimetres (13 to 19 inches) long. They are strong and fast. They fly high and dive at tremendous speeds, striking

Afonso V

The son of King Edward (Duarte) and Queen Leonor, daughter of King Ferdinand I of Aragon, Afonso succeeded to the throne at the age of six. In 1440 his mother was deprived of the regency by his uncle Pedro, Duke de Coimbra, whose daughter Isabella Afonso married. The regent was in turn

Yamim Nora'im

English �High Holy Days� in Judaism, the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana (on Tishri 1 and 2) and Yom Kippur (on Tishri 10), in September or October. Though the Bible does not link these two major festivals, the Talmud does. Consequently, yamim nora'im is sometimes used to designate the first 10 days of the religious year: the three High Holy Days, properly so-called, and also the days between. The entire 10-day period

Amreli

Formerly �Amaravalli, � town, southwestern Gujarat state, west-central India. The town lies on the Kathiawar Peninsula, 125 miles (200 km) southwest of Ahmadabad. Primarily a commercial centre, its industries include the manufacture of khadi (coarse cotton cloth), tanning, silverworking, and cotton ginning. Amreli is served by a railway and an airfield. Chief crops of the surrounding area are millet, peanuts

Sara

Cluster of peoples living on the fringe of the southern Sudan, especially in the northwestern regions of the Central African Republic and the south-central area surrounding Sarh, south of Lake Chad in Chad. They include the Gula, Kara, Kreish, Nduka, Ngama, and Sara proper. The Sara peoples all speak Central Sudanic languages of the Nilo-Saharan language family, and their

Malatya

City, east-central Turkey. It lies in a fertile plain watered by the Tohma River (a tributary of the Euphrates) and is surrounded by high ranges of the eastern Taurus Mountains. The modern town was founded in 1838 near the sites of two earlier settlements: the ancient Hittite city of Milid, on the site of the present-day Arslantepe, 4 miles (6 km) north, and its successor, the Roman and

Qadariyah

In Islam, adherents of the doctrine of free will (from qadar, �power�). The name was also applied to the Mu'tazilah, the Muslim theological school that believed that man, through his free will, can choose between good and evil. But as the Mu'tazilah also stressed the absolute unity of God (tawhid), they resented the designation because of a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad,

Ocean, Seamounts, guyots, and abyssal hills

Seamounts are submarine volcanoes with more than 1,000 metres of relief. Aseismic ridges are built by chains of overlapping seamounts. A seamount is akin to a subaerial shield volcano in that it also has gently sloping sides (5� to 15�) and is constructed by nonexplosive eruptions of alkaline basalt lavas that are thought to originate from depths of roughly 150 kilometres. About

La Crosse

City, seat (1851) of La Crosse county, western Wisconsin, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River at the influx of the Black and La Crosse rivers, 129 miles (208 km) northwest of Madison. The settlement developed around a trading post (1841) on a site that French explorers named Prairie la Crosse, after the game of lacrosse played by the Indians there. A natural river port, it became an important

La Crosse

City, seat (1851) of La Crosse county, western Wisconsin, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River at the influx of the Black and La Crosse rivers, 129 miles (208 km) northwest of Madison. The settlement developed around a trading post (1841) on a site that French explorers named Prairie la Crosse, after the game of lacrosse played by the Indians there. A natural river port, it became an important

Uberaba

City, western Minas Gerais estado (�state�), Brazil, in the highlands at 2,575 feet (785 m) above sea level, on the Uberaba River. It was given city status in 1856. Uberaba is the trade centre of an important agricultural area, yielding cattle (the largest source of income), rice, oranges, corn (maize), beans, coffee, sugarcane, and bananas. A well-known cattle and agricultural exhibition is held there

Alicante

The provincia's principal

Lowes, John Livingston

Lowes received his A.B. degree from Washington and Jefferson College (Washington, Pa.) in 1888 and taught mathematics there until 1891, when he received his M.A. degree. After

Baraboo

City, seat (1840) of Sauk county, south-central Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on small hills 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Madison. Baraboo originated in the early 19th century as a trading post established by the French trapper Jean Baribault, who lived along the river that was named (somewhat phonetically) for him. Incorporated in 1882, the community developed as a distribution centre for dairy

Baraboo

City, seat (1840) of Sauk county, south-central Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on small hills 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Madison. Baraboo originated in the early 19th century as a trading post established by the French trapper Jean Baribault, who lived along the river that was named (somewhat phonetically) for him. Incorporated in 1882, the community developed as a distribution centre for dairy

Samuel

Samuel, the son of Elkanah

Ardabil Carpet

Either of two Persian floor coverings that are among the most famous examples of early classical Persian workmanship. The larger one measures 34 feet by 17.5 feet (10.4 by 5.3 m), and both carpets have a silk warp and wool pile. The carpets were completed in 1539 - 40, during the reign of the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp I (1524 - 76), and they were originally laid in the Mosque of Ardabil, in the Iranian province of

Wichita State University

Public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Wichita, Kan., U.S. The university comprises the W. Frank Barton School of Business, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School, and colleges of Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, and Health Professions. In addition to undergraduate studies, Wichita State offers more than 40 master's degree

Terborch, Gerard

Terborch's father had been an artist and had visited Rome but from 1621 was employed as a tax collector. Surviving drawings made by the young Terborch

Toad Bug

Toad bugs are found in all zoogeographic regions living along the muddy edges of streams and ponds. Some species spend part

Essex, Geoffrey De Mandeville, 1st Earl Of

Geoffrey was a great landowner in Essex and elsewhere and hereditary constable of the Tower of London. He came to prominence in 1140 when Stephen, who could not dispense with his support against Matilda, a rival claimant for the throne, made him hereditary

Tibet, Tibet under Manchu overlordship

The Dalai Lama's death in 1682 and the discovery of his five-year-old reincarnation in 1688 were concealed by Sangs-rgyas rgya-mtsho, who was intent on continuing the administration without disturbance. He informed the Manchu only in 1696. Emperor K'ang-hsi (reigned 1661 - 1722) was incensed at the deception. In 1703 he discovered an ally in Tibet and an antagonist to Sangs-rgyas rgya-mtsho when Lha-bzang

Co�

City, M�laga province, in the autonomous community (region) of Andalusia, southern Spain. It is situated near the beach resort region of Costa del Sol. The site was first settled by the Turdetanos, an Iberian tribe, and was later occupied by the Romans, who established the town of Lacibis. In 713 the Arabs took the town, calling it Cohine (Pleasant Paradise), the basis of its present

Dewantoro, Ki Hadjar

Dewantoro was born into a noble family of Jogjakarta

Tetmajer, Kazimierz

Tetmajer belonged to a landowner's family from the foothills of the Tatra Mountains. He studied philosophy in Krak�w and in Heidelberg, Germany. Much of his lyric poetry received publication in the Krak�w periodical Zycie (�Life�). His nostalgic

Milky Way Galaxy, Emission nebulas

A conspicuous component of the Galaxy is the collection of large, bright, diffuse gaseous objects generally called nebulas. The brightest of these cloudlike objects are the emission nebulas, large complexes of interstellar gas and stars in which the gas exists in an ionized and excited state (with the electrons of the atoms excited to a higher than normal energy

Amphibian, Economic importance

Amphibians, especially anurans, are economically useful in reducing the number of insects that destroy crops or transmit diseases. Frogs are commercially exploited as food, notably by Europeans; the French are the principal consumers, and they import thousands of tons of frog legs annually. The skin secretions of various tropical anurans are known to have hallucinogenic

Paleogene Period

Also spelled �Palaeogene Period� older of the two stratigraphic divisions of the Cenozoic Era (the Cenozoic Era began about 66.4 million years ago and extends to the present). The Paleogene, whose beginning coincides with that of the Cenozoic Era, ended 23.7 million years ago and was followed by the Neogene Period. The Paleogene, which means �ancient-born,� includes the Paleocene (Palaeocene), Eocene, and Oligocene

Ribosome

Tiny particle that is present in large numbers in all living cells and which is the site of protein synthesis. Ribosomes are tiny granules that occur both as free particles within cells and as particles attached to the membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum. A ribosome measures about 200 angstroms in diameter and consists of about 40 percent protein and 60 percent RNA

Smith, Charlotte

English novelist and poet, highly praised by the novelist Sir Walter Scott. Her poetic attitude toward nature was reminiscent of William Cowper's in celebrating the �ordinary� pleasures of the English countryside. Her radical attitudes toward conventional morality (the novel Desmond tells of the innocent