Interlaken

Town, Bern canton, central Switzerland. It lies along the Aare River, in the Bernese Highland. Its name is derived from its position on the flat plain (B�deli), 1,864 feet (568 m) above sea level, between Lakes (inter lacus) Brienz to the east and Thun to the west. The town grew up around a convent of Augustinian canons (1130 - 1528). It is one of Switzerland's oldest and most frequented summer tourist

Qiyas

The need for qiyas developed soon after the death of Muhammad, when the expanding

Epistemology, John Locke

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke (1632 - 1704) is often taken to be the first major empiricist work. Book I discusses innate ideas in order to deny that there are any; Book II discusses various genuine kinds of ideas; Book III discusses language with an emphasis on the meaning of words; and Book IV discusses knowledge and related cognitive states and

Catatumbo River

Spanish �R�o Catatumbo, � river rising in northern Colombia. It flows northeast across the Venezuelan border, crosses rich oil-bearing regions in the Maracaibo Lowland, and empties into Lake Maracaibo after a course of about 210 miles (338 km). It is navigable in its lower course and receives Zulia River 4 miles (6 km) west of Encontrados, Venez., in the Maracaibo Lowland.

Burford

Town (�parish�), West Oxfordshire district, administrative and historic county of Oxfordshire, southern England, on the River Windrush, in the Cotswolds. The town was acquired by Robert FitzHamon, earl of Gloucester, who granted it a market in 1088 and England's earliest datable merchant guild. Sir Lawrence Tanfield, a local landowner, successfully challenged the town's civic

Canberra

A small squatters' settlement of stockmen called Canberry, or Canbury (a derivation of an Aboriginal

Koga

City, Ibaraki ken (prefecture), eastern Honshu, Japan. It lies at the confluence of the Omoi and Watarase rivers. An important river port, Koga was a castle town and post town on the Nikko-kaido (Nikko Highway) in the Tokugawa period (1603 - 1867). It became a major trade centre for the surrounding agricultural region after the Tohoku Main Line railway opened in 1891. Silk manufacture, introduced

Channel-port Aux Basques

Town on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, Canada. It is the terminal for car ferries across Cabot Strait from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and is the connecting point for the 570-mile (917-kilometre) semicircular final stage of the Trans-Canada Highway to St. John's (east). Fishing and fish processing are local industries. A monument commemorates those who died when the ferry

Rabanus Maurus,

Rabanus was sent to Tours, Fr., in 802 to study under the noted scholar-monk Alcuin. In 803 he assumed the direction of the monastic school of

Haddonfield

Borough (town), Camden county, southwestern New Jersey, U.S., a southeastern suburb of Camden. First settled by Francis Collins in 1682, it was later named by Elizabeth Haddon, an English Quaker girl who settled there about 1701. The story of her romance with a Quaker missionary, John Estaugh, is told by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863). She lived to be 82, and her personal

Valle Central

Also called �Meseta Central, � highland valley in central Costa Rica, containing most of the country's large cities and about 60 percent of the total population. The area of 3,500 square miles (9,000 square km) is actually formed by two basins separated by low volcanic hills, 3,000 to 5,000 feet (900 to 1,500 m) above sea level. The naturally rich soils are a result of the gradual weathering of volcanic material and basaltic lavas from

Latter Rain Revival

Early name for the Pentecostal movement within U.S. Protestantism; it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Tennessee and North Carolina and took its name from the �latter rain� referred to in Joel 2:23. The Bible passage states that the former (fall) rain and latter (spring) rain were poured down from God. These rains marked the beginning and end of the Jewish harvest.

Panama

Electoral campaigning began in preparation for the May 2004 general elections. Three candidates emerged as the leading contenders: Martin Torrijos, who

Duane - hunt Law

In atomic physics, the relationship between the voltage (V ) applied to an X-ray tube and the maximum frequency n of the X rays emitted from the target. It is named after the American physicists William Duane and Franklin Hunt. The relationship is expressed as n = Ve/h, in which e is the charge of the electron and h is Planck's constant. This law is sometimes called the inverse photoelectric

Infection, Pancreatitis

Inflammation of the pancreas, or pancreatitis, may follow abdominal trauma or the formation of gallstones that obstruct the common bile duct. It can be associated with excessive ingestion of alcohol; with disorders such as cystic fibrosis or Reye's syndrome; or with scorpion stings. Infectious causes of pancreatitis include mycoplasmas, Epstein-Barr viruses

Eisenhower, Mamie

Although she did not change the job of first lady, Mamie Eisenhower was a favourite of many American women, who imitated her youthful style (known as the �Mamie style�) and what her husband called her �unaffected manner.�

Vienna

Modern Vienna has undergone several historical incarnations. From 1558 to 1918 it was an imperial city - until 1806 the seat of the Holy Roman Empire and then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1918 it became the capital of the truncated,

Scandinavian Literature, Romances

Romances were also translated or adapted from continental romances. Interest in romance began in Norway and soon took root in Iceland. The earliest romance was probably the Tristrams saga (1226), derived from the Anglo-Norman poet Thomas. This was followed by the Karlamagn�s saga (�Saga of Charlemagne�), a collection of prose renderings of French chansons de geste, including

Vitamin D

The most important of these sterols are 7-dehydrocholesterol, formed by metabolic processes in animals, and ergosterol (q.v.), present in vegetable oils. The action of sunlight converts these two compounds,

Athens

City, seat of McMinn county, southeastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies in the Tennessee River valley, between the Great Smoky Mountains (east) and the Cumberland Plateau (west), about 55 miles (90 km) southwest of Knoxville. It was founded in 1821 as a seat of justice, and the courts were moved there in 1823 from a temporary courthouse that had been erected at nearby Calhoun. It was named for the city

Chang Ch�-cheng

Chang gained power through his position as tutor

Bulbophyllum

The sepals are coloured and are larger than the petals. Many of these orchids have small flowers and an offensive odour.

Corby

Corby was a village of 1,596 inhabitants

Masaoka Shiki

Masaoka was born into a samurai (warrior) family. He went to Tokyo to study in 1883 and began to write poetry in 1885. After studying at Tokyo Imperial University from 1890 to 1892, he joined a publishing firm. During his brief service with the Japanese army as a correspondent

Saenredam, Pieter Jansz(oon)

Saenredam also spelled �Zaenredam � painter, pioneer of the �church portrait,� and the first Dutch artist to abandon the tradition of fanciful architectural painting in favour of a new realism in the rendering of specific buildings. His paintings of churches show a scrupulous neatness and precision, combined with subtle atmospheric light and tonal unity achieved

Saenredam, Pieter Jansz(oon)

Obsessions are recurring or persistent thoughts, images, or impulses that, rather than being voluntarily produced, seem to invade a person's consciousness despite his

Learning

The alteration of behaviour as a result of individual experience. When an organism can perceive and change its behaviour, it is said to learn.

Music Recording, Composition

The contemporary

Chiaroscuro

Some evidence exists that ancient Greek and Roman artists used chiaroscuro effects, but in European painting the technique was first brought to its full potential by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 15th century in such paintings as his �Adoration of the