FemaleChurch

Monday, April 04, 2005

Gyangu

Also called Yakuza, Japanese gangster or mobster, a member of a boryokudan (q.v.), or gang of racketeers.

For historical purposes, the name Low Countries is generally understood to include the territory of what is today The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France. However, Belgium, although it was not constituted as an independent kingdom until 1831, became a distinct entity after 1585, when

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Earth, Absolute measurements

The most fundamental and straightforward method of measuring g is to measure directly the acceleration of a body falling in a vacuum toward Earth, but until the mid-1900s timing systems of sufficient accuracy were simply not available. All older absolute measurements were based on measuring the period of swing of some form of physical pendulum. The period of a simple

Arezzo

Latin Arretium, city, capital of Arezzo provincia, Toscana (Tuscany) regione of north-central Italy, in a fertile plain near the confluence of the Chiana and Arno rivers southeast of Florence. An important Etruscan city, it was known to the Romans as Arretium and was noted for its red-clay Arretine pottery. A flourishing commune in the Middle Ages, it fell to Florence in 1384 and later became

Friday, April 01, 2005

Commodity Trade

Of the multinational organizations aimed at affecting the price of a commodity, one of the most significant is the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). It was founded in 1960 by Middle Eastern countries and Venezuela, although its membership has come to include developing nations in other parts of the world. Some major oil-exporting nations have remained

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Fontanes, Louis, Marquis De

As a young man, Fontanes lived in Paris and associated with the important literary figures of the time. When the Revolution came, he at first enthusiastically supported

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Fabula Palliata

The comedies retained the Greek stock characters and conventionalized plots of romantic intrigue as a framework to the satire of everyday contemporary life. The

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Kin

Also called Kinsfolk, persons deemed related through blood or marriage or both. See kinship.

Monday, March 28, 2005

World War Ii, Iraq and Syria, 1940–41

In 1940 Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, regent of Iraq for King Faysal, had a government divided within itself about the war; he himself and his foreign minister, Nuri as-Said, were pro-British, but his prime minister, Rashid Ali al-Gailani, had pro-German leanings. Having resigned office in January 1941, Rashid Ali on April 3 seized power in Baghdad with help from some army officers and announced