Balcony

External extension of an upper floor of a building, enclosed up to a height of about three feet (one metre) by a solid or pierced screen, by balusters (see also balustrade), or by railings. In the medieval and Renaissance periods, balconies were supported by corbels made out of successive courses of stonework, or by large wooden or stone brackets. Since the 19th century, supports

Mammal, classification

Family Ornithorhynchidae:

Antarctica, Economic resources

J.F. Lovering and J.R.V. Prescott, Last of Lands: Antarctica (1979), examines resources, discovery and exploration, political geography, and future prospects. Barbara Mitchell, Frozen Stakes: The Future of Antarctic Minerals (1983), presents an account of polar politics and minerals and discusses possible regimes for regulating resource development. Francisco Orrego Vicu�a (ed.), Antarctic Resources Policy: Scientific, Legal, and Political Issues (1983), contains reports from the first symposium of its kind, a meeting of scientists, diplomats, and international lawyers at an Antarctic scientific station. More recent works are Deborah Shapley, The Seventh Continent: Antarctica in a Resource Age (1985); and John F. Splettstoesser and Gisela A.m. Dreschoff (eds.), Mineral Resources Potential of Antarctica (1990).

Feldspathoid

Any of a group of alkali aluminosilicate minerals similar to the feldspars in chemical composition but either having a lower silica-alkali ratio or containing chloride, sulfide, sulfate, or carbonate. They are considered to be the specific minerals of igneous rocks usually termed alkalic, which is the designation applied to igneous rocks whose alkali content

Feldspathoid

Any of a group of alkali aluminosilicate minerals similar to the feldspars in chemical composition but either having a lower silica-alkali ratio or containing chloride, sulfide, sulfate, or carbonate. They are considered to be the specific minerals of igneous rocks usually termed alkalic, which is the designation applied to igneous rocks whose alkali content

Qamishli, Al-

Also spelled �Qamishliye, � town in northeastern Syria. It lies along the Turkish border. The border divides the Syrian town of Al-Qamishli from the Turkish town of Nusaybin. The town was founded in 1926 as a station on the Taurus railway. Its mixed population increased with influxes of Armenian, Assyrian Christian, and Kurdish refugees from Turkey and Iraq. The town also has Sunnite Muslims, Syriac-speaking

Carleton, Mount

Highest point (2,680 feet [817 m]) in the Maritime Provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) of Canada, 70 miles (110 km) east of Edmundston, N.B., near Nictau and Nepisiguit lakes. Structurally it is a monadnock, or erosional remnant, rising above the 1,000-foot (305-metre) level of the surrounding highlands, which are an extension of the Appalachian region. The mountain, focus of a

Taegu

Also spelled �Taiku, or Daegu, � city and provincial capital, Kyongsang-puk do (province), southeastern South Korea. Taegu is Korea's third largest city and has the status of a special city, with administrative status equal to that of a province. It lies east of the confluence of the Naktong and the Kumho rivers and 55 miles (90 km) north-northwest of Pusan. The city lies in a valley rimmed by low mountains that reach

Mercosur

Spanish acronym of �Common Market of the South (�Mercado Com�n del Sur�)�, Portuguese �Mercado Comum do Sul (Mercosul)� South American regional economic organization. Mercosur grew out of earlier efforts to integrate the economies of Latin America through the Latin American Free Trade Association (1960) and its successor, the Latin American Integration Association (1980). In 1985 Argentina and Brazil signed the Declaration of Igua�u, which created a bilateral commission to promote the integration

Kerman

Also spelled� Kirman,� city, provincial capital, and ostan (province), southeastern Iran. The city lies on a sandy plain, 5,738 ft (1,749 m) above sea level, under barren, rocky hills. Surrounded by mountains on the north and east, it has a cool climate and frequent sandstorms in the autumn and spring. The population is mostly Persian-speaking Muslims, with a Zoroastrian minority. Kerman is the largest carpet-exporting

Gai Saber

Old Proven�al: �gay knowledge� or �gay science�� the art of composing love poetry; especially the art of the Proven�al troubadours as set forth in a 14th-century work called the Leys d'amors. The Old Proven�al phrase gai saber is associated with the Consist�ri del Gai Saber, originally the Sobregaya compannia dels VII Trobadors de Tolosa (�Very Gay Company of the Seven Troubadours of Toulouse�), a group of seven citizens

Roberti, Ercole (grandi D'antonio) De'

Roberti is believed to have studied with Cosm� Tura, a court painter to the Este family of Ferrara, and he is known to have studied with Tura's student Francesco del Cossa. Although his early paintings are influenced

Henry The Navigator

From 1420 onward he began to dispatch expeditions from the nearby port of Lagos, first with the aim of discovering more of the Moroccan Atlantic coast and later - when he began to think in terms of continents - with the aim of discovering the southerly route to India, in order to introduce Christianity there and to foster commerce. Little is known of the Prince's private life

Locomotion

In ethology, any of a variety of movements among animals that results in progression from one place to another.

Locomotion

In ethology, any of a variety of movements among animals that results in progression from one place to another.

Umniati River

River, tributary of the Zambezi River in north-central Zimbabwe. It has its source in the Daramumbe Range on the main watershed north of Chivhu. Flowing northwest for 325 miles (520 km), the Umniati joins the Zambezi River near the Kariba Dam. Its tributaries include the Sebakwe, Umsweswe, and Umfuli rivers. Its lower course, formed by the confluence with the Umfuli River, is also

Halicarnassus, Mausoleum Of

According

Lokoja

Town and river port, capital of Kogi state, south-central Nigeria, on the west bank of the Niger River opposite the mouth of the Benue River. British merchants established a trading post at the Benue-Niger confluence in the late 1850s; and in 1860 William Balfour Baikie, the Scottish explorer, founded Lokoja. Besides being an important commercial settlement, the site (originally

Syrian And Palestinian Religion

Beliefs of Syria and Palestine between 3000 and 300 BC. These religions are usually defined by the languages of those who practiced them: e.g., Amorite, Hurrian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Moabite. The term Canaanite is often used broadly to cover a number of these, as well as the religion of early periods and areas from which there are no written sources. Knowledge of the religions

Beach Boys, The

American rock group whose dulcet melodies and distinctive vocal mesh defined the 1960s youthful idyll of sun-drenched southern California. The original members were Brian Wilson (b. June 20, 1942, Inglewood, Calif., U.S.), Dennis Wilson (b. Dec. 4, 1944, Inglewood - d. Dec. 28, 1983, Marina del Rey, Calif.), Carl Wilson (b. Dec. 21, 1946, Los Angeles, Calif. - d. Feb. 6, 1998, Los Angeles), Michael Love (b. March 15, 1941, Los Angeles), and Alan Jardine (b. Sept.

Elision

(Latin: �striking out�), in prosody, the slurring or omission of a final unstressed vowel that precedes either another vowel or a weak consonant sound, as in the word heav'n. It may also be the dropping of a consonant between vowels, as in the word o'er for over. Elision is used to fit words into a metrical scheme, to smooth the rhythm of a poem, or to ease the pronunciation of words.

Moravia, Alberto

Moravia contracted tuberculosis of the bone (a form of osteomyelitis usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis) at the age of 8, but, during several

Mithra

Also spelled �Mithras, �Sanskrit �Mitra, � in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology, the god of light, whose cult spread from India in the east to as far west as Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. (See Mithraism.) The first written mention of the Vedic Mitra dates to 1400 BC. His worship spread to Persia and, after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great, throughout the Hellenic world. In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the cult of

Biogeographic Region, New Zealand region

The New Zealand region (Figure 2) includes all of New Zealand, excluding aspects of the fauna of the southwest, which shows an Antarctic element. Flightless birds inhabit both New Zealand and Australia, although the order Dinornithiformes (kiwis and moas) is endemic to New Zealand. Other endemic taxa include the snail family Athoracophoridae; New Zealand's only mammals,

Axiom

In Euclid's Elements the first principles were listed

Andes Mountains

The Andes consist of a vast series of extremely high plateaus surmounted by even higher peaks that form an unbroken rampart over a distance of some 5,500 miles (8,900 kilometres) - from the southern tip of South America to the continent's northernmost coast on the Caribbean. They separate a narrow

Amorphous Solid

There are two main classes of solids: crystalline and amorphous. What distinguishes them from one another is the nature of their atomic-scale structure. The essential differences are displayed in Figure 2. The salient features of the atomic arrangements in amorphous solids (also called glasses), as opposed to crystals, are illustrated in the figure for two-dimensional

Hardie, J(ames) Keir

British labour leader, first to represent the workingman in Parliament as an Independent (1892) and first to lead the Labour Party in the House of Commons (1906). A dedicated socialist, he was also an outspoken pacifist (from the time of the South African, or Boer, War, 1899 - 1902) and the chief adviser (from 1903) to the militant suffragists headed by Emmeline