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Als ... Altona

Als island in the Little Belt (strait), Denmark. It is separated from the Sundeved peninsula of southern Jutland by the narrow Als Sound. Fertile clay loams support mixed agriculture, fruit growing, and dairy farming on the island. The earliest known specimen of a northern European boat (c. 300 BC) was discovered ... Alsace region of France, encompassing the northeastern departements of Haut-Rhin ("Upper Rhine") and Bas-Rhin ("Lower Rhine") and roughly coextensive with the historical region of Alsace. It is bounded by the regions of Lorraine to the west and Franche-Comte to the southwest. Switzerland lies to the south and Germany borders it to ... Alsace-Lorraine area comprising the present French departements of Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, and Moselle. Alsace-Lorraine was the name given to the 5,067 square miles (13,123 square km) of territory that was ceded by France to Germany in 1871 after the Franco-German War. This territory was retroceded to France in 1919 after World War ... Alsop, Joseph American journalist and longtime syndicated columnist known for straightforward but opinionated political reporting. Alsop, Marin American conductor who, as the musical director of the Baltimore (Md.) Symphony Orchestra (2007- ), was the first woman to lead a major American orchestra. Alster River tributary of the Elbe River in northern Germany. It rises 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Kaltenkirchen and flows generally south for 30 miles (50 km) to Hamburg, where a dam was built along its course in the Middle Ages. The river then continues to the Elbe in two parallel ... Alston, Walter professional National League baseball manager whose career with the Los Angeles (formerly Brooklyn) Dodgers was the third longest for managers, after Connie Mack and John McGraw. alstonite a barium and calcium carbonate mineral, CaBa(CO3)2, with minor amounts of strontium. It is colourless or light gray or pink in appearance and is also transparent or translucent. Its crystal structure is orthorhombic and is identical to that of aragonite, with barium and calcium in nine-fold coordination but ordered within ... Alta town and ski resort, Salt Lake county, northern Utah, U.S. Lying at an elevation of 8,583 feet (2,616 metres) in the Little Cottonwood Canyon of the Wasatch Range 26 miles (42 km) east of Salt Lake City, the town-then a silver mining camp-was founded as Central City in 1866 and ... Altai Mountains complex mountain system of Central Asia extending approximately 1,200 miles (2,000 km) in a southeast-northwest direction from the Gobi (Desert) to the West Siberian Plain, through China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The jagged mountain ridges derive their name from the Turkic-Mongolian altan, meaning "golden." Altaic languages family of languages consisting of three branches-Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus-that show similarities in vocabulary, morphological and syntactic structure, and certain phonological features and which, on the basis of systematic sound correspondences, are generally considered to be genetically related. It contains more than 50 languages, spoken by more than 135 million ... Altair the brighest star in the northern constellation Aquila and the 12th brightest star in the sky. With the bright stars Deneb and Vega, Altair (Arabic for "flying eagle") forms the prominent asterism of the Summer Triangle. It is an A-type star 16.6 light-years from Earth. Altair rotates at the fast ... Altaisky Nature Reserve natural area set aside for research in the natural sciences, in the northeastern Altai Mountains near Lake Teletsky, in south-central Russia. The reserve, established in 1932, has an area of 34,025 square miles (88,124 square km). Its physiographic features include high mountains with glacially produced landforms, high mountain forest, and ... Altamira cave in northern Spain famous for its magnificent prehistoric paintings and engravings. It is situated 19 miles (30 km) west of the port city of Santander, in Cantabria provincia. Altamira was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. Altamura town, Puglia (Apulia) regione, southeastern Italy. Altamura lies on the Murge plateau at 1,552 feet (473 m) above sea level, southwest of Bari. It was founded about 1200 by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II, who created several new towns in Apulia, to which he attracted Italians, Greeks, and Jews ... Altan Mongol khan, or chief, who terrorized China during the 16th century. He converted the Mongols to the reformed, or Dge-lugs-pa (Yellow Hat), sect of Tibetan Buddhism. altar in religion, a raised structure or place that is used for sacrifice, worship, or prayer. Altare glass type of Italian glassware produced in the town of Altare, near Genoa. The Altare glass industry was established in the 11th century by glassmakers from Normandy and developed independently of the much better known glassworks of Venice. During the 15th century the great demand for Venetian glass and, consequently, its ... altarpiece work of art that decorates the space above and behind the altar in a Christian church. Painting, relief, and sculpture in the round have all been used in altarpieces, either alone or in combination. These artworks usually depict holy personages, saints, and biblical subjects. Altay kray (region), southwestern Siberia, Russia. Altay kray lies in the basin of the upper Ob River and its headstreams, the Biya and Katun. The kray borders Kazakhstan in the southwest. Altay republic, southern Russia, in the Altai Mountains. It s bounded on the south by Mongolia and China. It embraces a complex series of ranges and high plateaus, divided by deep valleys and broad basins, that attain a maximum height of 14,783 feet (4,506 metres) in Mount Belukha. Steppe vegetation in ... Altdorf capital of Uri canton, central Switzerland. It lies near the confluence of the Reuss River and the Schachen torrent, southeast of Lucerne. In the centre of the town a bronze statue of William Tell (1895) marks the place at which, according to tradition, he shot, with his crossbow, an apple ... Altdorfer, Albrecht German painter, printmaker, and draftsman who was one of the founders of landscape painting. Alte Pinakothek fine art museum in Munich, Ger., noted for its collection of paintings by 14th- to 18th-century European masters. It is one of several institutions that constitute the Bavarian State Picture Galleries. Altenburg city, Thuringia Land (state), central Germany. It lies along the Pleisse River, at the southern edge of the central German brown-coal deposits, south of Leipzig. First mentioned in 976 as the site of a watchtower near an old Slav fortress, it was a trading centre and royal residence in the ... alternating current flow of electric charge that periodically reverses; it starts, say, from zero, grows to a maximum, decreases to zero, reverses, reaches a maximum in the opposite direction, returns again to the original value, and repeats this cycle indefinitely. The interval of time between the attainment of a definite value on ... alternation of generations in biology, the alternation of a sexual phase and an asexual phase in the life cycle of an organism. The two phases, or generations, are often morphologically, and sometimes chromosomally, distinct. alternative education Education that diverges in some way from that offered by conventional schools. Examples may be found in publicly funded schools, private schools, and homeschooling curricula. The focus might be on alternative structures (e.g., open classrooms), alternative subject matter (e.g., religious instruction), or alternative relationships (e.g., more informal relations between students ... Alternative Medicine: Year in Review 1998 Alternative and complementary medicine covers a broad range of healing philosophies, approaches, and therapies. The Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines alternative and complementary medicine as "those treatments and health care practices not taught widely in medical schools, not generally used in ... alternative rock pop music style, built on distorted guitars and rooted in generational discontent, that dominated and changed rock between 1991 and 1996. It burst into the mainstream when "Smells Like Teen Spirit"-the first major-label single from Nirvana, a trio based in Seattle, Washington, U.S.-became a national hit. Suddenly, older, difficult, and ... Alternative Sports: Year in Review 1998 In the 1990s so-called alternative sports made inroads into the imagination and recreation time of people around the world--but especially in the United States. Figures from the National Sporting Goods Association showed a decline in participation by Americans in traditional sports, including football and baseball, in favour of such new ... alternative vote method of election in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. If any single candidate receives a majority of first-preference votes, that candidate is deemed elected. If no candidate clears this hurdle, the last-place candidate is eliminated and that candidate's second preferences are reapportioned to others and so on ... alternator Source of direct electric current in modern vehicles for ignition, lights, fans, and other uses. The electric power is generated by an alternator mechanically coupled to the engine, with a rotor field coil supplied with current through slip rings, and a stator with a three-phase winding. A rectifier converts the ... Altgeld, John Peter reformist Democratic governor of Illinois (1893-97) known principally for his pardon (June 26, 1893) of German-American anarchists involved in the Haymarket Riot, a labour protest meeting in which seven Chicago policemen were killed at Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886. Althiburos ancient city of Numidia in North Africa, on the road constructed by the Roman emperor Hadrian in AD 123, between Carthage and Theveste (Tabassah) in what is now Tunisia. The town, originally an indigenous settlement, obtained municipal rights from Hadrian. Althusius, Johannes German political theorist who was the intellectual father of modern federalism and an advocate of popular sovereignty. Althusser, Louis French philosopher who attained international renown in the 1960s for his attempt to fuse Marxism and structuralism. Altichiero early Renaissance painter who was the effective founder of the Veronese school and perhaps the most significant northern Italian artist of the 14th century. altimeter instrument that measures the altitude of the land surface or any object such as an airplane. The two main types are the pressure altimeter, or aneroid barometer, which approximates altitude above sea level by measuring atmospheric pressure, and the radio altimeter, which measures absolute altitude (distance above land or water) ... Altiplano region of southeastern Peru and western Bolivia. The Altiplano originates northwest of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru and extends about 600 miles (965 km) southeast to the southwestern corner of Bolivia. It is a series of intermontane basins lying at about 12,000 feet (3,650 metres) above sea level. Lake Titicaca ... Altis in Greek religion, the sacred grove of Zeus, or the sacred precinct in Olympia, Greece. It was an irregular quadrangular area more than 200 yards (183 m) on each side, and walled except to the north, where it was bounded by the Kronion (hill of Cronus). In it were the ... altitude and azimuth in astronomy, gunnery, navigation, and other fields, two coordinates describing the position of an object above the Earth. Altitude in this sense is expressed as angular elevation (up to 90) above the horizon. Azimuth is the number of degrees clockwise from due north (usually) to the object's vertical circle (i.e., ... altitude sickness acute reaction to a change from sea level or other low-altitude environments to altitudes above 8,000 feet (2,400 metres). Altitude sickness was recognized as early as the 16th century. In 1878 French physiologist Paul Bert demonstrated that the symptoms of altitude sickness are the result of a deficiency of oxygen ... Altizer, Thomas J.J. radical theologian associated with the Death of God movement (q.v.) in the 1960s and '70s. Altman, Benjamin American merchant, art collector, and philanthropist who established one of the world's great department stores, B. Altman & Co. Altman, Robert unconventional and independent American motion-picture director, whose works emphasize character and atmosphere over plot in exploring themes of innocence, corruption, and survival. Perhaps his best-known film was his first and biggest commercial success, the antiwar comedy M*A*S*H (1970), set in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. Altman, Sidney Canadian American molecular biologist who, with Thomas R. Cech, received the 1989 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their discoveries concerning the catalytic properties of RNA, or ribonucleic acid. alto (Italian: "high"), in vocal music the register approximately between the F below middle C to the second D above-the second highest part in four-part music. The word alto originally referred to the highest male voice, singing falsetto (see countertenor). Alton town (parish), East Hampshire district, administrative and historic county of Hampshire, England. It lies among the downs on the River Wey, about 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Winchester by road. The Church of St. Lawrence is in the Perpendicular style with a Norman tower. Eggar's Grammar School was founded ... Alton city, Madison county, southwestern Illinois, U.S. Part of the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area, Alton lies on the Mississippi River (bridged) near its confluence with the Missouri River. Altona northwest district of the city and Land (state) of Hamburg, northwestern Germany. It lies on cliffs above the right bank of the Elbe River. The name may have come originally from allzu-nah ("all too near"), which was the Hamburgers' designation for an inn that lay too close to their territory ...