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  • tartrazine (dye)
    The acid azo dyes possess affinity for wool and silk and are applied by essentially the same procedure used for the direct class. Tartrazine is a yellow acid azo dye discovered in 1884 and still in common use....
  • Tartu (Estonia)
    old university city of Estonia, on the Emajogi River. The original settlement of Tarbatu dates from the 5th century; in 1030 the Russians built a fort there called Yuryev. From the 13th to the 16th century, the town was a prosperous member of the Hanseatic League. Then held in turn by Poles (1582–1600, 1603–25) and Swedes (1600–03, 1625–1704), it was finally annexed to ...
  • Tartu State University (university, Tartu, Estonia)
    ...an effective provision for secondary education; his splendid munificence to the University of Uppsala gave it the financial security that was essential to its development; and his foundation of the University of Tartu provided the first centre for higher learning in the Baltic provinces. During Gustav’s reign many town charters were granted, among them that of Göteborg (1619). He ...
  • Tartu, Treaty of (Europe [1920])
    ...the first government of newly independent Finland, in which capacity he favoured a pro-German policy and a monarchy for his country. He headed the Finnish delegation that on Oct. 14, 1920, signed at Tartu, Estonia, the peace treaty with Russia, after warning his government against trying to take advantage of Russia’s temporary weakness. In independent postwar Finland he became prominent ...
  • “Tartuffe, ou l’imposteur, Le” (play by Molière)
    Murnau’s final two German films, adaptations of Molière’s Tartuffe (1925) and Goethe’s Faust (1926), were lavish, entertaining films that again featured Murnau’s soaring camera work and atmospheric use of shadows. Both films starred Jannings and enhanced the international prestige of both director and actor. Murna...
  • Ṭarṭūs (Syria)
    town, western Syria, situated on the Mediterranean coast opposite Arwād Island. It was founded in antiquity as Antaradus, a colony of Aradus (now Arwād Island). It was rebuilt in ad 346 by Emperor Constantine I and flourished during Roman and Byzantine times. Crusaders occupied Ṭarṭūs, then known as Tortosa, in the European Middle...
  • Taru (ancient god)
    ancient Anatolian weather god. His name appears in Hittite and Assyrian records (c. 1400–612 bc) and later as an element in Hellenistic personal names, primarily from Cilicia. Tarhunt was the Luwian form and Tarhun (Tarhunna) probably the Hittite, from the common root tarh-, “to conquer.” The weather god was one of the supreme deities of the Hittite...
  • Taruc, Luis (Filipino political leader)
    Philippine leader (1942–54) of the communist Huk (Hukbalahap) movement....
  • Tarudesert (desert, Kenya)
    desert, south-central Kenya. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) east of Lake Magadi and near the northern border of Tanzania. The desert encompasses the Amboseli National Park, including the northern half of Lake Amboseli. Nairobi National Park lies at its northern extremity and Tsavo West National Park at its southern extremity. Parts of the desert have dense growths of small trees, many of them thor...
  • Taruma (Indonesian kingdom)
    the oldest recorded kingdom in western Java. It was established about the 5th century ad, but little is recorded about the kingdom except for a sketchy account by a Chinese traveler and several rock inscriptions discovered near Bogor and in extreme western Java. These sources agree that the most powerful king of Tarumanegara was Purnavarman, who conquered neighbouring countries and b...
  • Tarumanegara (Indonesian kingdom)
    the oldest recorded kingdom in western Java. It was established about the 5th century ad, but little is recorded about the kingdom except for a sketchy account by a Chinese traveler and several rock inscriptions discovered near Bogor and in extreme western Java. These sources agree that the most powerful king of Tarumanegara was Purnavarman, who conquered neighbouring countries and b...
  • Taruna (Indonesia)
    ...of Sulawesi Utara (North Celebes) provinsi (province). The main islands in the group are Sangihe, Siau, Tahulandang, and Biaro, and there are numerous islets. Tahuna (Taruna), on Sangihe’s west coast, is the main town and lies in the shadow of Mount Awu (6,070 feet [1,850 metres]), an active volcano to the north. Most of the islands’ inhabit...
  • Tarver, Antonio (American boxer)
    Despite the interest generated by his foray into the heavyweight division, Jones dropped back down to light heavyweight to face Antonio Tarver on November 8, 2003, in Las Vegas. Tarver gave Jones a surprisingly difficult fight, though Jones managed to win by a majority decision, capturing Tarver’s World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight belt. In their rematch on May 15, 2004, Jones......
  • Tarver, Antonio Deon (American boxer)
    Despite the interest generated by his foray into the heavyweight division, Jones dropped back down to light heavyweight to face Antonio Tarver on November 8, 2003, in Las Vegas. Tarver gave Jones a surprisingly difficult fight, though Jones managed to win by a majority decision, capturing Tarver’s World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight belt. In their rematch on May 15, 2004, Jones......
  • Tarvisium (Italy)
    city, Veneto regione, northeastern Italy, situated north of Venice in a fertile plain at the confluence of the Sile and Botteniga rivers and intersected by canals. Originating as the Celtic Tarvisium, it was a Roman municipality and had an important mint at the time of Charlemagne. As capital of the march of Trevigiana, it reached its cultural peak in the 13th century und...
  • tarwanas (Carchemish title)
    ...the bull, the stag, and the lion, respectively. A number of titles used by the kings of Carchemish (e.g., Great King and Hero) clearly are relics of a more glorious Hittite past, but one (tarwanas, conventionally translated as “judge” or “ruler”) is entirely new and may reflect a new political phenomenon. Neo-Hittite kings of the 9th century often bore....
  • tarweed (plant)
    any sticky, hairy plant of the genus Madia of the family Asteraceae, consisting of about 18 species. They are native to western North and South America....
  • Tarxien Cemetery (archaeological site, Malta)
    ...that replaced it, of southern Italian flavour, is evidenced today only by fragmentary remains. Bronze Age tools and weapons have been found at Borġ in-Nadur (near Birżebbuġa) and Tarxien Cemetery (near Paola), while Iron Age relics from about 1200 to 800 bc include cart ruts at Binġemma (near Nadur Tower)....
  • tarz-i nev (poetry)
    In the 17th century this newer style of poetry was termed tâze-gûʾî (“fresh speech”) or tarz-i nev (“new style”). (By the early 20th century it had come to be known as poetry of the Indian school, or Sabk-i Hindī.) In the late 16th century the two most importan...
  • Tarzan (literary character)
    one of the best-known and most durable figures of popular fiction, the hero of jungle adventures in nearly 30 novels and dozens of motion pictures....
  • Tarzan of the Apes (novel by Burroughs)
    ...appeared in the adventure magazine All-Story in 1911 and was so successful that Burroughs turned to writing full-time. The first Tarzan story appeared in 1912, followed in 1914 by Tarzan of the Apes, the first of 25 such books about the son of an English nobleman abandoned in the African jungle during infancy and brought up by apes. Burroughs created in Tarzan a figure......
  • Tasaday (Asian people)
    small group of people living in the highland rain forest of Mindanao, in the Philippines. Before their existence was first reported by anthropological investigators in 1971, the Tasaday, numbering about 25 individuals, apparently had been living a virtually isolated, primitive (incorrectly labeled “Stone Age”) existence until they were discovered by nearby settled tribes in 1966. Vi...
  • Tašauz (Turkmenistan)
    city, northern Turkmenistan, in the western Khorezm oasis. The Shavat Canal, which gets its water from the nearby Amu Darya (river), divides the city into northern and southern sections. Originally a fort and the bazaar of western Khwārezm, it became a town in 1924. The old, typically Asiatic part of the city lies north of the canal, while the new part, with its wide tree-lined streets, occ...
  • Taschenwerk (shaft)
    The difficulty of taking out the complete rollers from such a press led to an ingenious variation—the Taschenwerke. In this machine the rollers were replaced by rectangular shafts pierced in the middle to take a pair of dies with tapered extensions (tangs). The axis of the upper shaft could be raised or lowered a short distance to accommodate variations in the dies or differing......
  • Tascher de la Pagerie, Marie-Josèphe-Rose (empress of France)
    consort of Napoleon Bonaparte and empress of the French....
  • Tasciovanus (British ruler)
    Cunobelinus succeeded his father, Tasciovanus, as chief of the Catuvellauni, a tribe centred north of what is now London. Tasciovanus’s capital was Verlamio, above the later Roman site of Verulamium (modern St. Albans). Either shortly before or shortly after his accession, Cunobelinus conquered the territory of the Trinovantes, in modern Essex. He made Camulodunum (modern Colchester) his......
  • Taser (weapon)
    Electronic technologies include the stun gun, which delivers an electric charge that causes muscle spasms, pain, and incapacitation, and the Taser, which fires two barbed projectiles that deliver an electric charge without requiring the officer to come within arm’s reach of the suspect. Stun-gun technology is a good illustration of the globalization of police equipment. Most police forces t...
  • Tasermiut (fjord, Greenland)
    fjord in southern Greenland, extending northeasterly from its mouth and the nearby town of Nanortalik on the Atlantic Ocean to the inland ice cap. It is 45 miles (70 km) long and 1–3 miles wide. In the 10th century, Tasermiut (Ketilsfjord) was the site of Norse settlements, notably Vatsdalr (Vazdalr) and Vík in Ketilsfjord (Ároskirkja in Ivar), where an Augu...
  • Tashauz (Turkmenistan)
    city, northern Turkmenistan, in the western Khorezm oasis. The Shavat Canal, which gets its water from the nearby Amu Darya (river), divides the city into northern and southern sections. Originally a fort and the bazaar of western Khwārezm, it became a town in 1924. The old, typically Asiatic part of the city lies north of the canal, while the new part, with its wide tree-lined streets, occ...
  • tashbīh (Islam)
    (Arabic: “assimilating”), in Islām, anthropomorphism, comparing God to created things. Both tashbīh and its opposite, taʿṭīl (divesting God of all attributes), are regarded as sins in Islāmic theology. The difficulty in dealing with the nature of God in Islām arises from the seemingly contradictory views contained...
  • Tashi (American music group)
    ...philosophies and musical traditions led him to retire in the early 1970s, to travel at length through Asia and Morocco, then to live in Mexico. He returned to performing in 1973 and cofounded Tashi, a chamber group unique for its instrumentation (piano, clarinet, violin, cello) and for its repertoire, which was largely centred on contemporary composers. His public performances and......
  • Tashi Chho Dzong (fortress, Bhutan)
    ...m) above sea level. It was designated the official seat of government in 1962 (formerly the seat was wherever the king resided), and a large construction program was undertaken with Indian aid. Tashi Chho dzong (fortress, or castle), the traditional fortified monastery that has been remodeled and extended to house the offices of the royal government, is one of the finest specimens of......
  • Tashilhunpo (monastery, Tibet, China)
    The first of the line was Dge-’dun-grub-pa (1391–1475), founder and abbot of Tashilhunpo monastery (central Tibet). In accordance with the belief in reincarnate lamas, which began to develop in the 14th century, his successors were conceived as his rebirths and came to be regarded as physical manifestations of the compassionate bodhisattva (“buddha-to-be”), Avalokiteshv...
  • Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
    capital of Uzbekistan and the largest city in Central Asia. Tashkent lies in the northeastern part of the country. It is situated at an elevation of 1,475 to 1,575 feet (450 to 480 metres) in the Chirchiq River valley west of the Chatkal Mountains and is intersected by a series of canals from the Chirchiq River. The city probably dates from the 2nd or the 1st century bc and was vario...
  • Tashkent Agreement (India-Pakistan [1966])
    (Jan. 10, 1966), accord signed by India’s prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (who died the next day) and Pakistan’s president Ayub Khan, ending the 17-day war between Pakistan and India of August–September 1965. A cease-fire had been secured by the United Nations Security Council on Sept. 22, 1965....
  • tashlich (Judaism)
    (Hebrew: “you will cast”), traditional Jewish religious ceremony, still observed by Orthodox Jews, that entails visiting a body of water following the afternoon service on Rosh Hashana (or, if this falls on the Sabbath, the following day) and reciting biblical verses expressing repentance and forgiveness of sins. One verse includes the words “ . . . Thou wilt cast [tashlik...
  • tashlik (Judaism)
    (Hebrew: “you will cast”), traditional Jewish religious ceremony, still observed by Orthodox Jews, that entails visiting a body of water following the afternoon service on Rosh Hashana (or, if this falls on the Sabbath, the following day) and reciting biblical verses expressing repentance and forgiveness of sins. One verse includes the words “ . . . Thou wilt cast [tashlik...
  • tashlikh (Judaism)
    (Hebrew: “you will cast”), traditional Jewish religious ceremony, still observed by Orthodox Jews, that entails visiting a body of water following the afternoon service on Rosh Hashana (or, if this falls on the Sabbath, the following day) and reciting biblical verses expressing repentance and forgiveness of sins. One verse includes the words “ . . . Thou wilt cast [tashlik...
  • Tashmetum (ancient goddess)
    Goddesses associated with Nabu were Nana, a Sumerian deity; the Assyrian Nissaba; and the Akkadian Tashmetum, queen of Borsippa, stepdaughter of Marduk, and, as her abstract Akkadian name indicates, Lady of Hearing and of Favour. She was rarely invoked apart from her husband, Nabu, whose name means “speaking.” Thus, while Nabu speaks, Tashmetum listens....
  • Tashmit (ancient goddess)
    Goddesses associated with Nabu were Nana, a Sumerian deity; the Assyrian Nissaba; and the Akkadian Tashmetum, queen of Borsippa, stepdaughter of Marduk, and, as her abstract Akkadian name indicates, Lady of Hearing and of Favour. She was rarely invoked apart from her husband, Nabu, whose name means “speaking.” Thus, while Nabu speaks, Tashmetum listens....
  • Tashtyk (people)
    On the Yenisey River the Bronze Age Tagar culture was replaced by the Tashtyk culture, dating from the 1st to the 4th century ad. The physical appearance of the Tashtyk people has been preserved by a seriesof masks, some of them modelled, others cast from the dead. They were painted with the features rendered in blue, red, and green against a yellow ground. Spirals disposed on the fo...
  • TASI (communications)
    In order to improve the voice-channel capacity of transoceanic cable systems, a method of voice data reduction known as time assignment speech interpolation, or TASI, was introduced. In TASI the natural pauses occurring in speech are used to carry other speech conversations. In this way, a transatlantic cable system designed for 4,200 two-way voice circuits could support 10,500 circuits.......
  • Tasian culture (Egyptian history)
    possibly the oldest-known cultural phase in Upper Egypt (c. 4500 bc)....
  • Tasiilaq (Greenland)
    town, southeastern Greenland, on the south coast of Ammassalik Island. The island is 25 miles (40 km) long and 12–20 miles (19–32 km) wide, with a high point of 4,336 feet (1,322 metres). Although Europeans landed as early as 1472, the region was not explored until 1884, when Gustav Holm, a Dane, mapped the coast. A trading and mission station was established in 18...
  • Tasikmalaja (Indonesia)
    city, southeastern Jawa Barat provinsi (West Java province), western Java, west-central Indonesia. The city is located in the mountainous Preanger region, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Bandung, at an elevation of 1,151 feet (351 metres). Roads and railway link it with Bandung to the northwest and Cilacap to the southeast. The population is made up of J...
  • Tasikmalaya (Indonesia)
    city, southeastern Jawa Barat provinsi (West Java province), western Java, west-central Indonesia. The city is located in the mountainous Preanger region, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Bandung, at an elevation of 1,151 feet (351 metres). Roads and railway link it with Bandung to the northwest and Cilacap to the southeast. The population is made up of J...
  • Tasiko Island (island, Vanuatu)
    island of Vanuatu, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It is volcanic in origin and is 27 miles (43 km) long and 11 miles (18 km) wide, with an area of 171 square miles (444 square km). It rises to 2,733 feet (833 metres). Although Épi is fertile, its copra plantations have deteriorated through disuse. There is a hospital at Vaémali, on the north ...
  • task force (military)
    ...turn form a flotilla, several of which in turn form a fleet. For operations, however, many navies organize their vessels into task units (3–5 ships), task or battle groups (4–10 ships), task forces (2–5 task groups), and fleets (several task forces)....
  • Task Force on National Health Care (United States government organization)
    ...the Clinton White House supported this interpretation. She appointed an experienced staff and set up her own office in the West Wing, an unprecedented move. Her husband appointed her to head the Task Force on National Health Care, a centrepiece of his legislative agenda. She encountered sharp criticism when she closed the sessions of the task force to the public, and doctors and other health......
  • Task Forces (Nazi military police)
    ...the Soviet Union in June 1941, Himmler was entrusted with the administration of the conquered territory with the goal of eliminating the Soviet system. He oversaw the deployment of the Einsatzgruppen (“deployment groups”) in the massacre of Jews and other victims at sites such as Baby Yar, in Ukraine, during the early war years. Himmler organized the extermination....
  • Task, The (poem by Cowper)
    one of the most widely read English poets of his day, whose most characteristic work, as in The Task or the melodious short lyric “The Poplar Trees,” brought a new directness to 18th-century nature poetry....
  • task unit (military unit)
    ...destroyers) are organized into a squadron. Several squadrons in turn form a flotilla, several of which in turn form a fleet. For operations, however, many navies organize their vessels into task units (3–5 ships), task or battle groups (4–10 ships), task forces (2–5 task groups), and fleets (several task forces)....
  • Taskin, Pascal (French craftsman)
    ...makers. François’s son, François the Younger (b. c. 1730, Paris, France—d. 1766, Paris), succeeded his father. He died at an early age, leaving a widow who later married Pascal Taskin the Elder (b. 1723, Theux, France—d. 1793, Paris), another excellent builder, who continued the family business....
  • Taşköprüzāde (Turkish writer)
    ...remained the language of theology and scholarship throughout the Muslim world; both Turkey and India could boast a large number of scholars who excelled in the sacred language. In Ottoman Turkey, Taşköprüzāde (died 1560) compiled a historical survey of outstanding Turkish intellectuals in Arabic. Although a fine example of Islāmic learning, it does not compare...
  • Tasmacetus shepherdi (mammal)
    ...gums only in the male. In the strap-toothed whale (M. layardii), these two tusklike teeth are remarkable in that they curve upward out of the mouth, holding the jaws partially shut. Shepherd’s beaked whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi) is unusual in having numerous small functional teeth....
  • Tasman (unitary authority, New Zealand)
    unitary authority, northwestern South Island, central New Zealand. It is bounded by Tasman and Golden bays and Nelson city on the northeast. Administratively, it is bordered by Marlborough unitary authority and Canterbury regional council on the east and by West Coast regional council on the south and we...
  • Tasman, Abel Janszoon (Dutch explorer and navigator)
    greatest of the Dutch navigators and explorers, who discovered Tasmania, New Zealand, Tonga, and the Fiji Islands. On his first voyage (1642–43) in the service of the Dutch East India Company, Tasman explored the Indian Ocean, Australasia, and the southern Pacific; on his second voyage (1644) he traveled in Australian and South Pacific waters....
  • Tasman Basin (basin, Pacific Ocean)
    Extending southward from the Tasman Basin (between New Zealand and eastern Australia) is the Macquarie Ridge, which forms a major boundary between the deep waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The Hawaiian Ridge extends westward from Hawaii to the 180° meridian....
  • Tasman Bay (bay, New Zealand)
    ...Golden Bay. His encounter there with the Maori was a tragic one, and Tasman sailed away naming the area Murderers’ Bay. In 1770 Capt. James Cook sailed past Golden Bay beyond Separation Point into Tasman Bay; the latter appeared landlocked, and Cook named it Blind Bay. In 1772–73 Cook returned to Blind Bay and renamed it Tasman Bay, mistaking it for Tasman’s Murderers...
  • Tasman Empire Airways Limited (New Zealand airline)
    New Zealand international airline founded in 1939 (as Tasman Empire Airways Limited, or TEAL) and, by 1980, operating throughout the South Pacific from New Zealand and Australia to Hong Kong and Singapore and to Tahiti, Hawaii, and Los Angeles. The original shareholders in 1939 were New Zealand (50 percent), Australia (30 percent), and Britain (20 percent); Britain withdrew in 1953, and New Zealan...
  • Tasman Fold Belt (geology)
    The various parts of the Tasman Fold Belt are separated from each other by faults or have boundaries covered by sediment. Geologists have reviewed the Paleozoic development of the Tasman Fold Belt in light of the observation that the component terranes of many other circum-Pacific fold belts are displaced to a greater or lesser extent from their place of origin. In the Tasman Fold Belt,......
  • Tasman Geosyncline (geology)
    Devonian rocks are known in eastern Australia in a belt from Queensland to Tasmania as part of the Tasman geosyncline. Fluviatile sediments are found to the west. Thicknesses of 6,100 metres (20,000 feet) are known. Leptophloeum is found in the Upper Devonian portion. Devonian rocks occur in central Australia in Lake Amadeus and along the western coast in the......
  • Tasman Glacier (glacier, New Zealand)
    There are more than 360 glaciers in the Southern Alps. The Tasman Glacier, the largest in New Zealand, with a length of 18 miles (29 km) and a width of more than one-half mile (2.5 km), flows down the eastern slopes of Mount Cook. Other important glaciers on the eastern slopes of the Southern Alps are the Murchison, Mueller, and Godley; Fox and Franz Josef are the largest on the western slopes.......
  • Tasman Line (Australian geology)
    ...belts. The second is as the basement to a younger cover of Phanerozoic sediment (deposited during the past 543 million years); for example, all the sedimentary basins west of the Tasman Line are underlain by Precambrian basement. The third is as relicts in younger orogenic belts, as in the Georgetown Inlier of northern Queensland and in the western half of Tasmania. Rocks of....
  • Tasman, Mount (mountain, New Zealand)
    There are over 60 named glaciers in the park, although only the 2 largest, the Franz Josef and Fox, are readily accessible to tourists. The highest point is Mount Tasman, 11,473 feet (3,497 m), in the Southern Alps. The park is well dissected by rivers and streams fed by the heavy precipitation, which falls as both rain and snow. Three main rivers rise in the park and empty into the Tasman Sea:......
  • Tasman Peninsula (peninsula, Tasmania, Australia)
    peninsula in southeastern Tasmania, Australia, connected to the Forestier Peninsula to the north by a narrow isthmus, Eaglehawk Neck. Measuring 17 by 12 miles (27 by 19 km) and occupying 200 square miles (520 square km), the peninsula comprises three arms bounded by Storm Bay (west), Norfolk Bay (north), and the Tasman Sea. Its heavily wooded hills rise to more than 1,500 feet (460 m). The coastl...
  • Tasman Sea (sea, Pacific Ocean)
    section of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, between the southeastern coast of Australia and Tasmania on the west and New Zealand on the east; it merges with the Coral Sea to the north and encloses a body of water about 1,400 miles (2,250 km) wide and 900,000 square miles (2,300,000 square km) in area. Bass Strait (between Tasmania and Australia) leads southwest to the Indian Ocean, and Cook Strait...
  • Tasmania (island and state, Australia)
    island state of Australia. It lies about 150 miles (240 km) south of the state of Victoria, from which it is separated by the relatively shallow Bass Strait. Structurally, Tasmania constitutes a southern extension of the Great Dividing Range. The state comprises a main island called Tasmania; Bruny Island...
  • Tasmania, flag of (Australian flag)
    ...
  • Tasmania, University of (university, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia)
    ......
  • Tasmanian (people)
    any member of the extinct Australoid population of Tasmania. The Tasmanians were an isolate population of Aboriginal Australians, not a separate or distinctive population, who were cut off from the mainland when a general rise in the sea level flooded the Bass Strait about 10,000 years ago. Their population upon the arrival of European explorers in the 17th a...
  • Tasmanian cedar (plant)
    any of three species of evergreen conifers of the genus Athrotaxis, of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), native to the temperate rain forests of Tasmania. Two of the species are small trees, 6 to 12 metres (20 to 40 feet) tall and 1 to 1.5 metres (3 to 5 feet) in circumference, occasionally grown as ornamentals. The third species, King William pine (A. selaginoides), is a timber tre...
  • Tasmanian crab (crustacean)
    The giant crab of Japan (Macrocheira kaempferi) and the Tasmanian crab (Pseudocarcinus gigas) are two of the largest known crustaceans. The former may span nearly 4 m (12 feet) from tip to tip of its outstretched legs. The Tasmanian crab, which may weigh well over 9 kg (20 pounds), has much shorter, stouter claws; the major one may be 43 cm 17 inches) long; the body, or carapace,......
  • Tasmanian devil (marsupial)
    stocky carnivorous marsupial with heavy forequarters, weak hindquarters, and a large squarish head. The Tasmanian devil is named for the Australian island-state of Tasmania, its only native habitat. Vaguely bearlike in appearance and weighing up to 12 kg (26 pounds), it is 50 to 80 cm (20 to 31 inches) long and has a bushy tail about half that length. The coat is mainly black, a...
  • Tasmanian Greens (political party, Australia)
    ...that would further flood the natural Lake Pedder in the southwest. The campaign failed, but it spawned what many consider the world’s first Green Party, the United Tasmania Group (later known as the Tasmanian Greens). Since 1969 the ALP and non-Labor groups had been alternating in government. However, in 1989 the Greens secured enough electoral support to be decisive in maintaining a Lab...
  • Tasmanian languages
    extinct languages spoken before 1877 by the indigenous people of Tasmania, who are also now extinct. No relationship between the Tasmanian languages and any other languages of the world has been discovered. Scholars originally divided the Tasmanian languages, all of which were related to each other, into two groups, a western group, spoken in western Tasmania and northern Tasmania, and an eastern...
  • Tasmanian myrtle (tree)
    ...seven centimetres long, found in New South Wales; the mountain beech (N. cliffortioides), a 12-m-tall New Zealand tree with glossy, toothless leaves about one centimetre long; the myrtle beech, Tasmanian myrtle, or Australian, or red, myrtle (N. cunninghamii), a 60-m-tall Tasmanian tree important for its fine-textured wood; the slender, columnar red beech......
  • Tasmanian tiger (marsupial)
    largest carnivorous marsupial of recent times, presumed extinct soon after the last captive individual died in 1936. A slender fox-faced animal that hunted at night for wallabies and birds, the thylacine was 100 to 130 cm (39 to 51 inches) long, including its 50- to 65-cm (20- to 26-inch) tail. Weight ranged from 15 to 30 kg (33 to 66 pounds...
  • Tasmanian Wilderness (region, Australia)
    area of remarkable natural beauty and ecological diversity in southwestern, western, and central Tasmania, Australia. Designated a World Heritage site in 1982, its area was extended to some 5,300 square miles (13,800 square km) in 1989. It consists largely of Southwest National Park (established 1968), Franklin...
  • Tasmanian wolf (marsupial)
    largest carnivorous marsupial of recent times, presumed extinct soon after the last captive individual died in 1936. A slender fox-faced animal that hunted at night for wallabies and birds, the thylacine was 100 to 130 cm (39 to 51 inches) long, including its 50- to 65-cm (20- to 26-inch) tail. Weight ranged from 15 to 30 kg (33 to 66 pounds...
  • tasmanite (fossil fuel)
    ...very old. Organic cysts resembling modern Micromonadophyceae cysts date from about 1.2 billion years ago. Tasmanites formed the Permian “white coal,” or tasmanite, deposits of Tasmania and accumulated to a depth of several feet in deposits that extend for miles. Similar deposits in Alaska yield up to 150 gallons of oil per ton of sediment. Certain......
  • Tasmanites (algae)
    Some of the green algal classes are also very old. Organic cysts resembling modern Micromonadophyceae cysts date from about 1.2 billion years ago. Tasmanites formed the Permian “white coal,” or tasmanite, deposits of Tasmania and accumulated to a depth of several feet in deposits that extend for miles. Similar deposits in Alaska yield up to 150 gallons.....
  • Tasmannia (plant genus)
    ...although the fossil record indicates that early flowers could revert to unisexuality. This has occurred in some primitive families. For example, unlike other Winteraceae, most species of Tasmannia have unisexual flowers. The flowers indicate their bisexual origins by the presence of sterile carpels in the centre of the male flowers. In the Magnoliidae, as in early fossil flowers,......
  • tasmiyah (Islamic prayer)
    in Islām, the formula-prayer: biʾsm Allāh ar-raḥmān ar-raḥīm, “in the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” This invocation, which was first introduced by the Qurʾān, appears at the beginning of every Qurʾānic sūrah (chapter) except the ninth (wh...
  • Tasrif liman ʿajazʿan at-Taʾalif, At- (work by Abu al-Qasim)
    Abū al-Qāsim was court physician to the Spanish caliph ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān III an-Nāṣir and wrote At-Taṣrīf liman ʿajazʿan at-Taʾālīf, or At-Taṣrīf (“The Method”), a medical work in 30 parts. While much of the text was based on earlier authorities, especially the.....
  • Tass (Hungary)
    Tass, in the northwestern corner of Bács-Kiskun, is a centre for fishing and aquatic sports on the Danube River; the town of Kalocsa is known for its traditional folk art and culture. Kiskunság National Park is a nature conservation area. Area 3,261 square miles (8,445 square km). Pop. (2004 est.) 542,000....
  • TASS (Russian news agency)
    (Russian: “Information Telegraph Agency of Russia–Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union”), Russian news agency formed in 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. ITAR reports on domestic news, while TASS reports on world events, including news from the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)....
  • Tassaert, B. M. (French chemist)
    The sustained and systematic development of modern coordination chemistry, however, usually is considered to have begun with the discovery by the French chemist B.M. Tassaert in 1798 that ammoniacal solutions of cobalt chloride, CoCl3, develop a brownish mahogany colour. He failed to follow up on his discovery, however. It remained for others to isolate orange crystals with the......
  • Tassafaronga, Battle of (Japanese-United States history)
    ...damaged. Only 4,000 Japanese troops out of 12,500 managed to reach land, without equipment; and on November 30 eight Japanese destroyers, attempting to land more troops, were beaten off in the Battle of Tassafaronga, losing one destroyer sunk and one crippled, at an Allied cost of one cruiser sunk and three damaged....
  • Tassah, Wadi (river, Tunisia)
    ...cubic metres) per second in summer to between 53,000 and 88,000 cubic feet (1,500 to 2,500 cubic metres) in winter. Its two main tributaries are the Oued Mellègue (Wadi Mallāq) and the Oued Tessa (Wadi Tassah). Main riverine settlements include Souk Ahras, in Algeria, and Jendouba (Jundūbah), in Tunisia....
  • Tassel, Hôtel (building, Brussels, Belgium)
    Trained at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, 1876–81, Horta became a pupil of the Neoclassical architect Alphonse Balat. His first independent building, the four-storied Hôtel Tassel in Brussels (1892–93), was among the first continental examples of Art Nouveau, although it incorporated Neo-Gothic and Neo-Rococo stylistic elements. An important feature was its......
  • Tassi, Agostino (Italian painter)
    A pupil of her father and of his friend the landscape painter Agostino Tassi, she painted at first in a style indistinguishable from her father’s somewhat lyrical interpretation of Caravaggio’s example. Her first known work is Susanna and the Elders (1610), an accomplished work long attributed to her father. She also painted two versions of a scene alread...
  • Tassie, James (Scottish artist)
    Scottish gem engraver and modeler known for reproductions of engraved gems and for portrait medallions (round or oval tablets bearing figures), both made from a hard, fine-textured substance that he developed with a physician, Henry Quin....
  • Tassigny, Jean de Lattre de (French military officer)
    French army officer and posthumous marshal of France who became one of the leading military figures in the French forces under General Charles de Gaulle during World War II. He was also the most successful French commander of the First Indochina War (1946–54)....
  • Tassili-n-Ajjer (archaeological site, Algeria)
    area in southern Algeria where prehistoric rock paintings (and many engravings) were discovered first in 1910 and subsequently in the 1930s and ’60s....
  • Tassilo Chalice (liturgical vessel)
    ...issued by the church synods held in the 8th and 9th centuries invariably expressly prohibited the use of copper and bronze for consecrated chalices, but in fact a few copper-gilt chalices like the “Tassilo Chalice” (Kremsmünster Abbey, Austria) have survived. The care and artistry with which they were worked and their rich engraved and niello decoration show that they were....
  • Tassilo III (duke of Bavaria)
    ...and peaceful relations with the Avar kingdom to the east. Charlemagne’s conquest of the Lombards in 774 left Bavaria isolated, and in 788 Charlemagne succeeded in deposing the last Agilolfing duke, Tassilo III, and replacing him with a trusted agent. Thereafter Charlemagne used Bavaria as the staging ground for a series of campaigns in 791, 795, and 796 that destroyed the Avar kingdom....
  • Tassin, René-Prosper (French scholar)
    ...(1681), Mabillon set out the fundamental principles of the science of verifying documents; Papenbroeck soon afterward acknowledged the correctness of his tenets. Nearly a century later, René-Prosper Tassin and Charles-François Toustain published their six-volume Nouveau traité de diplomatique (1750–65; “New Treatise on Diplomatic”), a......
  • Tassis, Franz von (Italian noble)
    ...At least two early ancestors of the family, then called Tassis, had operated courier services in the Italian city-states from about 1290, but the family’s important postal activities began with Franz von Taxis, who served as postmaster to the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I from 1489 and to Philip I of Spain from 1504. Von Taxis secured the right to carry both government and private mail...
  • Tasso, Bernardo (Italian courtier and poet)
    Italian courtier and poet who was the father of Torquato Tasso, the greatest Italian poet of the late Renaissance....
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