Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
BA - 13 reference results
Song Ba
Song Ba, river, c.200 mi (320 km) long, rising in the Annamese Cordillera, central S Vietnam, and flowing S past An Khe to Krong Pa, then SE past Son Hoa to the South China Sea at Tuy Hoa. Diverse tropical crops are grown along its lower course.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Rába
Rába, Ger. Raab, river, c.160 mi (260 km) long, rising in the mountains of SE Austria. It flows SE to the Austria-Hungary line, then NE through W Hungary to the Danube River at Győr. There are many small hydroelectric plants on the river. The valley is extensively farmed.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Parnaíba
Parnaíba, river c.800 mi (1,290 km) long, rising in the highlands of NE Brazil. It flows generally north, forming the boundary between Maranhão and Piauí states, and enters the Atlantic Ocean through a delta near the town of Parnaíba, which is the shipping center for the valley; Teresina is the chief upstream city. Much of the river is navigable, although it is filled with rapids.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Paraíba
Paraíba, state (1991 pop. 3,201,114), 21,765 sq mi (56,371 sq km), NE Brazil, on the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is João Pessoa. The state extends inland from the Atlantic to the semiarid plateau of the interior (the sertão). The economy is largely agricultural; although cattle-breeding remains the principal activity, more and more pastures have been given over to cultivation, with cotton and sugarcane as the chief crops. The state produces textiles, salt, food products, and metals (chiefly tin and scheelite). Fishing and the production of vegetable oil and cement are increasingly important. Prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in the late 16th cent., the region was densely settled by numerous Native Americans. The area's colonization took more than 70 years to complete because of Native American hostility. By the early 17th cent. Paraíba was an important and prosperous captaincy, but this prosperity was interrupted by the Dutch occupation (1634-54), more uprisings by Native Americans, and an epidemic of yellow fever in 1686. The first nationalist uprising in the area occurred in 1710. Throughout the 19th cent. economic development was impeded by continual outbreaks of violence and by the abolition of slavery. Not until the 1930s was some economic stability achieved. Frequent droughts have led to great migrations from the countryside to the cities. The state government consists of an elected governor and bicameral legislature. The Universidade Federal da Paraíba has campuses throughout the state.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Paraíba
Paraíba or Paraíba do Sul, river, c.650 mi (1,050 km) long, rising as the Paraitinga in the Serra do Mar, São Paulo state, SE Brazil. It flows southwesterly to a point NE of São Paulo city where it makes a hairpin turn and continues in a northeasterly direction through the state of Rio de Janeiro to the Atlantic Ocean near Campos. Below Trěs Rios it flows through a gorge on the Rio de Janeiro-Minas Gerais border. Its beautiful valley forms a rich agricultural region (site of Brazil's first commercial coffee plantation) as well as a major industrial center of Brazil. The river is used for irrigation, transport, and power generation.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Paranaíba
Paranaíba, river, c.500 mi (800 km) long, rising in W Minas Gerais state, Brazil. It flows generally westward through an agricultural region before joining the Rio Grande to form the Paraná. Diamonds are washed along its course. A hydroelectric project lies at nearby São Simão.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Ba Jin
Ba Jin or Pa Chin, pseud. of Li Yaotang (also Li Feigan), 1904-2005, one of China's most acclaimed modern novelists, b. Chengdu. Born into a wealthy family, he received a broad education in China, graduating in 1925, and traveling to France in 1927-28. Early in life he became a committed anarchist and socialist, and in France wrote his first novel, Miewang [destruction] (1929), a tale of romance and revolution. Ba is best known for his trilogy Jiliu [torrent] (1931-40); its first volume, Jia, was translated into English as Family (1958). Enormously popular with China's young readers at the time, these semiautobiographical novels attack the traditional Chinese family structure, pitting age against youth and Confucian orthodoxy against individualism in a saga of familial decline. His other works include two other trilogies (1931-33; 1941-45), many single novels, e.g., Han ye (1947, tr. Cold Nights, 1978), short stories, essays, translations, and his memoirs (1979, partially tr. Random Thoughts, 1984).

Ba Jin's reputation and fortunes, like those of many other Chinese intellectuals, rose and fell with the fluctuations in the government. As a critic of the socioeconomic ways of old China he was lauded by the new Communist regime in the 1950s (during which he renounced anarchism) and early 60s. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), he was condemned as a counterrevolutionary and publicly humiliated, but was rehabilitated in 1977. Subsequently Ba became a fixture of China's literary establishment, and was elected (1981) head of the Chinese Writer's Association, a post he held until his death, even though by then he was hospitalized and unable to move or speak.

See S. Shapiro and W. Mingjie, tr., Selected Works of Ba Jin (1988); biography by N. K. Mao (1978); study by O. Lang (1965); H. Martin and J. Kinkley, ed., Modern Chinese Writers (1992); Return from Silence (documentary film, 1982).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Ba
Ba, symbol for the element barium.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
ba&ayn;al shem

In Judaism, a h1 bestowed on men who worked wonders and cures through secret knowledge of the names of God. The practice dates to the 11th century, long before the term was applied to certain rabbis and Kabbalists. They were numerous in 17th- and 18th-century eastern Europe, where they exorcised demons, inscribed amulets, and performed cures using herbs, folk remedies, and the Tetragrammaton. Because they combined faith healing with use of the Kabbala, they clashed with physicians, rabbis, and followers of the Haskala. Seealso Baaynal Shem Tov.

Learn more about baaynal shem with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Ba&ssubdot;rah, Al-
or Basra

Port and city (pop., 2003 est.: 1,400,000), southeastern Iraq. It lies at the head of the Shatt al-Arab, about 70 mi (110 km) upstream from the Persian Gulf. Founded in AD 638, it became famous under the aynAbbāsid dynasty; in The Thousand and One Nights it was the city from which Sindbad the Sailor set sail. In the 17th–18th centuries it became a trading centre. Occupied by the British in World War I (1914–18), the town and port underwent many improvements and grew in importance. After World War II (1939–45), the growth of Iraq's petroleum industry turned Al-Bassubdotrah into a major refining centre. It suffered heavy damage in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–90) and the Persian Gulf War (1990–91), and in the early 21st century it was a scene of fighting during the Iraq War.

Learn more about Bassubdotrah, Al- with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Ho Chi Minh City
formerly Saigon

City (pop., 2004 est.: city, 3,452,100; 2005 est.: urban agglom., 5,065,000), southern Vietnam. It lies along the Saigon River north of the Mekong River delta. The Vietnamese first entered the region, then part of the kingdom of Cambodia, in the 17th century. In 1862 the area, including the town, was ceded to France. After World War II Vietnam declared its independence, but French troops seized control and the First Indochina War began. The Geneva conference in 1954 divided the country, and Saigon became the capital of South Vietnam. In the Vietnam War, it was the headquarters for U.S. military operations; it was captured by North Vietnamese troops in 1975 and renamed for Ho Chi Minh. Rebuilding since the war has promoted its commercial importance.

Learn more about Ho Chi Minh City with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Ho Chi Minh
orig. Nguyen Sinh Cung

Ho Chi Minh, 1968.

(born May 19, 1890, Hoang Tru, Viet.—died Sept. 2, 1969, Hanoi) President (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Son of a poor scholar, he was brought up in a rural village. In 1911 he found work on a French steamer and traveled the world, then spent six years in France, where he became a socialist. In 1923 he went to the Soviet Union; the next year he went to China, where he started organizing exiled Vietnamese. He founded the Indochina Communist Party in 1930 and its successor, the Viet Minh, in 1941. In 1945 Japan overran Indochina, overthrowing its French colonial rulers; when the Japanese surrendered to the Allies six months later, Ho and his Viet Minh forces seized the opportunity, occupied Hanoi, and proclaimed Vietnamese independence. France refused to relinquish its former colony, and the First Indochina War broke out in 1946. Ho's forces defeated the French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, after which the country was partitioned into North and South Vietnam. Ho, who ruled in the north, was soon embroiled with the U.S.-backed regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in the south in what became known as the Vietnam War; North Vietnamese forces prevailed over the south six years after Ho's death.

Learn more about Ho Chi Minh with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Ba Maw
Jan 01, 2004; Ba Maw Ba Maw (1893-1977) was the first premier of independent Burma (now Myanmar) and the leader of the wartime government that...
Read more with a free trial on HighBeam.com »
Spain echoes in `Ba-Ba-Reeba!'
Aug 05, 1990; CAFE BA-BA-REEBA! Cuisine: Spanish. Address: 2024 N. Halsted. Phone: (312) 935-5000. Hours: lunch, Tuesday-Friday, 11:30...
Read more with a free trial on HighBeam.com »
Is the writing on the wall for BA'S brand?
Jun 15, 2000; BA's merger talks with KLM signal the rise of global brands over national carrier identities. As the industry consolidates,...
Read more with a free trial on HighBeam.com »
BA-Insight Announces New Product Line.
Mar 04, 2008; BA-Insight releases Longitude for Microsoft Search Server 2008; the new product line opens new markets for BA-Insight WHITE...
Read more with a free trial on HighBeam.com »
Ba'athism
Jan 01, 2003; Ba'athism Refers to the political philosophy of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (hizb al-ba'ath al-arabi al-ishtiraki). This...
Read more with a free trial on HighBeam.com »
HighBeam Research, Inc. © Copyright 2009.

Search another word or see BA on Dictionary | Thesaurus