photoreception: Central processing of visual information: …layers contain small cells (the parvocellular [P] layers). This division reflects a difference in the types of ganglion cells that supply the M and P layers. The M layers receive their input from so-called Y-cells, which have fast responses, relatively poor resolution, and weak or absent responses to colour. The…

parvovirus, any virus belonging to the family Parvoviridae. Parvoviruses have small nonenveloped virions (virus particles), and the icosahedral capsid (the protein shell surrounding the viral nucleic acids) is made up of 32 capsomeres (capsid subunits) measuring 18–26 nm (1 nm = 10−9 metre) in

parvovirus: Parvoviruses fall into two subfamilies: Parvovirinae, which infect vertebrates, and Densovirinae, which infect insects. Type species of the Parvovirinae include minute virus of mice, human parvovirus, and Aleutian mink disease virus. Whereas many species of Parvovirinae replicate autonomously, the genus Dependovirus contains viruses that replicate only in the presence of…

parvovirus, any virus belonging to the family Parvoviridae. Parvoviruses have small nonenveloped virions (virus particles), and the icosahedral capsid (the protein shell surrounding the viral nucleic acids) is made up of 32 capsomeres (capsid subunits) measuring 18–26 nm (1 nm = 10−9 metre) in

Alexander Israel Helphand was a Russian-German socialist who helped enable Lenin to reenter Russia in 1917 from exile in Switzerland, thus helping to ignite the Russian Revolution of October 1917. (Read Leon Trotsky’s 1926 Britannica essay on Lenin.) Helphand, the son of Jewish parents, grew up in

Southeast Asian arts: Shadow-puppet theatre: …Mahabharata epics, while the majority—the Pandawa (Pāṇḍav in Sanskrit) cycle of about 100 plays—are essentially Javanese creations in which the five heroic Pandawa brothers are placed in different situations. Three and sometimes four god-clown-servants and a set of ogre-antagonists who are not in the epics at all suggest how far…

Afghanistan: Dōst Moḥammad (1826–39; 1843–63): In a battle at Parwan on November 2, 1840, Dōst Moḥammad had the upper hand, but the next day he surrendered to the British in Kabul. He was deported to India with the greater part of his family.

Indian philosophy: The new school: …direct and indirect temporal relations, paryapti relation (in which a number of entities reside, in sets rather than in individual members of those sets), svarupa relation (which holds, for example, between an absence and its locus), and relation between a knowledge and its object.

Parys, resort town, northern Free State province, South Africa. It is situated on the southern bank of the Vaal River. Parys was founded in 1873 and most likely named by a German surveyor named Schilbach, who had fought in the siege of Paris in 1870. Parys officially became a town in 1887. Tobacco,

Cyrus The Younger: …Darius II and his wife, Parysatis.

Paryuṣaṇa, a popular eight-day festival in Jainism, a religion of India. It generally is celebrated by members of the Śvetāmbara sect from the 13th day of the dark half of the month Bhādrapada (August–September) to the 5th day of the bright half of the month. Among Digambaras, a corresponding

Parzival, epic poem, one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, written between 1200 and 1210 in Middle High German by Wolfram von Eschenbach. This 16-book, 25,000-line poem is in part a religious allegory describing Parzival’s painful journey from utter ignorance and naïveté to spiritual

Crohn disease: drugs, including corticosteroids and aminosalicylic acid compounds, are used to treat Crohn disease. The drugs are effective both in treating acute episodes and in suppressing the disease over the long term. Depending on the circumstances, hematinics, vitamins, high-protein diets, and blood transfusions are also used. Surgical resection of the…

assemblé, (French: “step put together”), in classical ballet, a movement in which a dancer’s feet or legs are brought together in the air and the dancer lands on both feet. It can be done front, back, dessus, dessous, and so on. In a basic assemblé, the dancer brushes the working leg into the air

brisé, (French: “broken step”), in classical ballet, a small, battu (“beaten”) step. The quality of a brisé should be sharp and brisk. The basic brisé is a travelled assemblé that is done with a beat. The dancer brushes the working leg, as in an assemblé, to the side and into the air while

Sergey Prokofiev: Foreign period of Sergey Prokofiev: …Prokofiev created new one-act ballets, Le Pas d’acier (performed in 1927) and The Prodigal Son (performed in 1929). Le Pas d’acier had a sensational success in Paris and London, thanks to its original staging and bold evocation of images of Soviet Russia at the beginning of the 1920s—with its economic…

pas d’élévation, (French: “high steps”), all jumping and leaping movements in classical ballet. The steps are admired for the height at which they are performed and for the dancer’s ability to ascend without apparent effort and to land smoothly. Dancers famed for aerial maneuvers of this kind

pas de deux, (French: “step for two”), dance for two performers. The strictly classical balletic pas de deux followed a fixed pattern: a supported adagio, a solo variation for the male dancer, a solo variation for the female dancer, and a coda in which both participants displayed their

Manitoba: Settlement patterns: …town in the northern forest; The Pas, a trading and communications centre on the Saskatchewan River; Flin Flon, a mining centre near the Saskatchewan border; Churchill, a trans-shipment centre and port on Hudson Bay; Dauphin, a regional service town in west-central Manitoba;

Nord–Pas-de-Calais: …northernmost départements of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. In 2016 the Nord–Pas-de-Calais région was joined with the région of Picardy to form the new administrative entity of Hauts-de-France.

pasha, title of a man of high rank or office in the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. It was the highest official title of honour in the Ottoman Empire, always used with a proper name, which it followed. It was given to soldiers and high civil officials, not to men of religion, and was purely

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner: …Eun-Sun of South Korea and Edurne Pasaban of Spain—were also on track to become the first woman to summit all of the 14. Kaltenbrunner maintained that she was not competing with them and even climbed two of the peaks, Broad in 2007 and Dhaulagiri I (26,795 feet [8,167 metres]; in…

passacaglia: …original name survives in the pasacalle, a lively folk dance for couples popular in western South America.

Pasadena, city, Harris county, southeastern Texas, U.S. It borders Houston (west) between the Houston Ship Channel and the Clear Lake area. It was founded in 1895 by J.H. Burnett and named after Pasadena, California. Several oil refineries had been built in the area by 1920. The city’s rapid growth

Pasadena, city, Los Angeles county, southern California, U.S. It is located in the San Gabriel Valley, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The area was part of Rancho el Rincon de San Pasqual, a northeastern section of the San Gabriel Mission (1771). The city was founded in 1874 by Thomas B.

Pasadena Playhouse: …acting company known as the Pasadena Community Playhouse Association. The group obtained its own 700-seat theatre (the Pasadena Playhouse) in 1925, and it went on to acquire a nationwide reputation for its productions of both Shakespearean classics and new works by such playwrights as Eugene O’Neill, Noel Coward, and Tennessee…

Pasadena Playhouse, theatre in Pasadena, California, that was one of the first community theatres in the United States. It was founded in 1917–18 when Gilmor Brown organized a semiprofessional acting company known as the Pasadena Community Playhouse Association. The group obtained its own 700-seat

Rose Bowl, oldest American postseason college football contest, held annually in Pasadena, California. Each Rose Bowl game is preceded by a Tournament of Roses Parade, or Rose Parade, which is one of the world’s most elaborate and famous annual parades. In 2014 the Rose Bowl began participating in

Che Guevara: The Cuban Revolution: …de la guerra revolucionaria (1963; Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1968).

goat: …goats are descended from the pasang (Capra aegagrus), which is probably native to Asia, the earliest records being Persian. In China, Great Britain, Europe, and North America, the domestic goat is primarily a milk producer, with a large portion of the milk being used to make cheese. One or two…

Pancho Gonzales: …at age 41, he defeated Charlie Pasarell in a 112-game match that was then the longest in Wimbledon history; it was not surpassed until 2010.

Pasargadae, first dynastic capital of the Persian Achaemenian dynasty, situated on a plain northeast of Persepolis in southwestern Iran. According to tradition, Cyrus II (the Great; reigned 559–c. 529 bce) chose the site because it lay near the scene of his victory over Astyages the Mede (550). The

Pasargadae, first dynastic capital of the Persian Achaemenian dynasty, situated on a plain northeast of Persepolis in southwestern Iran. According to tradition, Cyrus II (the Great; reigned 559–c. 529 bce) chose the site because it lay near the scene of his victory over Astyages the Mede (550). The

Persis: …leading Persian tribes as the Pasargadae, to which the Achaemenians, the royal family of Persia, belonged; the Maraphii; and the Maspii. It was these three that Cyrus II the Great assembled to approve his plans for his revolt against Astyages, his Median overlord, in 550 bc.

Laos: Media and broadcasting: The largest-circulating daily newspaper is Pasaxon (“The People”), published in Vientiane; it is the official organ of the ruling party. Also published in Vientiane is the party’s quarterly journal Aloun Mai (“New Dawn”). The official news agency is Khaosan Pathet Lao (KPL). Lao National Radio broadcasts in a number of…

city, central Luzon, Philippines, situated on the eastern shore of Manila Bay. A major residential suburb of Manila (immediately north), it is well known for the nightclubs that line the waterfront along Roxas (formerly Dewey) Boulevard. Pasay is densely populated and highly commercialized. Araneta

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), organization founded in December 1902 to improve health conditions in North and South America. The organization, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest international health agency in the world and was the first international organization

Pascagoula, city, seat (1812) of Jackson county, southeastern Mississippi, U.S. It is situated on Pascagoula Bay of Mississippi Sound (an embayment of the Gulf of Mexico), at the mouth of the Pascagoula River adjacent to Moss Point (north) and Gautier (west), 21 miles (34 km) east of Biloxi. The

Pascagoula: The Pascagoula River is known locally as the Singing River because of strange humming sounds audible in its vicinity. The city’s name is derived from Pasca Okla (“Bread People”), the Choctaw name for a small band of Native Americans who once lived in the area.

Pascal, a computer programming language developed about 1970 by Niklaus Wirth of Switzerland to teach structured programming, which emphasizes the orderly use of conditional and loop control structures without GOTO statements. Although Pascal resembled ALGOL in notation, it provided the ability to

pascal (Pa), unit of pressure and stress in the metre-kilogram-second system (the International System of Units [SI]). It was named in honour of the French mathematician-physicist Blaise Pascal (1623–62). A pascal is a pressure of one newton per square metre, or, in SI base units, one kilogram per

sound: Impedance: …per cubic metre, called an acoustic ohm, by analogy to electrical impedance.

sound: Impedance: …per metre, often called the rayl, after Lord Rayleigh. The unit of acoustic impedance is the pascal second per cubic metre, called an acoustic ohm, by analogy to electrical impedance.

Pascal’s principle, in fluid (gas or liquid) mechanics, statement that, in a fluid at rest in a closed container, a pressure change in one part is transmitted without loss to every portion of the fluid and to the walls of the container. The principle was first enunciated by the French scientist

Pascal’s principle, in fluid (gas or liquid) mechanics, statement that, in a fluid at rest in a closed container, a pressure change in one part is transmitted without loss to every portion of the fluid and to the walls of the container. The principle was first enunciated by the French scientist

projective geometry: Projective invariants: The second variant, by Pascal, as shown in the figure, uses certain properties of circles:

Pascal’s triangle, in algebra, a triangular arrangement of numbers that gives the coefficients in the expansion of any binomial expression, such as (x + y)n. It is named for the 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal, but it is far older. Chinese mathematician Jia Xian devised a triangular

Pascal’s wager, practical argument for belief in God formulated by French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. In his Pensées (1657–58, see the original text here), Pascal applied elements of game theory to show that belief in the Christian religion is rational. He argued that people can

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulated what came to be known as Pascal’s principle of pressure, and propagated a religious doctrine that taught the experience of God

textual criticism: Emendation: …in which the Italian scholar C. Pascal founded the Paravia series of editions in order to purge Latin texts of German conjectures. The best critic is he who discriminates best, whether between variants or between transmitted text and conjecture.

Bernard Hopkins: In May 2011 Hopkins defeated Jean Pascal to capture the WBC light heavyweight title. By so doing, he broke George Foreman’s record and became the oldest world champion in boxing history. Hopkins bested his own mark 22 months later when he won a unanimous decision over Tavoris Cloud to become…

Pedro Pascal is a Chilean-born American actor who became famous with a series of hugely popular TV shows, including Narcos (2015–17), The Mandalorian (2019– ), and The Last of Us (2023– ). He is especially known for portraying antiheroic father figures. Pedro Balmaceda (as he was originally known)

Pedro Pascal is a Chilean-born American actor who became famous with a series of hugely popular TV shows, including Narcos (2015–17), The Mandalorian (2019– ), and The Last of Us (2023– ). He is especially known for portraying antiheroic father figures. Pedro Balmaceda (as he was originally known)

English literature: Fiction: …from the Ottoman Empire (Pascali’s Island [1980], The Rage of the Vulture [1982]) to Venice in its imperial prime and its decadence (Stone Virgin [1985]) and northern England in the 14th century (Morality Play [1995]). Patrick O’Brian attracted an ardent following with his series of meticulously researched novels about…

Ben Kingsley: (1983), Turtle Diary (1985), and Pascali’s Island (1988). He was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as Meyer Lansky in the Las Vegas crime drama Bugsy (1991). In the 1990s he also played a child’s chess coach in Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), a Jewish accountant…

Pascaline, the first calculator or adding machine to be produced in any quantity and actually used. The Pascaline was designed and built by the French mathematician-philosopher Blaise Pascal between 1642 and 1644. It could only do addition and subtraction, with numbers being entered by manipulating

Modernism: …X in the papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis and in the decree Lamentabili Sane Exitu prepared by the Curia’s Holy Office and confirmed by Pius X. In order to ensure enforcement, the priest-scholar Umberto Benigni organized, through personal contacts with theologians, a nonofficial group of censors who would report to…

Western painting: Scandinavia: Another was Lorentz Pasch the Younger, who trained under Pilo in Copenhagen, although he subsequently worked mainly in Sweden. Other painters of Swedish origin were Alexander Roslin, who worked throughout Europe, and Georg Desmarées, who settled in Bavaria. The Scandinavian Rococo has a distinctive flavour that is…

mathematics: The foundations of geometry: …successfully was the German mathematician Moritz Pasch, who argued in 1882 that the mistake had been to rely too heavily on physical intuition. In his view an argument in mathematics should depend for its validity not on the physical interpretation of the terms involved but upon purely formal criteria. Indeed,…

Easter, principal festival of the Christian church, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. The earliest recorded observance of an Easter celebration comes from the 2nd century, though the commemoration of Jesus’ Resurrection probably occurred

Joost van den Vondel: Het Pascha (1612; “The Passover”), a dramatization of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, was his most important early work, in which the power and splendour of his verse is already apparent. This play was an allegory for the Calvinists who had fled from…

Paschal (I) was an antipope against both the rival antipope Theodore and the legitimate pope St. Sergius I during 687. After the death of Pope Conon in September 687, the Roman populace proceeded to enthrone both Paschal, then an archdeacon, and the archpriest Theodore. No agreement could be

Paschal (III) was an antipope from 1164 to 1168. Against Pope Alexander III, he was one of the original supporters of the antipope Victor IV, whom he succeeded on April 22, 1164, becoming the second antipope set up by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Elected through the influence of

Easter: Liturgical observances: …of lights focused on the Paschal candle; the service of lessons called the prophecies; the administration of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation to adult converts; and the Easter mass. The use of the Paschal candle, to denote the appearance of light out of darkness through the Resurrection, was first…

Paschal controversies, in the Christian Church, disputes concerning the correct date for observing Easter (Greek Pascha). The earliest controversy was over the question of whether Easter should always be celebrated on a Sunday or on the actual day of the Jewish lunar month (14th of Nisan) on which

Saint Paschal I ; feast day May 14) was the pope from 817 to 824. A priest who had served in the Curia, Paschal was an abbot when elected pope immediately after the death of his predecessor, Stephen IV (V), on Jan. 26, 817. During his pontificate Paschal was continually concerned with the relation

Paschal II was the pope from 1099 to 1118. He entered a monastery as a boy and was made cardinal by Pope St. Gregory VII about 1080. He was legate to Spain under Pope Urban II, whom he was elected to succeed on Aug. 13, 1099. Although Paschal fostered the First Crusade and followed Gregory’s great

Paschal lamb, in Judaism, the lamb sacrificed at the first Passover, on the eve of the Exodus from Egypt, the most momentous event in Jewish history. According to the story of the Passover (Exodus, chapter 12), the Jews marked their doorposts with the blood of the lamb, and this sign spared them

Easter: The date of Easter and its controversies: …14th day of the first full moon of spring, 14 Nisan (see Jewish calendar). The Resurrection, then, was observed two days later, on 16 Nisan, regardless of the day of the week. In the West the Resurrection of Jesus was celebrated on the first day of the week, Sunday, when…

Saint Paschasius Radbertus ; feast day April 26) was a French abbot, theologian, and author whose monograph De corpore et sanguine Christi (“Concerning Christ’s Body and Blood”) later became the dominant interpretation of the Eucharist. Abandoned as an infant, Paschasius was raised by the monks of

spectral line series: …the United States and Friedrich Paschen of Germany. The Lyman series lies in the ultraviolet, whereas the Paschen, Brackett, and Pfund series lie in the infrared. Their formulas are similar to Balmer’s except that the constant term is the reciprocal of the square of 1, 3, 4, or 5, instead…

Ed Paschke was an American artist affiliated with the Chicago Imagists and known for his confrontational, colourful paintings, many of which depict society’s marginal figures and make reference to pop culture, often in a highly sexualized or grotesque manner. Paschke found his earliest inspiration

Ed Paschke was an American artist affiliated with the Chicago Imagists and known for his confrontational, colourful paintings, many of which depict society’s marginal figures and make reference to pop culture, often in a highly sexualized or grotesque manner. Paschke found his earliest inspiration

mappō, in Japanese Buddhism, the age of the degeneration of the Buddha’s law, which some believe to be the current age in human history. Ways of coping with the age of mappō were a particular concern of Japanese Buddhists during the Kamakura period (1192–1333) and were an important factor in the

Jules Pascin was a Bulgarian-born American painter, renowned for his delicate draftsmanship and sensitive studies of women. Born of Italian Serbian and Spanish Jewish parents, Pascin was educated in Vienna before he moved to Munich, where he attended art school in 1903. Beginning in 1904, his

Pasco, city, seat (1889) of Franklin county, southeastern Washington, U.S., situated at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers, opposite Kennewick and immediately southeast of Richland. Established on the site of a prehistoric Indian village in 1880, when the Northern Pacific Railway (now

Andes Mountains: Physiography of the Central Andes: The Pasco Knot is a large, high plateau. To the west it is bounded by the Cordillera Huarochirí, on the west slope of which the Rímac River rises in a cluster of lakes fed by glaciers and descends rapidly to the ocean (15,700 feet in 60…

cable-stayed bridge: The Pasco-Kennewick Bridge (1978) over the Columbia River in Washington state supported its centre span of 294 metres (981 feet) from two double concrete towers, the cables fanning down to the concrete deck on either side of the roadway. The same designers created the East End…

Teixeira de Pascoaes was a Portuguese poet-philosopher who attempted to create a cult of nationalistic mystique based on saudade (“yearning”; an overtone in Portuguese and Brazilian lyric poetry that fuses hope and nostalgia). His work, together with that of António Nobre, was at the core of the

Sophie Pascoe is a New Zealand swimmer and the country’s most successful Paralympian, having won a total of 19 Paralympic medals. She has competed in four Paralympic Games, a major international sports competition for athletes with disabilities comparable to the Olympic Games. For Paralympic

Sophie Pascoe is a New Zealand swimmer and the country’s most successful Paralympian, having won a total of 19 Paralympic medals. She has competed in four Paralympic Games, a major international sports competition for athletes with disabilities comparable to the Olympic Games. For Paralympic

Giovanni Pascoli was an Italian classical scholar and poet whose graceful and melancholy Italian lyric poems, perfect in form, rhythmic in style, and innovative in wording, were an important influence on the crepuscolari (“twilight poets”; see crepuscolarismo). Pascoli had an extremely painful

Cornish literature: …Lord”; also called in English Mount Calvary), about Christ’s suffering and Crucifixion, was written in the 14th century. Literature in Middle Cornish otherwise takes the form of lengthy religious plays produced for popular audiences and performed in the open. These are in verse, typically consisting of four- and seven-syllable lines,…

Easter Island, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues. The island stands in isolation 1,200 miles (1,900 km) east of Pitcairn Island and 2,200 miles (3,540 km) west of Chile. Forming a

spurge: Major species: …is native, is the shrub pascuita (E. leucocephala), 1.5 to 4 metres (5 to 13 feet) tall, which is covered much of the winter with a mist of small white bracts. In some varieties the leaves are dark red. The scarlet plume (E. fulgens), from Mexico, a 90-cm- (3-foot-) tall…

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the most powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces, independent of Iran’s regular army and accountable only to the Office of the Supreme Leader. It was established by Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first leader (1979–89), and strengthened under the presidency

bullfighting: Act three: …of the faena, and the pase de la firma, in which the muleta is moved in front of the bull’s nose while the bullfighter remains motionless. Especially noteworthy is the left-handed natural, a simple but dangerous pass performed with the muleta held to the matador’s right: the sword is not…

Jan Chryzostom Pasek was a Polish soldier best remembered for his memoirs, which provide an excellent example of Polish Baroque prose. Pasek received some education in a Jesuit school. He enlisted in the army at age 19, seeing service against the Swedes in Poland, with the Danes against the Swedes

The Sleepwalkers: …oder die Romantik 1888 (1931; The Romantic), Esch oder die Anarchie 1903 (1931; The Anarchist), and Huguenau oder die Sachlichkeit 1918 (1932; The Realist).

Latin American dance: Folk and popular dances: …or introduction, often included a paseo de salida (a side-by-side promenade of the space) with a vuelta y colocación (a turn and getting into position). The next section consisted of an adorno (an improvisation of the dancers’ favourite steps). The final phase of the dances was the exaltación, which included…

Latin American dance: Folk and popular dances: …the musical measure), called the paseo, or a quick 6 8 cadence (i.e., a compound metre having two three-part beats to the measure), called the zapateado (rhythmic stamping). The flexed hips and knees of the asentado body position made zapateado easier to do. The dance opened with a brief promenade…

Latin American dance: Folk and popular dances: …or introduction, often included a paseo de salida (a side-by-side promenade of the space) with a vuelta y colocación (a turn and getting into position). The next section consisted of an adorno (an improvisation of the dancers’ favourite steps). The final phase of the dances was the exaltación, which included…

armour: Modern body armour systems: Army developed the Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT), which was composed of a newly designed Kevlar helmet and a Kevlar vest. Although the vest weighed 9 pounds (4 kg), slightly more than the M-1969 vest it replaced, it provided superior protection against shell fragments. In 2003,…

pasha, title of a man of high rank or office in the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. It was the highest official title of honour in the Ottoman Empire, always used with a proper name, which it followed. It was given to soldiers and high civil officials, not to men of religion, and was purely

Colmar, baron von der Goltz was a Prussian soldier, military teacher, and writer. He was an imperial German field marshal who reorganized the Turkish army (1883–96), and who served as commander in chief of Turkish forces against the British in Mesopotamia (Iraq) during World War I. Despite his

Mustafa III: …and his able grand vizier, Ragib Mehmed Pasha, understood the necessity for reform, their efforts were directed toward the results, not the causes, of the Ottoman decline. They were unable to curb tax abuses; hence, their fiscal reforms proved ineffective. Administrative reforms foundered on the central government’s inability to extend…

Rudolf Karl, baron von Slatin was an Austrian soldier in the service of England in the Sudan, famous for his imprisonment by the Mahdists (religious and nationalist revolutionaries in the Sudan) and his subsequent escape. His nearly 40 years in the Sudan indelibly influenced its development. Slatin

Nikol Pashinyan is an Armenian journalist and politician who serves as prime minister of Armenia (2018– ). He rose to power in 2018 on a wave of popular discontent against the ruling party, an event that he dubbed the “Velvet Revolution.” He became the subject of popular ire, however, after Armenia

cashmere, animal-hair fibre forming the downy undercoat of the Kashmir goat and belonging to the group of textile fibres called specialty hair fibres. Although the word cashmere is sometimes incorrectly applied to extremely soft wools, only the product of the Kashmir goat is true cashmere. The

Smolyan, town, southern Bulgaria, on the Cherna River in the southeastern Rhodope Mountains. Its elevation, 3,300 feet (1,000 metres), makes it the highest town in Bulgaria. It is a local agricultural centre, with a timber industry and, more recently, mining. It is picturesquely located among