German-Jewish statesman, industrialist, and philosopher who organized Germany's economy on a war footing during World War I and, after the war, as minister of reconstruction and foreign minister, was instrumental in beginning reparations payments under the Treaty of Versailles obligations ...
German anatomist who first described the gill slits and gill arches in the embryos of mammals and birds. He also first described in 1839 the embryonic structure, now known as Rathke's pouch, from which the anterior lobe of the pituitary ...
in yacht racing, rule used to classify sailing yachts of different designs to enable them to compete on relatively equal terms. The competition may be either among yachts in a particular rating class or on a handicap basis, with the ...
the philosophical view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge. Holding that reality itself has an inherently logical structure, the Rationalist asserts that a class of truths exists that the intellect can grasp directly. There are, ...
government policy consisting of the planned and restrictive allocation of scarce resources and consumer goods, usually practiced during times of war, famine, or some other national emergency.
any bird whose sternum (breastbone) is smooth, or raftlike, because it lacks a keel to which flight muscles could be anchored. All species of ratites are thus unable to fly. They are a peculiar and puzzling group, with anatomic anomalies. ...
town, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. Ratlam is a major rail junction, an agricultural trade centre, and a major industrial town. It is heavily engaged in cotton, silk, sugar, and oilseed milling, handloom weaving, and the manufacture of pottery, ...
town, southwestern Maharashtra state, western India, on the Arabian Sea coast. The town became an administrative capital under the Bijapur rulers. In 1731 it came under the control of Satara kings, and in 1818 it was surrendered to the British. ...
town, southwestern Sri Lanka (Ceylon). It is situated southeast of Colombo, on the Kalu Ganga (river). Dominating the town is a hill on which the Portuguese built a fort. Ratnapura (Sinhalese: "city of gems") is Sri Lanka's chief source of ...
city, seat (1897) of Colfax county, northeastern New Mexico, U.S. It lies at the southern end of Raton Pass (7,834 feet [2,388 metres] above sea level) in the Sangre de Cristo Range, near the Colorado state line. Located on the ...
theologian, priest, and monk at the Benedictine abbey of Corbie whose important 9th-century work provoked the eucharistic controversy and was posthumously condemned.
Piedmontese lawyer and statesman who held many important cabinet positions in the early years of the Italian Republic, including that of prime minister; his ambiguous policies brought him into conflict with the Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi and ultimately caused his ...
percussion instrument consisting of resonant objects strung together and set in a sliding frame or enclosed in a container such that when it is shaken the parts strike against each other, producing sounds. In many societies, rattles are associated with ...
any of 33 species of venomous New World vipers characterized by a segmented rattle at the tip of the tail that produces a buzzing sound when vibrated. Rattlesnakes are found from southern Canada to central Argentina but are most abundant ...
German geographer and ethnographer and a principal influence in the modern development of both disciplines. He originated the concept of Lebensraum, or "living space," which relates human groups to the spatial units where they develop. Though Ratzel pointed out the ...
Austrian soldier, military jurist, and sociologist, a Social Darwinist who conceived of society as a universe of conflicting ethnic groups, and who thought that sociology could guide the human species into higher forms of association.
one of the foremost Indian jurists of his time. He helped to draft the constitutions of Burma (Myanmar) in 1947 and India in 1950. As India's representative on the United Nations Security Council (1950-52), he was serving as president of ...
town, central Peninsular (West) Malaysia, about 50 miles (80 km) north-northeast of Kuala Lumpur. Situated in the eastern foothills of the Main Range, it began in the 1880s as a gold-mining settlement. Raub is the Malay word meaning "scoop with ...
city, Turun ja Porin laani (province), southwestern Finland. It lies along the Gulf of Bothnia north-northwest of Turku. Rauma was first noted in official records in 1442. In 1550, King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden (which then governed Finland) ordered ...
genus of plants in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), with about 85 species of shrubs and trees native to tropical areas of the world. The flowers are small and usually white or greenish white in colour.
French philosopher whose writings had an extensive influence in the Roman Catholic world during the 19th century. He was appointed inspector general of public libraries (1839-46, 1846-53) and later served as inspector general of higher education, a post he held ...
in Hindu mythology, the 10-headed king of the demons (raksasas). His abduction of Sita and eventual defeat by her husband Rama are the central incidents of the popular epic the Ramayana ("Romance of Rama"). ...
French composer of Swiss-Basque descent, noted for his musical craftsmanship and perfection of form and style in such works as Bolero (1928), Pavane pour une infante defunte (1899; Pavane for a Dead Princess), Rapsodie espagnole (1907), the ballet Daphnis et ...
any of several species of heavy-billed, dark birds, larger than crows. Closely related, both ravens and crows are species of the genus Corvus. The raven has a heavier bill and shaggier plumage than the crow, especially around the throat. The ...
collection of oral trickster-transformer tales popular mainly among the Indians of the Northwest Pacific Coast from Alaska to British Columbia. The tales feature Raven as a culture hero, an alternately clever and stupid bird-human whose voracious appetite and eroticism give ...
English novelist, playwright, and journalist, known particularly for his satiric portrayal of the hedonism of the mid-20th-century upper classes of English society.
capital of the provincia of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna regione, northeastern Italy. The city is on a low-lying plain near the confluence of the Ronco and Montone rivers, 6 miles (10 km) inland from the Adriatic Sea, with which it is connected ...
Nazi German concentration camp for women (Frauenlager) located in a swamp near the village of Ravensbruck, 50 miles (80 km) north of Berlin. Ravensbruck served as a training base for some 3,500 female SS (Nazi paramilitary corps) ...
city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies along the Schussen River, just north of Lake Constance (Bodensee), northeast of Konstanz. Founded and chartered in the 12th century near the Guelfs's ancestral castle (where Henry III [the ...
English glassmaker, developer of flint glass, a heavy, blown type (shaped by blowing when in a plastic state) characterized by both brilliance and dark shadow.
in northwestern India and northeastern Pakistan, one of the rivers that give the Punjab (meaning "five rivers") its name. It rises in the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh state, India, and flows west-northwest past Chamba, turning southwest at the boundary of ...
one of the oldest outdoor summer music and cultural centres in the United States, located in Highland Park, Illinois, about 20 miles (30 km) north of downtown Chicago. It was established in 1904 on land purchased by the A.C. Frost ...
city, Punjab province, northern Pakistan. It was the capital of Pakistan from 1959 to 1969. The city lies on the Potwar Plateau 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Islamabad, the national capital.
(Arabic: "reciter"), in Arabic literature, professional reciter of poetry. The rawis preserved pre-Islamic poetry in oral tradition until it was written down in the 8th century.
military and political leader in Ghana who twice (1979, 1981) overthrew the government and seized power. His second period of rule (1981-2001) afforded Ghana political stability and competent economic management.
city, seat (1886) of Carbon county, south-central Wyoming, U.S. It lies just east of the Continental Divide at an elevation of 6,755 feet (2,059 metres). Founded in 1868 when the Union Pacific Railroad arrived, it was first named Rawlins Springs ...
British army officer and Orientalist who deciphered the Old Persian portion of the trilingual cuneiform inscription of Darius I the Great at Bisitun, Iran. His success provided the key to the deciphering, by himself and others, of Mesopotamian cuneiform script, ...
American political and ethical philosopher, best known for his defense of egalitarian liberalism in his major work, A Theory of Justice (1971). He is widely considered the most important political philosopher of the 20th century.
town, capital of Chubut province, southern Argentina. It lies along the Chubut River near the latter's mouth, about 5 miles (8 km) upriver from the Atlantic Ocean coast. It was founded in 1865 by Welsh settlers and named for Guillermo ...
