sculptor, prominent in the Neoclassical period, who was the first internationally acclaimed Danish artist. In the 20th-century reevaluation of Neoclassicism, however, Thorvaldsen's reputation outside Denmark has declined, and works once regarded as the perfect reincarnation of the antique are now ...
in Egyptian religion, a god of the moon, of reckoning, of learning, and of writing. He was held to be the inventor of writing, the creator of languages, the scribe, interpreter, and adviser of the gods, and the representative of ...
French statesman, bibliophile, and historiographer whose detached, impartial approach to the events of his own period made him a pioneer in the scientific approach to history.
covert symbolic responses to intrinsic (arising from within) or extrinsic (arising from the environment) stimuli. Thought, or thinking, is considered to mediate between inner activity and external stimuli.
traditionally, the three fundamental laws of logic: (1) the law of contradiction, (2) the law of excluded middle (or third), and (3) the principle of identity. That is, (1) for all propositions p, it is impossible for both p and ...
collection of Oriental stories of uncertain date and authorship whose tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore.
(1899-1903), Colombian civil war between Liberals and Conservatives that resulted in between 60,000 and 130,000 deaths, extensive property damage, and national economic ruin.
group of more than 1,500 small isles in the St. Lawrence River, North America, extending for a distance of 80 miles (128 km) from the Prince Edward Peninsula to Brockville, Ont., Can. Those on the west side, including Amherst, Wolfe ...
city, Ventura county, southern California, U.S. Situated in the Conejo (Spanish: "Rabbit") Valley along the Ventura-Los Angeles county line, it lies 40 miles (60 km) west of Los Angeles. Originally inhabited by Chumash Indians, the area was reached in 1542 ...
campaign undertaken in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi that overthrew the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples) and permitted the union of southern Italy and Sicily with the north. The expedition was one of the most dramatic events of the ...
language spoken by the inhabitants of Thrace primarily in pre-Greek and early Greek times. Generally assumed to be an Indo-European language, Thracian is known from proper names, glosses in Greek writings, and a small number of inscriptions, some of which ...
teacher, journalist, and socialist leader who was the initiator of the Thrane movement in Norway that sought to better the condition of urban and rural labourers.
any of numerous New World birds with downcurved bills, noted for noisy foraging on the ground in dense thickets and for loud varied songs. The 17 species, of the family Mimidae (order Passeriformes), range from the Canadian northwest to central ...
tightly twisted ply yarn having a circular cross section and used in commercial and home sewing machines and for hand sewing. Thread is usually wound on spools, with thread size, or degree of fineness, indicated on the spool end.
object usually made of two sticks bound together in the shape of a cross, with coloured threads wound around their ends to resemble a cobweb, used in Tibetan rituals to entrap evil spirits. Similar thread crosses have been encountered in ...
any insect of the subfamily Sphecinae belonging to the family Sphecidae (order Hymenoptera). They are large, common, solitary (nonsocial) wasps, usually more than 2.5 centimetres (about 1 inch) long. The common name derives from the stalklike anterior (front) end of ...
any of about 24 species of marine fishes of the family Polynemidae (order Perciformes), widely distributed along warm seashores, often over sand. Threadfins have two well-separated dorsal fins and a forked tail, and are usually silvery in colour. Their name ...
(Strongyloides stercoralis), worm of the class Nematoda (phylum Aschelminthes) that is parasitic in the human intestine but is able to live freely and breed in the soil. It is especially common in the moist tropics.
(1587-89), the last of the Wars of Religion in France in the late 16th century, fought between the moderate but devious King Henry III, the ultra-Roman Catholic Henri I de Lorraine, 3e duc de Guise, and the Huguenot leader Henry ...
nuclear power station and the island on which it is situated, in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. The most serious accident in the history of the American nuclear power industry occurred there in 1979. At 4:00 AM on ...
mountain pass in the Tenasserim Mountain Range on the Myanmar (Burma)-Thailand border, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Moulmein, Myanmar. The pass, at an elevation of 925 feet (282 m), links southeastern Myanmar and western Thailand. For centuries it was ...
the ideological basis of the political program of the Chinese national leader Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), championing the principles of nationalism, democracy, and socialism.
district, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, southeast England, in the southwestern corner of the county. Three Rivers district is essentially a dormitory suburban area on the northwest border of Greater London. The district's gently rolling countryside is traversed by ...
American comedy team noted for violent, anarchic slapstick and comedy routines rooted in the burlesque tradition. Six men were members of the team throughout the years: Shemp Howard (original name Samuel Horwitz; b. March 17, 1895, New York, New York, ...
("Between the Straits"), in Judaism, a period of mourning running from the 17th day of Tammuz, the fourth month of the Jewish religious year, to the 9th day of Av (Tisha be-Av), the fifth month (variously, about June to August). ...
in astronomy, the problem of determining the motion of three celestial bodies moving under no influence other than that of their mutual gravitation. No general solution of this problem (or the more general problem involving more than three bodies) is ...
equestrian competition, testing the overall abilities of horse and rider in competition at dressage, cross-country and endurance riding, and stadium show jumping.
method of agricultural organization introduced in Europe in the Middle Ages and representing a decisive advance in production techniques. In the old two-field system half the land was sown to crop and half left fallow each season; in the three-field ...
farm machine for separating wheat, peas, soybeans, and other small grain and seed crops from their chaff and straw. Primitive threshing methods involved beating by hand with a flail or trampling by animal hooves. An early threshing machine, patented in ...
first of a class of U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, launched in 1960. During sea trials after commissioning it sank with 129 persons on board in April 1963, about 200 miles (300 km) off the New England coast. The cause of ...
(genus Alopias), any of five species of sharks of the family Alopiidae noted for their long, scythelike tails that may constitute almost one-half their total length. Thresher sharks are found in tropical and temperate seas throughout the world. They feed ...
extinct genus of advanced mammal-like reptiles, found as fossils in continental deposits formed during the Early Triassic Period in southern Africa (the Triassic Period lasted from 245 to 208 million years ago). Thrinaxodon was a lightly built animal about 12 ...
any member of the order Thysanoptera, among the smallest of the winged insects. They are abundant in the tropical and temperate regions of the world. Approximately 5,000 species have been described. Thrips have an economic importance, for some species transmit ...
a small, nucleated, spindle-shaped cell of nonmammalian vertebrates that plays a role in the clotting of blood; or a blood platelet, a small, non-nucleated, cytoplasmic body found in the blood of mammals, which similarly plays a role in the clotting ...
any of several blood disorders characterized by abnormal blood platelets, the dysfunction of these platelets results in prolonged bleeding time, defective clot formation, and a tendency to hemorrhage. Inherited thrombocytopathies include von Willebrand's disease (q.v.); thrombasthenia (also called Glanzmann's disease), ...
abnormally low number of blood platelets in the circulation. Thrombocytopenia may occur as a result of decreased platelet production, when the bone marrow is malfunctioning or not functioning (e.g., in leukemia; from excess of certain drugs or irradiation; in certain ...
inflammation of a vein coupled with formation of a blood clot that adheres to the wall of the vessel. The inflammation may precede or follow formation of the clot. Because movement of the blood through veins is not brought about ...
formation of a blood clot in the heart or in a blood vessel. Factors that play a role in the formation of clots (thrombi) include injury to a blood vessel and alterations from normal blood flow; changes in the coagulability ...
chair of state set on a dais and often surmounted by a canopy, representing the power of the dignitary who sits on it and sometimes conferring that power. The extent to which seats of this kind have become symbolically identified ...
