Hoop

Circular toy adaptable to many games, children's and adults', probably the most ubiquitous of the world's toys, after the ball. The ancient Greeks advocated hoop rolling as a beneficial exercise for those not very strong. It was also used as a toy by both Greek and Roman children, as graphic representations indicate. Most of these ancient hoops were of metal. Most later

Cohn, Harry

The son of an immigrant Polish-Jewish tailor, Cohn quit school at age 14 and worked at sundry jobs before becoming a vaudeville singer and song plugger. His motion picture career began in 1913, when he worked as a secretary for a film distributor

Velvetleaf

Any of various plants with soft, velvety leaves, particularly Abutilon theophrasti (sometimes A. avicennae), commonly known as Indian mallow, an annual, hairy plant of the mallow family (Malvaceae). Native to southern Asia, A. theophrasti is cultivated in northern China for its fibre and is widely naturalized in warmer regions of North America,

Homburg

City, Saarland, southwestern Germany, on the Erbach River, northeast of Saarbrücken. Chartered in 1330 and 1558, it belonged to the counts of Homburg, most of whose territory was divided in 1499 between the houses of Nassau-Saarbrücken and Pfalz-Zweibrücken. It became part of the Bavarian Palatinate in 1815 and was included in the Saar in 1920. The market square is surrounded by fine 17th-century

Hoop

By the early 1980s the NBA was plagued by money-losing franchises, low attendance, declining

Adams, Samuel Hopkins

One of the so-called muckrakers of the period, Adams

Pacific Mountain System

The geography and geology of the Pacific mountain system are treated in James G. Ashbaugh (ed.), The Pacific Northwest: Geographical Perspectives (1994), covering climate, vegetation, agriculture, and the economy; Stewart T. Schultz, The Northwest Coast (1990), a popular, comprehensive view of the people, economy, and landforms of the region; Paul E. Hammond, Guide to Geology of the Cascade Range (1988), a well-written work; John Eliot Allen, Marjorie Burns, and Sam C. Sargent, Cataclysms on the Columbia (1986), a fine overall exploration of the Missoula floods; and A. Jon Kimmerling and Philip L. Jackson, Atlas of the Pacific Northwest, 7th ed. (1985). A good explanation of how the ocean has shaped the Oregon coast, producing different landforms between California and Washington, may be found in Paul D. Komar, “Ocean Processes and Hazards Along the Oregon Coast,” Oregon Geology, 54(1):3–19 (January 1992).

Xeroderma Pigmentosum

Rare, recessively inherited skin condition in which resistance to sunlight and other radiation beyond the violet end of the spectrum is lacking. On exposure to such radiation the skin erupts into numerous pigmented spots, resembling freckles, which tend to develop into multiple carcinomas. The condition may occur in mild or severe forms. Protection from direct

Adam Brothers

Three French brothers who sculpted many monuments for the French and Prussian royal residences. They were exponents of a style that employed the textures of shells, corals, and perforated rocks. Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700–59) created sculptures for King Louis XV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia. Nicolas-Sébastien Adam (1705–78) sculptured for Stanislas

Empiricism, In modern philosophy

In the earlier and unsystematically speculative phases of Renaissance philosophy, the claims of Aristotelian logic to yield substantial knowledge were attacked by several 16th-century logicians, and, in the same century, the role of observation was stressed. One mildly skeptical Christian thinker, Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655), advanced a deliberate revival of the empirical

Vaitown

Also called  Bomi Hills,   city, western Liberia, West Africa. Located in the Bomi Hills former iron-mining district, it is associated with the Liberian Mining Company (LMC; a subsidiary of Republic Steel Corporation), which closed down mining operations in the late 1970s. The firm, first in Liberia to export iron ore, completed a 43-mile (69-kilometre) narrow-gauge railway to the port at Monrovia in 1951. Iron interests

Decorative Art

Any of those arts that are concerned chiefly with the design and decoration of objects that are chiefly prized for their utility, rather than for their purely aesthetic qualities. Ceramics, glassware, basketry, jewelry, metalware, furniture, textiles, clothing, and other such goods are the objects most commonly associated with the decorative arts. Many decorative

Indiana

Constituent state of the United States of America. The state sits, as its motto claims, at “the crossroads of America.” It borders Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan on the north, Ohio on the east, Kentucky on the south, and Illinois on the west, making it an integral part of the Midwest. Indiana's 36,185 square miles (93,720 square kilometres) also make it, except for Hawaii, the smallest

Italian Literature, Fiction at the turn of the 21st century

The competitive world of media- and market-driven culture thrives on self-promotion, provocation, “discoveries,” and “revelations.” Publishers and their talent scouts are eager to add “new voices.” The Sardinian Salvatore Satta, for example, was a professor of law whose considerable literary production—his best-known novel is Il giorno del giudizio (1979; The Day of

Biogenetic Law

Also called  Recapitulation Theory,   postulation, by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny—i.e., the development of the animal embryo and young traces the evolutionary development of the species. The theory was influential and much-popularized earlier but has been of little significance in elucidating either evolution or embryonic growth.