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Abraham, Karl ... Abu 'Ali Mustafa

Abraham, Karl German psychoanalyst who studied the role of infant sexuality in character development and mental illness. Abraham, Plains of plains in Quebec region, southern Quebec province, Canada. The plains lie at the western edge of the old walled city, overlooking the St. Lawrence River. The plateau was the scene of a battle (Sept. 13, 1759) between the French under the Marquis de Montcalm and the British under James Wolfe ... Abrahams, Harold British athlete who won a gold medal in the 100-metre dash at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Abrahams, Israel one of the most distinguished Jewish scholars of his time, who wrote a number of enduring works on Judaism, particularly Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896). Abrahams, Peter most prolific of South Africa's black prose writers, whose early novel Mine Boy (1946) was the first to depict the dehumanizing effect of racism upon South African blacks. Abraj al-Bayt multitowered skyscraper complex adjacent to the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Completed in 2012, it is the world's second tallest building, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The central clock tower (including its spire) rises to a height of 1,972 feet (601 metres). The ... Abramov, Fyodor Russian writer, academic, and literary critic whose work, which frequently ran afoul of the official Soviet party line, focused on the difficulties and discrimination faced by Russian peasants. Abramovic, Marina Yugoslav-born performance artist known for works that dramatically tested the endurance and limitations of her own body and mind. Abrams, Creighton Williams, Jr. American army officer, commander (1968-72) of all U.S. forces in Vietnam during the latter stages of the Vietnam War. Abrams, J.J. American writer, director, and producer who was perhaps best known for cocreating the hit television series Lost (2004-10). Abrams, M.H. American literary critic known for his analysis of the Romantic period in English literature. Abramson, Jill American journalist who in 2011 became the first female executive editor of The New York Times. abrasive sharp, hard material used to wear away the surface of softer, less resistant materials. Included within the term are both natural and synthetic substances, ranging from the relatively soft particles used in household cleansers and jeweler's polish to the hardest known material, the diamond. Abrasives are indispensable to the manufacture ... abraxas sequence of Greek letters considered as a word and formerly inscribed on charms, amulets, and gems in the belief that it possessed magical qualities. In the 2nd century AD, some Gnostic and other dualistic sects, which viewed matter as evil and the spirit as good and held that salvation came ... Abreu, Capistrano de Brazilian historian best known for his large-scale interpretive work on Brazil's colonial history. Abrikosov, Alexey A. Russian physicist, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2003 for his pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductivity. He shared the award with Vitaly L. Ginzburg of Russia and Anthony J. Leggett of Great Britain. Abruzzi regione, central Italy, fronting the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provincie of L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara, and Teramo. Most of the region is mountainous or hilly, except for such intermontane basins as those of L'Aquila, Sulmona, and Fucino. The Apennines, the dominant physical feature, consist of three chains trending northwest-southeast, of ... Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco, Duke (duca) d' Spanish mountaineer and explorer whose ventures ranged from Africa to the Arctic. Abruzzo, Ben L. American balloonist who, with three crewmates, made the first transpacific balloon flight and the longest nonstop balloon flight, in the Double Eagle V. Abs, Hermann J. German banker and a leading figure in the West German "economic miracle" following World War II. Absalom third and favourite son of David, king of Israel and Judah. Absalom and Achitophel verse satire by English poet John Dryden published in 1681. The poem, which is written in heroic couplets, is about the Exclusion crisis, a contemporary episode in which anti-Catholics, notably the earl of Shaftesbury, sought to bar James, duke of York, a Roman Catholic convert and brother to King Charles ... Absalom, Absalom! novel by American writer William Faulkner, published in 1936. The principal narrative, set in 19th-century Mississippi, concerns the efforts of Thomas Sutpen to transcend his lowly origins by establishing and maintaining a slave-driven empire-"Sutpen's Hundred"-on the frontier. Sutpen's consuming notion of racial superiority undermines his closest relationships and proves his ... Absalon archbishop, statesman, and close adviser of the Danish kings Valdemar I and Canute VI. Absaroka Range mountain segment of the northern Rocky Mountains, in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana, U.S. Extending in a northwest-southeast direction, the range is 170 miles (270 km) long and 50 miles wide. A large plateau, the result of volcanic action, was uplifted in the area, and stream and glacial erosion have ... abscess a localized collection of pus in a cavity formed from tissues that have been broken down by infectious bacteria. An abscess is caused when such bacteria as staphylococci or streptococci gain access to solid tissue (e.g., by means of a small wound on the skin). The toxins released by these ... Abse, Dannie British poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist, known for the characteristically Welsh voice and sensibility of his poetry. absentee ownership originally, ownership of land by proprietors who did not reside on the land or cultivate it themselves but enjoyed income from it. The term absentee ownership has assumed a derogatory social connotation not inherent in its literal meaning, based on the assumption that absentee owners lack personal interest in and ... absentee voting electoral process that enables persons who cannot appear at their designated polling places to vote from another location. The usual method of absentee voting is by mail, although provision is sometimes made for voting at prescribed places in advance of the polling date. Absentee voting requires special administrative arrangements to ... Abseron Peninsula peninsula in Azerbaijan that extends 37 miles (60 km) eastward into the Caspian Sea and reaches a maximum width of 19 miles (30 km). An eastern extension of the Caucasus Mountains, the Abseron Peninsula consists of a gently undulating plain, in part dissected by ravines and characterized by frequent salt ... absinthe flavoured, distilled liquor, yellowish green in colour, turning to cloudy, opalescent white when mixed with water. Highly aromatic, this liqueur is dry and somewhat bitter in taste. Absinthe is made from a spirit high in alcohol, such as brandy, and marketed with alcoholic content of 68 percent by volume. Wormwood ... absolute humidity the vapour concentration or density in the air. If mv is the mass of vapour in a volume of air, then absolute humidity, or dv, is simply dv = mv/ V, in which V is the volume and dv is expressed in grams per cubic metre. This index indicates how ... Absolute Idealism philosophical theory chiefly associated with G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both German idealist philosophers of the 19th century, Josiah Royce, an American philosopher, and others, but, in its essentials, the product of Hegel. Absolute Idealism can generally be characterized as including the following principles: (1) the common everyday world of ... absolute temperature scale any thermometric scale on which a reading of zero coincides with the theoretical absolute zero of temperature-i.e., the thermodynamic equilibrium state of minimum energy. The standard measure of temperature in the International System of Units is the Kelvin (K) scale, on which the only point established by arbitrary definition is ... absolute value Measure of the magnitude of a real number, complex number, or vector. Geometrically, the absolute value represents (absolute) displacement from the origin (or zero) and is therefore always nonnegative. If a real number a is positive or zero, its absolute value is itself; if a is negative, its absolute value ... absolute zero temperature at which a thermodynamic system has the lowest energy. It corresponds to 273.15 C on the Celsius temperature scale and to 459.67 F on the Fahrenheit temperature scale. Absolute, Sir Anthony fictional character, the father of Captain Jack Absolute and with him a protagonist of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comic play The Rivals (1775). Sir Anthony is a wealthy aristocrat, and so his son masquerades as the penniless Ensign Beverley in order to court Lydia Languish, who has romantic notions of marrying ... Absolutely Fabulous British television situation comedy that was broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in five seasons (1992, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2003), along with several specials, and that built up a loyal following among both its British fans and American cable viewers, who watched the show's rebroadcasts. absolution in the Christian religion, a pronouncement of remission (forgiveness) of sins to the penitent. In Roman Catholicism, penance is a sacrament and the power to absolve lies with the priest, who can grant release from the guilt of sin to the sinner who is truly contrite, confesses his sin, and ... absolutism the political doctrine and practice of unlimited, centralized authority and absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator. The essence of an absolutist system is that the ruling power is not subject to regularized challenge or check by any other agency, be it judicial, legislative, religious, economic, or ... absorption in wave motion, the transfer of the energy of a wave to matter as the wave passes through it. The energy of an acoustic, electromagnetic, or other wave is proportional to the square of its amplitude-i.e., the maximum displacement or movement of a point on the wave; and, as the ... absorption edge in physics, abrupt increase in the degree of absorption of electromagnetic radiation by a substance as the frequency of the radiation is increased. Absorption edges are particularly characteristic of the behaviour of X-rays and are related to the sharply defined levels of energy that electrons occupy in atoms. Abstbessingen faience tin-glazed earthenware produced in a factory in the village of Abstbessingen, in Thuringia, which flourished probably from the first half of the 18th century to about 1816. A hayfork factory mark indicates the patronage of the prince of Schwarzburg. Ordinary wares such as flower vases, tankards, and jugs are thick-bodied, ... abstract art painting, sculpture, or graphic art in which the portrayal of things from the visible world plays no part. All art consists largely of elements that can be called abstract-elements of form, colour, line, tone, and texture. Prior to the 20th century these abstract elements were employed by artists to describe, ... Abstract Expressionism broad movement in American painting that began in the late 1940s and became a dominant trend in Western painting during the 1950s. The most prominent American Abstract Expressionist painters were Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko. Others included Clyfford Still, Philip Guston, Helen Frankenthaler, Barnett Newman, ... abstract poem a term coined by Edith Sitwell to describe a poem in which the words are chosen for their aural quality rather than specifically for their sense or meaning. An example from "Popular Song" in Sitwell's Facade (1923) follows: The red retriever-haired satyrCan whine and tease her and flatter,But Lily O'Grady,Silly ... abstraction the cognitive process of isolating, or "abstracting," a common feature or relationship observed in a number of things, or the product of such a process. The property of electrical conductivity, for example, is abstracted from observations of bodies that allow electricity to flow through them; similarly, observations of pairs of ... Abstraction-Creation association of international painters and sculptors that from 1931 to 1936 promoted the principles of pure abstraction in art. Absurd, Theatre of the dramatic works of certain European and American dramatists of the 1950s and early '60s who agreed with the Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus's assessment, in his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942), that the human situation is essentially absurd, devoid of purpose. The term is also loosely applied to those dramatists ... Abu town, southwestern Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It is situated on the slopes of Mount Abu, an isolated feature of the Aravalli Range. The town is a noted hill resort, and the Jaina temples built of marble at nearby Dilwara are famous. Tejpal temple, built about 1200 CE, is known for ... Abu 'Ali Mustafa Palestinian nationalist who was a cofounder (1967) and secretary-general (2000-01) of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a radical faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).