(Encyclopedia) automated teller machine (ATM), device used by bank customers to process account transactions. Typically, a user inserts into the ATM a special plastic card that is encoded with…
(Encyclopedia) oath, vocal affirmation of the truth of one's statements, generally made by appealing to a deity. From the earliest days of human history, calling upon the gods of a community to…
(Encyclopedia) Mayflower, ship that in 1620 brought the Pilgrims from England to New England. She set out from Southampton in company with the Speedwell, the vessel that had borne some of the English…
(Encyclopedia) August Coup, attempted coup (Aug. 18–22, 1991) against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. On the eve of the signing ceremony for a new union treaty for the Union of Soviet Socialist…
(Encyclopedia) ballisticsballisticsbəlĭsˈtĭks [key], science of projectiles. Interior ballistics deals with the propulsion and the motion of a projectile within a gun or firing device. Its problems…
(Encyclopedia) rationalism [Lat.,=belonging to reason], in philosophy, a theory that holds that reason alone, unaided by experience, can arrive at basic truth regarding the world. Associated with…
(Encyclopedia) Beattie, AnnBeattie, Annbēˈtē, bāˈ– [key], 1947–, American writer, b. Washington, D.C. She gained attention in the early 1970s with short stories in the New Yorker; the 48 stories she…
(Encyclopedia) Terkel, Studs, 1912–2008, American writer, social historian, and radio and television personality, b. the Bronx, N.Y., as Louis Terkel, grad. Univ. of Chicago (Ph.B. 1932, J.D. 1934).…
(Encyclopedia) thyrotropinthyrotropinthīˌrätrōˈpĭn [key] or thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), hormone released by the anterior pituitary gland that stimulates the thyroid gland to release thyroxine…
(Encyclopedia) Riefenstahl, Leni (Berta Helene Amalie Riefenstahl)Riefenstahl, Lenilāˈnē rēˈfənshtälˌ, bĕrˈtə hālāˈnə ämälˈyə [key], 1902–2003, German filmmaker, b. Berlin. First a dancer, then an…
