- Sku Lnga (Buddhism)
Five Great Kings, in Tibetan Buddhism, a group of five deified heroes popularly worshiped as protection against enemies. Some accounts suggest they were five brothers who came to Tibet from northern Mongolia, and they are usually shown wearing broad-rimmed helmets. Diverse traditions exist, but
- skua (bird group)
skua, any of several predatory seabirds. In American usage, the name is restricted to Catharacta skua, called great skua in Britain; three smaller birds also known in Britain as skuas are called jaegers in the United States (see jaeger). All belong to the family Stercorariidae (order
- skua (bird species)
skua: …also known in Britain as skuas are called jaegers in the United States (see jaeger). All belong to the family Stercorariidae (order Charadriiformes).
- Skujyte, Austra (Lithuanian athlete)
Carolina Klüft: …victory over Lithuanian silver medalist Austra Skujyte was greater than Skujyte’s margin over the 25th-place competitor. In 2005 Klüft, then aged 22, became the youngest athlete ever to have won the “grand slam” of the five track-and-field championship titles available to Europeans: the Olympics plus both the indoor and the…
- Skúlason, Thorlákur (Icelandic translator)
biblical literature: Scandinavian versions: …displaced by the revision of Thorlákur Skúlason (1627–55), based apparently on Resen’s Danish translation. The Icelandic Bible Society published a new New Testament in 1827 and a complete Bible in 1841 (Videyjar; Reykjavík, 1859), revised and reprinted at Oxford in 1866. A completely new edition (Reykjavík, 1912) became the official…
- Skuld (Germanic mythology)
Norn: …name them Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, perhaps meaning “past,” “present,” and “future.” They were depicted as living by Yggdrasill, the world tree, under Urd’s well and were linked with both good and evil. Being frequently attendant at births, they were sometimes associated with midwifery. The name Norn appears only in…
- Skuli Baardsson, Earl (Norwegian noble)
Haakon IV Haakonsson: …been crushed, Haakon’s elder kinsman Earl Skuli Baardsson, who had chiefly conducted the government, attempted to gain sovereignty for himself. When Haakon’s efforts to conciliate him failed, Skuli revolted openly and proclaimed himself king but was quickly defeated and killed by Haakon’s forces (1240). In 1247 the king was crowned,…
- skull (anatomy)
skull, skeletal framework of the head of vertebrates, composed of bones or cartilage, which form a unit that protects the brain and some sense organs. The upper jaw, but not the lower, is part of the skull. The human cranium, the part that contains the brain, is globular and relatively large in
- Skull and Bones (secret society, Yale University)
Skull and Bones, secret society of senior (fourth-year undergraduate) students at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, that was founded in 1832. Male society members are called Bonesmen, and many have ascended after graduation to positions of prominence in business or government. Three of
- Skull Beneath the Skin, The (novel by James)
P.D. James: …for a Woman (1972) and The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982), which centre on Cordelia Gray, a young private detective. The first of these novels was the basis for both a television movie and a short-lived series. James expanded beyond the mystery genre in The Children of Men (1992; film…
- skull cult
skull cult, veneration of human skulls, usually those of ancestors, by various prehistoric and some modern primitive people. Begun probably as early as the Early Paleolithic Period, the practice of preserving and honouring the skull apart from the rest of the skeleton appears to have continued in
- skull lichen
Parmelia: The so-called skull lichen (Parmelia saxatilis) is a common variety that grows in flat gray-brown rosettes (5 to 10 centimetres across). According to folk superstition, it was believed to be an effective treatment for epilepsy if found growing on an old skull, especially that of an executed…
- skull mask
mask: Funerary and commemorative uses: The skull mask is another form usually associated with funerary rites. The skull masks of the Aztecs, like their wooden masks, were inlaid with mosaics of turquoise and lignite, and the eye sockets were filled with pyrites. Holes were customarily drilled in the back so the…
- skunk (cribbage)
cribbage: The play and the showing: …is “lurched” (“left in the lurch”) and, if the play is for stakes, loses doubly. (As sometimes played, the winner must be able to count out to exactly 121, just as, in playing for a go, he tries to reach 31 exactly. Thus, for example, if a player’s score is…
- skunk (mammal)
skunk, (family Mephitidae), black-and-white mammal, found primarily in the Western Hemisphere, that uses extremely well-developed scent glands to release a noxious odour in defense. The term skunk, however, refers to more than just the well-known striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). The skunk family
- skunk badger (mammal)
teledu, species of badger (q.v.) found in Southeast
- skunk bear (mammal)
wolverine, (Gulo gulo), member of the weasel family (Mustelidae) that lives in cold northern latitudes of North America and Eurasia, especially in timbered areas. The wolverine is noted for its strength, cunning, fearlessness, and voracity, and the species is renowned for its ability to face down
- skunk cabbage (plant)
skunk cabbage, any of three species of plants that grow in bogs and meadows of temperate regions. In eastern North America the skunk cabbage is Symplocarpus foetidus, which belongs to the arum family (Araceae, order Arales). In French-speaking parts of Canada it is called tabac du diable (“devil’s
- Skunk Hour (poem by Lowell)
Skunk Hour, poem by Robert Lowell, published in Life Studies (1959). It is modeled on “The Armadillo,” a poem by Elizabeth Bishop; both poets dedicated their respective poems to each other. Composed of eight six-line stanzas, “Skunk Hour” is one in a series of confessional poems that characterized
- Skunk River (river, Iowa, United States)
Skunk River, river in central and southeastern Iowa, U.S. It rises in Hamilton county near Webster City as the South Skunk River and flows generally south to Ames, where it veers to the southeast. It is joined by its principal tributary, the North Skunk River, about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of
- Skunk Works (American technology group)
Lockheed Martin Corporation: Lockheed Corporation: …established a highly secret section, Advanced Development Projects (ADP), to design a fighter around a British De Havilland jet engine. The result was the P-80 Shooting Star, the first American jet aircraft to enter operational service (1945).
- Skupa, Josef (Czechoslovak puppeteer)
Jiří Trnka: …organized by the Czech puppeteer Josef Skupa in 1921. He worked with Skupa at his studios for more than 10 years, but his own efforts to start a puppet theatre failed. By 1935 he was designing for the stage and illustrating children’s books. Between 1938 and 1945 he primarily worked…
- Skupština (Serbian government)
Serbia: The nascent Serbian state: In 1805 a Skupština (assembly) was summoned, and it submitted a list of proposals to the sultan. The proposals included a number of demands for local autonomy that were unacceptable to the sultan, and a large force was sent to quell the rebellion. The rebels continued to hold…
- skutterudite (mineral)
skutterudite, one of a series of cobalt and nickel arsenide minerals that occur with other cobalt and nickel minerals in moderate-temperature veins. The members of the series, which all form crystals of isometric symmetry, are skutterudite and smaltite; their compositions approach that of
- sky (atmosphere)
sunlight: …the varying colour of the sky at different times of day. When the sun is high overhead, its rays pass through the intervening atmosphere almost vertically. The light thus encounters less dust and fewer air molecules than it would if the sun were low on the horizon and its rays…
- Sky Blue Sky (album by Wilco)
Wilco: …sales for the gently introspective Sky Blue Sky (2007) and the career-spanning compendium Wilco (The Album), released in 2009. On a track from the latter, “Wilco (The Song),” Tweedy even demonstrated a sense of humour, singing, “Wilco will love you, baby.”
- Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (film by Conran [2004])
Angelina Jolie: Film roles: …Paltrow and Jude Law in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a sci-fi thriller set in 1930s New York City. Both films were box-office disappointments, but Jolie scored a hit with Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), in which she played an assassin pretending to be a normal housewife; while…
- Sky Dancer (novel by Ihimaera)
Witi Ihimaera: …myth about warring birds in Sky Dancer (2003). The Trowenna Sea (2009), a fictionalized version of the story of a Māori man imprisoned on Tasmania in the 1840s, became the focus of a controversy after several passages were discovered to have been plagiarized. Ihimaera attributed the lapse to lax research…
- sky diving (sport)
skydiving, use of a parachute—for either recreational or competitive purposes—to slow a diver’s descent to the ground after jumping from an airplane or other high place. The sport traces its beginnings to the descents made from a hot-air balloon by the French aeronaut André-Jacques Garnerin in
- Sky God (deity)
High God, in anthropology and the history of religion, a type of supreme deity found among many nonliterate peoples of North and South America, Africa, northern Asia, and Australia. The adjective high is primarily a locative term: a High God is conceived as being utterly transcendent, removed from
- Sky House (building by Kikutake Kiyonori)
Kikutake Kiyonori: …him to international notice was Sky House (1957), his own home in Tokyo, a building of one room elevated on four pylons. He later added modular units to the structure in order to house his growing family. Such adaptability was among the theoretical cornerstones of the Metabolist school, which confronted…
- Sky Is Red, The (work by Berto)
Italian literature: Social commitment and the new realism: … (Il cielo è rosso [1947; The Sky Is Red] and Guerra in camicia nera [1955; “A Blackshirt’s War”]) and by Mario Rigoni Stern (Il sergente nella neve [1952; The Sergeant in the Snow]). By contrast, there were humorous recollections of provincial life under fascism—for example, Mario Tobino’s Bandiera nera (1950;
- sky lobby (architecture)
construction: Vertical transportation: …few very tall buildings the sky lobby system is used to save elevator-shaft space. The building is divided vertically into subbuildings, each with its own sky lobby floor. From the ground floor large express elevators carry passengers to the sky lobby floors, where they transfer to local elevator banks that…
- Sky Mirror (work by Kapoor)
Anish Kapoor: …a month in 2006, Kapoor’s Sky Mirror, a concave stainless-steel mirror 35 feet (11 metres) in diameter, was installed in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. Both Cloud Gate and Sky Mirror reflected and transformed their surroundings and demonstrated Kapoor’s ongoing investigation of material, form, and space.
- Sky News (British satellite, broadcast, and streaming news service)
Sky News, British satellite, broadcast, and streaming news service that is owned by the British media and telecommunications conglomerate Sky Group, a division of the multinational telecommunications company Comcast. Sky News, headquartered in London, has consistently won plaudits for the breadth
- Sky Pilot (song by Eric Burdon and the Animals)
the Animals: …also in 1968, was “Sky Pilot.” The original Animals reunited briefly in the mid-1970s to record Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted (1977) and again in 1983 for a more successful album, Ark, followed by a short tour. In 1994 the Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll…
- Sky PLC (British company)
Greg Dyke: …worked successively for Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB cable and satellite television company and for Pearson Television.
- sky show (astronomy)
planetarium: …typical planetarium theatre, programs—commonly called sky shows—are offered to the public on a regular schedule. Show themes may focus on straightforward astronomical and space topics or take up related issues such as the cosmologies of ancient cultures, the extinction of the dinosaurs, or the future of life on Earth. The…
- sky-pointing (zoology)
booby: …gesture known to ornithologists as sky-pointing (the birds extend their wings horizontally and toward the tail, raise their heads, and emit a long, continuous whistle). The eggs, usually two in number, are laid on the ground in a rudimentary nest. Boobies get their name from their tameness and lack of…
- skya-ka (bird)
Tibet: Plant and animal life: …size of a duck), and skya-ka (black-and-white crow-sized birds). The calls of the rmos-’debs—a small gray bird that inhabits agricultural regions—signal the opening of the planting season.
- Skydance Media (American company)
John Lasseter: …2019 Lasseter became head of Skydance Media’s animation division.
- skydiving (sport)
skydiving, use of a parachute—for either recreational or competitive purposes—to slow a diver’s descent to the ground after jumping from an airplane or other high place. The sport traces its beginnings to the descents made from a hot-air balloon by the French aeronaut André-Jacques Garnerin in
- Skydome (stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Toronto: Cultural life: …Centre (1999), and the modern Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome) stadium (1989), a multipurpose complex, houses both the Argonauts (Canadian football) and the Blue Jays (baseball). Toronto is the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
- Skye (island, Scotland, United Kingdom)
Skye, the largest and most northerly of the Inner Hebrides islands of Scotland. It is the nearest of these islands to the mainland, which lies only a few hundred yards away at Kyleakin, where the Skye Bridge provides access to the mainland by road. Administratively, it lies within the Highland
- Skye terrier (breed of dog)
Skye terrier, breed of dog that was originated as a hunter on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and has remained relatively unchanged for about 400 years. In the 19th century the Skye was one of the most popular terriers and was used as a working dog as well as the pet of the nobility. It is
- Skyer (book by Pontoppidan)
Henrik Pontoppidan: … (1887; “From the Cottages”), and Skyer (1890; “Clouds”) are all characterized by social indignation, though also by ironic appreciation of the complacency and passivity of country people. The long novel Det Forjættede Land, 3 vol. (1891–95; The Promised Land), describes the religious controversies in country districts. In the 1890s Pontoppidan…
- Skyfall (film by Mendes [2012])
Adele: …the blockbuster James Bond movie Skyfall (2012). Later that year she was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
- skyglow (pollution)
light pollution: Impact on humans: …is a result of “skyglow,” upward-directed light emanating from poorly designed or directed lamps and security floodlights. This wasted light is scattered and reflected by solid or liquid particles in the atmosphere and then returned to the eyes of people on the ground, obliterating their view of the night…
- Skyhawk (airplane)
attack aircraft: Navy’s McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, first flown in 1954; and the Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair, first flown in 1965. The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (better known as the “Warthog”), a twin-engine aircraft first flown in 1972, became in the mid-1970s the principal close-support attack aircraft of the U.S.…
- Skyhawk bomber (airplane)
attack aircraft: Navy’s McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, first flown in 1954; and the Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair, first flown in 1965. The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (better known as the “Warthog”), a twin-engine aircraft first flown in 1972, became in the mid-1970s the principal close-support attack aircraft of the U.S.…
- Skyhook (American balloon series)
balloon: …helped to design the polyethylene Skyhook series of high-altitude balloons with which the U.S. Air Force sent manned flights to more than 100,000 feet (30,000 metres) to collect data on the upper atmosphere. Sport ballooning has gained in popularity over the years.
- skyjacking (crime)
hijacking, the illegal seizure of a land vehicle, aircraft, or other conveyance while it is in transit. Although since the late 20th century hijacking most frequently involved the seizure of an airplane and its forcible diversion to destinations chosen by the air pirates, when the term was coined
- Skylab (United States space station)
Skylab, first U.S. space station, launched into Earth orbit on May 14, 1973. Three successive crews of visiting astronauts carried out investigations of the human body’s adaptation to the space environment, studied the Sun in unprecedented detail, and undertook pioneering Earth-resources
- skylark (bird)
skylark, (Alauda arvensis), Species of Old World lark particularly noted for its rich, sustained song and for singing in the air. It is about 7 inches (18 cm) long, with brown upper parts streaked with black and buffish white underparts. It breeds across Europe and has been introduced into
- Skylark (song by Carmichael and Mercer)
Hoagy Carmichael: …of the 1940s was “Skylark,” another collaboration with Mercer, and a song that reflected Carmichael’s jazz influences in that, according to one music scholar, it “seemed to have the improvisations built right into the melody.”
- Skylark of Space, The (novel by Smith and Garby)
E.E. Smith: …what would become the novel The Skylark of Space with his neighbour, Lee Hawkins Garby, who wrote the romantic parts of the story that Smith felt he could not write. Smith continued to write while completing (1919) a doctoral degree in chemistry from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
- skylight (architecture)
skylight, Roof opening covered with translucent or transparent glass or plastic designed to admit daylight. Skylights have found wide application admitting steady, even light in industrial, commercial, and residential buildings, especially those with a northern orientation. Installations range from
- Skylight (play by Hare)
Stephen Daldry: …2014 revival of David Hare’s Skylight. The critically acclaimed production, which starred Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy as former lovers, earned Daldry a Tony nomination for best director. Daldry returned to cinema with Trash (2014), a drama about three boys who stumble upon a political scandal while picking through refuse…
- Skyline Drive (highway, United States)
Blue Ridge: …of Front Royal, Virginia, the Skyline Drive runs through Shenandoah National Park and connects at Rockfish Gap, Virginia, with the Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic motor route that runs southwestward to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
- Skylosophos, Dionysius (Greek leader)
Greece: Resistance to Ottoman rule: …the short-lived revolt launched by Dionysius Skylosophos in Epirus in 1611, and the abortive uprising in the Peloponnese in 1770 at the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74. These uprisings had little chance of success, but during the Tourkokratia there was some armed resistance against the Turks by the…
- Skype (software)
Skype, software for communication over the Internet, which includes voice, video, and instant message capabilities. Skype was one of the early successes in using the voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP). Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies, founded by Niklas Zennström of Sweden and Janus Friis of
- Skype Technologies (Luxembourger company)
Microsoft Corporation: Competition with Google: …the Internet voice communication company Skype for $8.5 billion, which at that time was the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. Microsoft added Skype to Xbox, Outlook, and Windows smartphones. The Skype acquisition placed Microsoft in competition with Apple’s video-chat service FaceTime and Google’s Internet communication service Voice. In 2016 Microsoft…
- Skyraider (aircraft)
attack aircraft: …B-26 Invader and the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. All these types were piston-engined, propeller-driven aircraft.
- Skyros (island, Greece)
Skyros, island, the largest and easternmost of the northern Sporades in the Aegean Sea, eastern Greece. The island constitutes a dímos (municipality) in the periféreia (region) of Central Greece (Modern Greek: Stereá Elláda). On the island’s western coast is found the main harbour, Linariá, while
- Skýros (island, Greece)
Skyros, island, the largest and easternmost of the northern Sporades in the Aegean Sea, eastern Greece. The island constitutes a dímos (municipality) in the periféreia (region) of Central Greece (Modern Greek: Stereá Elláda). On the island’s western coast is found the main harbour, Linariá, while
- Skyscraper (film by Thurber [2018])
Dwayne Johnson: …building in the action movie Skyscraper. He then costarred with Jason Statham in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, a spin-off from the long-running franchise, and took the lead role in Jumanji: The Next Level (both 2019), a sequel to the 2017 film. In 2021 he starred with Emily…
- skyscraper (building)
skyscraper, a very tall multistoried building. The name first came into use during the 1880s, shortly after the first skyscrapers were built, in the United States. The development of skyscrapers came as a result of the coincidence of several technological and social developments. The term
- Skysweeper (military weapon)
antiaircraft gun: Army introduced the Skysweeper, a 75-millimetre automatic cannon firing 45 shells per minute, aimed and fired by its own radar-computer system. With the introduction of guided surface-to-air missiles in the 1950s and ’60s, heavy antiaircraft guns such as this were phased out, though radar-guided automatic guns of 20…
- Skyteam (international airline alliance)
Air France: …Air, and Aeroméxico to create SkyTeam, a global alliance that enabled the companies to share facilities and services.
- Skytrain (aircraft)
C-47, U.S. military transport aircraft that served in all theatres during World War II and continued in service long afterward. It was used to haul cargo, transport troops, drop paratroops, tow gliders, and as a flying ambulance. The C-47 was a military adaptation of the Douglas DC-3, a
- Skytrain (aircraft)
DC-3, transport aircraft, the world’s first successful commercial airliner, readily adapted to military use during World War II. The DC-3, first flown in 1935, was a low-wing twin-engine monoplane that in various conformations could seat 21 or 28 passengers or carry 6,000 pounds (2,725 kg) of
- Skyward (work by Byrd)
Richard E. Byrd: Byrd’s accomplishments: His first book, Skyward (1928), contains descriptions of his 1928–30 expedition to Antarctica, his flight to the North Pole, and his flight across the Atlantic. Little America (1930) is an official account of his aerial exploration in the Antarctic and his flight to the South Pole, and Alone…
- Sla (Morocco)
Salé, old walled city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, at the mouth of the Wadi Bou Regreg. The wadi separates Salé from Rabat, Morocco’s capital city, of which Salé has become a bedroom community. Salé was founded in the 10th century and reached its zenith as a medieval merchant port and
- SLA (Sudanese rebel organization)
Janjaweed: …Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), mounted a joint raid on the Sudanese air base at Al-Fāshir in April 2003, destroying aircraft and capturing dozens of prisoners. The Al-Fāshir raid was a psychological blow to the government in Khartoum, and the SLA pressed its advantage, scoring a…
- SLA (terrorist organization)
Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small group of multiracial militant revolutionaries based in California during the 1970s that owes nearly all its notoriety to the kidnapping and subsequent indoctrination of Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress. Founded in the Berkeley, California-area in 1973 by
- SLA (manufacturing)
3D printing: …in a process known as stereolithography (SLA), a thin layer of polymer liquid rather than powder is spread over the build area, and the designated part areas are consolidated by an ultraviolet laser beam. The built-up plastic part is retrieved and put through post-processing steps.
- slab (metallurgy)
steel: Slabs and blooms: Cast ingots, sometimes still hot, arrive at slabbing and blooming mills on railroad cars and are charged upright by a special crane into under-floor soaking pits. These are gas-fired rectangular chambers, about 5 metres deep, in which four to eight ingots are…
- slab (geomorphology)
steel: Hot strip: …hot strip begins with a slab, which is inspected and, if necessary, surface cleaned either manually or by scarfing machines with oxyacetylene torches. The slabs are then pushed, or walked on their broadside, through gas-fired furnaces that have a hearth dimension of about 13 metres by 30 metres. In a…
- slab (building material)
slab, In architecture, a flat, monolithic piece of stone or concrete used for a floor or roof. There are various forms of reinforced-concrete slabs: one-way slabs cast with supporting beams, ribbed slabs cast with series of joists, two-way ribbed slabs (known as waffle slabs), flat plates
- slab avalanche (geology)
avalanche: In a slab avalanche, the mass of descending snow may reach a speed of 130 km (80 miles) per hour and is capable of destroying forests and small villages in its path. Avalanches kill about 150 people a year in North America and Europe. Most of those…
- slab casting (metallurgy)
steel: Billet, bloom, beam, and slab: Huge slab casters solidify sections up to 250 millimetres thick and 2,600 millimetres wide at production rates of up to three million tons per year.
- slab footing (construction)
construction: Foundations: …consist of flat reinforced concrete slabs or mats or of reinforced concrete tubs with walls turned up around the edge of the mat to create a larger volume.
- slab sea anchor (marine geology)
back-arc basin: …may serve as a “sea anchor” by remaining fixed in place relative to the top of the subducting plate. In the latter case, the enlargement of the basin forces the trailing part of the overlying plate to move in the opposite direction.
- slab track
railroad: Location and construction: This system, known as slab track, maintains accurate track geometry without maintenance attention for much longer periods than ballasted track, but its reduced maintenance costs are offset by higher first and renewal costs.
- slab-ended stool (furniture)
stool: …resembled small benches, were called board, or slab-ended, stools; they were made obsolete by the standard joint stool, which was produced, in the 17th century, in upholstered sets with chairs and footstools.
- slab-gel electrophoresis (chemistry)
separation and purification: Field separations: …the method is thus called slab-gel electrophoresis. Polyacrylamide or agarose is typically used as the gel material.
- slab-tilt wall (construction)
Irving John Gill: …among the first to construct tilt-slab walls (concrete walls poured into horizontal molds and, when dry, raised into position, completely finished), seen in such projects as the Woman’s Club (1914) in La Jolla.
- Slaby, Adolf (German physicist)
Adolf Slaby was a physicist and pioneer in German wireless telegraphy. Slaby studied at the Berlin Trade Academy and the Royal Trade School in Potsdam and from 1883 until 1912 taught at the Technical High School at Charlottenburg. Inspired by Guglielmo Marconi’s electromagnetic-wave experiments, he
- Slaby, Adolf Karl Heinrich (German physicist)
Adolf Slaby was a physicist and pioneer in German wireless telegraphy. Slaby studied at the Berlin Trade Academy and the Royal Trade School in Potsdam and from 1883 until 1912 taught at the Technical High School at Charlottenburg. Inspired by Guglielmo Marconi’s electromagnetic-wave experiments, he
- SLAC (laboratory, Menlo Park, California, United States)
SLAC, U.S. national particle-accelerator laboratory for research in high-energy particle physics and synchrotron-radiation physics, located in Menlo Park, California. An exemplar of post-World War II Big Science, SLAC was founded in 1962 and is run by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of
- SLAC Linear Collider (collider)
SLAC: The Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) project, which became operational in 1989, consisted of extensive modifications to the original linac to accelerate electrons and positrons to 50 GeV each before sending them in opposite directions around a 600-metre (2,000-foot) loop of magnets. The oppositely charged particles were…
- Slack (software)
Stewart Butterfield: …2012, work began on the Slack app, which allowed users to create specific channels devoted to real-time communication. The preview release appeared in August 2013 and was an instant hit. The app remained live until the go-to-market release in February 2014. Businesses involved in the Internet, media, and advertising signed…
- Slack Technologies (computer software company)
Stewart Butterfield: … (2004), a photo-sharing site, and Slack Technologies, Inc. (2009), a dot-com enterprise that provided organizations with Slack, an internal-messaging service that facilitated employee collaboration.
- slack variable (mathematics)
optimization: The simplex method: …into equalities by introducing “slack variables” x3 ≥ 0 (so that x1 + x3 = 8), x4 ≥ 0 (so that x2 + x4 = 5), x5 ≥ 0 (so that x1 + x2 + x5 = 10), and the variable x0 for the value of the objective function…
- slack-key guitar (musical instrument)
Hawaii: The arts: …sources, including ki ho‘ala (Hawaiian slack-key guitar), brought to the islands by vaqueros from Mexico. Don Ho (1930–2007) was one of the best-known Hawaiian musicians. Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole was a popular Hawaiian singer whose support of Hawaiian sovereignty made him a cultural hero in Hawaii.
- Slacker (film by Linklater [1991])
Richard Linklater: First films: Dazed and Confused and Before Sunrise: His second film, Slacker (1991), is a narrative-free piece that meanders across mostly unconnected vignettes featuring Austin bohemians over the course of a single day. It was a film-festival hit and helped launch the American independent cinema renaissance of the 1990s. The film’s success gave Linklater entrée into…
- slacks (clothing)
trousers, an outer garment covering the lower half of the body from the waist to the ankles and divided into sections to cover each leg separately. In attempting to define trousers, historians often explain that if any portion of a garment passed between the legs, it was an ancestor of this
- Slade (British rock group)
the Animals: …to manage Jimi Hendrix and Slade. Burdon put together a new lineup, billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals, which incorporated psychedelia into its sound, notably on the double album Love Is (1968); the band’s last big hit, also in 1968, was “Sky Pilot.” The original Animals reunited briefly in…
- Slade House (novel by Mitchell)
David Mitchell: Slade House (2015), a short novel that focuses on a pair of vampiric siblings, expounds upon the universe established in The Bone Clocks. Mitchell partially composed the narrative on the social media platform Twitter. In 2020 he published Utopia Avenue, about a British rock band…
- Slade, Dwight (American stand-up comedian)
Bill Hicks: Early life and start in comedy: …as teenagers, Hicks and friend Dwight Slade shared an early interest in stand-up comedy. Much influenced by the stand-up routines of Woody Allen, they went to school on the comics whom they watched on The Tonight Show. Styling themselves as Bill & Dwight, Hicks and Slade began working on their…