Willie Stark, fictional character, a central figure in the novel All the King’s Men (1946) by Robert Penn Warren. The life and career of Willie Stark, a flamboyant governor of a Southern U.S. state, were based on those of Huey Long, governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1931. Like his real-life model,

photochemical equivalence law, fundamental principle relating to chemical reactions induced by light, which states that for every quantum of radiation that is absorbed, one molecule of the substance reacts. A quantum is a unit of electromagnetic radiation with energy equal to the product of a

spectroscopy: Types of microwave spectrometer: In the conventional Stark-modulated spectrometer, the sample is contained in a long (1- to 3-metre, or 3.3- to 9.8-foot) section of a rectangular waveguide, sealed at each end with a microwave transmitting window (e.g., mica or Mylar), and connected to a vacuum line for evacuation and sample introduction.…

Ringo Starr is a British musician, singer, songwriter, and actor who was the drummer for the Beatles, one of the most influential bands in rock history. He also found success in a solo career. Starkey was born in a working-class area of Liverpool. His parents, both bakery workers, divorced when he

the Who: …Daltrey were supported by drummer Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr) and Townshend’s brother Simon on guitar, among others. A full-blown musical based on this material and also titled The Boy Who Heard Music premiered in July 2007 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The Who later performed at…

Starkville, city, seat (1833) of Oktibbeha county, eastern Mississippi, U.S., 22 miles (35 km) west of Columbus. Founded in 1831, it was originally known as Boardtown for the sawmilling operation there, but it was renamed in 1837 to honour the American Revolution general John Stark. After the

PARC: Early PARC innovations: …a technology developed by PARC’s Gary Starkweather, epitomizes the poor communication between the research laboratory and corporate headquarters that resulted in Xerox’s inability to capitalize on PARC innovations. Starkweather, a researcher at Xerox in the mid-1960s, had an idea to use lasers in Xerox’s copiers. Starkweather realized that short exposures,…

King Crimson: Formation and early success: …Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974).

James Starley was a British inventor and father of the bicycle industry. In 1855 Starley moved to London, where he was employed in the manufacture of sewing machines, and two years later he moved to Coventry, where he became managing foreman at the Coventry Sewing Machine Company (later the

Joan Armatrading: Award-nominated Into the Blues (2007), Starlight (2013), Not Too Far Away (2018), and Consequences (2021), all of which she produced herself. Armatrading also wrote the music for Phyllida Lloyd’s all-women production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, staged in London in 2016 and in New York City the following year.

Andrew Lloyd Webber: …level of commercial success with Starlight Express (1984; lyrics by Richard Stilgoe), in which performers notoriously donned roller skates to portray anthropomorphic toy trains; the show ran in London for more than 17 years.

warning system: The visible region: …of these devices is the starlight scope, resembling an oversized telescopic sight, with which riflemen can aim at night at 1,000–1,300 feet range. Artillery, tanks, helicopters, and aircraft use similar, larger devices having longer range. In aircraft the direct-viewing device is replaced by a cathode-ray tube in the instrument panel;…

Starliner, crewed spacecraft built by the American corporation Boeing. Starliner consists of a conical Crew Module (CM) with a diameter of 4.6 meters (15 feet) at its base; the Crew Module is connected to a cylindrical Service Module (SM), which contains engines and a cooling system. The bottom of

history of flight: Postwar airlines: …direction, and the Lockheed 1649A Starliner, which could fly nonstop on polar routes from Los Angeles to Europe. The Starliner carried 75 passengers at speeds of 350 to 400 miles (560 to 640 km) per hour. Each of its Wright turbocompound radial engines developed 3,400 horsepower. Prior to the introduction…

starling, any of a number of birds composing most of the family Sturnidae (order Passeriformes), especially the common, or European, starling (Sturnus vulgaris), a 20-cm (8-inch) chunky iridescent black bird with a long sharp bill. It was introduced from Europe and Asia to most parts of the world.

Ernest Henry Starling was a British physiologist whose prolific contributions to a modern understanding of body functions, especially the maintenance of a fluid balance throughout the tissues, the regulatory role of endocrine secretions, and mechanical controls on heart function, made him one of

Melissa McCarthy: …and battle genetic mutants, and The Starling, a drama about a woman grieving the death of an infant. That year she also appeared in the miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, which was based on a novel by Liane Moriarty; McCarthy played an unhappy author who seeks the help of a mysterious…

jewelry: The properties of gems: …variety is called starlite or Siam zircon, while the third type is called Ceylon or Matara diamond.

John Carpenter: …car, and the sci-fi movie Starman (1984) were both well received.

Keir Starmer is a British politician and barrister (lawyer) who became leader of the Labour Party in 2020. He has served as a member of Parliament for Holborn and St. Pancras since 2015. Starmer is one of four children of Rodney Starmer, who worked as a toolmaker in a factory, and Josephine (née

Keir Starmer is a British politician and barrister (lawyer) who became leader of the Labour Party in 2020. He has served as a member of Parliament for Holborn and St. Pancras since 2015. Starmer is one of four children of Rodney Starmer, who worked as a toolmaker in a factory, and Josephine (née

Kumanovo: …of the city is the Staro Nagoričane Monastery, built by the Serbian king Milutin in 1318, which contains valuable frescoes. Also nearby is the 16th-century Matejić Monastery and a spa resort with hot mineral waters. Pop. (2002) 70,842; (2020 est.) 73,300.

collapse of the Soviet Union: The coup against Gorbachev: …of Internal Affairs Boris Pugo; Vasily Starodubtsev, chairman of the Farmers’ Union; Aleksandr Tizyakov, president of the U.S.S.R. Association of State Enterprises; and Minister of Defense Marshal Dmitry Yazov. They soon issued Resolution No. 1, which banned strikes and demonstrations and imposed press censorship. There was also an address to…

Nikolay Gogol: Mature career: …idyllic motif of Gogol’s “Starosvetskiye pomeshchiki” (“Old-World Landowners”) is undermined with satire, for the mutual affection of the aged couple is marred by gluttony, their ceaseless eating for eating’s sake.

Western architecture: Russia: …were Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov and Ivan Yegorovich Starov, both of whom studied in Paris under de Wailly in the 1760s, bringing back to Russia the most-advanced Neoclassical ideas. Bazhenov designed the new Arsenal in St. Petersburg (1765) and prepared unexecuted designs for the Kamenni Ostrov Palace (1765–75) and for a…

Old Believer, member of a group of Russian religious dissenters who refused to accept the liturgical reforms imposed upon the Russian Orthodox Church by the patriarch of Moscow Nikon (1652–58). Numbering millions of faithful in the 17th century, the Old Believers split into a number of different

Bart Starr was an American collegiate and professional gridiron football quarterback and professional coach who led the National Football League (NFL) Green Bay Packers to five league championships (1961–62 and 1965–67) and to Super Bowl victories following the 1966 and 1967 seasons. Starr was

Belle Starr was an American outlaw of Texas and the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Myra Belle Shirley grew up in Carthage, Missouri, from the age of two. After the death of an elder brother, who early in the Civil War had become a bushwhacker and had perhaps ridden with guerrilla leader William C.

Bart Starr was an American collegiate and professional gridiron football quarterback and professional coach who led the National Football League (NFL) Green Bay Packers to five league championships (1961–62 and 1965–67) and to Super Bowl victories following the 1966 and 1967 seasons. Starr was

Ellen Gates Starr was an American social reformer, a cofounder (with Jane Addams) of the Hull House social settlement and one of its longtime residents and supporters. Encouraged by her aunt, an art scholar, Starr enrolled in the Rockford (Illinois) Female Seminary, graduating in 1878. She then

Ken Starr was an American lawyer best known as the independent counsel (1994–99) who headed the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair that led to the impeachment of U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton. (Read Monica Lewinsky’s Britannica essay on cyberbullying.) The son of a minister, Starr sold bibles

Ken Starr was an American lawyer best known as the independent counsel (1994–99) who headed the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair that led to the impeachment of U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton. (Read Monica Lewinsky’s Britannica essay on cyberbullying.) The son of a minister, Starr sold bibles

Ken Starr was an American lawyer best known as the independent counsel (1994–99) who headed the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair that led to the impeachment of U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton. (Read Monica Lewinsky’s Britannica essay on cyberbullying.) The son of a minister, Starr sold bibles

Freaks and Geeks: Cast and characters: …awkward Bill Haverchuck, played by Martin Starr.

Ringo Starr is a British musician, singer, songwriter, and actor who was the drummer for the Beatles, one of the most influential bands in rock history. He also found success in a solo career. Starkey was born in a working-class area of Liverpool. His parents, both bakery workers, divorced when he

Belle Starr: …where in 1880 she married Sam Starr, a Cherokee Indian and longtime friend of the Youngers and Jameses. They settled on a ranch, renamed Younger’s Bend, on the Canadian River (near present-day Eufaula). It became a favourite hideout for outlaws of every sort; Jesse James holed up there for several…

flounder: 7 kg (6 pounds); the starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus), a North Pacific species that averages about 9 kg (20 pounds) in weight; and the winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus), an American Atlantic food fish, growing to about 60 cm (23 inches) in length. Flounders in that family typically have the eyes…

Kenneth Lonergan: Lonergan later wrote and directed The Starry Messenger, which opened in 2009 with Matthew Broderick portraying an astronomy instructor trying to escape the ordinariness of his life.

The Starry Night: History: …a few night scenes, including Starry Night (Rhône) (1888). In that work, stars appear in bursts of yellow against a blue-black sky and compete with both the glowing gas lamps below and their reflection in the Rhône River.

The Starry Night, a moderately abstract landscape painting (1889) of an expressive night sky over a small hillside village, one of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh’s most celebrated works. The oil-on-canvas painting is dominated by a night sky roiling with chromatic blue swirls, a glowing yellow

Asian longhorned beetle, (Anoplophora glabripennis), species of beetle (order Coleoptera, family Cerambycidae), originally native to eastern China and Korea, that became a serious pest of hardwood trees in North America and parts of Eurasia. The glossy black adults are large, 17–40 mm (0.7–1.6

stonewort: At least one species, the starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa), is an invasive species in areas outside its native range.

Arthur Eddington: Philosophy of science: …the public lectures published as Stars and Atoms (1927). In his well-written popular books he also set forth his scientific epistemology, which he called “selective subjectivism” and “structuralism”—i.e., the interplay of physical observations and geometry. He believed that a great part of physics simply reflected the interpretation that the scientist…

flag of the United States of America: The design of the Stars and Bars varied over the following two years. On May 1, 1863, the Confederacy adopted its first official national flag, often called the Stainless Banner. A modification of that design was adopted on March 4, 1865, about a month before the end of the…

national flag consisting of white stars (50 since July 4, 1960) on a blue canton with a field of 13 alternating stripes, 7 red and 6 white. The 50 stars stand for the 50 states of the union, and the 13 stripes stand for the original 13 states. The flag’s width-to-length ratio is 10 to 19.After the

The Stars and Stripes Forever, march by American composer John Philip Sousa that premiered in 1897. The piece stands as the quintessential example of the composer’s music. Sousa composed well over 100 marches, and the best known of all those is the patriotic The Stars and Stripes Forever. The piece

The Stars and Stripes, newspaper for U.S. military personnel that has been published periodically as either a weekly or a daily since single editions appeared during the American Civil War (1861–65). It was revived in 1918 as a weekly for U.S. troops in Europe at the end of World War I, was

Jacques Tourneur: Later films: Stars in My Crown, Nightfall, and Curse of the Demon: …project was the atypically sensitive Stars in My Crown (1950), with Joel McCrea as a Civil War veteran who has become a minister in a small Tennessee town. It was Tourneur’s own favourite among his films. However, he noted that because he had accepted the minimum salary for a director…

Samuel R. Delany: Delany’s complex Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (1984) was regarded by critics as a stylistic breakthrough. His subsequent novels include Dark Reflections (2007), which portrays an aging gay Black poet as he lives through successes and disappointments, and Through the Valley of the Nest…

Carol Reed: …produce such noteworthy efforts as The Stars Look Down (1939), an internationally acclaimed film that depicted life in an English mining town, and Night Train to Munich (1940), a Hitchcock-style thriller that featured Rex Harrison as a British double agent. During World War II, Reed directed documentaries for the British…

A.J. Cronin: Cronin’s fourth novel, The Stars Look Down (1935; filmed 1939), which chronicles various social injustices in a North England mining community from 1903 to 1933, gained him an international readership. It was followed by The Citadel (1937; filmed 1938), which showed how private physicians’ greed can distort good…

Ben Okri: …at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988) portray the essential link in Nigerian culture between the physical world and the world of the spirits.

figure skating: Ice shows: Stars on Ice was founded in 1986 by Scott Hamilton and sports agent Robert D. Kain. It features a relatively small international cast of elite skaters, many of whom are Olympic and world champions. Skaters perform individual and group numbers filled with sophisticated choreography and…

Colin Wilson: …A Casebook of Murder (1970), Starseekers (1980), The Quest for Wilhelm Reich (1981), and Poltergeist! (1981).

Jefferson Airplane, was an American psychedelic rock band best known for its biting political lyrics, soaring harmonies, and hallucinogenic titles, such as Surrealistic Pillow and “White Rabbit.” Jefferson Airplane was an important standard-bearer for the counterculture in the 1960s, but in its

Starship, spacecraft being developed by the American corporation SpaceX. Starship, with the Super Heavy launch vehicle, is the successor to SpaceX’s previous rockets: the Falcon 1, the Falcon 9, and the Falcon Heavy. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000

Janus Friis: Later ventures: Friis’s later ventures included Starship Technologies, which he founded (2014) with Ahti Heinla. The company was involved in the manufacture of small robotic delivery vehicles.

Paul Verhoeven: …back to science fiction with Starship Troopers (1997), based on a Robert Heinlein novel, and Hollow Man (2000), the latter of which also has elements of horror. However, neither reached the heights of critical or popular acclaim of his earlier movies. He returned to the Netherlands for his next movie,…

Ukraine: The autonomous hetman state and Sloboda Ukraine: …of the senior Cossack officers, starshyna, who had evolved into a hereditary class approximating the Polish nobility in its privileges. The common Cossacks too were undergoing stratification, the more impoverished hardly distinguished, except in legal status, from the peasantry. The conditions of the free peasantry worsened over time, their growing…

J.J. Johnson: …The Mod Squad, 1970–73, and Starsky and Hutch, 1975).

Jason Bateman: Later life and career: …A True Underdog Story (2004), Starsky & Hutch (2004), The Break-Up (2006), Smokin’ Aces (2006), Juno (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Hancock (2008), Couples Retreat (2009), The Switch (2010),

Gillian Armstrong: In her next movie, Starstruck (1982), Armstrong told the story of a young woman hoping to become a pop star in contemporary Sydney.

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), arms control negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union (and, later, Russia) that were aimed at reducing those two countries’ arsenals of nuclear warheads and of the missiles and bombers capable of delivering such weapons. The talks, which

Going It Alone Is Not an Option: …Treaty in 1963, and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991, among others. To generate such global cooperation, the United States and other world leaders should accentuate areas where they share similar goals, such as curbing global terrorism or coordinating scientific research that benefits the world. At the same time,…

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), arms control negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union (and, later, Russia) that were aimed at reducing those two countries’ arsenals of nuclear warheads and of the missiles and bombers capable of delivering such weapons. The talks, which

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), arms control negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union (and, later, Russia) that were aimed at reducing those two countries’ arsenals of nuclear warheads and of the missiles and bombers capable of delivering such weapons. The talks, which

the Rolling Stones: Lineup changes, disbanding, and reunion: …Emotional Rescue (1980), or “Start Me Up” (1981), the Stones’ albums and singles became increasingly predictable, though their tours continued to sell out. They even briefly disbanded in the late 1980s after a public spat between Jagger and Richards. Both leaders recorded solo albums that performed relatively poorly in…

start-up company, a business at the initial stages of its life cycle. It is typically characterized by an innovative stance, a potential for rapid growth, external funding, and vulnerability. Start-ups can appear in virtually any industry and may span more than one, and they have given rise to the

Kate Atkinson: …There Be Good News? (2008), Started Early, Took My Dog (2010), and Big Sky (2019).

Charles F. Kettering: …as well as the first electric starter, which was introduced on Cadillacs in 1912.

sprint: …using a device called a starting block (legalized in the 1930s) to brace their feet (see photograph). Races are begun by a pistol shot; at 55 to 65 metres (60 to 70 yards), top sprinters attain maximum speed, more than 40 km per hour (25 miles per hour). After the…

Walt Whitman: Early life: …unknown), and “Premonition” (later entitled “Starting from Paumanok”), which records the violent emotions that often drained the poet’s strength. “A Word out of the Sea” (later entitled “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”) evoked some sombre feelings, as did “As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life,” “Chants Democratic,” “Enfans…

Alan J. Pakula: Films of the 1970s: The romantic comedy Starting Over (1979) followed. Adapted from Dan Wakefield’s novel of the same name, it featured Burt Reynolds as a divorced professor who relocates to Boston, where his relationship with a preschool teacher (Jill Clayburgh) keeps getting derailed by the frantic reconciliation attempts of his ex-wife…

Let’s dig into some numbers.You’re eyeing a stock that trades at $250. Is that an attractive price? It’s hard to tell by just looking at the quote. That’s where financial ratios—the stock’s price relative to company earnings, cash flow, book value, and more—come in handy. On the surface, a stock’s

battery: Lead-acid batteries: …classified into three groups: (1) starting-lighting-ignition (SLI) batteries, (2) traction batteries, and (3) stationary batteries. The automotive SLI battery is the best-known portable rechargeable power source. High current can be obtained for hundreds of shallow-depth discharges over a period of several years. Traction batteries are employed in industrial lift trucks,…

environmental economics: Sources of bias: …nor give a reasonable answer), starting-point bias (where the respondent is influenced by the initial numbers given as examples or as part of a range in survey), and strategic bias (where the respondent wants a specific outcome). Because any bias can hinder the usefulness of a contingent valuation survey, special…

startle reaction, an extremely rapid psychophysiological response of an organism to a sudden and unexpected stimulus such as a loud sound or a blinding flash of light. In human beings it is characterized by involuntary bending of the limbs and a spasmodic avoidance movement of the head. Musculature

startle reaction, an extremely rapid psychophysiological response of an organism to a sudden and unexpected stimulus such as a loud sound or a blinding flash of light. In human beings it is characterized by involuntary bending of the limbs and a spasmodic avoidance movement of the head. Musculature

starets, (Slavic translation of Greek gerōn, “elder”), plural Startsy, in Eastern Orthodoxy, a monastic spiritual leader. Eastern Christian monasticism understood itself as a way of life that aimed at a real experience of the future kingdom of God; the starets, as one who had already achieved this

start-up company, a business at the initial stages of its life cycle. It is typically characterized by an innovative stance, a potential for rapid growth, external funding, and vulnerability. Start-ups can appear in virtually any industry and may span more than one, and they have given rise to the

starvation, widespread or generalized atrophy (wasting away) of body tissues either because food is unavailable or because it cannot be taken in or properly absorbed. See

Jamestown Colony: The Starving Time and near abandonment (1609–11): In the autumn of 1609, after Smith left, Chief Powhatan began a campaign to starve the English out of Virginia. The tribes under his rule stopped bartering for food and carried out attacks on English parties that came in…

bioluminescence: The range and variety of bioluminescent organisms: …Diplocladon hasseltii, called starworm, or diamond worm, gives off a continuous greenish blue luminescence from three spots on each segment of the body, forming three longitudinal rows of light, the appearance of which inspired the common name night train. Phrixothrix, the railroad worm, possesses two longitudinal rows, with a red…

Stary Oskol, city, Belgorod oblast (region), western Russia. It lies along the Oskol River. It was founded as a fortress called Oskol in 1593 for the defense against Crimean Tatars and was named Stary (“Old”) Oskol in 1655. Machinery and food industries reflect the city’s mineral and agricultural

Stary Oskol, city, Belgorod oblast (region), western Russia. It lies along the Oskol River. It was founded as a fortress called Oskol in 1593 for the defense against Crimean Tatars and was named Stary (“Old”) Oskol in 1655. Machinery and food industries reflect the city’s mineral and agricultural

Dalia Stasevska is a Ukrainian-born Finnish musician and conductor who became, in 2019, the youngest person and the first woman to be awarded a title conducting position at the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Stasevska was born to a Ukrainian father and a Lithuanian mother, both of whom were artists. The

Stasi, secret police agency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Stasi was one of the most hated and feared institutions of the East German communist government. The Stasi developed out of the internal security and police apparatus established in the Soviet zone of occupation in

Stasi: …German parliament (Bundestag) passed the Stasi Records Law, which granted to Germans and foreigners the right to view their Stasi files. By the early 21st century nearly two million people had done so.

Cyprus: Assyrian and Egyptian domination: …was written on the island; Stasinus of Cyprus, credited with the authorship of the lost epic poem Cypria, was highly regarded among the poets of this literary genre in the 7th century. Bronze, iron, delicate jewelry, and ivory work are characteristic of this period; notable examples are the ivory throne…

stasis dermatitis, a type of dermatitis

United States presidential election of 1944: Background and party nominations: …the governor of Ohio; and Harold Stassen, the former governor of Minnesota. By the time the Republican convention began in Chicago on June 26, however, both Bricker and Stassen had withdrawn, and Dewey was nominated on the first ballot. Bricker, in turn, was unanimously selected as the party’s vice presidential…

Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author and commentator, best known for creating The Huffington Post, a popular liberal Web site offering news and commentary. Stassinopoulos, the daughter of a Greek newspaper owner, moved at age 16 to England, where she later pursued an economics degree at

Stanisław Staszic was the foremost political writer of the Enlightenment in Poland. Staszic came from a middle-class family. He studied at Leipzig, Göttingen, and Paris and was far more European in his outlook than many of his Polish contemporaries. He became a teacher and then began to write on

Stanisław Staszic was the foremost political writer of the Enlightenment in Poland. Staszic came from a middle-class family. He studied at Leipzig, Göttingen, and Paris and was far more European in his outlook than many of his Polish contemporaries. He became a teacher and then began to write on

Ivar Lo-Johansson: …two volumes of short stories, Statarna I–II (1936–37; “The Sharecroppers”), and in his novel Jordproletärerna (1941; “Proletarians of the Earth”). These works are based on his own recollections but are at the same time an indictment of existing social conditions. In their combination of political tract and novel, and their…

sabermetrics: The rise of advanced statistics: …and the resulting output, dubbed Statcast, provided the teams—and, to a lesser degree, amateur and professional analysts outside of front offices—with a wealth of new information that allowed unprecedented accuracy of measuring virtually everything that happens during a baseball game. This data was enough to keep teams of number crunchers…

Coulomb force: …charge is one electrostatic unit, esu, or statcoulomb. In the metre–kilogram–second and the SI systems, the unit of force (newton), the unit of charge (coulomb), and the unit of distance (metre), are all defined independently of Coulomb’s law, so the proportionality factor k is constrained to take a value consistent…

thermodynamics: Thermodynamic states: The application of thermodynamic principles begins by defining a system that is in some sense distinct from its surroundings. For example, the system could be a sample of gas inside a cylinder with a movable piston, an entire steam engine, a marathon runner, the…

philosophy of mind: States and events: States consist simply of objects having properties or standing in relations to other objects. For example, Caesar’s mental state of being conscious presumably ended with the event of his death. An event consists of objects’ losing or acquiring various properties and relations;…

state, political organization of society, or the body politic, or, more narrowly, the institutions of government. The state is a form of human association distinguished from other social groups by its purpose, the establishment of order and security; its methods, the laws and their enforcement; its