sriracha, bright-red hot sauce of Thai origin made of chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, salt, and sugar that has become a popular condiment in the United States and elsewhere. Although sriracha is mainly used on food or as a dipping sauce, the condiment is occasionally added to drinks, such as a

Serampore, city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India. It is located just west of the Hugli (Hooghly) River and is part of the Kolkata (Calcutta) urban agglomeration. Originally a Danish settlement founded in the 18th century and called Frederiksnagar, the town was acquired by the

India: Loss of central control: When Tirumala retired, his son Shriranga I (reigned 1572–85) tried to continue the process of rebuilding while struggling to maintain his place among the Muslim sultanates without any support from the major Telugu houses. An invasion by Bijapur was repulsed with the aid of Golconda, but subsequent invasions by Golconda…

India: Breakup of the empire: Venkata’s nephew and successor, Shriranga II, ruled for only four months. He was murdered, along with all but one of the members of his family, by one of the two contending parties of nobles. A long civil war resulted and finally degenerated into a series of smaller wars among…

Srirangam, former city, east-central Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India. It lies on an island at the division of the Kaveri (Cauvery) and Kollidam (Coleroon) rivers and is now incorporated administratively into the nearby city of Tiruchchirappalli. Srirangam is one of the most frequently visited

Srirangapatna, town, south-central Karnataka state, southern India. It is situated at the western end of an island in the Kaveri (Cauvery) River, just north of Mysore. The town is named for its 12th-century temple dedicated to Shri Ranga (the Hindu god Vishnu). It was fortified in the 15th century

Sisaket, town, eastern Thailand. Sisaket lies on the railway between Nakhon Ratchasima and Udon Thani. The surrounding area is one of Thailand’s poorest regions; rice and tobacco are the main products. The region borders Cambodia and has a substantial Khmer-speaking population. Pop. (2000)

Premchand was an Indian author of novels and short stories in Hindi and Urdu who was a pioneer in adapting Indian themes to Western literary styles. Premchand worked as a teacher until 1921, when he joined Mahatma Gandhi’s noncooperation movement. As a writer, he first gained renown for his

Srivijaya empire, maritime and commercial kingdom that flourished between the 7th and the 13th centuries, largely in what is now Indonesia. The kingdom originated in Palembang on the island of Sumatra and soon extended its influence and controlled the Strait of Malacca. Srivijaya’s power was based

Srivijaya empire, maritime and commercial kingdom that flourished between the 7th and the 13th centuries, largely in what is now Indonesia. The kingdom originated in Palembang on the island of Sumatra and soon extended its influence and controlled the Strait of Malacca. Srivijaya’s power was based

Hermann Oberth: …another location to work on solid-propellant antiaircraft rockets. He spent a year in Switzerland after the war as a rocket consultant, and in 1950 he moved to Italy, where he worked on solid-propellant antiaircraft rockets for the Italian navy. In the United States from 1955, he did advanced space research…

transfer RNA (tRNA), small molecule in cells that carries amino acids to organelles called ribosomes, where they are linked into proteins. In addition to tRNA there are two other major types of RNA: messenger RNA (mRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). By 1960 the involvement of tRNAs in the assembly of

rules of engagement: …recognized rules of engagement are standing ROE (SROE), which refer to situations in which the U.S. is not actually at war and thus seeks to constrain military action, and wartime ROE (WROE), which do not limit military responses to offensive actions.

Srong-brtsan-sgam-po was a Tibetan king (crowned 629) who extended his dominion to include Nepal and parts of India and China and whose reign marked the beginning of recorded history in Tibet. He commissioned a court scholar to create the Tibetan written language using an Indo-European model for

Srong-brtsan-sgam-po was a Tibetan king (crowned 629) who extended his dominion to include Nepal and parts of India and China and whose reign marked the beginning of recorded history in Tibet. He commissioned a court scholar to create the Tibetan written language using an Indo-European model for

fascism: Germany: …in July 1944, founded the Socialist Reich Party (Sozialistische Reichspartei; SRP), one of the earliest neofascist parties in Germany. Openly sympathetic to Nazism, the SRP made considerable gains in former Nazi strongholds, and in 1951 it won 11 percent of the vote in regional elections in Lower Saxony. The party…

cell: The rough endoplasmic reticulum: …RNA molecule known as the signal recognition particle (SRP). The SRP also binds to the ribosome to halt further formation of the protein. The membrane of the ER contains receptor sites that bind the SRP-ribosome complex to the RER membrane. Upon binding, translation resumes, with the SRP dissociating from the…

Cambodia: Tensions between the CPP and the opposition: …Funcinpec—as well as with the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), another opposition party that had won nearly as many seats as Funcinpec in the elections—dragged into 2004, however, and were resolved only by midyear. In October 2004 Sihanouk resigned as king, and his youngest son, Norodom Sihamoni, succeeded him. Sihanouk continued…

Bosnian War: Background: …however, made cooperation with the Serb Democratic Party, led by Radovan Karadžić, increasingly difficult.

Serbia: Independent Serbia: The newly formed Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska Napredna Stranka; SNS), which had split off from the Radicals in 2008, had by 2010 joined the DS in supporting Serbia’s accession to the EU. In March 2010 the Serbian parliament voted to condemn the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Bosniaks (Bosnian…

fascism: Serbia: …the expense of Vojislav Seselj’s Serbian Radical Party (Srpska Radikalna Stranka; SRS), then the largest neofascist party in Serbia. Although the SPS had won 65 percent of the vote in elections to the Serbian assembly in 1990, deteriorating economic conditions and perceived threats to Serbian enclaves in Croatia and Bosnia…

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić: …1818 he first published his Srpski rječnik (“Serbian Lexicon”), a Serbian-German-Latin dictionary containing 26,270 words and many important sidelights on folklore. The second edition (1852), expanded to about 47,000 words, remains a classic. Though there was strong opposition to his reform from the church and from writers, the Serbian government…

metamaterial: …as metallic wire arrays and split-ring resonators (SRRs), proposed by English physicist John Pendry in the 1990s and now widely adopted. By adjusting the spacing and size of the elements in metallic wire arrays, a material’s electric permittivity (a measure of the tendency of the electric charge within the material…

fascism: Serbia: …the expense of Vojislav Seselj’s Serbian Radical Party (Srpska Radikalna Stranka; SRS), then the largest neofascist party in Serbia. Although the SPS had won 65 percent of the vote in elections to the Serbian assembly in 1990, deteriorating economic conditions and perceived threats to Serbian enclaves in Croatia and Bosnia…

Somalia: Constitutional framework: …one legal political party, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, and various socialist-style mass organizations existed.

śruti, (Sanskrit: “heard”), in the music of India and Pakistan, the smallest tonal interval that can be perceived. The octave, in Indian theory, is divided into 22 śrutis. The division is not precisely equal, but these microtonal units may be compared to Western quarter tones, of which there are 24

Richard Boleslavsky was a motion-picture and stage director who introduced the Stanislavsky method of acting to the United States. He directed such popular American films of the 1930s as Rasputin and the Empress (1932), Les Misérables (1935), and Theodora Goes Wild (1936). Boleslavsky first acted

SS, the black-uniformed elite corps and self-described “political soldiers” of the Nazi Party. Founded by Adolf Hitler in April 1925 as a small personal bodyguard, the SS grew with the success of the Nazi movement and, gathering immense police and military powers, became virtually a state within a

U Geminorum star, any of a class of irregular variable stars that display sudden increases in brightness so great that they are sometimes called dwarf novae. Some have been observed to brighten by as much as 5 magnitudes (100 times) in a period of hours. The prototype star, U Geminorum, brightens

Edmund Fitzgerald, American freighter that sank during a storm on November 10, 1975, in Lake Superior, killing all 29 aboard. Its mysterious demise inspired Gordon Lightfoot’s hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976), which helped make it the most famous shipwreck in the Great Lakes. In

Giorgio Chinaglia: …a member (1969–76) of Rome’s SS Lazio. He helped the team to its first Serie A championship in the 1973–74 season while leading the league in goals scored. (Overall he scored 98 goals in 209 matches.)

MS St. Louis, German ocean liner that gained international attention in May–June 1939 when Cuba, the United States, and Canada denied entry to its more than 900 Jewish passengers, most of whom had fled Nazi Germany. Ultimately, several European countries took the refugees, though 255 of the

rocket and missile system: Strategic missiles: For example, the SS-1 Scud, a ballistic missile with ranges of up to 185 miles (300 kilometres), was fielded with nuclear warheads by Soviet troops in eastern Europe from the 1950s through the 1980s; but in the “war of the cities” during the Iran–Iraq conflict of the 1980s,…

rocket and missile system: Antitank and guided assault: …German technology and developed the SS-10/SS-11 family of missiles. The SS-11 was adopted by the United States as an interim helicopter-fired antitank missile pending the development of the TOW (for tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) missile. Because it was designed for greater range and hitting power, TOW was mounted primarily on…

rocket and missile system: Antitank and guided assault: The SS-11 was adopted by the United States as an interim helicopter-fired antitank missile pending the development of the TOW (for tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided) missile. Because it was designed for greater range and hitting power, TOW was mounted primarily on vehicles and, particularly, on attack…

rocket and missile system: From liquid to solid fuel: …Soviet solid-fueled ICBM was the SS-13 Savage, which became operational in 1969. This missile could carry a 750-kiloton warhead more than 5,000 miles. Because the Soviet Union deployed several other liquid-fueled ICBMs between 1962 and 1969, Western specialists speculated that the Soviets experienced engineering difficulties in producing solid propellants.

rocket and missile system: Multiple warheads: …1,000 to 1,500 feet: the SS-17 Spanker, with four 750-kiloton warheads; the SS-18 Satan, with up to 10 500-kiloton warheads; and the SS-19 Stiletto, with six 550-kiloton warheads. Each of these Soviet systems had several versions that traded multiple warheads for higher yield. For instance, the SS-18, model 3, carried…

rocket and missile system: Multiple warheads: …with four 750-kiloton warheads; the SS-18 Satan, with up to 10 500-kiloton warheads; and the SS-19 Stiletto, with six 550-kiloton warheads. Each of these Soviet systems had several versions that traded multiple warheads for higher yield. For instance, the SS-18, model 3, carried a single 20-megaton warhead. This giant missile,…

rocket and missile system: Multiple warheads: …10 500-kiloton warheads; and the SS-19 Stiletto, with six 550-kiloton warheads. Each of these Soviet systems had several versions that traded multiple warheads for higher yield. For instance, the SS-18, model 3, carried a single 20-megaton warhead. This giant missile, which replaced the SS-9 in the latter’s silos, had about…

rocket and missile system: Multiple warheads: …were long-range descendants of the SS-20 Saber, an IRBM carried on mobile launchers that entered service in 1977, partly along the border with China and partly facing western Europe. That two-stage, solid-fueled missile could deliver three 150-kiloton warheads a distance of 3,000 miles with a CEP of 1,300 feet. It…

Lance missile: …known to NATO as the SS-21 Scarab.

rocket and missile system: Multiple warheads: …advance came with the solid-fueled SS-24 Scalpel and SS-25 Sickle ICBMs, deployed in 1987 and 1985, respectively. The SS-24 could carry eight or 10 MIRVed warheads of 100 kilotons, and the SS-25 was fitted with a single 550-kiloton RV. Both missiles had a CEP of 650 feet. In addition to…

rocket and missile system: Multiple warheads: …the solid-fueled SS-24 Scalpel and SS-25 Sickle ICBMs, deployed in 1987 and 1985, respectively. The SS-24 could carry eight or 10 MIRVed warheads of 100 kilotons, and the SS-25 was fitted with a single 550-kiloton RV. Both missiles had a CEP of 650 feet. In addition to their accuracy, these…

rocket and missile system: The first ICBMs: …(later given the NATO designation SS-6 Sapwood) as well as the first man-made satellite, Sputnik. This prompted the “missile gap” debate in the United States and resulted in higher priorities for the U.S. Thor and Jupiter IRBMs. Although originally scheduled for deployment in the early 1960s, these programs were accelerated,…

rocket and missile system: Strategic missiles: …25-megaton warhead deployed on the SS-7 Saddler from 1961 to 1980 and a 25-megaton warhead on the SS-9 Scarp, deployed from 1967 to 1982. (For the development of nuclear weapons, see nuclear weapon.)

rocket and missile system: Strategic missiles: …a 25-megaton warhead on the SS-9 Scarp, deployed from 1967 to 1982. (For the development of nuclear weapons, see nuclear weapon.)

science fiction: Alternate histories and parallel universes: …such as Len Deighton’s thriller SS-GB (1978), about the grim role of Nazi occupiers in Britain, and Vladimir Nabokov’s involved and elegant Ada (1969). Alternate histories tend to cluster around particularly dramatic and colorful junctures of history, with World War II and the American Civil War as particular favorites. Some…

rocket and missile system: Antiship: The SS-N-12 Sandbox, introduced in the 1970s on the Kiev-class antisubmarine carriers, was apparently an improved Shaddock. The SS-N-19 Shipwreck, a small, vertically launched, flip-out wing supersonic missile with a range of about 390 miles, appeared in the 1980s.

tactical weapons system: Surface-to-surface systems: Subroc and the Soviet SS-N-15. These missiles break the ocean surface, streak through the air at supersonic speed for about 30 miles (50 km), and then release a nuclear depth bomb that drops back into the water and sinks to the level of the target before exploding.

rocket and missile system: Antiship: The SS-N-19 Shipwreck, a small, vertically launched, flip-out wing supersonic missile with a range of about 390 miles, appeared in the 1980s.

rocket and missile system: Antiship: Ship-based Soviet systems included the SS-N-2 Styx, a subsonic aerodynamic missile first deployed in 1959–60 with a range of 25 miles, and the SS-N-3 Shaddock, a much larger system resembling a swept-wing fighter aircraft with a range of 280 miles. The SS-N-12 Sandbox, introduced in the 1970s on the Kiev-class…

rocket and missile system: Antiship: …of 25 miles, and the SS-N-3 Shaddock, a much larger system resembling a swept-wing fighter aircraft with a range of 280 miles. The SS-N-12 Sandbox, introduced in the 1970s on the Kiev-class antisubmarine carriers, was apparently an improved Shaddock. The SS-N-19 Shipwreck, a small, vertically launched, flip-out wing supersonic missile…

rocket and missile system: The first SLBMs: …SLBM, the one- to two-megaton SS-N-4 Sark. This missile, deployed in 1958 aboard diesel-electric submarines and later aboard nuclear-powered vessels, had to be launched from the surface and had a range of only 350 miles. Partly in response to this deployment, the United States gave priority to its Polaris program,…

submarine: Attack submarines: Beginning in 1971, the SS-N-7 Starbright cruise missile, which could be launched underwater and could strike ships 35 nautical miles (65 km) away, was deployed in Soviet Charlie-class submarines. The SS-N-7 began a series of dive-launched antiship cruise missiles of increasing range, culminating in the SS-N-19 Shipwreck, a supersonic…

Vilnius: The contemporary city: …17th-century Baroque churches, notably the Church of SS. Peter and Paul. The cathedral dates originally from 1387, but in its present form from 1801. Around the old town are the newer sectors of the city, with a rectangular street plan, large apartment blocks, administrative buildings, and modern factories. The historic…

SpaceShipOne (SS1), the first private crewed space vehicle, which flew past the boundary of space (100,000 metres, or 328,000 feet) over the United States in 2004 in competition for the Ansari X Prize. Inspired by the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh for his solo flight across the Atlantic in

Burt Rutan: In 2009 Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo, a craft designed to make suborbital tourist flights beginning in 2012; however, that date was subsequently pushed back.

telephone: Out-of-band signaling: …America, CCITT-7 was implemented as Signaling System 7, or SS7.

The Social Security Administration is the federal agency that administers Social Security programs in the United States. Although many Americans associate Social Security with retirement benefits, the agency’s role goes far beyond sending monthly payments to beneficiaries. The Social Security

Diego Maradona: Club career: …Cup in 1983) and then SSC Napoli (1984–91), where he enjoyed great success, raising the traditionally weak Naples side to the heights of Italian football. With Maradona the team won the league title and cup in 1987 and the league title again in 1990. Maradona’s stint with Napoli came to…

Somalia: Civil war: …of two opposition groups: the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), drawing its main support from the Majeerteen clan of the Mudug region in central Somalia, and the Somali National Movement (SNM), based on the Isaaq clan of the northern regions. Formed in 1982, both organizations undertook guerrilla operations from bases…

statistics: Analysis of variance and goodness of fit: …commonly referred to as the error sum of squares. A key result in the analysis of variance is that SSR + SSE = SST.

Martyrs of Uganda: …religious instruction from the page Denis Ssebuggwawo, ordered that all the youths be arrested. Charles Lwanga, Mukasa’s successor, then secretly baptized those boys who had only been catechumens. The following day they were herded away to the village of Namugongo. Three of them—Pontian Ngondwe, a soldier, and the royal servants…

Tom Kilburn: The computer was called the Small Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM) or just “Baby.” It was the world’s first working stored-program computer, and the Williams tube became one of the two standard methods of storage used by computers worldwide until the advent of magnetic-core storage in the mid-1950s. By April 1949…

Bobi Wine is a Ugandan politician, performer, and activist who first garnered acclaim for his popular hits and socially conscious songs he called “edutainment”—the fusion of education and entertainment. He later became known for being a vocal critic of Ugandan Pres. Yoweri Museveni (1986– ) and his

Sihanoukville: Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone: …became the center of the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ), a joint venture between the Cambodian and Chinese governments. After the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, the SSEZ was showcased as a flagship BRI project, transforming the city from a sleepy beach town into an…

Sudan: The Addis Ababa Agreement: …and its political wing, the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM). Thereafter throughout 1971 the SSLM, representing Lagu, maintained a dialogue with the Sudanese government over proposals for regional autonomy and the ending of hostilities. These talks culminated in the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement on February 27, 1972. The…

telecommunication: Code-division multiple access: …is sometimes referred to as spread-spectrum multiple access (SSMA), because the process of multiplying the signal by the code sequence causes the power of the transmitted signal to be spread over a larger bandwidth. Frequency management, a necessary feature of FDMA, is eliminated in CDMA. When another user wishes to…

Anṭūn Saʿādah: 16, 1932, Saʿādah founded the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a secret society that grew from a few students to about 1,000 members by 1935. During the 1930s the party expanded into Syria, Transjordan, and Palestine. Saʿādah had created perhaps the first indigenous Arab youth organization. It stressed discipline, struggle, and…

Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC), organization of students from predominantly white colleges and universities in the American South that promoted racial equality and other progressive causes during the American civil rights movement. Founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1964, the

measles: Treatment and complications: …central nervous system disease called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), in which there is a gradual onset of progressive behavioral and intellectual deterioration. Motor incoordination and impairment of speech and sight subsequently develop. The final stages of stupor, dementia, blindness, and death occur within six to nine months. There is no…

Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), breakaway Roman Catholic priestly society founded in 1970 in Ecône, Switzerland, by Marcel Lefebvre, a conservative French archbishop who had dissented from the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (commonly called Vatican II; 1962–65). Lefebvre was excommunicated in

statistics: Analysis of variance and goodness of fit: …is referred to as the residual sum of squares. For the data in Figure 4, SSE is the sum of the squared distances from each point in the scatter diagram (see Figure 4) to the estimated regression line: Σ(y − ŷ)2. SSE is also commonly referred to as the error…

antidepressant: SSRIs were introduced in the 1980s, and shortly thereafter they became some of the most commonly used antidepressants, primarily because they have fewer side effects than tricyclics or MAOIs. SSRIs include fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft). SSRIs are also used in the treatment…

Euclidean geometry: Congruence of triangles: …are corresponding angle-side-angle (ASA) and side-side-side (SSS) theorems.

small body, any natural solar system object other than the Sun and the major planets and dwarf planets and their satellites (moons). The small bodies populate the solar system in vast numbers and include the mostly rocky asteroids, or minor planets, the predominantly icy comets, and the fragments

Staphylococcus aureus: Infections and transmission: …involving newborns or immunocompromised adults, staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome (SSSS; or Ritter disease) develops, causing the skin to turn red and blister, giving it a burned or scalded appearance. S. aureus skin infections are often associated with the transmission of bacteria from person to person. This occurs primarily through direct…

climate change: Decadal variation: …Variability (PDV), which involves changing sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the North Pacific Ocean. The SSTs influence the strength and position of the Aleutian Low, which in turn strongly affects precipitation patterns along the Pacific Coast of North America. PDO variation consists of an alternation between “cool-phase” periods, when coastal…

aerospace industry: Growth of the aircraft industry: …and risks in producing a supersonic transport (SST), the Concorde. The two countries were not alone in the race for a supersonic airliner. The Soviet Union built the delta-wing Tupolev Tu-144, which made its maiden flight in December 1968 and which in June 1969 was the first passenger jet to…

statistics: Analysis of variance and goodness of fit: …quantity is known as the total sum of squares. The measure of unexplained variation, SSE, is referred to as the residual sum of squares. For the data in Figure 4, SSE is the sum of the squared distances from each point in the scatter diagram (see Figure 4) to the…

Black Flag: …1978 Ginn and Dukowski founded SST Records to distribute the band’s music, and the label’s first release was the EP Nervous Breakdown. Along with Slash Records, SST became the avatar of the West Coast punk scene, and its early roster included seminal hardcore acts the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets, and…

airplane: Takeoff and landing gear: Single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) aircraft can take off and land on conventional runways but can also be flown into an orbital flight path.

Sichuan, sheng (province) of China. It is located in the upper Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley in the southwestern part of the country. Sichuan is the second largest of the Chinese provinces. It is bordered by the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi to the north, the territory of Chongqing

Sichuan Basin, basin comprising the greater part of eastern Sichuan province and the western portion of Chongqing municipality, southwestern China. It is surrounded by the highlands of the Plateau of Tibet on the west and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau on the south and the Wu Mountains on the east and

Gang of Four, the most powerful members of a radical political elite convicted for implementing the harsh policies directed by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). The group included Mao’s third wife, Jiang Qing, and Wang Hongwen, Zhang

Sima Chengzhen was the sixth patriarch of the Shangqing school of Daoism, who had many associations with famous poets such as Li Bai and Wang Wei during the Tang dynasty. Called to court during the reign of the emperor Ruizong (reigned 710–712), Sima recommended a government that followed the

Sima Qian was an astronomer, calendar expert, and the first great Chinese historian. He is most noted for his authorship of the Shiji (“Historical Records”), which is considered to be the most important history of China down to the end of the 2nd century. Sima Qian was the son of Sima Tan, the

Sima Xiangru was a Chinese poet renowned for his fu, a form of descriptive poetry. Self-trained in literature and fencing, Sima Xiangru was appointed bodyguard to the Han emperor Jingdi, but soon he took a new position at the court of Prince Xiao of Liang. There he began to compose his famous fu

Sima Guang was a scholar, statesman, and poet who compiled the monumental Zizhi tongjian (“Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government”), a general chronicle of Chinese history from 403 bce to 959 ce, considered one of the finest single historical works in Chinese. Known for his moral uprightness,

Siping, city, southwestern Jilin sheng (province), northeastern China. It is located near the border with neighbouring Liaoning province. Siping is centrally situated in the northern Liao River portion of the Northeast (Manchurian) Plain. It was a place of little importance until the completion in

Sishu, four ancient Confucian texts that were used as official subject matter for civil service examinations in China from 1313 to 1905 and that usually serve to introduce Chinese students to Confucian literature. Students later turn to the more extensive and, generally speaking, more difficult

earthquake: Tsunamis: A key development is the Seismic Sea Wave Warning System, an internationally supported system designed to reduce loss of life in the Pacific Ocean. Centred in Honolulu, it issues alerts based on reports of earthquakes from circum-Pacific seismographic stations.

stone, British unit of weight for dry products generally equivalent to 14 pounds avoirdupois (6.35 kg), though it varied from 4 to 32 pounds (1.814 to 14.515 kg) for various items over time. Originally any good-sized rock chosen as a local standard, the stone came to be widely used as a unit of

St. Patrick: Pilgrimage traditions: Another pilgrimage site is St. Patrick’s Purgatory, located on Station Island in Lough Derg in County Donegal. Patrick is said to have been shown the torments of hell by looking into a cave on the island. The vision inspired him to better convince the doubters among his converts of…

Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach, 9th Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as the chancellor of the Exchequer (1885–86, 1895–1902). The son of Sir Michael Hicks Beach, 8th Baronet, he was educated at Eton and at Christ Church College, Oxford. Succeeding as 9th baronet in 1854,

Kyiv: City layout: Close by is the Baroque church of St. Andrew, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built in the mid-18th century; its site on the crest of the steep slope to the river makes it a striking landmark. Other historical relics in the central area include the ruins of the Golden Gate,…

François Duquesnoy: St. Andrew, one of four colossal statues beneath the dome of St. Peter’s, is in a restrained style still close to that of Bernini, but St. Susanna, which was not completed until 1633 for the choir of Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome, shows a characteristic…

St. Andrew: …Advent devotion known as the St. Andrew Novena, or the St. Andrew Christmas Novena, in which a specific prayer is recited 15 times a day from his feast day on November 30 until Christmas (December 25).

St. Andrew: …Advent devotion known as the St. Andrew Novena, or the St. Andrew Christmas Novena, in which a specific prayer is recited 15 times a day from his feast day on November 30 until Christmas (December 25).

golf: The United States and Canada: …from the founding of the St. Andrew’s Golf Club at Yonkers, New York, in 1888. Its progenitor was John Reid, a Scot from Dunfermline who became known as “the father of American golf.” Reid, on learning that fellow Scot Robert Lockhart was returning to the old country on business, asked…