children’s literature: History: To it, Mme de Ségur, in her enormously popular novels, added sentimentality, class snobbery, but also some liveliness and occasional fidelity to child nature. Her “Sophie” series (1850s and 60s), frowned on by modern critics, is still loved by obstinate little French girls. Sans Famille (1878), by…

Segura River, river in southeastern Spain. It rises in the Segura Mountains in Jaén province and flows east through the driest region of the Iberian Peninsula to enter the Mediterranean Sea south of Alicante, a course of 202 miles (325 km). Much water is drawn off the Segura and its major

Dean Kamen: …American inventor who created the Segway Human Transporter (Segway HT; later called the Segway Personal Transporter [Segway PT]), a motorized device that allowed passengers to travel at up to 20 km (12.5 miles) per hour.

Dean Kamen: …American inventor who created the Segway Human Transporter (Segway HT; later called the Segway Personal Transporter [Segway PT]), a motorized device that allowed passengers to travel at up to 20 km (12.5 miles) per hour.

Dean Kamen: …American inventor who created the Segway Human Transporter (Segway HT; later called the Segway Personal Transporter [Segway PT]), a motorized device that allowed passengers to travel at up to 20 km (12.5 miles) per hour.

Dean Kamen: …American inventor who created the Segway Human Transporter (Segway HT; later called the Segway Personal Transporter [Segway PT]), a motorized device that allowed passengers to travel at up to 20 km (12.5 miles) per hour.

Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner: …Geisterwelt in die unsere (1829; The Seer of Prevorst. Disclosures About the Inner Life of Men and the Projection of a Spiritworld into Ours).

Hannibal Sehested was a statesman who achieved partial autonomy for Norway under Denmark and who laid the basis for the modernization of Denmark’s administrative system. After foreign travels in 1629–32, Sehested was attached to the court of King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway. He was given

Tino Sehgal is a British-born artist who created installations that were known as “constructed situations.” Sehgal was raised in France and Germany. He studied political economy in Berlin and pursued dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. He joined French experimental dance

Faxian was a Buddhist monk whose pilgrimage to India in 402 initiated Sino-Indian relations and whose writings give important information about early Buddhism. After his return to China he translated into Chinese the many Sanskrit Buddhist texts he had brought back. Sehi, who later adopted the

savanna: Flora: …grass cover consisting mainly of Sehima and Dichanthium, the latter also referred to as bluestem.

rug and carpet: Materials and technique: The Persian, or asymmetrical, knot is used principally in Iran, India, China, and Egypt. This knot was formerly known as the Senneh (Sehna) knot. The Spanish knot, used mainly in Spain, differs from the other two types in looping around only one warp yarn. After the…

Senneh rug, handwoven floor covering made by Kurds who live in or around the town of Senneh (now more properly Sanandaj) in western Iran. The pile rugs and kilims of Senneh are prized for their delicate pattern and colouring and for their fine weave. They are by far the most sophisticated of the

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: …Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss (1982; Veronika Voss), based on the life of the German actress Sybille Schmitz—was well received. He also adapted Alfred Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz for a 14-part television series in 1980 and later released all of the episodes as a feature film that ran nearly 16 hours.

Sehore, city, western Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It is located on the northern edge of the Vindhya Range near the confluence of the Siwan and Latia rivers, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Bhopal. Sehore was a former British cantonment, and it served as the headquarters of the British

Allen Toussaint: When Toussaint and promotion man Marshall Sehorn set up Sea-Saint Studios in the mid-1960s, a new group of session musicians emerged, including Art Neville on organ, Leo Nocentelli on guitar, George Porter on bass, and Joseph Modeliste on drums. These musicians evolved a new variation of New Orleans’s famous “second…

Mikael Sehul was a nobleman who ruled Ethiopia for a period of 25 years as regent of a series of weak emperors. He brought to an end the ancient Solomonid dynasty of Ethiopia, which had ruled for 27 centuries, and began a long period of political unrest. In the reign of Iyoas (1755–69), son of the

Islamic arts: Architecture: …the Selim Mosque (1522), the Şehzade külliye (1548), and the Süleyman külliye (after 1550). The Şehzade and Süleyman külliyes were built by Sinan, the greatest Ottoman architect, whose masterpiece is the Selim Mosque at Edirne, Turkey (1569–75). All those buildings exhibit total clarity and logic in

international law: International law and municipal law: In Sei Fujii v. State of California (1952), for example, the California Supreme Court held that the UN Charter was not self-executing because its relevant principles concerning human rights lacked the mandatory quality and certainty required to create justiciable rights for private persons upon its ratification;…

Six Characters in Search of an Author, play in three acts by Luigi Pirandello, produced and published in Italian in 1921 as Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore. Introducing Pirandello’s device of the “theatre within the theatre,” the play explores various levels of illusion and reality. It had a great

Sei Shōnagon was a diarist, poet, and courtier whose witty, learned Pillow Book (Makura no sōshi) exhibits a brilliant and original Japanese prose style and is a masterpiece of classical Japanese literature. It is also the best source of information on Japanese court life in the Heian period

sei whale, (Balaenoptera borealis), species of baleen whale capable of short bursts of speed that make it the swiftest of the rorquals. Usually attaining a length of about 13–15 metres (43–49 feet), this cetacean is bluish gray or blackish above with paler underparts and a relatively large

Dajōkan: …the various ministries; and a Central Chamber (Sei-in), which subsumed the powers of the other two chambers.

Florence Seibert was an American scientist, best known for her contributions to the tuberculin test and to safety measures for intravenous drug therapy. Seibert contracted polio at age three, but became an outstanding student, graduating at the top of her high-school class and winning a scholarship

Florence Seibert was an American scientist, best known for her contributions to the tuberculin test and to safety measures for intravenous drug therapy. Seibert contracted polio at age three, but became an outstanding student, graduating at the top of her high-school class and winning a scholarship

Niger: Independence and conflict: …in 1987) and then by Ali Seibou. Mahamane Ousmane of the Social Democratic Convention became president in the country’s first multiparty presidential elections in 1993. Meanwhile, a Tuareg rebellion that had begun in the northern part of the country in the early 1990s gained momentum until a cease-fire agreement in…

Daisuke Matsuzaka: …who agreed to pay the Seibu Lions more than $51 million for the negotiating rights to Matsuzaka and then signed the pitcher to a six-year contract worth another $52 million.

seiche, rhythmic oscillation of water in a lake or a partially enclosed coastal inlet, such as a bay, gulf, or harbour. A seiche may last from a few minutes to several hours or for as long as two days. The phenomenon was first observed and studied in Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), Switzerland, in the

Ōmoto: These include Seichōno-ie (Household of Growth) and Sekai Kyūsei-kyō (Religion of World Salvation), both founded by former disciples of Onisaburō. Ōmoto emphasizes the universal character of religion. It promotes the use of the international language Esperanto and sponsors an organization called ULBA (Universal Love and Brotherhood Association).

Japan: Heterodox Confucian schools: In his work Seidan, for example, Sorai insisted that the main reason for the financial distress of the warrior class in both the bakufu and the domains was that warriors had moved to the cities, where they were at the mercy of a monetary economy. If they would…

seide, in Sami religion, idols of wood or stone, either natural or slightly shaped by human hands, worshipped as possessing impersonal supernatural power or as actually being inhabited by a spirit with whom one could communicate. Seides were most commonly located in places where some feature of the

optics: Seidel sums: If a lens were perfect and the object were a single point of monochromatic light, then, as noted above, the light wave emerging from the lens would be a portion of a sphere centred about the ideal image point, lying in the paraxial…

National Book Awards: Katherine Anne Porter, Edward Seidensticker, Flannery O’Connor, Lewis Thomas, and Madeleine L’Engle.

Boston Massacre: The killing of Christopher Seider and the end of the rope: Early in 1770, with the effectiveness of the boycott uneven, colonial radicals, many of them members of the Sons of Liberty, began directing their ire against those businesses that had ignored the boycott. The radicals posted signs…

Ninsei was a Japanese potter active in Kyōto during the Edo period between the Meireki (1655–57) and the Genroku (1688–1703) eras. He learned the art of ceramics by working at the Awata-guchi kiln in Kyōto and the Seto kiln in Mino. His patron, the prince of the Ninna Temple at Omuro Katamachi,

seif, a long, narrow sand dune or chain of dunes, generally oriented in a direction parallel to the prevailing wind or in a direction resulting from two or more winds blowing at acute angles to each other. The dune crest consists of a series of peaks and gaps, and the steep, or slip, face may

Jaroslav Seifert was a poet and journalist who in 1984 became the first Czech to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Seifert made a living as a journalist until 1950, but his first book of poetry, Město v slzách (“Town in Tears”), was published in 1920. His early proletarian poetry reflects his

Richard Tauber was an Austrian-born British tenor celebrated for his work in opera and, especially, operetta. Tauber was studying voice at Freiberg, Ger., at the time of his highly successful operatic debut, as Tamino in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) at the Chemnitz

Wikipedia: Issues and controversies: In 2005 the American journalist John L. Seigenthaler, Jr., discovered that his Wikipedia biography falsely identified him as a potential conspirator in the assassinations of both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and that these malicious claims had survived Wikipedia’s community policing for 132 days. The author of this…

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Seignelay was the French secretary of state under Louis XIV. As the eldest son of the famous secretary of state of that name, Colbert was given the best possible tutors, who found him bright but lazy. In 1683 Colbert became head of the navy and performed

Roman Polanski: …Polanski married the French actress Emmanuelle Seigner, who starred in his films Frantic (1988), Bitter Moon (1992), The Ninth Gate (1999), La Vénus à la fourrure (2013; Venus in Fur), and D’après une histoire vraie (2017; Based on a True Story).

benefice: …Frankish sovereign or lord, the seigneur, leased an estate to a freeman on easy terms in beneficium (Latin: “for the benefit [of the tenant]”), and this came to be called a beneficium, a benefice. The lease normally came to an end on the death of the seigneur or of the…

droit du seigneur, (French: “right of the lord”), a feudal right said to have existed in medieval Europe giving the lord to whom it belonged the right to sleep the first night with the bride of any one of his vassals. The custom is paralleled in various primitive societies, but the evidence of its

manorialism, political, economic, and social system by which the peasants of medieval Europe were rendered dependent on their land and on their lord. Its basic unit was the manor, a self-sufficient landed estate, or fief that was under the control of a lord who enjoyed a variety of rights over it

seigniorage, the charge over and above the expenses of coinage (making into coins) that is deducted from the bullion brought to a mint to be coined. From early times, coinage was the prerogative of kings, who prescribed the total charge and the part they were to receive as seigniorage. The

manorialism, political, economic, and social system by which the peasants of medieval Europe were rendered dependent on their land and on their lord. Its basic unit was the manor, a self-sufficient landed estate, or fief that was under the control of a lord who enjoyed a variety of rights over it

manorialism, political, economic, and social system by which the peasants of medieval Europe were rendered dependent on their land and on their lord. Its basic unit was the manor, a self-sufficient landed estate, or fief that was under the control of a lord who enjoyed a variety of rights over it

Ko: Calling the arrangements seika rather than shōka, the Ko school retained the tall, narrow-mouthed type of vase used in the shōka arrangements of the Ikenobō school. The mood of the arrangements was known as nageire, a fresh and spontaneous style that adheres only loosely to the classical rules…

Ishida Baigan: Ishida’s works include Seika ron (1774), an essay on family government espousing the Confucian view that a man who cannot govern his family cannot govern a nation. His disciples published Ishida sensei goroku (“The Sayings of Professor Ishida”) in 1806.

Seikan Tunnel, undersea tunnel linking Japan’s main island of Honshu with the northern neighbouring island of Hokkaido. The Seikan Tunnel is the second longest tunnel in the world, after the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. It is 53.8 km (33.4 miles) long, 23.3 km (14.3 miles) of which lie

Seikan Tunnel, undersea tunnel linking Japan’s main island of Honshu with the northern neighbouring island of Hokkaido. The Seikan Tunnel is the second longest tunnel in the world, after the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. It is 53.8 km (33.4 miles) long, 23.3 km (14.3 miles) of which lie

Lithuania: Constitutional framework: …president and a legislature, the Seimas, under a parliamentary system. The Seimas consists of 141 members, who are elected to four-year terms. The prime minister, formally appointed by the president, oversees the country’s day-to-day affairs and is generally the leader of the Seimas’s majority party. The president is popularly elected…

César: His sensational gigantic Sein was modeled on a cabaret dancer’s breast and molded in pink polyester resin. One of his more widely available works, reproduced in many sizes for commercial sale, was a representation of his thumb; Le Pouce, a 12-metre (40-foot) version, was erected in the Parisian…

Being and Time, work by the German existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger, first published in German (as Sein und Zeit) in 1927, that permanently altered the course of philosophy in continental Europe. Widely regarded as Heidegger’s masterpiece, Being and Time generated a level of excitement

Paris Basin, geographic region of France, constituting the lowland area around Paris. Geologically it is the centre of a structural depression that extends between the ancient Armoricain Massif (west), the Massif Central (south), and the Vosges, Ardennes, and Rhineland (east). The area, which forms

commercial fishing: Seines: The seine net has very long wings and towing warps (tow lines), with or without bags for the catch. With purse seines, pelagic fish are surrounded not only from the side but also from underneath, preventing them from escaping by diving downward. Purse seines can be…

Seine River, river of France, after the Loire its longest. It rises 18 miles (30 kilometres) northwest of Dijon and flows in a northwesterly direction through Paris before emptying into the English Channel at Le Havre. The river is 485 miles (780 kilometres) long and with its tributaries drains an

Seine Series, division of Precambrian rocks that occur in Ontario and northern Minnesota (the Precambrian began about 3.96 billion years ago and ended 540 million years ago). The Seine Series, named for prominent exposures studied along the Seine River, Ontario, forms a thick sequence of

Henry V: The French wars: …medieval kings, and after the Battle of the Seine (August 1416), England’s naval mastery of the Channel was not seriously disputed. At home, Henry turned to the systematic financing of his projected invasion, partly through large-scale borrowing, partly through parliamentary taxation, the generosity of which reflects his success in arousing…

Île-de-France: …the north-central départements of Val-d’Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Ville-de-Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne, Essonne, and Yvelines. Île-de-France is bounded by the régions of Hauts-de-France to the north, Grand Est to the east,

Haute-Normandie: …northern départements of Eure and Seine-Maritime and encompassed the northeastern portion of historical Normandy.

Haute-Normandie: …northern départements of Eure and Seine-Maritime and encompassed the northeastern portion of historical Normandy.

Île-de-France: of Val-d’Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Ville-de-Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne, Essonne, and Yvelines. Île-de-France is bounded by the régions of Hauts-de-France to the north, Grand Est to the east, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté to the southeast,

Noma Hiroshi: …multivolume work completed in 1971, Seinen no wa (“Ring of Youth”), which won the Tanizaki Prize in 1971. Other later works include the autobiographical Waga tō wa soko ni tatsu (1961; “My Tower Stands There”), Shinran (1973), and Sayama saiban (1976; “The Sayama Trial”). These works, while conveying a deepening…

commercial fishing: Seiners: Seiners range in size from canoes, where the net is hauled by hand, to larger vessels with powerful net-handling equipment. This equipment generally consists of a power block mounted on a crane placed aft of the wheelhouse, as well as winches and drums for…

Seinfeld, U.S. television situation comedy that was among the most popular programs of the 1990s. Revered by critics, Seinfeld aired for nine seasons (1989–98) on National Broadcasting Co. (NBC), serving as the linchpin of the network’s ‘‘must-see TV’’ Thursday night lineup. Set in Manhattan and

Jerry Seinfeld is an American comedian whose television show Seinfeld (1989–98) was a landmark of American popular culture in the late 20th century. Ostensibly a “show about nothing,” the sitcom highlighted Seinfeld’s observational humor. Seinfeld’s interest in comedy was sparked at an early age

Jerry Seinfeld is an American comedian whose television show Seinfeld (1989–98) was a landmark of American popular culture in the late 20th century. Ostensibly a “show about nothing,” the sitcom highlighted Seinfeld’s observational humor. Seinfeld’s interest in comedy was sparked at an early age

Giacomo Casanova was an ecclesiastic, writer, soldier, spy, and diplomatist, chiefly remembered as the prince of Italian adventurers and as the man who made the name Casanova synonymous with “libertine.” His autobiography, which perhaps exaggerates some of his escapades, is a splendid description

French literature: Religious drama: Neither it nor the Seinte Resurreccion (c. 1200; “Resurrection of the Saviour”), certainly Anglo-Norman, shows the events preceding the Crucifixion, the matter of the Passion plays; these first appeared in the early 14th century in the Passion du Palatinus (“Passion of Palatinus”). Of relatively modest proportions, this contains diversified…

Ignaz Seipel was a Roman Catholic priest, twice chancellor of Austria (1922–24 and 1926–29), whose use of the Fascist paramilitary Heimwehr in his struggle against Austria’s Social Democrats led to a strengthening of Fascism in his country. Ordained in 1899, Seipel taught moral philosophy at the

Morón, cabecera (county seat) and partido (county) of Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, eastern Argentina. It lies west of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires provincia (province). In the 16th century Morón served as a way station for travelers en route to the area that is now Chile and Peru. The

Rubén Blades: With Seis del Solar he recorded Buscando América, which was named a Top Ten album of 1984. At the height of his popularity, Blades took a break from his musical career to earn a master’s degree (1985) in international law from Harvard University. In 1987 he…

Adolfo Bioy Casares: …para Don Isidro Parodi (1942; Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi) and Crónicas de Bustos Domecq (1967; Chronicles of Bustos Domecq), both of which satirize a variety of Argentine personalities. The two also edited Los mejores cuentos policiales (1943; “The Greatest Detective Stories”), a two-volume book of gaucho poetry (Poesía…

land reform: Ancient reforms: …reform law, known as the seisachtheia, or “shaking-off the burdens,” cancelled all debts, freed the hektēmoroi, destroyed the horoi, and restored land to its constitutional holders. Solon also prohibited the mortgaging of land or of personal freedom on account of debt.

Titian: Portraits: …copy of a portrait by Jakob Seisenegger, survives. Charles was so pleased with Titian’s work that in May 1533 he bestowed upon the artist the most extraordinary honor of knighthood. Thereafter, the Austrian-Spanish Habsburgs remained Titian’s most important patrons. Charles attempted to induce Titian to go to Spain in 1534…

Hōnen was a Buddhist priest and the founder of the Pure Land (Jōdo) Buddhist sect of Japan. He was seminal in establishing Pure Land pietism as one of the central forms of Buddhism in Japan. Introduced as a student monk to Pure Land doctrines brought from China by Tendai priests, he stressed

Cecil Family, one of England’s most famous and politically influential families, represented by two branches, holding respectively the marquessates of Exeter and Salisbury, both descended from William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I’s lord treasurer. Burghley’s elder son, Thomas, was created Earl

seisin, in English feudal society, a term that came to mean a type of possession that gained credibility with the passage of time. Seisin was not ownership nor was it mere possession that could be established by the seizure of land. Seisin belonged to someone who used the land or exercised rights

earthquake: Seismographs and accelerometers: …to secure such measurements, special arrays of strong-motion seismographs have been installed in areas of high seismicity around the world. Large-aperture seismic arrays (linear dimensions on the order of 1 to 10 km, or 0.6 to 6 miles) of strong-motion accelerometers can now be used to improve estimations of speed,…

seismic belt, narrow geographic zone on the Earth’s surface along which most earthquake activity occurs. The outermost layer of the Earth (lithosphere) is made up of several large tectonic plates. The edges where these plates move against one another are the location of interplate earthquakes that

infrasonics: With an array of seismic detectors, a computational form of holography may be achieved.

olivine: Meteorites and the Earth’s mantle: …so-called 20° discontinuity, an observed seismic discontinuity in the mantle at a depth of about 400 kilometres.

earthquake: Constructing seismic hazard maps: …avoid weaknesses found in earlier earthquake hazard maps, the following general principles are usually adopted today:

earthquake: Constructing seismic hazard maps: …avoid weaknesses found in earlier earthquake hazard maps, the following general principles are usually adopted today:

earthquake: Earthquake magnitude: …earthquake size is used—namely, the seismic moment (M0). Such a parameter is related to the angular leverage of the forces that produce the slip on the causative fault. It can be calculated both from recorded seismic waves and from field measurements of the size of the fault rupture. Consequently, seismic…

earthquake: Seismological tomography: …each wave type with its ray path through the Earth must be made.

seismic wave: Seismographs record the amplitude and frequency of seismic waves and yield information about the Earth and its subsurface structure. Artificially generated seismic waves recorded during seismic surveys are used to collect data in oil and gas prospecting and engineering.

Earth exploration: Seismic reflection methods: Most seismic work utilizes reflection techniques. Sources and Geophones are essentially the same as those used in refraction methods. The concept is similar to echo sounding: seismic waves are reflected at interfaces where rock properties change and the round-trip travel time, together…

Earth exploration: Seismic refraction methods: Seismic methods are based on measurements of the time interval between initiation of a seismic (elastic) wave and its arrival at detectors. The seismic wave may be generated by an explosion, a dropped weight, a mechanical vibrator, a bubble of high-pressure air…

tsunami, catastrophic ocean wave, usually caused by a submarine earthquake, an underwater or coastal landslide, or a volcanic eruption. The term tidal wave is frequently used for such a wave, but it is a misnomer, for the wave has no connection with the tides. After an earthquake or other

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.

seismic survey, method of investigating subterranean structure, particularly as related to exploration for petroleum, natural gas, and mineral deposits. The technique is based on determining the time interval that elapses between the initiation of a seismic wave at a selected shot point (the

plate tectonics: Seismic tomography: A powerful technique, seismic tomography, provides insight into the understanding of plate-driving mechanisms. This technique is similar in principle to that of the CT (computed tomography) scan and creates three-dimensional images of Earth’s interior by combining information from many earthquakes. Seismic waves

seismic wave, vibration generated by an earthquake, explosion, or similar energetic source and propagated within the Earth or along its surface. Earthquakes generate four principal types of elastic waves; two, known as body waves, travel within the Earth, whereas the other two, called surface

seismicity, the worldwide or local distribution of earthquakes in space, time, and magnitude. More specifically, it refers to the measure of the frequency of earthquakes in a region—for example, the number of earthquakes of magnitude between 5 and 6 per 100 square km (39 square

seismic wave: Seismographs record the amplitude and frequency of seismic waves and yield information about the Earth and its subsurface structure. Artificially generated seismic waves recorded during seismic surveys are used to collect data in oil and gas prospecting and engineering.

seismograph, instrument that makes a record of seismic waves caused by an earthquake, explosion, or other Earth-shaking phenomenon. Seismographs are equipped with electromagnetic sensors that translate ground motions into electrical changes, which are processed and recorded by the instruments’

seismology, scientific discipline that is concerned with the study of earthquakes and of the propagation of seismic waves within the Earth. A branch of geophysics, it has provided much information about the composition and state of the planet’s interior. The goals of seismological investigations

warning system: Detection of nuclear explosions: …caused by nuclear explosions, the seismometers record many extraneous motions from natural sources; these are called noise. To reduce noise, a large number of seismometers arranged in arrays is used to reinforce the desired signal and exclude unwanted signals. Elaborate data processing, with the help of recorders and computers, further…